Kitchen Dance - A Bedtime Tale with a Tango-like Twist

Experts will tell you that when it comes to babies, being predictable is good. A bedtime routine. A daytime schedule. Familiar bath-time rituals.

And it probably is.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why so many bedtime books for babies have similar themes and storylines. Because, obviously they work.

But, once in a while, it’s fun to throw in some unexpected excitement. Your baby will love it and maybe even begin to expect it!

Kitchen Dance is one such bedtime book that stands out in my memory. It’s completely different from the dozens of bedtime storybooks I’ve read with my daughter right from the time she was a baby through her toddler months. Now, many of those books were good, most of them well-written and illustrated. But, why does Kitchen Dance deserve a special mention?

Because, for one, you really can’t tell it’s a bedtime book. Think about it. Does the title give anything away? And the cover is equally misleading…in a good way, of course.

Kitchen Dance is basically a love story. It begins with the narrator, a little girl who wakes up to the sounds of dishes being scraped and scrubbed downstairs in the kitchen. But accompanying the mundane sounds of cleaning and washing is a soft voice humming a tune. Curious, she wakes her brother Tito up and they both tip-toe down the stairs to take a peek into their kitchen.

They stand there with door slightly open, watching wide-eyed as their parents tango around the kitchen, cleaning dishes, wiping plates and putting leftovers away – all to a magical tune that seems to float in the air and flow through their souls. The regular, almost boring stuff that mommies and daddies go about doing after the kids are in bed somehow take on a fairytale aspect. The kids stand watching, mesmerized by the graceful, yet light-hearted dance movements of their parents as they carry out the kitchen chores.

The parents catch the kids spying on them and soon pull them into their ‘circle of family’, as they all sway gently to the tune the father continues to sing, ‘¡Cómo te quiero! Oh, how I love you. Umm, hmm’.

Kitchen Dance depicts the strong bonds of love and affection that exist within a family that may not be always be expressed explicitly. In their own subtle way, the parents in this lovely bedtime tale, express their love for one another and for their children.  Cleaning and putting away dishes in the kitchen may seem like the least romantic of occasions for a couple to be enjoying one another’s company, but this story is a reminder that simple moments like those could be just as beautiful, if not more, than dinner at a fancy restaurant.

The musical lines in this book are matched by the cheerful illustrations that bring each member of this family and their home to life. Whether it’s the sway of the mother’s bright skirt or the father’s soft features or the sleepy delight in the kids’ eyes, Maurie J. Manning as the author and illustrator does a splendid job of making the book speak to you.

There’s something about this family and the way they enjoy each other and the place they are in, in life, that strikes a chord. Which is why it remains one of my( and M’s) all-time bedtime and anytime favorites.