• Heathcote Elementary School

    May 2014

     Book of the Month:

     All the Places to Love

    By

    Patricia MacLachlan

     

     

     

     

     

     

     cumbersome

     
    Dear Heathcote Family,

    All the Places to Love, by Patricia MacLachlan, became an instant favorite of mine when a dear friend gave it to me nearly two decades ago.  It was my first year teaching in New York City and I was missing home. 

    I was paying $500 a month to live in a closet with a view of a brick wall.  I went to sleep to the sound of car alarms and woke to the sound of car alarms.  I was wearing dress shoes and tucked in my shirt.  Everywhere I walked, the ground had been made by people.  And I was missing home.

    I missed my grandmother’s flower garden and Uncle Al’s apple orchard.  I missed Barkhampsted’s stone walls, East Hartland’s trickling streams and Bethlehem’s drumlins.  I missed going to sleep to the sound of owl’s chatting deep in the woods, and waking to the call of Mourning Doves.  I missed walking in bare feet.  All the Places to Love reminded me of home.

    I’ve used this gorgeously illustrated book ever since, to help children connect and reconnect to all the places in their lives where they used to hide, build forts, and hunt for frogs.  Thousands of pages of sweet and moving text has been written by children with the support of this book.  There is no better testament.

    Enjoy,

    David Besancon