A Day for Skating by Sarah Sullivan & Illus by Madeline Valentine

This is a cozy little book about a little girl whose father takes her ice skating. 

I love a good winter scene!

Lacing up the skates

Trying out the skates.

Getting a helping hand

Hockey

Quaint bridges

Bonfire!

A hot bath with a faithful father in attendance. 

And night time creatures on the pond. 

Over the River and Through the Woods Illus by Christopher Manson

The next one had woodcut illustrations which creates a vintage feel. 

This also had simplified lyrics, omitting some of the lesson known verses.

Iceboats!

For some reason, this version feels the most authentic. For no reason except the woodcuts look vintagey. 

I have to say, I love woodcuts.

I loved this one! 

Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel by Kimberly Willis Holt

I admit it--I bought this for the cover. Flowers, long hair in the wind, and the phrase "Texas Sunrise Motel." A bit of a trifecta really. 

And it was SO GOOD.

Stevie is the beloved daughter of two flower/fruit farmers New Mexico . Life is good. Until some careless driver. runs into her parents roadside stand, killing both of them. That part is not good. 

When we meet Stevie, she is heading to her Grandfather and his Texas Sunrise Motel in Texas. She doesn't know her grandfather because her mother refused to speak of him. But since he is closest relative, off she goes. 

My mother and her brother were sent away from the family farm in Quebec to friends in Pennsylvania after her parent's death which made this book that much more interesting to me--I have always thought how devastating it must have been for my mother to lose her family, her farm, and her country. Stevie is much the same, minus the losing the country part.  

How do you recover from the total upset of your life?

Stevie isn't sure. But she is pretty sure that to continue life, she needs to be back on their farm. It is the only place that makes sense. But the adults in her life seem to have different ideas for her. As Stevie gets to know her gruff grandfather, the interesting residents of his motel, and the family she didn't even know she had, she begins to understand her mother and father better and learn a little of her own life story. When tough choices arise, Stevie has to think carefully about the new life she is building and what is most important to her. 

 And then, no matter where you are, there can always be flowers. Always.

This is a light book--we don't have any raw emotional scenes. But it feels authentic. Stevie is a girl I could relate to--her love of flowers! Her love of the family farm! There is a touch of friendship, a little bit of romance, family dynamics, and optimism to round it all out for a completely satisfying middle grade read. 

Tiny, Perfect Things by M.H. Clark & Illus by Madeline Kloepper

This book is everything I want in a picture book.

A focus on nature

Finding the magical in the ordinary

Inter-generational bonding

Taking walks

Cozy homes

Friendly world

I am not going to tell you how long I have had this book  checked out from the library. Suffice it to say it has been a while. A few weeks. Or months..... 

We moved a few months ago and I discovered a box of library books under my bed last week. Ooops. 

I have been putting off taking pictures for this book because I wanted to go out in the woods and find some tiny perfect things to take pictures with. Teeny flowers, emerging buds, perfectly red leaves, etc. 

The tiny, perfect things of winter melt too quickly for photographing with books. 

But today, I challenged myself to find some tiny, perfect things in the wintery woods while walking the dogs. It was a cold and windy day, but the sun made a brief appearance this afternoon. And there were so many tiny, perfect things in that magic time just before sunset--the way the lowering sun shines over a windswept field of snow, how the sun shines around bare trees, the little funnels of snow the wind whips up.... 

And so on the way back, I looked more closely for things that are perfect. The teeniest of buds on the trees that are there as soon as the leaves fall off in the fall. The dried seed heads of last summer's flowers. A spray of pine needles. 

There is magic and beauty all around us.

But back to the story!

A little girl and her grandfather head out for a walk, keeping their eyes open for tiny, perfect things. 

Windblown leaves

Spiderwebs

Bottle caps, sidewalk flowers, beautiful dogs.

I love this grandfather and little girl who are such friends!

Neighborly waves!

Red apples

And then, as the moon is rising, they head home.

There are things to tell Mommy!

(While Daddy cooks yummy food in a darling kitchen.)

And then, while everyone is cozying up, the little girl starts making plans for the walks they will take the next day. 

I love this inter-generational household! 

At the end of the book, there is a fold out section where readers can look for the pictured tiny, perfect things...

...in a picture of their neighborhood.

And then, I saw my paperwhites popping up. And if there is anything more perfect than emerging bulbs, I just don't know what is. 

Homeplace by Anne Shelby & Illus by Wendy Anderson Halperin

I fully intended to have an amazing array of women's history books for March, but.... that didn't happen. I am a little behind things! 

This book isn't strictly women and it isn't nonfiction, but I love thinking about the women who have come before me. Those farm women on the Canadian shield, the Irish immigrants in 1920's New Jersey, the Scottish potato farmers in New Brunswick.... 

All the amazing things women have done to break down barriers is more important to my everyday life, but the stories of my women is much more personal and deeply felt. 

A little girl learns about her family history from her grandmother. 

All those years ago, this person whose blood runs in your veins conceived of the very house you are living in. The summer before last, I visited the farmhouse all those farm wives lived in on the Canadian shield. I saw the tools and creations used by all those generations and it was incredibly moving. I had expected to be interested, but I hadn't expected to feel so much. 

I think that connection to the past, that rootedness is something we are losing in this global, transient world of ours. Sometimes that is good--we don't want to be stuck in one place just because someone before us couldn't go anywhere else. Yet, I think that feeling of belonging, of a deep connection to a certain place can be very steadying influence in life. Even the pioneers, as they headed west, it was always with the intent of making a new family homestead, a place where future generations would come to. 

There is no denying that history can be a burden at times, but there is something in me that feels nostalgic for that feeling of belonging. Maybe that has something more to do with not having grandparents around when I was little--my mother's parents died when she was young, and my father's grandparents were older and died when I was 3 (grandfather) and 9 (grandmother).  

As the grandmother tells about each generation, we get a sense for what they were doing, how they were living, and what the tools they had. 

I adore this kind of day-to-day history. 

Much more interesting to think about how women cooked 200 years ago than how some men argued and got into wars. 

SHEEP. I also feel very nostalgic about owning sheep. Mostly because my husband thinks sheep are a scourge on the earth. One of these days, I am going to buy some. I am sure he just has confused memories from his childhood year on a sheep farm... 

Family love. This makes my heart happy.

The illustrations are just jammed full of details. So much to look at. And look at again. 

Mother love

Women on tractors

And then to the grandmother's personal life. 

I love the connection between the grandmother and child

And now, here you are, growing like a melon in the patch, like tulips in the springtime of the year, like a young tree coming up from old roots deep down in the ground. 

And those deep roots help you stand strong and tall. 

I LOVE THIS BOOK. 

Over the River and Through the Woods by Lydia Maria Child & Brinton Turkle

This is a beautifully illustrated version of the song. 

There is a black and white picture of Grandma and Grandfather getting ready next to the stanzas....

...and then a two page colored spread of the family on it's way. Aren't the pictures lovely and New England-y? I feel that Thanksgiving is at it's best in New England. No local bias or anything.

Grandma baking away

Through the woods

Setting the table

And finally, they arrive! Color bursts into Grandma and Grandpa's house! I like the idea of the black and white world awaiting the color of children. Of course it is massively egotistically supposing that older people have lives without color, but it is sort of how I feel getting ready for family coming home for Thanksgiving--the moment they arrive is when things start popping. 

And feasting commences!