Story of A Girl (And Boy)

Books have always been a big part of Chris and my lives.  One of my favourite rituals with the minions is their nightly bed time story after bath time.  There is this calm quiet in that 15 minutes that I just love no matter how rough of a time we've been having that evening.  I remember bed time stories from my childhood and am convinced that these stories helped make me the fiction freak I am today.  A blog post that I read earlier this week from Mayhood reminded me how many crummy books there are out there.

When Chris and I first started reading to Molly and Jack it was clear that they didn't understand what we were reading to them so I would just read them whatever I was reading whether it was the instruction manual for the bouncy seat, the latest issue of Grid Magazine or whatever book I was reading.*  Then when they became more cognisant of the world around them we figured it was time to concentrate on books that were more geared towards children.  There are a few issues surrounding this, first a lot of children's books are AWFUL or classic Grimm Type stories are incredibly violent in a way that scares me as an adult.** 

A few weeks ago I went to a baby shower where the mother-to-be asked for books for baby instead of cards, since usually cards are read once or twice and books get read to children almost every night.  Cards can cost up to about $10 (I recently went to Chapters to purchase a wedding card and almost everything I found was between $7-$11) - so a wisely chosen book is comparable to a card anyway or you can incorporate it into your gift budget easily.  This is one of the nicest ideas I've heard of in a long time!

Since we spend a lot of time looking for new books (usually used books that are new to us) I thought I'd share some of our favourites (some classic, some more off the beaten path) from all sorts of categories!  Click on the links to find out more about each book and post any hidden gems you've found in the comments section!

Paper Bag Princess Costume Photo Courtesy of Frankie James

For the Modern Girl/Woman/ Emerging Leader
The Paper Bag Princess
Stephanie's Ponytail


Humour for the Kids & Adults
The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
When  I Grow Up - by Weird Al Yankovic***


Canadiana Classic
The Hockey Sweater

Humour for the kids
Don't let the Pigeon Series
Dinosaur Vs. Bed Time

ROAR!

Humour for Adults & Kids, Maybe More for the Adults Though
Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People

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*Molly's unnatural attention (at 3 months old) to my oration of Rob Lowe's biography was a little concerning.
**Poor Karen never knew what was coming when she picked out those Red Shoes, as if getting shoes onto a toddler/child isn't hard enough without them fearing shoe related possession.
***Yeah, it's logical, but still weird.