Children's Books

I like to read and reading to my kids is hardly a chore. However, all children's books are not created equal. And where some books are just a joy to read, I'm convinced other books are written to torture parents. Why? Because some books are tedious, yet kids love them and ask for those books over and over again..

In our house, the favored method of inflicting parental pain is the benign Froggy Series. You know the titles: Froggy Gets Dressed, Froggy Goes to Bed, Froggy Plays Soccer, etc. My girls love them, while I loathe them. I find the stories insipid, repititious and BOOORRRRRRINNNNGG.

I'm proud to say, I don't own a single Froggy book, but the kids always want to check out Froggy books from the library. The last time we were there, the girls picked "Froggy Gets Dressed" and "Froggy Goes to Sleep". Alas, I "forgot" those titles on the table. Maybe I should say I almost forgot them, because the eagle eyed, froggy loving La Nina spotted the abandoned books and ran back saving me from a truly terrible error. Damn. So, Froggy is currently in the house and I'm reading both books daily. Heaven help me.

So, tonight, I hid one of the books. I was sitting in Maggie's room and the book was sitting on top of her book pile. I could just hear myself saying, "flop, flop, flop.." Ugh! I couldn't resist the urge to slide the instrument of my agony under the futon...so I did. Maggie bopped into the room after brushing her teeth and immediately started looking for the book.

Some parents would feel guilty, I didn't. "Where is it?" she asked. I shrugged my shoulders and distracted her with her second favorite book, "Walter, the Boufa Dog" (aka Walter the Farting Dog, but I don't use the word farting around the kids, so that book requires me to be on my toes while reading...I like it.) All was settled, we had just cracked the cover when her father appeared, like some sort of rescuing Prince on a white stallion, holding the second Froggy book.

He smiled at me and asked, "Maggie, are you looking for a Froggy book? Here's one. Mommy loves to read them." He handed Maggie the book, giggled and went to La Nina's room where he proceeded to loudly read one of my favorite children's books, "Puddle Pails." It's everything Froggy isn't. Anything by Elisa Kleven is lyrical, beautfully written and a joy to read.

So, I read Froggy for the 85th time tonight, while listening to my husband making his way through one of my favorite books. He had Klever, I had Froggy...and by the time it was my turn to read to La Nina, she wanted some Dora book I've read 100 times. But rest assured, later tonight, I'll have the bed, and Dad is sleeping with the Pete, our boufa dog. Because the bedroom door will be locked, zoop!