Back from the Lake District: Swallows & Amazons Forever!

At the end of my last post before going over to England's Lake District, I posted a Poetry Friday challenge--why does the poem Casabianca make me think of the Lake District? The Answer: because it is featured in Swallowdale, by Arthur Ransom.

Swallowdale is the second of books Ransom wrote about the wonderful holidays of a group of English children in the Lake District; the first is Swallows and Amazons. They had the freedom of a lake and its surrounding mountains where they were able to live imagined adventures (as it were), sailing and climbing and prospecting for gold and, in my favorite book, Winter Holiday, exploring the frozen north. This is the best series of books about children doing things outdoors that was ever written; it is imaginative and fun without being fantastic. One can imagine, that given a similar lake and mountains, one could do the same things. Here's the link to the original 1930 review of Swallows and Amazons (which is also interesting in a How They Wrote Reviews Back Then way) and here is the original cover:
If you haven't read these books, do! But please put Peter Duck and Missee Lee last on the list--these are the worst in the series.

Poetry Friday -- Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes

I am off to the Lake District in England later today (see exciting poetry related contest at end of post!) Seeing as this is Beatrix Potter country, I decided to look at Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes (1922, Number 23 in our set of the complete works of BP, which I have never reached in my attempts to read her complete ouvre. I always get stuck at Little Pig Robinson).*

CP's Nursery Rhymes is a collection of 8 "mother goose-esque" poems. As is the case with the earlier Apply Dapply's Nursery Rhymes, the poems and pictures were collected/painted over many years, and seemingly arbitrarily selected for this book. Some of the poems are common (This little pig), some very obscure (the eponymous Cecily Parley, who "lived in a pen, and brewed good ale for gentlemen"). BP spread the poems out over several pages, so there are many more pictures than poems--we get four pictures of the pigs, for instance, and since BP's pictures are charming and pleasantly detailed, this is just fine. However, they are very small pictures, which need to be looked at closely, so I wouldn't choose this book for a soothing read aloud. Instead, I might choose it for an exploration of how magnifying glasses work.

All this being said, here was a poem that was new to me and very sweetly illustrated with, I think, guinea pigs:

We have a little garden,
A garden of our own,
And every day we water there
The seeds that we have sown.

We love our little garden,
And tend it with such care,
You will not find a faded leaf
Or blighted blossom there.

Typing this in, I realized how uninspired this poem is without the guinea pigs...sadly it was not possible to get a picture of them before I went to England.

EXCITING CONTEST!

Be the first to answer this question correctly and win a random ya paperback to be imported from England in the coming week!*

Why does the famous poem Casabianca (The boy stood on the burning deck...) make me, and many others, think of the Lake District?

I will be back week after next, and will announce the winner, if any, then...

*sorry, because of funding constraints this contest is open only to US residents...

Non Fiction Video Thursday--Eyewitness

Today I'm falling back on a tried and true series of non fiction videos -- DK's Eyewitness series.

These are very, very good. They are short and snappy, they present facts coupled with brilliant images, and there are lots of them so it is pretty easy to find one about a subject that interests your child. They combine real images with computer graphic to excellent effect. We started with Ocean, and it remains one of our favorites; Planets is another good one that both boys like. It's my impression that the less obvious the subject (titles like Sight, Survival, Human Machine as opposed to Cat, Bear, Amphibian) the less engaging the episode--they are more like pastiche than purposeful progress. I don't include Flight in this category, however--it's a good one. The introduction (soaring through the Eyewitness Museum) is worth watching for its own sake. Often there is a Making--an informative behind the scenes look at how they did it which I think is a wonderful thing for children to see--because then they have a basis of understanding videos as things that are created and manipulated rather than straight reality (at least that's what I hope they are getting out of it).

These are available as videos and dvds. Here's a link to the DK site where they are listed; if you click on the "more" part of each problem, it will indeed tell you more about that episode.

Potential problem--Inappropriate regurgitation of knowledge:

Like many other parents of non-fiction video watching children, I can quote "The distinct style of the Eyewitness books forms the basis..." "clarity and super-realism" "bringing the world into sharper focus." The quotes my older son remembers are mostly facts. For instance, a few years ago he said, "Mama, let me tell you about the mating habits of the vampire salamander." It is an ugly, ugly story, but one he wanted to tell. To everyone he met. I guess his day care teacher already knew him well enough to take it in stride, but still.

DK is currently having a couple of contests; here's one where you can win some sticker books and an encyclopedia; here's another, via Fuse #8, for a set of 100 books...



If you have a favorite Eyewitness video, let me know!

National Independent Booksellers Month

This month, I just learned, is National Independent Booksellers Month. Shrinking Violets, a lovely blog which in general celebrates introverts* but which at the moment is celebrating NIBM, asks readers for Reasons to Shop at Independent Bookstores (and there is a prize for the best!). Here are my reasons, which I also left in a comment at Shrinking Violets:

1. They have used books for sale as well, intershelved with the new (I like bargains).

2. When my children and I go to the independent book store, we are going for Books, not for a have a snack in the cafe-play with Thomas the wretched tank engine toys-run around on toy stage extravaganza. It is good to find occasion to make Books the whole point of an expedition.

3. The children's section, perhaps because of (2), is much much tidier and more appealing (although I blame the parents for this, not the chain book stores...)

4. When you ask for A Seed is Sleepy they don't look at you like you are crazy.

5. Because independent book stores are smaller, one is less likely to loose one's children. One can also keep an eye on the children while looking at other sections.

Here are some more I have just thought of:

6. I like to shop at my local IBs for the same reason I like driving a Prius--a soothing sense that I am doing the Right Thing.

7. Someday when I grow up and stop being an archaeologist (and boy it was a vexing afternoon here in Archaeologyland what with bones eroding out of river banks and all) I am going to open a new and used children's bookstore of my own (my son wants me to call it The Friendly Dragon). So careful and critical shopping at IBs -es is an important educational experience, and there should be some way I can take it off my taxes given that it's job related.

* Kelly at Big A little a had a personality quiz up a few days ago. Isn't it interesting how many kidlit bloggers are introverts? I have a bone to pick with the quiz, however--my Meyer-Briggs book told me that my type, INFP, is much much rarer than the 6% this quiz tried to sell me. Another thing my book told me was that, for INFPs, "metaphors come easily, but may be forced." I have been thinking about this at odd moments for the past 25 years.

Still learning to read...

My 6 year old continues to doggedly read his book a day/15 minutes...Last week actually went fairly well, and in a spirit of solidarity with the other parents in the same circs., here's what he read:

Newt by Matt Novak I don't particularly care for amphibians in clothes myself, but whatever. He read it, all three chapters (good for 2 days worth). There were "lessons" for those who like books to teach on multiple levels; the one I liked best was "don't dig up flowers growing wild and take them home." There were good vocabulary words (and how frustrating it is when your child rattles off polysyllabic words and then stumbles over "it").

