Children's Books are Brilliant

Children's books are often more entertaining and funnier than the books I'm meant to read now that I'm a grown up.  So I still read children's books and I love them.  When my children were younger I always read bedtime stories (I would still read but it just wouldn't be cool and I can't stay up late enough!)  They would ask for the same stories over and over and insist, "do all the voices, Mum!" I read a lot of Fireman Sam, as the only accent I can do is Welsh and Dilys Price is so satisfying to say with that accent.

Book week at school is a real treat.  We get to read to classes we don't usually read to.  I find that choosing the book is really difficult.  How can you choose just one?  We only have about 10 minutes so that's just one or two picture books or a chapter of something longer for the older children.  Picture books are easy though, there's nothing controversial in those and tomorrow I'm going to read Where's My Teddy.

Today I read to a year 3/4 class.  I wanted to choose something that I had really enjoyed at their age and so I chose to read a story about theft and the misuse of prescription drugs.  My favourite chapters from Danny Champion of the world are the ones about soaking the raisins, splitting them open and filling them with sleeping pill powder so that the Pheasants fall out of trees and Danny and his Dad can poach them.  When I was 9 I wanted to test it.  I desperately wanted to feed raisins to Pheasants so see if they liked them.  I also wanted to try and stuff a raisin with powder and sew it up so neatly so that no one noticed.  In fact, even now, every time I see a pheasant I wish I had a pocketful of raisins. As I read the story today, I started to wonder if this was the right message to be giving to these children.  

On Friday I will read to year 5/6 and wanted to read Skellig, which I think is the most perfect book ever written.

I can't find my copy so I started to think about reading some poetry.  

From Parents. Zits and Hairy Bits I briefly considered these poems:

Playing Out

There was a boy called Fanny

There was a boy called Willy

Every night when Willy played out

Fanny would act so silly.

Money Bags

Grandad's got a sore bum

He's not feeling very well

I know he tries to hide it

But I can always tell

His problem is his money

He says as he smiles

He must have a lot

He says that he has piles!

Maybe I will try to find something else to read.  I do quite like my job.