I treasure my strong reading relationships with my three older grandkids. They all love books and are always happy to be read to for extensive periods of time. Then there’s Bhoomi, age one, a sweet and adorable kid who’s perfect in all ways but one: she shows much less interest in books, beyond throwing them on the floor. Lord knows we’ve tried, and continue to try, with every conceivable kind of interactive book board, but it’s just not happening in a big way right now.
Two recent exceptions are: Never Touch the Dinosaurs by Rosie Greening and Betsy Peterschmidt, a favorite of her brother, Ira, when he was her age, and Ten Little Lambs by Roger Priddy. Her cousin Harry, now two, was like Bhoomi when he was her age and is now quite an avid “reader.” So I’m not worried about her. I know she’ll come around.
Olympia, now five, burned through the first 32 books in the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, originally introduced to her by her teachers at daycare. She devoured them, three chapters at a time, read by parents and teachers, until the last one was done. On a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts here in Boston, she was really interested in the Art of the Americas’ decorative arts section, exhibiting a lot of colonial furniture, etc., based on knowledge gained from reading the books. What fun! Curiously, after finishing the Magic Tree House books, she seems happy to return to picture books. I applaud this because kids get so much “bang for their buck” with picture books: language and art! A current favorite is The Most Perfect Persimmon by Hannah Chung.
A recent big event in Olympia’s life was visiting the Cambridge Public Library on her fifth birthday, being ceremoniously awarded her own library card, and checking out a few books with it. I’m not sure the library’s progressive message about the total privacy of her card resonates with her (yet) but I sure appreciate it.
And her reading skills continue to grow. The first stage of Scholastic’s Bob Books are fun and nicely illustrated, perfect substitutes for the dreary and stereotypical Dick and Jane books of my youth. They do a great job with beginning readers.
When we talk about books, I sincerely hope that sticker books count. Olympia is absolutely obsessed with them, especially when they feature you-know-who (Taylor Swift). She’s certainly not alone, since I’ve seen a surprising number of bookstores stocking them in big numbers in their dedicated Taylor Swift section. Happily there are plenty of book books there, too.
Kindergarten awaits Olympia in the fall, and I can’t wait to get started on the seemingly endless number of books on that important subject.
Ira, now four, is probably the most enthusiastic reader in the bunch. He is voracious, in the best sense of the word, and truly omnivorous. He will read anything and begs to be read to all the darn time—mealtime, playtime, bedtime, etc. He’s so enamored of reading that one of his parents (we won’t say which one) describes it as “a burden.”
Ira loves all books, but I’ll single out two that we’ve enjoyed together recently. The first, which I chose for its sly humor and inventive backstory of good old Old McDonald, is The Man Who Didn’t Like Animals by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. The other, which is enjoyed by all my grandkids, is The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mikey Please, because it’s clever and surprising and mentions actual farts. Ira also likes the Martha books by Susan Meddaugh and Hop Helps Out, a book associated with the new TV series Hop, by Marc Brown (in addition, of course, to anything related to Arthur). Richard Scarry’s Please and Thank You Book was given to Ira in an effort to promote good manners, but. Somewhat counterintuitively, he likes reading it! Given the chance, Ira loves to extend his reading day in bed after lights out.
Harry is an enthusiastic and patient reader with definite preferences that haven’t changed much over time. An abiding favorite, natch, is his namesake book Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham. He adores books about trucks, and specifically, if not exclusively, garbage trucks. After several visits to our local fire station (firefighters are always so nice to kids), we made a thrilling visit to the “home base” of our town’s garbage trucks, also staffed with kind and patient grownups. Books with vehicular sounds are most welcome, too. Cranky and Cranky Makes a Friend by Phuc Tran and Pete Oswald, despite a starring role by a cranky crane rather than a garbage truck, are big favorites. Now that Harry’s more interested in picture books, it’s fun to read to him and Olympia together, and they both find things to enjoy. Books in this category are backlist favorite Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis and Umami by Jacob Grant.
Please watch this space for more about the joys and rewards of sharing books with four little readers. Til then, happy reading!
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Betsy Groban, a former children’s book publisher, is a correspondent for the Boston Globe and the book review editor of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Her first book for kids, Pizza for Pia, was published in 2024 and her Little Golden Book Biography of Henry Winkler will be released in September.
