Bookshelf #15:
Finlay
Burley-in-Wharfedale, United Kingdom

Attached is a photo of one of my little boy’s bookcases. Finlay loves books. I originally had his books stored in a traditional bookcase but found he pulled them all out on the floor looking for the ‘perfect’ book. Having seen the big book bunkers at children’s libraries I realised that toddlers select books to read by looking at their covers, so I went to the supermarket and picked up a banana crate and stored his books, forward-facing, in there. I realised there was a gap in the market for an actual product that fulfilled that function, so I researched, developed and last month launched a product – bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox – which is available for sale in the UK at www.bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox.co.uk

Submitted by: Frances

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #14:

Older Brother  and Little Brother
11 years old and nearly 9 years old
Kirkbymoorside, United Kingdom

These shelves are in Little Brother’s bedroom but both boys dip into them – as do I!  There are lots of favorites there – many of which we’ve got to know through PaperTigers.  Sometimes we just grab a random handful and pile into bed for a “book session” – though as they get older, it seems to be getting harder and harder to get readaloud time together apart from bedtime.

Submitted by: Marjorie

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Earlier this week I blogged about an annual event that takes place in Concord, MA, USA: Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature.  Pooja Makhijani left a comment saying “My book – Mama’s Saris – inspired a tree in 2007. It was the best honor my book could have ever received.” She followed up by sending me two photos of the Mama’s Saris tree! Isn’t it beautiful!?

If anyone else has photos of a decorated tree from the event and would like to email them to me, I would love to share them with our readers.

And speaking of photos, don’t forget PaperTigers’ Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project. Send in a photo of your child’s bookshelf and you could win a selection of 5 age-appropriate books to add to your little one’s bookshelf! So far, we have heard from The Philippines, Canada, the UK, US, Sweden and India. We want to see bookshelves from all corners, though, and to hear about the books that inhabit them so next time you have your camera handy, snap a quick bookshelf photo and send it to me at corinne(at)papertigers(dot)org . Hopefully our combined photos will offer a glimpse of a big world made smaller through books and reading. Don’t worry about capturing the whole bookshelf/book collection in the photo. A partial image, along with a reading-related anecdote and/or a few lines describing the bookshelf’s content, should be enough to help us connect across languages and cultures.

For more details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #12:
Aiden and Heather
6 years old and 4 years old
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Our bookshelf has a mix of books. For the wanna-be paleontologist in the family, there are many many dinosaur books, with a few pirate and Scooby-Doo books thrown in for fun. For our princess, there are Dora, ballet and of course princess themed books. Their uncle in Australia often sends them Australian-themed books too.

Submitted by: Heather

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #11:
Anav and Kanva
4 years old and 2 years old
Bangalore, Karnataka, India

This used to be the place for the gods & slowly got replaced by books
as the 2 little ones took over. They have a mixture of Indian &
western books; English till now. The books area is just a foot above
the ground & it gives them a chance to squat on the floor while
reading ;o)

Submitted by: Ranjini

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Last weekend The Vancouver Sun newspaper published an interesting article entitled “What do kids love most? Their parents reading to them.” Nick Vinocur reported on the results from a recent study that surveyed 500 children aged three to eight in Britain and found that half of the children said story time was their favorite pastime with their parents! Almost two-thirds of the children polled said they wanted their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed and 82% said reading a story with their parents helped them to sleep better. Storytelling ranked higher than television or video game amongst pastimes for kids and the best storytellers, according to the children surveyed, were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving.

Child psychologist Richard Woolfson led the study and says:

The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children’s lives. It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong bond and play a vital part in their child’s development.

Click here to read the entire article.

I had to include the photo of my husband reading to our son Evan as it is one of my favorites and I still find it hard to believe that my first-born is now 12 years old. How time flies! Such fond memories…

Speaking of photos, don’t forget to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf for our Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project. You will be automatically entered in a drawing to win a selection of 5 age-appropriate books to add to your little one’s bookshelf! See the sidebar for more details.

Bookshelf #10:
Emma
8 years old
Belcarra, Canada

I took this picture myself. We have a lot of bookshelves in our house but this is a very important one because it is filled with books we will never give away. Some of these books were my mom’s when she was little but most were given to my brother and me and we want to save them forever. In our house, when we receive a book from a family member, they sign and date the first page. It is neat to look at some of the books and see the inscriptions. One of the books was given to my mom on Easter 1972 from my great-grandma and great-grandpa. Another book was given to my mom on the day she was born! The Paddington Bear books were my mom’s when she was little and they were the first chapter books that I read all on my own. The books about space and science are my brother’s and most of the books with dogs are mine. One of my favorite books is Just Dog by Hiawyn Oram. There are some books here that have torn pages or covers but we won’t throw them out because they are too special and they have lots of good memories. We keep our library books in a separate spot so that it is easier to find them when they are due.

Submitted by: Emma and her mom (Corinne)

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #9:
Addy and Elly
2-1/2 years old and 10 months old
Marlborough, United Kingdom

Submitted by: Sam

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Bookshelf #8:
Carlos Miguel
1 year & 7 months old
Manila, Philippines

Being a bibliophile myself, I would like my little boy to grow up around books. I would like to instill in him the passion for reading. Books develop and broaden horizons and for little ones, I believe that starting them young will help them as they grow older. I have taken snapshots of little Miguel’s own book collection. He shares a couple of shelves from me so his books will have their own places in the house. Being 1 year and 7 months old, his books range from coloring books to the educational/learning starter books such as the ABCs. The shelf above contains his coloring books, learning the alphabet and numbers books, beginner’s shapes books, board books of trucks, dogs and kittens, illustration books and flashcards with Barney’s photo, too. It also contains the kiddie books we bought from our MV Doulos trip.

This middle shelf contains his other mini board books and some glitter books. He also has some books featuring Winnie D Pooh and friends.

The bottom shelf contains his I Wonder Why books, a gift from his aunt. Also, it houses some baby-kiddie books meant for my reading.

As a mom, I am proud to say that he can now fully recite the ABC, count 1-15, recognize shapes!

Submitted by: Frances
http://ivan-ulrich.blogspot.com

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.