Yarn Along: Sweet Summer

Joining in on Ginny's Yarn Along today!

Ah, summer! We get to the library frequently, and can delve into all kinds of projects that catch our eye.

I always feel that my children's recommendations are just as important as mine. We go through phases where someone will sneak a "My Little Pony" or Strawberry Shortcake storybook into the pile on the check-out desk. They're rich in cutesy, pink, computer-generated "illustrations", but lack in literary beauty. 

So, it's always a delight when my children find and LOVE books like The Sunflower Sword by Mark Spearring and Miriam Latimer. The winning combination of beautiful illustrations, mild humour, and a lovely tale ensure that we read this one daily. We all HIGHLY recommend Cool Chemistry Concoctions: 50 Formulas that Fizz, Foam, Splatter, and Ooze by Joe Rhatigan and Veronika Alice Gunter. We now have a "Chemistry Kit" made up of epsom salts, alka-seltzer, Borax, vinegar, gelatin, and so on and have been getting messy with goop, blobs, and slime.

Our favourite story, however, is Mary Ann Hoberman's The Seven Silly Eaters. I could do a whole post singing the praises of this book: the story, the individual children that make up the Peters Family, the mess and busyness and chaos of a home containing seven children, the beautiful rhyme, the feeling of tied-upedness of the ending...if you seek out one book from today's post, this is the one (especially if you have a larger-than-average family!)

I just finished Ami McKay's The Virgin Cure...hard to put down. It's a dark exploration of the lives of women and children in 1870s New York, and a story of resilience of one young girl trying to get by. The side story of a rare woman doctor dedicating her skills and life to caring for the "dregs of society" is based on the author's great-grandmother's experiences. You might like to start with Ami McKay's The Birth House.

Phew. I don't have much time for knitting...I did put this little Puerperium Cardigan together for a friend's sweet babe. I've got some tiny socks on the go, and yesterday the Christmas orders came in...more on that later!

 One more thing: if you haven't heard of www.goodreads.com, you'll want to! It's a site dedicated to connecting you with books in your taste. You click the books you've read, giving star reviews, and the site will automatically link to other books in the same genre/style. It's a rabbit hole of literary fun, and I've already started a list for our library's inter-library load service!