"Flashlight": An Illuminating Book (Especially for a Sick Child!)

A flashlight is great distraction for a sick child. We recently put that to a test...along with an illuminating wordless book by talented Lizi Boyd.

Our family is trading around a nasty summer cold!  My daughter has had to get creative in finding things for my two-and-a-half year old grandson to do, since he's been too sick to be running around or playing outside.

Enter
the
flashlight!

One of my grandson's best friends is "Puppy", a shadow playmate with a funny voice that my husband introduced him to a few months ago.  "Puppy" magically showed up on our ceiling one night, and it took quite a few visits before my grandson ever noticed his Grandpa's animated hand in front of the flashlight.  His little eyes were so riveted to the circle of light and the shadow puppet!

So the other afternoon my daughter got out our trusty flashlight and let my grandson have at it. "Little Puppy" was born!

And when he'd had enough of "Little Puppy", we got out his Madeline Shadow Puppets.  Then he had fun holding those up to the flashlight, while we read aloud a Madeline story.

Maybe because of all the shadow play my grandson experiences with his Grandpa, or maybe because it's just a super imaginative and detailed (wordless) book, Lizi Boyd's Flashlight has been requested over and over and over at our house since my daughter found it at the library. 

It's a perfect summer read - especially if you have a cold - because you can go camping in the woods without ever leaving your house!

You'll discover what a boy sees when he leaves his tent and ventures out into his dark backyard with his faithful flashlight.  Preschoolers will love naming all the animals illumined by the beam of light, as well as those still in the shadows.

I love the twist at the end.  Guess who ends up with the flashlight!

Stay healthy!  (But it sickness finds you and your family this summer, grab a flashlight.  Fun is sure to follow.)  

Go here for my other posts about shadow play books, and about how to make your own shadow puppet theatre.

SUMMER BEDTIME

Alaska's Midnight Sun, by Deb Vanasse. In Alaska, kids can go to bed as late as 11 p.m. and still have light outside their window! This sweet poetic book, illustrated by award-winner Jeremiah Trammell, showcases the many pleasures of this unique time as a little girl dances, fishes, plays games, watches moose and fox, and communes with family and nature.  She manages to stay awake past midnight, before finally winding down and falling asleep.

Have you ever read the poem BED IN SUMMER by Robert Louis Stevenson? It captures perfectly the frustration I remember feeling as a young child in the summer when, while lying in bed, I could still see light outside my window and hear the older neighborhood kids playing games like "Kick the Can".

BED IN SUMMER
In Winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle light.

In Summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or hear the grown-up people's feet

Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,

When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

When I was older, I was finally allowed to stay out until dark and have fun. We caught fireflies (we called them "lightning bugs" - more about that in tomorrow's post) and played the fun hybrid game of tag and hide-and-go-seek, "Kick the Can" -- the bigger the can the louder the "CLANG", when it was kicked.  (Another fun nighttime game is "Flashlight Tag" - CLICK HERE to learn more.)

Goodnight!