Small Pig by Arnold Lobel. It only recently occurred to me that, although there were no other Frog and Toad books to find, Lobel presumable wrote other things that might be good. Small Pig is no Frog and Toad, but it is a brisk little story. When a small pig's mud puddle is cleaned up by the zealous Farmer's Wife, off he goes in a huff in search of mud. The illustrations are somewhat muted, which I think is a perfectly reasonable thing for an early reader. When the illustrations are too engaging, the Reading Advisor has to repeatedly draw the child's attention back to the words. I just learned from Sherry at semicolon that today is Lobel's birthday...

The Sun Shone on the Elephant by Gywneth Mamlok (1967) This is a book I loved as a child (how lucky I am that my parents didn't throw out our children's books, although they were no so kind to the paperback books of our middle childhood). This one was a bit of a challenge, but we made it through. It is the story of an elephant who thinks he is ugly. He sees the parrot, and imagines himself with feathers, sees the monkey and dreams of doing tricks, sees the tiger, and wishes for stripes. At last he meets a cat, who happens to know the unhappiest princess in the world--unhappy because she is so tiny. The elephant becomes the princess's Royal Elephant, and bedecked with gems he now thinks he is beautiful. This is, admittedly, an awful message that would probably never sell today. But the pictures are lovely. The elephant does look magnificent...and after the book is finished, one can start yammering on about Asian vs African elephants, what country the book might be set in, etc etc.

Our fifth evening was a Scooby Doo early reader of no literary or artist merit.

New book coming from Diana Wynne Jones

I was just visiting the website of Diana Wynne Jones, and was very pleased to see that she is working on a new book in which the magician Howl will be making an appearance...It is always nice to know that favorite authors are busily working away, preparing future gratification.

Rules of The Road

I had the pleasure this weekend of reading Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer (but if I'd known what a fun fast read it was going to be I would have saved it for the upcoming 48 hour reading challenge at MotherReader).

The basic plot is this--Jenna, a 16 girl working in a shoe store, is whisked away by the elderly woman, Mrs. Gladstone, who owns the shoe company and put behind the wheel of a Cadillac, heading south from Chicago the share holders' meeting in Dallas. On the way, they will be checking the various branches of the companies shoe stores, with Jenna playing the role of industry spy. Jenna is glad to be escaping from her alcoholic father, but nervous about her skills as a driver (as is the reader) -- "It is customary," says her employer, "to open the garage door before backing out" (or words to that effect--the book's at home, sorry). Mrs. Gladstone is worried because her son wants to oust her and start selling cheap shoes. Once on the road, Jenna and Mrs. Gladstone become friends, Jenna gains maturity and a new hair style, meets inspirational people, and saves the day at the shareholder's meeting. Mrs. Gladstone gets to stay on as Director of Quality. And finally, Jenna confronts her alcoholic father.

Plot-wise, it felt a bit as though "big issues" were stuck in to add depth; I wasn't much moved. It reminded me of a Meg Cabot novel--teenage girl in unrealistic situation rising to the occasion.

But what I really really liked was Jenna in her role of shoe salesman--knowledgeable, helpful, and brave. I loved all the shoe detail (and I am not a "shoe person"). I was sad that toward the end we didn't get to spend more time with Jenna inside shoe stores. And I am now a smidge worried about what my own low-end shoes are doing to my feet.

For Poetry Friday--Waiting at the Window

The rainy weather today made me think of a favorite poem from Now We are Six, by AA Milne.

Waiting at the Window

there are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the wndow-pane.

I am waiting here to see
Which the winning one wll be.

Both of them have different names.
One is John and one is James.

All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first.

James has just begun to ooze.
He's the one I want to loose.

John is waiting to begin.
He's the one I want to win.

James is going slowly on.
Something sort of sticks to John.

John is moving off at last.
James is going pretty fast.

John is rushing down the pane.
James is going slow again.

James has met a sort of smear.
John is getting very near.

Is he going fast enough?
(James has found a piece of fluff.)

John has hurried quickly by.
(James is talking to a fly.)

John is there, and John has won!
Look! I told you! Here's the sun!

Milne's poetry got short shrift in my mind when I was a child; I prefered to read Pooh. But even then there were poems that I enjoyed tremendously . The charming cat poem Pinkle Purr, for instance, and the powerful (I mean it) King John's Christmas. My favorite poem, however, is from When we Were Very Young. It's called Disobedience---it's the one about James James Morrision Morrison Weatherby George Dupree. If you haven't read it, do! It's too long to type here. And don't skip the introductions. Milne is a great essayist, who would doubtless have a wonderful blog if he were alive today.

The poetry round up is at Big A little A today.

Audio Picture Books-- help wanted

The children's librarian at my library has asked us Friends to buy some audio picture books--apparently, patrons have been asking for them, comparing us unfavourably with our neighbouring libraries. I myself wonder what the point of a picture book is without the pictures (think how much cheaper they would be to publish, though...). But anyway. The catalogue she showed us has them for about $29 a cd. This seems like a lot. Does anyone out there have any suggestions for a. particular titles that give a lot of bang for the buck and that fly off the shelves b. a place to get them cheaply.

Thanks!

Goodbye, Lloyd Alexander

I just learned that Lloyd Alexander has died. I remember the first of his books that I ever read--I was ten years old, and my father took me, sans sisters, to Toys-R-Us and bought me a book--The Black Cauldron. It was the only time I can remember that this happened, as my mother (liking book shopping herself) was the one that bought us books. I still have the very, very ratty paperback...

The Black Cauldron is the second in the Chronicle of Prydain, and is not my favorite of the five books in the series. But there are some books that you read as if hypnotized, emerging only with glazed eyes for more tasty snacks. I'd read and loved the Lord of the Rings, so this wasn't my first foray into the world of fantasy quests, but The Black Cauldron, perhaps because it was less "epic," engaged me on a much more personal level. Here's the review of it from the 1965 Horn Book.

Taran Wanderer is my favorite book of the series. It is one of the best books about growing up that I know of.

One of the most memorable scenes in the final book, The High King, comes on a snowy mountain pass, when all hope is fading. To keep the fire going, the bard, Fflewddur Fflam, smashes his harp. All night it burns, and as it burns, it sings. (shoot. I can't do it justice but it brings tears to my eyes every time) .

Thank you for these books, Mr. Alexander. It was good to grow up with Taran and Eilonwy, and I will read you to my own children.

Here is a full bibliography of his work, including mention of a new book coming out in August.

Non-Fiction Video Thursday: Mars, Dead or Alive

Mars, Dead or Alive (NOVA)

This program first aired just hours after the rover Spirit landed on Mars (January 3, 2004). As a result, its title is somewhat misleading. It is not actually about Mars, but rather is about the development of the Mars rovers that are currently exploring it. It documents the months that preceded the landing on Mars, as the technicians and scientists struggle here on Earth to create workable rovers. A lot was riding on this mission--50 percent of previous missions to Mars had been disasters. NASA had to get it right this time, to show that it was capable of doing something right. And it worked--in a glorious finale, Spirit arrives safely on Mars.

