This year I was a judge for the Cybils Awards, in the category of Fiction Picture Books.\u00a0 Publishers sent me many picture books to consider (the ones my library didn’t have).<\/p>\n
The majority of those are going to the library.\u00a0 But I selected the best to send to my two toddler nieces — and to my Mom.\u00a0 My Mom has Alzheimer’s.\u00a0 My sister, who helps my Dad care for her, requested board books or very simple picture books for Mom.\u00a0 Apparently she can still read those.<\/p>\n
I’m not sure the ones I sent are simple enough.\u00a0 But I hope so.\u00a0 I hope they will bring her some joy.<\/p>\n
And that got me reflecting.<\/p>\n
My Mom was the one who taught me to read.\u00a0 Long before teachers got hold of me.\u00a0 (I can still remember when I could read\u00a0a particular set of\u00a0word cards she’d made for me.\u00a0 And her delight.\u00a0 One of the words was yellow.<\/em>)<\/p>\n My Mom was the one who taught me, by example, to read aloud to small children with expression, with joy, and with love.<\/p>\n I am sure I still slip into her cadences when reading aloud to children at the library.<\/p>\n It was my Mom’s idea to have all her kids take naps for an hour every day\u00a0— but we could read during that time; we didn’t have to sleep.\u00a0 Thus she got me in the habit of reading for at least an hour each day.<\/p>\n My Mom always wrote in each book she read the date she finished reading it.\u00a0 (At least books she owned!)\u00a0 Whenever she gave a book, she wrote to the giftee in the front, and insisted we do the same when we gave books to her.\u00a0 So each book chosen last night was inscribed to her.<\/p>\n Yes, parents can instill a love of reading in their kids.\u00a0 My Mom sure did!<\/p>\n And now, I hope that reading these simple, lovely\u00a0books I’m sending will give her some joy.<\/p>\n And I have to also say that I’m so thankful for my Dad, who takes tender loving care of her, even though she’s definitely not the woman he married any longer.\u00a0 And I’m thankful for my sister who lives there and helps.<\/p>\n Merry Christmas, Mom!\u00a0 Thank you for the positive way you shaped my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year I was a judge for the Cybils Awards, in the category of Fiction Picture Books.\u00a0 Publishers sent me many picture books to consider (the ones my library didn’t have). The majority of those are going to the library.\u00a0 But I selected the best to send to my two toddler nieces — and to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderblessings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}