Our local library recently rearranged their shelves in the children's library room, which has made finding certain favorite books harder. On the other hand, the children and I are discovering new gems every visit.
The new biography section lines the left back wall. Typically, I comb through those shelves looking for whomever we are studying in history. I was quickly scanning the titles when I noticed The Perfect Wizard. Who is that about? I thought. Pulling it off the shelf I realized the book was about Hans Christian Andersen a beloved fairy tale writer of ours. The library also had the book on audio, and I picked that us as well. (In case our youngest wanted to hear the book again and again.) The library also had a picture book containing eleven fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen. With illustrations by Lizbeth Zwerger, I had to pick it up too.
Over lunch, one day, I read the book aloud to the children. They were enthralled as much as I was. Andersen did not lead a cushy life. Instead, it was one of suffering and perseverance. When I finished the short biography, I casually mentioned the book compiled and illustrated by Zwerger. My daughters immediately scooped it up, took it upstairs to read, and I haven't seen it since.
Linked to Read Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word
This sounds terrific! I love children's biographies!
ReplyDeleteThat looks really interesting. I'll have to look that book up. I've just been reading Inventing Wonderland, a book about five other children's authors. They also lead pretty hard lives, and since the biographies I was reading are written for adults it includes a lot I won't be sharing with my children. I wonder, is there something about writing that makes people lead hard lives, or something about leading hard lives that makes people want to write, or just a fact that the majority of people have not led easy lives.
ReplyDeleteJust today I was contemplating something similar, but only for composers. We began a biography about Franz Schubert, and apparently his family was not well off. The book references not having enough money for fuel to heat the house sufficiently. I began to wonder some of these same things you wrote about writers and hard lives, but in application to harder life/greater achievments...perseverence, drive, etc. Something to ponder...
DeleteWhat a wonderful lesson, and it sounds happenstance. One of my favorite movies as a child was about Hans Christian Anderson. It's a musical and had the actor from White Christmas (not Bing Crosby).
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