Jeremiah could do almost everything: build a split-rail fence; cook buttermilk pancakes; make a table out of a tree; make
sweet syrup from tree sap; grow tomatoes, cucumbers and juicy corn; chirp like a chickadee and honk like a goose, make applesauce and whistle through teeth... However he didn't know how to read.
Jeremiah wanted to learn to read even he was old as a grandfather. His brother and wife both encouraged him to do it if he like, although they thought he was wonderful enough the way he was.
Jeremiah went to
school with the
children and started to learn from the letters and the sounds they made. He also taught the teacher and the children what he knew at recess.
Jeremiah studied very carefully. Soon he can read books and write stories.
After he read some beautiful poems to his wife, they decided to go to school together the next day for she wanted to learn to read too.
This book won the Ruth Schwartz Award of Ontario Art Council and Canadian Book Sellers Association.