Overwhelming Children’s Section in the Library

It’s a jungle in there! I know the books are all organized and neat in the shelves, but it is insane to take it all in. I love taking the kids to the library. For me, it is so easy to reserve my books in advance and when I stop in, I go to the reserve section, pick up my books and I am done. It is so efficient. There is no need to browse or look around.

For the kids, browsing and looking around is one of the most important parts. They can pull books out, look at the covers, and open up the pages. This is a great process to a point. But there are times when I would just like to go in and pick a book that would be great for the kids without pulling out ever single book.

Don’t get me wrong! I love to see the kids explore the library, it just becomes a little crazy when we are late for naps. Daughter, one, has climbed up on the lap of the teenager sitting at her desk helping other kids read. Son, three, is asking every other person, child, librarian around if they know where the Lightening McQueen books are and follows that with a loud car revving sound.

Also, our process of checking the cover of the book to decide if we want to read it is not foolproof. Two weeks ago, we checked out Old Pig by Margaret Wild. There was a great illustration on the cover and the first page talked about an Old Pig and her Granddaughter and how they lived together. What a great story, right? We get home and later that afternoon, we are sitting on the playroom floor for story time. I start out reading with great fervor until I get to the part about the Old Pig not wanting to get out of bed because she doesn’t feel well. I keep reading until I am telling the kids that Old Pig is getting her affairs in order and telling Granddaughter that she will be okay without her.

At this point, I am crying. (I promise, contrary to what you might think, I’m not much of a crier, but this one was really sad.) The kids are totally confused and Son asks what happened to Old Pig. I am sure this wasn’t the right thing to do, but I told him that she was going on vacation; I turned the page and announced, “THE END.”

I am sure that someone dealing with death would benefit from reading this book with kids. For us, it just turned into a downer. I’m not sure how to find the right books for us. And so, another quest begins. I will post some of the books we love to read and hopefully, others can share theirs as well.

2 comments:

Moxymama said...

Very timely post as we just ventured to the library today. My 3 year old daughter loves Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore and all the Barefoot Books: Tico Tango especially!

missmaggie said...

I can just picture the whole thing. You crying and telling your son that Old Pig went on vacation. We decided in our family that when someone or something passes away that we would say that they went to live in Colorado with Aunt Bev. That's what we tell Grandma anyway. :)