This Week's Book

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon & Illustrated by Marla Frazee

The world of this book is just small enough that you can see from one end to the other, you can recognize many of the same people from page to page, and see where you just were from where you now are. It's like streetview on Google Maps for preschoolers! 

My 3 year old and I both enjoy finding familiar details such as the the tandem bikers, the beach ball left at the pond overnight, the family's red truck as the day carries on in the book. There are no protagonists here just people doing what they do. 

I also appreciate how the text is written into the illustrations. The words fill a cloud or bump along the top of the garden. Their appearance even illustrates the meaning of words: the word "up" is raised and the word "down" is lowered. The font is similarly suitable, straightforward and legible yet whimsical in the way it is sometimes level and other times free flowing.

This book reassures both me and my children telling us this world is safe and inviting and exciting and varied and beautiful - exactly the message I want to tell my kids every day about our world. 

This Week's Books

The Rain Train by Elena de Roo

I seem to have come across a glut of great books lately. Books that look right up my alley at the library but when I get them home and read them to my kids I find myself paraphrasing or rephrasing the text or wishing there was more or less story. Other times as I sift through the shelves at my local branch using my standard critical approach (title, illustrations, amount of text, and subject matter in that order) and I wonder how many of the titles I pick up belong to wonderful stories paired with unappealing illustrations. If that's the case, back to the shelf it goes. I'm only looking for the best and that still amounts to over a dozen books that make it to this week's short list, the ones we sign out and schlep home. The Rain Train is one that I wasn't entirely sold on upon first read (I think the title first sold me on it over the illustrations) but now I just can't seem to cull it and return it I enjoy reading it aloud so much.

The story is a poem with a lot of great lines. And though I don't recall reading the first page in the library, the opening lines really get me: "When the rain fingers drum out a dance on the pane, / When the windows are foggy enough for my name". And the other set of lines that I savour: "And all of the time / Always the same... / The wail of the wind, / the sway of the train, / The strum of the wheels to the beat of the rain".

Every page pairs poetic description with often-rhyming, sometimes alliterative onomatopoeia, my favorite being: "Past lighted houses -- / Clackety-clack. / Out of the city -- / Shackety-shack". (I always find myself whispering the onomatopoeic phrases.)

Now I don't claim to know what a rain train is, but my guess is that it's made-up by a child lying in bed, falling asleep listening to the rain. This train carries him off through the night to dreamland. The passengers are all in pajamas and carry umbrellas and the last page shows a boy asleep in his bed with a train going by outside his window and it reminds me of the late train that I used to hear if I was up late enough when I was young - perfect.

Beach Feet by Kiyomi Konagaya Illustrated by Masamitsu Saito

This is the other book I can't part with at library return time. The story and the perfectly imperfect illustrations just keep me reaching for this one over others at storytime. The entire book is about a few lively moments of a child's day at the beach. The first person narrator is easily distracted, nicely representing the short attention span of a real child.

Emotion, movement, speed, and even temperature are conveyed in the brilliantly messy illustrations of this book. Toes and fingers are shown to be excited, paddling, or wiggling by their numerous outlines as with the hot toes shown above. My favorite drawing is the intentionally imprecise underwater legs (at right); a few scribbles and realistic shimmering water and moving legs are perfectly achieved. Saito doesn't appear to care about colouring in the lines of his own drawings and the oil pastels lend themselves nicely to blurring and smudging. Attractive, effective imperfection is one of the things I like about the art I like - you know how bittersweet chocolate is better than sweet chocolate on its own? A little imperfection goes a long way in terms of poignancy.

TV is Not a Dirty Word

Like many people, I have a conflicted relationship with television. I have a fond memory of my dad climbing on the roof to adjust the antenna when I, waiting for The Friendly Giant to come into view, spotted a bear in the orchard. And I recall being quite excited for Sunday night's Disney hour-long specials such as the memorable Flight of the Navigator. I loved MASH and Monty Python for periods of my teen years and then I went without TV for many years, pretty much the entire run of Seinfeld and the first six years of Survivor. I was busy living large with few possessions and even less income; TV was the last thing on my mind.

It wasn't until I settled in my current city with my now-husband that we got our first TV off craigslist. My parents gave us their old VHS player and we'd rent video tapes from the library. (And yes, I realize just how very out of date that sounds now, eight years later, but imagine how peculiar it will sound to our kids in another eight!)

