A long holiday and Winter's Child...
When I paused this newsletter for a two-week holiday, I'd imagined it'd be just that, two weeks off, then back home, back to recommending the best books for toddlers and back into routine. That was early August, I was still 35 then and some things have happened. We did have a lovely holiday too. Blake ate many chips.
1. I got a new job. Very happy about that, but I did mean I had to interview, do all the checks, work down my notice and try and be as helpful as I could in the changeover. Less time for the newsletter.
2. Sick children. Nurseries are basically germ soup at the best of times, but it's been vicious. Both Blake and his sister have been sent home with coughing and high temperatures, so having to squeeze in work around that was very tricky. Even less time for the newsletter.
3. Blake hasn't wanted to read with me that much, which has been a bit heartbreaking, to be honest. He's mostly wanted his mum to read to him, but when we have read together he's largely fallen back on old favourites and I haven't found anything to write about.
But...we did get a new book last week and that's the subject of today's newsletter. That's also how I'll be doing things in future, one book a fortnight, a bit more manageable for me, and, given Blake likes to read the same book quite a lot, more of an accurate reflection of our lives.
Thank you for reading, and, as always, tell your friends…
The Winter’s Child
Blake actually picked this up in the library and I was so grateful it wasn’t about a dinosaur that I suggested we take it home (having borrowed it formally first, of course…).
It’s very sweet. We follow Tom, a small, ski and snowball-throwing-loving boy, living somewhere very cold. His grandma is struggling to cope with a viciously long winter and his mother is desperate for the spring to come, but the snow goes on. Tom is happy with this, especially when he befriends another boy who loves the cold just as much as he does. Their days together and filled with adventure, but, at home, they’re running out of food and wood and desperate for the spring to come. Are the two things linked? They just might be…
I liked this a lot for two reasons, one it didn’t go all Brothers Grimm and have a terrible twist, and secondly, it made Blake ask a lot of questions about things in it. There’s a section in it about making bread and not having enough wood, and he was asking me about fire being in ovens and snow stopping fire. That made me very happy.
The illustrations are lovely too. Well done Angela McAllister and Grahame Baker Smith.
Next week, I don’t know what I’ll be recommending, I’m currently stockpiling books for Blake’s birthday, so there will be plenty to talk about.
Thank you very much for reading. If you like this, please tell your friends, even the ones without kids…
And, if you want to catch up on all the books I’ve recommended in previous weeks, here they are: