Happy Thanksgiving!  This year has flown by it seems.  With all the hustle and bustle with the library changes, and then the book fair happening, we are almost to the first of December and I’m still wanting sunshine and gardening.  

This week in our library we are featuring three very fun books that will get you singing long after you have stopped the book. The children here love to listen to books on tape, with the music in the background and the added noises of what is taking place in the stories.  These three featured books are all based on John Denver.  

Our first book, “John Denver’s Grandma’s Feather Bed” is adapted and illustrated by Christopher Canyon, a bandmate of John Denver. In this wonderfully illustrated book, we learn of the life of the grandchildren and the memories they had with eight of them sleeping in grandma’s feather bed. There is talk of the Uncle, and the dad and the talk of the time of the war and the farming.  

A portion of the song includes the following words, “It was nine feet high and six feet wide, soft as a downy chick.  It was made from the feathers of forty-leven geese, took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick. It’d hold eight kids and four hound dogs and the piggy we stole from the shed. We didn’t get much sleep, but we had a lot of fun on Grandma’s Feather bed.”  

Our next book is “John Denver’s Sunshine On My Shoulders” also adapted and illustrated by Christopher Canyon.  The illustrations are so sweet and calming and yet with the song being slow paced, you just can’t wait to turn the page.  Many of the younger students hadn’t heard this song and it was very interesting watching them watch the story unfold as the song played on the CD.

Our last book is also adapted and illustrated by Christopher Canyon and it is “John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads.” 

With talk of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River and country roads, it just puts the listener in a happy place. When we play this song on our CD, the PSEO kids can be heard singing along with it!  These three books have kept the children engaged with both the illustrations and the story/songs.  

We hope to see you up at the Henning Public School library on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons following the school calendar from 3:30-5:30 p.m.  We will have the coffee on, waiting for you.