A Gold Mine of Favorite Reads in 2017

It’s time to wrap up our TA year as we discuss our favorite reads. 

As I’ve mentioned in some of my posts this year, I’m working on a complex book about George Washington’s enslaved people titled BURIED LIVES: THE ENSLAVED PEOPLE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON’S MOUNT VERNON.  Holiday House will publish it in the fall of 2018.  I’ve read stacks and stacks of material as research for this book.  I’ve combed through countless primary sources including letters and journals from Washington and host of other people.  I’ve read census reports, bookkeeping records, ads for runaway slaves, statistics of slavery, maps, images of all sorts, and a whole lot more.  Each and every piece of information I’ve read has been necessary and powerful. 

Researching, writing, and revising this manuscript has taken a lot of time.  So honestly I’ve had almost no time to read for pure enjoyment, as there is always another resource to study.  

However there are a few exceptions to my reading about this weighty topic…

I have one grandson that is eighteen months old.  So I went into the attic where I had kept boxes and boxes of books from the days when I read them to this little guy’s Daddy, aunt and uncle.  And waiting there in those boxes were my old friends.  I found gold!  Yep you guessed it, waiting there among many others was a stack of Little Golden Books.    

So my favorite reads this year has been whatever book I’m reading to my grandson.  Nothing compares to the joy of holding him in my lap while pointing out the animals and details from these scuffed up, walked on, and thrown around books.  Generation after generation, these golden nuggets are still a treasure. 

And so is my grandson. 

Here are a couple of his recent favorites.

Carla Killough McClafferty


 Don't forget to enter for the book giveaway!  

Click here to find out how to enter to win Paul Mosier's novel TRAIN I RIDE.