Delayed Reaction

Sometimes you don't know that a book has connected until months, or even years, later. We have owned You Can Do It Sam by Amy Hest for about three years. It is kept with our Christmas books and we read it every December. Then it goes back in the closet until the next year.

You Can Do It Sam is a sweet book about a little bear, Sam, and his mom. They bake muffins for their neighbors and leave them as gifts on doorsteps one early winter morning. Then they return home and share their own treat of muffins and hot cocoa.

Isaac has always liked this book. Sam has the same insecurities and feels the same pride in his accomplishments as many little boys. But I didn't think the story stayed with him much longer than it took to pack the box of Christmas books away with the decorations each January.

So, I was surprised today when Isaac announced on the way home from school that we should count all the houses in our neighborhood, bake muffins, put them in red bags, leave them at all of our neighbors' doors, then come home and have our own muffins and hot cocoa. He wants to do this the next time we stay home for a snow day.

I love that Isaac made this connection with this book. I feel sorry for him that he has a mother who would rather go buy some muffins than bake them. And I fervently hope that there are no snow days in our near future. But, who knows? Maybe next December we will be leaving muffins on our neighbors doorsteps on an idyllic winter morning.