Marguerite Henry and Katherine Lee Bates

King of the Wind started it, Tristan's love of Marguerite Henry's horse stories. Jason kept King of the Wind from when he was in school and Tristan found it on the shelf in our office. The story about the Godolphin Arabian captured his interest and sometimes bored him, but the illustrations kept him asking for the book again and again. His keen knack for finding books about horses did not fail him last week at the library either. He found and brought to me Misty of Chincotegue another title by Marguerite Henry. We've been enthralled by the story since. Today he wanted to borrow another of Henry's books about horses, but I told him that we have to finish Misty of Chincoteague first. I'm not sure what God has in store for Tristan, but he amazes me sometimes. How can a two year old have a favorite author? Especially one who writes chapter books? Well, I'm not complaining.
I am trying to expand my mind, and today I checked a book out for myself. It is a children's book about Colorado and in the first paragraph it tells the story of Katherine Lee Bates. I have never been keen on history, so that name did not ring a bell. I'm very familiar with the song America the Beautiful , however, and I was delighted to read about how Bates wrote the poem after a visit to Pikes Peak. (I guess I'm not the only one totally awestruck by the giant beauty) Anyway, I shared this discovery with Jason when he came home from work and his response was, "You've never heard that story? That's part of the reason Pikes peak is so famous, because of the song." How Jason knows this stuff I will never know, I'm just glad that I know it now too:)