Baby Tumbleweed and Little Sparrow are small when they are born. Their fathers are not sure if the babies will grow up to be big and strong. Their mothers reassure them all that they will grow. Tiny Tumbleweed grows and roots herself. She's not as big as her brothers and sisters but she's okay. Little Sparrow also grows, just not as big as his siblings, but his father teaches him how to strengthen his wings and legs. One day he is out when a storm arrives. He sees Tiny Tumbleweed below him. Can he make it to her for shelter before the storm hurts him? Can she help him?

I liked this story. I loved the illustrations. They are gorgeous. I liked that Tiny Tumbleweed and Little Sparrow both grew up under similar circumstances. I also appreciated that they were able to do what they needed to do.

I liked the fun facts about tumbleweeds and sparrows at the end of the book as well as the questions about the book. This is good for toddlers and early readers. It is designed for third graders but your 4-8 year old will enjoy it.

german and english review

Inhalt: James ist der einsamste und traurigste Junge der Welt! Seit seine Eltern von einem Rhinozeros gefressen wurden, muss er bei den schrecklichen Tanten Schwamm und Zinke leben – was die Hölle ist! Doch eines Tages geschieht das Unglaubliche: James findet im Garten einen magischen Riesenpfirsich, in dem die seltsamsten Geschöpfe wohnen.

Meine Bewertung: Eindeutig in meiner Top 3 von Roald Dahl Büchern!!!

Was für eine wundervolle und magische Reise das Buch war. Es hat einfach Spaß gemacht die Bewohner des Pfirsichs zu begleiten, hätte ich auf die Streitereien verzichten können, natürlich, trotzdem hatte es aber auch etwas lustiges.

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Summary: When James accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree begins to grow, and before long it's as big as a house. When James discovers a secret entranceway into the fruit and crawls inside, he meets wonderful new friends--the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the dainty Ladybug, and the Centipede of the multiple boots. After years of feeling like an outsider in his aunts' house, James finally found a place where he belongs. With a snip of the stem, the peach household starts rolling away--and the adventure begins!

My review: Totally in my top 3 of Roald Dahl books!!!

What a wonderful and magical journey this book was. It was just so much fun to join all the peach residents on their adventures, of course I could have done without all the bickering, but sometimes it was actually really funny.

TITLE:  The Peach Keeper

AUTHOR:  Sarah Addison Allen

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DESCRIPTION:

"The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town’s famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water’s heyday, and once the town’s grandest home—has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked boundaries of the haves and have-nots.

But Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood—of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton, found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, and certain to drag up dire consequences along with it.

For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town.

Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living.

Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever."

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REVIEW:

Lovely writing, intriguing story.

And another one that I'm almost forcing myself to read chapter by chapter.

The ecology went to hell in a handbasket and time travel might make it better.  There is also a second story winding its way through but I'm not sure where it's going.