My spouse and I recently returned from Long Beach where we visited Gracie, our baby granddaughter. Oh, and our daughter and son-in-law; we said hello to them, too. At the rate a baby grows, we've learned that frequent visits are a must or before you know it those newborns are grown up and married.
Gracie's newest favorites at 14 months - besides walking/running hither and yon in her bright pink baby tennis shoes - are books. Books, books, books. Fortunately, her mommy is a teacher and knows how to locate a good book.
As soon as Gracie was born we read to her. When she was old enough to grasp onto things with her chubby little hands, "reading" to Gracie meant blurting out as much as possible on a page before she glommed onto the book and performed the preferred activity of the day such as gumming the corners or pulling the book out of our hands and heaving it onto the floor where she would stare at it as if to say, "Well, isn't that the darndest thing. There's a book on the floor!"
Now Gracie studies her books and sits still long enough for us to read the better part of a book to her - providing we don't dawdle. I've observed that when I read a book to her she tends to "skip around." She listens to the page about the cow and then jumps forward to the part about the dog, then skips ahead three pages to the lamb, goes back two pages to the gorilla, etc. But that's ok because here at Grandparent's Central, we aim to please.
The beauty of reading children's books out loud again after all these years is the pure fun of re-discovering Dr. Seuss. All those rhyme-y words tripping and skipping off the tongue! It's been a long time since Dr. Seuss was read aloud at our house. Once our daughters hit a certain age they read their own books - Shel Silverstein was one favorite - and they were much too grown up to sit on Mommy's lap.
Unluckily for me, Dr. Seuss began writing his wonderfully rhyming books when I was no longer little enough for my mother to read to me. If he had been writing then, I think my mom would have read to me more than she did. One of my favorite memories when I was a child - as I am sure is the case for most of us - was being invited to climb onto my mother's lap as she sat in her rocking chair and listen as she read one of my favorite Golden Books such as "Saggy Baggy Elephant," "Tootle," "The Poky Little Puppy," or the all-time great "Bambi." And the longer the book was the better. Because I was such an avid listener I knew when my mother was in a hurry and skipped a page or two although she was pretty sly about turning the pages a couple at a time now and then.
Of course this forced me to make the supremely difficult decision whether to accept the book as she read it or to call her on it ("Mommy, you skipped the part about ... ") - and let me tell you, my mom was a feisty lady so to issue a challenge was dicey in those days. When I was a little kid and acted up, my mother was famous for driving me past the local orphanage and declaring the place would become my future home if I didn't "watch it," although that's another column entirely. But I give my mother credit for my lifelong love of books, and I'm happy to see my daughter following in those footsteps with her little one.
So once again I am encountering the joy of "Green Eggs and Ham," "The Cat and the Hat," and all the rest. Dr. Seuss, with his addictive rhyming style, is an amusement park for your mouth. And oh, boy, do I love "Sam-I-am" and his tireless efforts to get the furry-footed, long-eared, tall-floppy-hat-wearing grouchy guy to try green eggs and ham "on a boat," "with a goat," "in the rain," or "on a train" until Sam-I-am finally wears the old boy down whereupon it seems that those green eggs and ham are so gosh-darned great that in the end grouchy guy will "eat them in a box," or "with a fox," or "in a house,' or even "with a mouse."
And you know what - isn't life kind of like that sometimes? Those things we believe we could never latch on to or believe in or whatever the particular scenario happens to be suddenly turn into the greatest thing since, well ... green eggs and ham.
And maybe that is how Mr. Brown learned that he can "Moo" in another delightfully silly Seuss book of rhymes and "wonderful noises." Once you've read them, see if you can get the marvelous sounds out of your head that Mr. Brown can do like a cork "pop-pop-pop-pop" or a horse's feet "Klopp-klopp-klopp." Yep, Mr. Brown can do all of those sounds - now how about you? This is the question we ask our young ones whose innocent little heads are bent toward a book as they take in the measure of new sounds, new ideas, new worlds.
Children's books cover a myriad of subjects from losing a pet to welcoming a new brother or sister to living in blended families. I hope you read to your child or your grandchild or your neighbor's child or any child out there who will sit with you and discover the power of the written word. Find the fun of books like those of Dr. Seuss, taste the words and feel them popping on your tongue. I guarantee you will make a child's day and if you don't believe that's true, well then believe this when I say, in the words of the good doctor, "Dibble dibble dopp dopp cock-a-doodle-doo!!"
Gale Hammond is a writer and freelance photographer who has lived in Morgan Hill since 1983. Reach her at galehammond@aol.com.
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