This documentary is, essentially, a "boys and their toys" thing. It is very male dominated, and very machine focused (with a smidge of exo-geology). This is not to say that it is not good--for those who love robots, and anyone interested in the process of creating machines that will survive the hostile conditions of an alien world, this is a great video. It carries the useful message that if at first you don't succeed, try try again (like a Dragon Tales video, or such like, only more educational). And it is also interesting to see all the hard, hard work and hope and disappointment that is behind every space mission.

The Spirit and Opportunity rovers turned out to be a phenomenal success, so much so that people like myself have become a bit blase about them. I used to follow their progress assiduously; not so today. This documentary was released before we knew how stupendous the information sent back by the rovers would be, so it is more a background to what today's kids might already know. Because this is a very techie video, kids interested in Mars qua Mars might not be engaged, but kids interested in really cool machines should be engrossed.


A second documentary, Welcome to Mars picks up where Dead or Alive leaves off (shown above is Spirit's parachute), but we haven't watched it yet.

Here's the show's webpage, for those who want more information.

What I'm Reading

I've been tagged by Els over at Book Book Book with the "What are you reading meme." And like Els, I find it a nice relaxing one...

Here's what I'm reading out loud: A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. First of a long long series about a small bear from Peru that is adopted by a London family. While looking unsuccessfully for a picture of the 1970s English paperback I'm reading (there's a new American cover and I don't like it), I came across this rather interesting piece by Bond about the books and their publishing history- 75 pounds, he got for it. I also "learned," via wikipedia, that vendors sell Paddington finger puppets by the shores of Lake Titicaca. The children are enjoying the book, but the same doubts that assailed me as a child when I first read it are still with me. Why is this bear so human? Why is there always so much stickiness (marmalade, cream buns, egg on whiskers). Why can't the Brown family see that treating him as human is a recipe for disaster (imagine taking a 2 year old, who's not safely strapped into a stroller, shopping in London. Then imagine it even worse). I really don't like books that feature disaster after disaster; what I enjoy is peaceful escapism.

Which is why I am reading Miss Buncle, by D.E. Stevenson. She is a mid 20th century English writer, often classified as Romance. I think this is a bit unfair (since I have a snobbish knee jerk reaction against Romance). Anyway, she writes entertainingly about the lives of well-off (but not super rich and titled) inhabitants of English and Scottish villages (plus some in isolated farms and in London). Similar to Angela Thirkell's pre-war books, but lighter.

I am saving all the books I really want to read for the 48 hour reading challenge....

This meme's been around for a while, and I'm not sure who to tag...so if you haven't done it yet, please feel tagged!

Dragon Books

My boys are both dragon obsessed, and over the years we've amassed quite a few books featuring the creatures (not counting Guidebook to Mythical Creatues genre). I toyed with the idea of making a list of dragon picture books, but checking on google showed it had already been done here. But here are some dragon books that didn't it make it into that list (I think--there were so many books listed I floundered) :

The Sons of the Dragon King: A Chinese Legend (2004) by Ed Young

The 9 sons of the Dragon King have left home and gone their seperate ways, but word comes to their father that none of them are behaving as his sons should! Disguised, the Dragon King visits each one in turn, and sees in what each son is doing a chance for a meaningful contribution to the kingdom. Each son still caries out his job to this day. For instance, one son spends his time staring off into space--his father realizes he can become a watchman, and his character can be seen decorating the tops of buildings. Another son spent his time challenging peasants to feats of strength; today he can be seen on columns hold up trememdous weights. 9 sons, 9 paternal visits, 9 worthwhile jobs to do; 9 basically seperate stories on the same theme. The ink and cut paper illustrations show each new dragon before his new role, and after.

I was surprised to see that the reviews of this book on Amazon are somewhat less than enthusiastic about the chances that this book will appeal much to kids--not enough neat dragon pictures to carry the book for young kids, not enough "story" for older kids. I dunno. My small boys like it a lot as a read aloud book--I think small children are more prepared than some of us readers-out-loud might realize to accept books that come in bits, like separate beads on a string, where overarching narrative and character development are not important. And the theme of this book should resonate pretty powerfully--it is all about parental approval, and children finding their proper place where their talents are appreciated. I imagine them thinking, as each son finds his role, "good, there's another one all set." Comforting for them. An older child, reading it alone, might not get that same level of emotional reassurance from it.


The Book of Beasts by E. Nesbit and Inga Moore

Young Lionel is very surprised to find himself being made king--his ancestor had spent so much money on books that the crown had been sold, and only now had enough money been raised to by a new one and crown a new king. In the magnificent royal library, Lionel finds, and opens, The Book of Beasts. Out comes a dragon, who begins eating Lionel's unfortunate subjects...With the help of a beautiful hippogryph a few pages further, Lionel tricks the dragon back into the book and slams the cover shut, and all the people who had been eaten are squeezed back out again. Beautiful pictures, fun story. It's an abridgement of a longer story by E. Nesbit. There's another version of this illustrated by Michael Hauge Lionel and the Book of Beasts (2006), but I haven't read that one yet.

And finally, here's an out-of-print English chapter book (I figure new and in print books get plenty of room elsewhere)--Green Smoke, by Rosemary Manning. 8 year old Susan, vacationing at a beach in Cornwall, meets a dragon who lives in a cave. Lots of story telling (mainly King Arthur stories) and bun eating (many different flavours), with a visit to a mermaid thrown in. I liked it lots when I was young, and it worked well as a read aloud to my oldest boy. Don't bother with the sequels, though--not only are they even less available and more expensive, they are not as good. They have more Plot, which is not nearly as fun as the artless episodic charm of Green Smoke.

Teen Wizards and High School

This interesting call for papers was posted at a list I'm on:

"A Dragon Wrecked My Prom: Teen Wizards and High School"

'The Dead rose--we should at least have an assembly.'- Xander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

High School is difficult enough to negotiate without having to save the world, but, as a whole genre of teen fiction has explored, teens seem able to do both. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the novels of Diane Duane, Tanya Huff, and Mercedes Lackey, as well as numerous comics, graphic novels, and cartoons, all present audiences with teens who wield extraordinary powers while battling the everyday demons of adolescence. This collection will explore the unique figure of the teen wizard--a category broad enough to encapsulate Nita Callahan and Kit Rodrigues, the spellcasting teens of Duane's 'Young Wizards' series, as well as Diana, the teen heroine of Tanya Huff's 'Keepers' series, Willow Rosenberg (of Buffy), Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vanyel Ashkevron (the last herald mage of Mercedes Lackey's 'Valdemar' novels) and numerous other mystical teens span a whole array of different media. How do magic and adolescence go together, and how are mystical energies bound up with the pain, turmoil, and abjection of being a teenager? And why is the figure of the teen wizard so manifestly popular?

