First Grade Friends 2

Dear First Graders,

I hope you are all having a great fall! Scotland gets very rainy and windy in the winter, but we don't have any snow yet!  What weather do you have in Lowell?
Last week my friend Audrey came to visit from Ireland.  Ireland is an island very close to Scotland.  We decided to go exploring, and we went to two special places related to some of my favorite fantasy books.  Fantasy is a type of story with magic, like the Gingerbread Man.  The first place we went was the Edinburgh Writers' Museum, which is in an old mansion.

The Writers' Museum has exhibits on three authors who were from Edinburgh, the city I live in.  Their names were Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson.  Have you heard of them?  Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book that I really like, called Treasure Island.  Have you read the book or seen a movie of it?  When I was little, it scared me!
Treasure Island is about a boy named Jim Hawkins, who works at a tavern owned by his mom.  A tavern is a type of hotel and restaurant.  When he is working there he meets a man named Billy Bones, who used to be a pirate.  Billy Bones gets very sick, and Jim takes care of him.  One day while he is helping Billy, Jim finds a treasure map in Billy's room.  Jim ends up on an adventure on the Hispaniola, a pirate ship, to find the treasure!  Have you ever followed a map to get somewhere?

Robert Louis Stevenson grew up here in Edinburgh, and went to Edinburgh University-the same school I go to! Just like in Treasure Island, Robert Stevenson had his very own adventure in the 1880s, when he sailed to Hawaii.  Have you heard of Hawaii? Hawaii is made up of islands in the Pacific Ocean.  When Robert Stevenson went there, it was a country by itself, but now it is part of America, just like Massachusetts!

While he was in Hawaii, Robert Stevenson made friends with King Kalakaua, the King of Hawaii. (The two of them are sitting together in the picture.)  Robert Stevenson also made friends with Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani.  Princess Ka 'iulani's uncle was the King of Hawaii, and his sister was her mother.  Princess Ka 'iulani's father was from Edinburgh too!  Are you parents from different places? Where are they from?

There were lots of other authors who lived in Edinburgh, and they wrote all sorts of stories.  What types of books do you like to read, or have read to you?


I hope you are having a good week!  You can ask me any questions you want about Scotland, Edinburgh, or travelling.  I'll write back answers for you to read.