With those new-to-us technological advances I watched the entire series of Blackadder. It wasn't the first time I'd seen the show but I fell completely in love with the series and still give it top three ranking today. It was around this time that the current TV comeback was picking up momentum thanks to shows like The Wire and Six Feet Under. These programs were proving that shows could be better than movies, offering more in terms of character development and plot lines.

Here is a list of the shows I've watched in the past decade that I enjoyed, loosely organized chronologically.

• Deadwood
• Carnivale
• Life
• Californication
• Mad Men
• Breaking Bad
• Game of Thrones
• Sherlock
• Boardwalk Empire
• Downton Abbey
• Wallander
• The Hour
• Parade's End
• Black Mirror

You can see I've been on a BBC kick the last while (Thanks Dad).

Oh, and just for the sake of it: my top three TV shows of all time are Wallander, The Wire, and Blackadder.

This Week's Books

The Stars Will Still Shine by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke

"This new year the sky will still be there..."

Here is another book that reads like a poem and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Rylant has a talent for unassuming language that packs a sentimental punch. This book reminds us of the big picture through small details. It is at once hopeful and reassuring making it a great nighttime read.

The illustrations portray the highlights of a childhood year as an adult might remember them: beach days with ice cream cones, reading curled up on a couch next to the fireplace, swinging on a swing in a tree, eating peaches and making pies. Along with these happy times there may be darker times, but the author assures us that in grey, winter cities there can be colorful flowers, even dark nights have light, and despite obstacles in our lives the "sky will still be there / there stars will still shine / birds will fly over us / church bells will chime".

When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Diane Goode

This biographical story about the author's childhood in rural Appalachia was a favorite of mine as a child. My mom always called me a "mountain girl" when I was young in the mountains. I still identify with that part of me despite having lived in the city for the past seven years. I can't help but feel that this is only a temporary home and that if I stay here too long I will disappoint a part of myself and possibly my parents who chose to bring me up in a rural area.

As a girl it was clear to me that this story took place a little earlier in time and a little ways away in distance, but nonetheless, I could relate to shelling peas from the garden, warming up by the wood stove, drinking hot cocoa, and reveling in the still evening air of the mountains.

It concerns me that my kids won't relate to this book as I did, not being raised in a small town in the mountains. On the flipside, I imagine they will find themselves in other books that will make an impression deep enough they'll remember a few of the words and illustrations when they're adults living far from home.

First Comes Love...

Then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage, and then another one 17 months later and now you need a double stroller.

There was a time not so long ago when I disdained (and very possibly even mocked) the owners of double strollers. I mean, really, they are worse than motorized mobility scooters; they take up as much space and often contain crying babies. As with so many things in life, watch what you laugh at because you too may be laughable one day.

What I'm driving these days, the 2011 Baby Jogger City Select

While this new stroller felt conspicuous and ego-tastic for the first week, as with many aspects of motherhood, it soon came to be essential, and not long after that, taken for granted.

A Brooklyn neighbourhood proposed turning bike
lanes to stroller lanes; local moms were quoted saying the
lane wouldn't be wide enough for their double strollers. 

I could tell you that this is the best double stroller out there - if you don't mind the price tag - for many reasons. It has ample shade canopies (a surprisingly hard thing to find), serious storage space underneath, foam-filled tires (air-filled are prone to punctures), it accommodates multiple configurations (both kids facing forward, backward, facing each other, facing away from each other, et cetra), you can add on pieces like trays, rain covers, bassinets, et cetra, and it easily converts to a single stroller. All this to say that the real clincher for me was that it is not a double wide stroller. I just don't think I could handle bumping pedestrians off the sidewalk constantly. I mean, have you ever been on the receiving end of one of those bad boys? Proponents of the side by side strollers can be heard saying, "It's only as wide as a wheelchair!" as though it's a selling feature. But I've seen the dismay cross the face of oncoming walkers when they see the wide load of a double wide stroller and twenty sticky fingers rolling in their direction. 

After having my first baby I remember feeling as though I would never again be able to leave the house to go grocery shopping. Now I've grown so accustomed to my big stroller that I find myself wondering how I will ever grocery shop once the kids have outgrown it. Carrying shopping bags by hand? Or worse, driving to get groceries? Give me my 34 pound baby-mobile any day!

This Week's Book

The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

I just discovered this author and book (published in 2008) and yet the latter feels comfortably familiar while keeping me turning the pages.  I'd call it an instant classic but I'm willing to bet someone out there has already dubbed it thus.

