Picture Books

I, for one, am a sucker for Picture books. I come across Mum conversations about how best to wean a child from Picture books and move on to chapter books and I wonder, "Why the big rush?".  You push a child to read, and he ends up running as far away from them as possible. The best you can do is to unlock his imagination and tempt him to explore that wonderfully enthralling world all by himself. Lead him into it by holding his hands, watch him get interested and slowly let go.

Books are to be cherished. To be relished. Read and re-read and reminisced. And picture books certainly tick all boxes for me even at the tender age of 35 :o).

This is one reason why I can't push my 6 year-old from picture books onto chapter ones. He reads chapter books alongside his brother ( most of the times just to show off as being equal and big enough!). But when I pick up a picture book, he comes galloping to my side. My 11 year-old is too proud to blatantly show he is interested, but when I start reading the book, I know an extra head would butt in silently!

This is why I can never have enough of picture books. Every night, we have to read at least 4 of them ( without counting the "one-more-time" s) before the kids nod off. And it is one routine we simply LOVE! This ritual of ours has made us run to the library to bring home a delicious stash every week, come what may. Our library allows 10 books per card and the boys always pick up at least 16 books between them. THAT, is a big number, and it has made us come across some of the most beautifully written and illustrated books, so beautiful that I felt so compelled to write about them somewhere.

I am sure all mums would already have their own special picks and favourites for the bed-time. However, there have been times when I delve into the blog world to read reviews about books that I want to buy. And I thought I could share my experiences as well, maybe there would be someone interested enough to read on! This is just a moment of sharing the joys that we have experienced and also a record for the children to look back on and chew some cud :o).

Thus begins my journey...