In an homage to Luke’s favorite book (of the moment) Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears, we spent the afternoon picking pears in Hood River’s organic orchards. The Fruit Loop tour winds through 36 fruit stands, farms, and orchards. It’s like a wine tour for kids. Since this is harvest season the orchards were ripe with peaches, apples, squash and pumpkins. But Luke was on a singular mission…for pears.
Why pears? I blame it all on the oh-so-talented Cynthia Rylant. Her writing for children is subtle, sophisticated, and philosophical. If you have children, her books are a must read. The Mr. Putter and Tabby series resonates with me because of the clever and careful way she writes about aging. The books resonate with Luke because of the crafty solutions she creates for her characters. For example when Mr. Putter can no longer climb a ladder to pick his pears, he makes a slingshot and shoots them over his house.
Aside from the slingshot, which we thought the farm owners might frown upon, Luke recreated his favorite story, pulling pears from the trees and sampling pear jelly on salted crackers. Watching him I thought to myself, this is why I read. All great writing regardless of whether it’s written for a four year old or forty year old is transformative. Today for Luke, that meant he understood he was lucky to be young and agile enough to pick pears. For me it was a reminder that transformations start young.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Parenting, Reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
