The Longest Shortest Time

We Can’t Stop: Sneaky Edition

Sasha loves going to the library. Just not for the books.

The library, in her eyes, is made for its tasty lunches (especially pickles!) and its plethora of computer buttons. She’ll sit in the kids’ library going down the line from chair to chair, pushing buttons on every single keyboard. Then she’ll start all over again at the beginning of the row. If I want to take out books I need to run and sneak them while she’s pushing buttons or go there by myself.

Once I get books home it’s hard to get Sasha interested in them. As I’ve mentioned before, she’s a kid who very much gravitates to the familiar. But sometimes I can get her interested in a new book if I sit off on my own and start looking at it or read it aloud “to myself.” Then she’ll say, “I want that book.” Often these books become books we can’t stop reading (see The Snail and the Whale, a recommendation from an LST reader!).

I took out this Leo Lionni classic a month ago. And it has taken that long for Sasha to allow me to read it to her. Swimmy was one of my favorites as a kid and was one that my mom used to repeatedly borrow from the library. Which is maybe why I bolted for it when I had to grab something quickly during an intense button-pushing session. Now Sasha will have no other book read to her first for nap or bed. I think she likes it because the tiny black fish shows up on every spread and he is just the right size for her little finger to point at. (Same reason she was drawn to Snow, another library book.)

A close number 2 this week has been Suzy Lee’s Wave. This wordless beauty has been on our list before but Sasha’s enjoyment of the book has grown exponentially since she has stared telling me the story. All I do when going through this one is ask, “Now what?” And then she does all the talking. I learn about what the little girl is doing in relation to the ebbing and flowing waves and what she is feeling on each page (sad because she is wet, happy because she found shells . . .). Sasha recently got to play on a beach in Cape Cod and she was pleased to see that the girl in Wave finds snails in the sand, just like we did.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault has found its way back into our rotation as well. We’ve now added spirited smacks on the pages for the big BOOM-BOOMs and pants-dusting when the capital letters come to the rescue.

Dahlov Ipcar’s Farmyard Alphabet has stayed steadily in the mix for weeks now. We’ve read it so much that although there is no rhyming in the book, Sasha can finish every single line when I leave off the last word.

Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back isn’t so much a book we can’t stop reading but it’s one that I’ve been testing out because it was a (non?) recommendation by LST reader/listener/interviewee, Kate. People seem to either love or hate this book. I find myself sometimes loving and sometimes hating it. I think the grownup in me loves it but when I think about the message it sends to kids I hate it. Anyway, Kate had suggested checking out the book because of Sasha’s interest in hunting for objects and characters that appear to be lost. The rabbit at the end of Hat definitely gets lost (spoiler alert: EATEN) after the enraged bear realizes it was rabbit who stole his beloved red pointy hat. I was curious to see where Sasha would think the rabbit went. When I ask her, she seems puzzled and says, “I don’t see the rabbit.” Then she flips the pages backward until she finds the rabbit again. “There he is,” she tells me. Flip, flip, back a few more . . . “and there he is.” Oh, how easily a lying thief can be brought back to life.

Now tell me: What can’t you stop reading this week?