There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.

–Marcel Proust


My son is in first grade and we’ve begun to read longer books with less pictures and more words. When I say “we” these are the books that I read aloud at night to him. A chapter or so, that must hold over until the next night when we can continue the journey.

It’s good for his memory. And as I return to titles of my own childhood, it is good for my memory too.

We’ve read Hugo which I never read as a child but knew there was a movie for us to get to see the whole thing once completed. It was a beautiful book and filled with tons of illustrations so a great one to kick off this new style of nighttime reading.

We finished “Wind in the Willows” last month. I never could get through this myself as a child on my won but I primarily read it knowing Disneyland is in our future and therefore, some context for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. I’m so glad I choose this book as it was very sweet and now Rat and Mole and Badger are friends my son and I chat about.

Last week, we begin one of my beloved series “Little House.” So far it’s a lot of hunting and food storage which is not what the young girl in my recalls. But we’re enjoying it, snuggling in our warm little house as the nights get colder and the sweet context to Laura’s family in their home in the Big Woods.

For October, I’m writing in conjunction with 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes and each post is written in five minutes flat.