Book Sharing Monday - III

Jam.

A charity bookshop find holidaying in Scotland. It was ratty and well read but we loved it from the first reading. I think I read it everyday that particular holiday. Then we lost it. And it has taken me a couple of years to re-purchase it. So we are loving it again.

In the Castle family the mum goes out to work, and the dad stays at home. He is a brilliant house-father. So much so that he runs out of things to do. Which is just as well since he is about to embark on a major task - jam making. A ripe plum falls from the tree in their garden followed by more. And more. And more. Not wanting to waste a single one he starts making plum jam. He carries on until every single vessel in the house is filled, from jugs and plant pots to egg cups.



Then, of course, the Castle family must EAT the jam. They have it with everything, and on everything and under everything. Their days are filled with jam eating and their nights with sticky jammy dreams. Enthusiastic to the last the dad finds other uses for the jam, such as mending the roof and sticking down bathroom tiles.



Finally! The have reached the last pot of jam! Everyone is exuberant about the possibility of food without jam and begin planning their future meals, but first (since they have grown into round jam-pot-shaped-people with so much jam eating) they pop out for a game on the lawn. It is then they notice the Plum tree.

It is ripe again.


The Mountains of Tibet.



A dear friend gave us this copy and it has been read so often the pages are beginning to loosen. All the more reason to treasure it. A tale of rebirth and the circle of life. A beautiful story of a little boy born on a mountain in Tibet.

This boy loved to fly kites, and star gaze; there are other worlds out there he tells himself, and one day I shall visit them. But as he grows, he is busy with his family and work until he becomes an old man. Then he dies.

But this is only the beginning of the story, he embarks upon a journey with a voice guiding him - will he choose to become part of the endless universe some call heaven or to be born again? He chooses to be born again. Which galaxy will he choose to be born into? Which planet? Which country? Which life form? He contemplates, he reflects, he is maddened with the wondrous multiples of choice until he begins to choose from his heart. Can you guess where and as whom he chooses to be born again?



Lovely. My boys never get tired of this story and we have had some great conversations that have sprung from the ideas expressed here. Can't recommend it highly enough. Even for the youngest of readers (my boys were 3 and 1 when we first were gifted with this book). Wonderful for adult readers too. It has helped me view the continuity of life and realise that life or living does not necessarily end with death. Felix always insists that our family will be born again together (or wait for each other) so that we can have another lifetime together. I hope so.