Meet Mardi.

When you get a new book in the mail, what’s the first thing you do? Wait, that’s a stupid question.

The obvious choice is to rip that box open and tear in right away! Especially when it’s a book about a puppy. Meet Mardi, by Linda Dembo, is a sweet story about how a puppy comes to meet her family, taking some adventures along the way. Penny adores puppies in all shapes and sizes and she was absolutely enthralled with this story! You can see it in her expressions as she flips through the pages. Whenever she’s into something these days, she taps at the picture a bunch of times as she says the name of the person or thing. Mawwwwww-di has been heard a LOT in this house lately!

I also love that the story ends with a “life lesson” that Mardi has learned. At this point, Penny is a smidge young to be internalizing the moral of the story, but that’s the beautiful thing about story. Toddlers love reading the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over….but with all that repetition the story and its morals sink in deep over time. And this one is great. Sometimes life is uncomfortable and change can be no fun, but then great things can come of it! Part of raising strong kids is sprinkling these truths into their lives on a regular basis. Exposure to hard lessons through books makes the lessons a little easier to stomach when they present themselves in “real” life.

Find out how to get your own copy of Meet Mardi here. And while you’re at the website check out some of the fun games they have for Mardi fans!