"Ba Book"
“Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?” By Dr. Seuss
We got this book as a hand me down from my cousin in a wonderfully extravagant care package from my family. It is such an easy, fun book to read, and Doris now calls it “Moo Moo Moo!” It remains one of my favorites. Last winter, I found a used copy at a bookstore for $1.50 and grabbed it; I gave it to my colleague when his son was born.
“first 100 words” By Priddy Baby
We got a copy from my cousin in that same care package as well as a copy from a friend sent as part of another incredibly kind “welcome baby” gift. My friend included a note about how her kids really liked books with photos of everyday items, something that wasn’t on my radar at all when I was imagining building a library, but that has been so true for Doris. “first 100 words” was a top book last winter and early spring; there was a period where Doris wouldn’t let you read more than few words per page because she flipped the pages to get to the animals’ pages to point at the “bark.” I accidentally left it in Indiana, and Ashlee and I were relieved to have a break from it. But then Ashlee found a copy in a free library and couldn’t bring herself to not grab it. So we have been reunited, but it’s now dropped from the top of the charts.
“Play with Me” By Kat Chen (words) and Lorraine Nam (art)
We got “Play with Me” through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (RIP Dolly Parton!) The idea is that it’s a “play date in a book.” The text includes lines like, “What’s your name?” I do have some critiques for the editor - if there are three cookies and two of them have already been claimed and then you ask, “Which cookie do you want?” isn’t that kind of moot? But, it’s a sweet book. It was a favorite this spring and early summer, and since it is smaller and paperback, it came on a lot of our travels.
“Festive Fall” By chosen spot publishing
At each of Doris’s well child pediatrician appointments she receives a book from her doctor. I love this, even though most of the books she receives never earn a spot in our library. “Festive Fall” is the exception. Each spread has three fall-ish words (e.g. “sweater,” “scarf,” “vest”) with appropriately matched photographs. Last winter, Doris was still having a bottle in the morning. On weekend mornings, I would hold her on the couch while she drank it, and Ashlee would join us after she started the coffee. When Doris was finished, she would walk across the room to the bookshelf, pick a book or two, and return to us. It sometimes felt like Ashlee and I were calling a sports event – what was she going to do? Would she pick “Festive Fall” once again? After one of us read the book, she would hand it to the other and insist that it be read to her again. Ashlee and I were at her mercy, handing over our coffees at the last possible moment to avoid a spill. Late spring, I finally, and rather reluctantly, ended the morning bottle and now we transition almost immediately to breakfast at the table when we wake up.
“My Car” by Byron Barton
I would be remiss to talk about books and Doris without appreciating the at least thirty books that we have had on loan from my friend Sarah and her family. “My Car” is just one of them and is one of a handful where I’ve now purchased our own copy for when we manage to return the originals. “My Car” has a real surprise ending that never gets old although it has nothing to do with Doris’s favorite part of the book -- the image of an airplane amidst a diverse array of vehicles on the last page. “My Car” is copyrighted in the early 2000s like many books in Sarah’s collection which means that there is an image of a gas pump that reads 10.35 next to the words “full tank of gasoline,” which took me a long time to make sense of. Maybe an EV or hybrid version of this book is in the works.
“Press Here” By Herve Tullet
I got this book at my baby shower, but I don’t remember from whom. It’s again the kind of book that was outside of my original vision of what reading to Doris would be like, but it’s a genius book. It is interactive - there are instructions to tap, press, and clap but no flaps that can be torn off or batteries that need replacing. Doris especially loves the part where the instructions are to clap first once then twice then even more and the circles on the pages get bigger and bigger. This book epitomizes the period where Doris most aggressively would hand you a book, turn around, and then seemingly blindly reverse before landing in the closest lap.
“Little Owl Lost” By Chris Haughton
I received this book from a colleague at my work baby shower. It is one of Doris’s current favorites. She likes the first page where the baby owl falls out of the nest (it survives!) In the following pages other forest animals try and help little owl find its “mommy.” Doris has no patience for these highs and lows; she flips through the pages unceremoniously until little owl is reunited with their “mommy.” I love that Doris calls me “mah-ME.” I waited for it for a while! “Mommy” was not her first word, in fact she said “Ashlee” earlier.
“Dog” By Matthew Van Fleet
Doris’s favorite part is opening the flap at the end to reveal the surprise cat! We have “Dog” and “Dance” and also had “Heads” and “Tails” and “Chomp Goes the Alligator” until they were casualties of a purge of half destroyed books. “Heads” remains my favorite of Matthew Van Fleet that we’ve read. Ashlee got it for us last fall when we were just friends after a Saturday at the library when Doris was not that interested in any of the books there, and I was distressed by this.
“Ada, Go, Go, Go!” By Daishu Ma
This book – and a companion – “Ada’s Rainy Day” were originally library books checked out during a much more successful outing on a dreary morning last spring. Doris took to it immediately and would say the – repeated multiple times during the book -- “go, go, go” as it was read to her. Ashlee and I pronounce “Ada” differently which continues to surprise me – mainly that Ashlee hasn’t resigned to my pronunciation. In “Ada’s Rainy Day,” Ada convinces her gang of animal friends to play in the puddles, but eventually they are back inside snuggled up in bed together. It’s the kind of scene I’ve longed for many times in my life – especially when I was young. I’ve already gifted copies of these books to other families.
These days Doris carries books into my bedroom after I’ve put on her pajamas and stacks them on the bedside table. She walks around the bed, hopes some sort of hidden out-of-sight box is there for a step up and if so, climbs on the bed to meet me. If Ashlee is with us, she demands we are both there with her. Then she gestures for and says “ba book.” I read from the stack one by one, and often at the end of a book she says “gen?” (again)! I’m sure this routine won’t last too long - some new variant will emerge, and new books – maybe longer ones, ones with more words - will join the repertoire - but I’m trying to remember right now and a few of the iterations of reading with Doris that came before.
I can’t imagine anyone better suited to join me in instilling a love of books, a sense of them as comforting and home, than Ashlee.
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