Granny Torrelli

I love to read to my girls at night. The trick is to find a book that's great to read aloud. Many times we pick books of movies we want to see, since that's a rule in our house and it's fun to do it together. We also love recommendations - so send them our way. When we find a good one, it's a fabulous incentive for my girls to get in bed so we can finish the story. We hit the jackpot with our current read. It's got all the qualifications for a good "read aloud" book.

• Short chapters - great for reading 1, 2, or 4 - whatever you have time for
  
• Developed characters
• Characters with accents (this one happens to be Italian, which reminds me of Marie - she actually recommended the book). I butcher them - I bet you didn't know that Italian can sometimes sound Irish, or Greek, or even Mexican - but that's okay, the kids love it when I read with an accent.
• Good writing
• Wonderful story
  
• Laugh out loud funny
• And, as we found out tonight, very touching

After sniffling my way through the last 2 chapters of tonight's reading, I could sense that we were all very moved by the story. Tabitha then asked if Ellie could sleep in her bed. Ellie said she still had a little homework, and I explained that we have to get up early tomorrow, but maybe on Friday night. Then Tabitha did something that is rare for these two. She got out of bed, walked over to Ellie with her arms open wide, and gave her sister a huge hug. And Ellie let her! I would read to them every night forever if I could get even just one more of those precious moments.