Little Lottie Loves ... Little Elliot in the Big City

This blog was supposed to help me keep something of a log but life has gotten in the way lately. And by life, I mean work. Long and late hours meant I barely had enough energy to feed, bathe, and read to my kids, let alone write about it. I needed motivation. I needed a reason to keep going. Then this morning, when my daughter was begging to watch more videos of herself as a baby, I had an epiphany! Since this blog is about reading to our kids, our kids should have a special segment about the books they ask us to read over and over and over...and over again. And since they love to watch videos of themselves, what better segment than one where they're the star!




According to Little Lottie, this is a must buy!

Seriously though, I don't think there's a cuter elephant in kidlit right now. Like little kids, Elliot faces some challenges that come with being smaller than everyone else. But then he makes an unlikely friend who helps him in a way you wouldn't expect.

Little girls can be superheros too!

I received this advanced reader copy of Super Red Riding Hood by Claudia Davila from NetGalley. I just came off a binge reading day of Wonder Woman so I was all about superheros. This looked like an adorable, rated G superhero book for my daughter so we read it right away. And it is adorable! I love the illustrations. It's a different spin on the original story with a happy, not scary, message. It's about a little girl who stands up for herself, fights back, and helps those in need. Just like a real superhero! This book came at an opportune time. My daughter has suddenly had trouble sleeping, telling me "I scared!" She hides when she sees those little jumping spiders on our windows. And she won't watch Frozen because she says it's scary. She's probably the only girl in this country who feels this way. I'm hoping I can find other books like this one to help her see she can conquer her fears. Or maybe a book about a princess who is also a superhero... like Wonder Woman!

There was a little Princess

I have an aversion to princesses. Don't get me wrong. I love the Disney princess movies. When I saw the castle at Disneyland all lit up, I was a 6 year old girl again, hands clasped and teary eyed. (I was 29.) But Koreans have a saying "공주병" which translates to "Princess Disease". That's what we said about the girls who had whiney, high pitched voices, always dressed like they were going clubbing, and expected guys to pay for everything. Not attractive qualities. So when my husband said that our daughter was his "little princess", I cringed.

After further discussion, I realized this was not the type of princess my husband had in mind. (I shouldn't have been surprised. He did marry a woman who wears combat boots, owns more books than purses and shoes combined, and couldn't care less about what the Kardasians are doing.) Turns out we both thought a girl should have scraped knees, paint under her nails and grass in her hair. What was surprising was that it wasn't that hard to find books about this kind of princess!

 

 

I vaguely remembered seeing these on display at some bookstore and fortunately, my local library had them on the shelf. When I read these to my daughter, she kept shouting, "Just like me, mama!" She has a soccer ball, she has boots, she sometimes has band-aids on her knees. And she even has a little brother! I was happy to see a positive relationship there too, instead of the usual annoying little brother. I love that these books have a positive message and that my daughter immediately identified with them.

When I looked up the author's website and read the description for the book, I starting putting her other books on hold. This is the description for "Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?"

At the heart of Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots? lives an energetic and contemporary child who has lots of important questions for her mom. Do princesses ride tricycles, climb trees, or have to eat the crusts of their bread? The mother's voice is timelessly reassuring as she advises her daughter that being like a princess has to do with what we are on the inside. This book offers a gentle lesson about self-acceptance, and will inspire children to leave their own mark on the world. Yes, yes, yes! The answer is yes.

These books might have to become permanent additions to our home library. We'll get this one too, to make sure our son doesn't feel left out:

Do Super Heroes Have Teddy Bears?

In the Beginning

Like most children, my 2 year old hates sleep. She was born with her eyes wide open, taking everything in. Many people, friends, family, and complete strangers, all commented on how alert she was for a newborn. While that sounds nice, my husband and I were exhausted. She fought every nap and bedtime. Some days, it was hours of rocking, singing, walking up and down the stairs, and once, when we were desperate, a quick drive around with her in my arms.

While it has gotten better, some days are still a battle. Before bed, she'll do what she can to stall and always wants "two more books". She wouldn't go down for a nap yesterday and I asked her why she wasn't sleeping. She told me "The sun is out. My eyes are open." And once we got downstairs, she said, "Read to me, mama." How can I say no to that?? I love that she loves to read! It could very well be that my very observant toddler senses this weakness and exploits it, but I don't really care. She doesn't ask to be read to just to prolong the inevitable but she wants to be read to while she eats, first thing in the morning, sometimes during diaper changes. I wants this love of books to grow so I will nurture it, I will spoil it rotten. And now that she has a little brother, I have two hungry minds to feed! So two more books it is. Lucky for them, I love reading even more than they do.