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Books my kids love

It started, I suppose, when my son was around a year old and he used to go to the bookshelf and get Campaigns of World War II Day By Day. I think, in hindsight, this should have informed us about much of his personality.

My daughter--perhaps in a nod to an eventual bookish charm--prefers Webster's New World College Dictionary. She likes to eat the dust jacket and crinkle the thin, crispy pages.

Though this morning I began reading from said dictionary and Cole found a strange delight in hearing definitions read aloud...complete with pronunciation and full alternative meanings. It quickly took us down a dark path of thirst for the printed word.

Next, it was The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible...which I had to explain was a way to look up a word and find it in ANOTHER book. Enter The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. The kids, however, weren't really in the mood for Genesis.

After a brief glance inside An Introduction to the New Testament by Raymond E. Brown, we moved on to The Norton Shakespeare. They actually sat through a few lines of dialogue, but Cole wanted A History of Narrative Film and a cookbook. Delicious pictures of brownies got a big "YUM!"

Mild interest was also shown for Strength Training Anatomy with diagrams of muscle groups. Particular connection here to making a big bicep, checking the book, and trying to figure out how all that could possibly be under one's skin.

Then Curious George came on. Simple math--monkey trumps Shakespeare.