Simple things in life

 

Maybe I am suffering from a bit of nostalgia, but I have really been enjoying these three books for their simple stories of what seems like a simpler life where baking, gardening and self-sufficiency are important. All three stories are told with fairly plain language and illustrated with simple, yet engaging pictures.

A Garden for a Groundhog is the tale of a farming couple - at face value it is the story of planting a garden for a groundhog, however I think it does a great job of illustrating planning and growing a garden to sustain yourself and other things like weather forecasting and knitting.  I just wanted to curl up in the old couples house, like the cat in the winter scenes, and enjoy their warm house full of yummy foods.  I know, I am a bit odd like that.

This Is the Bread I Baked for Ned is a great rhyming tale of baking bread and preparing food for Ned and surprise visitors.  I enjoyed the picture it painted of a simple inviting house full of fresh baked bread and good food and friends.

Pancakes for Breakfast  I wrote about this one earlier.  This is an older story, published in 1978, but it is a good one for depicting how a person can really bake from scratch.  The main character collects eggs from the chicken coop, milks a cow, churns butter etc.   BB was fascinated by all of this, and has asked for this story over and over again and has even started helping me to narrate it.