On Blue Cats and Amazon.

About a month ago we ended up with an Amazon gift card. We could only use it for the U.S. Amazon so we decided to buy books. Childrens' books. I ended up spending my last cash on books a few times so it was only natural for us not to buy stuff for ourselves but to instead buy books, I long wanted, for our kids that are not available in Croatia. Now that I wrote this I realize I did kind of buy this for me too. I really enjoy teaching them new stuff. It's amazing how much kids can learn if you present the information in an age-appropriate manner. They can even make you rethink stuff you believe if you encourage them to ask questions. Their questions are not tainted by some things we were taught not to question or we took at face value. They are genuine, honestly curious and often brilliantly insightful.

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Last year I participated in a bit of a heated discussion in a fairly big mommy-group on Facebook. It all started with a concerned mom posting a picture of a book called ''Babies first words'' that featured a blue cat on the cover and had words in it like ''Barn'' (Štagalj) and ''Piano''(that was actually called Piano in the book) and ''Skipping rope'' (Uže za preskakanje) if I remember correctly. The woman was concerned, I would go as far as to say she was annoyed, that such book is marketed for babies. Her concern was that those words aren't for babies and, what especially stuck with me, there were also complaints about the blue cat on the cover. Their argument was that the kids are going to think cats are blue. I was very taken aback by the way they understood reading and books. Why would they think a baby would think cats are blue after reading a book and not think pigs could talk after watching Peppa? Why would they think ''skipping rope'' or ''barn'' are not age appropriate words? Not that the book was saying ''genocide'' or ''fellatio'' or ''fuck you mother for reading this utterly preposterous book to me''. Did they really think so little of their kids?

The controversial baby book

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Right about that time a video came across my news feed about this series of books from Chris Ferrie, a Senior Lecturer in Centre for Quantum Software and Information at the University of Technology, Sydney. The book was called ''Quantum Physics. '' I won't go into much detail about this book, or other ones that we own from this author, but I thought to myself, what would they say if they heard about this? Those mothers? And as I looked more into it I really wanted to present my kids with this ideas. And I did. A friend that came over from the US bought them for me: Quantum Physics for Babies, General Relativity for Babies and Newtonian Physics for Babies. They were so much fun. So this time around we got three books from his ABC's series: ABC's of Mathematics, Physics, and Science. Now, I obviously don't think I'm raising baby Einsteins or that my kids are more gifted or brighter than other kids. I really, truly, believe that each child ever born is brilliant in its own way. I believe that if it could just have the world and educational system that would speak to him, to each child, according to their ability, their personality, and treat them as equal in worth and tell them they are capable and able, we would see their brilliant starting to shine through. Kids are curious by default and they are artful by default, which is their great advantage over us, adults, and if we don't screw them up they will come through.

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Actual photo of me discovering the package the day I went to replace the dismembered internet modem adapter.

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This was the first time we got anything off of Amazon and I was so excited when the books came because I did not expect them to be here in 10 days time. I actually plan to save all my earning from the ''kids books'' series and invest in more books. Because you really cannot have nor read too many books. I remember I use to read so much in school my librarian in my primary school didn't believe me I've actually read the book when I tried to return it. It was ''Love or Death'' by a famous Croatian kids author Ivan Kušan. They even made it into a movie. I devoured that one.

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Thinking Art

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I would consider it a great parenting success if my kids would love to read. I lived in Hogwarts for years thanks to books. I've been around the world in 80 days and in the center of the world. I've visited Winterfell and I've been all over Wells with the Famous Five. Not to mention, kind of oddly now I think of it, how many love stories I've seen made happen in Ireland. I guess I'm drawn to Irish love stories. Reading takes you to places and worlds, wonderful ones, you never knew you wanted to visit. It makes you wanna try all thing ginger and butterbeer and it makes you have compassion for the least popular and for the worst ones. All art forms have their place but there will never be a form more dear to my heart then the written word. Because, as mama Ru would put it, reading is what? Fundamental. And I will make it my New Years Resolution #11 to read to them, and with them, more.

Here are some books of ours that I plan to write about:

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The Book With No Pictures by B.J.Novak. I'll just say my kids love this so much they read it a million times and even made @redrumtom read it to them when he came over.

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Other stuff I wanted to write about is vintage editions and classics. Also, the importance of reading classical fairy tales to kids.

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Books on foreign languages and the importance of seeing how thing are written when learning a new language.

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Books about religion. I don't like the idea of holiday celebration being just about Christmas presents and egg hunting. I would like them to understand the story behind it and to get to know customs of our faith. Well, my faith. I have no idea what they will grow up to believe. I would like to get some books about other religions. I have friend and acquaintances that are Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish so I'll ask them to help me out.

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Oh, this one is a gem! Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls. I was following this story on social networks. Well, Facebook, because I'm an idiot for any other social network. It started out as a brilliant idea and with a little help of crowdfunding, it became reality and quickly got translated into many languages.

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I look forward to expanding this theme through a series of posts and I would love to hear, well, to read, your input. Wich books do you pick for your kids? Did you read any of the ones I've mentioned? Do you have any book recommendations? If you wrote something about kids books send me a link or if you plan to write something use the hashtag #booksrock so I can find you. And a shoutout to my friend @dumar022 for teaching me how to do those little dividing lines around the pictures.

P.S. I taught my kids to Macarena. I won parenting today.