Children of The Book: A memoir of Reading Together

Thank you St Martin's Press for the advance copy

Release a Day: August 26th

Author: Ilana Kurshan

My review:

5 stars

The best way to review this one is to list all the books mentioned in case you missed any... go pick it up, but first read this memoir. The book includes a partial list at the end with some as well (a note to myself as well). A life of a Jewish family reader told in a book journey. I love that readers take time to understand that they can't read all, and if they don't enjoy it, they must move on. It's hard, but the author, having a baby that took her moments, had to compromise and be selective. And it's ok.

In order of appearance (which makes for a delightful sequence of themes and interests), this memoir is about what happens in between these titles and what leads to the next, and how reading all the time seeds readers around us. Each book is appropriate to overcome a step in life, to educate or simply hug us, because books to calm, distract, and amuse are equally relevant. I love that the author mentions that there is comfort in re-reading the same ending over and over, and children appreciate it. I have a set of books which I reread annually, for the same reason, even as an adult, and the experience changes each year. I also love her parallelism with the first books, with Genesis and religion creating one word each time, like a board book.

Absolutely wonderful read, intertwining books with life (mostly focused on childhood), and religion as philosophy (Torah and Bible), not fear and punishment, but communication and understanding.

The cat in the hat, The Riverside Shakespeare, Paradise Lost, Bible, Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Noon, A. S. Byatt's Possession, Huckleberry Finn, Torah, The Passover Parrot, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Lolita, (now that's a switch, eheh), Life among the Savages, Talmud, The Watermelon Seed, Spoon (both picture books), Dr. Seuss's: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish... Otto: Story of a Mirror, Frog and Toad, The Secret Garden, Narnia, James Marshall's Miss Nelson, Hello Lighthouse, Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair... Oh,The Places You'll go, The Hundred Dresses, Five Books of Moses, Goodnight Moon, The Railway Children, Brave Irene, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, A Wrinkle in Time, Ramona series, Peter Pan, Phantom Tollboth, A Bridge to Terabithia, Trailing Clouds of Glory, Coleridge's To an Infant, Wordsworth's Ode: Intimation of Immortality, (Tana Hoban's ? I've found another on an accordion style by Tabitha Paige although this one is animals ) Black and White, Baby's First Words, By the Loght of the Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Far from the Tree, Doctor De Soto, George and Martha, The Giving Tree, Shel Silversteins's Classics, A Tale of Five Balloons, A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning (poem and another) Do Not Go Gentleman's Into That Good Night, Freight Train by Donald Crews written in the year the author was born, Serious Selliness, Sandra Boynton's Birthday Monsters, But Not the Hippopotamus, The Going to Bed Book (author makes awesome remarks about these in relation to religious texts), The Children's Encyclopedia of Trucks, Goodnight Goodnighy Construction Site, I Want My Hat Back(I love this one), Where The Wild Things Are, Tell me a Mitzi, Llama Llama by Anna Dewdney, After Runs Away, The Runaway Bunny, Five Minutes' Peace, The Push by Ashley Audrain, Romeo and Juliet, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Schulchan Aruch (reflects the practices of Mediterranean and North African Jews and more, explains Set Table concept), The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman (where you a picky eater eheh), Gregory The Terrible Eater, Harriet the Spy, The Pain and The Great One, Alexander and Terrible No Good Very Bad Day (I'm not using commas on the tittles just to separate each book),Ezra Jack Keats's Peter's Chair, Wild About

Books by Judy Sierra, Before You Were Born by Howard Schwartz, Haggadah (collection of prayers), The Little Women, Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, Charlotte's Web (one of my top 3 fav book in the banned list), A New Coat for Anna, The Miracle Worker, Matilda, Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH (love these), Clifford the NBig Red Dog, Danny and the Dinossaur, Little Bear, Morris Goes to School, Chirri & Chirra (two Japanese girls who bike through nature, I need this one), Amelia Bedelia (yes eheh), Fancy Nancy, Old Fashioned Girls, Guinness Book of World Records, Five Books of Moses (Chumash), William Steig's Yellow & Pink, Cherries & Cherry Pits, My Happy Life by Rose Lagercrantz, The Time Tunnel by Galoia Fon-Feder-Amit, Ivy & Bean series, Bound To Be Bad, Yellow Car and Green Tractor, All of a Kind Family, The Library by Sarah Stewart, (interesting first contact with strict rules and, what was yoir first experience with going to the library? Mine was like going to church: no noise, no touching, no movement, no breathing), The Catcher in the Rye, Harry the Dirty Dog, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (and historical account of Eleanor Roosevelt's childhood by Robert Frost), The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (a book about people bringing beauty to the world), Serena Cruz or the Meaning of True Justice, Fairy Tales (Snow White, Sleeping Beaut, CInderella), The Paper Bag Princess, Princess Smartypants, The Queen Who Couldn't Bake Gingerbread... Elmo also has a Tushie, Magic Tree house, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Transit of Venus, (I loved reading Beverly Cleary's memoirs), A Rom of One's Own, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Little Virtues (essay), Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books, Anna Pratchett's This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Prairie's Fires, Pioneer Girl, short story: The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, Call me Ruth. The Rabbi's Girls, Boy Crazy Stacey, Behind The Attic Wall, Mandy, Mary Poppins, A Little Princess, independent readers reach for graphic novels, Tzipor Lavan (white bird, holocaust story).... The Twenty-one Balloons, Lisa and Lottie, Angelina Ballerina books, The Penderwicks...

The author has a curated list of books at the end that you can add to your notes; I probably missed some as I was taken by the author's narrative.

Get book here.