Newbery Challenge

Hmm, so finding the time to blog is a little more challenging than I thought it would be. I guess that shouldn't be such a surprise given my status as "mommy-to-an-eight-month-old." Let me amend that to "mommy-to-a-teething-eight-month-old." I have lots of ideas. LOTS of ideas and I can't wait to get them onto the screen, but I will need to be patient. For now, I've decided to start with issuing myself a challenge. I would like to read all the Newbery Medal Winners, starting with the very first, The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon, which won in 1922. I plan to read just the Medal Winners not the Honor Books. That's a bit too ambitious for me right now. Along the way I plan to do other reviews and post activities to do with them and well, whatever else strikes my fancy. I guess I'll have to set a deadline, as well. So, I guess I should get to it. I'll reserve myself a copy at the library, get my list of books together and hop to it.

Off and reading...

Wow! My inaugural post. There's some pressure with this, I think. I haven't figured out, yet, quite how I want to do this or, really, quite how the mechanics of blogging work. However, I'll throw myself in and see how it goes. If I am making any really horrific mistakes, please do let me know.

So, BookBaby is seven months old! To the world she seems so small, but to me she is such a big girl. She is teething (a bit cranky, but not too bad) and soooo close to crawling. She's done it a few times, but hasn't really figured out the mechanics, yet. She is a delightful child and we feel blessed to have her. She loves people and is very social. She is delighted by anyone who wants to interact with her. She especially loves her father (aka BookDaddy... oh, he'll love that moniker) who is an endless source of amusement. As for me, I'm not really the same type of playmate. But when it comes to reading, I am the go-to gal. Well, umm, I'm not really doing as much of that with her as I'd planned. Lesson #1 of parenthood: You will do things you never thought you would and you will not do many things you were absolutely certain you would do.

So, what are we reading these days...

1. Touch and Feel Puppy published by Dorling Kindersley
There are oodles of books in this series and BookBaby loves them. She is very tactile, as are many babes at this age. She loves touching the "fluffy tummy" and "fuzzy slipper." BookDaddy loves making fun of me as I read it to her. "Bye, nice puppies. Bye, nice puppies." You can imagine the mocking tone.

2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle. I thought everyone knew about this classic children's work and was surprised to find out that I was making a erroneous assumption. I think I've spent too much time with other eary childhood/library folk. The repetitive format and classic Eric Carle art make this so delightful for children. BookBaby is fascinated by the animals and constantly reaches out to touch them. I can recite the text of this entire book from memory. Seriously.

3. Touch and Feel Farm published by Dwell Studio. Okay, so this isn't that different from Touch and Feel Puppy. Same concept differet publishers. But, I love the textures in this one. It was a gift from BookBaby's Auntie Kathy (she's from Massachusetts so make sure you pronounce that "Auntie" properly or she'll be wicked upset). BookDaddy and I love the last page which commands, "Touch the cow. Do it now!"