I’ve been reading my son Horns to Toes and In Between by Sandra Boynton since he was four months old. This month, he began pointing to his head for the first page, as I’ve always done when we read it. I was so excited to see it. He’s learning! He also had fun trying to see his belly button. What a fun age he is at! (He’s now 15 months old.)

This month, I found my favorite Dr. Seuss book: My Many Colored Days. My Many Colored Days was published posthumously and was not illustrated by Dr. Seuss. But probably for that reason I love the brightly painted pages, and I think the animals of various colors do help to illustrate how we might feel on different days. I might add that toddlers might sometimes feel like a brown bear, a red horse, and an orange circus seal all on the same day, maybe all in the same hour!

I first read of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene W. Field, illustrated by Giselle Potter, at The Well-Read Child. So when I saw it on the new books shelf in the children’s section of the library, I was very excited to check it out. I’ve read the Eugene Field poem before, but this lovely illustrated book brings the story to life. I love the color blue and there is lots of blue in the paintings of the three fishermen who sail off in to the sky in a wooden shoe. The text of the poem is in the public domain; read it here.

I remembered reading Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion as a kid, so I picked it up again to relive it now, reading it to my son. Harry the white dog with black spots doesn’t want to take a bath, so he hides his scrubbing brush in the back yard and runs away, having all sorts of fun getting dirty. Of course, he feels lonely and returns to his home. It’s a fun, simple story of learning to appreciate what we have (even having a bath!).

In December, I also shared a number of Christmas and winter books that I read in December.

What did you read your children last month? What are you reading them today?