Reading Aloud

Dear Annie,

The McCloskey books are so great -- and I love that picture of canning blueberries.  All these years that we've been blueberry obsessed in Maine every summer, I've never taken the step to can some.  A combination of intimidation at the amount of work, and fear of messing it up and poisoning everyone.

I'll pick up the McCloskey baton and write next time about his next two Maine books: One Morning in Maine and Time of Wonder.  Must scan a few pictures.

My brother, your uncle Al, has found a lovely video of Allan Ahlberg (who spells his Allan as our Al does) reading Peek-A-Boo!  There was also another video of Ahlberg talking about the book -- called Peepo! in British -- saying it's an autobiographical work, set in Oldbury, in the English Midlands, and that the baby is none other than Ahlberg.  Lovely.  Here he is reading it:

One can totally visualize him with a grandchild on his lap.  Reading aloud encompasses such a wide variety of styles.  I think of this as a classic style: there's inflection, but not a lot of it.  He's clearly paying attention to the words, sharing them with the listener.  There's something very intimate about this reading.

Love,

Deborah