Friday, January 25, 2013

It's "Dumpling Days" for Julia!


Like Anna and Grace, I’m having work done on my new home. I’m fortunate to be able to have renovations done while still living at my “other” house—the place that I have called home for nearly thirty-seven years.
In late December, I posted a couple of pictures of the built-in bookcases that we had installed in the upstairs office/library/den of our new home.

I’ve already begun filling the shelves—mostly with children’s picture books.
 
Because I have sooooo many books, my husband and I decided to have another built-in bookcase made for our upstairs hallway. Village Woodworking in Topsfield (MA) did such a wonderful job with our bookcases and china cabinet that we also decided to have them make us a media center with bookshelves, drawers, and other storage for our living room.
 Our Built-in China Cabinet

Julia likes to visit the upstairs “library” at our new house, look at the picture books, pull some off of the shelves and “read” them. Sometimes, she insists on taking one of the picture books back over to HER side of the house. 

I often grab my “gram cam” to snap pictures of Julia reading books.

Julia reading Secret Seahorse.
Julia reading Miss Mary Mack.

One of Julia’s new favorites isn’t a picture book. It’s Grace’s novel Dumpling Days. One night last week, she refused to go to bed without the book. On Wednesday afternoon, she sat on the floor of the family room quietly flipping through the pages and looking at the sketches that Grace included in her novel. That night, her dad told me she chose Dumpling Days over her favorite stuffed animal when he put her to bed.
Julia reading Dumpling Days yesterday afternoon.

 Babies loving books! Is there anything better?

3 comments:

Libby Koponen said...

What great bookshelve and storage!

And that's so interesting about J. picking DD...do you think she picks up on your fondness for Grace and her books, or does she just like it, for mysterious reasons?

I love the fact that she does!

libby

Elaine Magliaro said...

Libby,

I ordered the “Dumpling Days” from Barnes and Noble and had it delivered to my new home. I wasn’t there when my daughter opened the package. For some reason, “Dumpling Days” appealed to Julia. I can’t say why. Yesterday, Julia and I spent quite a lot of time looking through Grace’s illustrations in the book. Julia appears to be fascinated by Grace’s illustrations in the book.

Anna Alter said...

I think it's so interesting to see which books kids gravitate towards, especially when they for a very different age level! Tilly likes things way above her often... I have read The High Hills about 100 times this week and she sits through the whole thing.