The Cybils' finalists will be announced tomorrow! Be sure to watch for them.
These stories shared today at the end of the year also welcome the new year with some lessons in living, some 'how-tos' with inspiration. Wishing you all the happiest of times in 2019. Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.
― Brad Paisley
Sy Montgomery who also wrote 'The Soul of an Octopus", begins by sharing her childhood wish to talk with animals, to be a dog like Molly, her family’s Scottish terrier. She writes ten essays of 13 critters special in her life from Tess the border collie and Chris the extroverted pig to spiders and octopuses. Other animals she shares show her travel life (on assignment) to meet and connect with creatures that she feels a special kinship with. She left a newspaper job to shadow emus in the Australian Outback and becomes friends with a tarantula in the jungles of South America. It is on her New Hampshire farm, during an ermine attack on her beloved "ladies", her hens, one Christmas night, when she found further personal connections. I loved reading of her personal learning about these animals, imagine how special it would be to read aloud and share this with an older child who also has a love for all creatures. There is a bonus at the back where Montgomery shares titles of other books that have inspired her, most of which I love, too. She adds a list of others, one for adults and one for children. Illustrations add to the poignancy of this memoir from someone who knows animals well and can help readers understand why they love them, too.
There's hope in the world when someone celebrates stories as beautifully as Paul Czajak has in this book. A mayor of a town wants his people to listen "only" to him, orders all books destroyed. A young boy finds goodness in his own words that plant seeds for all. Rashin Kheririyeh's illustrations celebrate books in lovely ways, even on the inside covers. And there is that black cat companion who's with the boy all the way. It's a lovely fable for reading aloud.