Please submit a 500-1000 word abstract, along with a CV, to: jbattis_at_gmail_dot_com. Deadline: August 30, 2007. Grad student submissions are welcome, as are creative/critical and multimedia mixtures. Publisher information will be forthcoming, but I anticipate strong interest from a press.
Any questions/queries can be directed to: Jes Battis: mailto:jbattis@gmail.com
Postdoctoral Fellow, City University New York

It seems to me (based on my own experience) fairly obvious that teenagers, especially younger ones, might like to read about kids their own age with magical powers and such because of feeling rather powerless and directionless themselves...quests and such certainly add structure and purpose to one's life.

For Poetry Friday: if Flower Fairies, why not Weed Fairies?

When I was young, a book I savoured was The Flower Fairy Alphabet, by Cicely Mary Barker. How happy I was that I was C for Columbine (shown at left, and about to bloom in my garden). The Alphabet was the only Flower Fairy book we had, but there are many others. The Cicely Mary Barker site isn't working, but there is an introduction to her here. CM Barker sure could draw flower fairies--and I find it rather wonderful how close the costumes are to the actual flowers. In fact, the illustrations are a good guide to common flowers of the (English, although many grow in America as well) garden. The books are widely available these days, doubtless delighting a fresh lot of little girls (I haven't yet introduced my boys to the flower fairies. Gender stereotypes are pretty powerful things).

A poem accompanies each picture. Sadly, CM Barker's poetry is not as good:

The Song of The Columbine Fairy

Who shall the chosen fairy be
For letter C?
There's Candytuft, and Cornflower blue,
Chrysanthemum so bold and fine,
And pretty dancing Columbine.

Yes, Columbine! The choice is she;
And with her, see,
An elfin piper, piping sweet
A little tune for those light feet
That dances, among the leaves and flowers
In someone's garden.(Is it ours?)

The coyness at the end especially makes me wince.

In homage to CM Barker, as I contemplate the state of my lawn, I have written the first poem of my own volume, Weed Fairies of the Spring.

Song of the Crabgrass Fairy

Nah nah, nah nah nah.

The Poetry Friday roundup is at HipWriterMama today.

Non Fiction Video Thurs.-- Henry's Amazing Animals

Today I offer Henry's Amazing Animals, a series available as videos and also shown on tv. This is more maintream than previous reviews, but heck, my children (6 and just turned 4) like them.

Premise: A animated lizard named Henry, who is very silly, is taught by an unseen male voice about the wonders of the natural world. Henry gets things wrong, gets into trouble, makes bad jokes; the narrator presents clips of animals and discusses their behavior.

Here's what's good about this series:

There are lots and lots and lots of titles in this series. So if your child enjoys them, the novelty can last for a long time as you track down the various videos in your state's library system (they also come up on ebay, but tend to be more expensive than the 3 dollars or so I like to spend).

The parts where we are shown real animals are interesting and informative. The language is clear enough so that very young children can follow what's happening.

They are not long--only half an hour or so, so they work well for keeping the children happy while you are trying to cook supper/keeping the children happy while eating your own supper (although of course every meal in our house is Family Togetherness Time ha ha), and the trauma of turning of the tv halfway through a video is avoided.

Here's what's indifferent about the series:

The creators tried really really hard to make Henry the lizard funny. My husband and I find this aspect painful; the children are sometimes amused, sometimes unmoved.

The use of an animated lizard and supplemental "humorous" animated bits possibly serves as a entre into non-fiction for kids used to cartoons; I'd rather have mine watching the real thing.

The show is very segmented--we jump from clips of real animals, to cartoon episodes, to Henry's Golden Gecko Awards for Best xxxx Animal. This possibly holds the young viewers attention, but also dumbs the whole thing down.

Here's what's possibly negative:

The jokes are bad.

The omnipotent narrator, being male, reinforces the non-fiction video stereotype that men are the arbiters of scientific knowledge.

They're being shown on the Discovery Channel at 8:30 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon (ET)...It almost makes me wish that our tv could get channels, instead of simply serving as a portal to videos. But on the other hand, we are not home at 8:30 in the morning anyway. Someone else must agree with me that this series works well for kids 5 and under, since they're the only ones home.

There's a list of Henry titles here.

Searching for early readers--The Happy Hockey Family

My son has to read for 15 minutes every night for school, which means finding 5 or so books a week that he can read. Strangely (sarcasm alert), over the past few years of bringing home armload after armload of children's books, we ended up with very few Early Readers, because mostly they are unappealing paperbacks (with exceptions). But anyway, every fortnight or so I run through the shelves looking for candidates for the coming week, working on the assumption that he is making progress, so books too hard in April might be possible now, and perhaps we'll be trying Tolstoy by August. Not that we actually own any Tolstoy. I feel I can always get it from the library if I need to.

This week I found The Happy Hockey Family, by Lane Smith. I love this book. It is brilliant. I have read it aloud to my children often, coaching them in the appreciation of ironic humor (so important). I checked the copy at our library (bought by me using Friends' money; I think it was one of my first acts as an official Friends of the Library Member), and it does not have an "easy reader" sticker on it. But it is. Short, clear sentences, some repetition, illustrations that support the text. It was perfect. Of course, since I had read it aloud to him before, he was probably reading from memory, but that's not my fault.
Lane Smith has a website here that is well worth visiting, but he's taking a break from it until his next book comes out...

For more suggestions of books for a six year old to read, visit Kelly at Big A little a for a nice list.

For Poetry Friday- The Germ

We had one in our house this week--

The Germ, by Ogden Nash

A mighty creature is the germ,
Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place
Is deep within the human race.
His childish pride he often pleases
By giving people strange diseases.
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?
You probably contain a germ.

I found this poem in a rather nice anthology, Whisper and Shout--Poems to Memorize, edited by Patrice Vecchione. Some of the poems I knew already, others, like this one, were new to me. The poems here are divided into clusters--poems of family and friends, the natural world, wisdom and wonder, etc., which adds structure and provides food for thought. An anthology of poems is a lot like some else making for you a bag of mixed candy--they might put in coconut creams, instead of chocolate caramels. So having been provided with categories, it is fun to play the "what would I include game."

One thing I liked a lot about this book is that it is not illustrated. This book places great importance on the memorization of poems, something I think is wonderful. This week I am of the opinion that children should be free to imagine their own pictures, as an aid to memorization....

Non-Fiction Video Thursday: Building Big

Building Big is a five episode series about building big things--bridges, domes, dams, tunnels, and skyscrapers--narrated by David Macaulay. It first appeared as a PBS show in 2000, and is now available on dvd and vhs. The series focuses on the engineering challenges of each type of structure, but it includes so much history, geography, and general cultural literacy that even those who find engineering problems unappealing will find much to enjoy. In Dams, for instance, we travel to Egypt to learn about the Aswan dam, placed nicely in cultural and geographic context, with a look at the ancient Saad El Kafara as well, we explore the Hoover dam, the Itaipu Dam of Brazil and Paraguay, and are alarmed by the description of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania 19th-century dam disaster. Domes might appeal to a kid who likes baseball, because it looks closely at the Houston Astrodome, among others.

