Friday, April 30, 2010

The Bookfair Bounty

My baby girl loves to read.  Yes, I said it.  She stumbles on a word here and there, but in general, she is an expert at sounding it out and knows what the unfamiliar word means as soon as she gets the correct pronunciation.  Her teacher complimented her extensive vocabulary and strong articulation, and now we can add her reading ability into the mix.

I cannot be any happier to see her thoroughly engrossed in the plot of a book while riding in the darkened car, her flashlight hovering over the pages as she utters each word.  Dedication?  Absolutely.

What I find totally fascinating is that she knows how to pick good reads.  During our Spring Break Stay-cation, she brought a book on animal disguises to the "fish museum" (National Aquarium) in DC and was thrilled to add information about the fish she saw in the exhibits.

And today she went to her school's book fair armed with $30.  I expected change.  I didn't get any.

Instead, she came home with two of her four book purchases.  Tonight's read was totally fitting with her role as big sister: Julius: The Baby of the World
Julius, the Baby of the World
It's a charming story of a little mouse who has to get used to sharing her parents with a newborn baby brother.  It includes spectacular words like nifty, dreadful, exuberance, uncooperative, and capacity. My favorite line comes from poor Lily's story time (a chore her mother insisted on).
She says:
Julius the germ of the world. By Me.  Once upon a time there was a baby. His name was Julius.  Julius was really a germ.  Julius was like dust under your bed.  If he was a number, he would be zero.  If he was a food, he would be a raisin.  Zero is nothing.  A raisin tastes like dirt.  The end.
Perfect story.  I couldn't help asking Chi if she felt the same way about her brother sometimes.  She, of course, said no.  In fact, she rather likes Ya.  She likes her sisters in California, too.  Amazing... because I'm told that I was not so welcoming of my own baby brother for much of his first few years in my home.

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