Birthday and Books

Cousin love!

We celebrated Grandma’s birthday this weekend and this is the ONLY picture I have.  Ahh!  I get so caught up in what I’m doing that I forget to take pictures. 

These two were super cute together and played so well.  They even “helped” blow out the, will not be named, amount of candles on Grandma’s cake. 

Corbin and I started our first chapter book together, The Tale of Despereaux.  It’s a Newbery awarding winning book (this award is given to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children”) and was listed as one of the Top 100 Chapter Books of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.

So you would think that I, the librarian, would have read this book by now, but I hadn’t.  I knew the title and heard of the book, but never ventured into the pages.

But on Friday, Corbin and I began our journey.  I was surprised by how dark this book is, so be warned.  It has death, violence, and adventure.  But, I think one great thing about books verses movies is that you use your imagination to conjure the images and for me, they are always less frightening and dark then what a movie would show me.

Corbin has been much more engaged and interested in the book then I thought.  In fact, he got up this morning, grabbed the book, and said “Let’s read!  I want to find out what happens to Despereaux.”  Can I tell you how happy that made my book loving heart

I found it a tad hard to get into, but once I got into the book, I’ve liked it.  It’s not my favorite and again it’s much darker then I imagined, but overall it’s provided some great conversation.  The one really great benefit of this book are the short chapters.  Each chapter is only 3-4 pages, so it makes this book ideal for a first chapter read aloud to younger kiddos.

Happy Monday!