Have you ever had one of those “DUH” moments?

I like books, Spotty likes books, and I am always on the lookout for new books for the boy. I recently got The Red Book by Barbara Lehman (Houghton Mifflin Company) for him and we love it. Funny enough it only took me 5 or 6 times of reading it to think to myself “hey it’s a Caldecott book, maybe I should look to see if there is a list of them. Then I found this site and after about 2 minutes I was hyperventilating. There are just so many books out there that are incredible. I also found 2 books that my parents used to read to me when I was young; Mei Li by Thomas Handforth the 1939 winner and Umbrella by Taro Yashima (Viking) a 1959 honors book. When I read the titles I knew immediately that these were stories that were once read to me and that I would HAVE to read to Spotty. I am so psyched that I found them, and I don’t really even care if they become Spotty’s favorites. I had favorites, and I remember them being read to me. Hopefully Spotty will have the same fantastic memories that I have of being read to.
I stayed up until 1:00 reading about the stories and the next day after work I HAD to go out and get a few (Nannie needed new books too). I also realized that we had several medal/honor books already.

Here is a partial list of the books I got
The Funny Little Woman, illustrated by Blair Lent; text: retold by Arlene Mosel (Dutton)
One Fine Day, retold and illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian (Macmillan)
Always Room for One More, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger] (Holt)
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)
Umbrella by Taro Yashima (Viking)
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young (Philomel Books)
Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book, illustrated by Tom Feelings; text: Muriel Feelings (Dial)
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (Viking)
Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young (Philomel Books)
Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky (Dutton)

Not all of them are appropriate for his age, or at least they are too long and don’t keep his interest, but that’s ok. A former client of Boy toy’s gave us an enormous collection of books that she loved reading to her son when he was small. This was one of the best gifts we ever received because the age range was from newborn to 8 – 10 years. I periodically pull out a “new” book to see if it keeps his attention, if it doesn’t it goes back in the bin to wait until he is ready. Several of these are Caldecott winners/honors as well.

I had been beating myself up on how many videos Spotty has, but when I really thought about it and realized that he has 2-3 books per video (I refuse to actually count them in case it is closer to 4-6) I don’t feel so bad.