Library Loot

We got to the library at least once every 2 weeks. I would love to go once a week, but honestly, I think my girls need more time with the books they've picked out. The library is such an awesome resource. Books. FOR FREE. As many as you'd like! And the library provides so many teaching opportunities. For example, every time we go to the library, I asked Thing 1 what kind of books she'd like to get and what she'd like to learn about. This week, she wanted to learn about space. So when we got the library, we couldn't find any space books and I showed her how to ask the librarian. The librarian gave her some numbers to look for and Thing 1 learned a little bit about the Dewey Decimal System. When she matched the numbers on her paper to the numbers on the spine of a book, her eyes lit up! I'm not sure what kind of library experience (if any) will be waiting for us in Japan, so I'm trying to enjoy our library as much as possible while it's just down the street.

I wanted to share with you some books from our library loot this week (any maybe I'll do it again in the future). The girls rarely pick out many books for themselves because they're busy playing with puzzles, computers, and board books. BUT, I found some fantastic books this week that I wanted to share with other parents out there like me.

"My Princess Boy" by Cheryl Kilodavis

When I read the title of this book to Thing 1, she looked up at me, confused, and said, "A princess boy??" but as we read the book, she was quick to point out that many of the things the princess boy does are things that she also likes to do. This is actually a story about a real-life little boy that has always loved to dress up. It's a great opportunity to talk to kids about gender stereotypes and acceptance of people based on WHO THEY ARE, and not things as trivial as clothes they wear. No one makes mention of all the little girls running around in jeans, but heaven forbid a little boy should want to wear a dress. It's not a long book and it's a very easy, quick read. But it's got a very important message that even the youngest of kids can understand.

"The Great Big Book of Families" by Mary Hoffman

This is probably my favorite book that we've gotten from the library. This book not only talks about the different ways a family is made, but also how families make different decisions and live different lives. And it does so while driving home the important message that all of those families are valued, important, and good. There are pictures of families with grandparents, two dads, two moms, one parent, adopted parents, lots of siblings or no siblings at all. This book shows where families might live, where they might go to school, what jobs they might have (while also saying that "some can't get a job at all"), what holidays they might celebrate, how and what they eat, what they might wear, what activities they might enjoy - ALL with fantastic illustrations. My oldest daughter loves to just sit and look through all the pictures in the book. It is a fantastic tool for parents to use if they want to introduce their children to all the diversity that the world has to offer.

"What If Your Best Friend Were Blue?" by Vera Kochan

Can you see a theme in our books this week?? This is another quick, easy, read that teaches kids about diversity. It introduces the concept of skin color (though not in an obvious way) and the fact that color has no affect on the kind of person you are. Both of my girls like to look at this book and read it to themselves. It's incredibly important to introduce your children to issues of race early on, rather than to ignore it. Children notice differences and it's our job to teach them that differences in appearance do not correlate with differences in character.

As you can see, we scored some great reads this week! I hope I luck out at our next visit too!