At the end of each program is a do-it-yourself presentation for kids. On screen, I think this is great; in practice less so. We did, however, get a kick out of making popsicle stick dams and pouring buckets of water around.

In short, this series is very well presented, eclectic, and informative without being didactic! However, there are lots of disasters (not as bad as a Thomas the Tank Engine episode, but close), so these might not be appropriate for younger kids who are bothered by these things. My six year old loves them, my three year old could care less.

The six year old has been a huge fan of David Macaulay for most of his young life. When he was four, he wanted me to find D.M.'s address, so we could go sit outside his house, preferably for days at a time. So when I stumbled across the videos of his Building Big series in a library far from our home, I knew I had to get them for our own library. Thanks to generous donations from our patrons, we acquired the boxed set of 5 dvds, and check them out every 6 months or so (I hope other patrons are checking them out too...).

If you want to read more particulars about the show, look here; there are more related activities on the website for reading kids. There is an excellent companion book by David Macaulay, also called Building Big.

The 48 Hour Book Challenge = Nothing to read today

Mother Reader is bringing us a 48 hour book challenge in June-- how many books/pages can one reader read in 48 hours? Along with 50 or so other brave readers, I have signed up.

Now I have nothing to read. I'm sitting in the library, surrounded by books, and there's nothing to take home with me...I'm saving all the books I really want to read till the contest so that I will read faster. I want to have a stack of 25 books I can't wait to read right on hand. So far I am saving Emma Jane Lazarus Fell out of a Tree, The Lightning Thief, the two Clementine books, Fannie Flagg's latest book for that grown up touch, and a couple of others...nothing to read today.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 36 years ago

Like others, I have followed the link to the Horn Book's history archives to check out Elinor Cameron's scorn for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Dahl's rebuttal (Here). To Cameron's mind, Charlie was as horrible as television--disastrous junk food for growing young minds (she also had serious, and totally warranted, objections to the enslavement of the Oompa Loompas-- wandering off track, anyone else deeply troubled by the enslavement of the sentient engines on the Island of Sodor?). I went on to read the letters to the editor, and found one by Ursula Le Guin (here). She didn't care for the book either, certainly not enough to spend her time reading it out loud to her children, but she recognized its escapist appeal for the young. This, in turn, reminded me of an article written by Le Guin in the New Statesman last December (here), in which Le Guin writes about lifelong reading of fantasy, how many grown-ups return to books loved as a child because of "their [the books'] strict standard of emotional honesty."

36 years have gone by since Cameron attacked Charlie. Many of us who read the book in the 1970s have grown up to become life long re-readers of children's books, and many of us have become the ones who read out loud to children. I remember reading Charlie when I was 8 or so, and can vividly recall my almost horrified fascination with it (it was grotesque, overdone, with so many incredible, marvellous details...all those fantastic details). But even at the time, I didn't think it has much of the numinous in it -- that transcendent moment when a book socks you in the heart-- nor does it have much emotional honesty (which I think I'd know if I saw it, but can't quite define). I haven't re-read it in decades, and there are certainly many other books higher on the list of things to read to my boys.

The parallels between Charlie and Harry Potter are obvious, especially the "it encourage reluctant readers to read" bit. I'm not in any hurry to read Harry to my boys either. Some books, I think, are just meant to be escapist indulgences. And if their main merit is encouraging reading, let the kids read it themselves. In the same vein, I will not read Captain Underpants out loud.

However, I'd be perfectly happy to have either Charlie or Harry as audio books on long car trips of the future, when escaping takes on more importance with every mile.

Thurs. Non Fiction: Walking With Prehistoric Beasts

BBC released Walking With Dinosaurs back in 1999, using state of the art computer animation and animatronics to create the most realistic screen dinos ever. The program was deservedly popular, and copies of this video abound in local public libraries (at least, here in Rhode Island). In 2001, they followed it up with Walking With Prehistoric Beasts (the English title left out the Prehistoric), which aired on the Discovery Channel. This one isn't as common in local libraries, but it is much much cooler than the dinosaurs! Everyone and their uncle watches dinosaur programs, every kid has read dinosaur books and knows more dinosaur names than many adults (I still know more than my children. I study at night). So dinosaur sminosaur.

Enter a new cast of characters--the Hyaenodon, the Entelodont, the Megatherium, the Andrewsarchus etc. (there's a character gallery up at Discover). They are fierce, amazing, stunning, and fantastically presented (on the left is a Propalaeotherium, one of the gentle herbivore types). This is the sort of video that the parent has to watch at least once, so as to have at least an idea of what the children are talking about.

There are 6 discrete episodes, each a bit less than an hour. The narrative follows your basic nature documentary, but the producers tried to have a story line tying each episode together. Episode 3, for instance, follows first year and a bit of an Indocathere calf. Will it survive the drought? the rainy season? its rejection by its mother after she finds a new mate? (warning: adult themes, although tastefully presented). If anyone wants to know the details of all the episodes, look here.

Of all the many non-fiction videos my children have watched, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts has sparked their imaginations the most. Imaginative play, so we are told, is a good thing. No longer does my three-year old want to eat his ice cream at the table, with a spoon. Instead, the bowl goes on the floor, his face goes on the ice cream. "I'm an Andrewsarchus eating a turtle out of its shell!" He snarls around the house, pretending to be a savage Hyaenodon (shown at right), casting his unfortunate big brother in the role of Prey. "Darling, can't you be a gentle herbivore?" I suggest. "ROAR!" he says.

The only episode I did not embrace wholeheartedly was episode 4, which focused on a group of Australophithecus Afaransis (Lucy's species). I appreciate how difficult it is to make a movie when you aren't sure if your characters are "human" or not. I appreciate the fact that they lived in Africa and probably had darker skin than I do. It wasn't bad anthropology. But it made me uncomfortable.

Finally, here's a link to the BBC page, where you can find more information and good games!

The Little White Horse, soon to be The Moon Princess

I just heard, through Fuse #8, that one of my all time favorite children's books, The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge, is going to be made into a children's movie by the director of Bridge to Terebithia (here's the movie's site). I am bravely telling myself this is not a bad thing. More people will now read this beautiful book. But please, to all those who haven't read it, read it before you see the movie. Read an edition with Walter Hodge's illustrations. Let Goudge's words make pictures in your minds. Let her story reach you first (a story that does not have the Fantasy elements the movie sounds like it will have).

The Little White Horse tells of Maria Merryweather, sent to live with her cousin, the lord of Moonacre Manor. The welcome is warm, the house is lovely (Maria's tower room is my favorite fictional bedroom of all time! But the valley of Moonacre is troubled by an ancient feud between the rapscallion poachers known as the Black Men and Maria's family. It's up to Maria to use her powers of deduction and her forthrightness to set the old wrong to rights.

