Childhood Wonder

Post by Michelle of Avery & Augustine

I love books that inspire wonder in children.  They are an essential part of every family’s library because wonder is an important element of childhood.  They are good springboards to start interesting discussions, questions and dialogue with young thinking minds and budding imaginations.

How To, written and illustrated by Julie Morstad, offers playful and curious ways of how to do different things like “how to see the wind” or “how to wash your socks.”  The take-home message of this charming book?  There’s more than one way to get something done and there’s always a fresh and inventive idea out there.  It’s just waiting to be dreamt up!

In When You Were Small,  by Sara O’Leary and illustrated by Julie Morstad, Henry’s father tells nightly bedtime stories to his son about when he was small.  Literally small enough to wear a thimble for a hat and have his hair brushed with a toothbrush.

In When I Was Small, also by the same author and illustrator, Henry wonders what his mother was like when she was younger.  “What was it like when you were small?”  She tells him about how when she was small, she slept in a mitten and played jump rope with a piece of yarn.

Poignant, otherworldly and sweet, When I Was Small and When You Were Small will enthrall sleepy-eyed readers at bedtime as they listen and imagine what you, as parents, were like when you were oh so tiny like them.  And you can tell them all sorts of things you did as a kid, your perspective of the world when you were their age and the kinds of things you wondered about, were curious about, imagined, dreamt about and more.  Happy reminiscing and wondering!

Also featured in this post are these colorful boat puzzle blocks.  Thanks to The Land of Nod for sending the items for this post.

You can see Michelle’s work and read about her two young children and their first forays in cooking, art and everything in between at Avery and Augustine.