Well, here I be with my last blog of the year. It’s bittersweet to look back on all the transitions I’ve made creatively, but the most important realization I had seems so elementary now – I should write about what I want to write about. I so, so appreciate the directions that I’ve taken, including the dead ends and bumps along the way. I began with hopes of a monthly music review, but that obviously was unsustainable because I simply had too many thoughts for each song. Next, I drifted into a levitating path that included a mashup of my personality through reminiscing (Sentimentality) and looking ahead (It’s My Birthday: the 17th One) – 17 has been great by the way. And then finally….I found a beat that I really loved and really made sense; I started sharing what I have already written for myself.

I know I’ve said this a million times by now, but my Notes app is so precious to me. It’s evidence of my innate need to write and through blogging it, I’ve uncovered the value of those words that were just for me. Recording all the different parts of myself, knowing myself, and expressing myself is all pretty cool, but it’s brought to life when I can put it out there on a platform. I feel connected in a different way when others have the chance to relate. Anyway, in contrast to reflecting and reminiscence, the last list I want to share is one for the future – these are all the books I will most definitely be buying my children.

This list includes all the lessons and entertainment I want them to have from infancy until when they will choose books on their own, but my main goal is to foster a love for literature in my kids. I want reading time to be a regular occurrence in my house, and I hope it guides my children’s imagination and values as they mature. I hope they see themselves and diversity in the characters created by authors across the world. I hope they absorb the Spanish language and culture through translated versions of all the toddler classics. Most of all, I hope they see kids being kids (monsters as they are) in characters like a wild David Shannon from his children’s memoir series No David! and an explorative Peter from Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day.

Of course, if they aren’t readers, then that’s how it was meant to be, but at least I’ll gain this nostalgic feeling for myself. Many of the books on this list are my childhood and middle school favorites, or even literature I turn to now, so to have them on my children’s shelves will be an accomplishment itself. Others of these books I’ve come to know by being an older sister to small children today. I have loved watching them light up to the characters and storylines they immerse themselves in. The rest of these books I found online by intentionally searching for children’s stories which show the messages I want to show my kids – children simply living in a culture that is different from ours, children questioning authority and systems, children being ok with failure, etc.

Maybe you will see something you like and add it to your own list – happy reading 🙂

1. it’s my body
2. jesus storybook bible
3. cordouroy
4. if you give a mouse a cookie
5. amelia badelia
6. pete the cat
7. where the wild things are
8. harry potter
9. goodnight moon
10. chronicles of narnia
11. dork diaries
12. holes
13. bernstain bears (especially …and the spooky old tree)
14. juny b
15. diary of a wimpy kid
16. the little prince
17. brown bear brown bear
18. cam jensen
19. a fly went by
20. i am not a duck
21. chrysanthemum
22. zen pig
23. little lucy and her little white lies
24. everyone poops
25. my brother martin
26. the very hungry caterpillar
27. the nutcracker
28. dream big, little one
29. llama llama red pajama
30. no, david!
31. the story of my open adoption
32. fry bread
33. mommy momma and me
34. the name jar
35. i am mixed
36. stolen words
37. wonder
38. song for a whale
39. make good the promises
40. the rainbow fish
41. the snowy day
42. one
43. this is how we do it
44. children’s encyclopedia
45. the big book of why