What Are Books For?

What are books for?  I thought they were for reading; for enjoying; for learning things; for transporting yourself to whole new worlds and possibilities.

Well, in the last few weeks I have discovered that books are for a lot more.  Here are some of the other reasons you, or at least your toddler, might want to have books in the house.

1. They are a great way of staying up a little bit longer; point at Smile, Crocodile Smile, The Tiger Who Came To Tea or We’re Not Sleepy and there is a fairly good chance that daddy or mamãe will read you another story before trying to insist that it really is time to go to bed.

2. If you leave your books on the floor and then step on them, they stick to your feet.  How cool is that?

3. Look at all of the pictures over and over again.

4. Find the picture of a car and point at it and shout ‘Car’ as loud as you possibly can for as long as you possibly can.

5. Organise them so that they are in a pile in just the right way.  Don’t let mamãe or daddy help you, because the toddler’s way is the only way.

6. Use it as a tool to try to reach the ball you threw under the sofa.  You saw daddy do it once and it looked brilliant.  It doesn’t matter if the ball is only 2cm away, you have to use Father Christmas Needs A Wee.

7.  If you get all of your books out and leave them on the floor and then walk away to play with your cars in the living room you can make mamãe shout at daddy.

8. There is no greater feeling than getting a book that daddy is reading to you, and obviously enjoying, and grabbing the page and trying to rip it to shreds.  Hours of fun.

So, what else has Thomas yet to discover about books?  What else are books for, from a toddler’s point of view.  Any ideas, just leave them in the comments box so I know what other pleasure I have have in store.