Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin

I just finished reading Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin to the kids. They really enjoyed it. Gabriel said he never wanted the book to end. I was completely taken with it myself and it has risen to one of my favorite books!!! The story of how Benjamin came from humble beginnings to the royal court of England is FASCINATING and the lessons in the book never end . . . resourcefulness, kindness, faith in God, hard work, respect, etc. At the end of the book it jumps ahead to lets you know what happened in his adult life. The story of how he got his sweet heart over to Europe to marry is just a great story and TRUE. All I can say is it doesn't surprise me how Benjamin Franklin helped!! It is also neat that I saw Benjamin West's paintings hanging in Buckingham Palace when we lived over in England. The kids were able to see some of his paintings on the internet and learn how his paintings changed the course of how historical paintings would be painted. Back in that time they painted war scenes with the people wearing togas instead of their military uniforms and B.W. changed that and started painting as they looked. He also felt it important to paint historically accurate instead of imbellishing. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Now we are readying Brighty of the Grand Canyon another true story by the same author Marguerite Henry.