My fiction book for the week was Little Men, by Louisa May Alcott.  Little Men continues the story of Jo March, begun in the book, Little Women, also by Alcott.  Jo is a grown woman now and married to Fritz Bhaer.  The Bhaers run a school for boy and Little Men details their exploits in an endearing, if moralizing, fashion.  The book was a delightful read, and I found I actually enjoyed the moralizing.  It was refreshing to read about how each boy delighted in being good and found satisfaction in helping others as opposed to realm of moral relativism in which we often find ourselves these days.  I liked reading about boys who helped out and who made mistakes that eventually resulted in a lesson learned.

I loved Jo was a girl when I first read Little Women because she was smart, opinionated, and fiercely devoted to those she loved.  In those respects, Jo has not changed, thus making her an excellent mother to her brood of boys.  She was still full of fun and could enjoy letting the boys have a little head, but her trust and loving ways brought them back to themselves when they got carried away.

Her fierce and unrelenting love, even in the face of woeful mistakes, leads her boys to become better and better men.  Her love was always unconditional, always steadfast.  It seems to me that too often these days our love is conditional.  I'll love you as long as you...I'll stay as long as you continue to ...There is very little unconditional love these days when even my eight-year-old speaks casually about divorce being an option if her unrequited crush should be so foolish as to marry someone else.  We did have a little talk about that, but children used to just assume that falling in love was forever and now it seems that falling in love is only for a little while.  Jo and Fritz make an amazing team as both educators and parents.  Jo loves completely and unconditionally and perhaps that is why she is so successful at it. Knowing that she could get hurt does not stop her from loving Dan, who runs away and in a later book just might break her heart, or any of the other children.  I think that we could all learn a lesson from Jo.  She made time for fun with the children, did not forget what it was like to be young and awkward, followed her heart, and loved with her whole being.  These are qualities that I choose to emulate and hope I can teach to my young charge while I still have the chance.

Score one for competition!!!  Small person's first two book reports were short and sweet, and not-quite-to-the-point.  To keep her from feeling unfairly treated, I also wrote book reports on the two books I finished (Deaf Like Me and  Little Men).  Once she found out that my book reports were three pages each in the notebook, she quickly began to rewrite some of her book reports, than asked me slyly how many pages I had written.  She was unhappy to learn that I wrote six pages while she only wrote five, but I can bet that next time, she will have even more pages, and none of this was done by nagging her to write longer or even a lecture on details or the hamburger graphic organizer so loved my writing teachers everywhere!  And, I found I really enjoyed writing about the books I read.

We sat on the couch together after dinner and read our book reports to each other.  It was fun to hear her recite her little readings and it gave us some good quality time together, too!  Now, when she is in bed and I can have my one or two shows for the week, I find that I am actually looking forward to reading again so we can have more book reports next week!  Best of all, when we had finished biking, visiting friends, and playing dolls, I made her a snack of air-popped corn and she asked if I would read her more stories!  Normally, she would have been begging to watch TV and lose herself in the show.  Now, we listen to audio books at dinner and then I read her stories at snack time, plus more stories at bedtime!  She also has taken extra baths to make the time go by faster.  She has gotten quite creative in ways to spend her time.  I'm proud of my little muffin and am looking forward to another TV-free week!