The Little Yellow Leaf had me at the cover. While title is sweet as are the illustrations, I also admire the font, the colour palette, and I that the entire book jacket is one image so that when the book is being read an onlooker sees the big picture.

Upon first read I liked the story and it's quaint clarity as well as the previously mentioned comfy yet fresh quality of the art that comes, in part, from the use of collage with hints of text, textbook graphics, foolscap and graph paper. (I wondered where the term foolscap came from - I'd always thought it was "full scap" surely due to some grade school teacher's pronunciation - so I looked it up. Just follow the link to learn more.)

In case you were unsure which
little yellow leaf is our protagonist...

After a couple more reads I see now just how much the artwork adds to the tale. The author/illustrator is an expert at perspective. The tree itself appears straightforward but if you look closely (the images you see here don't do the book justice) there are words in them there trees, literally! Throughout the story we see the little yellow leaf's oak tree in different light, weather, and from different distances and angles.

Brilliant perspective: view of the
oak tree from above

Once the leaves are airborne the fields far below are a patchwork quilt of understated colors and patterns, but they are not simply a two dimensional backdrop, the fields have hills at their edge and sky beyond so that the viewer is not looking straight down on the field but is there, in the air with the leaves.

Collage patchwork quilt of fields and hills

This book is whimsical, homey, and full of hope; now to go find more from this author!

This Week's Books

While I like the text of these two books, I love the illustrations. Therefore, I have more to show than say about them.

Paper snowflakes taped to the window
and mittens drying on the radiator.

Mama, Is It Summer Yet? by Nikki McClure

As with most books I adore, this one captures both an air of simplicity and little details that I appreciate. The format is large and square and the illustrations alternate between full-page spreads and right -page illustrations with text on appropriately muted color pages on the left.

The illustrations are clear, quiet, and have an effortlessness about them though the author's note tells us that they were created with great care and diligence. "First, I draw the image on black paper, and then I cut it out with an X-Acto knife. I try to keep everything connected with a path of black paper... There is no erasing, so if I make a mistake, I just have to keep cutting and find a solution."

Flowers in Mama's pocket
and polka dot boots.

McClure has a talent for choosing just the right details to portray a boy and his mother working and playing in their garden during the long wait for summer. Many of us can identify with this wait during these dreary February days; it feels like forever until the grass will be dry enough to sit on. But, as this book tells us, if you focus on what is going on in the moment (or the season, as the case may be), then the grass will be dry before you know it.

Picking berries with a colander and bare feet.

Boats Speeding! Sailing! Cruising! by Patricia Hubbell, illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy

I was instantly attracted to the dated color pallette and retro mixed-media illustrations of this series which, along with boats, includes books on cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes.

Hubbel's text echoes the lively feel of the exclamation point-heavy titles with various approaches to talking about it's topic. Various type of boats are named along with their parts and purposes and sounds.

There's nothing like onomatopoeic language to get a preschooler excited. "Yachts with flags both fore and aft. Dory. Dinghy, Shell. Raft... Rumble! Whistle! Roar! Toot! Chug! Hum! Sputter! Hoot! Rev the engines! Speed ahead! Deck. Cabin. Galley. Head."

The book is teeming with little cultural touchstones from old advertisements and the labelled pictures reminiscent of my childhood Richard Scarry books to classic tales of pirates and whales. The result is a book that adults may peruse more attentively than their children.

"Toy boats sail in ponds and streams,
in your tub, and in your dreams."

This Week's Books

I Know a Lot of Things by Ann and Paul Rand
A quirky read with surrealistic illustrations by "one of the most influential and groundbreaking American graphic designers of the twentieth century" as the book jacket reads. I find some of the phrasing hard to wrap my tongue around simply because it's written not as I would say it, but this is part of the reason we read books, to have our thoughts put into others' words often more eloquently than we ourselves could put them. Overall the book is terribly enjoyable. The text speaks with a childlike imprecision that both adults and children find amusing: "I know I can dig a hole this big", "A book needs pages and a cake takes ages to bake", and "the moon is a light for the night". Though originally published in 1956, the bold, graphic illustrations feel quite contemporary despite, or perhaps due to, their capital "m" Modern aesthetic.

