Board Books Aren't Boring

I always get a little weepy purging books my kids' libraries. I think about the way they used to pronounce the words, their questions, their favorite parts, and the way they would (hopefully) drift off to sleep after a good bedtime read. I've realized some old favorites have a new life when they start doing the voices for the characters or adding sound effects. They've even staged mini-productions with our neighbors' children.

The Three Bears by Byron Barton is one such book that has a rhythmic familiarity that begs for some role playing with fun voices and pretending to fall out of a chair ("Goldilocks rocked so much the little rocker broke!"). Board books seem to perfectly abridge a book and give it a format that is organic to play. Plus they're sturdy and can mostly stand up to being well loved.