Ida B Elbowed Her Way In

Had to put off reading A Regency Invitation for a few more days...Ida B....and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan finally lured me in. I see the book, a Texas Bluebonnet Pick, all the time when I take my kids to the library and browse the picture books looking for some gems, and I've always admired the cover. I think I have a thing for apples on books because I bought Jennifer Crusie's Welcome to Temptation just for the glossy red apple on the cover, and I've been a devoted reader of hers ever since. The apple turned out to be a good pick this time too.

I checked out Ida B. and started reading it right there in the library, standing beside the computer while my little one played Star Wars. I was immediately hooked. The language is mesmerizing...so much so that, as a writer, you almost wish you could write like that...even though it's probably not the way to go for a romance novel. The book just seemed so carefree...the way Ida B could talk to the trees, and the brook, the way she was determined, and spunky, and a good hard thinker. The book made me sad and happy and wistful for a childhood in the Mid West. I'd love to live in the trees, near an orchard, near a brook, on a plot of land far, far away from a subdivision. Maybe someday.