Reading McCloskey at Bedtime
ahhh, I remind myself that we’ve been off the band wagon of reading from our collection of Robert McCloskey stories prior to bed.
Not intentionally, but our bedtime routine fell into a different pattern over the past month or two, (quick interjection to say that we HAVE been reading other books) and thus the McCloskey stack sat waiting patiently, like good books always do, for it’s family to return and for mom to breathe life into the words as the stories come alive and blissfully take our imaginations to that very “time of wonder”.
"Mama, Sal lost her tooth just like Olivia. Maybe someday I will lose a tooth too." --Jackson
There is so much to relish in McCloskey’s stories, and I fondly remember my experience of having them read to me as a child. I suppose one could say they have a Rockwell-esque appeal, of pleasant, simpler life, free of obsessions over material acquisitions or consciousness for time. Jackson giggles at the illustrations of Lentil walking about town barefoot. “Mama, why doesn’t he have any shoes on?” The characters and illustrations simply exist in a timeless location…. it could be 1975 or 2009.
But my whole point here is that I actually find reading his stories to my children to be relaxing. Particularly Sal getting lost picking blueberries….
Maybe tonight we shall get back into the McCloskey pile.
I am not familiar with that author and will have to look the titles up. We are always on the hunt for good books and find many of them in the old dusty and forgotten section of the library–good old books.
Oooh, yeah gosh I meant to make a link….
Make Way For Ducklings
Blueberries For Sal
One Morning in Maine
Burt Dow Deep Water Man
Time of Wonder
Lentil
Homer Price
Centerburg Tales: More Tales of Homer Price