“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” – Albert Einstein
I wrote an article on reading where I described my son’s favorite book and my passion for reading to him. Also how I want to get my son interested in books. I do order books constantly when I am not in a bookstore to browse which is actually one of my favorite things to do. I ordered some books for my son but somehow they have gotten lost and mixed up. A few weeks ago a package arrived out of the blue in my mailbox. This is why I love to order online. Every time you receive a package it seems like a gift to yourself from yourself! Awesomeness!
So I unwrapped the envelope of my lost order and out fell “The story of Babar”. Instantly a thousand memories flooded back into me when I saw this book that I actually did not have ordered but was so happy to have received. I remembered the entire story almost by heart having read it so many times to my sister and brother when they were kids. And my mom read it to me almost every single day when I was tiny. I remember Babar was our friend. My siblings and I used to love this story so much. Babar was definitely our friend way back then maybe because the story was just so sad and we wanted Babar to feel better. If you haven’t read the story yet (and I recommend you do) here is a little insight. Babar’s elephant mother is killed and he is chased by hunters and escapes to a foreign world of the city. He returns to his community and finally becomes king of the elephants. Enough, this is not supposed to be a book review! 🙂
When this book arrived the other day I just realized again how important children’s books really are. And how important it is to read to your children. I forgot about this book I have to admit after all these years. But it finally arrived here. Back with me. I was so happy – all these dreams, love and forgotten memories came back up. Having been through so much reading I know how a single book can make you happy. How a single book can guide you and simply this magic that comes for a fairytale like this can inspire. So I want my son to know this as well. I want to help him to find the pages and words that he needs to make sense of this beautiful world – the same chance I had in life.
I will read Babar to my son when he is ready. These days we are more into “Where the wild things are” by Maurice Sendak and “The very hungry caterpillar” and a plethora of Pixi “Connie” booklets in German.
Since my second address is either Barnes and Noble or The Strand Bookstore my son’s address is the same. Our next goal is; besides discovering our neighborhood, to go to the Public Library. Reading fairytales to my son will help him make sense of this big world outside – just in time. And of course I am proud and honored to be his mother who is reading to him all these great stories while he listens in wonder.
