Remember when kids could play outside in the woods, at the fishing hole all day long...

"Rascal": a true story of a pet racoon by Sterling North.

We're in only a chapter and a half. What a hoot!

Turns out, it was made into a movie by Disney in the 70's.  After reading the book, we borrowed the DVD from the library.  It was enjoyable, but we had plenty of objections to the editing. The book was a delicious communion with nature while introducing true scientific facts and historical events. The main character's brother is away serving in WWII.  The boy must keep a "war garden"  and paper route to earn spending money.  The neighbors are up in arms over the raccoon's nightly raids of their corncobs.  I do wonder how much of the memior is "fictionalized."  Could so many delightful events have really happened in one summer? I hope my daughter will return to this book to appreciate Sterling's coming of age and acceptance of responsibility.

Cherries and Pits

I love shopping for books at thrift stores. Occasionally there is a collection of higher-caliber books, prompting me to imagine an experienced, kind-hearted mother passing on her best books in a cheritable donation. Cherries and Pits was a timely arrival at our house. Both girls, ages 4 and 8, love drawing with markers right now. The main character of this book picks just the right marker, begins with a single dot and begins telling a story: "This is the door of the subway train.  And This..."  She tells the stories of her city-dwelling neighbors buying cherries on the street and taking them home to whomever is waiting.  But our heroine has a special plan for her cherries and pits...
A stunning masterpiece from our house:

Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Trees

One of my goals is for my kids to love nature.  This is the first of the Crinkleroot series I have stumbled across.  Crinkleroot is a Santa-like nature guide explaining roles of trees in nature. My favorite pages show about 20 varieties of leaves (deciduous) and their seeds. I've been wondering what that those fuzzy things all over the ground are: sycamore  seeds! It will be good to have the pictures to match up to leaves we find in the woods this year. Another page shows varieties of coniferous needles and their cones. I was so excited to order the Handbook of Nature Study, but the pics are old and not at all interesting to the kids. The drawings in this book are adorable.