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I just read that there's a $900,000 grant from Volunteer State Health Plan to the Books from Birth program, in conjunction with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Books from Birth provides a new book each month to a child until age 5. Any child in Tennessee younger than 5 can register.
I signed Jiro up a few years ago, and we have really loved the program. Jiro's all time favorite book that they sent is My Lucky Day. It is the story of a little pig who outsmarts a fox. I must read it to him him 2-3 times a week. (Looking for the link on Amazon, I just discovered that the author/illustrator has several other books. Yay!)
I definitely think getting a new book in the mail every month is a great way to get kids interested in reading. And I love getting books that I might not have otherwise known about.
A couple of weeks ago, Warren and I went to Burke's Books in Cooper-Young and picked out a stack of books for the boys. We ended up with a great haul that included Maurice Sendak's In the Night Kitchen, Rumpelstiltskin, Jack and the Bean Stalk, and a Hansel and Gretel pop up book.
In the Night Kitchen was incredibly bizarre and included full frontal boy nudity! (The monkeys loved that part!) Re-reading the latter three "classics" was quite an eye-opening experience. In Rumpelstiltskin we have an evil little troll who wants to take the lazy but beautiful liar of a princess' first born as a slave. In Jack and the Beanstalk we learn that stealing from a giant is perfectly acceptable and that stealing more than once and killing the giant is okay too. In Hansel and Gretel the parents leave their children in the woods because they can't afford to feed them! That one nearly sent me over the edge--I feared the kids would never want to go to the Old Forest again. (All I remembered about the story was the house made of candy!)
My point? The Imagination Library is doing a much better job of picking out books for my kids than I am. Those of you with little ones should sign up! (Register at imaginationlibrary.com or pick up a form at your library.)
4 comments:
I think it's a fantastic program. I spent a great deal of my childhood reading. I find it sad that so many kids today can give you a long list of favorite television shows but no favorite books.
Thank you for spotlighting this.
we've also been enjoying this program -- My Lucky Day is a favorite around here as well! though there've been some duds in the bunch, it surely is a good time to get a book in the mail and to explore something new. Ziggy knows they come from Dolly, and announces it regularly.
In fact, we just read The Chicken of the Family this very morning. We really like that one.
I recently read an article (and surely wish I could recall where and by whom) wherein the author maintains that the convention of children who've been abandoned by their parents -- through death or random circumstance (such as leaving them in the woods because there is too little food -- is not problematic for children. The author insists that the children are NOT paying attention to this, but rather to the convention's intent which is that the parents are conveniently out of the way for said children to imagine themselves experiencing the freedom of the story kids....
Not sure I buy this at all. My boy wanted desperately to watch James and the Giant Peach recently. 10 minutes in, James has been abandoned by his parents and is living with a pair of very nasty aunts who treat him dreadfully and Ziggy said, "Mama, is this his TRUE home?!" And we were done done done with that movie....
That My Lucky Day book rules. We have also read it umpteen million times.
I'm sure you aren't surprised to hear that Chloe is a big fan of Twenty-Six Princesses. Especially that princess who farts!
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