Children's literature and me

I thought a word of explanation might be fitting regarding the selections on my reading list.  You may have noticed that a number of them are children’s books.  Since our homeschooling philosophy thus far is largely literature-based (we spend lots of time reading together), it seems like my world is filled with kids’ stories these days.  It would not seem right to leave them off the list.   The truth is, I think that I enjoy children’s stories and educational literature just as much as any of the other books on my list.  I find that in our times of reading together my eyes are opened a little wider to the wonder and beauty of the world, both through the books themselves and also in observing my children’s responses.  Appreciation of the simple things in life is so easily lost in adulthood.  Reading with my children is one way in which I am reminded daily that in some ways it is good to grow young.  Speaking of the wonder and beauty of the world, I thought I’d share this excerpt from E.B. White’s The Trumpet of the Swan (our current read-aloud) for your own reading enjoyment:

The cob was expecting to become a father any minute now.  The idea of fatherhood made him feel poetical and proud.  He began to talk to his wife.

“Here I glide, swanlike,” he said, “while earth is bathed in wonder and beauty.  Now slowly, the light of day comes into our sky.  A mist hangs low over the pond.  The mist rises slowly, like steam from a kettle, while I glide, swanlike, while eggs hatch, while young swans come into existence.  I glide and glide.  The light strengthens.  The air becomes warmer.  Gradually the mist disappears.  I glide, I glide, swanlike.  Birds sing their early song.  Frogs that have croaked in the night stop croaking and are silent.  Still I glide, ceaselessly, like a swan.”

“Of course you glide like a swan,” said his wife.  “How else could you glide?  You couldn’t glide like a moose, could you?” 

“Well, no.  That is quite true.  Thank you, my dear, for correcting me.”  The cob felt taken aback by his mate’s commonsense remark.  He enjoyed speaking in fancy phrases and graceful language, and he liked to think of himself as gliding swanlike.  He decided he’d better do more gliding and less talking.

Comments

[Betsy Will]

Mims,
Speaking of childrens literature. Have you seen or heard the Hillsong childrens Video Jesus Your My Superhero? I have had a childrens story going around in my head based on that song. I am thinking of writing Hillsong to see if they would give me permission to do it and use the song as the base. Perhaps even with a single song CD in it. But here's a question for you--would you be at all interested in illustrating it? Wild thoughts hm? It keeps swirling around in my head and wants to come out. If you're interested I'll tell you more.

[Miriam]

Hi, Aunt Betsy -
Yes, we know that song well! The kids often come home from Sunday school singing it... I didn't realize it was from Hillsong. That sounds like a great idea to do a book! I would love to help with illustrating, but I'm not sure I'm there with my skills right now. I need to learn to draw more out of my imagination (totally necessary for illustrating). Would probably have to take a bunch of classes before I could do something like that. Someday, maybe... But I'm flattered that you would ask and would love to hear what's going on as you pursue doing this!