Over the past few days Abigail has become fanatic in her passion for books. She must have some big cognitive or verbal developmental leap in the works. If she is playing on her own, she tries to read them by herself until she gets frustrated. Then she calls me over and we read books together, one after the other, over and over. She cries each time a book is finished and hands it to me to be read again. She even wants to read the books she normally doesn’t like, such as The Giant Jam Sandwich, which is more of a big kid book and doesn’t have much to attract her yet.

This morning I decided to do an experiment. I went through the entire house and gathered up all her books. I lined them up on a low bookshelf and let Abi choose which books to read and how many times to read each one. I wasn’t going to stop reading until she stopped asking. The results:

42 consecutive minutes of reading time
13 books read cover to cover
1 of those read 2 times in a row
2 of those read 3 times in a row
1 of those read 6 times in a row
2 books partially read and discarded
prefers books with photos
prefers books with repetition or rhyme
prefers elaborate pictures to simple ones

We were both feeling antsy and drained by the time she finally cried uncle and went to knock over block towers and practice her standing and walking. I bet she takes a long nap.