Jamie Lee Curtis is actually a great children's author

I don't normally seek out celebrity authors as I'm not really sure how good their books are, but I came across Jamie Lee Curtis's books as I was trawling ebay for new books to buy and subsequently read to my daughter. I usually buy book lots as its good value for money (sometimes you get 5-10 books in one go) and it becomes a starter set if you want to follow any reading series, like Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, Karen Katz etc. When I saw Jamie's book lot, I went on Amazon to read the reviews and the books were averaging 4-5 stars. Here's an example from MotherLodeBeth of Sierras, California on 'Im Gonna Like Me'.
'...its not a sappy feel good self esteem book but more along the lines of we are all human and fall down, and feel we don't fit in at times, but it is in keeping trying that is what make life work. And its a book that will appeal to boys and girls, males and females. And lest you think it is only for wee ones, its also a good book for teens, college kids, those going thru lifes many passages. Or for someone who is going thru a rough period in their lives.
As a rule I avoid celebrity books like the plague, but Ms Curtis is a true talent.'

So I got the book lot which consisted of four books, namely: I'm Gonna Like Me, Where Do Balloons Go?, It's Hard To Be Five and Is There Really A Human Race?. It was a good deal too at about USD15 plus FREE SHIPPING as each book retails for USD17.99 or maybe USD10 or so if you buy a marked down book at amazon.com.

In any case, when I got the books I put them away for later as I was thinking my 2 year old daughter wouldn't be able to appreciate the concepts in the books yet. A week ago though, she found one of the books while picking out books from her book case and asked me to read. We didn't finish it the first time as she lost interest midway but second time's the charm and thereafter she would drag the book around begging everyone in the household to read it to her, sometimes two or three times in a row. She likes the rhyming bits of course and the words are simple and easy to understand and the illustrations are quite detailed and colorful. Meanwhile, I like that it's not just a book for kids but also something that adults can appreciate as well, which is nice if you're reading a book four times a day.

In fact, my daughter's reading habit has become a bit out of control these days and I've asked my husband, 'Is there such a thing as reading too much at this age?' I'm not an early riser but I find myself being woken up by the sound of my daughter's pleas of 'Mymi, read! Mymi read!' And that's already after my husband has done his turn and has hidden himself under the bedcovers after being asked to read a particular book for the nth time. These days we have to rotate the task among me, my husband and my daughter's nanny and even then I read 4-5 books to my daughter in the morning, in the afternoon, after dinner and before bedtime. Sometimes I just want to say, 'Please baby can't we just watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Little Einsteins quietly?' I thought kids liked TV and gadgets more these days anyway? But of course I couldn't say that if I wanted to sustain my child's love of reading so I toil away and read read read.

I blame you Jamie Lee Curtis. You and your strangely addictive book.

To other mothers out there, don't say I didn't warn you.