I Need You

A boy at school is obsessed with the Berenstain Bears. Actually able to read only the odd two-letter word, he has memorized every word on every page. He thumbs through them reciting aloud until they are dog-eared, and then disintegrate beyond repair. They are his go-to place, his comfort objects. Considering no one else has his level of fascination for the books, the constant monologue can get pretty tedious for anyone within earshot. Given this and a real concern that being so fixated on one thing is not helping him progress, some of the adults in the classroom work on diverting his attention elsewhere. Sometimes the books even take a vacation for awhile. Which makes sense, but also gives me pause. Grown-ups have comfort things that give each day routine--cups of coffee, food that isn’t good for them, Farmville--but the kids don’t get to weigh in on those. I can just imagine what would happen if anybody suggested the adults needed to drink something else for the day and declared the coffee off-limits! Scarlett is my only binkie baby and, boy, is she dedicated. She has to have one for her mouth and several in each hand. She looks like Binkie Wolverine. Now that she’s two, we get more disapproval for letting her be attached to it, but we really are at a loss to see why we should take it away. In Helen Oxenbury’s Tom and Pippo’s Day, boy and monkey are never separated. They’re more comfortable that way.
http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Pippos-Pippo-Board-Books/dp/074456123X

http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Oxenbury/e/B000AP9MX6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1