Monday, November 13, 2006

Toy book

When I was little, I had my own toy phone, on which I made calls. This was probably a good thing, because it kept me off the real phone.

But when a little kid settles in to read stories from something that's not a real book...

Let's just say I have mixed feelings about it. Give the kid kudos for imagination. Give somebody kudos for teaching him enough about storybooks so that he knows enough to invent the game, and knows to pick something booklike for his toy book. But... if he's doing it because of a dearth of appropriate books in the house...

Hats off to the folks at The Common Room. You can't always tell what a neighbor needs unless you ask.

And, uhm, folks, most librarians I've met love helping little kids find lively and wonderful books to borrow. And besides, going to a library is an adventure for kids. Let's not forget that option, shall we? (I'm assuming the child is a normal child with some training in how to handle a book, and not a wildish one who likes nothing better than to shred paper, of course. If you've got a child in a wild phase, borrowing books might not be such a great idea. Toddlers are dangerous enough to property even in their sweet phases, yes?)

2 comments:

Headmistress, zookeeper said...

Yeah, it's a tough situation. He doesn't have any other books (besides the ones we brought him) because his mother basically fled a horrendous situation with her child and the clothes on their backs. Period.

She went to a shelter in a town far away from that relationship, and she doesn't know anybody here and doesn't want anybody from her old life to know she's here. She had a job, ironically at the library, and the shelter found her a place to rent in a town some distance away. She has no car, so she lost her job.
When she can get to a library with some assurance that she can get BACK to the library in time to avoid overdue fines, they check out books. When they can't, he reads the phone book.

She's been in survival mode for a while, too, and is doing well to keep putting one foot in front of the other for a while.

I liked your post and your points, btw.

Kathryn Judson said...

Headmistress, Oh, ouch. *hugs*