Lots and lots of beautiful description, a fantastical setting where the magical overlaps with the mundane, and warm and glowing characters who come to wonderful life make this one of my favorite books of all time. Based on the illustrations, and the descriptions of clothes and such, it's my impression that this is set in the 19th century--it's certainly a long ago story, which adds to its charm.

It is, I would say, definitely a Girl book. This is mainly because Goudge lavishes so much detail on female clothing (almost no boy appeal, unless you are a boy like the poignant child in Rumer Godden's The Greengage Summer). She also lavishes lots of detail on anything that has color, and anything that is beautiful--seagulls flying inland in the morning, pink geraniums, primroses wet with dew. With a book that is this visual, it seems to me redundant to recreate it in a visual medium.

And then, when you have read The Little White Horse, and want more Goudge, read Linnets and Valerians.

See if you can guess which of these covers is the most recent:


Hint: it has those strange, strange eyes. And why does that poor child have no mouth? (at least, that's what it looked like to me, although after studying it I guess that's a bit of mouth showing over the horse's back). Just for the record, the copy I had was the paperback at the top right.

The Little Broomstick, by Mary Stewart

My library hasn't yet set up a "while you're waiting for Harry" display, but doubtless it will have one at some point. A book that I am going to slip in, if it somehow gets overlooked, is The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart (publishd in 1971), and yes, this is the same Mary Stewart whose romance/adventure novels my mother read and passed on to me, who also wrote the very fine Merlin series that begins with The Crystal Cave). Probably The Little Broomstick will be overlooked; I bought it with Friends of the Library money, and I don't think either of our children's librarians have read it. I'm not sure any patrons have read it either.

This is wrong. When I was 7/8, and read this for the first time, I was stunned--it just knocked the young socks off me. I'm not sure how a grown-up reading it for the first time would feel, but I fell in love (as did several Amazon reviewers, apparently).

Here's the plot: Mary is sent to her Great Aunt's house deep in the English countryside; there are no children her own age, and the only two creatures at all friendly are the gardener and a black cat, Tib. Mary finds a little broomstick, Tib leads her to the rare Fly-by-night flower, and next thing you know, Mary finds herself flying through the sky... and the broomstick lands in the stableyard of a school for witches.

Although Mary is welcomed to the school as a prospective pupil (she did, after all, arrive by broom), it is not a friendly place. Horrible magical experiements are being performed on animals, including Tib's brother Gib. Gib's own owner, a boy named Peter, is deperatly searching for him, and the two children, and Tib, end up rescuing the animals from their cages, and escpaing the evil witches and warlocks in an utterly brilliant chase sequence that is one of my favorite bits of fantasy ever.

This plot outline is just a sketch. Anyone familiar with Mary Stewart (and this is also true of her grown-up romance books, which I have read and re-read myself) knows what a good describer she is. The pictures this book makes in the reader's mind will stay there. It helps that the book is illustrated by Shirley Hughes, who also is a lovely describer (although I always have to go back and look at pictures after I finish, because of reading so fast).

The Little Broomstick, first published in 1972, was re-released in paperback in 1989, and even though it seems to be out of print again, it looks like it's readily available.

Penelope Farmer -- new book on line

If anyone out there is looking for a most excellent time slip story, read Charlotte Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer, if you haven't already.

SPOILERS! Charlotte wakes up her first morning at boarding school to find that she has slipped back forty years in time, and has taken the place of another girl named Claire. At first, Charlotte and Clare swap places for a day at a time, communicating via a hidden diary (their tribulations are well described--Clare, for instance, is a much better piano player, so poor Charlotte has to spend hours practicing furiously). But then Charlotte finds herself trapped in the past...I have a special fondness for this book, as Clare's little sister, who becomes like a sister to Charlotte as well, is named Emily, just like my little sister.

But the point of this post is that I just discovered that Penelope Farmer has a blog, and on that blog she has a link to a book she has written online! How much work will I get done today????

Earth Day a day late --One Small Square:Backyard + Orange Trail Bingo

Happy belated Earth Day. I would have posted yesterday, but our home computer is a mac., and will not let me post, or edit, or anything useful (is there anyone out there who uses a mac and blogspot together in harmony?).


In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to mention my favorite get outside and appreciate/learn about the earth book--One Small Square: Backyard. It's been around for a while (1993), but it deserves to be a part of every young naturalist's library. What I like about it is that it combines facts with activities (and lovely illustrations). We tend to be somewhat cerebral in our approach to activity books (why why why do I have to read aloud books like Let's Make Space Aliens etc.), so a book like Backyard is a good choice for us. But we did take it out into our own backyard last summer, and a good time was had by all.

Also Earth dayish, and inspired by the posts over at The Miss Rumphius Effect on educational things to do with children outside, I wanted to share my one really original idea (to date, and as far as I know) for a great thing to do while on a nature walk -- Trail Bingo. We live near an Audubon sanctuary, and walk the Orange Trail often in all seasons. So one day we brought with us notebooks and colored pencils, and searched for landmarks/plant and animal species/rock formations/tree formations that we could put into an Orange Trail bingo game. We filled our notebooks with sketches of what we saw --- gap in the wall, twin tree trunk, triangle stone in the path, princess pine, etc etc. Because we had a purpose, we looked at what was around us harder than we ever had before, and because we were drawing what we saw, we looked at things longer. We had fun creating the game cards too--it was good art practice to simplify our images so that they were more or less the same on all the cards on which they appeared.

We never actually played Orange Trail Bingo, but that wasn't really the point. It was enough that we had made our own connections to the trail, and could great our landmarks like friends.

Two concrete poetry books

Sometimes it is much easier to be on the listening end than the reading end (especially if you can't read much yet). The dear boys (6 and 3) listened with rapt attention to the two books of poetry I read them last night, oohing and awing and laughing and pointing out details. My eyes got crosseder and crosseder as I tried to translate the shape-making words into coherency. The two books were



Sidman, Joyce. Meow Ruff: A Story in Concrete Poetry. Illustrated by Michelle Berg. Houghton Mifflin, 2006





and


J. Patrick Lewis Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape.Illustrated by Lisa Desimini. Simon & Schuster 1998









Both books are concrete poetry--words were used to make the shapes of the things being written about -- in Meow Ruff, for instance, clouds are white puffy word clumps (changing to gray), in Doodle Dandies, a lady walking her dachshund is holding a dachshund shaped word cluster on a leash. The kids eat this up, but it sure is hard on the reader, especially when the words are really close together...Meow Ruff especially took great concentration, so this is a bad bad book for the dim lighting and tired eyes of bedtime unless you have it memorized.

