June 26, 2023

On Literary Pathways

June 26, 2023/ Natalie Thompson

I walked by these shelves the other day and a moment of nostalgia hit me...for all those hours clocked at the kitchen table, or curled up on the sofa or out on our back deck...being transported to London, Birmingham, Avonlea, Boston with Anne, Bud, Charlotte, Almanzo and the like. I posted a few months ago that we waited to start the Harry Potter series until my oldest was 13 and my youngest 8 for various reasons (post here) and it led down the discussion of literary pathways and I've been wanting to get to this post for a while. Every family's literary pathway will look different but here, in a mix of reflection and listicle style, is mine:

Background: I didn't start tracking our family read alouds until my kids were 7, 5 and 2. Prior to that we were in the land of picture books, library storytimes and I-Can-Read books (both of my older two were early readers, around age 4, so if I wasn't reading picture books to them, they were very earnest about showing off their new skill to ME!).

(A bit more background: my parents are from Argentina and they highly value education but neither came from a read aloud culture. I have a vague memory of my mom reading to me when I was four and my next memory is her reading aloud and me getting frustrated and wanting to read faster, by myself. And her happily handing that book over, lol. To be fair she had four other children under age 6 at that point.)

So back to my kids being ages 2-7, at some point it dawned on me that we were entering into a glorious age of reading and I could tell that my older boys were able to sit through longer read-alouds. Frog + Toad stories were such a hit but they were over quickly so one day I dusted off an old copy of The House at Pooh Corner and was thrilled when my then 6 and 4 year old sat, enraptured, whilst my 2 year old napped. Hence began our snacks + stories tradition. This has been a long standing tradition but really started during nap time for my youngest or when they started going to school and were hungry (and a bit overstimulated) and needed some focused downtime. And I could read aloud uninterrupted while their little hands were busy with snacks. I honestly wasn't sure where to start but a childhood favorite author of mine had been Roald Dahl so I began with Fantastic Mister Fox mainly because of the length and clever yet easy to follow storyline. Yes, I had to stop and explain certain vocabulary words, but I was thrilled that they were captivated by Dah’s satirical and whimsical writing. I then moved onto Stuart Little, The Brambly Hedge Series, James and the Giant Peach, Ollie's Odyssey, A Certain Small Shepherd and at night my husband read them one of his favorites: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I began to add books by authors like Marguerite de Angeli that were new to me: Yonie Wondernose and Thee, Hannah! and loved seeing them enjoy them. We live in Michigan which is far from my family (ATL) and between those road trips as well as trips north to my in-laws lakehouse, we began adding audiobooks into the mix: that year we did The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Angus + Sadie, The Story of Paddington Bear, The One + Only Ivan, Stone Fox, Beatrix Potter and the Tales of Peter Rabbit, The Wizard of Oz and Paddle-to-the-Sea.

The following year, in 2017, we again, kept up with either longer picture book read alouds (think 50 pages or more) and other chapter books. The list is below. My kids were now 8, 6 and 3.

The Animals Robert Scott Saw
The Animals Christopher Columbus Saw
Skippack School
Twelve Kinds of Ice
The Night Fairy
Twig
James Herriot’s Treasury for Children
The Jungle Book
The Curious Guide to Things That Aren’t
Anne of Green Gables
Beatrix Potter Treasury
Brave Red, Smart Frog
Peter Pan
The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine
The Family Under the Bridge
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
A Tree for Peter
Jotham’s Journey

Our audiobooks included:

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Appleblossom the Possum
Ramona the Pest
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona and Her Father
Ramona and Her Mother
Ramona Forever
The Penderwicks
The Penederwicks on Gardam Street

In 2018, as my kids turned 9, 7 and 4, I remember becoming even more intentional about read alouds. I started to realize that our style was a mix of classical and contemporary. Seeing them (especially my older two) be able to sit through and comprehend Peter Pan, The Jungle Book and Anne of Green Gables gave me the confidence to them introduce more classics:

The Hobbit
The Wind in the Willows
A Little Princess
Alice in Wonderland
The Beauty and the Beast
Good Night Tales by C.S. Fritz
Macbeth for Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun Series)
Tales of Wonder
A Christmas Carol
A Year Full of Stories: 52 Classic Stories from All Around the World
Bartholomew’s Passage: A Family Story for Advent

