(Third) First Day of School

After sending Annie off to kindergarten two weeks ago and getting back to homeschool work last week we had our last first day of school this fall earlier this week. Jack, Jenny, and Josie headed off to a Charlotte Mason cottage school. Their classes meet once a week. Jack’s class has a full range of subjects, while the little two have a low-key preschool class with lots of play, stories, and time in nature. Afterwards everyone gathers for lunch and recess. There’s no homework but they do send home the schedule and suggested readings (modified from the Alveary curriculum) so that you can build a full Charlotte Mason home curriculum around the program if you like. I was impressed with the books, the teachers, and the kids, and appreciated how orderly and timely everything was – not always the case when homeschoolers gather!

We were also pleasantly surprised by the school’s diversity. When I was growing up most local homeschool groups were 98% white (actually, those were the diverse ones 😉). This tiny school has a significant proportion of African American and Hispanic students as well as an African American teacher. In addition, this school is doing a good job of modifying the set curriculum to offer a more diverse and global perspective versus a narrowly white perspective. While we appreciate the benefits of homeschooling, classical education, and Charlotte Mason, many  classically-oriented curriculums focus almost 100% on white authors and individuals, particularly those curriculums that insist on only using books Miss Mason would have used. When they do give a nod to diversity it’s only in connection to slavery or the Civil Rights era. What a loss! What kind of “feast” are we spreading for our kids when we only ever serve “food” from one place or category? I think it’s possible (critical, really) to embrace the richness of European cultural heritage while ALSO embracing the richness the rest of the world has to offer. Likewise, it’s important to teach our kids that not only white Europeans or North Americans (or Australians, or colonizers, or what have you) have contributed to their countries.

For example, two commonly recommended books for lower elementary students in Charlotte Mason curriculums are Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston. To be honest, I’m not sure I would’ve thought twice about them before adopting African American kids. They’re similar to curriculum books from my childhood. The stories are well told and offer rich ideas for young children. As books, there’s nothing especially wrong with them at first glance. I’m all for reading classics, while occasionally verbally editing the author’s tone or antiquated viewpoints for my kids. Even now, I’ll happily read most of those stories to my children. However, used in isolation or read only with like books, they offer a painfully narrow view of the world. Out of fifty stories, only two specifically referred to non-European characters (Genghis Khan and a “lazy king of the East”, while two more were not specific to any nation). Likewise in Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans mention is made of Native Americans but every hero is white (and almost every hero is male, but that’s another issue…). When we think we’re teaching history, we’re also teaching viewpoints. In this case, that only white Americans have been “great Americans.” Used exclusively such books build a myopic view of history and the world. At worst, they implicitly teach white supremacy and racism, quite often without parents’ awareness. I grew up with similar books and until embarrassingly late I thought we didn’t learn about, for example, Africa or Southeast Asia because nothing important had happened there. I thought that everything that “mattered” had occurred in the Middle East or Europe (plus gunpowder and paper from China) because that’s all my books discussed. I want my kids, black and white, to grow up with classic stories of Washington or Audubon or King Arthur or Socrates. I ALSO want them to grow up with stories of wise and heroic kings and queens from Africa and know Mexican folktales and the history of India. I want them to know about the history of European settlers in our area. I ALSO want them to know about the Native American who had cities and villages here for hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived. All that to say, in a roundabout way, that I’m happy this school is embracing western classics while giving the kids a wider viewpoint. We’ll continue to work on the same goals at home.

As someone who experienced both the rich benefits and the pitfalls of homeschooling myself I’d encourage you (homeschooler or not) to inventory your own bookshelves and your children’s bookshelves. What kind of faces are reflected in their books? What usually comes home from the library? Is one group usually the main character and another always relegated to sidekick? Which heroes are your children learning about on a daily basis? Once in a while? Not at all? What perspectives, explicit or implicit, will our children take in about themselves, other citizens of our countries, or other people around the world from the books around them?

Barbershop Quartet

We’ve always cut Jack’s hair at home. However, this morning I took him out for his first barbershop haircut. The Aquaphor incident left Jack’s hair looking patchy, gummed, and motheaten despite our best attempts with scissors and scrubbing. Our clippers pieces are broken and distributed among three cabinets, and it was $6.95 cut day at Great Clips.

