A book full of love and sparkles

Bryleigh and I just dropped Hubs off at the airport. He’s heading to a tiny, unpronounceable town in Finland for business, and it’s breaking my heart because he’s going to miss Bryleigh’s first-ever ballet recital on Monday evening. Granted, we’re using the term “ballet” loosely when speaking of a class of 1- to 2-year-olds. In fact, the class is actually called “Creative Movement”, but still… It’s going to be on a stage, and they all have costumes and a routine they’re supposed to follow. I just hate that he’s going to miss it, and so does he. If we’d known about the recital prior to the scheduling of this trip, he’d have arranged to go a week before or a week after if at all possible.

This morning I was feeling guilty that Andrew was going to miss the recital, so Bryleigh and I left early for her ballet class so that I could take her to the book store across the Square and buy her a new book. Yeah, I ended up buying her three new books. I couldn't help myself.

It’s a Firefly Night, written by Dianne Ochiltree and illustrated by Betsy Snyder, is an absolutely gorgeous little book about a father waking up his little girl to go outside and catch fireflies on a warm summer night. Written as a poem and with a full spread of scientific facts about fireflies at the end, the book is filled with breathtaking illustrations and even some counting fun for toddlers. One part that I love about it is that it explains that the fireflies don’t belong to the little girl, and she lets them go before following her daddy back inside. 

On Beyond Zebra by Dr. Seuss was a favourite when I was a little girl. While my parents kept a lot of my old books for when we had kids, I’m sure this one was given away to someone or sold at a yard sale. I seem to remember a page or two was ripped in my dog-eared copy. This little ditty starts out with a little boy proudly writing the alphabet and claiming that he now knows everything there is to know when his older brother or friend corrects him by introducing him to a litany of new interesting symbols and letters used to spell unimaginable Seussian words like Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer, Floob-Boober-Bab-Boober-Bubs and Vrooms.

Plant a Kiss is an inspiring book about sharing love written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (author of another of our favourites—Little Hoot) and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. It tells the tale of Little Miss (which is something we often call Bryleigh), who plants a kiss and patiently waits until it blossoms, at which point, to the dismay of her peers who think it’s far too rare to share, she harvests it and spreads it all over the world until she has none left. However, she then returns to her plant to discover that her one little kiss has bloomed into “endless bliss”. It’s a lovely little book filled with love and sparkles.

By the way, my friend made her decision, and although I don’t think it’s the choice I’d have made, I am 100 percent certain that it’s the right decision for her. I’m proud of her.