And for audiobooks, we did:

· Mary Poppins

· The Penderwicks at Point Mouette

· The Penderwicks in Spring

· The Penderwicks at Last

· Eugenia Lincoln and the Unexpected Package

· The War That Saved My Life

· The War I Finally Won

· Who Was? Scientists and Inventors

In 2019, my kids were 10, 8 and 5 and for some reason I didn't track audiobooks that year but ones that we read aloud that year are below. I began to think seasonally about read-alouds: we purposely did The Long Winter during our own long Michigan winter, I debuted the Secret Garden in springtime and I read aloud Tom Sawyer in the summer. You can probably tell our Advent reads just by looking at the titles, wink. And the gem of that year was being introduced to Christopher Paul Curtis. I found Elijah of Buxton on the shelves of their lakehouse and asked to borrow it. They told me to keep it and I'm thrilled that they did as the next few years I'd purposely included a CPC in our read-alouds.

Elijah of Buxton
The Long Winter
The Secret Garden
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
The Adventurous Life of Myles Standish
The True Gift
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

In 2020, my kids were 11, 9 and 6 and I started to be conscious of some books that my daughter had been too young to remember and needed to circle back to those (ie: Fantastic Mister Fox) and then was realizing that were some that maybe my boys had read on their own but not heard as a read aloud and so before my daughter could independently get to those, I wanted the memory of reading them together (ah, the motivational kick that only the last child can give to a mama, right). Exhibit A: Charlotte's Web. That year I intentionally decided to tackle George MacDonald (even though I may be missing something, we still are all a bit baffled when we come to the end of one) and I wanted to continue rounding out our shelves with diverse voices (more Christopher Paul Curtis and Louise Erdrich).

Charlotte’s Web
The Snow Queen
The Light Princess
The Golden Key
Bud, not Buddy
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Heidi
The Watsons Go To Birmingham
Boy of the Pyramids
The Saracen Steed
The Birchbark House
Tabitha’s Travels
The Invention of Lefse
The Birds’ Christmas Carol

Audiobooks:

Echo Mountain
The One and Only Ivan
Adventures with Waffles
Madame Badobedah

2021 had us becoming 'pandemic homeschoolers' and given that the kids were 12, 10 and 7 and all reading voraciously and independently, I chose our read alouds carefully-I had long been wanting to read The Phantom Tollbooth and Peacemaker in the fall (and the history curriculum we were using also included them so I ironically didn't read as much as my voice was pretty heavily used with teaching!)

· Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

· The Three Gold Doubloons

· The Kidnapped Prince

· The Railway Children

· Miracles on Maple Hill

· The Mighty Miss Malone

· Through the Wall

· The Phantom Tollbooth

· The Princess and the Goblin

· Ishtar’s Odyssey

· Peacemaker

· Wise Words

Audibooks included:

A Shiloh Christmas
Brave Like That
Seekers: The Quest Begins
The Zoo at the Edge of the World
My Name is Tani
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series (Books 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

2022 had us continue in the same vein and now my kids are 13, 11 and 8. I'm more conscious of mixing read alouds with what they are learning/studying and again, rereading some for the sake of my youngest (ie: The Hobbit). I'm also introducing stories with more dialogue (The Vanderbeekers, All of a Kind Family, A Place to Hang the Moon) as my kids are at peak sibling relational years!

Little Pilgrim’s Progress
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
The World of William Penn
The Tortoise and the Soldier
The Journey of Little Charlie
The Hobbit
Island of the Blue Dolphins
A Single Shard
Bronze and Sunflower
A Long Road on a Short Day
All-of-a-Kind Family
A Place to Hang the Moon

Audibooks:

Stubby the War Dog
The Long Lost Home: Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book 8
James Herriot's Treasury for Children

And so that brings us to the present where our read alouds have been books 1 and 2 of Harry Potter and my next re-read will be Anne of Green Gables (my daughter is 9 and I want the memory of reading that one to her and am interested to hear what my older boys remember as they were LITTLE when I read it to them before).

So sometimes I'm asked: Was all that time reading aloud worth it? Did they really understand what you were reading?

