Simply Grand Reading Rendezvous

Our author this week is Robert McCloskey.  There are several books I will always remember from my childhood and one of them is Make Way for Ducklings.  I’m collecting copies to give to my grandkids one day.  Here are some quotes from the author:

Robert McCloskey, who was born and grew up in Hamilton, Ohio says:

I attended public school, and from the time my fingers were long enough to play the scale, I took piano lessons. I started to play the harmonica, the drums, and then the oboe. The musician's life was the life for me - that is, until I became interested in things electrical and mechanical. I collected old electric motors and bits of wire, old clocks, and Mechano sets. I built trains and cranes with remote controls, my family's Christmas trees revolved, lights flashed and buzzers buzzed, fuses blew and sparks flew. The inventor's life was the life for me - that is, until I started making drawings for the high school annual.

   Years later. . .

On the strength of his new paintings, McCloskey got a job in Boston, assisting Francis Scott Bradford in making an enormous mural of famous people of Beacon Hill. Then he got the idea for Make Way For Ducklings.

I had first noticed the ducks when walking through the Boston Public Garden every morning on my way to art school. When I returned to Boston four years later, I noticed the traffic problem of the ducks and heard a few stories about them. The book just sort of developed from there.

So that he could draw the ducks exactly, he bought four squawking mallards and took them home to his apartment. "The ducks had plenty to say - especially in the early morning. I spent the next weeks on my hands and knees, armed with a box of Kleenex and a sketchbook, following the ducks around the studio and observing them in the bathtub." Make Way For Ducklings was awarded the Caldecott Medal, given annually for the most distinguished American picture book for children, and has sold more than 2 million copies in hardcover and paperback.

Some day I’d like to travel to the East Coast and visit Boston, Massachusetts.   Did you know there is sculpture in the Boston Public Garden in honor of McCloskey’s book?

 

These are the McCloskey books we enjoyed this week. . .

 

 

As with each turn of the page a story unfolds with intrigue and surprise. . .

so was my day today. 

Three unexpected guests.

Each bringing their unique world of experience, stories, love, laughter, and information. . . adding unexpected delight and interest to our day.

Here’s a picture from our first unexpected guest. . .

Grandpa!

Driving his infamous 1958 pink Cadillac.

Look who’s  roundin’ the bend. . .

It’s Grandpa!

The kids are just a little excited to greet him.

 

And guess what? 

He’s takin’ us to Culver’s for lunch!

Unexpected surprises and love from family and friends.

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”  Psalm 107:8-9

Happy reading. . .

and Happy surprises too!

Heather$