We have an excellent collection of board books for Miriam. Some of them are new and were gifts from grandparents. Others were hand-me-downs from my mom. I honestly don't know where she got some of these books. What's funny is that the old hand-me-downs from the 80s are often Miriam's favorite books. She gets into a groove where she only wants to read "Things I Take Along" all day, every day, and then three times in a row at bedtime.
One of these hand-me-down books is called "All By Myself." Pretty standard fare for a toddler book. But the first time I read it, I knew there was something different about it. I just couldn't put my finger on what. The cover is innocuous enough. And page one is nothing special. But page two looks like this:
Based on this page alone, I was able to figure out what it was that was "special" about this book (it's nothing sinister - just something about its origins). I'll give you some hints for the answer at the end of this entry.
In other board book news, my new favorite series to check out from the library is the one this book belongs to:
The authors wrote interesting words to accompany pictures by famous artists. There are also books for Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Matisse, Cassatt, Renoir, and Picasso.
But Miriam's current favorite is one you might not expect. We got it from the library yesterday:
I assume it's OK for me to read this to my daughter. It was one of her bedtime books last night and she paid rapt attention to it, all the way from "Busy town trucks" to "Road rollers."
Hints about the "All By Myself" mystery: The first thing that tipped me off was the word choice. "Mealtime" and "quite well," especially. What solidified my suspicions was what was on the kid's plate.
Can you guess?