I’ve had one of those incredible experiences with a book that moved me nearly to tears. And it’s an upbeat picture book!
You may know that Wednesday is our thrift-shopping day, since the two thrift stores in the area have 50% off clothing on Wednesdays. I’m stockpiling little pink clothing for the arrival of GuateGirl in June (or thereabouts) and trying to slowly work up a pile of clothes for JediBoy for next year too, since once GuateGirl arrives shopping will be dramatically more difficult. So JediBoy and I generally head out mid-morning to the two thrift stores and then treat ourselves to lunch afterwards.
Today I was in the process of cleaning and organizing the shelf next to his desk, so he came in and we played with some tally sticks (okay, they’re really just Popsicle sticks, but Right Start Math gives them a fancy name!) and some square tiles. One of the activities in the Right Start book is to grab two handfuls of tiles and then determine if you have an odd or an even number - JediBoy surprised me by instinctively lining them up in two rows to see if one was left over at the end, and he had a great time doing it, so we played that game for a long time. We also played with the dough from Handwriting Without Tears for a while too. But eventually he was satisfied, and we got dressed and went out.
I found decent piles at each store - including a Hakuna Matata sweatshirt and Spiderman long underwear / pjs for JediBoy, some sweaters and shirts in 12 months for GuateGirl next fall/winter, a few videos (Big Bird in Japan and Don’t Eat the Pictures), and a couple piles of books. After the thrift stores and lunch (Chinese, of course, this is nearly always JediBoy’s lunch of choice) and a stop at Big Box Mart to buy a pack of diapers to round out a baby shower gift for this weekend, we were home and sorting through our finds. I sat down with JediBoy on a pile of pillows in front of the heating vent in the living room and started reading to him.
So here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: Let’s Get a PUP!” said Kate by Bob Graham.
The book is put out by Candlewick Press, which is an impressive publisher; I’ve liked nearly every book we have of theirs. The blurb on the cover says:
This touching and humorous story about the difficulty of choosing just one pet makes an entertaining introduction to getting and caring for a pet of one’s own.
It’s so much more than that. I just want all of you (especially you, Pee) to rush right out and read it for yourselves. The plot is good: the family’s cat has recently died, and the young girl, Kate, decides one morning that she wants to get a dog. They go to a rescue shelter (yay, instead of a pet store) and choose a small dog who fits everything they thought they wanted. But while they’re there, they see another, old, big and tired dog who also catches their hearts. After just one night at home, they feel so drawn to her that they return to the shelter and come home with their second dog.
That right there is good enough. But it gets better. First, I think this is an unschooling family. There’s no talk of school at all (or scheduled work for the parents, for that matter!) and when Kate announces her desire, they look in the morning’s paper, see the ad for the rescue shelter, and “With their breakfast uneaten, they dressed and left immediately.” This family follows their passion! How dear to see that in a book, instead of “Well, Arthur dear, we can go to the pet store after you return from school…” They were so excited about this that the whole family abandoned breakfast in favor of their search. And they did the same thing the next morning to return for the second dog - which was also following their passion rather than logic or arbitrary guidelines (”one dog at a time, D.W.”). I love that they trust their hearts.
AND. The illustrations! The mother has a tattoo (hat tip to PisecoSis for the site Mommy Has Tattoos!) and a nose ring, wears tank tops and sandals with her jeans. The dad has two piercings in one ear and none in the other, wears t-shirts and he and the mom have basically identical haircuts. The house is comfortably messy and interesting, strewn with books and toys and newspapers and good stuff, some pictures hanging on the wall and some framed but just propped up on the floor. The parents welcome Kate into their bed when she gets up in the morning, and one scene (settling in with the dogs) shows the family just lounging around, watching tv. (The mom is wearing a white tank with a “no smoking” sign on it in that picture.) Before bed, the dogs follow Kate right on into the bathroom, and there she is on the toilet with her pants around her ankles (bending forward, a little, so there’s no actual cartoon nudity!) The book just feels so REAL. I could know this family! (If Kate were named Ben and the two dogs were two cage-fulls of rats…) It made me shiver with joy.
Go out and FIND this book.
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