Life on the Road

Being a confirmed family of bookworms, I jumped at the chance when a networking friend, Heather Martin, offered to introduce us to Usborne Books at Home.

I admit that I cringed when I noticed the book she’d picked for Jewel: The New Baby.  That’s a topic that’s just full of people’s most strongly-held and cherished beliefs — no books are read in our home that feature (and thus normalize) bottle-feeding infants, day care, etc.

So I read the book through for myself… And was delighted to find a sweet illustration of Mrs. Bunn nursing her new baby, and text explaining that she would need to be fed often.  Hooray!  My only complaint, and a minor one, is that on that same page the 5 year-old sister sits watching the breastfeeding couple - while feeding her baby doll with a bottle!  Of course reality (and the reason we don’t have bottlefeeding books in the house) is that the daughter will imitate what she sees.  At 2, Jewel already nurses her dolls (right through her shirt! ).

The book was very nice, and Jewel has asked for it repeatedly since we got it.  The illustrations are very warm, and the text is simple but informative.  They also have a neat design for what they call “dual level readers”.  There is a simple sentence across the top of the page in large type, for younger audiences to read/listen to.  Then there are a few sentences of more detailed text below, and somewhat smaller, that you can add as attention spans warrant.  Very clever…

And at $4.99, the price is a welcome relief from the sticker shock that so frequently seems to accompany shopping for kids books…

Nick was engrossed by True Stories of Pirates, from their collection for older kids.  It was a quick read, at just under 150 pages, but again the $4.99 price tag speaks volumes.

Sheesh, I wonder if I should join to get the discount??  LOL  I wonder how many times I’ll say that while writing reviews…