National Velvet

Our book for June was National Velvet. Leia and I had a hard time getting through this book. It is very long, set in England, and written in 1935. I think the combo was hard on us! Many of the references to objects, activities and food we had never heard of and had to look them up. We were having some trouble getting it read, also partly due to the baby being sick, so we watched the movie while we were 1/3 of the way through the book. And I am going to say something I hardly ever say: We liked the movie better than the book!

The other people in our club also had a hard time with the book, but everyone liked the movie. It was funny to see Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney looking so young. My kids has no idea who she is, but they know Mickey Rooney from Pete's Dragon, and he is a voice on some Christmas movies, also. Anyways, Leia had made a small paper horse and glued it to cardboard the way Velvet did in the book. Here is a picture of her horse with it's stable.

And here is a picture of her with the book and her activity from the meeting. She got to design a jockey shirt and hat. Of course, they were pink!

And at the club meeting she got to ride a horse! She was so happy about that. Here are a few pictures of her on Lily the horse.

Some good results of reading the book are Leia and Padme's new pastime of riding play horses all over the yard. They have names for their horses, can tell you what color they are, and have an entire game made up with these horses. They have even convinced 10 year old Luke to play with them. He has a manly horse, of course.

Next month the book is Caddie Woodlawn. I am excited for that book. We are going on vacation in a few weeks, and I am planning on taking the audio book along to listen on the ride.