The Blue Table: A Picture Book Celebrating Family, Togetherness, and Gratitude for Kids

**Lisa Bueno** (0:00)
Okay, our friends. So today, we are reading a story for you. If you are interested in blue things. Anybody interested in anything blue? Sky? The ocean? Tape?
Maybe.
Today's story is called The Blue Table. This story was written by Chris Roshka, and it's read today by Mommy and...

**Philip** (0:33)
Philip.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:34)
And...

**Philip** (0:35)
Minnie.
And... Aunt Sally.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:39)
That's right. We have special guests. Our friends, our family, the people we love, Ms. Minnie and her mommy, my sister, Aunt Sally. All right. Are you guys ready? Let's do it.
When we open the book, we see a blue table, and it is a very nice blue table, but it is also very empty. Now next to it, we can see the same blue table, but now it has a flower, a yellow flower with a lovely orange center. How nice. And it says, a child. And we see something else added to the table. It is a glass of milk.
And then it says, a parent. And what do we see added to it now?

**Philip** (1:32)
Coffee?

**Lisa Bueno** (1:33)
A cup of coffee, because one must have a cup of coffee when one is a parent.
Yeah, there's more. What is this?

**Philip** (1:43)
A paper and crayon.

**Lisa Bueno** (1:46)
Uh-huh, a paper and crayon. And another parent shows up with another cup of coffee, and they brought to the table some more things. They brought cinnamon rolls, and a book, and then a newspaper. And they also brought another crayon for the child, right? Yeah. And I think the more parents show up, you have to have cream and sugar to go with your coffee, right? And then some little plates to put your cinnamon rolls on. What's happening here is that, as the parents have come to the table, more and more things are coming to the table, right? Because now we have a lot of crayons. We started with just one, and now there's five. And instead of just being one cup of coffee, we have two cups of coffee, and creamer and sugar to put into the coffee, and cinnamon rolls and plates to put them on, and a knife to cut them with, and a spoon to stir your coffee with.
Get going, it says. All the stuff on the table, all the stuff that they had piled up there to eat, even the book open and everything, is all gone.
Yeah. It's all gone. And it says, good things from the garden. And we can see they have gone out to the garden and picked, what is this?
A carrot. And here, can you tell what this is?

**Philip** (3:15)
Potatoes and onions. Potatoes.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:17)
Yeah. And I think they're peeling the potatoes.

**Philip** (3:21)
The store.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:22)
So they went to the store and got butter and celery, and some, maybe lemons, do you think?
And the farm. Now, on the table, we can see corn and a turkey, and it looks like they're buttering the corn.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:42)
Yeah.

**Philip** (3:44)
Apples. Yummy.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:48)
I'm eating a fruit right now.

**Philip** (3:50)
Some watermelon.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:51)
Yes, you are. In a pie. Oh, they're making... See, they're using the same table now to cut the apples and squeeze lemon on them and add sugar to them and mix it all up to put them in a pie crust. Do you see now how that same table is being used for so many different things?
Okay? And now look at what they have done. They have taken that blue table and they've gone to maybe a farmer's market and gotten flowers, fresh, beautiful flowers, and they're cutting them and they're going to put them in a vase, or a vase, if you will. Okay? And did you know that some tables can be pulled apart and have more table added to them? They call it a leaf.
And that's exactly what's going on here. They have pulled the table apart and they're putting a leaf in it. Why do you think they're stretching out the table?

**Philip** (4:48)
I have no idea.

**Lisa Bueno** (4:49)
They're making it a bigger table. Why would you want your table to be bigger?

**Philip** (4:53)
Dinner.

**Lisa Bueno** (4:54)
Yeah. Maybe you're having a big dinner party. Let's see what happens. Yep. And one more family, it says. And sure enough, we see more people at the table than we have ever seen before. Look at all those hands.
And it says, they come together. And now we can see those beautiful flowers are going on this table with plates, and forks, and knives, and spoons, and goblets, and water cups, and napkins, and all kinds of things. And they're holding hands to say a blessing over their table. They've even added, what are these?