I settled into a styling chair with Jack on my lap. We were the first customers of the day so all four stylists gathered around to chat and watch his 1.5 on the top/1 on the sides materialize as they waited for business.

“Awww. Look how good he’s being!” “Is he talking yet?” “How old is he?”

“Two and a half.”

The clippers continued buzzing round Jack’s head while he sat silent and wide-eyed (a rare state for him).

“He’s so cute! How many kids do you have?”

“Three, with number four on the way.”

“Oh, so he must be the youngest then.”

“Uh, well, no…he’s the eldest.”

*clippers freeze in midair* *blank wide-eyed stares from four pairs of eyes*

What can I say. We’ve yet to mail Christmas thank you notes and last summer’s vegetable garden still needs to be cleared, but we’ve been extremely efficient about accumulating children these last two years.

Satin Crib Sheets for Hair Protection

(Pretty quilt by Lauren)

Many African Americans with longer hair wear satin or silk sleep caps at night to protect their hair from breakage and preserve complicated styles. Ideally, they also use a satin or silk pillowcase for a double layer of protection. With proper maintenance a hairstyle can last for weeks at a time. At 21 months our daughter is not very interested in “proper maintenance”. About 90% of the time we find her sleep cap on the floor in the morning. Her styles only last a few days at best thanks to rubbing on her cotton sheets, and her hair easily dries out and breaks. Like many toddlers, Annie wiggles laps around her crib at night, so there’s little likelihood she’ll keep her head on a pillowcase either. Satin sheets seemed like the next best option. No local stores carried them and online options ran around $30-$40. For a toddler? No, thank you.

I grabbed a few yards of navy satin from the JoAnn’s (on sale for $2.99/yd, not including the two additional coupons I used) along with a pack of quarter inch elastic. Two crib sheets came together quickly following this tutorial. The measurements are perfect. Many fitted sheets only have elastic at the four corners. I like that this pattern calls for one piece of elastic all the way around the hem. It holds the sheets snugly against the forces of thrashing toddlers. Next up, a pack n’ play sheet and some pillowcases. I’m also stitching up a few Christmas gift bags while the machine is out.

Lest you think the kids’ room always looks that pristine, let me show you what happens when I think “Oh, they’ve been doing so well playing alone in their room lately. I’ll give them an extra ten minutes.” This:

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real – Independence Day

For more {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} entries click over to Like Mother, Like Daughter.

Pretty

 

(Just the art is pretty. I’m not making any claims about the top of the fridge, which is where all things the toddlers aren’t allowed to touch go to live.)

I am terrible about hanging pictures. After four years in this home, many are still leaning against walls or stacked in closets. Photos are equally bad. It’s not that I don’t like art, I just suffer from crippling indecision when trying to pick what to hang where. It feels so permanent! Enter a length of twine, a $2 pack of mini clothespins, and ten minutes during yesterday’s naptime. We now have an inexpensive and changeable art gallery. We love that we can fill it up or thin it down to a few different pieces, rotate through our large stacks of unframed prints, switch it all out for photos, or take it down for a break if we feel like it. I might move it up another four inches or so, but other than that we’re both loving it.

Right now it holds:

• A postcard print of the opening of the Gospel of John from the Tyndale New Testament
• A watercolor painting of hawks by Lydia (her lovely and affordable bird paintings are available here on Etsy)
• A print of the bush in Victoria from the Man’s stepmother
• A handpainted picture of a family I picked up in Kenya years ago

• A botanical print
• A print of Eugene Delacroix’s portrait of the Sultan of Morocco (unearthed years ago from a mound of discarded art prints surrounded by mounds of discarded asbestos tiles in a dingy furnace room at my Alma Mater, the University of Chicago)
• A map of Byzantium from my Mom. She bought it from the map prints collection at the Newberry Library in Chicago where I did much of my B.A. paper research

• Another watercolor by Lydia (this one of owls)
• Prints of the Swedish Army given to me years ago
• A postcard of a painting the Man and I loved at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC.

It will change again soon as we cycle through our stacks of prints and cards. For now, it makes the large blank wall in the kitchen much prettier, and makes me happy while I cook.

Happy

We had the nicest Independence Day weekend. The Man got off work early on Thursday and we all walked to the grocery store.

