Babies & Books!

By Linda Lovely

My kind of baby shower! Kay Barrett's invitation suggested that attendees who wanted to bring gifts opt for children’s books. No worries about colors or sizes.

But I had one teeny problem with the invitation. It invited us to bring one of our favorite children’s books. Uh oh. Despite the fact that I have no recollection of it, I’m willing to bet Mom read to me. It troubles me sometimes that I have very few memories before about age eight. They say folks afflicted with dementia often can’t remember anything in the present but have great recall of childhood events. If I fall victim to Alzheimer’s, will my mind be totally blank?

When I confessed my lack of early memories to one person, she looked at me with pity.
“You must have had a traumatic childhood,” she said. “You’ve repressed those horrible memories.” Wrong. I’m convinced the opposite is true. My childhood was extremely pleasant and therefore somewhat boring.

Now from we’ll say age eight on, I do have memories. One of them being the bedtime stories Great Aunt Kate told us when Mom was out for the evening and it was her job to tuck my sister and me in. A former English teacher, Aunt Kate decided her memorization of Shakespeare shouldn’t be wasted. So she often recited Macbeth to send us off to dreamland. Actually Aunt Kate acted it out in her nightgown, shadows dancing on the bedroom wall, fake dagger and all. That may explain a lot.

In grade school, I also remember LOTS of books. As a latch key kid, I spent a lot of time at the library. My favorites usually included horses and distant lands. I remember the first time I saw a fjord pictured in a book. It was about the coolest thing a kid who lived in Iowa could imagine.

But, I digress. Back to the baby shower.  Before venturing to a local bookstore in search of a cool baby or children’s book, I chatted with several of the other folks who’d be attending.  In doing so, I think I discovered why I couldn’t recall any children’s books. As mothers, they’d all read books to their children. So their favorites were ones they’d loved sharing with their kids. Since we never had children, I’d not had that experience though I like to think I’d have been a big reader if I’d had little ones to tuck in bed.

Anyway, I had great fun looking through options at Fiction Addiction, an independent bookstore in Greenville, South Carolina. Since I’d already heard several friends mention the titles of children’s books that had been staples for generations, I decided to pick some new additions. The ones I chose actually were made of non-toxic materials that kids could chew on, giving new meaning to the phrase ‘eat your words.’ You could even wash them. Cool. And the illustrations were sweet and full of life and color.

I’m sure once Louise Barrett arrives in the world, she will have a wonderful time reading with her parents, Jesse and Lisa. Welcome to a wonderful world of books.