Trying To Find My Way Home

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Blog, Karen McFarland, Rio Grande, South Texas, Static in the Airwaves, Tim L O'Brien

Some of you may have noticed my blog has been MIA since Christmas.  Some even sent messages of concern, which was very kind of you.  I wish I had a terrific story to explain my disappearance, but I don’t.  I wasn’t attacked by wild hogs or kidnapped by the Mexican drug cartels.  I’ve been in God’s Country – South Texas along the Rio Grande – for two of the past three weeks.  I had three blogs written that I intended to post the last week of 2011, but those plans were thwarted when the new internet device failed to provide service to the compound where I was staying.  I enjoyed writing them, but they are dated so there is no need to publish them now.

Like that evil step-mom or obnoxious mother-in-law, I couldn’t stay gone forever.  In fact, Karen McFarland, one of my favorite bloggers, found my secret hiding spot and has brought me back to the blogosphere world today.  I’m glad to be back.  I have a pocket full of blog ideas to write in the future.

Karen asked me several weeks ago to be a guest blogger on her site.  This was a first for me, but with it came the formidable task of writing something that would uphold to her standards.  She has had several previous guest bloggers, and the list is quite impressive with many published authors lending their words to her blog page.  Why she asked me I have no idea, but it was truly an honor to do so.

So for further proof that I am still alive and writing, please click on the following link to check out my first guest blog.  I hope you enjoy the blog and further enjoy reading Karen’s blogs.

Click on this link to read my guest blog at:  Karen McFarland’s Blog – Expressions From the Heart.

No date has been set for my welcome back party, but I have plenty of beer on ice.  Hope you enjoy today’s post.

Reasons to Read – Your Childhood Favorite

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Bears on Hemlock Mountain, Blog, Children, childrens literature, Courage of Sarah Noble, Jon Scieszka, Julie Hedlund, Lost in a Drunken Banquet of Static, Tim L O'Brien

Time to play the Book that Made a Difference game.

Last Monday’s blog discussed the importance of parents reading to their children.  The blog was a reminder to us all – whether we are a mom, dad, aunt, uncle, brother, sister or grandparent – that it is our job collectively, and not the school systems, to get children to read.  I mentioned best-selling author James Paterson’s superb site: www.readkiddoread.com

Since last Monday’s blog, children’s book author, Julie Hedlund, brought another fantastic web site to my attention.  I mentioned the difficulties of trying to get my son interested in books, and she recommended Jon Scieszka’s site:  www.guysread.com.  The web site is a wonderful resource to use and is full of book titles, broken into many categories, such as Classics that Actually Hold Up; Mysterious Occurrences; Dragons and of course, Sports.

Through Julie’s fabulous blog site – Write Up My Life – I also discovered two other terrific sites to use:  www.bookdads.com and www.the childrensbookreview.com

While browsing through these websites, I thought back to the books I enjoyed reading as a child.  There is no way to remember everything our parents read to us, but one book in particular, truly stands out in my memory – The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesch.  Two of her works of historical fiction, The Courage of Sarah Noble (1954) and The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (1952) won Newberry honors.  I have since bought the book several more times and have read it to my children.  Despite its 1952 publishing date, the story still holds up well, and all my children have thoroughly enjoyed the tale.

Is there  a book from your childhood that you can pinpoint as pivotal to opening the gates of reading joy?  Have you passed that book on to your children, as well?  Was there a particular book that your children read that opened the flood gates and brought your child into the world of words?