And here is the thing. I'm honestly not responsible for what they understand or remember but this is what I do know: children understand so much more than we give them credit for. And I let the authors do the heavy lifting. Kids instinctively are able to discern that Peter Pan is about mourning the end of childhood, that Heidi, Anne of Green Gables and A Little Princess exemplify the choice we all have each day to not delve into bitterness and turn towards grace and forgiveness, and that The Secret Garden and Charlotte's Web remind us of the beauty of unlikely friendships. Birchbark House provides a good indigenous historical alternative to The Little House series but if you don't want to read one over the other, then read both and talk about it! The Railway Children, A Place to Hang the Moon and The War that Saved my Life depicted what life was like for children during the World Wars and all Christopher Paul Curtis books we've read include themes of either enslavement or Civil Rights and that led to great age-appropriate discussions. Did I have to pause with the classics sometimes to paraphrase if the language felt over their heads at times? YES. Did I stop to ask them to narrate back to me what they heard to be sure I understood? YES. Did I have to put some stories into the context of colonialism? YES. Did I sometimes have to put books down to pause due to my own sadness? YES. Did we laugh out loud together at a character’s humorous antics? YES.

No, I honestly don't regret those minutes, hours and days a single bit. I feel that as parents we're stewarded with developing their minds and while picture books are wonderful (and we still read them with older children too-they are not mutually exclusive), there is an alchemy to traveling through longer complex chapter books that is hard to explain. And while I consider myself rather well read, I had never heard of Charlotte Mason until a few years ago and her words regarding reading resonated with what was always intuitive to me.

As for literature – to introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child's intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find. -Charlotte Mason

So yes, when my oldest came home from kindergarten one day asking about Harry Potter because a friend mentioned their parent was reading it to them, I just smiled and told him that I had collected the books as they came out when I was in my 20s and that he need not worry, that the books (originals!) were all sitting in my office upstairs and that we'd get to them when he and his siblings were older. But that first, we had someone named Aslan that he needed to meet.

Please know that this is not prescriptive: this literary pathway evolved and emerged like most things in parenthood do: sometimes intentional, other times reactive. Some books my kids begged me to keep reading, other times we slogged through and breathed a collective sigh of relief when we were done. I'm often surprised by what they forget, and am tickled by what they remember. Some books I maybe waited too long on, and others I probably introduced a bit early. But at the end of the day, these stories stay imprinted on their minds and hearts and these times together are memories that YOU and YOUR kids are making together so just read and make them! I am praying that the main takeaway ‘my mom was always excited to read to us-maybe sometimes too excited’ will override ‘boy, did my mom look at her phone a lot’. Or one can hope! If you have any questions, ask away! I always love talking about what we’ve read and what we are reading!

November 30, 2020

Behind the Scenes with Little Mole

November 30, 2020/ Natalie Thompson

I'm so pleased to share an interview with author Glenys Nellist and illustrator Sally Garland, regarding their latest collaboration, Little Mole's Christmas Gift. A book release is always a treat, especially right around the holidays, and I appreciate them taking a minute to share some thoughts behind the heart and inspiration of Little Mole!

Natalie: Tell us Glenys, what was your inspiration for the character of Little Mole?

Glenys: We first met Little Mole in Little Mole Finds Hope, which was released in the spring. The inspiration for his character came from my desire to write a book exploring the idea that hope can be found, even in the darkest place. I needed to feature an animal who lived, literally and figuratively, in the dark, and who could emerge into the light to discover hope and new life. A mole seemed like a natural solution, and everyone's favorite rodent was born. In the second title, Little Mole's Christmas Gift, Little Mole is in a much happier place, and he is seen taking the initiative as he finds a lovely big mushroom for Mama. But on his way back to the burrow, he encounters several animals in need. Little Mole has a big decision to make.. should he share his mushroom or save it for Mama? This story was an opportunity for Little Mole to shine, to demonstrate his compassionate, generous nature and to learn that the best gifts, such as kindness, are sometimes those that can't be wrapped.

Natalie: There is a tender theme of generous giving in the book. How did you experience Christmas in this way yourself, either when you were younger or even more recently?

