This week was a bit of magic. 

S’s choice to look at in her cot before sleep was (drumroll)… the dictionary. Yup. My First Dictionary that we gave to C for Christmas sits on the bookshelf next to S’s cot. One night S was clearly done with Pig Out (although, this was wasn’t Monday night so let’s add that one to the list again) and she pulled off the shelves and into her cot a bunch of C’s chapter books. They were all leafed through with the attitude of someone who has actually read these all before and they’re just looking for a favourite part or something, then she pulled down the dictionary. She was set. It has more pictures than a grownup dictionary, of course, but also no narrative contained within those pictures. Maybe she liked feeling like a big girl. Maybe seeing lots of words was soothing for her. Maybe the different feel of the pages and the sound they made when she turned them gave her a bit of a sensory hit. Whatever it was, that was her preferred nighttime reading. 

E’s top choice for the week was The Magic Beach by Alison Lester. Given to C a few years ago, it’s never made it to the favourite-story-please-read-it-every-night-for-two-months stage. I love it, though, and am delighted that E chose it one evening. And totally quizzed me over one of the imagination pictures and where are the mum and dad are they the king and queen where are they are they down there what are they doing down there are they drowning? These questions, of course, are asked for this particular page every single time now.

I also got it into my head yesterday that my three girls who all love mermaids hadn’t read Three Little Mermaids for a while. As Glenn had been using AI and technology to make the girls into mermaids and then messaged me the videos of each of them turning into a mermaid, my morning had a large chunk of it taken up by me playing said videos to girls. I started to look for the book, which meant a teensy bit of reorganisation of the kids’ bookshelf in the living area, which meant other books were rediscovered and read as I was searching. S had a bit of time looking and flinging books in my pile. E had a couple of moments of “Here it is!” So I also read her Good Night, Sleep Tight by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek – which was one of those above favourite category books for a while, and for good reason, and yesterday I read the horse riding part multiple times for E and an insistent S – as well as (groan) Peppa Pig Meets the Queen. Yes. We have a Peppa Pig book. Yes. I admit (cringe) that I even bought it for the family. Yes. The books are just as annoying as the show. No. I “forgot” to read it to her again at bedtime.

Then Three Little Mermaids was found and read and gathered around and oohed and ahhhhed over and “wait mummy go back” and “which mermaid is me” declared. Three Little Mermaids is in that special category of book. There’s rhyme – not forced rhyme, but lovely rhyme – and there’s repetition. There’s adventure. There’s a little bit of sea creature education. There’s the chance for grownups in the book to get frustrated at misbehaving children. There are – maybe I should have led with this – beautiful illustrations, that happen to be by someone Glenn knows. Whenever I come across a Lisa Stewart illustrated book, it’s an instant Yes for buying it. This one, however, Lisa sent to our girls specially with a beautiful inscription for them.

Further to the magic has been C reading Disney Princess Stories to E at bedtime tonight. So much magic in Disney! And Disney stories don’t skimp. If you are asked to read a Disney story, you are in for a lot of words. Which is great. And if the listener is familiar with the movie version, then don’t even think about skipping a few pages. It. Won’t. Work. Thankfully, C was happy reading stories to E tonight so I could do things like … type this. 

C and I are about halfway through The Secret Garden now, and C is in the stage of getting so excited about what happens in the story, and what is suggested might be coming soon, that she will kick her legs or jump like a frog or an excited kitten. We’ve also had a look at pictures of some fancy estates in England to give her an idea of the sort of neat and ordered garden is in this setting. As she is telling me how she is imagining some of the characters, I will be holding off on showing her any Pride and Prejudice until we have finished the book. I don’t want to ruin any magic.