Looking for a great read-aloud? Here it is: Mother Carey’s Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin is a family favorite.
It was Captain Carey’s favorite Admiral who was responsible for the phrase by which mother and children had been known for some years. The Captain (then a Lieutenant) had brought his friend home one Saturday afternoon a little earlier than had been expected, and they went to find the family in the garden.
Laughter and the sound of voices led them to the summer-house, and as they parted the syringa bushes they looked through them and surprised the charming group.
A throng of children like to flowers were sown
About the grass beside, or climbed her knee.
I looked who were that favored company.That is the way a poet would have described what the Admiral saw, and if you want to see anything truly and beautifully you must generally go to a poet.
Kate Douglas Wiggin is probably best known for Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Another family favorite is the lesser-known A Bird’s Christmas Carol.)
Published in 1911, Mother Carey’s Chickens is the story of a fatherless family who moves to the country. They are not perfect people, but their love for each other and others, imperfect though it is, touches the lives around them in a positive way.
Especially cousin Julia, a young girl with a decidedly different manner. But she, too, benefits from the contact with these down-to-earth people.
The characters are very relatable. After all, we all have our challenges. And the Carey family provides an example of how to overcome them.
This is a most heart-warming book about how a family of four children rally around their Mother to cope with their new situation…. Mrs. Carey and her family enjoy a background of literature. Their move to a tiny Maine village, and to the Yellow House, which had actually been discovered by their Father on a picnic, is a story of character struggles. Each child has some lessons to learn. Gilbert must give up the idea of an expensive and famous college. “You can’t have the help of Yale or Harvard or Bowdoin to make a man of you, my son, — you will have to fight your own battles and win your own spurs.”
A Family Program for Reading Aloud, Foundation for American Christian Education
Don’t worry. This is not a preachy book, but rather an enchanting look at real family life — hilariously funny at times; sincerely touching at others.
Enjoy!
Free eBook
Additional Resources
Author Notebooking Pages {Free Download}
If you end up reading other books by Kate Douglas Wiggin, you may enjoy keeping track!
7 Reasons to Read Aloud to Your Children
If you need encouragement or help.
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