Posted by Ed Kiser on July 05, 2006 at 14:01:30 from 205.188.117.66 user Kisered.
It has been a long time regret that I was unable to interest any of my four daughters in even trying to read any of these Ransome stories. But now comes the next generation. As a result of my recent move (1030 miles) from Florida to Kentucky where now I am living NEXT DOOR to my youngest daughter and her family (girl 10 - boy 12), and after finally finding enough computer pieces and cables in totally unrelated packing boxes (many of which are still piled in what might eventually be the living room) the computer finally came to life, and I am back on the Internet. So that is one count of success.
The other biggie is that the 10 year old granddaughter seemed fascinated with my showing her my TXT files that I had TYPED in by hand, each with a chapter of a Ransome book on my machine. With that novelty of presentation mode driving her interest, she began to READ on my machine. Oh, joy...
The interesting thing is that she knows that these are places and people in England, so when she reads, she not only does it aloud (says easier to remember details that way) but also using a voice that seems to be an imitation of the Harry Potter character, Hermione, which gives her sound a bit of the Mother Country flavor.
Now if only I can find those Wolfe tapes, so she can hear an authentic English accent as he reads these stories, she can have another model to base her accent imitation on, but they are in some as yet undiscovered packing box. Sigh... Twas ever thus...
With this delightful turn of events, this calls for a "three cheers" or perhaps even more. Now to keep her going - she does seem quite eager.
Ed Kiser, KENTUCKY (formerly South Florida)