Where it All Began

I was recently helping a friend move to a new home and was admiring her amazing collection of books. One book that particularly caught my eye was an illustrated copy of Rudyard Kipling's, "The Jungle Book." It was unabridged, oversized, hardback, and full of color illustrations.

That's when I had my "ah-ha" moment.

It so happens that I read Rudyard Kipling to my boys last year and, though I'd purchased what I thought was a lovely copy with a hardback yellow cover and a few black and white sketches inside, I felt like our family could have had an even more memorable experience by enjoying an edition full of color illustrations and lovely artwork together.

Since family read-aloud is a big part of our family culture I wanted to take that tradition to the next level by filling our lives with books that are both great and beautiful.

In my mind, the ideal book has a few components:

Oversized
Hardback
Full of Color Illustrations
Unique Artwork that Inspires Imagination
Unabridged Text

We may not get every component every time, but I've created this blog to chronicle our journey as we search for the best and most beautiful books for our family read-aloud.