Here’s a little moment in time. Right after I read The Little Fur Family to Huck (for the first time!) the other day, he wanted to read it himself. This is one of my favorite picture books to read with very young kids, and I can’t imagine how it slipped past Huck until now—I found this copy of the book at the bottom of a box of toys earlier in the week. Of course the very best edition is the tiny one with the faux-fur cover. It’s around here somewhere, but I don’t recall seeing it in ages. It’s probably under a bed.
Anyway, when I grabbed my boy for the read-aloud, he was reluctant to listen, as he very often is right at the beginning. And then, as nearly always happens, before I finish the first page, he’s hooked. It went double this time around. He fell hard for the little fur child in the wild, wild wood, like so many before him.
I caught a good chunk of his reading on video. There’s background noise from his big sisters and brother, but you can hear him pretty well. I love watching the leaps kids make at this age—the substitutions where they think they see where the word is going and plug in one they know, like his “fun children” for “fur child” and “mom” for “mother.”
I don’t know if I caught this stage on video with any of the other kids. I have a pretty young Rilla reading an Ariel speech from The Tempest—you can’t hear much in the recording but it melts me to see the confidence with which she attacks some quite challenging text—but nothing, as far as I can recall, of the others at Huck’s stage. I’m glad I captured this much. Those sneezes!
Add a Comment
That is an interesting observation- that ‘The Secret Garden’ is like a child’s ‘Jane Eyre’! Very true. Now this I must share with my co-contributors on Saffrontree!
I’ve heard THE SECRET GARDEN called the child’s LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER because of the Dickon/Mary/Colin triangle. And in googling to see where I may have read that, found this: http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/childrens_literature_association_quarterly/v019/19.1.plotz.html Of to see if I can get a copy. Let me click through the links you have to see if they mention it.
Gah, an orca drowning its trainer? It’s too soon for that joke.
Thank you so much for pointing out the Edward Ormondroyd interview. David and the Phoenix was my husband’s favorite childhood book, and we read it together when we were first engaged. Can’t wait to share it with him!
Vanity Fair had an article about Brown back in 2000, BUNNY DEAREST. I’m pretty sure they discussed the fur book.
I agree with Brooke, Betsy – thanks for pointing out the Edward Ormondroyd interview.