Came across this nice article by Barbara Rowley about reading to young children (from toddler to kindergarten age), originally from Parenting Magazine:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/24/joy.of.reading.par/index.html
One of the items mentioned in the article, regarding books that are tied-in to characters from TV/movies, is something we feel strongly about. The reason we don't carry a whole lot of books based on a TV show is we think it's best for a child to develop their own imagination instead of re-enacting their favorite Dora episode over & over. Yes, there are exceptions, and when a child shows a strong interest (Thomas the Tank Engine for example) it feels good to encourage it. And that isn't to say educational TV doesn't have a place, but so do the classic, timeless characters from a good book that doesn't have a TV spin-off. (We do have the original books that some series are based on, like Thomas, Miss Spider, Little Bear, and so on.)
Of course I am just as guilty, our son loves his Cars and Thomas books, but we try to balance it with Richard Scarry and Lois Ehlert and Dr. Seuss...
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1 comment:
Thanks for sharing the link to the article. I thought the author was quite accurate in her description of the stages and preferences for the various age groups.
I've decided to be quite selective in the books we choose to purchase, and definitely agree that those timeless children's classics are most of what we've found worthy of owning. (An added bonus: those are usually the books that are still enjoyable to me, which counts for something since I'll end up reading it aloud hundreds of time! lol)
I really appreciate the terrific selection of books at your store, as I can tell you really choose carefully. I also appreciate that you have a number of "Golden Books" always in stock -- those make such great first "real" books for little hands (with a price that makes moms happy, too).
Keep up the great work!
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