A keeper... reluctantly

I avoid a commercialized childhood as much as possible in our home. There are a number of reasons for this but the primary one is admittedly aesthetic. I don't like cartoon characters plastered all over our toys and I don't like my children to serve as walking billboards with whatever fad or name brand is in. The same is true for our bookshelves. You won't find Barney or Elmo on the shelves and Curious George is only there because he was cool before the media exploited him.

Anyway, I recently did a purging of our shelves and weeded out some unneccesary books. Mind you, I never have to give away bad books, because we never buy them in the first place. But we occasionally acquire books that are really just mediocre for one reason or another and they get the seasonal axe simply so I can focus on what our real treasures are (and so I have room for more books on the shelf).

There is one annoying little book we own that I can't bear to get rid of. It's my two-year old's favorite... she requests it before every nap time even if I've hidden it and placed other delights in front of her. I think I picked it up at Goodwill and gave it to her in the cart to keep her occupied while I shopped but she didn't want to part with it come checkout time so I paid the 40 cents or whatever to keep it... fully intending on ditching it asap. Peek-a-Boo featuring the baby Looney Tunes. I won't link it. Don't buy it. She adores lifting the flaps of the tunes' Halloween costumes and giggles like it's new each time she finds Baby Sylvester or Baby Taz underneath it. Who knew it would be such a hit?!

At any rate, if you are eager for feeding this kind of delight, I recommend another board book in its place: Peek-A Who? by Nina Laden. Now this one is great and has the same suspense type of deal with a very satisfying ending. One advantage is that it uses little, sturdy grip holes, not the flaps. I don't know about your kids, but flaps or other precarious parts do not belong in OUR toddler books! I hope to replace my Peek a Boo with this one someday... maybe she'll go for it? At least you should...