Read it again

Steve and I have a large Winnie the Pooh book that Sophie loves for us to read to her. I love that Sophie isn't intimidated by a large book with few pictures in it. The book is clearly 'not in her age range'. Her other favorite books? Little Bear and Frog and Toad. I say this to say that I agree with my friend Katie who thinks that ages on the backs of books are not a good way to judge whether a child 'should' like a book.

Years ago, I nannied a boy who had checked out and read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from his schools library (private school). He loved this book and said it was his favorite book of all time! I asked him if he knew that there was a sequel to the book and he said no, he'd see if he could read it next. Well, guess what, he couldn't because it wasn't on his reading level. Seriously. He couldn't even check it out because it was too advanced.I thought maybe he couldn't receive credit, but no, after looking into it, he indeed had to only check out books at his level. Of course we made a trip to the public library, he did in fact struggle a little with the reading, but he certainly understood it well enough and he enjoyed that book as well.

I just wanted to snap a picture of Sophie with this massive book to show her when she's older and learning how to read, that she wasn't afraid of "reading" books that were beyond her years. I think I will tell her the ages on the backs of books are there just to hold you back and trick you into thinking that you can only read a certain book.