Read It, Don't Eat It! by Ian Schoenherr

Read It, Don't Eat It! by Ian Schoenherr

Rating: 4 stars

Recently one of our friends found out that I had a children's book blog.  A father of a 14-month old, he said: "Great!  Now I know which books are the most delicious!"  When I saw the title of this book, recommended on our library's home page, I had to get it, if only to send it to the little book-eater.  (Ben still gnaws on some, though he's not actually eaten any in months.  Progress!)

This is a fine book to read, but a great book to use to teach how to use the library, and specifically how to treat the books that you check out from the library.  It'd be essential in any preschool or elementary school, but a great one for parents when we first start going to the library.  And from time to time after that because--well, maybe it's different in your home--we need to reinforce things again and again and again and again and... 

Don't censor, delete, or deface.

Here is the entire book, right here:

Read it, don't eat it.

No dog ears, please.

Find someplace else to sneeze.

Borrow, don't steal.

TRY not to squeal.

Rips and tears won't magically heal.

Don't overdue it, just renew it.  (Really, now, there's nothing to it.)

Leave no trace (or at least erase).

Don't censor, delete, or deface.

It's not a platter, or a stool.

Be careful with it at the pool.

Don't leave it in the rain or sun.

Please return it when you're done.

Share it with a friend, a sister, a brother.

Now go out and get another.

Each line has a corresponding picture to illustrate the point, which is helpful to those little ones who, thankfully, don't know what stealing or censoring is quite yet.

Lorelei and Ben love this book, probably more than I do.  It's a quick read but a great example of a book that really teaches--and, in this case, teaches them something about a place that they love, about a thing they love: the library and books!  Hopefully this love affair lasts for many decades.