Thursday, April 23, 2009

Books for your children to enjoy

Another Tuesday came and went...no book post from
our little corner of the Garden State. What is with that???
I am really trying to get a handle on things here. Truly.
Life is getting back to normal, but it is garden season.
Princess and I got our own plot in our local Community Garden
this year. It is a brand new endeavor for our town, and one I
support, so we are in! Our plot is ten feet by ten feet.
I attended the first meeting last night..very exciting.
We missed the fence raising last Saturday, as we had Grandma's funeral,
but they are doing more this Sunday, so we'll be there.Our local Lowes
donated the fence posts, our mayor donated the chicken wire for the top.
The water line has been put in and the land roto-tilled by our works department.
A local garden center/farm in town is donating the lime and offering a 10% discount
for supplies we buy for the garden, as well as being willing to answer all of our questions.
I'm feeling the "Community" already.What does this have to do with books?
Hmm, well...it's how we have been spending our time instead of blogging. lol
Here are a couple of books we have enjoyed lately..we hope you all will too.



One of my favorite reads this month was Rocks in His Head


The author tells the story of her father's passion for rock collecting in this sweet and funny picture book. "People said he had rocks in his pockets and rocks in his head. He didn't mind. It was usually true." He started collecting rocks as a young boy. When he grew up, he carefully labeled his rock collection and displayed them on the back wall of his filling station. However, once the Depression hit and the filling station closed, he had to look for work. Taking odd jobs where and when he could,spending his time when there was no work to be found, at the local science museum, where he eventually attracted the attention of the director. She offered him a job as the nighttime janitor, which combined with his unquenchable love for rocks, eventually led to his being named Curator of Mineralogy, despite his lack of a college degree. This is a story worth reading for us all,about a man who quietly pursues his passion, no matter what others think. We really enjoy the artist's watercolor-and-ink illustrations as well.
Princess loves to collect rocks too, so she enjoyed seeing where that might lead.
Another book about a man with a passion for his job, is
Princess really enjoyed this book about a postal worker who LOVES
his job. The illustrations are charming, the story is very sweet, we often talk
about the importance of doing your "job" well, so this fit in well.Mr Griggs likes his
job so much , he thinks about it all the time. Even on a sick day.
The other reason I think she liked it, is one of her favorite "Dad's" in
our group, is a postal worker. I'm not sure if he is a favorite because he makes
rice crispy treats for the kids, or if it's because he's the guitar player in her "band",lol.
But this book reminded her of him a bit.
I had a bigger pile, but someone keeps "stealing" them as I type. ;-)


I will try to get more up soon..we have some real good ones out right now.
Speaking of which, I must go finish the book I am reading right now. ;-)

6 comments:

Mrs. Darling said...

Any book by Cynthia Rylant is good and thats one I havent read. We want to go to the library today and Im goign to pick that one up.

Good luck with your garden plants. LOL

Tara said...

We loved Rylant books too... Mr. Putter and Tabby! The community garden sounds great.

Tara said...

Owen really enjoyed Rocks In His Head- in fact he is still enjoys studying rocks and minerals... :)

Alycia in Va. said...

We haven't read either of those, I'll add them to our next library run. Thanks for mentioning them.

Stephanie said...

Thanks for the book suggestions!

Butterfly 8)(8 Bungalow said...

I've got to find the first book. It looks like something we both would enjoy.

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