Charming Opal

If you've been following ReadMeAStory from the beginning, you know that around here we love Holly Hobbie's Toot & Puddle characters!  If you want to check out a Toot & Puddle summertime adventure, check out Charming Opal (c. 2003).

Cousin Opal comes to visit Woodcock Pocket and enjoy all the pleasures of summertime in the country.  But in the meantime, she looses her tooth.  And I do mean that she looses it.  Find out if the cousins find it in time for the Tooth Fairy's evening visit.

The Penderwicks

This is the book I would have loved to have read and re-read when I was a girl!!!

That being said, I'm just not sure what age to begin your child on this one.  The publisher's recommendation is age 9, and I think I'll go along with that.  I started to read it aloud to my brood . . . and they didn't want me to put it down.  Meanwhile, I was reading ahead every chance I could get.

If you have a tween who is looking for a good read, I really liked this one (the brood did too!).  It's a page turner of an adventure read.  Nice and clean.  Each character has his/her own special talent: from concert level pianist to mathematician, from botanist to storyteller, from nurturer to problem solver to athlete, so subtly this book encourages individuality with a positive vocabulary.

Yet at the same time, the adults can appear rather foolish --> from the absentminded-professor widowed father and a fairytale-like-wicked-stepmotherish snooty mother.  And as an adventure story, there is some secrecy and sneaking.  Some critics also contest that it's an idyllic, nostalgic, blast-from-the-past that's attempting to display a modern, American childhood. Those are most of the criticisms you'll run into.

So what do I think?  Personally, I think it's a more modern approach to an adventure story for those of us who love the Boxcar Children.  If you'd like to teach your reader to think critically, this could be a good, clean, adventure story to promote dialogue.  Have your own family book club around it.  Discuss these various assessments, and encourage your child to verbalize his/her own analysis. (Either way, you may want to do your own research rather than taking my word for it.)

So what's is the award-winning book The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall (c. 2007) all about?  Here's what the publishers have to say:

This summer the Penderwick sisters have a wonderful surprise: a holiday on the grounds of a beautiful estate called Arundel. Soon they are busy discovering the summertime magic of Arundel’s sprawling gardens, treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, and the cook who makes the best gingerbread in Massachusetts. But the best discovery of all is Jeffrey Tifton, son of Arundel’s owner, who quickly proves to be the perfect companion for their adventures.

Here are more Penderwick sequels:

August

Find "August" in A Child's Calendar, a collection of twelve of John Updike's poems that describes a child's journey through the seasons from January through December  (c. 1965).  Caldecott award winning artist Trina Schart Hyman illustrated the collection (c. 1999).

The Secret Three

Here's another read that I vividly recall from my childhood summers: The Secret Three by Mildred Myrick with drawings by Arnold Lobel (c. 1963).


The Secret Three is a wonderful story of friendship that begins when Billy and Mark find a secret message inside a bottle that washed up onto the beach. (Seriously, doesn't that alone make you want to run out to get it?!)  See if you can decode the messages as you follow along Billy and Mark's seaside, summer adventure.  And be delighted - once again - by Arnold Lobel's excellent illustrations.  He has an uncanny way of capturing that essence of feeling we associate with each season.

Oh, and did I mention that this is a good book for those early readers too?

The Boxcar Children

Gertrude Chandler Warner (c. 1942, 2009) begins her classic story The Boxcar Children with:

One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery.  No one knew them.  No one knew where they had come from.


The baker's wife saw them first, as they stood looking in at the window of her store.  The little boy was looking at the cakes, the big boy was looking at the loaves of bread, and the two girls were looking at the cookies.  . . .

Warner's story captures the plight and adventures of four orphans as they run away and live on their own in an abandoned boxcar hidden the the shelter of the woods.  It's the ultimate summer adventure!

L. Kate Deal's timeless silhouettes compliment Warner's timeless story that has been beloved by many generations.  It's another Read Me a Story family favorite on our MUST READ list.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Do you know what I remember most about The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary (c. 1965)?  What I remember most is my prim, fourth grade teacher reading a chapter to us each afternoon.  What do I mean by prim?  Think navy orthopedic shoes and a wad of kleenex tucked into a sleeve, belt, pocket, or whatever most convenient spot for retrieval.  I never saw her smile except when she read to us.  Here we were a bunch of fourth graders stinking to-high-heaven of recess.  But she had our undivided attention for that whole chapter.  And what was most surprising to me was how reading this story completely transformed her from the prim, stodgy school-marm into a warm person with emotion and feeling.  I was transfixed with that afternoon alteration.

