Perhaps you've forgotten about these. I did! Perhaps it's also time to pull them off the shelf again and curl up with your children for a sweet, gentle read.
Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect Than the Moon, and Grandfather's Dance
by Patricia MacLachlan
It's impossible to improve upon these books with more words. I can hardly even find the words to describe them, because they are already so simple, yet profound, in and of themselves. The prose is spare, yet so descriptive; when Anna paints the horizon with her words, it's hard to breathe for a moment. It makes me wonder why I never saw the same horizon in the same way a thousand times before. When Caleb creates a word picture about something as simple as writing on a page... the words walk across the page like bird prints in the mud... it makes me want to run out and crawl around in the mud, looking for those very marks myself.
From the beginning, when widower Jacob Witting is looking for a mother for his two children, Anna and Caleb, to the end, as beloved Grandfather prepares for his death even as he memorizes life, the story is captivating and heartwarming.
If you've never read these books before, you are in for such a treat. They are simple enough for even your three-year-olds to follow, and interesting and moving enough for a teenager to enjoy.
And, who am I kidding? I've currently got them stacked on my bedside bookshelf. For me. Then I'm going to share them with my children all over again.
Happy reading!
Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark, Caleb's Story, More Perfect Than the Moon, and Grandfather's Dance
by Patricia MacLachlan
It's impossible to improve upon these books with more words. I can hardly even find the words to describe them, because they are already so simple, yet profound, in and of themselves. The prose is spare, yet so descriptive; when Anna paints the horizon with her words, it's hard to breathe for a moment. It makes me wonder why I never saw the same horizon in the same way a thousand times before. When Caleb creates a word picture about something as simple as writing on a page... the words walk across the page like bird prints in the mud... it makes me want to run out and crawl around in the mud, looking for those very marks myself.
From the beginning, when widower Jacob Witting is looking for a mother for his two children, Anna and Caleb, to the end, as beloved Grandfather prepares for his death even as he memorizes life, the story is captivating and heartwarming.
If you've never read these books before, you are in for such a treat. They are simple enough for even your three-year-olds to follow, and interesting and moving enough for a teenager to enjoy.
And, who am I kidding? I've currently got them stacked on my bedside bookshelf. For me. Then I'm going to share them with my children all over again.
Happy reading!
5 fellow travelers shared:
Bless you! I didn't realize there were any beyond Skylark. :)
(... says she, scampering off to the library's website to reserve them.)
After thinking and writing in my head for several weeks, I've finally joined Children's Book Monday! :-)
http://from-my-life.blogspot.com/2009/07/childrens-book-monday.html
You've done such an excellent job describing these wonderful books. I'm like you - I really enjoy reading these books. Our nest is empty right now, but I still find myself going back and reading some of the books my daughter and I read together. I've just started buying the Betsy - Tasey books. Somehow we missed those!
I didn't even know there were any other than the first two!
Snatched these *all* up immediately from the library so that we could read them, here, too. [Ella couldn't wait for me to finish our current read-aloud, so she's already made it through the first two. She had only read Sarah, Plain and Tall before....]
What a delight! Thank you!
I was glad to find these. I have the first book, but didn't know we were "ready" for these yet (oldest are 7 & 5). I found something precious...through your shelfari...another Zolotow/Garth Williams "Over and Over" which is about a little girl who doesn't know about the months and holidays yet, but experiences them with her mother's explanations so sweetly. Such a treat to read with my daughter. Mary Brooke
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