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A couple of firsts...or lasts
Last week Teri finally took down Sebastian's aqua-blue baby swing. He'd protested every time she'd suggested doing it before, but this time apparently he had no objection; it's just too small for him now. In its place she put up an odd thing with handles that you hang from. She found it in the shed; I had no idea that we even had it.
Last night Sebastian and I read our last Tim book: Tim's Last Voyage. If you don't know them (and you probably don't, unless you're old and/or a Brit) Edward Ardizzone illustrated a lot of books, particularly for children. He also wrote some wonderful books of his own.
His best-known books are the Tim series, about a little English boy who loves the sea. In fact, he loves it so much that he often runs away to become a sailor, at times even stowing away on ocean-bound ships. At other times his parents, oddly enough, give Tim permission to sign on as a ship's boy for his holidays. It seems equally odd that the captains of so many ships are willing to hire a young boy without checking with his parents.
Unfortunately Tim's proper name should probably be Jonah, because disaster seems to follow his every footstep. One of these days I should count the number of ships that have sunk while Tim was on them; I imagine it's at least half a dozen. Perhaps Tim was working for the Kaiser. :D
Anyway, my parents read some of the Tim books to me when I was little, and I quickly memorized them; either that, or I learned to read them, I'm not sure. But in any case I had fond memories, and made sure to buy some to read to Sebastian.
Most of them are out of print, of course. The first one was published in 1936(!), and the last one in 1977 - just two years before Ardizzone's death.
Anyway, the Tim books all occupy our special book pile, the collection that I pick from when I read to Sebastian at night. We have seven of the books, and recently I was browsing the electronic catalog at the library and was delighted to find three more Tim books that we didn't have. I ordered them all via inter-library loan, and they all came in pretty quickly.
And last night we read the last one: Tim's Last Voyage. It was good, though sad; Tim ends up on another wrecked ship, and finally his mother gets him to promise that he won't go on any more voyages. The final page is a picture of Tim as a rather effeminate-looking adult, now the captain of a ship.
But Ardizzone actually wrote another Tim book after that, Ship's Cook Ginger, and that's another one of the three that we got from the library. I'm going to have to buy a copy of it (and of all three, actually), because it's high on Sebastian's list of favorites. Why?
"What's this in my stew?"
"Mice are very nourishing."
Maybe I should do a web page about the Tim books. It's a pity that so many of them are out of print.
Last night Sebastian and I read our last Tim book: Tim's Last Voyage. If you don't know them (and you probably don't, unless you're old and/or a Brit) Edward Ardizzone illustrated a lot of books, particularly for children. He also wrote some wonderful books of his own.
His best-known books are the Tim series, about a little English boy who loves the sea. In fact, he loves it so much that he often runs away to become a sailor, at times even stowing away on ocean-bound ships. At other times his parents, oddly enough, give Tim permission to sign on as a ship's boy for his holidays. It seems equally odd that the captains of so many ships are willing to hire a young boy without checking with his parents.
Unfortunately Tim's proper name should probably be Jonah, because disaster seems to follow his every footstep. One of these days I should count the number of ships that have sunk while Tim was on them; I imagine it's at least half a dozen. Perhaps Tim was working for the Kaiser. :D
Anyway, my parents read some of the Tim books to me when I was little, and I quickly memorized them; either that, or I learned to read them, I'm not sure. But in any case I had fond memories, and made sure to buy some to read to Sebastian.
Most of them are out of print, of course. The first one was published in 1936(!), and the last one in 1977 - just two years before Ardizzone's death.
Anyway, the Tim books all occupy our special book pile, the collection that I pick from when I read to Sebastian at night. We have seven of the books, and recently I was browsing the electronic catalog at the library and was delighted to find three more Tim books that we didn't have. I ordered them all via inter-library loan, and they all came in pretty quickly.
And last night we read the last one: Tim's Last Voyage. It was good, though sad; Tim ends up on another wrecked ship, and finally his mother gets him to promise that he won't go on any more voyages. The final page is a picture of Tim as a rather effeminate-looking adult, now the captain of a ship.
But Ardizzone actually wrote another Tim book after that, Ship's Cook Ginger, and that's another one of the three that we got from the library. I'm going to have to buy a copy of it (and of all three, actually), because it's high on Sebastian's list of favorites. Why?
"What's this in my stew?"
"Mice are very nourishing."
Maybe I should do a web page about the Tim books. It's a pity that so many of them are out of print.