When our children are little, it is very common for them to bring a book for us to read to them. Often it is a book that we have read dozens, if not hundreds of times. It’s easy to get tired of the same book. Sometimes we try to get them to choose another book, sometimes we change the words or try to rush or skip pages and sometimes we just put it off for another day. It can be tedious to read the same book over and over.

It can be hard to understand why they seem to choose the same book day after day when they have so many other options to choose from. It may be easier to accept their constant preference for the same book when you realize that it isn’t really about the book. It is about you. The way you read the book brings them great joy. Perhaps they love the comforting way you read the story, perhaps you always make them laugh at the same part, or perhaps at the same point in each story you lean down and kiss them on the forehead. For whatever reason, this book is a prize winning script and your child has just awarded you an academy award. This is your crowning performance and he never tires of asking for an encore.

My sons favorite book was Green Eggs & Ham and we read it so many times that he had it memorized and would recite parts of it with me. I will admit that there were times that I would try anything to get him to choose another book, any other book, just so I wouldn’t have to read one more time about Sam I Am, who apparently was a lobbyist for the pork and poultry council.