Marianna May and Nursery by Tomie DePaola

Marianna May and Nursery by Tomie DePaola

Rating: 5 white stars

A little while ago I sent out a broadcast to my family and friends and asked them: what are your/your children's favorite children's books?  I got a dozen good suggestions, and I'll be sharing them with you during the next week.  My aunt sent me the name of this book; her daughter (now a rising senior in high school) loved it when she was little.  The copy we are reading seems like it had been in some deep dungeon-like part of the library because it was brown and looked fairly filthy.  I wasn't very sure about it, despite the fact that it's Tomie DePaola and we love Tomie DePaola.

Reminder: Don't judge a book by its cover, even a dirty one.

This is a gem!  It is a sweet tale of a rich little girl whose parents hire a nanny for her called Nursery (why that is her name is beyond me--it is so puzzling to me) to care for her.  Little Marianna May only wears white dresses, she she is forbidden to roll in the grass, make mud pies, eat orange ice and strawberry ice cream like she wants to because she'll get dirty.  Instead of all this fun stuff, Nursery tells her to sit on the front porch swing and stay clean.  So there she sits, all day long.

Until the ice guy comes up with a block o' ice on his shoulder and sees she's not having fun.  He tells the maid who tells all the other hired help in the house that Marianna May isn't having fun, and they cook up the grand idea of dying all her dresses unique colors for all her favorite pastimes.  The last few pages are of her wearing a green dress while she rolls in the grass, a brown dress while she makes mud pies, an orange dress...you get the idea.

Lorelei just gets this story.  She understands how sad it would be if she was forced to sit on the front porch swing everyday, all day long.  She understands how silly it is to have all white dresses--she knows that Ben has just one white shirt, and it's new.  And it's a gift--I'd buy him a green or brown one before a white one!  Anyway, this is a sweet little story and I'm so glad to not just have read it with my daughter, but that Lorelei knows that it is "Cousin Abby's favorite book," too.  When families are spread out all over the country--or all over the world, as my family has been a number of different times--it's so important to me to grasp any and all connections we can!