Last weekend we were in Kentucky visiting family for the long weekend, and we packed our current Ramona read for the trip. I figured we’d get through a couple more chapters of the book, but I forgot that Nana’s house has Christina Katarina and the Box. We read it each night, and sometimes more than once in a day.
The adventures begin when the family’s new refrigerator arrives in big delivery truck one day.
“Oh, how grand and new,” Christina’s mother said, looking at the refrigerator.
“It is! Oh, it really is!” said Christina, looking at the box.
Christina loves boxes more than anything, and she promptly goes to work transforming this new box into a clubhouse – right under the apple tree in the front yard. Christina’s mother loves tidiness and order more than anything, and she’s less than pleased that the cardboard box is now residing in such a prominent location on the lawn.
Each time the box starts to collapse, Christina’s mother pulls it towards the trash. Christina pulls the box right back, transforming the dilapidated ruin into yet another cardboard creation.
This book, by Patricia Lee Gauch, is so, so good. It’s an oldie, but if you can get your hands on one of the original copies, it would be a perfect addition to your library.Doris Burn is the illustrator, and the drawings are primarily ink, with some charcoal rubbings for some of the fabric textures. They are really suburb, and are one of my favorite parts of reading this story. Just be forewarned – no cardboard box that enters your house will be safe from now on.
Find these titles at your favorite local independent bookstore. (And remember – they are a great resource for tracking down older titles!) Happy reading!
This was one of my favorite books. I need to search through my mother’s house to find it. Thanks for the memory.
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