Finished! My friend Amy is hosting a Newbery Through the Decades Challenge this year and I finished January's book ... only one week into February. Close enough! I read The Voyages for Doctor Dolittle for the first time and I have to admit, I loved it! Such a quirky story about the famed animal doctor who can talk to animals. The book was chock full of adventure - it would make an excellent read aloud because of the fun storyline (and the shorter chapters).
Hugh Lofting had just the right amount of descriptive language throughout the book. (Since I've just come off reading L.M. Montgomery aloud to the kids, I'm quite sensitive to when too much description is too much!) One of my favorite descriptive sections which I marked:
It was a wonderful kitchen, that. I had many meals there afterward and I found it a better place to eat in than the grandest dining room in the world. It was so cozy and home-like and warm. It was so handy for the food, too. You took it right off the fire, hot, and put it on the table and ate it. And you could watch your toast toasting at the fender and see it didn't burn while you drank your soup. And if you had forgotten to put the salt on the table, yoou didn't have to get up and go into another room to fetch it; you just reached around and took the big wooden box off the dresser behind you. Then the fireplace - the biggest fireplace you ever saw - was like a room in itself. You could get right inside it, even when the logs were burning, and sit on the wide seats at either side and roast chestnuts after the meal was over - or listen to the kettle singing, or tell stories, or look at picture books by the light of the fire. It was a marvelous kitchen. It was like the Doctor, comfortable, sensible, friendly, and solid.I checked out the book from the library, however, it's free on Kindle. Of note, when you "buy" the kindle version, the audio version from Audible is ridiculously cheap! I've been filling our audiobook library up this way lately with several classics by tacking the audio book on to a very inexpensive, or even free, kindle book purchase.
Up next, I'll be reading a book from the 30's as part of Amy's challenge. Since I'll likely only get to one, I'm trying to decide between:
- Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater (N1 has read this one, but I haven't)
- Invicible Louisa
by Cornelia Meigs
- Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
All three of these are currently in our house which is half the battle sometimes! Of the 30s winners, I have read Thimble Summer and Caddie Woodlawn and enjoyed those some time ago.
If you want to join in, you can read about Amy's challenge here!
If you want to join in, you can read about Amy's challenge here!
Oh, oh, oh! That quote alone makes me want to read this one! Way back when I first worked in the public library (early to mid 90s), Accelerated Reader had just become a "thing" at the local public schools. Dr. Dolittle was the book with the highest point that we had at the public library, and it was a hot commodity! We watched the movie a few months ago, and suffice it to say the girls weren't impressed. ;). I THINK they both read it, and maybe even a sequel (or two?)
ReplyDeleteI'm reading Invincible Louisa and LOVING it! However, Mr. Popper's Penguins is a must-read and delightful in audio.
So many books!
So glad you're playing along!