I have always loved books and reading and couldn’t wait to read stories to my son after he was born. I even read books to him when he was still in my belly! But from early on, his disdain for books and other reading material was made painfully clear.

When he was a baby, we’d get about half-way through a story before he’d start trying to kick the book out of my hand, or grab it to chew on. This continued through to toddlerhood, where he advance to wrestling the book from my hands and throwing it across the room.

I still try reading to him often, but it can be so frustrating that I don’t do it as much as I’d like. So my initial reaction when Good Night Books contacted me about reviewing a set of their books was, no way we can make it through all those. Then my second idea was, even if it does take me months, it’s a good challenge! This will be good for us! They have a ton of titles to appeal to children interested in all kinds of different things and also ones based on places, so I chose some of Keelan’s favorite things like trucks and planes and then a couple Florida based stories, and then they sent a few of their choosing so we got a great selection.

He’s not so receptive to bedtime stories, so I decided we’d try reading them before afternoon “quiet time,” which is what has replaced nap time. (God how I miss real nap time!) The books all start with the morning and go through the day until it’s time to say goodnight, so it works to read them during the day too.

We’ve managed to fully make it through three of the eight books. Each time we finish a book completely, then I review it on Amazon.

It’s quite a process to get through each one at first, but the second time he seems more into it. And a couple times he’s picked up the books and asked me to read to him. I don’t care what I’m doing, I will drop anything to sit and read with him. It’s a Mom thing I dreamed about doing but rarely get to enjoy.

I’m glad I said yes to Good Night Books because having that obligation to complete my task and get through all the books keeps pushing me to pick them up and try again. And every time we make it through an entire story it makes me hopeful that maybe a little of my love for reading is rubbing off on him.