Children's Book of the Week: 1

I've decided to copy one of my blogging idols, Design Mom, and feature a children's book each week that we have enjoyed in our home. I buy books like I buy milk, so we have children's books coming out of our ears. I have so many favorites, some from my childhood, and some we've recently discovered. So get out your Amazon wish list, and take some notes!

This is my all-time favorite children's book, and my mom and sister both share my opinion that it is perhaps the sweetest book ever written.

Bear by Himself
by Geoffrey Hayes

"There are times when a bear has to be alone with himself. To think his own thoughts and sing his own songs."

Bear is so content to be alone, his daily actions are so simple ("smelling the rain, listening to the quiet"), and so endearing, that you will find yourself, when you have come to the end of the story, with a little tear in your eye and a compulsion to go back to the first page and read it again. I'm serious, it's that good! When I was young, Stephanie and I would check this book out from our little library over and over again. The bear looks strikingly similar to her cherished bear friend, Nosy Nosy, and I think we both secretly hoped that if we checked this little book out enough times, eventually they would just let us keep it. I found vintage copies of the first printing for me, my mom, and sister. The photo above is of the newer printing, and although it is cute, the original (1976) is just pencil drawings with hints of green watercolor splashed in all the right places. Perhaps it's the memory of reading it with my mom as a child that makes it so special to me, but this one is a must for every children's library!