By Read this book from the library to open the morning and was surprised by the story! The book is about a duke who raises his daughter as a single parent and one of their favorite things to do is listen to the birds in their courtyard. They talk about how winter turns to spring every time. He gets sick and his daughter Gemma gets their favorite white songbird to stick around to help keep her father’s health up through the winter. At the very coldest part of winter, the last three days of January, the songbird hides in the chimney and when she comes out, is now a blackbird. The Days of the Blackbird are the final three days in January, so cold that even the birds are hiding in chimneys from the wind.
I really enjoyed this one! I pulled this one randomly from the children’s section “culture”.
Open Arts Spring 2023 
borkali, I am so glad you randomed this book off the shelf. Tomie dePaola is one of my favorite children’s writers. The Art Lesson is a fave. Also Strega Nona. But I never read a bad Tomie deP book. : )
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Great to know! This one was just lovely– will take a closer look for more of dePaola when we head to the library next 😀
Your opinion is of utmost value to me– thanks for the comment. I am flying without a net into children’s literature for the most part. I’m flying without a net into parenting generally !
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Oh borkali, we all were/are!
And I am happy to share fave book recommendations. We read a lot. Of course we did…
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yes please!
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I am so glad you are finding and sharing children’s books. The best ones appeal to the child in all of us! Parenting is opening up a new and lovely space for you to soar. I’m glad you are taking us along.
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Thanks, B – I’ve always been an inclusive reader — who cares about if it’s labeled as a kid’s book– literature is literature, me thinks. I get a lot out of reading just about anything most of the time. Here’s a terrifying video about a children’s book that Ben Carson and Melania Trump read together about America– it’s challenging to reconcile that this is real: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfTQSPfmZeQ
I’ll stick to dePaola!
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