Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People

I found this post that I had written but never published from a couple of years ago.  Madeleine is no longer in school (she's working now) and Charlotte and my days are a bit busier than just hammock lounging!  But it's still true about the bookshop!

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Such fine, fine weather we've been having!  This is the season of fresh cherries, sheets on the line and cut flowers lining the windowsills.  Madeleine often comes home from school to find Charlotte and I laying on the hammock with a scattering of books around us.  More often than not she joins us there beneath the trees and reads through the picture books too.

One of our very favorite things to do is go to the used bookshop.  The books are so cheap, we usually come home with a box or two and promptly bring them outside, where we sort through and read them.  The kids like to spread a blanket and picnic with snacks and lemonade.  It really is the best way to spend a shady afternoon.

Diane Goode's Book of Giants and Little People

Diane Goode 1997

This book, a collection of stories and a few poems was a recent companion in our backyard. There's some familiar stories like "The Shoemaker and the Elves" and some from other countries. Madeleine told me she really enjoyed the last one "Wiley and the Hairy Man", of African-American origin.  Plus I've always liked Diane Goode's pictures.  (This is a nice companion to Goode's book of Silly Stories).

Diane Goode's Book of Silly Stories

Diane Goode's Book of Silly Stories and Songs

Diane Goode

 Madeleine brought this book up last night and was remembering all the silly stories that made her laugh as a child.  So we had to read a few out loud again!  They come from all parts of the world and are really quite silly!

These are some of our favorites....

Christmas in the Country

Cynthia Rylant (see also When I was Young in the Mountains) tells a homey story of a little girl living with her grandparents in the county and how they celebrate Christmas in simple, special ways. 

Christmas In The Country (Scholastic Bookshelf)

Cynthia Rylant 2005

illustrated by Diane Goode

Winter in the country is so quiet. The snow slows everything down. Birds are silent and serious. Dogs stay in their warm houses. Children want cocoa and blankets. Everyone is ready for something really special. 

Hush Little Baby, and When I Was Young in the Mountains

I have been listening to and loving Genuine Negro Jig by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. It’s been the perfect companion when I’m driving home late from swimming at my parent’s house, down back roads lit with fireflies and the smell of summer rushing in the car windows. The songs have every manner of fiddle and banjo and old melodies that make you want to hike up your skirts and dance. 

Music like this makes me pull out these two Appalachian country living books:

 Hush, Little Baby: A Folk Song with Pictures

Illustrated by Marla Frazee 1999

Marla Frazee (from The Seven Silly Eaters fame) illustrates this classic lullaby which I’ve sung to my own babies. The pictures show each verse as frazzled parents and one big sister keep buying from a kindly traveling salesman until the horse and cart are upended and the parents and finally the baby fall asleep in the grass.

And also this sweet simple story of growing up in the mountains with a muddy swimming hole, baths by the woodstove, and shelling beans on the porch.

When I Was Young in the Mountains

Cynthia Rylant 1982

illustrated by Diane Goode

When I was young in the mountains, we pumped pails of water from the well at the bottom of the hill, and heated the water to fill round tin tubs for our baths.

When I was young in the mountains, I never wanted to go to the ocean, and I never wanted to go to the desert.  I never wanted to go anywhere else in the world, for I was in the mountains.  And that was always enough.