Glenys: I grew up in England, one of eight children. When I was young my parents were not very well-off and we never had big gifts at Christmas. But that didn't matter. Christmas was absolutely magical to me... my dad would take us upstairs on Christmas Eve where we would all press our noses to the window in the dark to look out for Father Christmas's light. (We never referred to him as Santa!) We lived on a hill overlooking a town and there were always a million twinkling lights in the sky. It was easy to imagine that one of them was Santa's sleigh and we'd all jump into bed, anxious for the morning, when we would find our variously colored socks dangling from the fireplace, bulging with small gifts. In this way, my mind is filled with Christmas memories of growing up in a family where generosity, fun and family experiences were the best gifts of all.

More recently, I remember several years ago when my daughter was a church custodian. It was Mother’s Day, and she couldn’t afford to buy me a gift. So instead, she sat in the sanctuary after everyone else had gone home and sang my favorite hymn (Grace Alone) as she thought about me. I’ve never forgotten that gift. It meant the world to me. In Little Mole’s Christmas Gift, Little Mole discovers that his kindness is the best, most wonderful gift his mama could ever receive—just like my daughter’s little gift was precious to me.

Natalie: Sally, this is the second book in the Little Mole series that you have illustrated. What attracted you to Little Mole and how did you decide how to portray him?

Sally: Little Mole was very easy to imagine and I think this is a testament to Glenys’s good writing. He is very much 'a little mole with a soul' and you have a real sense of that in both stories. When I first started drawing him, his thoughtful little character emerged quickly and I could imagine him wandering through a woody, snowy landscape similar to where I grew up in the North East of Scotland. It struck me later when I saw Glenys’s instagram page and her photos of snowy woods near where she stays; how it looked so like the woods where I grew up. I can almost imagine little mole following her through those woods. See below for photos of the sketches.

Natalie: Sally, Can you describe your process as an illustrator?

Sally: I draw using soft graphite pencils initially so the basic structure and layout of the illustration is rendered by hand. I then scan and work on those drawings digitally to create lots of layers of texture and colour. Illustrating a picture book is a well worn process of first roughing out thumbnails, then submitting full pencil drawings, before finally moving on to colour. It is very much a collaborative process between author, publisher and illustrator.

Natalie: Do you have a favorite illustration in the book?

Glenys: I adore ALL Sally's illustrations, but if I had to pick one, I might choose the scene where Little Mole is dragging his massive mushroom back through the snow to his burrow and as he does, he's imagining how his lovely big gift for Mama is going to look when it's wrapped up. I love this image because I think it's something we can all identify with. We've all been in the position of choosing a really special gift, and imagining the surprise and delight of our loved ones on Christmas morning when they open it. This illustration makes the very small gift depicted at the end of the book all the more poignant.

Sally: My favourite illustration is the second spread in the book depicting when little Mole first sees his Mummy’s Christmas gift. You have the feeling his good idea is a bit bigger than him and he’s maybe bitten off far more than he can chew.

Natalie: 2020 has been quite a challenge! What is your biggest hope for 2021?

Glenys: Oh, goodness! I am hoping, as everyone is, for a vaccine to be widely available to combat this virus so that we can all hug again, and see our families again. Beyond that, I'm very much hoping for America to be kind again, just like our character, Little Mole.

Sally: I’m thankful that I have been, like little mole, able to keep safe with my family in my own wee burrow. I think if anything comes out of this year it will be a sense of not taking things for granted and being grateful for the people who have kept everything going - from the shop owners, post workers and of course our social care and health workers. I hope we all manage to hold on to that feeling for the future.

Thanks again to this talented team behind Little Mole’s Christmas Gift!

February 25, 2020

Be the Bridge Resources

February 25, 2020/ Natalie Thompson

I’m currently hosting a Be the Bridge group and we decided to create a shared document where we could compile resources (books, websites, movies, podcasts, etc) around diversity, racism, racial reconciliation, as they relate to our nation’s history, current cultural moment, and more. As I was adding my recommendations to the list I realized that mine mainly included, what else, books. So I figured I’d share it here as well as much is what I’ve read in recent years around these topics. And I included picture books here along with adult ones because I’ve learned SO much about Black History Month, and more, through children’s literature. Note that this list is a work in progress and not comprehensive at all! I have pulled much inspired over the years from HereWeeRead and HappilyEverElephants and hope you check them out and their booklists as well. In the meantime, I hope you find something for yourself, or your family crew, to grow and deepen your understanding of race relations and the socio-political history of our country. I’d love to hear some of your favorites as well!