bella likes books. she will often sit around the house or on the front porch with her head in one of the books out of the family library. obviously she can't read yet but watching her you wouldn't know this given the way she moves her finger along the lines of text and how she turns the pages in appropriate measures. many a passerby has stopped while bella is sitting on the stoop with a hefty tome in her lap and me mowing the lawn to ask if that little girl is reading that book. my reply, why the hell wouldn't she be?

she mostly reads out loud so any around may enjoy the story as well. i will say with parent-like conviction that there's nothing quite like a bella-reading. if she's enjoying a nancy drew, she may rename her colleen. and if nancy, or rather colleen, runs into some bad guys it's not that unusual for her to be set on fire. but since she's the star and smart and strong, she knows to jump into a conveniently ever-present pool of water thus extinguishing the flames. and then, as with all good adolescent fiction, a bursting can of whoop-ass gets opened up on the dastardly saps who chose, unwisely, to set poor nancy, uhm, colleen, on fire in the first place.