I read to my children...alot. We came across several years back, "Hank, the cow-dog" series. We love them! My husband sits and listens to me read to the children when I read these. We all have laughed and laughed...so many wonderful books out there. If you have not read these, even though they are for middler children, they are worth your time to read.
*Our library also has the audio tapes...the stories are a hoot with sound effects!
They were very impressed. He talked about why he wrote the books and who he wrote them for. Told them he had been writing stories since he was a child. The author came by my daughter's classroom and signed every one of his books that were on the teacher's shelves. Usually when they have an author visit they will sell their books and then sign them. He didn't. He just signed them if you already had one. Impressive to me since he wasn't pushing the sale of his books just to get a signature.
Oh my gosh!! I grew up on the Hank the Cow Dog series. The author came to my school when I was elementary age. It was like meeting the president for me. He signed my book and took time to talk to all of us. He was such a neat man, and a huge part of creating my profound interest in reading.
This is so interesting, because a month ago when we rescued our beagle and took him to the vet, when we told her his name was Hank, She just laughed and laughed..since she knows we have a farm (with horses and all sorts of stuff). She said did you name him after Hank the cow dog? I said i never heard of him and she told me all about the books she reads to her kids. I definitely want to get ahold of some of those books to ready to my 2 1/2 yr old son.
My daughter would cry if we didn't read Hank everynight....( we went chapter by chapter) which wasn't hard...because we were wondering what was going to happen next...poor Hank, he was always trying to be so brave...
My son (now 17) loved these stories. When we went on trips, we would get them on tape and listen to them. Hours of laughter. When we weren't on trips, constantly at the library checking out the books to read together. My son was looking over my shoulder as I read this post and his comment was "Man, I loved those books. That guy should have gotten an award for them."
Liz