Where the Bugaboo Lives, by Sean Taylor and Neal Layton

I am going to be honest and say that ‘Where the Bugaboo Lives’ is not one of my favourite books. To me it’s okay. There are some great lines: “I’m the oldest I’ve ever been”; and the characters, Floyd and Ruby, are lovable and interesting. I think for me I can’t get past the illustrations; they really aren’t my style.

However my kids can’t get enough of it. In the first week we had it home from the library I was asked to read it everyday. We have read it multiple times – no mean feat for a book that is roughly 60 pages long. In fact it is such a favourite and we read it so many times that my 4 yr old now insisted on ‘reading’ page 10 and 11 because she has them memorised.

The reason seems to be that they love the ‘choose your own adventure’ style of book. I haven’t come across a ‘choose your own adventure’ children’s picture book before, (If you know of any other good ones please let me know) but I’m telling you it seems to be a winner. They get to the end of the book and want to go right back the start and read it all over again making different choices. Eventually they just wanted to read it page by page to make sure they had followed all the paths that Floyd and Ruby could have gone on.

Sometimes as a parent you do things for your kids that are neither entertaining or interesting for you but rather they need. For example: pushing them on the swing; watching the hundredth lounge room dance concert; listening to all the intricate details of what today’s Lego car/airplane/boat/rocketship is capable of doing. Actually the list is really long. ‘Where the Bugaboo Lives’ is an example of a book that I read to my kids for their pleasure and learning, and that’s where I get my motivation to read it over and over, and that is just fine.