WWRW: A Brown Bear, A Yellow Duck, and...A Purple Cat?

I love the What We're Reading Wednesday link-up.  Thanks for hosting, Jessica.

I'm a bit busy these days, so I haven't had as much time as usual to spend reading grown-up books; instead, I've been reading cardboard picture books to my wee grandson G-Man, who like all of us has his definite favorites when it comes to literary material.  Sometimes, he gets a little whiny about two pages into a book, and I quickly toss that one aside and grab the next one in the pile.  But he does have a couple of books that he never gets tired of listening to; and when I say never, I really mean NEVER.  You can read two of his books to him over and over again, without him ever getting the least bit bored.  I blogged about one of them, I Love You, Through and Through, in a recent post.  That title is pure gold as far as my little G-Man is concerned.

My discerning grandson's other favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  I just looked at him and said those words to him this morning, and he smiled immediately.  He knew I was talking about that book, one he knows forward and backward already.  He can listen to its sing-song cadence indefinitely.  Apparently, this book first published in 1967 is considered a "classic," but somehow we never discovered it when our own boys were young; so sadly, they missed out.

 

My middle son, G-Man's daddy, is not a huge fan of this book.  For the most part, it stays in the land of reality--with a brown bear, a yellow duck, and a black sheep; but it also includes a blue horse and a purple cat.  My son just can't deal with those two color choices.

G-Man, on the other hand, has no trouble with animals that come in fairy tale hues.

He loves that purple cat.  He loves ALL the animals in this book.

I know there is a real talent involved when it comes to writing books that can hold the attention of very young children like G-Man, tiny people who've only been in the world a matter of months but already know what they like and what they don't.  The authors of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle) have that talent in spades.

Now head on over to Housewifespice for more reading recommendations!