Nana's Book Library

Age: 2+

Particulars (Out of 5):    

• Families and lovely traditions *****
• Pictures of a good, happy life *****
• Imagination, creativity and the joy of nature *****
• Positive role models *****
• Inappropriate language: None.
• Sexual references: None.

Reminder:  Nana’s Books are rated G.  Anyone could read them, or listen to them being read aloud.

Tasha Tudor (1915-2008) drew, painted and wrote what she knew: traditions of the past, sweet families working, playing, resting and spending time together.  She spent her life in New England, which she loved, and published more than 40 books, starting in 1938 – writing for her children and then her grandchildren.  She was a Caldecott Honor artist.  A bio of her at the end of this book describes someone I wish I’d been privileged to know:  “She is a spinner, a weaver, a seamstress … a cook, an omnivorous reader, a ‘passionate’ gardener.  Above all, she is a painter who is able to translate her joy in a flower, her happiness in a task performed well, her pleasure in the turning of seasons, her appreciation of traditional values, into a form that speaks eloquently to readers everywhere.”

A Time to Keep is a book of holidays.  I’m putting in some excerpts here, but I really can’t do justice to the joy of these illustrations.  January:  “Oh, there were lots of joyful times.  On the last day of the old year the children built a bonfire.  We all danced around it and shouted Happy New Year.  Then we had a party supper with roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and apple pie and ice cream and cheese…” what you’re not seeing here are the four beautiful watercolors that accompany just these few words, and that’s just one spread – and it’s not even all of January, because then we move on to Twelfth Night!

In February, “We had a small post office in those days.” (It’s a little house on a table!)  “Valentines came by Sparrow Post.  The doll family received valentines. So did all the corgis…. On Washington’s birthday we had Washington pie for tea and favors sent from Boston by Aunt Middle Mary.  In the evening the children put on historic tableaux,” on a homemade stage with the parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents as the audience, “using the costumes we still have in the attic.”   In May – well, you know there’s a Maypole! “That’s the month we planted the garden.  We had delectable elevenish parties with iced tea and cookies under the crab apple tree.”  They make their own marionettes in June.  In August, they celebrate a child’s birthday at night by the river.  “The table was set with birch bark plates and gourd drinking cups.  There were favors made from walnut shells and families of wooden animals in little baskets and meringues made in the shape of toadstools.  But best of all, the birthday cake came floating down the river.”

Nothing fancy, just a lot of homemade creativity and imagination and fun, which happens when kids have free time and good books for inspiration.

This book is available new on Amazon, Barnes and Noble (for $24.95 compared to $15.79 on Amazon), but it’s also available used for much less on Amazon, and for slightly less on eBay and Abebooks.  Note: this is what I see on the day I am posting this. I heartily encourage you to shop around for the best value! You never know!  

©Janet Farrar Worthington

Note:  I am an Amazon affiliate, so if you do click a link and buy a book, I will theoretically make a small amount of money, but I’m just starting this thing, so I don’t even know how that works.   Still, full disclosure, etc.