So, I decided to check out The Mouse and the Motorcycle to read to my little brood.  It's shocking how I don't remember one thing about the story line!  However, it's an entertaining one!  In a tale stock full of mischief and adventure, discover the blossoming friendship between a mouse and a boy.

And tell me readers: was this a drive down memory-lane? or is it a new-to-me read for you?

How I Became a Pirate

Ahoy, maties!  Captain Braid-Beard needs an extra digger to help him bury his chest of treasure, and Jeremy Jacob is the man, or rather boy.  Follow Jeremy Jacob as he embarks on his precarious pirate adventure.

Parents, How I Became a Pirate (c. 2003) is a book where our local author Melinda Long was fortunate enough to score the perfect artist David Shannon to illustrate her story.  Shannon's illustrations make this story!  You're kids will love this pirate adventure as much as ours  And they may pick up some pirate lingo ("shiver me timbers", "landlubber", "scurvy dog", and "batten down the hatch") along the way.  We highly recommend this thrilling summer read!

Lucy's Summer

Based on a true story, Donald Hall weaves Lucy's Summer (c. 1995) from the stories he heard as a child.  Michael McCurdy crafts his sketchboard illustrations to look like woodcuts.  Here are the opening lines:
   Lucy Wells lived on a farm in New Hampshire with her mother Kate, her father Wesley, and her little sister Caroline.
   The spring of 1910, when Lucy was seven, her mother turned the front parlor into a millinery shop, to sell hats to her neighbors in the backcountry.

The Summerfolk

Do you remember the book We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen with the imaginative 1969 illustrations by Doris Burn?  Well if you need a little refresher on a post that gets frequent hits, click here: We Were Tired of Living in a House illustrated by Doris Burn (c. 1969).  I just love the Doris Burn illustrations in that story!  The kids do too and pour over them for hours.
 
So imagine my delight in finding Doris Burn's The Summerfolk at our local used bookstore!  Then imagine my disappointment that our local library doesn't carry a copy.

Folks, I have good news:

1. You can purchase The Summerfolk written and illustrated by Doris Burn (c. 1968) off amazon.com or half.com (I am in no way gleaning any profits from these websites in passing along this information) for a mere $7.
2. I'm going to post several illustrations as well as the opening storyline to give you a taste of this delightful summer read:

Burn's story begins: Willy Potts' house was on a sand dune.  In back of the house was a swamp, but in front the sand led all the way down to the sea.  Although the house was little more than a shanty, Willy and his dad, Joe Potts, lived there both winter and summer, for Joe Potts was a fisherman.  All winter long, life seemed to go along nice and steady for Willy and Joe Potts.

next page:  But all summer long--well, that was another kettle of fish.  Every summer, strange people came from the city for a holiday beside the sea.  These strangers were called summerfolk. . . .

meet Fedderly, "a strange new breed of summerfolk"

"Have you ever been to Rosebud's Stately Wain?" asks Fedderly.

The Relatives Came

Summer is here!  And I know of no better way to begin those summer reading programs than with Cynthia Rylant's story The Realatives Came, with Caldecott honorable illustrations by Stephen Gammell (c. 1993).  Folks, this story is one of our very favorites!!!

Ah!  I just love reading this story!  It doesn't even bother me to read it again and again.  And the illustrations!  Well, you're bound to laugh at some point.  I think that no matter your experience, Rylant's story will have at least one page you identify with.

And that's my summer challenge to you, dear readers: take time to check out The Relatives Came and comment, sharing with us a reading moment where you felt connected to a description in Rylant's story.

Here's one of my favorite moments:

Please join me for a linky party at :

http://www.lifeonplanetbaby.com/2012/06/post-of-month-club-june-2012-edition.html 

June

Find "June" in A Child's Calendar, a collection of twelve of John Updike's poems that describes a child's journey through the seasons from January through December  (c. 1965).  Caldecott award winning artist Trina Schart Hyman illustrated the collection (c. 1999).