We treated ourselves to Buffalo Wings from a new takeout place for dinner. After packing the toddlers off to bed the grown ups settled in for a couple episodes of Elementary while a batch of our favorite Blueberry Lemon Streusel Muffins baked in the oven.

On Independence Day we packed up early for a day trip to swim at our favorite lake. The beach we usually use was closed off, but the ranger directed us to another. It ended up being a lovely surprise – a strip of sandy beach carved out of the edge of the woods, surrounded by rocky shore and facing forests and wooded hills across the way. The kids moved from tentative about swimming to drenching everybody in a five foot radius with their enthusiastic splashing in about 10 minutes. By the time we needed to pack up and leave our formerly timid son was dragging me back into the water with heartbroken sobs. Afterwards we stopped to visit lovely Lauren and her two youngest kids at their new home – such a treat to see them again! – then headed home for a good 4th of July dinner of steak, corn on the cob, and tomatoes, followed by baths for sandy babies and early bedtimes for all. We didn’t go anywhere to view fireworks this year, but thanks to the neighbors we were still serenaded by them until 11:00 at night. The wonderful thing about raising toddlers in an artillery town is that they sleep right through it all.

On Saturday we mowed the lawn, basked in family time, baked and ate Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, played games, let the toddlers get thoroughly dirty, trimmed the front bushes and generally relaxed.

 

(one has a hair bow and the other has socks – that totally counts as being dressed)

 

We go to the early service, so after church on Sunday we swung by home for a change of clothes, picked up barbeque and hushpuppies, and headed to the closest State Park for a picnic lunch, relaxation in the sun, and a toddler-length hike along the river. On the way home I handed our son a leftover hushpuppy to keep him awake. It didn’t work. He’s the first human I’ve ever observed who’s capable of eating in his sleep: taking delicate bites of hushpuppy, chewing, swallowing all while fast asleep with a beatific smile on his chubby face. We spent a quiet and restful afternoon at home reading, playing more games, and going for a family walk before wrapping up the weekend. It’s very rare for us to have such a stretch together at home (the Man often works weekends and holidays). It felt like a vacation and we headed into the week refreshed from the family time, change of pace, and break from cooking.

Funny

If you’re Facebook friends with me you may already have seen this. Jack loves trying on shoes and hats, in this case Daddy’scombat boots and his sister’s pink sleep cap. A stylish combination.

Annie fell in love with an old pillowcase while I was doing laundry. I clipped it on her as a cape. It made Superbaby’s day – she ran around admiring her fluttering cape for a good hour.

REAL

It takes a lot of clips to section hair for styling. Also, a lot of cheerios.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Today I’m joining the Like Mother, Like Daughter crew for {p,h,f,r} after a very long hiatus.

{Pretty}

After a long stretch of hiking with babies on our backs or pushing them in strollers, the kids are finally big enough to hike on their own two legs. Their first independent hike was a mellow loop at a local park, with stops for every rock, stick, and dog on the path. We’ve always been an outdoor household, and it’s such a liberating feeling having the twins join us without carting them along like so much (adorable) baggage.

It boggles my mind every time I turn around and see a pretty little girl where a squishy drooling baby sat a year ago. At least one baby is staying small; my Dad calls this doll his great grandchild because it’s his granddaughter’s baby.

{Happy}

I think this might be the only photo ever shot with all of us smiling at the same time. It’s blurry, but I’ll take it. Jack’s been going through another round of toddler tantrums (“But Mom, I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE DOWN THE STAIRS!” Yes, son. Your parents are so mean. We live to crush your dreams.). However, in between he has the cheeriest and most outgoing nature. We’re relieved that he’s finally developing some stranger danger after months of charging off to hug every stranger he passed.

Annie loves her swing. No backyard trip is complete without a small girl dancing beneath the swing signing “More, more, more, MORE, MORE, MORE!” with increasingly emphatic hand flailing until an adult takes pity on her and boosts her up for a ride. Jack thinks he loves the swing, but always turns green and puts his head down on the tray after two minutes. He’s more of a slide boy.

{Funny}

We set up the sprinkler in the backyard after church on Sunday. It’s impossible to water the vegetable garden without a toddler diving into the hose spray so I thought they’d love the sprinkler. They weren’t so sure. Annie quickly decided that the safest plan was to keep Dad between her and that strangely aggressive water.

