Reading favorite books to children

When the Children’s Reading Foundation of the Tennessee Valley participates in community events, we usually have a drawing to give away free children’s books.  As a part of the free drawing entry, we ask parents to name their children’s favorite books.   

Without fail, books in the Llama llama series by Anna Dewdney are frequently listed as favorite books. So, we were not surprised when we recently received a photograph of a parent reading “Llama llama red pajama” to her two children. Another series of books that often appears as favorites are those by Dr. Seuss.  

This started us thinking about what books did our grandparents read to our parents when they were children?  We recently learned of at least one book that answered our question, The Perhappsy Chaps, written in 1918 by Ruth Plumly Thompson and illustrated by Arthur Henderson. 

How do we know about The Perhappsy Chaps book?  From another photograph of a parent reading to a child.  Okay, the parent in this picture has stopped reading, both father and son have fallen asleep. The parent in this photograph is James M. Leitnaker, President of the Children’s Reading Foundation of the Tennessee Valley.  He has never lost his interest and excitement in reading books to children.

One more tidbit of information.  Thompson was also the author of a favorite series of children's books, twenty-one of the Oz books, which she wrote after Frank Baum passed away. Thompson’s Oz books, starting with The Royal Book of Oz  published  in 1921 and ending with The Enchanted Island of Oz in  1976.