Only You by Robin Cruise Illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Obviously written by a parent, this story follows three different child/parent pairs at different times of day. It is all about the priceless, tender moments that occur throughout the day when you live with a toddler. The narrator acknowledges how one can love actions ("I love each hop, each spin, each shout... I love your voice, the words you say - the songs you sing throughout the day" ) as well as the more predictable features of a child ("I love your knees, your toes, your feet. I love your skin - so soft, so sweet"). I enjoy how the words could be my words as I read them to my son as the examples are specific and the sentiments  universal.
The illustrations mimic the narrative perspective, zooming in from the view of another watching the pair walk down through the park or cuddle at bedtime to the parent's macro view of the child as they interact over the course of a day. Chodos-Irvine skillfully combines striking shapes, loud colors, subtle patterns, and over-sized images, (the full-page illustrations spill right off the page; see right-hand image). This is a book that I could read at every bedtime.

Smitten with "Sunshine"

Sunshine by Jan Ormerod

This book was written the year I was born and maybe that is why I find these illustrations so charming; they remind me of other narratives and images from my childhood. And, while the story is rather timeless, the unavoidable Eighties-ness of it is pure nostalgia for me even though I've only just discovered it.

Rise and shine

It's likely the spot-on quiet humour that endears this book to me.

Dad burning toast

Or perhaps it's the decided lack of sunshine in these wintry Vancouver days that makes this title and the warmth of it's plot so appealing.

A fine balance

Or maybe it's the apt portrayal of my current cozy reality that hits the mark.

Been there

It must be the precisely sweet embodiment of a child's routine motions and expressions that captivate me.

Page one of a two-page sequence

Indeed, this wordless story is poetic. The particular moments Ormerod has chosen to depict couldn't be more pertinent. There are no words and yet nothing is missing. There are dozens of images in her sequential segments and yet nothing is superfluous. I've said it before and I'll say it again, good editing makes any endeavor a work of art.

Whatever it is, I am smitten with "Sunshine" and currently looking for the companion book "Moonlight".

This Week's Books

Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish? by Sarah Asper-Smith
Other than the surprising and vivid illustrations of this book, I marveled at how genuinely apropos many names are for their respective animal groups. How about a knot of frogs? I have seen one and it is indeed rather knotty. And a crash of rhinos? Well, I imagine that is the noise a group of them would make when plundering scrubby savannah bushes. Or the books namesake, a smack of jellyfish? Well, only one as lucky as myself would know the distinct splat of a small, harmless jellyfish propelled by a random beach brat hitting a bare back and I can tell you, a smack is a suitable word for more than one. I suppose I need not point out just how befitting it is that owls constitute a parliament and zebras a zeal? Yes, a zeal. Not only are the illustrations eye-catching, they are art. You can purchase baby clothes, cards, and other appealing items printed with the artwork on the author's Etsy site.

In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming
Another book with big color and a fun theme, "In the Tall, Tall Grass" also portrays a small point of view in a big format. The perspective, that of a  caterpillar traveling through a field, is fun because the critters that look so small to us aren't so small to a caterpillar. My son loves this one; he can read it over and over, finding the caterpillar on each page or pointing out and counting the other creatures. The companion book "In the Small, Small Pond", a Caldecott Honor Book with a frog as the protagonist, is equally as appealing. Fleming's artwork, achieved by pouring colored paper pulp through hand-cut stencils, is splashy and bold and entirely her own. Once I read one of her books I started seeing them everywhere, recognizing them by the art and not the name on the cover.

This Week's Books

I go to the library twice a week and though my local branch is miniscule it is a warm, dry haven on wintry west coast days when the kids and I get cabin fever and we're fed up with being only family at the park. Each week I take out a dozen or so kids books to keep our reading options fresh. My older son (not yet two years old) and I both look forward to the the little discoveries and laughs we will share in the unfamiliar  pages. He enjoys putting last week's books (and occasionally his library card) in the book return slot and the newly chosen books up onto the counter for the librarian to check out for us, then he helps me load the stroller with our book bounty. For him the other highlight of these visits is the big red button that opens the automatic doors.

While I really enjoy the treasure hunt that is our weekly trip to the library, I've also loved sharing my old books with my kids. Here are two standbys from the early 1980s that happen to both be by Eloise Wilkin. I've got each of them committed to memory (they were already half complete in my head from my childhood) so that I can recite them in those rare instances that we - Heaven forbid - find ourselves without a book!

"And then we say goodnight."

My Goodnight Book by Eloise Wilkin
This shaped board book is brief but I can remember some of what I felt when I viewed these pages as a child. I recall identifying with the little girl, liking the look of the mother in the story and thinking she was sure of herself and gentle, and I was excited by the candy bowl on the table next to the armchair where the father and daughter read their bedtime story. Most of all I found (and still find) that the nighttime view out the girl's bedroom window on the last page of the book (see image) made me feel like all is right with the world. The pastoral setting and the summer evening breeze evokes a sense of security and contentedness that relaxes me still each time I read the book.

