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I have three sons. Only one is married, the other two don't seem to be so inclined. I had three old copies of A Child's Garden of Verses to give to each. I still have two.

There was a story on NPR that indicated you cannot begin reading to children too early in their lives. They might not really understand all that is being said, but the story is not really the point. The idea is that words are part of that person's life and if they begin early enough, then an appreciation of words (fiction, poetry, oratory) should follow. They quoted some studies, but I don't have that information handy.

As a child I had A Child's Garden of Verse. My mother read the poems to me and I can still recite the one about "When I was sick and lay in bed, I had two pillows for my head".Loved that book. It's never too early to read to a child.

For several years, I read to some of the residents at one of the local nursing homes. Most of the time, I read short fiction (I had 45 minutes and could not go over). Occasionally, I would read some Mother Goose stuff and it was amazing to me to watch the residents as their eyes twinkled as I read those aloud. It was obvious that some of them knew them so well they could do it with me. Others were fun, old stories - like the 3 Billie Goats Gruff!

They loved that stuff. Changes at the nursing home kept me from continuing. I miss that time with the residents.

I agree, it is never too soon to start reading to a child. We have a stack of children's books at the house and we've been reading to him all along.
What caught my fancy about the" A Child's Garden of Verse. " is that I could identify with the subjects and I thought I could introduce RL stories among the poems. And I'm glad to see your RL stories about these poems.
The difference about now and then, is that I'd be reading from a computer, a tablet and even a phone.
But the message is the same.
Thanks for the links Don, I'm checking them out.

No, don't go there...

Get the book from a real library, let him/her help you hold the heft of it, sit on your lap, or close, with the book spread out
so both can see and follow, and make learning words and how to use them gold.

Dear Grandson, has had his own iPad since he was 6yo and he is quite proficient in using it. He will not be surprised to see " Robert Louis Stevenson " on an iPad.
I agree, it is not the same reading from a hardback as it is from a iPad,
Good idea, to get a hardback and give him a choice.

When I was a child I had a big book that had a really large number of stories in it, but for the life of me, I can't remember the name of it. I just loved to read from that book. Since I learned to read at a very young age, Mother use to tell me that at times she would have to almost take the book away from me to get me to eat dinner. I still have a strong love of reading. The only reading of books or long articles that I do in which I do not have a hard copy is when I do the CEs for my nursing license renewals. Guess I am really old fashioned, but I love the feel and smell of books.

I'll try to dig my toy box out of the closet in the spare bedroom and see if the book is in there. Most of my books were lost when our house burned in '60. If it's there, I let you know the name of it.

Mary