Poetry Friday is here! Welcome to all!
I have a special giveaway today, a new book for bedtime by Rosemary Wells and a signed print from it! I assume most of you know Rosemary Wells, author of so many sweet books, ones my children grew up with, and now my grandchildren love them, too. We especially love the adventures with Max and Ruby during the holidays.
I love this book so much that I wish I could photograph each page to share with you. As evening comes, Rosemary has written a lullaby with what she shows are the seven steps of bedtime: Eat supper, Put away toys, Take a bath, Put on pajamas, Listen to a story, Hear a good-night song, Drift off to sleep. They are not written that way, of course, but shown in the lullaby, a line and a picture at a time. It begins with "The owls and the crickets are singing together", that beloved evening sound welcoming day's end. In rhyming lines, Rosemary shares the happiness of time with dad playing a song on his fiddle: "May the noises of evening be gentle and airy." and with mom reading the bedtime story: "The morning is hiding behind the next cloud." If you are the kind of person who sings, I imagine that anyone reading the story could sing it instead of reading it. With sweet illustrations, the book will soon be a favorite for young children, a snuggly ending to their day.
The opening immediately brings a smile:
The owls and the crickets are singing together.
The night wind has taken the moon for a ride.
The first rain of summer is bending the heather
as soft as a feather, I hear it outside.
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| The Print you will receive. |
I will place your names in a basket and draw two! Yes, there are two giveaways. I will send one book and print and the publisher will send the second one, US addresses only, sorry. If you'd like to win the prize, please leave a comment sharing a favorite bedtime lullaby, song or book. I'll announce the winners next week. Happy Thanksgiving to all, however or if you celebrate. I hope it is a restful one as well as tasty!
A big thank you to Karen Walsh at Candlewick Press for this giveaway opportunity!
One last thing! I've read this book to the granddaughters. It made me nostalgic to remember all the bedtime books and lullabies I've enjoyed with babies and young children, mine included. A recent quote I found touched me, wondering if it's not only for these sweet bedtime moments but for time with everyone in today's fractured world. By Arnold Bennett, a British Author of the early 20th century: "Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by tone of voice."