Each time I go to the library with my daughter, I show her books. “This one’s got dogs!” “Look, a duck!” But she sits in the rocker, or chews on a train, or presses her snotting nose against the glass of a papier mache Charlotte’s Web display.

Then we’re in the picture books. She sees one, and she points, excited. Finally, I think, a book she wants. And I go to grab it…

…and it’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

“What? We own this book.”

“Ehn!”

“It’s sitting on our bookshelf.”

“Ehn!”

“I read it four times yesterday!”

She looks at me as if to say, What part of “Ehn!” don’t you understand?

“Fine.”

I plop her on the carpet. I place the book between us, and open the first page. And for the first time since I brought her inside, she sits still.

“Brown Bear, Brown bear, what do you see…”