This past Friday I finished my second year of college. Last night I got home and all I could think about was "What do I do now?" I have no deadlines and I don't need to go to work. Do it watch a movie I had seen a hundred times? I sat down in my room and just thought.

My foot nudged something in my blanket and I pulled out an old book that was given to my by a friend, and a fellow book enthusiast. I looked at the front it had that old type print on it and the black and white inking picture of a forest. This book was The Animal Family written by Randall Jarrell.

I shrugged my shoulders and opened the book to the first page. The first sentence had me hooked and staying in one place till the early hours of the next morning. These words were, "Once upon a time long, long ago, where the forest runs down to the ocean, a hunter lived all alone in a house made logs he had chopped for himself and shingles he had split for himself,".

I don't know what it was about the beginning of this story, but it was different than any book I have ever read before. I think it might be the emphasis on how alone and the hunter was. I was very relieved to find that he was not alone for long. One night he discovered the love of his life. A mermaid. This story is not comparable to the Little Mermaid in the slightest. There is nothing that is life shattering, or overly adventurous in this story at all.

The mermaid comes to live with the hunter. They find that they want something to love, and the hunter brings them a baby bear. Being lonely during the winter while the bear hibernates the hunter then brings home a lynx. They lived this way for several years this animal family.

Very close to the end of the book there is a final addition that is added to the small and strange family. The lynx finds an orphaned little boy and brings him home to stay with the family. The little boy unlike the animals grows up very slowly and cant remember life before the hunter, the mermaid, the bear, and the lynx. The boy knows he came from somewhere else, but the mermaid simply tells him, "We have had you always."

This book is so very different from the normal knight in shinning armor, creatures of the forest, end of the world books I am used to.This entire book, all 180 pages of it refreshed my mind for the summer.

You may be wondering, why in the world after doing all of that studying, and reading for school did I read another page?

They are different. I read to relax my mind, and yes escape from the world for a few hours. It's not that my world is generally bad, no. I want to go on an adventure. It takes a special part of the brain to transform words into fantastic places of your, and beasts.

When one reads for pleasure they are fully endorsed in the book. I can't tell you how many times I get distracted reading one page of a textbook. While I read a page of a book for pleasure it will be an amazing feat if you get my attention at all.

I live my life by the code that reading for pleasure is a way to refresh ones mind. Try something new. If you're not a reader start small. If you are an avid reader get back to that place. I don't read for pleasure during the semester because I worry while I am reading about school and assignments. As soon as the semester ends I have a book in hand and several after.

Throughout this summer you can expect several book reviews from me.

For The Animal Family, I give it five stars.

If you would like to suggest book for me leave a comment and I will respond .