Tara Reads

Tara reads. Book Day got it started with its gift lo a book about Magic Molly, a vet's daughter with the magic ability of speaking with animals. It has a pink cover, had "magic" in the title, she chose it herself and read it cover to cover.
Her next discovery were Fairy Bears. Pink cover? Pink wings? But of course! They have her anthralled and go like this: On Firelfly Meadon, in an old sycamore tree, down a forgotten squirrel hole and into the hollow trunk there are the Crystal Caves, home of the Fairy Bears. Fairy Bears work hard by day and night to care for nature and keep human children safe. They go to school to learn their magic, and even when still so young and cute, get sent out on their First Mission by their teacher. Oh how fearful they are that they might fail in saving that injured bird/human child! But over the course of some 80 pages they learn to believe in themselves and their special powers, overcome any obstacle and return to the Crystal Caves triumphant!
Tara can't get enough!
The next series of choice is called "Rainbow Magic," and amazing money making machinery along similar lines as the Fairy Bears that churns out at least five books a year, it seems. If not pink in cover (At least they agree that thay can't have all 200 plus books in one colour only), then surely pink in content, and Tara starts collecting. And devouring them. And, no doubt, jumping up the Reading Steps ladder at school.

Fairy Bears. If it's got wings we'll read it.

Bedtime gone, come ten pm, Tara still can't get enough. There she is, sat up in bed well after her third reminder that children who don't go to sleep on time will be sad and sorry in the morning.
Mum and dad are downstairs, and we can her her little voice read out each word aloud. Eventually I will send a thundering daddy up "to go and switch off our daughter." (But I can't help thinking back of a smaller me reading to all sorts of hours under the covers, torch or no torch, taking 40-odd books out for the summer holidays and running out by week four. Different subject matter, but who am I to compare and judge, for one, I was much older - hah! I could not read at age five!)

Leo, too, is spellbound. Stories pouring fourth from his sister! Amazing! Must sneak up and listen! The boy loves his stories just as much. Three years before I'll know whether he'll go for creatures with wings or rather start on Horrid Henry and other boyish reading material... Tara loves Horrid Henry too. Tara loves anything, really. Tara reads the cereal boxes and pages from my books. Book loving children. It's hereditary.

(But really, anything will do...)