If I’m being honest, there are books I really don’t enjoy reading to my children. I know it’s a sentimental favorite, but I sort of hate “Guess How Much I Love You” and have been known to abbreviate “Little Nutbrown Hare” and “Big Nutbrown Hare” to “Big Rabbit” and “Little Rabbit.”

But, you do it because your kids love them. Or, when I was doing speech therapy in the schools, because a book was well suited to the speech or literacy goals we were working on.

Lately, my toddler is very into “Baking Day at Grandma’s,” a book we received from theImagination Library (an amazing program for anyone who’s not familiar). I can’t say I really love it, or even enjoy it, but it piques his interest because he loves to help me in the kitchen and gets into repeating “It’s baking day, it’s baking day, it’s baking day at Grandma’s.”

Even so, I was amazed when we finished reading this page and he said “Mama, they no have a kitchen helper. Them need one or them fall off!”

Not only had he heard and understood some new vocabulary (the “tippy legs”) referenced in the last line, but he also made a connection from the book to his own life. When he helps in the kitchen at our house, he stands on a kitchen helper (sometimes called a learning tower) my husband made him. We often tell him “Get on your kitchen helper instead of the stool so you don’t fall off.”

I know I’ve modeled making connections for him before–pointing out that the alligator in the book was like the alligator on his hat, or that we have a stuffed animal like the one in the book. Even so, I was surprised and delighted that he made that connection. It’s great to know some of the early literacy skills I’ve been hoping to teach him have caught on. Making connections is such an easy thing to do as adults, but is a comprehension strategy that really helps little people gain a better understanding of what they’re reading.

I’m not saying I’m going to pull out “Guess How Much I Love You” and put it into the regular rotation, but I suppose Baking Day can stick around a little while longer, at least while he’s interested in it and making those connections. Tell me in the comments what you’re reading with your littles lately.