Elmer and Rose by David McKee
Rating: 4.5 stars
This book will always make me think of Julia. Julia is my friend's blue-eyed daughter who seems to be constantly smiling or laughing. She's about two years older than Lorelei, so whenever I'm lucky enough to cross paths with Julia I feel like I get a sneak peek at what sort of girl Lorelei will be in two years, if I'm lucky.
Julia (and her mom and older brother) came over to our house for a playdate a few weeks ago. In between some serious splashing in the hot summer sun and getting crumbs everywhere while eating blueberry bar, we managed to squeeze in some reading. (What a good sign of a child's attention span when they can stop and concentrate on a book while there are seven children running around!) I was reading a few books to my twin nieces and Lorelei when Julia shyly asked her mother something, who then encouraged Julia to come to me and ask.
"May I read you a book?" asked the sweet Julia.
WOAH! I forgot that, at some point, kids can actually read themselves! I know that this is the end result, but since our oldest is three, I'm still a very necessary part of the book reading activity. But of course, I said yes and sat and listened to 4 1/2 year old Julia read Elmer and Rose. I admit that I am pretty easily amused and impressed and satisfied in this world, but...I was deeply impressed when the tables turned and I was fortunate to listen to Julia read this book, an extension of the original Elmer, in her wonderful young voice. As the other six kids ran around, mostly loudly, Julia and I sat. And read. I got to be the listener. What a treat!
I do have to write a few sentences about the book. It's good! It is as if David McKee realized that all his books had lots of boys--good boy characters, ones we love like Wilbur and Kangaroo--and needed to gain the little girl's vote out there. So what did he do? Create a pink girl elephant! Rose the pink elephant gets lost and Elmer and Wilbur help her find her way back to her all-pink herd. The morale of this book is that everyone is unique, something that is a nicely illustrated with a funny patchwork elephant and now a pink one.
Definitely one to check out, even if you're not lucky enough to have Julia read it to you!
Julia loved reading your blog post, and thinks that she is absolutely famous now. It did bring tears to my eyes reading it, though, because I definitely don't appreciate her little voice reading to me day in and day out as much as I should. I'm just happy that I can say, "Why don't you read that book to me?" while I'm doing things around the house. Thanks for your sweet post!!!
ReplyDelete