Yesterday we cycled up to the library en famille. Some of us went on the pavement but that’s ok because the stretch between the top of our road and our local library must be one of the busiest roads in the country. When we came home, this was the happy scene:
Have I mentioned how much I wish that our budget would stretch to either changing the previous owner’s sofa or her curtains [Mr. Waffle describes the combined effect as “do not adjust your set”].
Then today we went to the launch of “The Hatching” at the Dublin Book Festival and it was terrific. The author [a ghost-writer for 12 year old Annie Graves] gave a couple of great readings and the children were spellbound. We then went to the book clinic where the book doctor diagnosed your reading needs and gave you a prescription for books you might like. The Princess particularly enjoyed this as, having read everything, she put them to the pins of their collars. She was interviewed by the man doing a documentary on the festival and she enjoyed that too.
I was particularly impressed by the man who worked with Michael and seemed very familiar with the work of Dav Pilkey and other authors Michael particularly enjoys. Have you not heard of “Captain Underpants”? You haven’t lived. Daniel did not go to the book doctor as he was curled up on a beanbag reading and preferred to stay where he was.
And then we went for pizza.
I like your sofa and curtains. So many rooms seem over-styled and over-upholstered.
I’m curious, do you think there’s an inherent virtue in the act of reading, once you’ve learned to read? What I mean is, is it ever a case of ‘never mind the quality, feel the width’?
I would love my rooms to be overstyled and over upholstered although it seems v unlikely to happen in the short term.
Yes, on reading for children, I am a bit “never mind the quality feel the width” – I feel it lays a foundation for a lifetime’s entertainment. And parental smugness, of course.