gobs of imagination

Last month I read a few good books.  I've been slowly making my way through Madeleine L'Engle's Crosswicks Journals, and though I haven't loved them, there have been beautiful moments scattered throughout the books, enough beauty for me to keep reading them, but quite frustrating because the series has taken up a lot of time.

I still have one more to read, and currently I wouldn't recommend them to others to read. Harsh, I know!  At the moment my recommendation is to find a list of quotes by Madeleine L'Engle and skip the books.  But for whatever reason, I feel like I need to finish them, if only to bask in one more amazing and insightful line.  And silly me, I'm hopeful that the last book is going to be brilliant.

What's funny is the one I just finished, Two-Part Invention (I'm reading them out of order due to availability issues), had a few of those beautiful moments, which I saved in my phone with only page numbers.  After reading it, I tossed the book in the donation bin at the library, where it was promptly boxed and shipped to our sorting facility.  Now I have to request a copy through interlibrary loan to retrieve those lines.  For a couple days this wasn't funny at all, but now I'm laughing heartily at my idiocy.

Dear Madeleine L'Engle, why did you have to write such moderately intriguing journals when you lead such an interesting life?

I did read two fantastic children's books this month.  Well, one book didn't have any words, but no matter.  Here are my August favorites:

The White Book by Silvia Borando, Elisabetta Pica, and Lorenzo Clerici (apparently it takes A LOT of authors to write a wordless book)

This wordless book is filled with more meaning and imagination than many books that actually have words. I think it shines a light on the wondrous world of play, a world that only children know the exact whereabouts of.  

Philomena's New Glasses by Brenna Maloney

Before I read this, I had no idea how much I needed to read a silly book about three guinea pig sisters. Personally, I do not like the weird noises or smells that guinea pigs make, so they've never made my favorite creatures list. After reading this, however, I've discovered that I can't get enough of guinea pigs who do adorable things with handbags and glasses and outfits. I laughed and squealed the entire time I read it (and probably sounded a little like a guinea pig).