What's up, friends? I hope you are having a great start to the week and are excited for another Tuesday's Tales!
Today's book is a great one for city kids (NYC kids, to be exact) or any kids who will be visiting NYC: The Lonely Phone Booth by Peter Ackerman.
This is the sweet story of a phone booth on 100th and West End Avenue that is very popular with all of its neighbors until one day when the phone booth starts noticing everyone has these "shiny silver object[s]."
The phone booth becomes quite lonely and rundown because no one is using or maintaining it, until one day when there is a terrible storm and everyone tries to use their cell phones at once, jamming the circuits. A little girl successfully uses the phone booth and everyone quickly lines up to use the dependable old neighborhood staple.
As I was about to read this to my girls tonight I realized that they have never seen a phone booth like the one on the cover, so I had to explain to them that before cell phones, this is really what phone booths looked like and how people made calls if they were not at home. P and L were somewhat mesmerized by the idea of a telephone in a booth with doors that could close for privacy just sitting on a street. We may have to make an outing up to 100th and West End Avenue sometime soon because, according to the book, the phone booth is still there, having been protected from the dump by the neighbors and the mayor.
Isn't it great when a story connects to your life/city? Living in New York, we are lucky to have plenty of books to read and then go explore in person (such as Eloise, The Curious Garden, and now The Lonely Phone Booth).
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