Jack’s speech has exploded lately. My favorite is when he tries to say “Help, please.” It always comes out as “Apples, Peas.” I also enjoy when he’s planning something naughty and says “Uh oh” before he does it. Thanks for the warning, son.

{Real} 

It took eight months to produce my first set of cornrows fit to be taken out in public. All previous attempts resulted in us staying home for the day to avoid public humiliation. The part lines are wonky, and the braids are fuzzy, but there’s hope! Meanwhile, finger coils, rope twists, bantu knots, flat twists, and braids are our friends.

Mohawk Boy

People often ask us how we style Jack’s hair. The answer is we don’t. He’s just naturally cool:

If British Punk Rockers wore spaceship sleepers our Mohawk Baby would fit right in. Not as big an “if” as one might think – I bet they’d wear them, then declare it an ironic commentary on age-ist social norms.

His hair wasn’t always like this. When we brought him home at two months his receding hairline made him look like a miniaturized old man:

As new hair replaced his fine infant hair it grew all in one place, in one little tuft centered over his forehead:

For months, we kept expecting him to get more hair, and he did…it just all kept growing into that same little curly tuft  over his forehead. Around six months he finally started getting more hair: tightly curled low-lying fuzz spread slowly back in a straight line from his forehead until he had a perfect mohawk.

(Look at the girth of that boy!)

Eventually it started growing in on the sides. Well…make that one side. At this point, our son sports the oddest 2/3 head of hair I’ve ever seen. His two-inch tuft of curls still stands straight up from his forehead. He has a thick low-lying Mohawk, a four-inch horizontal bald spot just behind the crown of his head, reasonably growths of hair on the left and back sides of his head, and near baldness on the right side of his head. I don’t know what’s next, but it’s quite a show. In the meantime we might be having more fun with it than we should. He’s getting a buzz cut when he turns one, so it’s now or never:

“What do you mean ‘Did I lose a teething ring.’ And why are you smirking like that, Mom?”

“I mean it. Cut it out with the smirking and the references to soft-serve ice cream cones.”

“…still not funny, Dad. Just what exactly are you implying?”

If any punk rock bands are looking for members, Froggy Pajama Boy is here to help. His talents include loud drumming and heavy metal-style screaming. He’s also good at playing with the fringe on carpets.

Day 3 of the “7 Posts in 7 Days” challenge hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes: African-American Picture Books, Part 2

To those who’ve commented and emailed: I’m so sorry it’s taking me a long time to respond. We’ve had a very busy month and I’m quite behind on correspondence and writing. Your thoughts and comments are very much appreciated, though!

A few weeks back I reviewed a few picture books featuring black main characters. Thank you so much to the many people who commented on the last post with additional book suggestions! As I mentioned, it’s hard to find picture books featuring African-American or African protagonists at our local bookstore. The few books our store carries tend to focus on the Civil Rights era and racism; important topics, but surely not the only time we should see black kids as the main characters in picture books. Good books are out there, but it takes a little hunting. As with any genre, some of the books are “twaddle”, some have good stories but weak illustrations (or vice-versa), some do not share our values, and some are truly excellent. I plan to continue to review books as we try them from the library.

1) Please, Puppy, Please by Spike and Tonya Lee, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Carl and I both loved this funny, well-illustrated text, and the babies were captivated by the vivid illustrations. This sweet, simple story follows a day in the life of two children and their exuberant puppy. Appropriate for young children, though bigger kids might still enjoy the pictures and the humor while newly independent readers will enjoy the simple text they can read by themselves. 5 stars.

2) Where’s Jamela by Niki Daly

The Jamela books are a South African series. We’ve only tried Where’s Jamela so far, and I was very impressed. The illustrations are brilliant – full of life, action, and humor. The story is enjoyable, and the flavor of life in South Africa adds special fun to an already great story about spunky Jamela, her concerns about an upcoming move, her family and her warm and engaging neighborhood. We will definitely collect these books for our own shelves. 5 stars.

