Tags
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?
Tim L O'Brien's Blog - Static In The Airwaves 