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The Gentle Grief of Saying Goodbye to Board Books
Thoughts on realizing you’ve read a book for the last time.
Last night before bed, I made a stack of books to read to Chapman, my three-year-old son and resident bookworm. There were a couple of current favorites, a Dr. Seuss book, a Pete the Cat book, and two old and battered board books that I can and have read with my eyes closed. We curled up with his stuffed giraffe and whale blanket and started reading.
When my daughter was born in 2011, our house had a grand total of two children’s books in it. One was about a little girl who couldn’t find her pumpkin and the other was about a family of children who get lost on a sailboat.
Since then, our collection of books has ballooned. Board books, pop-up books, stupid books, funny books. True stories about animals, attempts to make politics interesting and accessible to kindergarteners (that’s a good one — more adults need to read it!), adventure books, friendship books, dinosaur books. Books with lights and noise, books that come with stickers, short and tall books. Paperbacks and hard cover and these plastic-type books that are indestructible.
Periodically, I cull our book collection. I do it partly for space and partly because there are some really terrible children’s books out there that I never want to read again. I’ll always ditch…
