Books, Books and More Books

This week is February vacation, and the kids are off from school.

Julia hasn't gone overboard with her book-writing or anything:

In addition to creating all of these books, she insisted on reading each and every one to each and every member of the family.  Once we heard all of the books, we were required to choose our favorite.  Furthermore, no family member was allowed to prefer the same book as any other family member, since we all got our very own commemorative label:

Now, this wouldn't be a Julia endeavor if it only involved writing books and having us choose our favorites.  No, it most certainly doesn't stop there.  Julia has taken it upon herself to create an entire library.  This library will be open to the general public, and Julia is already worried that the demand will exceed her supply.

JULIA: But...Mom?  Do we even HAVE enough books for lots of people to check out?

She has also gone to the trouble of cataloguing her books, labeling each with a letter, as she has seen in the town public library, as well as her own school's media center.  The idea behind the letters seems to elude her, however; instead of labeling each with an "R," as in the first letter of her last name, she has instead assigned random letters willy-nilly to the books, proudly displaying them to me: "So, Mom, this book is 'X,' and this one is 'H!"

Julia is hardly able to contain her excitement over these new books.  Since Ethan was at work yesterday, during which she wrote these new works, he missed out on the mass reading until this morning.

JULIA: So!  Dad!  Can I read you all of these books?
ETHAN: (groggily) Uh...you can if you come in the kitchen and read them while I get the coffee going.
JULIA: I guess I'm, like, DESPERATE to read these books to you!

Among her newest books is this anthropomorphic tale about a boy and his talking backpack:

"But the Backpack Cips on Bablaling"
(translation: "But the Backpack Keeps on Babbling.")

This creative tale is the story of a boy named Max who purchases a brand new backpack.  But little does he know that his backpack is not just a means to store his school supplies.  This backpack is a chatterbox, and can't stop babbling at Max, day and night.  He even babbles at sckoole:

Max quickly becomes fed up with his babbling backpack, although it's a big hit with his little sister:

I'm not sure why Max doesn't decide to just give the babbling backpack to his sister, but maybe he has just been pushed to his limit, because, instead, he loses his cool and says he doesn't like the backpack.  And then...

"Now he does not babla but."

"I miss my frend."

Oh no!  This is getting serious!  Poor Max is sad.  Poor Babbling Backpack is sad.  Will they ever reconcile?!?

"So I nuw what to do and now he is happy."
Oh!  Hooray!  Max is going to let the backpack babble again!

"So we made a dilye."  And what a deal they made!  Look at how happy they both are; Max lounging contentedly in his bed while his backpack babbles away.

While this touchy-feely resolution feels like the perfect ending, Julia decided to go out on a cliff-hanger:

"O What will happin next?"
Oh man.  What WILL happen next?  Is Max about to get a singing clock?  Is there going to be a sequel so we find out Max's fate??!?

To check out this book in full, and to read through more new works, come check out  Julia's library, open every day!