At first we were inspired to make a doll house from cardboard...a house like Big Mama's. Here is how we built the simple house.
1. All you need are two rectangular pieces of cardboard (ours were about 2 feet by 1 foot).
2. Cut a slit down the middle of each rectangle, the slit should only span ¾ of the width of the cardboard.
3. Slide the pieces together and unfold to create your four room doll house. Decorate as you like.
When the time came to decorate the house the interest level faded for my girls. I realized that my youngest daughter was spending more and more time playing with my childhood doll house...the one that my grandparents made for my sister and I. I had been storing the dollhouse up on a shelf in her bedroom and recently brought it down to the hallway floor. Ever since I placed the dollhouse on the floor it had been filled with little people and surrounded by lively play. Upon realizing that our newly constructed cardboard dollhouse was being left alone I decided that it was time, yet again, to recount where my childhood doll house had come from.
After all, this old dollhouse had been made my grandmother...my Big Mama. It too was filled with my childhood memories...just like Crews' memories of summer's spent at his Big Mama's house.
I suppose one of the major reason I loved this book was because it brought back childhood memories of trips to my grandparents house, running in the fields outside their backdoor, pulling vegetables from the enormous garden and sharing meals around the large dining room table. I truly connected with this book and it brought about a rediscovered connection for my daughter with my old dollhouse.
Now, it is time to check out all the great Donald Crews inspired posts that everyone in the book club has put together. Please link up any Donald Crews post that you may have created. And, don’t forget to visit the Virtual Book Club for Kids’ Facebook page, a great reading resource for parents with growing readers.
