One of my grandchildren’s first sentences (OK, maybe not a sentence but a very importance statement) was “Booka-booka-booka.” She was 15 months old and all she wanted was to sit on an adult’s lap and have a book read to her. As I recall, she would repeat this demand until my voice gave out or she needed to have her diaper changed. She came by her love of books honestly, as her mother and I also loved children’s books at a young age.
The Booka girl is more enchanted by a book than other holiday gifts
One of my fondest memories of raising my children was cuddling up at bedtime with a book and reading together.
One of my favorite memories of my father was listening to him read to me. The choices were limited when I was very young, but I do remember some of those Golden Books (Three Little Kittens, The Pokey Little Puppy, The Little Red Hen) and The Little Engine That Could, as well as the collection of nursery rhymes, which my mother often sang to me.
When I had my first child, the thing I loved most was to read to him. We started with nursery rhymes when he was a baby. He loved Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever and Dr. Seuss. By the time he was two, he read Hop on Pop to me. Convinced he had memorized it, I took a novel children’s book out of the library and he proceeded to read it to me. While still in diapers, he had cracked the code to reading and our home library of children’s books grew.
His younger sisters also loved to be read to, and each developed a favorite book that had to be read so many times it often fell apart. My older daughter was obsessed with the Disney version of Cinderella when she was little, perhaps needing countless readings of the part where the mean step sisters ripped Cinderella’s dress to master her horror of that concept. She also identified with Freddy in one of her favorite books, The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo. By the time she was three, she was “the peanut butter part of a sandwich,” squeezed between an older brother and little sister.
Little sister loved an obscure British book, The Elephant and the Bad Baby. Perhaps she empathized with the bad baby, who always said yes when the elephant offered to steal something from the merchants they passed and eventually got into trouble for never saying “please.” But all was solved when the bad baby’s mother (that would be me) made pancakes for all of the angry merchants and the elephant. I guess they just needed to be thanked.
The Elephant and the Bad Baby delights another generation
One of my fondest memories of raising my children was cuddling up at bedtime with a book and reading together. With three kids, it could take over an hour to give everyone that special time, but it was the best hour of my day. As the children grew, we progressed from Goodnight Moon to series like One of a Kind Family, Little House on the Prairie, and the Narnia stories to novels. We read together through elementary school, well past the time they could read for themselves.
When I started teaching preschool in the early 1980s, my go-to book was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The two and three-year-olds loved it for its simple story of transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, the naughtiness of a caterpillar who eats too many goodies, and its repetitive language and predictability.
I created a puppet out of an old sock, glued on the caterpillar’s distinctive eyes, nose, and feelers (from pieces of felt), and turned it inside out to glue in a felt beautiful butterfly. The rest of the felt was used to make all of the food consumed by the caterpillar and the “nice green leaf” it eats after its feast. These things were lined up on a flannel board with the prompting of the children, who knew the exact order of the food. After stuffing all of that food into the mouth of my sock puppet, I pulled it up to create the cocoon and then (the grand finale) turned the sock inside out to reveal the “beautiful butterfly.”
The kids were mesmerized by my crude puppet every time. They knew exactly what would happen as I prompted them to tell the story along with me, but being preschoolers, they demanded repetition. Long after I had retired, my grandkids had the same reaction to my humble puppet. Again, again … they demanded the same performance.*
Reading to two of my granddaughters
Perhaps part of my motivation to become an early childhood educator was my love for children’s books. I still remember being moved by watching a little boy at the preschool sitting in the rocking chair, holding a baby doll on his lap. As he rocked his child, he “read” to it from a small book. What a lucky child. Clearly, someone had read to him in the same loving manner.
Trixie says her first word
Becoming a grandparent gave me a chance for a do-over. I could never resist buying my grandkids books and discovered many wonderful new ones to go along with the classics I had read with their parents. They loved the Knuffle Bunny series by the wonderful Mo Willems in which a girl named Trixie’s attachment to her stuffed bunny carries her through speaking her first words to preschool to finally letting go of her lovie. Like her mother before her, the booka-booka girl became obsessed Cinderella. Rather than reading it to her hundreds of times, we sought out versions of that story from around the world (most cultures have one) and we took piles of beautifully illustrated books from the library. Several of her cousins loved the Tomie de Paolo series of Strega Nona books featuring the magical “Grandma Witch” and her bumbling helper, Big Anthony. With all of my grandsons, we read quite a few books featuring vehicles and dinosaurs.
