"Yes sir, yes sir, two bags full" echoed through my mind as I followed Calvin home from our rainy, Sunday afternoon walk. It was dreary and drizzly and dark and I was doing what I could to keep my mind occupied - today, literature seemed to be my theme!
As we walked along with our heads down to avoid torrents of rain from blinding our view, I looked down on the road to find a partially smooshed frog. Poor thing - brought to mind some of my most favorite lines from Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens...
'"Can I view thee panting, lying
On thy stomach, without sighing;
Can I unmoved see thee dying
On a log
Expiring frog!"'
'Beautiful!' said Mr. Pickwick.
'Fine,' said Mr. Leo Hunter; 'so simple.'
'Very,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'The next verse is still more touching. Shall I repeat it?'
'If you please,' said Mr. Pickwick.
'It runs thus,' said the grave man, still more gravely.
'"Say, have fiends in shape of boys,
With wild halloo, and brutal noise,
Hunted thee from marshy joys,
With a dog,
Expiring frog!"'
'Finely expressed,' said Mr. Pickwick.
Can you beat a good Dickens quote on a fine rainy afternoon?
Before we walked, I had just finished talking to my BFF, Melissa, and her son, Jack, who has just started really going to school full time. He's been in a special needs class previously that hasn't really challenged him and so now, he's in a new place and a new school and he's been going full day and has been challenged academically. I asked him today what he liked to do best at school and Melissa told me that his teachers have said that he really excels in, and likes, reading. Melissa and I both sigh with delight - a child after our own hearts. I ask him what kind of books he likes to read and (technically he says "why?" but the final answer is) he likes adventure. Melissa says he loves for her to read books to him about boys who are in the woods or the wilderness and have to survive. My first thought is - how these boys getting left in the woods so that they have to survive?! My second thought is - I'm a girl - I don't know off hand of books that boys get left in the woods and have to survive. I know books about boys, but not about surviving, wilderness boys. I know The Boxcar Children - thats kind of survival, right? Where you don't have a rolling pin so you have to use a green glass bottle -- the shear horror!
Anyone else out there know of adolescent books for boys about the wilderness and survival? Open for suggestions as I'd like to get him a few books!
Suggestions?
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