We just finished...
Elliot: What do People Do all Day?, by Richard Scarry
Owen: Swiss Family Robinson, by Johan David Wyss (The Illustrated Classics version, from his school library)
Lisel: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
Paul: The Winged Energy of Delight (well, he's actually still reading this, off and on, since its a collection of poems by his bedside)
And, we are currently reading....
Elliot: Christopher Counting, by Valeri Gorbachev ( a really great book for preschool counting that we got on our recent library trip -- actually, we are huge fans of Valeri Gorbachev's other kids books too)
Owen: Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Lisel: Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (I've always got some Austen on my bedside table)
Paul: Scotland and its Whiskeys, by Michael Jackson
I can't wait to get back to the library for our next round. There is something about starting a new book that is so delicious. I have a bookmark somewhere of a Mary Engelbreit design and the quote she has illustrated says it all "Books fall open, you fall in." I just love falling into a good book. I'm so looking forward to our summer reading lists, and extra trips to the library!
When I was a kid one of my favorite books was called "The Velvet Room" and it was about a girl who lives a migrant worker family's life until her father gets work at the estate of a wealthy landowner. The girl spends her days roaming this massive estate until she finds an old dilapidated mansion with an upstairs room covered wall to wall in red velvet. It's an old fashioned "reading room" library, and she quickly becomes ensconced in that room, draped in the sunlight of the stained glass windows, surrounded by red velvet wall coverings and immersed in all the books and worlds to discover. I just looked up this book on Amazon, and it was originally published in 1965. I must have read it when I was 12 or so years old and I remember vividly the love I had for this book. I remember reading and re-reading that book while over-fingering the pages until they were torn and disintegrating at my touch. I can see the cover art and the typeset, and I can smell the library odor of its old binding as if I were holding that book in my hand right at this moment.
I wonder what books Owen will start to really remember now that he's also discovered the magic of real chapter books, the ones with vivid characters and dramatic adventures and almost always a happy ending......
3 comments:
Ahhhhhh...reading is such a wonderful way of life!! I was surprised that Owen was already reading "Treasure Island". Our Julie would cheer you on with Jane Austin, Lisel! She is a mad lover of Jane Austin!! I had to smile with Paul and his poetry. It comes from his bringing up! Oh the day of listening to Ruth Ann or Elmer reading poetry! Peggy has a fairly large library of books and she keeps me supplied with books to read. When I am relaxing, I don't want heavy books. I just like a nice story line that is fun to read! I have even gotten Bill involved on occasion. If he once starts a book it isn't long before he is totally sucked in!! :-) Whgat fun!!
Aunt Carol
Can I suggest the Enid Blyton Faraway Tree books to read aloud? They were my favorite and are delighting Duncan hour by hour- the boys both love to pretend they are the characters. You may have to order them from amazon.uk if you can't find them locally.
Declan spends hours over Richard Scary too! Love those books... xo
It is so fun to see that Owen and Elliot are both learning to love good stories. What adventure books can provide. I remember crouching in my closet with the light on and the door closed late at night (when I should have been sleeping) to finish a good book and then being disappointed the next day that the story was completed. The closet hideout was perfect. It was a dormer walk-in closet giving me plenty of space to sit and read. It also concealed the light from shinning out onto the lawn below which was a dead give-away to my watchful parents downstairs. They, of course, were allowed to stay up much later then me. GG
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