Rifles for Watie

Over the summer I took the boys on occasion to the library. My hope was to get Jace excited and motivated to read. As a little girl I always loved to read, and still do today - if only there were more hours in the day! I remember many nights staying up late reading novel, mystery, suspense, adventure, and yes, romance. Even in college, I would blow off studying and pour myself into a book all night. My favorites then were Dean Koontz and Stephen King.

Back to the library... during one visit there recently I recalled My 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Newton, reading aloud to us at the end of each day. The school year ended before she finished the book and in a desperate act I begged Mom to take me to the town library so that I could finish it on my own. After the recent visit, I tried and tried to remember the name of the book Mrs. Newton read but after 20+ years my memory faltered. The book had it all, adventure, suspense, romance, and even a huge hunk of Civil War history.

The boys and I were back at the library yesterday afternoon after Jace informed me that he had been assigned a summer reading list (that he neglected to tell me about until AFTER his 3rd day back in school!). As he was searching for one title I was hunting down another. Plopped on the floor with a drooling Isaiah in my arms, I scanned the bottom shelf for The Story of Ferdinand and looked up and my eyes locked on IT, THE BOOK of my 6th grade year, Rifles for Watie. There seriously were little bursts of fireworks popping off in my head! I was so excited to find that book again and scooped it up and practically hustled the boys out the door.

As soon as we got home I had convinced Jace to let me read it aloud to him. He seems pretty into it, although we stopped at Chapter 3 so I could make dinner, and then today he was busy with other boy-things. No problem, I'm too impatient anyway and just finished off the entire book by myself as Brian watched his shows. At one point, Brian asked me if it was as good as I remember.

Yes. Even better. :)