Just as I turned to help my 5-year-old retrieve a book on bats from a top shelf, my 3-year-old escaped my attention, wandered over to another row, and scaled the stacks. Yikes! I plucked him off the shelves. "But," he protested, "I want the red one." Choosing a book by its color! The book was "McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm" by Sid Fleischman, part of a series of tall tales about the farm, a fantastic find that was as funny for adults as for children. We read them many times. Dozens of times. We checked out each of the books, all of the books, renewed the books, pulled them out from the book return to take them home again. We bought the books. Today, they are a huge favorite of the next generation. I have read them aloud, each has read them to themselves, and they read them to their younger siblings. A red book.
