21 February 2009

That's my Man

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the library and noticed that one of my favorite children's book authors was going to do a reading in St. Louis at the County Library's main branch. Mo Willams is famous for those books about the pushy pigeon, but the book I love most is the one about Edwina, a dinosaur who didn't know she was extinct.

It is probably my all time favorite book for children EVER.

Mo put on a good show, and while he did, Matthew went looking for books. Who is Matthew? Matthew's my husband. It'll be ten years in November. He lives here at 970 with me and Star and Dandelion, and this is his first official mention on this blog. Yippee!

Matthew has always had a long list of things he wants to read. He was able to find many of them at the library's headquarters. Sadly though, he couldn't check them out. The library's circulation desk was closed. About a week later we went back. The kids played and read in the library's children's section and Matthew went back to the stacks. He found a bunch of the grown up books he was after, but he also got this:

Honestly, I didn't care much. I've never been a big fan of mythology, and after spending half an hour trying to keep two happy children quiet in a well stocked-and-funded library, I was cranky. But once we got back to the house and I had a chance to read through it I was completely taken. The illustrations are beautiful and the descriptions of each goddess are remarkably accessible for young children (though they didn't bore me). Furthermore, they place these women in the staring roll of their own story. I just love it. Matthew does such a great job of finding ways to enrich our kids' lives. He noticed that they were interested in the world pantheon of gods from various cultures and he found a way to nurture that interest.

At the moment he's in the kitchen teaching the girls about Hungarian cuisine while they try out an authentic recipe.

Later on we're going to see the Orchids at the Botanical Garden. Happy Saturday!

1 comment:

Kate said...

My first introduction to Mo was a couple years ago when I took the kids to the Spanish children's story hour at the library. I'll have to look for Edwina the next time we're there.