"A guppy is a little fish."

The Little Book by Eloise Wilkin
The cover of this book pictures a little girl reading "The Little Book" which has a picture of the same little girl reading "The Little Book" which has a picture of... This was my first example of recursion and I remember being fascinated by the infinity of it all. The text of the book is considerably less existential but just about as sweet as Wilklin's illustrations, epitomizing her cute aesthetic: "A chuckle is a little laugh. A little cow is a calf. A quarrel is a tiff. A little sniffle is a sniff." It's hard to beat the simplicity of a list of rhyming words and informative truths.

This Week's Books

A Winter Day by Douglas Florian
One boy is almost asleep and the other is almost awake; this is the time I should be napping myself but I'm just so warm and fuzzy from the book I just read before naptime. "A Winter Day" is one of those simple and nostalgic type of books that get me thinking about writing kids literature. The only thing is, I'm no artist and so many books are written and illustrated by one person, especially books with so few words. To quote the entire book: "A Winter Day. Cold and gray. Snowflakes. Pancakes. Cover your heads. Skates and sleds. A snowball grows. Warm your toes. Everything white. Orange light. A winter night." It is a poem, even if it wasn't written to be one; it's short, list-y, image-laden, sentimental but thankfully, with very few adjectives, in a word: perfect - or poetic - I often consider these two words to be synonymic anyway.

Little House, Little Town by Scott Beck
This is the other book that I just can't seem to return to the library. My husband recently remarked upon reading it for the dozenth time, "Why do all kids books take place in pastoral settings?". Well, for one, they probably don't it's just that I tend to favour the ones that do (and therefore, bring them home from the library) because it's what I like. Also, I grew up in a rather pastoral setting myself and wish to convey some of the freedom and security that I felt as a child due to my surroundings to my kids growing up in a rental house in the city. This book encapsulates the sentiment of a childhood realization that I assume is a common one for I remember it well. That is, that there is a world of other people going about their own lives every moment of every day and they are making the world go round. I clearly remember lying down for naptime at daycare when I was three or so and hearing the occasional car approach, accelerate, pass, and fade into the distance while feeling snug and cozy but aware of the world out there. While I have thought that I could improve upon Beck's particular words, a few lines really resonate with me. "Daddy turns the sprinkler on. Mama yawns a little yawn and pats her baby's back. Outside the train goes down the track." And later in the day, "People head home from the park. The mechanic puts his tools away. Children come in from their play. Now it's getting dark. Daddy rocks his boy to sleep. And with a kiss upon the cheek, he puts his baby down... in his little crib, in their little house, in the little town". I suppose it helps that Beck even uses our family's preferred parental pronouns, but there is something more that relaxes me when I read this book and it seems to do the same to my son. What more could you ask for in a bedtime story?

A Dissertation on Modern Day Diapering

I have two kids under two. For those of you without children for reference, this means two kids in cribs, two kids who need to be carried and cuddled, two kids to push in a stroller, and two kids in diapers. It is amazing how many times in a day they need their diapers changed simultaneously and so I've quickly gone from a childless cloth diaper advocating day dreamer to a self-proclaimed aficionado grabbing whatever is in arms reach. I am reporting live from cloth diaper trenches and the news is surprisingly sunny.

I knew while pregnant with my first that I would like to save money and landfill space by using cloth diapers. I figured that generations upon generations (in fact, every single generation before us) did it, so how hard could it be? It's not like I'd be washing them by hand. In fact, before we moved into our current house I used to have to go outside and around the house to access our washer and dryer and so I even used a cloth diaper service for a few months the first time around so I never had to schlep wet diapers up and down our stairs in the rain. So really, how hard could it be?

As with many things in life, it turns out it's not hard at all, it just requires a little effort. I began by taking a cloth diapering workshop - no joke - and while it was informative I found it exceedingly overwhelming. I was right back to being the bumbling West Coast anglophone in my first Quebecois university level French class except the new language included all-in-ones, fitteds, prefolds, wraps, covers, snappies, soakers, flushable liners, and the ever-daunting pocket diaper. I also discovered the substantial upfront financial investment involved in buying cloth diapers. I left that 2 hour session with handouts that I never once looked at again and a sudden desire to commit to EC-ing (that is, elimination communication, aka: diaper free or natural infant hygiene) - a whole other blog topic for another day.

