Babies need Books: Charlie's Bookshelf

To say I have a passion for books is an under-statement.

To say I have a passion for children's books is well-beyond under-statement.

I cannot recall life without children's books in it - my own childhood, the years until I had my own children and the years until my first grandchild arrived - the books remained. Books are to me as air and water and the thought of a home without books is unthinkable.

So a new life simply means another person to share the magic of words and illustration. Now that Charlie is one month old, she is already enchanted by the books we hold before her and the rhythm of the words we speak.

Her shelves contain books passed down and books given as gifts and books we feel are essentials.

Here she is enjoying some storytimes this week:

She has also been introduced to Hairy McLarey, PEEPO! and The Wheels on the Bus, with great concentration. And the book world is her oyster :)

As long as she can get her mum, aunt and uncle to share ;)

She has already visited the two most important stores in our lives: our local bookstore Robinsons and the Mecca that is the ABA Shop. The to buy list is nearly as long as the to read pile of what we already own ;)

That's why I bought her this, just in case we need reminding.

And here's a picture boys and girls

Endless hours of my life have been spent reading - and re-reading - picture books to my children. Especially when I sat breastfeeding, the older ones would haul a pile from the shelf over beside me and demand stories.

But children grow up and shelf space becomes tight. A few years back, I consigned what remained of our picture book collection into storage. Last summer, during a family clean out at our storage unit, I asked the now-adult children to cull them a bit and I think they may have donated a few but the rest went back into storage.

With the impending grandchild nearly halfway through gestation, I am starting to look forward to a new generation of story telling, so on the weekend, I got all the books out again and gathered my daughters to go through them - my son is not so sentimental, but does have hoarding tendencies, so I admitted defeat with him! But I thought the girls might like to take out their favourites and keep them in their own homes, with the remainder returning to the family shelves to share with the new generation. And maybe we could cull it down to just the most important?

Well, it turns out, while each had a couple of personal favourites they wanted to keep close by, they agreed that most were shared favourites that could go back home with me! And not only that, but those titles deemed too damaged to rescue, we Googled and ordered replacement copies!

25 and 28!

So I guess I am not the only one with those fond memories and we have proven that shared stories are one of life's treasures.

Here is the donate pile:

And this is the keep pile!:

Meanwhile, I have been busy Pinning those titles I have already flagged as being necessary in the life of the grandchild-to-be (nicknamed Jelly Bean by his/her parents) and the list includes many of those above! You can see it at Jelly Bean's Bookshelf and my browsing led me to this wonderful list, which includes not only most of my children's favourites but also many from my own childhood! It has become part catalogue, part shopping list in my quest!!

I think I had better order one of these in every size!  :)