Reading Strega Nona … again
Dr. Seuss tells kids in I Can Read With My Eyes Shut,
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
If children see books in their homes, enjoy being read to, and end every night with a bedtime story, their love of these children’s books will create the foundation for literacy. And, like Leo the Late Bloomer, in their own good time they will learn to read themselves and experience the lifelong joy and knowledge books bring to their lives.
*Some readers requested photos of my Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet, which I found after I published my story in the back of a cabinet we moved from our old house to our condo. Remember, it’s over 35 years old!
Laurie LevyBoomer. Educator. Advocate. Eclectic topics: grandkids, special needs, values, aging, loss, & whatever. Author: Terribly Strange and Wonderfully Real.
Wonderful memories of reading to your kids, your grandkids, and the kids at Cherry School Laurie!
My son also loved the Narnia series I read to him, and he tells me the rock band Phish has recorded a song called Prince Caspian!
I never knew that about Phish, not being a follower of their music. But this prompt was a trip down memory lane for me.
Laurie, I couldn’t stop smiling reading this story. The pictures and experiences are so precious! What a joy to read to children and to be read to. And I just love Booka-Booka-Booka because it brought back memories of a dear friend’s daughter, who at about 16 months would say “Buk-buk-buk” and would flip through picture books on her own. Thanks for a joyful read.
Thanks, Marian. My grandkids are getting too old to be read to, and the pandemic has made a dent in that as well. I miss that, but when my grandsons visit (finally) next weekend, they will get bedtime stories, even if they think they are too old. I’m guessing they will still like them.
Lovely and loving story, Laurie. The caterpillar sock puppet was genius, and I bet the kids will never forget it, or you. Reading really does open doors and reading with others connects.
Khati, I finally found that puppet. I thought I had lost it in our recent move. I don’t have anyone young enough to enjoy it in my life now, but if I ever get to visit my brothers’ young grandkids in Michigan, I’m packing it in my suitcase!
Yay—I hope more children to get some delight from that! And it recalls great memories for you too.
I will have to target my great nieces and nephews or make a special appearance at the preschool post COVID restrictions.
Just great stories all, Laurie! and, as always, I especially enjoy your take as an early childhood educator on the importance of books at home. And your whole “Hungry Caterpillar” production was genius. I’d love to see your puppet if you still have him/her/it/they.
As I told Khati, I did find that puppet after I wrote my story. Maybe I will post an addendum with photos of it. It’s pretty crude, but that never bothered the kids.
Yes, Laurie, now I see your response to Khati. Please do post pictures of the puppet!
I loved every minute of this story, Laurie, just as you loved living and telling it to us. You are right, reading to our little ones is a precious gift and lucky is the household that is full of books. Khati makes an excellent point – we can learn so much about other places and cultures right in our own homes from books.
Your photos are beyond precious. It brought back my own memories of reading to my little ones after their baths and before I put them to bed. Can’t wait for my little granddaugher to be ready for that phase (Anna is 7 months along now). I see lots of trips to London in our future. And that caterpillar sock puppet was genius. You never cease to impress me with your inventiveness. I can see why you made a great pre-school teacher! Those children were so lucky to have you.
Thanks! After your granddaughter arrives, I look forward to seeing her pictured in your amazing archive of photos.
Count on it, Laurie!
Laurie, I echo everyone else’s comments. Wonderful memories, and wonderful pictures. And I too would like to see that very hungry caterpillar puppet. Now that you have found it, you should definitely take some pictures and add them to your story.
Will do that tomorrow. It’s kind of a wreck, but I think you will get the idea.
For those who asked, I just published an updated version of my story with pictures of my Hungry Caterpillar puppet.
Thanks for addition. I can see why all your little ones were delighted with your puppet!
Love the smorgasbord laid out, as well as the puppet. Hungry caterpillar doesn’t look a day over 20. So glad you found and posted this.
LOL! I’ll pass the complement on to my old black sock.
Thanks for the picture of your puppet, Laurie — and its many colorful accessories. I am thinking that there must have been a golbal felt shortage after you finished all of your wonderful creations.
LOL, John. Also glue/
You’re so lucky you still remember your father reading to you!
Not sure which came first, your love of children’s books or your love of children, but your love of children is clearly the force that has defined your life, Laurie. And since you’re also a lover of words, why not write a children’s book of your own? I think your sock caterpillar would make a great story and would make it so easy to illustrate. I like the idea of him coming out of the closet after so many years to enchant us even now.
Wonderful photos of the kids in your life and their love of books shining so brightly. My favorite part of reading bedtime stories to my daughter and then my granddaughters was nuzzling the warm scent of their sweet little heads.
You really get me, Barb. But I lack your talent for illustrating a children’s book to bring my ideas to life. The art is so important for kids.