Fortunately for me, I soon received two large collections of lightly used cloth diapers including many brands and styles and over the past nearly 20 months of diaper mayhem I have my formed opinions and recommendations.

Today's cloth diapers can be broken down into three main categories:

• All-in-one diapers (that is, diapers that have an absorbent insert sewn together with a non-removable cover) are a nice idea and the most like a disposable but not worth the money. Pocket diapers are a type of AIO. These are the most expensive diapers and you need a lot of them; every time you wash the diaper the whole thing goes in the wash as the insert and cover are "all in one". The waterproof-ness does not last as long as separate covers as they get washed a whole lot more often.
• Fitted diapers are my preferred option. With this system you need two parts: cloth diapers and 1/3 as many removable covers. I've got something like 18 diapers to 4-6 covers per child; I wash diapers every 3 days and always have a clean cover to use. With this method you put the soiled cloth part in the diaper pail and assess the cover at each change, only washing the cover if it's dirty. Not only do the covers last longer being washed less, but you don't need to buy one for every corresponding cloth component.
• Prefolds are closer to the old-fashioned diapers that my generation were diapered in. They are rectangles made up of layers of fabric with more layers in the middle for absorbancy. They can be folded into a cover or held on with diaper pins or the modern-day, no-prick version of pins called a Snappi. While these are the most affordable option I haven't found them to be as leak-proof as a fitted diaper and they're more confusing for alternate care givers, though they're easy enough once you're in the swing of things.

Bummis super whisper wraps in celery dot

Within each of these varieties there are a multitude of brands offering numerous styles; there is no need to own one of every type. I find it better to have one or maybe two options. My personal favoritecombination is Mother-ease one size diapers (bamboo, cotton, organic, whatever) in Bummis super whisper wraps. Having a limited selection is less confusing for anyone else who might change a diaper in your house and makes it easier to always have all the components you need at hand and not stuck downstairs in the dryer. If you're hesitant, you should try out cloth diapers by using a diaper service before making the investment.

As a side note, I must also confess to appreciating the convenience of disposables and understand why so many parents who might not love them end up using them. I myself use disposables overnight (1 per child per night is a small price to pay for the convenience of not having to wake up a baby to change him), as well as when traveling or when I feel the need to fit my kids' big cloth diapered butts into cute little outfits for special occasions. You do, as a cloth diapering mama, need to find which brands of baby clothes are sized to accommodate whichever style of diaper you choose.

"Indestructibles True to Name" Skeptic Claims

As I've said before, I'm fan of books. So much so that my appreciation is hindering my desire to share books with my son. I have a collection worth sharing but I want him to be able to enjoy these books for years to come, even share them with his kids one day perhaps. The problem you see, is that he's a baby and babies and paper are like squirrels and walnuts, crows and alleyway garbage, pigs and mud: the first can't resist the latter and it's always messy.

I have all these wonderful kids' books that I long to share with my kid, but there are only so many times in a day that I can read lying on my back, baby by my side, with a cumbersome 12"x12" Richard Scarry extended overhead, out of reach but still in eyesight for little Oakley.

Someone years ago made the fabric book, next came the board book, followed by the plastic bathtub book - all good concepts and money-makers, but all failing in the same category: they're not paper. They don't sound or feel like paper and they certainly do not resemble credit card bills, magazines, library books, and all other irresistible, off-limits baby fare.

Finally someone has figured this out and applied it to kid's books. Kaaren Paxton (no, not a typo her first name is spelled that way) and Workman Publishing to be precise. Together they are putting out aptly named Indestructibles, 8"x8", 10 page, tyvek books that can be munched, crunched, scrunched, sucked, hucked, chucked, folded, molded, rolled, chewed, stewed, but cannot be food! Better yet, they sound like paper to wee baby ears. After sacrificing a few of my childhood faves to my son's quick, grabby hands (even while under close supervision) and a couple library books (board and otherwise), I am investing in an armload of Indestructibles for every baby-toting parent I know this Christmas.

Fear not dear book lovers, I can still be found with an oversized Richard Scarry book shading me and my son at least once a day.

*Note: This post was written but not posted last fall. I did indeed give Indestructibles to a number of the tots in my life for Christmas. Oakley has since moved on to real paper books and only occasionally tears a page. His little brother, Bennett, is too little to enjoy books as he's still working on focusing on the faces of his family, but I already know what to stuff into his little stocking this holiday season!