A Song For You

My son came home yesterday crawled in my lap and sang to me:

"I love you forever, I like you for always, as long as I'm living my Mommy you will be."

I got a lump in my throat and tears filled my eyes as I showered him with hugs & kisses because I thought he was such a brilliant, sensitive child who had composed a special song just for his mother. He explained (as he gasped for air) that his teacher read a book in class and the song was from the story. But he said it could still be my special song and he would sing it to me whenever I wanted him to. God broke the mold with that one. . . ;-)

In case you're interested (or maybe I'm the only clueless one here) the song is from a book by Robert Munsch called "Love You Forever". The crazy thing is that I've seen the book cover before and I thought it was about POTTY TRAINING! Ha ha! A literal example of not judging a book by it's cover!

Book Spotlight: Ruby and The Booker Boys

Eight year old Ruby Marigold Booker uses her style, charisma, talent, and all out girl power to make it in a household full of boys. But these aren’t just any boys; her brothers (Tyner, Ro, and Marcellus) are Hope Road Academy’s and Chill Brook Avenue’s famous Booker Boys. She’ll do whatever it takes to get out of their shadows and make a name for her self.This colorful and rhythmic new series in children’s lit is all about the love and support of family and community. Ruby finds the strength and confidence to overcome any obstacle and accomplish everything she sets her mind to.New Ruby books are scheduled to be released every three months!
(Excerpt from derrickbarnes.com)

These books are from the creative mind of Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton. This series is sure to follow in the footsteps of the Willimena series by Valerie Wilson Wesley. There aren't many books marketed to young black children especially with illustrations that look like them. Be sure to support this series and Mr. Barnes.

Pay it Forward

I've talked about my passion for reading and how my son is following in my footsteps not to mention how we both get giddy about trips to the library. Well, in addition to checking out books from the library I also buy a lot of books. So you can imagine that our bookshelves are little over run from time to time.

We have some books that are like old friends, they contain a favorite passage or they were a special gift or perhaps they were signed by the author- those books we will cherish and keep forever. Other books that we enjoyed but have no interest in reading again are finding new life at the local library.

We donate our used books to the library and even if the library has those titles already they have programs that give the books to needy children or children in hospitals or they will sell them for a $1 at their annual book sale to raise money for library programs.

So, I encourage you to gather up all those books you don't read and have forgotten about and take them to the library! I think it teaches children a good lesson too when they feel they are doing a good deed for someone who may be less fortunate or like my son says, "a little kid who is learning to read will like these books,"

Whatever the case it's a great thing to do and your local library will be extremely grateful.