Reading 1938’s The Five Chinese Brothers - A Controversial Gem

"Dad, do you know what is my favorite book?" 

Cover of *The Five Chinese Brothers*

I was surprised. Did I hear well? 
 
A favorite book?

Wow, among hundreds and hundreds of books, my little boy has a favorite?

And he never told me about it.

I wanted to know.
 

Reading If I Ran the Zoo Today - A Read Aloud Review & Background

Stumbling upon a good Dr. Seuss book is not exactly a surprise, but for me this book was.

A double surprise, in fact.

OK, enough stalling - I'll give it away.

Some books elude me.

 

Yep, I never come across them.

To make it worse, I only hit upon this little gem by chance.

And I am ashamed.

Yep, I never read it, never heard about it and never saw it in my life. (There, I confessed).

How did I find out about this Dr. Seuss classic?

Children's Audio Books - Portals to a New Galaxy

Children's audio books were a chance discovery.

It was a fluke.

Kate Winslet can help parents, but you remain Reader no. 1

But before you accuse me of being dimwitted, let me explain myself.

Of course, I knew about audio books.

But what I did not know about was the amazing power of children's audio books.

They have quadrupled the amount of reading aloud/listening that we can do in a single day.

It's no longer just me reading to my kids.

A Must-Have Story Collection: The Munschworks Grand Treasury

A grand treasury!

Grand!

What a lovely word for a children's book!

 

Was there ever a book with a more suitable title?
 

I sort of remember reading one short story by Robert Munsch when I was a kid, but back then I wasn't aware that his opus was so large, so off-beat and so crazily well-tailored to children.