Where I Live

Hello again, readers!  Guess where I've been busy spending my time?  Check out the books from these past two posts for a BIG hint.  Hopefully, you've had time to catch up on your reading.  I have a few more terrific summer reads to share, and then I'll indulge you with a few books to ward off the first of school jitters.  Happy reading!

Where I Live another book by Frances Wolfe presents beautiful images and descriptions of the seashore.  Re-discover seaside living through a child-like viewpoint.  And unearth the fascinating perspectives of Wolfe's illustrations.

One Wish

In One Wish, Frances Wolfe begins:

On a summer's

eve, a long

time ago,

I made one

wish on the brightest star

in a twinkling

night sky.

And from the publisher:
Frances Wolfe's love of the sea is in her blood.  Her home is on the Nova Scotia shore, where her grandfather once fished, and where her family has lived for more than a century.

Of all Frances Wolfe's books, this is our family favorite!  Check it out to see why.  It's a perfect family read for this seaside visiting time of year.

The Seashore Book

Let's pretend . . . It is early morning at the seashore and it's hard to tell where the sea stops and the sky begins.  They are the same smoky gray until the mist shifts from gray to dark white, from dark white to pale purple, from pale purple to hazy blue, and then suddenly, the sun breaks through!

So begins the brilliantly descriptive narrative of a mother relating to her son what the "seashore is like."  The Seashore Book (c. 1992) reflects Charlotte Zolotow at her best, describing the shore in what Publisher's Weekly terms "tactile, vivid and musical images."  Zolotow's descriptions paint such detailed pictures that leave a day at the beach imprinted on your imagination long after the the book is closed.

We Were Tired of Living in a House

Original, Doris Burn's illustrated cover

In my personal opinion, it's a tragedy and outrage that the Doris Burn's illustrated edition of We Were Tired of Living in a House (c. 1969) hasn't been republished!  Here Liesel Moak Skorpen crafted a clever story:
                     We were tired of living in a house.
                     So we packed a bag with
                     sweaters and socks and scarves
                     and mittens and woolen caps.

title pages

But what has made this story so positively, absolutely delightful are the charming and imaginative illustrations of Doris Burn.  Yes, yes, yes there's a 1999 reprint illustrated by Joe Cepeda.  But I ask you: why improve upon perfection?!  It completely eludes me as to why it would be an option.  Just look at these illustrations:

We liked our tree . . .

We liked our pond . . .

Burns makes living in a tree or on a pond or near a cave or by the sea look so appealing that I was ready to pack my own bags (the tree bit is my personal favorite)!  Either way, and I'll submit to either edition, this is a summer must read, for in the end it's another wonderful story reiterating the time proven fact that there's no place like home.

Wave

Wave by Suzy Lee (c. 2008) gives credibility to the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."  In this case, a wordless book of 40 pages presents no need for words.  I could say a lot about how wonderful I think this book is.  However, sometimes silence speaks volumes, as my children give testimony to in the way they silently pour over the pages of Suzy Lee's masterpiece.  To further convince you, I debated about including more illustrations from Wave but came to the conclusion that it's best experienced in its panorama whole.  In closing, as the publisher so aptly articulates, step into these deceptively simple pages for a day at the sea--and a joyful story that begins and ends with a wave.

Mama, Is It Summer Yet?

So, are your kids asking you that question as much as mine are asking me?  Then by-all-means, check out this book!  In Mama, Is It Summer Yet? (c. 2010) Nikki McClure revisits that age-old question through the backdrop of the changing seasons.  Let you kids read Mama, Is It Summer Yet? with you by repeating the entitled question, and help them determine which season each spread depicts.

The Giant Jam Sandwich

Do you remember this story from your childhood as much as my husband and I do?  It's The Giant Jam Sandwich (c. 1972) with story and pictures by John Vernon Lord and verses by Janet Burroway.  Oh, it's a classic!  Discover (or rediscover) this tall tale:
                           One hot summer in Itching Down,
                           Four million wasps flew into town. 

I would tell your more about this wonderful story, but it's one of those that you truly have to see and read for yourself.  So whether you're trying to rid yourself of pests or you're just trying to bring some humor into your life, this book proves itself time and again as a phenomenal read-loud for young and old alike.