The Wondrously Weird World of Children's Books

I'm a book lover. Been that way as long as I can remember. In junior high school, my mother had to confiscate my books to get me to do my homework. I want my little ones to gain a love for books, too. Therefore, we try to make it a habit of reading every day for at least 20-30 minutes - usually before bedtime. Thus we frequently explore the wondrous world of children's books.

I have found children's books to be a bit tricky. Here's why. Children's books are a dime a dozen. However, it often feels like finding good children's books can is the cliche needle-in-the-haystack situation. Maybe people think anyone can write a children's book because it doesn't have to be complicated. Who knows.

I try to take my little guy to the library on a regular basis. Weekly is my goal, but... well... we all know how that goes. Anyhow, toting the baby into the library seems to present an extra challenge. As the baby occupies one of my arms, we don't usually have much opportunity to sit down and enjoy the books while in the library. Therefore, our typical library visit includes me trying to keep up with the little guy as he wanders up and down the aisles of children's books, picking out random books without even really looking at them. 

The first visit that went like this produced some interesting results. We ended up taking home a very odd assortment of books, some of which, if I had been more discerning, we would not have checked out. I learned 3 things:

1. There are a lot of really weird children's books out there, many of which I would consider to be a waste of time. (Sorry, just bein' honest.)
2. A lot of children's books don't even have a storyline.
3. I need to allow the little guy to independently pick a few books, but I really need to help him find the better books.

I'll try to keep up posts about some of our favorite "randomly selected" children's books from our library adventures.