Reading with Josh

After an emphatic non-literary period, my son has returned to books. This is the greatest thing.

I don't really know what Josh is absorbing, but I know he is happy to sit on my lap and half-listen to the stories of Rosemary Wells. I love these stories, so the pleasure is unfeigned, and this is one of the easiest half-hour segments in any particular day (for now).

Rosemary Wells is.a role model for Judy Blume--and how could you ask for a fancier pedigree? Wells pays close attention to how people actually behave, and you can see this work in the subtlety of her stories. For example, two little bullies want to tease a small kid for wearing water wings to a pool party. The bullies don't understand that they're bullies--and they persuade themselves that squeezing the little boy tightly, brutally, is just a way of "giving a hug." In another story, a rabbit buys oozing wax fangs "for Grandma," but then he shoves the fangs in his own mouth and makes them ooze, just in an effort to "test things out." Adults delude themselves in similar ways, all day, every day. Are kids so different from adults?

It's possible that Josh just likes the hug he gets in storytime, and the squeaky voice I use when I become a child-raccoon. That's fine, for now. I'll take it.

We have our eyes on "Max's Chocolate Chicken," as well as "Max's Dragon Shirt." I think that "Edward Almost Ready" might also need to be among our acquisitions, very soon.

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