Thomas B. Allen (3) (1928–2004)

This warm and nostalgic picture book captures the magic of growing up and remembering, with simple storytelling that makes it ideal for young children to enjoy alongside older family members.

Barnstormers, a pony, and sharing stew with the dog. What's not to love? Gentle, interesting, made me cry and made me laugh out loud. I really enjoyed these glimpses of history and life. When you want a comforting read, this book, with it's soft illustrations and beautiful words, works well.

(nonfiction, autobiography, youngadult, and easy) After recently completing an author study on Margaret Wise Brown, this book seemed like a necessary addendum to my study. The text and pictures perfectly capture Margaret Wise Brown's personality as a writer. She writes about her memories in a way that a child would remember them. She muses not so much about her old church as a building ,for example, but in rememberance of how the sunlight reflects off the stained glass window. After reading show more this book, in addition to my recently completed report and the other biographies I was required to read about her, I feel like I know her writing perspective even better. The descriptive text and accompanying illustrations are so serene one wishes they could participate in all of Margaret Wise Brown's memories. A good classroom activity for first or second grade to accompany this book would be to ask students to write a mini-bio on themselves or draw a picture of a favorite childhood memory. Have them describe the picture not by a tangible sense (place, date, etc.) but by a memory. The student could use the memory as a title for the picture. show less

Lovely soft pencil drawings set a nostalgic mood for a lovely little story of yesterday. I was especially fond of this one, because Grandaddy was an engineer on a locomotive, and came home to the farm between runs. I love trains.