Book Reports

When Morgan got old enough to start reading good books, our Williams Family library grew by leaps and bounds.  I have collected books that I read as a kid and new ones.  I love our local Goodwill for getting books.  While it makes me sad that other people don't collect and hoard stories the way we do, it has been a fantastic way to add to our stash 99 cents at a time.
Last week I read a wonderful book called "A Drowned Maiden's Hair" by Laura Amy Schlitz.

 How can you resist a book that starts out with a little orphan girl (very small for her age with brown hair and blue eyes-- remind you of someone?), who upon being locked in an orphanage outhouse as punishment, belts out 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'?  The song is heard by a passing woman who is looking for a little girl to adopt for a purpose.  The story is filled with turn of the century villainy and heroics and love.  It was a pleasure to read. 
Today, instead of cleaning the little girls' room (a deed which desperately needs doing) I read "Island of the Aunts" by Eva Ibbotson. 

This is how the book begins:  "Kidnapping children is not a good idea.  All the same, sometimes it has to be done." 
"....Some children had to be found, and they had to be brought to the island, and kidnapping seemed the only sensible way to do it."
Truly an imaginative delight!  I think I'll read these two books to my kids.  Dan has been reading them "My Side of the Mountain."  It goes too slowly for Morgan and the girls aren't that interested in a boy who lives in a tree and talks to animals who don't talk back.  I'll have to be careful about "Island of the Aunts", though.  I've finally convinced Sophie that kidnapping is not a good game to play and that she shouldn't be tying her dolls up. 
My Mom always says that in kindergarten I discovered that the letters in the alphabet made words.  Then I learned that words made sentences and sentences made stories.  From there on out, I was a voracious reader.  There is something about reading that fills me with happiness.  Sometimes I get so word thirsty and I just gulp the story down.  It seriously feels like that.  I get lost in the words, and the better they are, the more I like to roll in them and revel in them.  Some authors are magical artists.  They use words to create masterpieces that span space and time.  People have told me that I should write a book, but I resist because I don't have the magic-- I have talent.  I can express myself well, but I don't think I can paint a new world. 
For now I'll just go on drinking in great authors like Lloyd Alexander, Cornelia Funke, L M Montgomery, Gene Stratton Porter, and Brandon Mull.  I'll keep on the look out for other authors that have amazing imaginations and the ability to create a place where their characters come alive in my soul.  So many words, so little, little time.