An Amazing book: The very hungry caterpillar

We do know we all want kids to read and incorporate this habit into their daily life. Sometimes, kids are so much into computers and cell-phones that we find it hard to challenge them with a good story. We tend to think they will get bored, or they will pick up the book, see the drawings and jump into another thing immediatly after. Unfortunately, this situation may happen or not. If a situation like this happens, we are the ones who should encourage them to consider other alternatives. Then, we should be aware of the books which are good and top rated onmarket and consider whether any of them adjust to the children's needs or not. 

We mustn't forget that sometimes, books can be best sellers, but not because of their content itself but because of market matters. We like it or not, market plays an important role here, in putting books (as well as movies ) on top of the ranks. Again, it's our responsibiliy, being able to discriminate among "good" and "not so good" books. Nevertheless, having a look at the top rated ones, would be a good idea.

Today, I want to write about the All-Time Best Books for Toddlers. Thus, The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle , can be a wondeful option. 

This book talks about the path which a caterpillar follows as he eats his way through an apple one day, two pears the next day, three plumns the following one, and so on, until he is really fat and has a stomachache. This story contains good language as well as drawings created by the author. Experts belive this story can be used for teaching facts about nutrition, the stages of a butterfly, and also the days of the week, cince the caterpillar eats the food during the week.

In case you want to learn about the author you can visit the webpage, where Eric talks about his personalm tastes regardong colours as well as the desire to make his own pictures for the book.   The story is written in a way that any kid would understand and enjoy. Moreover, I higly recommend reading this books, because it's one of those you'll never forget.

Bilingual Books

  It's been a long time ago since I've been reading bilingual books.  Since I was a 6-year-old child, to be more precise, and... believe me, that it has proved to be really good for my language development. 

My mother tongue is Spanish, but I've started learning English as a child. My father used to buy fairy tales or fabules which they brought a casette (lol a casette people, that WAS a long time ago). So, while I was reading I listened to the narration on the casette. Believe it or not, I was incredibly hooked by this kind of books. 

As I told you before, these books were bilingual. That means, one side of the casette contained the Spanish version (my mother tongue), whereas the other side had the English version. Wasn't it awesome? For me it WAS,  because once I've listened to the spanish version I listened to the english one. But... Where was the text in english to follow? you may wonder... It was in the bottom part of the page, in lower case.

Today, I know that there are books which bring two versions, that is, one page in english and on the other side page the spanish version (or other languages). If I had to recommend these books, I would highly suggest parents buying at least one of them, because they expose kids to two languages at the same time. Pictures also help them distinguish among meanings and analogies, which you may know, it's not easy work. Nowadays, market offers books with cds, containing both language versions (as casettes used to be). So, getting one of these books for kids, would be a nice way of introducing abother language to them. They'll discover they can read the same story they already know in their mother tongue, in another language. And that, in the long run will be really profitable.

Books for all ages...

What do our kids read? Sometimes, it's very difficult to choose books for all ages. Despite this, there are some books which are and will be considered books for "all ages". These books contain stories read by our parents and even our grandparents. Kids can dive into fiction worlds, which are not stained by hatred, pain or sorrow. It's still possible to read stories, with high-spirit characters, full of grace and joy.
Thus, I highly recommend the following books. They are classics, and you may have read them for sure.

                                                      

                                                         

                                                          

Why is reading so important?

Reading opens our minds to imagination and creation. When we read something, our mind immediately gets into that world, which may or not be similar to our world or the world of others. Reading fantasy stories make our mind fly, creating the characters as we incorporate the words. We may also feel part of that scenery, not wanting to miss a part of what happens.

When people read, they get to know the world in different way. They may have varied perspectives and opinions about their own realities.

So, if you are not so fond of reading, it's a good opportunity to start... you'll never regret it!