When We Go Walking by Cari Best Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

from goodreads

3 stars

I know I have sung the praises or the library before, but I have to do it again. I love the library and the best part is my kids love it too.

The programs that they have at the library are so great. Miss P and I go to two programs a week. There are stories, singing, dancing, crafts and games. She always looks forward to going. When I tell her it is library time she gets a big smile on her face. When we drive by the library or are walking by it she yells out "Library!" and then promptly asks to go in and see her favourite library worker, Sam.

The older two don't go to the public library as much. We get busy after school. But during the summer we try to go as often as we can and they participate in the summer reading club. This fall I did sign them up for one program that is through the library and frontier college. It is called reading buddies. There are two children per adult and they go into the library and read books for the first half hour and then play games for the last half hour. Miss V and Miss G have had such a fun time going. They want me to sign them up for another session, if the library is hosting one.

It is so nice to have a whole community gathered around your children helping them with their love of reading. Reading truly opens doors to new worlds and ideas. Yay for reading and yay for libraries!!

Synopsis

Wendy and her family walk down rambling road. They each see different things and Wendy likes to collect things too.

My Thoughts

I was kind of disappointed with this book. The cover looked so promising, but I found the story kind of flat. It's cool that the girl is creative and all but seriously, something should be done about her hoarding tendancies. That just seemed to bug me.

I did like how the family members all looked for things to see and each person saw a different thing. I also liked how it went through the different seasons and how different things could be found at different times. I liked how the book kind of encouraged us to get out there and walk. Physical activity, especially when done together with the family, is the best! It was also neat to see Wendy use her imagination and make her own "Rambling Road". But, once again, all the junk she brought home irked me. So It was sort of a bitter sweet moment.

The artwork in the book is fantastic. I love the differing textures used. You can tell it is a collage of different items and textures but it doesn't feel jumbled or disjointed. They items work seamlessly to create really great pictures.

So this book was ultimately a jumble of feelings, some good some not so good. In the end I just felt it a bit too lackluster and it just wasn't for me.