Eeny, Meeny, Miney Mole

Spring is officially here, though you wouldn't be able to tell it today.  We woke up to sleet and rain!

Eeny, Meeny, Miney Mole 

Jane Yolan 1992

illustrated by Kathryn Brown

Eeny Mole lives with her two sisters in a hole where they can't tell day from night or summer from winter. She meets a worm and a centipede and a snake who all tell her "astonishing things" about Up Above. Things about light and darkness and the seasons. Her sisters don't care about those things, they're content in their hole. But Eeny decides to see for herself and is amazed.

Light did spread from corner to corner like a blanket above her.  But it also touched in and out of tall trees like a thread.

Day was sharp, but the shadows were soft, and she liked the way they curved around into night.

There was a strange moistness to the air, a little like tears, that was sometimes warm and sometimes cold.  She could not tell if it was winter or summer or something in between.  But there was a murmur all around, of bees and trees, of showers and flowers, of tadpoles and tidepools and crinkly grass.

The Man in the Moon

There is such a moon tonight!  Large and light and luminous.  We all ran out to the front yard to peer at it through our binoculars (we don't have a telescope). 

Oh, and this beauty that we read tonight in bed, from The Tall Book of Make-Believe. 

Across A Dark And Wild Sea

Across a Dark and Wild Sea (Single Titles)

Don Brown 2002

The true story of Columcille, a pagan born in Ireland who converted to Christianity and founded monastaries throughout Ireland and Scotland.  He worked as a scribe, creating a copy of the psalms that caused a fight among the clans.  But he promoted learning and "through his efforts the embers of literature and scholarship, nearly extinguished during the Dark Ages were re-ignited." 

 

A revered figure in Celtic history, Columcille left a legacy of learning that illuminated a corner of the Dark Ages.   

The process of writing using the tools and materials of that time period is described. Also in the back is more biographical information. A nice compliment to this book is the movie The Secret of Kells. The artwork is incredible. The kids and I loved it (there were a few scary parts for Charlotte). We ended up looking up photographs of the real Book of Kells (which I didn't know anything about before.)  

Books were made and dispatched, like small boats on a a dark and wild sea, to places where reading and writing had been forgotten or ignored.  The books made colonies of learning and people's minds, once dark with ignorance, were brightened.

O'Sullivan Stew

O'Sullivan Stew (Picture Puffins)

Hudson Talbott 1999

A fun Irish yarn (in honor of St. Patrick's Day of course!) about a girl who saves the day. When the village witch has her horse taken by the king (for taxes) no one will help her. Kate O'Sullivan and her brothers come to the rescue but get captured when trying to steal back the horse. Plucky Kate has a fistfull of stories that she amuses the king with. There are fairies and sea serpents and other magical plots.  Kate of course wins the king's affection and sets her family free.

Many Hands Cooking

It's rainy and damp- just the perfect day to make some Irish soda bread.  I like to have my kids helping me in the kitchen.  Sometimes that works out and sometimes there's a lot of arguing!  Madeleine's specialty is "No Bake Cookies".  Henry's good at making molasses cookies and tortillas, and Charlotte likes to help make everything!

Many Hands Cooking: An International Cookbook for Girls and Boys

Terry Touff Cooper and Marilyn Ratner 1974

illustrated by Tony Chen 

I originally checked this book out of the library years ago and loved it.  Then it was just my luck to find it at a thrift store.   It has great illustrations and a page of cooking term definitions, a map, and information about each country highlighted.  There are plenty of children's cookbooks out there, but I think I like this one best.  The recipes are simple and use easy to find ingredients.

We've tried most of the dishes.  Some were a bigger hit than others- the Irish Broonie is really good, but no one liked the Fufu from Ghana.  Even if not used as a cookbook, the text about the country and its food still makes for good reading and learning. 

The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle

The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle

Barbara McClintock 1996

Another gloriously illustrated book by Barbara McClintock.  This story is about a girl and her father who is a photographer.  He can't understand the fantastical drawings she makes.  But when he gets sick and she tries to help him she finds encouragement after meeting a woman artist.

The Red Balloon

The Red Balloon

Albert Lamorisse 1956

We saw this movie a long time ago- I don't think Madeleine and Henry even remember it. But recently we pulled out the book and everyone loved listening to it. Charlotte in particular has a great love for balloons and this book stayed in our bed for several days while she looked at it.