When Drake was little, Mr. Chocolate and I did bedtime together most nights. We would take turns reading to him but as Drake got older, he had a marked preference for having me read to him every night. Since Juliet’s birth though, Mr. Chocolate ends up doing bedtime by himself often so I have started to buy some books for him to read that share his own personal interests. In the past I usually picked books for various criteria including story, illustration, content, etc. based on my own taste and interests, and what I found visually appealing. So I figured books in line with Mr. Chocolate’s interests would make story time a little more fun for him, allow him to share his likes with Drake (and in the future Juliet) and hopefully get Drake to grow an interest that they can share.

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Hockey
– Mr. Chocolate is a generational bleeds blue NY Rangers fan. His entire family, especially his father and his grandfather when he was alive, live, breathe and die for the Broadway Blueshirts. Their father’s man cave is a personal shrine to the team and Mr. Chocolate grew up loving the game with his dad. I know he is counting the days until he can take his kids to their first Rangers game at Madison Square Garden.  He has such fond memories of his own first time with his dad and sister, as well as when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup and they went to the ticker tape parade in NY to see the team.  When Drake was small I bought him Hockey ABC and Hockey 123 put out by the NHL.

Now that Drake is older I have added some books that talk a little more about the game and the rules (Little Hockey Sports), as well as this story about Wayne Gretzy (Magic Hockey Stick), the most famous hockey player ever. He was a Ranger at one point and the story is based on when he was on that team, which makes Mr. Chocolate love it even more.

Math/Science – Mr. Chocolate is a high school physics teacher. He use to be a math teacher before switching over to physics five years ago. Shows like The Big Bang Theory and Mythbusters are right up his alley, as he understands all the jokes and workings of the experiments. I recently found these two books about Albert Einstein — Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein and On a Beam of Light – that I thought Mr. Chocolate would enjoy reading to Drake.  They talk about Einstein as a child all the way up to his famous discoveries.

After finding those two I wondered if there were other books like that which taught about famous people to children. Paul Erdos was a famous math theorist whom Mr. Chocolate admires so I had to get The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos too.

I’ve found other books like these which highlight famous illuminates from Thomas Edison to Jacques Cousteau. I think this is a great way for Mr. Chocolate to share his love of math and science with Drake, as well as introduce him to these famous people at a very young age.

 Tools – Mr. Chocolate is quite handy around the house. He loves restoration projects as well as updating our home and working outside in the yard. Every weekend he always has a new project somewhere around the house. Drake loves tagging along when Mr. Chocolate works outside and he often plays with his own little tool toys after he sees daddy working on things. I liked these books about tools and their purposes. Drake can identify hammers, saws, wrenches, rulers, and drills thanks to these books: Tap Tap Bang Bang, Tool Book, The Toolbox.

Daddy and Me – And of course as a dad, Mr. Chocolate’s favorite books have always been about daddy and his children.  Here are a few of our favorites that highlight how daddies love you in their own special way: Because I’m Your Dad, When a Dad Says I Love You, My Daddy and Me.

Story time with daddy. Now if they only made books about video game playing we’d be set