Comments for Minnie

Minnie: 10/09/06

Minnie is a Dutch children's story about cross-species friendship. It is another of a number of children's books I received from another BookCrosser at a spring meeting. I took the book because I liked the cover art.

While I did enjoy the story there were many interesting concepts introduced that were never explained or even explored. In fact the entire story seemed too simplified. I realize it is written for a young audience but even as a child I would have been unsatisfied. I'm not asking for pages and pages of back story or sub plot but a sentence or two in most cases would suffice.

Here is my BookCrossing review:

I enjoyed the rather simplistic story of Minnie and her ordeal of being turned into a human. Tibbs the reporter I never quite understood. How does someone so shy end up as a reporter? How did he manage to stay employed by the paper as long as he did when all he wrote about at first were cats? I would also have liked to learn more about the Institute that was next to Minnie's home. What were they doing that could produce garbage capable of turning cats into humans? There is the real story, not the cruelty of Mr. Elbow.

The illustrations I thought needed some work. They didn't seem to capture the characters as I imagined them. Minnie seemed really weird in the drawings. She isn't described as weird looking, just weird (or cattish) acting at times.

Ice Cream Sundaes, Just 'Cause:

It's been a tough month for Sean with Harriet's arrival and all the attention we have to give her means less one on one time with him. While he's been handling the situation better than we hoped, he's still been a little down in the dumps. Ian and I are both older siblings ourselves, though Ian has forgotten what it was like to be an only child as he was three when Glenn was born, so we can relate to what Sean is feeling. With the recovery from the C-section and choosing to breastfeed, my time with Sean was greatly diminished in September. Now that the incision is nearly healed and Harriet is starting to put herself on a manageable feeding schedule, I'm finally able to spend more time with Sean without Harriet constantly needing me.

Recently I've spent a lot more time with Sean, reading to him, giving him baths, and just talking. On Thursday Ian was invited to a math dinner so I took the children out to dinner at Baker's Square. We had a lovely time, although I ended up having to nurse Harriet through the entire meal which mean doing everything else one-handed. While we were at dinner we decided it would be fun to get an ice cream sundae on Sunday (the day Ian traditionally goes out to study).

When Sunday rolled around we all got a late start due in part to sleeping in and going out to breakfast (no milk in the fridge). I wasn't sure if we'd have time to follow our original plan but around three-thirty we were finally able to go. I had hoped to try a local ice creamery but Sean wanted to go to the Dublin Carrow's as they make mini M&M sundaes. So that's where we went and the sundaes were wonderful! Harriet stayed quiet through the entire thing though she did end up chewing on my fingers so I was once again doing everything one-handed.