Weighty Tomes Dad Selects

Inspired by a posting from last week, I thought I should give some perspective on the books the kids read with their dad (me). For the most part, I like word books. I also like educational materials, inspirational materials, fun, adventure, science, math, economics, books where I can do voices ... and so I expect the kids to enjoy it with me.

As some of you may recall, Bentley's first book with me was Stephen Hawking's A Briefer History of Time. We followed that up with selections from the Book of Maps, a collection of historically significant maps which I received for Christmas. Bentley seemed to enjoy reading time, so I stuck with what worked. It helped that he was less than two months old and a very captive audience. To date, he and I have read a very large selection of books from his shelves, some from mine, and a few more we picked up along the way. Most recently, we've been adventuring through canyons as we read about the tales of Hank the Cowdog.

On the repeat list (for a third time through) is Ralph S. Mouse and the Motorcycle (by Beverly Cleary). Unlikely to make it on the repeat list: the Baudelaire orphans in the Series of Unfortunate Events books... we made it through #3, but it just didn't hold anyone's attention. The Spiderwick Chronicles helped us get through the early days with the twins, though Bentley had to continually shake me awake and say "Read Daddy!" It wasn't uncommon for him to give up on me, grab his blanket, and go to his mom. I think we may have to revisit that series with the twins soon.

We enjoyed Stephen Hawking's children book George's Secret Key to the Universe, and we recently started reading my illustrated Atlas of the Universe book together after we finished a book of satellite photography for the world called The Complete Earth. Bentley's mostly interested in pictures of "robots" (satellites, landers, and rockets), but I think he enjoys it all - he sure has a lot of questions about everything we look at.

We read parts of Tales of Beedle the Bard just after Christmas, but there were parts a little too scary in there for him, so we skipped sections of it. We've been working our way through Eragon for a LONG time. The dragon just doesn't stick around long enough to keep up the interest level. Come to think of it, it's probably been an in-progress book since October of last year. It's almost like a memory test to see how far back a toddler can remember going that long.

The library has supplied us with several fun books, most recently being some Shel Silverstein stories about Runny Babbitt. There was also a book about some city in a sky which was well received by all three, as was a book about the Alaska Railroad. (Noting a trend here - all three of these books were illustrated and intended for children).

Now that it's summer time, we probably won't make it through too many [long] books. Of course, since no one's going to bed like they're supposed to, maybe I'll just start reading some fun biographies and math texts I bought last week to help calm them down... I wonder if they'd like to learn about Archimedes next week?