Daniel's new favorite book, for now . . . and other readings around the house

"Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them."

~Arnold Lobel

Well, maybe not a long beard . . .

Daniel is in love.
He is in love with a book.
This makes me very happy.
We do not own this book, so we have to keep renewing it from the library.
What is this book?
It's called Where Have You Been? by Margaret Wise Brown.

It is a sing-songy, rhyming book, and the illustrations in this edition are darling!!
The book begins, "Little old cat, little old cat, where have you been?" "To see this and that," said the little old cat, "That's where I've been."
Owl goes on to ask various animals where they have been, and their answers are sweet and interesting.
Daniel can just about recite this book by heart.
He loves to hear it and to see the pictures, and we often read it two, three, six times before he is done with it.
I am enjoying a new book he received as a gift from MeMe called For God So Loved the World. The illustrations are bold and delightful, and each page highlights some of the gifts we enjoy because God so loved. It is beautifully multi-cultural and I highly recommend this book for young and old. It is good for us all to remember that Go so loved . . .

The boys and I are on to our third book in the Redwall series, Mattimeo, about an evil fox who steals the young of Redwall Abbey to enslave them. This is a read-aloud for us, and we usually read it during breakfast.

Isaac just finished reading The Red Badge of Courage, a classic by Stephen Crane (born in Newark, NJ, by the way. When I was growing up, we used to pass an apartment complex called Stephen Crane Village all the time. Imagine my surprise to find out later that he was a famous author!!) He wrote a book report on it.
I am reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for the next book-club meeting, which will be sometime in November. I am thoroughly enjoying this book, written as a series of letters between the most unlikely of friends, drawn together by the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II.

We will also be reading One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson, but I am waiting on inter-library loan for that one.
I am also reading Parenting is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us In Worry and Guilt by Leslie Leyland Fields. I will probably blog about this one when I am finished.

Another book next to my bed is A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, which I am using to help me write a Christmas play.

Joe is currently enjoying Believing it All: Lessons I Learned from My Children, by Marc Parent, about a stay-at-home dad and his adventures with his sons. This is one of my favorite books, as well.

Well, these are the literary happenings here. I highly recommend all the books mentioned above.
And this is the perfect time of year to snuggle up with a warm drink, a fuzzy blanket, and a hot book!
Remember, reading is much more fun when shared with loved ones! Read with your child, your spouse, your friends!
Happy reading, everyone!