July
04
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POLL: Best Celebrations in Books
Here in the States, we’re celebrating Independence Day. For many of us, it’s a day to spend with family and friends, to enjoy cookouts and picnics, to watch parades and fireworks.
If you’re anything like me, these summer celebrations are easy to recall. I remember walking around at the riverfront park hoping to run into friends or waiting for the parade to come down the street, getting ready to scramble for the candy tossed in my direction. I can remember seeing fireworks in Ohio with my cousins, at State College with my then-fiance and our friends, on the hill near the elementary school in town with my toddler son and husband, from canoes with friends, from the side of the road in the middle of nowhere when we hadn’t realized we would get to see fireworks one year. I always remember waiting for the big finale.
I’m sure I’m not alone in having this flashes of memories about celebrations. They imprint themselves on us.
I also know this because these sorts of events show up in the books we read. The characters go to fairs, they watch parades, they have big picnics, they blow out candles, and they blow bubbles at the bride and groom – because these celebrations are the stuff of life. And the stuff of life is the stuff of books.
So, Nerdy Nation, which books that you have read have the best celebrations in them? They don’t have to be the Fourth of July celebrations, but think about which celebrations you have enjoyed vicariously through books that have left their mark on you. Share them with the rest of us in the comments below!
Because of Winn Dixie
The dinner in Truman Capote’s The Thanksgiving Visitor is pretty memorable. That family puts the “fun” in “dysfunctional.” Happy Fourth of July, fellow Nerds!
Three Times Lucky and Ghosts of Tupelo Landing. Nobody knows how to celebrate with more feeling and “over the topness” than the folks of Tupelo Landing. Wish I was there this Fourth of July!
Oh my goodness, yes!
I so agree!
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
There is a fabulous town celebration in The Quirks: Welcome to Normal by Erin Soderberg where the town comes together each year to break a world record.
Oh, I love this one too!
Night Noises by Mem Fox is a lovely picture book about a ninetieth birthday party – a surprise for the birthday girl, celebrated by many family members and generations. It was made more meaningful for me last year when we celebrated my mother’s ninetieth – not a surprise but with lots of generations.
A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas by Madeleine L’Engle
The Party by Barbara Reid. It is full of rollicking verse and plasticine pictures. What better way to party!
The earliest literary celebration I remember reading was the Christmas scene from Little Women, it made me think very differently about the oranges our grandparents sent us from Florida that year!
Little Women Christmas was my first thought too!
In Charlotte’ Web – when they go to the state fair!
Christmas celebrations in Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books.
The celebrations throughout the Harry Potter series always stick in my mind, particularly the Deathday Party & the World Cup festivities.
The Chronicles of Narnia, too. So much fancy food!
I appreciated the small party for Stanley at the end of Holes by Louis Sachar
I’m echoing Linda’s response – I used to have my dad reread and reread the Christmas chapter from Little House in the Big Woods. Great childhood memory!
I like the small every day celebrations of Byrd Baylor – I am in charge of Celebrations.
Happy Birthday, Babymouse! Poor Babymouse! 😉
I wish I could be a part of the National Doughnut Day celebration in Linda Urban’s
The Center of Everything.
Me too! Definitely my favorite celebration in a book!
That is the one that came to mind to me immediately – and The Relatives Came – just a family get together celebration.
Clare
Another great one!
I love the fair and pageant celebrations in Beef Princess of Practical County by Michelle Houts. It perfectly captures the central social event of summer in small town Indiana–and other states.
Great subject for the Fourth! There are lots of celebrations in the Willow Falls books by Wendy Mass (11 Birthdays, 13 Gifts, etc).
Best 4th of July scene ever….Freak the Mighty….tonight, watching the fireworks, I could hear Freak’s voice yelling all the chemicals and elements combusting with each other. And when everyone tried to leave at once, well, Max nailed that description. Perfect.
“Wind in the Willows” – the lovely celebration of being back home. Actually there are lots of little celebrations in that book – and the big awful one at Toad Hall.
The Great Gatsby.
A Tangle of Knots, lets celebrate with cake! My class loved A Snicker of Magic with a magical celebration (with ice cream) at the end of the book.
My mind immediately goes to the many, many celebrations at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books. JK Rowling has a way of making me feel like I am in the midst of the party through her sensory descriptions.
Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles. Even though their get-togethers are funerals, they are still a celebration of a life well lived. I love the descriptions of the food that everyone brings for the funerals. I can’t read this book when I’m hungry.
I love Tasha Tudor’s A Time to Keep – especially the floating birthday cake!
EVERYBODY BRINGS NOODLES by Nora Dooley
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have a nice morning!