Museum held a love of books event
A century of reading was focus of celebration
KITCHENER — When pointing out the value of books in the lives of her two children, Leslie Pletsch was adamant.
“I don’t know how you can quantify the importance of books, children learn so much,” said the Waterloo mom Sunday at the Waterloo Region Museum.
The museum was holding a “Love of Books” weekend, with parents bringing their little ones to either embellish paper booklets with a preprinted story or create their own. For the Pletsch family, regular visitors to the museum, the event gave them an opportunity to celebrate books.
Pletsch, a teacher, said she began reading to her kids from the time they were infants and both children, five-year-old Amelia and two-year-old Elias, have bookshelves in their bedrooms as well as a designated shelf in the family’s living room book case.
“When they want us to read to them, we make sure we make time,” she said, noting one of her proudest moments was when she was outside and peeked in the living room window to see little Amelia curled up on the couch reading on her own.
As for types of books, Pletsch avoids stories with strong elements of Disney princesses. But it seems Amelia has already discovered her favourite books, the Daisy Meadows series. Daisy Meadows is the pseudonym used for the four British writers who create the Rainbow Magic series of children’s books.
As for Pletsch’s son? “My son is a typical boy, he reads books about trucks and trains,” she said.
Pletsch also likes to introduce her children to books she loved as a child, such as Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.
When choosing a book for her kids “I don’t necessarily look for a message” she said, though she has picked books that could help during those momentous times in a child’s life, such as potty training, moving up to a big boy bed and that first day of kindergarten.
When it comes to love of books, not much has really changed in the past 100 years according to museum teacher/ interpreter, Carolyn Blackstock.
The historian and lover of all things old was doing readings from author Peter McArthur, a name not well known today but in the late 1800s up until he died in 1924, the farmer/humourist/ lecturer/philosopher/poet had a big following. Blackstock pointed out, McArthur had left his parents’ home as an educated young man, lived for many years in both London, England and New York City before returning to his childhood home. That 1835 cabin was moved from its original location in Middlesex County to the museum’s Doon Heritage Village and there are a few of his books strategically placed on a sideboard.
Blackstock said McArthur had some innovative ideas, particularly as one of the early adopters of the back to the land movement.
McArthur used to joke that he farmed for his own pleasure and his neighbours’ amusement. In other words, he was a better writer than a farmer but many of his farm experiences were the bases for his writings.
“He had a big impact during his lifetime,” said Blackstock.
The author lived in an era when books, magazines and newspapers played an important role in everyone’s life, she said.
Blackstock said that at the turn of the last century it seemed everyone was reading. In fact literacy rates were so high the census of 1901 and 1911 removed the literacy question all together.