If you would have known me in university you probably would have told me that I was in the wrong line of study.  I was an English major that hated reading.  It was a miracle that I came out on the other side with a degree.

It wasn’t until that degree was hanging proudly on the wall that I began reading for pleasure for the first time since I could remember. There were no essays to be written, no presentations to be made and I started to love books. I couldn’t get enough of them.  My bookshelf, once filled with only ‘school books’ became overflowing with paperbacks.

When I later became a teacher there were countless times when I saw first hand how stories and books could help kids get through difficult situations.

Now that I’m a parent myself I love to share my passion for reading with my daughters.  We don’t watch a lot of television in our house, so reading stories has become a favourite past time of my oldest daughter, and I couldn’t be happier.

Most of the time, we read lighthearted, funny stories, but sometimes we share books that have a message and purpose.

Having a bilingual family can be completely normal for some, like my husband, who was raised bilingual.  But for someone like myself, who struggles with learning another language, I find it completely fascinating that my daughters have 2 first languages.  From birth I have only spoken English with our girls, and my husband only speaks with them in French.

This means that we have ended up with double the amount of books in our home library.  Some favourites have even made it on the shelf in both languages and from a surprisingly early age, our girls have know which books are in English, for me to read, and which are in French, for their Dad.

I’ll share with you a few books that have helped us get through tricky times with our kids.

There’s a House Inside My Mummy
By: Giles Andreae and Vanessa Cabban
My oldest daughter was only 12 months old when I became pregnant for the second time.  At 22 months she was a big sister.  Talk about a big responsibility!  Trying to explain the concept of a new baby joining your family to a child that is really just a big baby herself can be a hard concept to grasp at that age.

A friend bought me the book ‘There’s a House in Mummy’s Tummy’ and it was perfect.  Not only did my daughter enjoy reading it, but there’s a few adult jokes hidden in there that my husband and I both got a kick out of.

The Kissing Hand
By: Audrey Penn
When I used to teach Grade One there were many nervous little faces looking up at me on the first day of school.  There was a book that I remember reading to my class at the beginning of each school year, and this year I found myself searching for it as my daughter started school for the first time.

The Kissing Hand is about a little racoon who’s scared to leave his mom and go to school.  His Mom kisses the inside of his hand as a reminder that if he misses her during school time, she’ll be there for him.  Then the little racoon does the same for his Mom, in case she misses him.

What I didn’t anticipate were the tears that I’d have reading this book to my own daughter, wondering how she was already heading off to school.

Dora va a l’ecole
By: Albin Michel
Dora is very popular in our house.  We’ve got Dora, plates, cutlery, bedsheets and PJs.  The book my husband chose for the first day of school was all about Dora going to school, because he knew that if it was okay with Dora, it would be okay with our little explorer!

How about you? What books have helped you and your family get over the little hurdles along the way?

This was written as a part of the TD Reads Campaign.  All opinions are my own.