I am in an excited state of preparation for my Labor Day week trip to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home & museum in Mansfield Missouri. Before that, though, I have to write an article for the Capital District Parent Pages and judge 20 entries or so for NYSARC’s annual media awards contest; they’ve asked me to do this for several years now, and I enjoy it.
But the writing and the judging is time-consuming, and I’d rather create more nature art in the woods or something. Something simple, like this:
At any rate I am mostly going to blog some quotes, videos, and short tales of Jonah/nature art/fun lists until I get back. I am fine, and I am taking healthy steps to become downright awesome. Jonah has been enjoying his 2-week break before school. He learns well, but he does love to ask no school today? and have his words validated…
That’s right, buddy. No school today.
And so today’s quote is from my favorite book, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Its protagonist, Sara Crewe, is arguably one of the greatest characters in literature. Someone gifted me the book when I was 10, along with The Secret Garden, and it took me 6 years to finally pick them up and give them a chance. They looked Victorian. Boring.
I was never so happy to be so wrong. I have read them and re-read them probably 40 or 50 times. I loved her other books as well, but this one tops the list. It even tops (I’m gritting my teeth here for going out on such a limb) The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which may well be my second favorite book. Maybe I should try to make a top 10 list. It’s as mutable as water, though, and could change tomorrow. In fact I’ll forget all kinds of books in the very consideration of ranking them. And most of them are children’s or young adult books.
~Sara Crewe; A Little Princess
