Last night, V grabbed The Secret Garden and suggested we read it together. What a brilliant girl I have! The past two nights have been perfect, taking turns reading aloud together after T is asleep and while J is away. Just the two of us. Time spent together. She practices reading "with expression" and it reminds me of the scenes in Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility wherein Marianne places great importance on such abilities. I love my little girl and know to savor moments like these. I toss between fear they'll disappear as she grows and determination that they don't have to disappear at all.
I kept this book for this year's special birthday and so grateful she's taken it up already. She's seen the film version and I'm glad she's willing to read the book anyway! J found a card promoting this book's illustrator at a London gallery. I had it framed with several other prints for the kids room, so she's loved the cover before she even had this book. I saw the book in hard cover at Pottery Barn Kids years ago, but it was pricey. By the time I decided to buy it anyway, they no longer had it, not at any of their stores. That's when I went online to find it. Fortunately, I found one bookseller with the cover illustration I was searching for. However, when the book arrived, I was even more delighted! This was not the same book I had seen at PBKids but a larger volume full of illustrations throughout! It is truly breathtaking.
And one last note to C - tonight she exclaimed "Oh! We could have read The Wizard of Oz!" So that pretty volume will be our next. Yes, this is one practice I'm not going to put down.