Children’s Books Can Carry Lessons Kids Need to Learn (Even If We’re Not Ready) by Dawn Taylor

When my son, Bailey, was 4 I borrowed a few books from my sister to add some variety to his story time. One of the books was called "Spotty" and was written by H. A. Rey and Margret Rey. For the sake of this tip I won't google it to see what the message really was because I want to have the memory untainted.

It was about a family of white bunnies and one was all spots and was treated differently than his many siblings. I started wondering where the story was going. It seemed such a deep topic, but Bailey seemed to be enjoying the book, his eyes were wide and he was completely focused.

When the family of white bunnies is getting ready to go to an outing the mother decides to leave Spotty home alone so as not to upset the grandpa (I think) who isn't fond of spots on bunnies, and before I could turn the page Bailey was sobbing. He could barely speak.

Why was he was crying? Bailey's words came out in pieces: " Spotty." "Alone." "Why are they leaving him?"

I wrapped my arms around him and assured him everything would be OK. I jumped ahead to show him it all turned out OK. Spotty was an intense read and I worried I could not explain it well. But Bailey had already learned compassion at age 4.

I didn't need to explain.

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