Of the two, I much preferred Meow Ruff, which tells the story of a kitten and dog who meet outside one day. They are enemies at first, but become friends when rain forces them to share the shelter of a picnic table. I like books with a coherent narrative and character development, which this book delivers as much as a picture book in snippets of unrhyming, descriptive verse can. The pictures are charming too. The words were fun to speak out loud -- the paved road, for instance, is "tramped on not lawn much trod bubble gum crack-filled Anthill hard flat welcome mat brick thick oil slick blown sand not land" (total aside--my older boy picked up at school that Queen song that goes "We will we will rock you... " and has been singing it incessantly which effected my reading of this. Sigh). In short, there were many engaging details in both picture and text, and the boys wanted to hear it over again immediately.

They didn't. We turned next to Doodle Dandies. This one was a tad disappointing. The only theme of the verses was that they made shapes (but not all of them were really good independent shapes--sometimes the words were stuck on top of existing pictures). It was somewhat disjointing to bounce from tigers and butterflies to baseballs and synchronized swimmers (although so few children's poems feature synchronized swimmers that perhaps some extra points are warranted). The good poem pictures were diverting (I liked the giraffe with legs made of "s t i l t s", but several left me cold. The illustrations are somewhat scattered as well, with realistic pictures of the natural world next to cartoonish images.

Not a patch on Douglas Florian, I say.

For more Joyce Sidman books of poetry, check out this post at Blue Rose Girls from last November with part 2 here. This was my first book of hers, the only one our library has, but this will change; even after going graphic book shop the Friends have some money left. (The booksales are worth it, I mutter to myself).

Non-fiction dvd of the week: Mystery of the Megaflood

On Thursdays, I present a non-fiction video that my children have enjoyed. Today's is Mystery of the Megaflood, a NOVA program first broadcast in 2005, now available on DVD.

Summary: A vanished glacial lake, huge ice dams breaking up (think Ice Age II, only better), a tortured landscape, and the brave and clever geologists (both male and female, although predominately male) who figure out the clues and solve the Mystery of the Megaflood! This is almost a prefect non-fiction video. There is a lot of dramatic action, but it's geological and doesn't involve people getting hurt. The mystery that the geologists are trying to solve gives a plot-like structure to it, which helps hold the viewer's interest. The images are stupendous:

It's hard to put a bottom line on the age of viewers who would like this; for what it's worth, my six year old loves it. I think it should appeal to any kid who likes rocks!

Note on Gender Issues: I liked it because it showed a brave female geologist rappelling down a cliff. I fret a bit about the predominance of men in non-fiction videos, especially in their role of narrators (leading to the impression that men = the ones who have knowledge, which is not what I want my boys to believe). It is very rare to find a really good sciency video narrated by a woman. The DK folks found a female narrator for their videos about mythological creatures, for instance, but all the science ones are male. So if anyone knows any hard core science videos with female narrators, let me know!

If you'd like to learn more about the geological details, here's the link to PBS.

Reading historical fiction

Last weekend Lecticans posed on her blog the following question--"What is the recipe for good historical fiction?" When I was young, before I discovered fantasy and science fiction, I would have said it was my favorite genre. I adored the books of Rosemary Sutcliffe (still do). Now as an adult I find myself avoiding the books with the little covered wagons on them, because I find them generally boring and annoying, although I still re-read my old favorites.

I think that excellent historical fiction and excellent fantasy share the same key trait--the ability to convey the differences of the time and place and culture (and rules of nature) without stressing over it and making it obvious to the reader. In much the same way that characterization is better when conveyed through the characters' words and actions rather than the narrators', details about what life was life back then should not be set apart as teaching moments within the narrative. I think that when this is done well (as Sutcliffe does it), the reader stops remembering that the book is "historical" and can simply enjoy it for the plot and the characters, and only later realize how much has been learned. Of course, for this to work, the writer also has to make sure that the "history" is accurate, or else the bubble bursts (most of what I know about . For me this also applies to characterization--I liked Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman, just fine, but Catherine didn't seem like a product of her time. Ditto the characters in Michelle Magorian's Not a Swan. Another potential problem in historical fiction is writers wanting to write about a historical event, and then creating characters to take part in it. I suspect all the dear america etc etc genre of doing this, and so have avoided them like the plague. I like to think that in the books I love, the author wanted to tell the characters' story, rather than the story of the event.

Besides Sutcliffe, here is a few of my all time favorite historical fiction:
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. How I learned about rev. war Boston
Katherine by Anya Seton. The eponymous Katherine was the mistress of John of Gaunt.
In Spite of all Terror by Hester Burton. The evacuation of London in WW II, Dunkirk.
A Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (a much loved childhood favorite)

Graphic novel advice please!

My librarian just asked me to buy some graphic novels for our collection, because we have only one or two (the first two Babymouse books). She gave me a list that someone had given her, but neither of us has ever read any of them, I feel a bit at a loss. I'd appreciate any recommendations that anyone can give me for books from J to YA that will just fly off the shelves! Thanks.

Poetry Friday: Bugle Song

Here's a poem that I think would make a great picture book (although the words are so visually evocative that maybe it doesn't need images). It is the Bugle Song, from Alfred Tennyson's The Princess (1847).


The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going!
O sweet and far from cliff and scar
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

O love, they die in yon rich sky,
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul,
And grow forever and forever.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.


Tennyson was apparently a descendant of Edward I (according to Wikipedia), whose castles I posted about yesterday, which ties it all together nicely.

The Poetry Friday roundup today is at A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy.

2 non-fiction videos about castles and siege warfare

Last Thursday I decided to review non-fiction videos every week, talking about videos that appealed to my kids and deserve a wider audience. Today's offerings are two videos about castles and siege warfare -- Castle, one of a series based on David Macauley's books, and Medieval Siege, an episode of the Secrets of Lost Empires series produced by NOVA.

I hesitate a smidge to recommend the video Castle, because it is based on Macauley's book of that name, and books are generally to be preferred. However, I find Macauley's books are hard to read out loud, even to interested 4-5 year olds, whereas the videos, which mix live action and animation, are easy for kids that age to watch. They are also very, very good--instructional without being pedantic, engaging without being giddily enthusiastic.

The castle in question was built in Wales in the 13th century by the invading English. Macauley takes the viewer on a tour through real castles, demonstating his impressive understanding of how things were built and his ability to translate this knowledge into terms the rest of us can grasp. The live action shots are interspersed with animated vignettes of the lives and doings of fictional people living in such a castle, bringing, as it were, the ruins to life.

Bringing medieval siege warfare to life is what Medieval Siege is all about--specifically, how do you build a trebuchet (the biggest baddest catapult of all), when you have no plans, no surviving examples, and only a few historical references? How exactly does it work? The Secrets of Lost Empire series takes a problem like this, and puts live experts (and live workers) to work on it. Different experts have different theories, and everyone involved learns by doing--there's a lot of open disagreement shown. The physical labor involved is tremendous--the idea is that everything will be done by hand, with authentic tools. I think this is great stuff for kids to watch, in as much as it teaches that learning involves a lot more than being told things. Medieval Siege is a favorite in our house, because there is a lot of catapult action (it is pretty cool to watch walls getting smashed with giant boulders). I think it is the best one of this series to start with--they run for around 60 minutes and some of them are a bit too slow for kids.

