Watching the Wonder with Kids

My kids are at the age now where they are loving bookstores and libraries. On the bookstore end, this costs me, dearly. Especially with the teenager, who loves to read--and loves hardcovers, because she loves to keep what she reads (she's the one who has trouble returning her library books, so it's probably a good thing to buy her the books instead of borrowing from the library). I can't walk into a bookstore and walk out without at least four books, two for each kid.

And me...

Well, it goes without saying that if I walk into a bookstore, I'm coming out of there with something in my hands. I'm horrible that way, too.

Okay, I see where the kids get it from. But at least it's a good habit to inherit, right? Reading makes the world go round. And someone's got to buy those 185,000 new books released each year.

Well, not all 185,000 books released each year, LOL. I'll buy my fair share, though. Support the hand that feeds me, after all. And I can write it off as research, which on my end, it is. Researching the competition, researching locales for books I'm writing, researching careers for my heroes and heroines, researching little known facts that I throw into my books... there's always some new fact to learn.

The kids actually put books on their Christmas lists. Now, that's a Christmas list I like to see. My oldest put The Grimmery from "Wicked," which is no cheap book, let me tell you. But she reads it constantly (we saw the play in Chicago...awesome play!). The younger one is into The Magic Tree House series and asked for some of those. We also got him lots of how to draw books because he's into that. Then the Scholastic Book Fair came around to school and the youngest made out like a bandit because the eldest was home sick from school that week, so he got the bulk of the book budget to spend. He was one happy camper, let me tell you.

But the best part of all, is watching the wonder on their faces as they dart from shelf to shelf, trying to choose a couple of books among all the ones on the shelves. Sometimes they simply can't, and I'll cave and go over the two-book limit and buy more or let them check out more than what we decided when we walked in. I remember how fun it was when I was a kid to find new authors and new stories, and let them read to their heart's content.

It's the best reward a mom could ask for...and when I sit down with my little one and read him Spiderwick, and he's cuddled up with me, asking for "one more chapter" before bed...

Well, who can say no?

Shirley