A Bear Called Paddington

Nearly everyone I knew grew up with a Padding ton Bear book in their shelf or lying somewhere in the attic. He is such a classic character that every kids are sure to love him, a well-meaning bear that just cannot help getting into a mess. Like Paddington Bear, I'm also clumsy that's why I love him so much. Written in 1958 by author Michael Bond, he was a bear that came from Peru and was picked up by the Brown family in Paddington Station while sitting on their suitcase with a tag that says "Please look after this bear".

The Browns took him and named him after the station where thay found him and becomes part of the family. It was followed by more adventures with the family and Paddington's stories of overcoming situations that involve his clumsiness. This classic book is perfect for young readers because of the simple pictures that makes the reader and listener giggle and smile. Someday, I will also read this to my future kids the way my parents read it to me dutifully when I was a kid.

How To Be Lost

A family torn apart by the disappearance of the youngest child. How do you recover from that? The Winter family was not an exceptional family even though behind their home a small expanse of wooded land can be located, the kids attend an excellent school and the three sisters are all adorable and energetic. Mr. Winter though is a mean drunk who causes great fear upon his children, leting them think of running away. That was when 5-year-old Ellie disappeared. Mr. Winter drank himself to death, depressed Mrs. Winter got obsessed with her annual festivities with her two remaining daughters, Caroline became a hard-drinking bartender and Madeline growing apart from her sister.

Fifteen years after that tragedy, Caroline heads out to Montana after seeing a photo in People magazine of a woman in a rodeo that closely resembles Ellie or what Ellie would have looked like as a 20-year-old woman. I say this book is a perfect companion while on a vacation, an easy and steady read that you couldn't put down if you want to. Because I didn't.