In her Philosophy of Education, British education reformer Charlotte Mason wrote, “Every child should leave school with at least a couple hundred pictures by great masters hanging permanently in the halls of his imagination.” (vol. 6, p.43) Miss Mason set aside time not only for her students to express themselves artistically but also for them to study the lives, styles, and works of the great masters.
With the recent rise of irreverent, sexualized, and agenda-laden books being added to the juvenile sections of local public libraries, you may be tempted to cut up your membership card and abandon the stacks.
I don't blame you. Several years ago, when my then-preschooler and I were perusing the "new to the children's shelves" section together, he stumbled into a forward-facing picture book with a blood-thirsty zombie on the cover and naturally began crying. I made an immediate bee-line for the circulation desk to lodge a verbal complaint with a librarian. Over the next few days, the conversation continued up the chain of command until the book was eventually re-shelved in the YA section.
In years past, this annual read-aloud round-up consisted of the top books we enjoyed together from the previous twelve months. However, this year, I'm mixing things up. A large portion of our read-aloud time was spent enjoying the Chronicles of Narnia. Since it's difficult to rank books in a series, as they are best read in sequential order, I've decided to throw in some of the books that my kids have read individually.
I'm sipping a cup of Novel Tea as I write this. These little sachets of rich English breakfast blend were a gift from a writing friend. What sets these particular tea bags apart from the average Brit brew are the literary quotes attached to each one. During each 5-minute seep, I read whatever pithy phrase just happens to be hanging from the end and smile because I love bookish sayings almost as much as I love books.
