Tuesday

Quite an assortment of books this week.  No common theme, just ones I thought the kids would like and I certainly do.  I don't read 'em if I don't like 'em.

 If you were a boy who loved cars and could design a car of your dreams, what would you include?  A swimming pool? Couch? Snack bar? Able to fly, submerge and float?  Yup.

 This is a true story from Beryl Markham's life.  It's a perfect example of how a first paragraph grabs the story and you and forces you to turn the page.  When Beryl was just a child she had an encounter with a lion most people thought was tame because he lived on a neighboring farm, was fed and petted.  But Beryl's father tells her "a tame lion is an unnatural lion and whatever is unnatural is untrustworthy."  The lion was true to his nature and made one move that changed his life.  In the end she asks "who thinks it is fair to be judged by a single mistake?"  This is one powerful book for any age (except little ones.)

 I like this story because we've got a family story to go with it.  It was a sentimental purchase. But I wanted to illustrate that there was a time when toys were made, not purchased. When you used what you had to make those toys.  I gave the kids a quick lesson in how to make an apple head doll.  A lesson that failed me a bit this past week.  I turned the oven on too hot and while the head did dry out, it looked a bit like a shrunken head one would find dangling from a branch as a warning in a jungle of angry natives. Oh, well.  They got the idea.  I think.

 How nice that Adelaide's class was studying bats this week!  This book is absolutely hilarious in its illustrations.  Especially in the things that happen to this poor possum. Adelaide was glad to see this one come out of my tote and the kids had a good laugh over it.

This is one of my favorite fall books.  Rebecca Estelle hates pumpkins.  All and anything to do with them.  This comes from a time in her childhood when times were hard and all the family had to eat for a whole month was pumpkins.  One day a huge one falls off a truck right in her front yard and the seeds takes root.  The next year she is overcome with pumpkins.  Her attempt to deal with the bumper crop brings her and her town mates together and changes her view.  It's good because it doesn't get Halloween-y till the last couple of pages.  The talking points are more in how to deal with this problem.

Now I have to go find a pattern.  I've gone through everything I thought might be the hiding place but now I have to re-think.  I KNOW it made the cut and was brought with us in the move but darned if I can find it.  So distracting.  I'm supposed to be putting on a binding for a gift.    Later....