Story of the Day 9/12/11

Week 2 of full-time school.  I took the girls to the beach last night to see the full moon rise (post coming!), so I stayed up too late, and we didn't get an early start.  And one of the kids might have been cranky, and sent to their room during story time.  It feels like a Monday.

Anyway, we read two books today.  The first was Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman.



This is the story of a fireboat, the John J. Harvey, built in New York City in 1931.  It was one of 12 fireboats used in NYC, and the book claims that it was the "largest, fastest and shiniest fireboat of them all."   Eventually the boat is retired, and waiting to be scrapped, when a group of friends decides to buy & restore the boat.

When the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01 happen, the crew jumps into action.  Thinking that they would only be able to ferry people away from Manhattan, they end up being in the thick of the action, helping to put out fires.

I've been wanting to read this story to the kids for a while, and just hadn't seen the book at the library.  It happened to be sitting there when I went in last week--with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 taking place over the weekend, it was the perfect time to enjoy this story together.

(Five in a Row users will want to take note of the illustrations on pages 5-6 to find the Little Red Lighthouse talked about in another FIAR book!)

The next book we read was How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A. by Marjorie Priceman.



The young baker in this book has all of the ingredients for a cherry pie, but none of the tools to make it!  She and her dog travel back and forth across the U.S.A., collecting materials to make their own bowl, pie pan, rolling pin, measuring cup, pastry slab, spoons and pot holders.  It was a fun, quick read, with great illustrations.

Marjorie Priceman also wrote the FIAR book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World which we will definitely read once we go apple picking!

Happy Reading!