booandbunny

I couldn’t stop thinking about Alexandra when I read this book.

So, I wanted to share The Van Gogh Café and Cynthia Rylant. She is one of my oldest son’s favorite authors. Being that he’s only in first grade, he sticks mostly to her Henry and Mudge series. They are a lot of fun because Henry enjoys many of the same things my son does, especially being with his dog. But Rylant, who was a children’s librarian before she became an author, has a special gift. She’s written more than 50 books for a wide age range. I left the library last week with more “picks” than the 4-year-old, and one of them was this Rylant book, which can be found in the juvenile fiction section.

One thing I’ve discovered in the almost eight years I’ve been reading to (and now with) these kids of mine is this: A truly good children’s story is really just a great story. A chord is struck each time you listen to it … but the same chord is rarely struck twice.

So between Alexandra’s posts about expecting magic and the way Rylant’s Clara and Marc waltz with magic daily in this book I’m looking at things through different eyes.

I remember feeling funny after reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, awestruck by the idea of the magical and the muggles … wondering what element of truth lies in the assumption that magic is all around us, it’s just that some people can’t see it; can’t accept it; can’t do it.

Magic is all around us, if we try to see it. I don’t need the Weather Channel’s scientists to tell me the wonders of a 70-degree day today. It’s a gift.

And then there’s the magic of finding more than you expected. Right about the time Claudia was asking whether constantly redecorating was a way of expressing restlessness I found Rylant’s autobiography ( Best Wishes ) from 1992:

“I’m always changing something in my house,” Rylant wrote. “My friends think it’s funny. Every time they come over, something’s different. I tell them I’m releasing creative energy when I move the furniture around. Really I’m just having fun.”

On the next visit to the library I discovered Old Town in the Green Groves a gap Rylant filled in the Little House books … a two-year blank left by Laura Ingalls Wilder between On the Banks of Plum Creek and By The Shores of Silver Lake. When I checked it out, I didn’t even realize Rylant had written it. I’m revisiting my precious, yellowed paperback Wilder collection, which has my name written on it in my grandfather’s hand. And, after Plum Creek I’ll dive into Rylant and then go back and finish the collection. I’ll let you know how it goes when I’m done.

// posted by HoBess @ 3/01/2006 10:25:00 AM