Beverly Cleary’s The Mouse and the Motorcycle was one of my most memorable reading experiences of my young life. It stuck out to me, I think, because it was the first time I was aware of suspending disbelief. And I was glad to. Here’s why: The Mouse and the Motorcycle features a mouse named Ralph. Ralph lives…
This week is the Story Warren’s first appreciation/thankfulness week, where we take an entire week to celebrate a person whose imaginative work we feel is a gift to parents and children. This week we celebrate Andrew Peterson: singer, songwriter, and novelist. That’s right, novelist! We talk a lot about Peterson’s music, but the week wouldn’t…
I was young when I first read A.A. Milne’s books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. So young, in fact, that I didn’t notice his playful capitalization, giving proper names to Very Important Things. I also failed to notice any family resemblance between elephants and heffalumps, or between haycorns and acorns. Fortunately, I was…
Some months ago, my wife and I were reading Eleanor Estes’ charming book Rufus M. We were amazed at one story where Rufus (the youngest of the Moffats and the title character) found some money frozen in the ice. While the rest of his family were busy trying to manage a frozen pipe under the…
