If You Give A Mom A Book

The ban has officially been lifted on this book (in my house).

My WOMAN’s book club was set to read a book by A.A. Milne, author of the classic Winnie-The-Pooh.  My introduction to Milne allowed me to discover that the overly commerciliazed stuffed bear named Pooh is actually a character rich with endearing and memorable conversations.

Allow your imagination to film this scene.

You are entering the story where Pooh Bear finds himself stuck in Rabbit’s front door from drinking too much honey and condensed milk.   Rabbit, Christopher Robin, and Pooh are brainstorming ideas on how to “un-stuck” the plump bear.

“How long does getting thin take?” asked Pooh anxiously.

“About a week, I should think.”

“But I can’t stay here for a week!”

“We’ll read to you,” said Rabbit cheerfully.

“A week!” said Pooh gloomily. “What about meals?”

“I’m afraid no meals,” said Christopher Robin, “because of getting thin quicker. But we will read to you.”

Bear began to sigh, and then found he couldn’t because he was so tightly stuck; and a tear rolled down his eye, as he said:

“Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?”

So for a week Christopher Robin read that sort of book at the North end of Pooh, and Rabbit hung his washing on the South end . . . and in between Bear felt himself getting slenderer and slenderer.

Besides being a verifiable classic story, Pooh Bear’s plea to be read a Sustaining Book provides an excellent example of what we should be filling our adult minds with and reading to our children.

But what exactly is a Sustaining Book? Gladys Hunt, in her book Honey for a Child’s Heart, quotes Ruth Sawyer’s suggestion of  “proper fare for a child’s mind” as

stories that make for wonder.  Stories that make for laughter. Stories that stir one within with an understanding of the true nature of courage, of love, of beauty.  Stories that make one tingle with high adventure, with daring, with grim determination, with the capacity of seeing danger through to the end.  Stories that bring our minds to kneel in reverence; stories that show tenderness of true mercy, the strength of loyalty, the unmawkish respect for what is good.

I highly recommend that you allow your eyes to devour Gladys Hunt’s book. The more I read this valuable resource, the more it makes me want to bring the library to my house and read to my children.

You never know what might happen, if you give a mom a book.

Some Sustaining Books to consider reading for the month of November might include:

The Mood Cure by Julia Ross — most certainly a book that has radically improved my thinking as of late.  Prone to postpartum depression, The Mood Cure has helped alleviate many of my symptoms.

The Tehran Initiative by Joel Rosenberg —  Rosenberg has a knack for writing about events in history before they happen in real life.  My husband and I bickered as to who would be able to read this novel first!

If you haven’t read any books in this series, you might want to start at the beginning with The Last Jihad, though the novels can be read independently.

A Thanksgiving to Remember by Barbara Rainey — this book is in the running to be a future heirloom in our house.  A Thanksgiving to Remember provides the Biblical cornerstone of our Thanksgiving activities.  Rainey’s book includes several pages to log thankful moments and a CD to accompany your family readings.

Hornbooks and Inkwells by Verla Kay provides a delightful peak into an 18th-century one room school house . . . that resembles my own in many respects!

Read a book that dates back to 1671 with A Apple Pie by Gennady Spirin.  Not pictures that my children are used to, this whimsical celebration of the alphabet provided a long and cozy moment discussing the pictures.