Monday, March 19, 2012

The Search for Delicious


One of my favorite books is Natalie Babbitt’s The Search For Delicious.  This small story was not an award-winning novel, unlike some of her other books.  Nevertheless, it has all of the elements of a great story for me and I’ve used it as a read aloud book in many of my classes.  The genre is Fantasy – one of my favorites.  It has mermaids, and adventure, horses,  queens and kings, Prime Ministers, a quest, an evil brother, a whistle, and fantastical creatures.  It is captivating from beginning to end.  I will try not to give away too much if you have yet to read it, but essentially the plot centers 12-year old Galen who is sent out into the Kingdom to collect each subject’s personal definition for “Delicious”.  The choice with the most votes would be put into a dictionary the King had ordered to be written.  There is great fighting and mayhem over how each person defined “Delicious”, exacerbated by evil plots against the King. 
I love the plot and the wonderful concept of having to come up with one definition for a word that lends itself to many.  I often have my students create a “Delicious” dictionary after reading the book and we always enjoy reading each other’s personal choices for “delicious”.
Thinking on this idea led me to this post – what would my definition be?  Try as I might I could not come up with just one – there are SO MANY delicious things – and since I am working hard at no longer limiting myself in any way (except perhaps in my caloric intake), I decided to make a list of some of my choices for “delicious” ~

Delicious is…..

•a hot summer day, lounging on the beach next to an ocean
•a warm kiss from a soft dog
•good friends gathered for dinner and conversation
•good health
•a brand new book just waiting to be read
•a brand new journal just waiting to be filled up
•new car smell
•new baby smell
•holding hands
•a tall glass of iced tea with lots of lemon on a warm day
•a clean house
•a fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookie
•Freedom
•a loyal friend
•Motherhood
•cello music
•falling in love
•old gospel hymns sung in church
•a bunch of tulips

Of course, this is just a start to my delicious list…..  I may continue on another post. 
Anyone want to take a shot at this – I’d love to hear what your definition(s) would be!

Quote for the day:  Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they
                                hurry past it.              ~Soren Kierkegaard

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a wonderful book my grandchildren would enjoy--a good read before we begin to write/draw together when we're together. I am going to use your idea for a post. I shared my "Invitation" poem today--I was proud. Some days we have to think more positive thoughts than others, and this would be a good idea for one of those days. Thanks again. Hope the first day back was somewhat delicious.

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  2. Oh my gosh, I was just driving home thinking about my day and the connections kids make and I thought what are some things I connect to which is really things I find delicious....I was thinking it would make a great slice tomorrow! I love and can connect to some of your something delicious things. Thanks for helping with my slice tomorrow!,,

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