1/20/16

The Borrowers


Already I'm really missing Summer...after just one day of Real Feel  of 3 degree winter weather! Reading aloud chapter books is a summer tradition I started with my children partly to introduce them to the love of reading, voice acting and power of words and ideas. The tradition continues with the youngest of my 8 children.
With That said our first read aloud book over the past summer we read, The Borrowers is a story about tiny people who have to hide from the human beans, barrow what they need, while being virtually invisible and living out their simple lives underneath an elderly lady, her grandson and two caretakers.
Every family has their dilemmas ... what would life be without them, right?  Momma and Poppa are doing their best to keep food on the table and make life pleasant for Arietty but boredom, curiosity and getting seen create a shift that changes everything for them and the whole household. It may be good to read the book before you see the movie by Hayo Miyazaki.




Bud not Buddy....

This is a very touching book. A child's mother dies. He discovers her and is placed into foster care. He only know of his father from the limited clues his mother told him. All his worldly goods are kept in his one suit case. Go on a journey with Bud..find out why his name is not Buddy,  experience  the rights of passage of his age and be touched my how wonderful it is to realize one's dreams by just not giving up on it. What strikes me in the story that he never really had to face the audacity of anyone telling him that he is hoping in something that he has no evidence that it's real...only within himself. Or that it is only his imagination. Inside of him he can be left to come to realize his hopes in reality.Just on faith alone... Beautifully told by Christopher Paul Curtis, of the failed foster care system ... even 50 yrs. ago! Sure there are wonderful people out there in the massive tom foolery and mockery of charity we call foster care. Even as dangerous as the world was with bigotry running rapid in the time this book is depicting...I couldn't help but applaud Bud for escaping with as simple a plan as he had.  Read it for yourself to your children. You won't regret it.