Thursday, January 04, 2007

Sparkle Days...

Before I write my next post about Taiwan, and how some little hints of that far-away island were added to our Christmas celebration, I wanted to post about a book I read to my boys this week (before I forget!) Reading with my children has been one of the best parts of being a Mom, and one of my favorite authors is Cynthia Rylant. We first encountered this author when my daughter Haiku fell in love with her book GOOSEBERRY PARK several years ago.

I read Cynthia Rylant's book HENRY AND MUDGE IN THE SPARKLE DAYS, the fifth book of Henry and Mudge's adventures, to my sons earlier this week. Henry is a little boy who lives with his Mom and Dad and a big dog named Mudge in a very homey house. The illustrations by Sucie Stevenson are vibrant and cheerful.

I wanted to share some of the sweet illustrations and the comforting text with my Quiet Country Readers. The author captures what there is to love about winter days in a chapter called "Firelight" with these words:

"On winter nights Henry and Henry's parents and Mudge loved to take walks.
They loved to see the warm lights in the houses.
They loved to see the winter stars in the sky.
They loved to see the sparkle of the moon on the white yards.
They felt happy on these walks."


You can read more about this fun family of characters at www.henryandmudge.com

2 comments:

Nan said...

I love this post! I haven't read Henry and Mudge but will look in the library. She has a very good book for older kids that your girls may have read called Children of Christmas. It contains six stories that are very, very moving.

Marcie said...

Nan,

I'm so glad you were reading today. I knew this would appeal to you! Of course these are written for little ones, but I have picked them up and read them to myself. :)

I think we've missed out on Children of Christmas. I will have to look for that. Maybe that will be our "one new book for Christmas" next year!

I've loved everything that I've read by this author! Thanks for telling me about one I haven't heard of!