A Dark, Dark Cave by Eric Hoffman & Illustrated by Corey R. Tabor

This is another book from Clover's lovely stack. 

This one is chock full of imagination and sibling togetherness. 

Wintry landscape. A cave discovered. 

Of course they enter the deep dark cave. 

Where magic lives!

Right next to scary things with giant eyes....

I love this picture!

Aigh!!!

Our brave explorers are not going to take this invasion lying down. 

That's too loud, kids. Find a quiet game. The baby's sleeping.

Sorry, Dad.

This makes me exceedingly happy. 

With eight kids contained in one house for the entirety of Thanksgiving break, I can sympathize with this dad. But I love the imagination of the kids. 

Pouting and.... ideas!

Galloping horses!

In sunshine and birdsong

Sailaway Home by Bruce Degen

IT IS THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION! New York is seriously the last state to let kids go. (I did a three minute facebook scan of my news feed to determine this, so it is legit.) But we are now free for 75 days. And by free I mean completing a to-do list a mile long. But amidst all of that accomplishing, I hope to squeeze in some serious laziness and book reading. 

In the spirit of summertime and childhood, I give you Sailaway Home by Bruce Degen. (Coincidentally, Bruce Degen also wrote Jamberry, which was Monday's book. He is good with summer themes apparently.)

The other day, a blog I follow had a link to an article about children and reading. It is a great article, so read the whole thing. But I particularly loved this paragraph at the end:

In short, cultivating a young reader requires two, only superficially contradictory, strategies: We need to engage with our children deeply on their own terms, with loving, respectful conversation about things that genuinely interest them. And we need to get out of children's way so that they can discover on their own the enchantment that fuels not only a love of reading, but also a love of life.

And Sailaway Home perfectly encapsulates that entire idea. This is the story of a darling little pig with a gigantic imagination. His mind carries him on all sorts of adventures, all within safe distance of a parent. But that parent, busy with their own things, lets their son have space to imagine without pestering the life (and imagination) out of him with questions and schedules and distractions. Yet when their son comes back from his imaginary adventures, they are right there, ready to hear all about it.

He goes fishing with his dad and brings his boat to float on the water. And suddenly he is on the boat. 

Sailaway, sailaway over the foam. 

A storm comes up

And then a whale. 

But his adventure ends when his dad catches his boat on the hook.

While his mother is gardening, he sets off on another adventure around the garden on his hobby horse.

Encountering rich pirates on the way.

And then comes back to his mother much the richer. 

Flying his airplane outside, lifts him to the clouds.

My kids love that rainbow pie.

Setting out for some butterfly/bug collecting.

He becomes teensy to see what it would be like to be bug size.

This kid is pretty independent. 

I love the ending. 

There's someone to tell if you...

...Runaway home. 

Happiness!

The Milkman by Carol Foskett Cordsen & illus by Douglas B. Jones

One day, while poking around a bookstore in Denver, CO I saw this book written by a local author. I fell in love with the faux vintage illustrations and the rhyming/choppy phrases, but since we were living in a rental condo in Steamboat and had no kids, I couldn't justify buying it. Several years later I saw it at our local library and remembered how much I liked it. 

And now I own a copy. Because I am like that. MUST OWN ALL GOOD BOOKS

Mr. Plimpton is out of bed and going through his morning routine.

Loud alarm clock. Snoring stops.

Mr. Plimpton our of bed

Cream in coffee. Egg on bread. 

Milkman jacket. Milkman hat.

Cranky pickup. Cranky cat. 

Driving in to work.

And then I got distracted by the brown eyed susans in the sunlight. I love brown eyed susans. 

The dairy where he picks up his truck.

And out he goes on his rounds.

Lost my dog 

Love, Caroline.

There is a dog to look for in all the pictures. Which adds another layer of charm to this book.

Do you see the dog?! Mr. Plimpton is just a nice guy. We like Mr. Plimpton.

I spy, with my little eye....

Next to lamppost, under sign. 

Lost dog home to Caroline.

I remember reading an article about the difference between 1950's neighborhood life and now. There was a stay at home mother in almost every house you walked past on the way to school in the 1950's. Which meant there were a lot of eyes watching you as you went about your life. So things were safer for kids out without their parents back then. And I think people like the milkman, (who soon went out of fashion) were part of that world and that net of safety. They saw things everyday and noticed when things were different.  

Not that I want to go back to the 1950's, thankyouverymuch. Just an interesting thing to ponder. 

Mr. Plimpton brings his milk truck back to the dairy.

...and heads home.  

Last stop, best stop. Cat jumps out. 

"Daddy's home!" comes happy shout.

Excitement at Daddy coming home never goes out of fashion.

Happy Family-ness.

Sun up red!

And just one more brown eyed susan picture!