3) Whose Knees Are These? by Jabari Aseem

A simple board book, appropriate for babies and toddlers. A mother wonders aloud about the owner of these fine strong brown knees she sees dangling from trees, etc. They turn out to belong to her son. Sweet, but not particularly interesting to read as a parent, and kids will outgrow it quickly. We will get this one out of the library but don’t plan to buy it for ourselves. 3 stars.

4) Where Does the Trail Lead? by Burton Albert, illustrated by Brian Pinkney

A boy explores a coastal trail passing tide pools, sand dunes, and driftwood, eventually arriving at his family’s campsite. While inoffensive and perhaps a nice add-in for a unit study on coastal areas, this book doesn’t have much of a story to catch kids’ interest. Overall the pictures felt a bit gray and bland. There’s nothing especially wrong with this book but it wasn’t my cup of tea. 2 stars.

5) He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands by Kadir Nelson

Kadir Nelson’s warm and beautiful illustrations bring the classic American spiritual to life. There’s no “story”, per se, just the lyrics of the hymn with images of a family enjoying time together in the world God created and shepherds. One thing I hadn’t realized before reading this book is that hymns/songs in book form are fantastic for babies. The music really helps them engage with books and enjoy reading together when they’re too small to truly understand the stories. It’s tough to say if older kids would enjoy this book – I suppose it depends on the child.  5 stars.

6) Lola at the Library, Lola Reads to Leo, and Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

I have mixed feelings about these books. Lola is very cute, and the illustrations are bright and happy. However, the text reads more like an advertisement for the library or books than a story. For example, Lola goes to the library and describes everything she likes to do at the library. There isn’t really a plot. Also, while I know the illustrations are cartoonish and I’m sure it’s not intentional, the illustration of Lola’s Dad almost looks more “monkey-like” than human. It was a bit unsettling and an unpleasant stereotype. Overall, these might be good books to read once to explain how a library works to a small child (Lola at the Library ) or accompany the arrival of a new baby sibling (Lola Reads to Leo). 3 stars.

It’s rare to find a book that features transracial/mixed-race families like ours. This book has very nice illustrations. That said, I don’t think the text would appeal to most kids (or to the parents who have to read it out loud). The words are rather stream-of-consciousness, a free-association description of all the skin colors in the children’s family. I’ve read comments from others describing this book as very meaningful to them as they grew up in mixed-race families so we may revisit it when the kids are bigger. For now it remains a library book. 2 stars.

Seven Quick Takes: Race and Picture Books

Race! And adoption! How’s that for a non-controversial start to a Friday? At least most people have no quibble with picture books.

Adopting kids of another race changes your perspective. Overt acts of racism aside, picturing myself in my kids’ shoes has made me realize how different the experience of everyday life can be for people of other races in our town. Early in our adoption process, I headed to the bookstore to pick up gifts for the babies’ half-brothers. It’s the only “new books” provider for 45 minutes around – a major national chain. At first, I reached for my favorite classic kids’ books. Maybe Mike Mulligan or Make Way for Ducklings or Ferdinand or… I flipped through the pages. In every single book, every single character was white. I paused. They’re wonderful stories, but it’d be thoughtful if the gifts showed someone of the boys’ race. I browsed through the children’s area for half an hour, growing increasingly frustrated. Almost every human character was caucasian. At best, some books portrayed a side-kick of another race. Only a handful of picture books featured an African-American or African kid as the main character, and an even tinier percentage weren’t specifically about the Civil Rights era (an important topic, but not the only one we want to read about with small kids). Of those (perhaps four or so) books, almost all were poorly written with mediocre illustrations. I walked out of the store with a new perspective and two “safe” human-free stories about construction trucks and  dinosaurs. 30-40% of our town’s population is black. What if I were an African-American five-year-old going to the bookstore? Wouldn’t I wonder why I couldn’t find a single fun story about a kid who looked like me?

On placement day we again brought gifts for the twins’ half-brothers. Remembering the bookstore experience, I headed to the toy store instead. In the aisles of superheroes and dolls and Legos and balls every human character was white. I finally, after much wandering, spotted one Playmobil set of rescue personnel with a black ambulance attendant (I bought a playdough kit). While waiting for adoption news I borrowed a few library books on caring for babies. My husband started reading through the instructions on infant care illustrated with plentiful photos. After a while he paused, paged back through a few sections, then said slowly “…all of these babies are white. None of them look like the kids we’re going to adopt.” We started over from the beginning and finally found a brown-skinned baby on page 99. She was Indian.

