It's Canadian Children's Book Week!

As the resident book reviewer at Today's Parent, I feel very lucky. On a daily basis, I receive new (and unreleased!) books from all sorts of different publishers. Baby books, picture books, chapter books, comic books — I get them all. (And they precariously teeter around my desk, threatening to spill over if someone so much as breathes on them!)

I love poring through the books, learning about new authors and then getting to share some of my favourites every month. (Although picking just a few to share each month is such a painstaking process!) And that's why I'm so glad that we have events like Canadian Children's Book Week, which celebrates some of our best authors and illustrators. There are author readings happening across the country, so if you've got a bookworm, check out the site for a location near you.   

I come from a family of big readers and, as cheesy as it may sound, books really are something magical to me. Reading an old book can take me back to a time or place much like a familiar scent can remind others of the past. I love that I can open a page and get transported to an entirely different reality. And I love being able to share that feeling with others. 

I can so clearly remember when my mom took me to see Ann M. Martin (author of The Babysitters Club series) when I was a kid. I may have also chased down Robert Munsch for an autograph in the not-so-distant past ...

Some of my favourite childhood books (new and old) include:

• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
• Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
• Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt
• Big Sarah's Little Boots by Paulette Bourgeois
• The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
• The Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene

And I share these books and others as often as I can with everyone and anyone who will listen to me (my niece and husband included.) What are some of your family's favourite books?

Photo by courosa via Flickr.