Chookshed and books

 It's October first and there is only one Chookshed Challenge left.  I had to give up on doing the challenge per se because I needed to concentrate my time on Elizabeth's BA quilt.  Boy, did I.  Boy, DO I.  It has been an adventure so far.  There are 11 blocks done and some of them really give me fits. I'm probably going to be arrested for how I am approaching the blocks but believe me, I'm changing and rearranging them so much they would be unrecognizable to the original.  Like the one I'm struggling with now.   I get an idea, try to execute it, get part way through and change my mind either with the fabric I chose or the design and rip it apart.  Soon I will get them out, lay them out and see how they look.  My ideal goal is to have them finished by Christmas so I can start quilting it in January. Until then I keep on. The whole idea and concept is fun because I'm doing things that relate to her so it's a lot of time inside my head with memories.

It's Tuesday and I went to school to read to the kids today.  They didn't want me to leave and begged for a third book. I always only read two because they have other things to do besides listening to me read stories. But teacher said ok.

This title ALWAYS stops the fidgeting. Always.  Achilles is a little crocodile who decides one day he isn't going to eat what his mother fixed for his breakfast. And no matter how much they try other foods (sound familiar?) or beg he says what he really wants is to eat a child.  I like this one so much I have two copies!

Ryan T. Higgins is a genius.  Or he never grew out of a five or six year old's brain.  He knows kids. 

Penelope Rex is starting school and she is a little nervous but excited, too.  What a surprise when she gets to school to discover the classroom is filled with CHILDREN.  Children are delicious and she eats them.  She can't help it.  There is some comeuppance, and she learns her lesson when she finds out how it feels to be nibbled on.

The next in the series (and to get his humor I think they need to be read in order) Penelope is very nervous about her turn to bring the class goldfish home for the weekend.  Everyone takes turns and she works herself into a lather over the anticipation.

Now, Ryan T. Higgins IS a genius, he gets into the minds of little kids but to adults his illustrations are laugh out loud funny when you really pay attention.  I'm not sure how much kids really, really notice but when I first read one of his books and turn a page, I will absolutely laugh out loud.  Me, this grey-haired grandma laughs out loud at the humor in his illustrations.

I always tell the kids to pay attention to the pictures.  These aren't called picture books for no reason. The words tell part of the story, the pictures tell the rest.  Ryan T. Higgins is a genius.