Elsa is probably in my favorite phase of "reading to children" at least so far. I've only been doing this as a mother for 3 years, so I can't speak for the day when my kids meet George McDonald, C.S. Lewis, or L.M. Montgomery, but so far, Elsa is at the favorite age.
Her exploding verbal skills and very pointed preferences completely fascinate me. It's like she is learning to speak as we read together. I hear her say words for the first time as she points to them on the page.
And tonight, I swear, she said "Twinkle, twinkle Little Star." It sounded more like "Tinny tinny wiwi barse," but I knew what she was saying. She has been requesting this book all week--her way of requesting a book is to close whatever else I am reading and say "no!" until I figure out the right one--until tonight, when she uttered her first audible book title. It was awesome.
And the fact that she likes this book really surprises me. Heidi too loved Iza Trapani at this age--the illustrator takes famous songs and writes many verses to them, adds a plot within the song, and fills it out with cute art.
But the Twinkle song was a bit long and drawn out for Heidi; however, Elsa is fixated for the most part. This book is worth a try or two--it might not work for your child, but the concept is cute and imaginative, and who knows, your child might surprise you!

I'll have to try it out! I'm loving, actually, we all are loving singing to Lu, she rocks out to anything. We'll have to see if she likes this one.
Posted by: Kendall | 02/18/2011 at 07:18 AM