(from the bookshelf) - Important Things

glimpsing  the world through a child's eyes...what makes one thing itself and not another ..

the day by day first impressions of young eyes and hands meeting their world ... learning not just words but the truth of something behind the words ...
... how lovely The Important Book by author Margaret Wise Brown is ... sharing  moments inspired by the found truths of the young child  ..." that a spoon is like a shovel"... "that rain is wet, falls from the sky, and makes things shiny" .... that "the sky is always there" ..

Why would a book the speaks so simply be important .... The Important Book is not a picture book dictionary defining this and that ... but the coming to know deeply essences as experienced by all our senses ... even as adults, we still are finding understanding through these same senses ....

... in the little town where we live, a river runs through the center of town.  I remember, as I had  walked to town one day with my child on her small toddler feet ...  crossing a stone bridge that overlooked rushing waters,  I picked up my daughter to see the waters below. There with the wind blowing on our faces, my young child raised her little voice against the mighty loudness of the rushing water to tell me what she saw ..."black and white, black and white".

It took me a moment or so to catch on, but as toddlers often have a way of insisting you acknowledge their words with the echoing of their voice with your own voice.. "yes... black and white," I say... the river's dark water and foam shared its strong  message clearly as we learned what the Spring rushing waters knew...
The Important Book is a no less an important book than the better known books by author Margaret Wise Brown, Good Night Moon and My World . All these sweet books are accompanied by the lovey illustrations of Leonard Weisgard . You can read more about Margaret Wise Brown her life  and books here.

Happy reading!