First book post for October 2008

Here we are in October already, and I have a stack of books next to me to tell you all about.
Let's see how many I can get on before I am called away.
Princess has a cold and fell asleep on the couch at 9pm last night.
She slept until almost 8am this morning.
Those of you who have been reading here for a while or know us in "real life", know how unusual this is for us.
I could have sat and blogged about my books while watching American Experience last night (which was about Mr Jimmy!), but for once, I did the smart thing. I went to bed. Princess could easily have been up for her day at 2 am,
so I went to sleep.I have not slept a full night since I was pregnant with her, so it was easy enough to get to sleep.
Upon awakening, I read an e-mail from my sister that my Grandmother was admitted to the hospital at 4am today.
She was having difficulty breathing (emphysema) and chest pains.My sister didn't want to wake us, but is wonderful about keeping us informed, and e-mailed from her cell phone from the hospital before heading home to change and
go to work herself. Princess did have a fever last night, and she is sniffling and runny eyed today again, so we will miss our homeschool day and will not be able to check in on Grandma.
We will instead have another snuggle up on the couch with a stack of books and maybe a movie or two.
I'll make some soup, we'll indulge in ice cream and hot cocoa and tea with honey.
She has Pumpkin on her lap right now while she watches "Sid the Science Kid" on PBS.

One of the books we'll be re-reading today will be EMMA
A lovely book about a woman who begins to paint after her 72nd birthday.
She gets a painting of the village where she grew up from her family for her birthday,
and it does not look like her memories, so she begins to paint her memories for herself.
This reminded us both of Poppa, who painted life in New York City as he remembered it from his youth.



we'll also read Leaves

A book about a bear who has never seen leaves fall off a tree before,
so he tries to put them back on.Princess especially liked when he comes out of hibernation to the new spring shoots of the trees welcoming him back out into the world.It was very cute.





and Velma Gratch and the way cool butterfly

Velma is the third Gratch sister, and everyone remembers what her older sisters were good at
when they were in first grade. Velma discovers her own uniqueness as she takes a trip to the
Butterfly Pavilion with her class. We enjoyed the metamorphosis of this little girl into a scientist very much. Princess learned (she told me) that it is not a good idea to get noticed by being "bad". ;-)




My Little Grandmother Often Forgets

We love books by Reeve Lindbergh, and this is no exception.
A lovely, gentle story about a grandson patiently spending time with his grandmother who suffers from memory loss. This book is about her own son's relationship with her mother during her last year of life. It would be a nice gift for any child going through this with their grandparent.
It certainly touched a cord for Princess and myself as my Grandmother suffers from Dementia.



The Pumpkin Blanket

We really loved this story about a baby girl who gets a "gift" from the wind
of a lovely quilt that comforts her and protects her until she is five and about to go to
the school in her village.Her father worries the other children will tease her for carrying her blanket there.Princess wondered why she couldn't just homeschool .;-)
She gives her squares up one by one to protect the pumpkins from the frost
as the vines wither away. We especially loved the wind taking back the squares as they harvest the pumpkins.By Halloween she has twelve smiling jack o'lanterns on her porch and what looks like one tiny piece of her quilt in her hands.
The watercolors alone are worth the price of the book .