The Secret Gift
Awesome website for books online!
This is a project of the Screen Actors Guild where Hollywood types read children's books. What a hit. And there are some really awesome living books in the mix!
It doesn't hurt to have Tia and Tamra "Sister Sister" reading, or Haylie Duff. The kids don't know who Al Gore is (wew ... Hollywood type?), but he read a good book. Lou Diamond Phillips reads one, and Hector Elizondo.
The biggest surprise and treat was discovering a book read by Jane Kaczmarek. It's a Patricia Polacco book (there's another Polacco book on this website read by Melissa "Laura Ingalls" Gilbert).
Polacco is one of MY top five children's authors. Maybe my fave. She has written many books. Before yesterday, my favorite, hands down, was "Pink & Say." We also really enjoy "I Can Hear the Sun." I had seen "Thank You, Mr. Falker" at the library but had not picked it up yet.
This book, "Thank you, Mr. Falker" was just God's little gift to my daughter and me. Lydia and I had been reading earlier in the day. Let's just say that darling daughter is not a confident reader, and the light that I fully expected to be glowing in her room every night while she turns pages is not exactly glowing yet, unless I'm reading to her - which I will love to do every day for the rest of her life (we're plowing through The Secret Garden again). But I won't do that. What would her husband say? There's time. (One thing I've rested in from home schooling is to not stress or pressure her into this, because she WILL read, or her LOVE for reading will come. Still, the pressure's all around us.)
Anyway, we had a little frustrating episode, and I told her to put the book down because when it's not fun, I don't want her to read, especially in the summer.
We wandered to the computer to open this site up again and SHE picked the Polacco book. Turns out it's an autobiographical story about a girl named Trisha who was a late and struggling reader. She wrote the book to honor her teacher (Mr. Falker) who finally helped her (after she was shunned, teased and passed up from grade to grade without being able to read til the third grade).
Jane Kaczmarek was awesome, and she choked up in exactly the places I would have choked up as she read.
Typically, I'd park Lyd at the screen and wander off to do something else (like complete that assignment for my JOB). But we watched the screen together. She laughed at me when I cried, and then we hugged and hugged. It was a very teachable moment, for both of us.
Posted in: on Tuesday, July 17, 2007 at at 7:28 AM
