A love letter to children’s books

Books are a constant presence in a house full of children. They foster connection, sustain routines and shuffle children down the path of learning to read. But this weekend, curled up on the couch with my youngest child reading Barbara Baker’s One Saturday Evening, I wasn’t thinking about what this book meant to my daughter. Instead, I noticed my own reaction to the familiar story and to Kate Duke’s gorgeous illustrations. This book was a favorite of my older two children around the time that our third child was born. Then, our Saturday evenings mirrored those of the bear family in the book: dinner clean-up, baths, and endless rounds of reading and tucking in. It’s been perhaps five years since I’ve read this book. My youngest is a great big second grader and the two older children, who once clambered for the closest spot next to me on the couch, are middle schoolers. 

Our Saturday evenings look different now. Reading this book again transported me back to the happy, messy, overflowing days of three children 6 and under. One page in particular—the Papa bear is rocking the baby to sleep and the wild toddler jumps up, her face inches from her little brother, giving him just the second wind he needs to resist sleep a little longer—nudged a memory of that common occurrence in our family’s past. I’m grateful for more sleep these days, for fewer toddler head-butts that must be weathered with a grimace instead of an outcry. I’m also grateful for the reminder of the sweetness of that time of near-constant togetherness. 

There’s plenty of out-loud reading still happening in our house these days. Some books cycle through the rotation with regularity, and I’m happy to see them in the pile dragged over from one of our overflowing bookshelves. Others, I shamelessly hide in the corner of the shelf that’s easily missed upon first glance. This is typically reserved for those shiny hardcover books that lure children in with familiar movie characters, but inside contain pages overburdened with text that would take 45 minutes to complete. No thank you.

And then, there are the superstars. The books that are so beloved, their words are forever seared into my brain and my heart. I cannot think about Sandra Boyton’s lyrical masterpiece—“The moon is high. The sea is deep. They rock and rock and rock to sleep”—without a sense memory of any one of my children’s downy heads, fresh from a bath but not quite ready to separate for the night. And Max, sweet, terrible Max, about whom my son wisely reflected, “he’s not making safe choices,” on the page where he chases his poor dog with a fork before venturing out to meet the wild things. These and so many others evoke a visceral reaction of the hours I spent reading them over and over again to my children, each of them connecting with a different part. 

Books are magic. Their ability to transport us to a different world and help us see another perspective is unmatched. When we read together with our children, it forms a cozy, safe space for connection and growth. As our children age, their need for this type of connection does not disappear. If they’ll let us continue to read to them beyond the years when they can read by themselves, we’re wise to snatch the opportunity. It fills something in them, sure, but it also lets us parents time travel for a moment, to the days when they were little and wiggly and wanted nothing more than to cuddle up next to us for another story. 

Children’s books my family loves (and you may too) 

1. Blueberries for Sal: Berry picking was a staple of my children’s early years. I always wished to look more like Sal’s chic mother while picking berries, but alas, I’m sure I more closely resembled Sal, with her dirty clothes and propensity for eating berries as she picked.
2. Last Stop on Market Street: This masterpiece is a beautiful example of teaching kids about working toward a broader purpose without lecturing or preaching.
3. A Chair for My Mother: My kids adore this “gold medal book” (their name for the Caldecott Honor award winners with the silver emblem on the cover). For me, it brings up happy memories of reading this very book with my own mother.
4. All the World: This is hands-down my favorite picture book. You simply cannot beat Marla Frazee’s beautifully expressive illustrations of family and friends’ interconnected lives, and Liz Garton Scanlon’s rhythmic prose, “hope and peace and love and trust,” became one of my parenting mantras from my first reading of this classic.
5. The Going to Bed Book: My favorite board book to give to new parents! Pro-tip for new parents: keep your bookshelves stocked with Sandra Boynton and you’ll never dread rereading the same books over and over.
6. Where The Wild Things Are: This timeless class remains a favorite for all the members of our family.
7. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site: I felt a noticeable departure from early childhood when my first-born no longer beamed with excitement if we stumbled upon a construction site, but I’ll always remember his pleasure at seeing each construction vehicle turning in for the night as we read this favorite.