Today’s Critic’s Notebook by Dwight Garner discusses beloved picture books his family read together for years as he nostagically packs them away in boxes. Now that his children are 13 and 15, Mr. Garner is admitting it’s time to put them away and that family read-alouds are a thing of the past. He fondly pays tribute to “The Day the Babies Crawled Away,’ “The Train They Call the City of New Orleans,” and other family favorites. He describes a ‘popcorn reading party’ which was a way to share books not just at bedtime. He remarks on how picture books recall family memories and now that the children are older, “Our splendid nightly book club has ended its run.” A short list of his family favorites are included at the end of the column.
