[blparent] Awesome book to read with your kids!

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

I just bought this book for Sarah’s birthday.  It’s available in print with the CD, or print and braille.  Anyone who is blind, or has a blind person in her family, or even a blind child himself or herself, might really enjoy this.  Check out the Web site:

www.IcantseebutIcantimagine.com


Patty asks her grandmother, "What is it like not to be able to see?" Grammie
says, "I Can't see, B...I Can Imagine!" Patty's grandmother is blind but
together they share adventures as Grammie imagines things around her and
composes songs for her five grandchildren. They laugh when they hear frog
conversations in The Frog Song; hold their breath as they ride in a rocking
chair-chariot with delightful ponies going to Rock-A-Bye Town; giggle when
they meet Pepper in Patty's Puppy Pepper; stare in wonder at things below
when Grammie's rocking chair turns into a swing and she is Swinging From a
Star; and grin when they meet Mary Lou with her hair standing on end.

Wrapped inside a beautifully illustrated and colorful children's book with
an accompanying CD, one family's priceless history has been forever
preserved.

This 61 page hardbound children's book I Can't See, B...I Can Imagine is
written by Patricia Bennett Wilson and illustrated by Sharon Bean. The book
contains a CD with the story and children's music by Patricia's grandmother,
Persis Beach Bennett

- first recorded on 78rpm records in 1949 updated and reproduced in 1990's.



Call 541-548-4138 tilde Emailicanimagine at bendcable.com



Persis Beach Bennett lived in the house on Richardson Street her father
built in Lancaster , N.H. Her four children were born in that house. In
1915, about the time her last child was born, she began to have trouble with
her eyesight. By 1925, she was almost completely blind. Her blindness,
however, never stopped her from enjoying life. She loved music and spent
much of her time playing the piano and composing songs. Persis's life is
reflected in her music: she was Christian, so she wrote Christian

songs: she loved nature, so she wrote nature songs; she loved love, so she
wrote love songs; she loved her grandchildren, so she wrote songs for them.
Patty, Carl and Janie mentioned in the children's songs are three of her
five grandchildren. Majestic Trees was written after the huge New England
hurricane on September 21, 1938 , that destroyed hundreds of ancient trees
in Lancaster . The entire town cried, and she cried - so she wrote a song.

Persis wanted to save the music for her family, but because she was blind,
writing it down was impossible. Instead, in 1949, she recorded it on 78 rpm
records. Her family loved the music and played the records so often they
were ruined. By the time the next generation entered the picture, the
records were so badly deteriorated they were impossible to understand. Her
granddaughter retrieved the records from a basement and re-recorded them
all. So, here they are - Songs From Grandmother's House.

Patricia Bennett Wilson

Persis' granddaughter, Patricia, was born and raised in New England, and
now lives in Redmond , Oregon . As a child, she was captivated by the songs
her grandmother wrote. When Persis passed away in April 1954, Patricia
began worrying, "What will become of Grammie's music?" In 1994, she
retrieved the records from a basement in New Hampshire . They were terribly
scratched and nearly impossible to understand. With God's help and the
assistance of many talented people in central Oregon , all the music was
reproduced.

In addition to producing this CD, Patricia wrote the children's book I
Can't See, BddI Can Imagine. It contains its own CD that includes the story
and her grandmother's five children's songs. 

She says, "Children love the book and its CD, but people of any age will
love all the Songs From Grandmother's House .was

Beulah Bennett Sayles

Beulah Bennett Sayles, daughter of Persis, was a self-taught, but
accomplished, pianist. Not only was she the pianist on the original
recordings, but she spent many years after her mother's death writing the
music down - miraculously discovered in 1995. 

When the recordings deteriorated over time, it was the written music that
saved the day.

Jo Elizabeth

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.