Lammie

Summary of Lammie
Lammie's family and friends describe her as full of adventure, kind, and creative….a lamb girl with a ready smile!

The story takes place in East Quogue, NY. Spring has finally arrived. Residents in the area rejoice as tiny blossoms appear almost everywhere, even in town!

Every short chapter of this book reveals Lammie's outgoing personality. In chapter one, Lammie is asked to dress herself and her brother in their best clothes, but Mom gives no reason, and Lammie is puzzled. She is happily surprised when the mystery is solved several hours later.

Although Lammie is playful and fun loving, she's quite serious about caring for brother Erwin, as Mom does laundry for the lamb community. The by words of the community is Respect, Patience, and Understanding. She is learning the rules since young lambs are asked to memorize by heart. Most days are busy and happy, yet challenges do often arise. Mistakes are made! Luckily, Mom and Granny stop their chores every so often, and check up on the young lambs when they least expect it.

In some chapters Lammie uses her imagination to have more fun and ward off boredom and bad feelings. She likes to show Erwin some of her special places on the farm, and prepare him to learn to read. One day she helped him make a chart of the black ants he likes to observe. He colored them all by himself.

The last chapter describes a heat wave, when residents flock to the ocean, then later, must leave quickly and return home due to an unexpected storm. Luck was with the little family that day!

Author/Illustrator
Louise Reeves taught at Sachem Schools in Suffolk County N.Y. for 33 years. After she retired, she became the preschool teacher at the United Methodist Church Nursery School in her town of East Quogue for 4 more years. She liked putting aside time at the end of the school day to have students memorize children's poems. A favorite was "Walking by Woods on a Snowy Evening," by Robert Frost. She created plays or modified some stories from children's literature or movies like "Grease," for children to perform for classmates and sometimes parents and grandparents. Her philosophy as teacher was to create a lively, happy, and comfortable atmosphere by making lessons interesting, making memorization and learning new facts fun, through chanting or singing. Times tables chanted aloud to a beat actually improved their math skills. Regularly playing social studies games was a big hit before a big test. Every child should feel they are progressing, and therefore, that way they become winners! School is one of the ways we prepare for life. Learning can be fun and challenging throughout our lives!

Art and Illustration
Louise Reeves dabbled in art throughout the years sketching, painting, creating costumes, and choreographing dance routines for school plays, her high school reunions, and friend requests. Today she is a WHB Plein Air (outdoors painting) artist. In good weather, they meet in Westhampton and areas to the west and east. They set up and paint watercolor landscapes of the east end of Long Island.

Louise illustrated a children's book in 2011 entitled "Magic" written by Armineh Ohanian, which was about a sweet black and white cat, who unfortunately, got lost during the family's move to another home.

Many thanks to my husband Ken, and high school classmate, Doreen Davidson, for always being there for me, when I needed advice, or encouragement, or a little diplomatic criticism!