Young children seem to develop a strong attachment to certain storybooks.
It’s great to be able to calm them down at bedtime with a reassuringly familiar tale…although as a parent, reading the same book fifteen nights in a row (without being allowed to introduce any interesting characterisations to the narrative) can become a chore.
Today’s invention is a book cover which contains a small microphone and enough digital storage to record a version of every book in the house, being read by every grown-up family member.
The child recipients of these stories should still get cuddled during each performance, but parents can glaze over at the end of a hard day without having to actually say the words (again).
This would work particularly well as a memento of grandparents, after they are no longer around.
Ok, I have to take issue with this one. I have 5 kids (the wife is a
catholic, I am merely a careless athiest). I have read to each of them
since they were able to listen. It is as much for me as them! I know you
had your tonugue firmly placed in cheek, but I want to relay a soppy
story.
When our first child was about 6 I started reading her “The World of
Pooh”, a compendium of “Winne The Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner”.
An aunt had bought this for me when I was 4 (I only know this precisely
because of the dedication she scrawled inside the front cover).
I am not sure if you know these books, I would imagine you do. But in
the last pages of the last chapter of the last book, Christopher Robin
is leaving the nursery to go to school and the animals are worried what
will become of them.
I have to say that I simply could NOT read those pages to my daughter. I
got about half way down the last page and just broke into sobs. I was
re-living my distress as a young child that the story was ending. My
daughter was surprisingly supportive – and knew what the problem was!
“Don’t cry daddy, we can read it again”.
As I say, a soppy story – worth sharing though.
Cheers mate