This time I have a follow-up to the previous post. Remember, I explained how Dan Yaccarino's Go, Go America was the inspiration for Grandy Camp this summer? Just on a whim I went to his website and sent him an e-mail thanking him for the inspiration from that book and the enjoyment all my grandchildren have gotten from his books and television shows. The next day I got the kindest e-mail in return from him! I like "customer service" from authors as well as salespeople. (There's another author, Chris Grabenstein, who writes funny mysteries set in New Jersey, who always reads reviews of his books on Goodreads website. I like that also.)
There is a wonderful series of books about the states--wish I could afford to buy them all in hardback--revolving around the alphabet. We checked out P is for Pelican for Louisiana and I'm hoping to get M is for Magnolia from the library for Mississippi. I bought a copy of C is for Centennial for Colorado and will do the same with L is for Lone Star for Texas. Worth a look!
Back when we "visited" Vermont I recalled the story of the Morgan horse. My daughter was able to find a copy of Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry at their neighborhood library. It was close to 200 pages long, and Aidan was already in the midst of a couple of other chapter books so I didn't start it with him. I just read it for myself. This really is a book of many things: being an original, being an American, being resourceful, being determined. As well as love between a boy-turned-man and a horse.
BOOKSREADBOOKSREADBOOKSREADBOOKSREADBOOKSREADBOOKSREADBOOKSREADBOOKS
Second item on this Saturday’s
to-do list was to go to the library. By myself. To look for books for this
project. I got three Curious George books, thinking I got the first three in
the series but it turns out that I got numbers 1, 3, and 4. I’m reasonably sure
I read Curious George books as a little girl so we’re on the third generation
reading them now—they don’t go out of style. I found the first one endearing
for a number of reasons. Right after the title page is a page with a drawing of
the book cover and underneath it says “This book belongs to ____________.” Yes,
books should belong to children, and they should have pride of ownership. I
guess that’s why I buy so many books for so many children. Then I was impressed
that the text of this one was geared for early readers; some of the others get
pretty plot-intensive and vocabulary is expansive. And the subtle lesson of
getting into and out of trouble, especially with the help of your friends, is a
good one to hear. Again, the era of this book made it a little jolting to read,
when both the Man with the Yellow Hat and George smoke pipes.
Gritting my teeth, I checked out
and read Goodnight Moon. Yeah, yeah,
I know I must be a minority of one, but I think this may be the worst
children’s book ever written. It’s insipid, boring, has an awkward rhyme and
rhythm, and is nonsensical. Who in the world goes to bed with a bowl of mush on
the nightstand? Just to be clear on this—I’ve always thought it was a dumb book.
I found Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats. All my life I’ve loved this
rhyming, counting story, and this is one of many versions I’ve read. And Keats
has written and illustrated a lot of quality, award-winning books. Having not
paid much attention before, today I learned that the text is based on a
traditional Southern Appalachian rhyme dating back to the 1800s and attributed
to Olive A. Wadsworth. So I wanted to learn more about “Olive A. Wadsworth,”
which turns out is a pen name for Katherine Floyd Dana, used because it was
unseemly for a woman to be a writer in that era. “Olive A. Wadsworth” was
specially chosen and the initials alone often used because in Mrs. Dana’s
circle “OAW” stood for “Only A Woman.” In addition to writing such as Over in the Meadow, Mrs. Dana
anonymously helped her husband write his Commercial
and Financial Chronicle, which was the leading publication regarding
commerce of its day.
Judy Blume’s The Pain and the Great One was written long after I was grown up,
even after I’d had my children, but I don’t know why I never read it to Paul
and Betsy. I can’t say that they were ever “The Pain and the Great One” and I
can’t say that Aidan and Abby are either, but I might read it to them one of
these days. It strikes as true note regarding siblings.
Earlier I complained about being
able to just walk into my local library branch and find children’s classics on
the shelves. So imagine my surprise when I found a book that, to me, is classic
only in my own sentiment. I was given a copy of Open House for Butterflies as a high school graduation gift. It’s
been on my bookshelf all these years but I’m afraid to go look now: I might’ve
purged it fairly recently in an effort to get rid of the less popular ones. I’m
sure I never appreciated the fact that it is by the author of The Carrot Seed, Ruth Krauss, and
illustrated by Maurice Sendak. What I do appreciate is that, almost 50 years
after the fact, I still quote lines from this little book. “When you run out of
cereal can you run into it again?” “I think a race looks prettier when
everybody comes in even.” “You can always boast that you DON’T have it.” “A
little tree is a good thing not to be because you might grow up to be a
telephone pole.” And my all-time favorite and one I quote very often: “The
minute you meet some people you know you will hate their mothers.” So very
true.