I don’t want to oversimplify, but for want of a better way to say it, much of our social structure assumes “whiteness” (an idea I would have scoffed at a year ago). Naturally some stories feature only white characters – Mike Mulligan is a pretty accurate reflection of a rural New England town or village. But shouldn’t that “naturally” run in two directions? We’ll be reading plenty of classics like Mike Mulligan, but I realized that I will need to search hard and carefully to build a good supplement of quality resources featuring characters who look like my kids. Knowing there are many other parents in the same boat (and plenty of families, regardless of race, who just enjoy good children’s books) the homeschooled kid and future homeschooling parent in me decided to periodically reviewing the resources we come across, both good and bad. I keep a running Pinterest page of books to try. Feel free to chime in with your recommendations or thoughts!

1)

Please, Baby, Please by Spike and Tonya Lee, illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Highly recommended. A baby spends her day getting into mischief, testing her parents’ patience. The cover doesn’t do the bright, entertaining, full-page illustrations justice. The simple text is appropriate for small children. Detailed pictures draw the reader in, and we enjoy the humor as parents. Our babies can’t stop staring at the colorful pictures and trying to touch them. The Lees also wrote Please, Puppy, Please, which we’ve yet to read. Kadir Nelson illustrated a number of other books on our yet-to-try list including He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.

2)

Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams, illustrated by Catherine Stock. Highly recommended. Kondi, a resourceful little boy in Africa, spends his day collecting wire scraps to build a galimoto (a toy vehicle). An engaging storyline with great illustrations full of details from life in a small village. Neat, also, because I saw many handcrafted toys and masterpieces from wire scraps like this when in Kenya.

3)

The Snowy Day, Peter’s Chair and the rest of the Peter series by Ezra Jack Keats. Highly recommended. Classics, and some of the very first US picture books featuring a black main character. Simple stories small kids can relate to. Creative illustrations made with Keats’ classic collage techniques.

4)

Corduroy by Don Freeman. Highly recommended. A classic most of us grew up with. A little black girl named Lisa falls in love with a bear in the store window, but can’t take him home. Corduroy spends an adventurous night in the department store before eventually finding a real home with Lisa after all. Fun, sweet and irresistible to kids.

5)

Hush Little Baby, Pegony-Po, Max Found Two Sticks, and numerous others by Brian and Andrea Pinkney. Pretty good. I have mixed feelings about these books. The Pinkneys are prolific authors and illustrators of children’s’ books featuring African American main characters. However, the quality is highly variable and despite colorful and vivid lines, the illustrations sometimes feel rather wooden. This is, perhaps, because the characters’ facial expressions rarely change no matter the mood or action in each illustration. Still, there are many more to try, the stories are clean, family-oriented, and gentle, and the pictures do capture our kids’ attention. Hush Little Baby tells, through the illustrations, a sweet story of a father and brother trying to comfort the baby of the family while Mama is off to town. We will try each potential option from the library before deciding to invest in a copy for home.

6)

Happy Christmas Gemma by Sarah Hayes, illustrated by Jan Ormerod. Recommended. Borrowed from the library at Christmas. A boy narrates preparations for Christmas and the antics of his baby sister. We both loved the illustrations. This story is nothing out of this world, just a warm, gently funny tale. A nice unique flavor, too, since the characters are a black family living in Britain with relatives in Jamaica.

7)

More More More Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams. I don’t like to give negative reviews, but this book just did not appeal to us. On the plus side (and this is actually a big, rare plus) it features families of multiple races and transracial families with a white Grandma and a black grandson. Also, it won the Caldecott Honor medal for its illustrations which have gotten rave reviews from other readers. However, my husband and I both found the illustrations rather garish/clashy and not very enjoyable to look at. We also weren’t particularly interested in the text. I found it a bit hard to pick up the right rhythm for read aloud. It’s possible our kids would like it when they’re bigger, but as parents who would have to read it over and over, we’re exercising veto power and not buying it. I suppose this is another one to get from the library and choose for yourself – tastes differ.

Images from Amazon, Goodreads, and other linked sources. Most books available on Amazon. For other Seven Quick Takes entries please visit Conversion Diary.