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Goodnight Moon is a highly-acclaimed children's book that is the ideal bedtime story"."
Most Yukoners know me as the gal who makes a lot of noise dropping heavy stuff in the gym. Only a handful of people know that one of my other passions is early childhood literacy.
Before kids even say their first word, they are developing the skills necessary to speak and read. That's why it is important to read to children, even when they are brand new.
If you read a kid a book, you entertain her for 15 minutes; but teach a kid to enjoy reading and you entertain her for a lifetime.
Want some macaroni with that cheese? But seriously, it's the truth.
If you're not sold on that, I'll just mention that I made it to the Olympics because I was read to as a child.
Well, it wasn't bedtime stories alone. I just grew into a person who had all the tools to compete at that high level. Reading expands your imagination and imagination allows you to see potential all around you.
If you can see potential in your surroundings, you will always succeed at something.
The bedtime story is the easiest way to integrate reading into the daily routine.
Most adults see value in reading aloud, but they also see it as a chore. It's painful seeing a kid excitedly select a book you've read one hundred times before and not enjoyed even once.
There are a lot of great books out there, but there are also a lot of less good ones. Good luck to you if the kid in your life gloms onto one of the less good.
It's useful to master the multiple-page-turn and summarize paragraphs into one interesting sentence in order to end the picture-book-induced misery a little faster.
If a kid's book bugs you on the first read, guaranteed you will have to dig deep to pull out the fake-enthusiasm when you can't remember the last night you didn't read it.
The good news about picture books is adults have all the buying power. Use the muscle that you earned with your age and your paycheck and buy something you will enjoy reading.
But what will you enjoy?
That's where I've got skills. I'll suggest books you can pick up in the library, bookstore or online in order to get a great collection going for a kid that's important to you.
An absolute must for any collection is Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon. Consider it the kid lit equivalent of Bob Marley's Legend.
Generations have been soothed by it.
Goodnight Moon is a simple book about the ritual of a bunny going to bed and saying goodnight to everything in his room.
Filled with rhyme and a relaxing cadence, it is entertainingly simple. The pictures allow for deviation from the storyline if you want to play I Spy. You can also have the child pick things from his or her surroundings to bid goodnight to.
This book is appealing because it refers to other great literature (Hey, Diddle, Diddle) and is referenced itself in pop culture. In an episode of Family Guy, it is revealed that Stewie Griffin's favourite bedtime story is Goodnight Moon. There's also an episode of The Simpsons in which Christopher Walken reads the book to a group of children.
This book is a hit among the newborn to preschool demographic. I suggest reading it at least once in your life. You never know when you may bump into Christopher Walken — and what better way to make small talk?
You can usually find Goodnight Moon at Mac's Fireweed Books in Whitehorse as it tries to carry four to 12 copies of it, depending on the time of year.
To purchase a used copy, you may get lucky and find it at Well-Read Books as it comes in from time to time.
You can also take the book out of the public libraries in Whitehorse, Mayo, Carmacks and Dawson City. Other locations can order them from one of these libraries, too.