Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

I've talked a little bit about kid lit but I don't think I've mentioned anything about children's books. A few weekends ago I attended a baby shower for my sister-in-law. The invitation suggested that everyone bring their favorite children's book to create a library for "Michelson Junior." You don't even know how excited I was about this!! Books have always been an important part of my life and I have so many favorites from when I was a little tyke.

For First and Second grade I had an awesome teacher that made reading fun. Mr. Ham discovered almost all of my favorite children's books. I think that having a good foundation of book enjoyment has made me an avid reader throughout my entire life. One amazing teacher can make all the difference in the world to a child.

Perusing the picture book section at Barnes and Noble was almost as overwhelming as trying to pick books out for myself! Finally I decided on these three....

Sadly some other lady had a tree theme for her gift (and had inscribed on the inside cover) so I returned "The Giving Tree" for another classic Shel Silverstein, "Where the Sidewalk Ends." The next book I want to get for Baby is by Rudyard Kipling called "The Just So Stories." I was pretty appalled that no one I asked had heard of this collection of stories! Kipling is famous for writing "The Jungle Book," but these stories are so awesome I think every child should be read them.

(Click to see one of the most famous of the stories "The Elephant's Child.")

Update Book 48: Dead in the Family by Charlain Harris

This is the tenth book in the 'Sookie Stackhouse' Series. Last summer I devoured the first 9 books in about two and a half weeks. They were so good! I loved how silly and lighthearted the stories were. It also helped that I had seen the first two seasons of 'True Blood," the HBO series based on the books. So it was nice to picture the attractive characters while reading the rest of the story. They weren't masterpieces, but they were enjoyable easy reads that I recommend to everyone!

All that is true of the first nine books. The tenth book fell flat in my opinion. The story was boring and I felt that a lot of the edge had worn off. I hope that this is just a filler book and the eleventh installment will be much more entertaining. I still have hope for this series!