Frankie's Reading List

Frankie has always been an avid reader. Rather, an avid listener, though he does have several favorite books memorized by now. His tastes range from the classics (Beatrix Potter and Eric Carle) to what may be the adult equivalent of beach reading (a series of sports related books that I bought at Walgreens). He tends towards books about bunnies, sports and cats, with the occasional dog or hippo thrown in. Recently, his favorites have included Color Kittens (Margaret Wise Brown) which I purchased for the sweet, colorful retro illustrations, The Richard Scary-illustrated I Am A Bunny, Eric Carle’s Little Cloud (though we often have to just look at the page where Little Cloud turns into a bunny) & The Very Busy Spider, Beatrix Potter’s Tom Kitten, Owen and Mzee (a really cute story of a true-life friendship between a 130-year old turtle and a baby hippo), one of Dave’s old books Harry and The Lady Next Door and several about butterflies (he’s particularly fascinated by the concept that the butterfly eats nectar with a straw-like tongue).

I didn’t remember much about Beatrix Potter books, particularly the style in which they were written until we began reading them to Frankie. The language is quite adult and somewhat antiquated (with words like affronted and repose) and the story lines can be realistic and violent (there is more tail-loss than you’d expect in a kids book)…but they are very funny. Other bunny-related choices include Bunny’s Noisy Book & Runaway Bunny (again, Margaret Wise Brown…the woman knows her bunnies), Bunny’s Breakfast (from the 30’s or 40’s) and Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late (by Mo Willems…the pigeon has a bunny stuffed animal).

It’s wonderful to see him so interested in a pastime that we enjoy so much ourselves, and we hope he’ll continue to be a bookworm. And it's entirely possible he reads to extend his bedtime later & later. I would guess it's a little of both.