Did you carry the flag today, Charley?

“Miss Amburgey”, asked Charley, “how can snakes run so fast when they don’t have legs?”

“They’re made that way,” said Miss Amburgey.

“A rope’s made that way too,” said Charley, “but it can’t run.”

Charley, aged “four agoin’ on five”, is the youngest member of a large family living in the Appalachion Mountains. He is invited to attend a summer kindergarten called Little School. The highest honor of the school is being chosen to carry the flag at the end of the day, an award given to the most helpful child. Charley thinks he’ll carry the flag on his very first day. His family is not so sure. They know that Charley is intensely curious and rather mischievous—he just has to know what happens if you try to stop the tap water with your hand, and what a rock feels when it rains. He can’t imagine why anybody would want so many books standing everywhere on shelves. Will Charley ever carry the flag?

I found a new favorite children’s book. :) I discovered Did you carry the flag today, Charley? by Rebecca Caudill at a book sale this past Friday. After a quick skim through, it joined the rest of the books in my box. The illustrations by Nancy Grossman are simply delightful—the book is almost worth having for the drawings alone. I had to smile at this true and funny picture of life through the eyes of a little boy.