My children learned to love reading from Robert McCloskey’s Make Way For Ducklings and the Homer Price books, which I’ve given to a 7-year old friend, who loves them too. Mr. McCloskey was an author/illustrator, a gentle man who replied to children’s fan letters. His output was small – eight books – but each is a gem.
Oh I love Homer Price and the follow-up Centerburg Tales. Always wanted a skunk named Aroma. I don’t remember reading Make Way for Ducklings but I always say that when I see the ducks from my neighborhood pond taking a walk. RIP Mr. McCloskey.
Maybe it’s time to take a trip to the Public Gardens and visit the Ducklings.
With the loss of McCloskey and the fairly recent demise of Bill Peet (if you have any interest in the behind the scenes, no holds barred story of what it was like working with Disney, don’t miss his autobiography.) , it’s truly the end of an era.
I was thinking about Make Way For Ducklings just the other day when I read this article in the Washington Post. I almost started a thread about it.
My favorite McCloskey book was Blueberries for Sal. :(:(
Time of Wonder is the last in the trilogy and my favorite. I can’t read it without almost choking on my words at the end.
Without a doubt, McCloskey was one of the best children’s authors.
One Morning in Maine always reminded me of me:) I’ve had days just like that, with the clam squirting and the chocolate icecream. 
Thanks for starting this thread, summerbreeze. Blueberries for Sal was a great favorite for bedtime stories when my kids were little. My oldest is 26 now, and we are building her library of children’s books in anticipation of another generation. So much fun to decide if we should get There’s a Wocket in My Pocket or The Giving Tree or *Millions of Cats *for this birthday, christmas, anniversary, etc., present. The next choice will be an easy one.
Plunk
NO ONE can read Time of Wonder aloud to a kid without gasping on sobs towards the end. Especially if they’re spent any time in the State of Maine. Blueberries for Sal and One Morning in Maine also make me want to grab my gimme cap and hightail it for Bucks Harbor, but Time of Wonder is easily the weepiest. Both my children hate it…but then again, it was WRITTEN for grown-ups. It’s a prose poem. With really cool pictures.
I remember first hearing Lentil read out loud by Captain Kangaroo, back when I was a toddler.
Burt Dow, Deep Water Man was not one I knew as a kid, but I rented the Children’s Circle video when my daughter was tiny…the one where it’s read aloud in a THICK Mainer accent. So now whenever I read it, I read it as “Buht Dhoww, Dip Wahtuh May-un.”
R.I.P., Mr McCloskey. Those were eight damn good books.
I would love to have a can of ever-so-much-more-so to sprinkle on my doughnuts.
You’ve all brought back so many wonderful memories of reading to my children – and re-reading after they were asleep! I was planning a trip to the library today, and now I will check out Time of Wonder. I’ll check it out because I don’t want to sit in the children’s section weeping.
In my family, finding a feather was always the signal for an ice cream run…
oh, as_u_wish – I appreciate your post. First time I’ve been thanked for starting a thread.
Do you know the little poem:
Richer than I you can never be;
I had a mother who read to me.
A friend has photos of her grandmother, her mother, herself and her daughters reading to children on the wall of her bedroom, with a framed copy of this poem. You made me think of it.