Our Children's Library

I spent an hour reading to Petra tonight. We read 11 books, a couple of them several times each. This doesn't count the books she read this morning or afternoon.

Its amazing how many books we go through each day. She loves to read. It is easily the one activity we do most with her each day.

and because of this we need lots of books. I've spent the last month or two working diligently to make sure we have some of the most popular and favorite children's books in our home. I have read hundreds of reviews, searched blogs, and priced them each on Amazon and added them to my Amazon wish list (which you can access online if you want to see)

Tonight Thomas surprised me with one of my favorite activities - we went shopping at the Goodwill Bookstore after dinner. This is actually one of my favorite things to do ... if only Petra would behave while we were there. But I digress.

I'm sure none of you can imagine, unless you have been there, the extensive collection of children's books that this store has. There is an entire room of just used children's books. We went 3 weeks ago, with a list in hand of the ones I was looking for, and came home with a stack. Most weren't on the list, but I still got some classics - like Goldilocks and the three bears, the three little pigs, and the poky little puppy - most of these are still a too advanced for her.

When we went in tonight we were told they just restocked the children's room with 1200 more books! yeah! So I started searching again. This time I found two that I wanted: Goodnight Gorilla and a Spot flap book!

There are still several more I am looking for. I really want to get "I took the Moon for a walk" by Carolyn Curtis. Petra loves this one, and I enjoy reading it. We checked it out from the library to try it out. Our local Barnes and Nobles doesn't have it in stock - so I think I will probably have to end up ordering it.

I've seen a couple blogs that posted regarding their child's favorite books at different ages. I found it very useful and plan to write a similar post soon.