Pumpkins by Mary Lyn Ray is a story about a man who loves a field. When a For Sale sign appears in the field one day, the man sells everything he owns, but he still doesn't have enough money to buy the field. So he plants pumpkins. He sends the pumpkins all over the world, asking kings and congresses to buy the pumpkins for one dollar each. It's really a story about simplicity and having enough. The illustrations are lovely, the writing is simple, the story is charming.
Pumpkins is a non-Halloween pumpkin story, another library find that we read so often that we finally bought it-- which means that it's a story that I can stand to read over and over and over.
Typically on our library visits, one gent or another wanders to the "E" section and chooses a Lois Ehlert book. (Watch a
video interview with Lois Ehlert, or
read the transcript). The straightforward text and distinctive, vivid illustrations make her a family favorite.
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf was our pick a couple weeks ago. We read it before going on our leaf walk yesterday, and I've renewed the book so that we can read it again this coming week and make the bird treats on the inside back cover. Other favorites by Ehlert:
Growing Vegetable Soup,
Cuckoo, and
Pie in the Sky.
Even the three-year-old gent is thoroughly enjoying our lunchtime read-aloud,
Peter and the Starcatchers (Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson). "Mom, can we read about Black Stache?" he asks. Written as a "prequel" to the classic story of Peter Pan,
Peter and the Starcatchers is full of pirates, magic, mermaids and the like. There's even a giant croc. I bought the book after reading the title on a message board several times in repsonse to questions like: "What do your boys like to read?" I wish I'd read them J.M. Barrie's
Peter Pan, a childhood favorite that I read many times, before we'd started
Peter and the Starcatchers. I've combed my bookshelves and can't believe that we don't own a copy. It's on our library request list. I'll read it next.
The elder of the lovely ladies and I are reading
The Giver by Lois Lowry. This is her first real experience with reading thoughtfully, having to discuss the ideas that go beyond the events of the story. Last year we just focused on reading and experiencing as many different types of literature as possible, shoring up her enjoyment of reading again and working on slowing down to think about the content. She was a little uncertain about taking on this challenge, but now that she's getting the hang of reading carefully and considering the implications of what she's reading, she's got some great thoughts.
The Giver is a fantastic book for introducing this discussion process: the story is straightforward, gripping, and there's lots of "meat" for discussion. Set in what initially appears to be a utopian future society in which everyone has a role to play and there is no pain or war,
The Giver has created opportunities for us to dicuss diversity and the choices that societies make when we balance individual rights against the rights of the community as a whole, the role of euphemism in language, and the presence (or absence) of pain, suffering and grief in our lives. We're about halfway through. Study guides and more
here, including interviews with Lowry. As our lovely lady considers herself an author, we're particularly interested in reading the writer's thoughts about a book we've finished reading, so we'll be reading the interviews with Lowry once we've finished reading
The Giver. I was particularly moved by Lowry's speech (second link on the page) entitled "The Beginning of Sadness."
Pumpkins by Mary Lyn Ray is a story about a man who loves a field. When a For Sale sign appears in the field one day, the man sells everything he owns, but he still doesn't have enough money to buy the field. So he plants pumpkins. He sends the pumpkins all over the world, asking kings and congresses to buy the pumpkins for one dollar each. It's really a story about simplicity and having enough. The illustrations are lovely, the writing is simple, the story is charming. Pumpkins is a non-Halloween pumpkin story, another library find that we read so often that we finally bought it-- which means that it's a story that I can stand to read over and over and over.
Typically on our library visits, one gent or another wanders to the "E" section and chooses a Lois Ehlert book. (Watch a video interview with Lois Ehlert, or read the transcript). The straightforward text and distinctive, vivid illustrations make her a family favorite. Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf was our pick a couple weeks ago. We read it before going on our leaf walk yesterday, and I've renewed the book so that we can read it again this coming week and make the bird treats on the inside back cover. Other favorites by Ehlert: Growing Vegetable Soup, Cuckoo, and Pie in the Sky.
Even the three-year-old gent is thoroughly enjoying our lunchtime read-aloud, Peter and the Starcatchers (Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson). "Mom, can we read about Black Stache?" he asks. Written as a "prequel" to the classic story of Peter Pan, Peter and the Starcatchers is full of pirates, magic, mermaids and the like. There's even a giant croc. I bought the book after reading the title on a message board several times in repsonse to questions like: "What do your boys like to read?" I wish I'd read them J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, a childhood favorite that I read many times, before we'd started Peter and the Starcatchers. I've combed my bookshelves and can't believe that we don't own a copy. It's on our library request list. I'll read it next.
The elder of the lovely ladies and I are reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. This is her first real experience with reading thoughtfully, having to discuss the ideas that go beyond the events of the story. Last year we just focused on reading and experiencing as many different types of literature as possible, shoring up her enjoyment of reading again and working on slowing down to think about the content. She was a little uncertain about taking on this challenge, but now that she's getting the hang of reading carefully and considering the implications of what she's reading, she's got some great thoughts. The Giver is a fantastic book for introducing this discussion process: the story is straightforward, gripping, and there's lots of "meat" for discussion. Set in what initially appears to be a utopian future society in which everyone has a role to play and there is no pain or war, The Giver has created opportunities for us to dicuss diversity and the choices that societies make when we balance individual rights against the rights of the community as a whole, the role of euphemism in language, and the presence (or absence) of pain, suffering and grief in our lives. We're about halfway through. Study guides and more here, including interviews with Lowry. As our lovely lady considers herself an author, we're particularly interested in reading the writer's thoughts about a book we've finished reading, so we'll be reading the interviews with Lowry once we've finished reading The Giver. I was particularly moved by Lowry's speech (second link on the page) entitled "The Beginning of Sadness."
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