NOVA has lots more information on trebuchets at their website, including a trebuchet game.

Problems with this video:
1. At the end of the video, viewers are sent to the NOVA website for information on how to build their own trebuchet. My boy really really thought he was going to get to build a full size siege engine in our back yard ("Can we build my trebuchet now?" he asked incessantly). However, he and his father did build a model that gave him some pleasure.

2. My boy wanted to dress as a trebuchet for Halloween. He decided his baby brother could be the boulder.

Grandfather's Dance

It was egg hunt day at the library last Saturday, and I hoped to take advantage of the large number of children coming in. So I hauled all the children's books left over from the book sale downstairs, and set up shop. Business was, sadly, slow, so I had time to read a new book-- Grandfather's Dance, the fourth in the series by Patricia MacLachlan that began with Sarah, Plain and Tall. I was very happy to revisit the Witting family again, and to see that all was going well; after the hard times they went through out there on their prairie farm, it is nice to see that a. none of the children have died b. they are prosperous enough to afford a new car without fretting about it.

This book describes a happy time--Anna, the oldest daughter, is getting married; the aunts come from faraway Maine, and little Jack, the youngest of the family, is cute as a button in his love for his grandpa, who is now fully a part of the family after a long period of alienation. But then it gets sad, and I sat next to my boxes of books with tears running down my cheeks, which would have put off my customers had they not been outside egg hunting.

I didn't read any of MacLachlan's books until I was a grown-up--as a child, I had no interest reading about someone described as plain and tall, and nobody urged it on me. I'm not sure what I would have made of this series. As a child, I revelled in the detail of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I think I would have found these books too short and sparse. As an adult, I admire MacLachlan's clean prose, and think these books are beautiful, but I still wish they were longer--this one only lasted me half an hour.

Demon Christmas Mug--the things I do for the library

We had a very nice Easter. It would have been better, however, if a Christmas mug hadn't started playing "Jingle Bells" whenever someone walked into the kitchen. Apart from blatant seasonal inappropriateness, holiday mugs aren't good at making music, and this one is no exception. As one boy said, "We can't live like this."

The mug is one of several bought for next December's library fundraiser, tossed neatly with other mugs and ornaments etc etc in a new home 7 feet up on the topmost shelf of the new kitchen cupboard. I fetched the ladder, and asked my children to jump up and down so that I could hear the mug singing. Sadly, the weight of the ladder is enough (even without me on it) to stabilize the cupboard--the mug did not sing and I could not find it. So for now we are simply leaving the ladder there, perhaps until next Christmas.

An Island Grows, by Lola M. Schafer

An Island Grows by Lola M. Schafer, illustrated by Cathie Flestead (Greenwillow Books 2006)

I picked this up last week in the library's new book section--it seemed to fall nicely into the non-fiction that will appeal to both boys (6 and 3) category, and I liked the cover. It was a good choice.

"Deep, deep beneath the sea" the earth splits apart, and an island begins . The journey from a crack in the ocean floor to a tropical paradise is pleasantly told in rhyming couplets and simple but very satisfying pictures. The text was easy enough for 6 yr old to read, although sometimes rhyme was given more weight than simplicity-"Rocks appear, black and sheer." But heck, sheer is a fine word. My 3 yr old was very taken with the underwater buildup of magma. We all liked the dense page of factual information at the end; I, for instance, was able to share with my co-workers today the fun fact that the earth's plates move at the rate our fingernails grow, which is a lot faster than I would have thought.

The book gets a tad strange when people come into the picture--it appears to be an island of racial utopia, with people of all skin tones living and working side by side. This is lovely, and it looked unremarkable to the children (and of course in an ideal world this scenario should look "normal"). However, one of my main professional interests is the history and archaeology of European colonization, and I was a more than a bit jarred by the happiness of the island's integration into the capitalist world system, and I had to bite back a diatribe. But that aside, it was a very pleasant and instructive read-out-loud experience, and I'll be happy to read it to them again.

P.S. (added 4/15/07) My 3 year old has asked for this book at bedtime every night since we got it out of the library, and I have not particularly minded, which shows how appealing it is!

ee cummings for Poetry Friday

Yesterday I posted a brief review of the video Sea Nasties. After a half hour or so of Leslie Nielsen's dark humor, the video ends on a completely different note, with Nielsen speaking, very movingly, this ee cummings poem:

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,

and milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:

and may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Apart from my anxiety about poor molly, I think this is a lovely poem.

I had another Cummings quote in my head --"an instrument to measure Spring with," and looking for that on line I found this genuine article:

A 1613 pocket sundial from the Harvard Collection of Scientific Instruments, featured in the Harvard Magazine March April 2002 issue as part of an enthralling collection of Spring Miscellanies.

The Poetry Friday round-up is at Big A little a today.

Non-Fiction Videos we like: Sea Nasties

In our house, many non-fiction videos are watched (perhaps because the guilt is less extreme when the children are being "educated" by the television). It all started back when 6yrold was a 3 yr old, and I got him an animally National Geographic to watch. From then on there was no looking back. He explored the non-fiction video holdings of our library, developing some odd favorites--"Oh Mama! Let's get out Avalanche, the White Death! And Asteroid, Deadly Impact!" he would plead in his sweet baby voice. (I did draw the line at Killer Bees: When Swarms Attack. We don't live in the shadow of snowy mountains, and asteroid devastation is not that frequent around here either, but we do have bees. I also drew the line at Quicksands: deadly life engulfing pools of horror, or something like that, just because).

So I thought that to add Structure here at my blog, each Thursday I might review one or two non-fiction videos that are perhaps off the beaten child track (the beaten track of children? the child's beaten track?). But to get things started, I picked a video aimed specifically at children--Sea Nasties, a National Geographic video narrated by Leslie Nielsen.

Do you think the seaside is a nice place to take the kids? Wrong! It is full of deadly creatures, such as box jellies, sea snakes, and lion fish, all out to get Nielsen! A friendly mermaid takes Nielsen on tour of these "sea nasties," clarifying the facts (lots of them are darn toxic) and providing a corrective to his wacky hysteria (lots of them aren't all that bad, if you just leave them alone). There is considerable great footage of the nasties, and my kids enjoy the dark humor. At the end of Nielsen's sojurn with the mermaid, he has come to accept that not all dangerous sea creatures are monsters. The video ends with a visit to Sting Ray City, where tourists swim with rays. (Although thinking about it, after what happened to the Crocodile Hunter, I wonder if this still works as a peaceful human/deadly animals happy together scenario). Added bonus: this video is a great source of future cocktail party conversation: "Did you know that the venom of a sea snake is so deadly that one drop can kill 60 elephants?" etc. etc. (or something like that. I haven't watched it enough to keep my venom doses straight). Highly recommended for kids who do not already have Ocean Anxieties!