One of my favorite things to do is reading to children. Watching them gaze at the book, you see them engrossed in the book world – whether it’s discovering a squirrel using magic to make things vanish (The Ice Cream Vanishes by Julia Sarcone-Roach), watching sundry creatures gather under an umbrella (The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates and Juniper Bates}, following the adventures of the feistiest pig in children’s literature (Olivia by Ian Falconer), finding and naming the animals (I Spy in the Sky; I Spy in the Sea by Ed Gibbs) or squealing with delight for their all-time favorite (The Red Book by Barbara Lehmann), a wordless book particularly valuable for my preschool international group of listeners. When I have the full group, the children and their parents hail from China, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Egypt. While the parents have translated page-by-page as I read the books with words, the wordless ones are the best.
Some days, story time is just with Yan (pictured above). Sharing stories with this group is the highlight of my week.