Saturday, September 22, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Rollyo
And so I see the value of making your own search engine and having instant access to info on the topics that you search frequently. I made my rollyo search the best books for kids. I'm still looking for good books for kids.
More Good Books
Just finished reading three good ones:
1. Jack Plank Tells Tales by Natalie Babbitt
Yes, that mistress of storytelling has a new delightful book out for us. Jack Plank's days of being a pirate have come to an end. He has washed up on the shores of Saltwash, a town on the Caribbean Sea, and has dropped anchor at Mrs. Delfresno's boardinghouse. The task of finding him new employment is at hand. Each night at dinner the residents propose various possible new paths for Jack but each suggestion meets with a reason why Jack can't do that and a story to back up his NO. The stories have great imagination and will take young listeners to wonderful places. Mermaids, the hand of a mummy, treasure and knaves...it rings of days gone by and stories gone by. Good stuff.
2. When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach: Too much fun. Today while running errands, our young hero and his mother learn that at the bakery a dozen doughnuts will get you a free dinosaur. At the doctor's office being brave enough to get a shot will also get you a free dinosaur. Imagine the mother's face as she is trailed home by a motley crew of dinos...
Fabulous.
3. Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanotto: Ivan keeps getting into the story and turning it on its head. The three bears are terrorized and the girl with the red riding hood will never be the same- neither will the three pigs. Fun.
1. Jack Plank Tells Tales by Natalie Babbitt
Yes, that mistress of storytelling has a new delightful book out for us. Jack Plank's days of being a pirate have come to an end. He has washed up on the shores of Saltwash, a town on the Caribbean Sea, and has dropped anchor at Mrs. Delfresno's boardinghouse. The task of finding him new employment is at hand. Each night at dinner the residents propose various possible new paths for Jack but each suggestion meets with a reason why Jack can't do that and a story to back up his NO. The stories have great imagination and will take young listeners to wonderful places. Mermaids, the hand of a mummy, treasure and knaves...it rings of days gone by and stories gone by. Good stuff.
2. When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach: Too much fun. Today while running errands, our young hero and his mother learn that at the bakery a dozen doughnuts will get you a free dinosaur. At the doctor's office being brave enough to get a shot will also get you a free dinosaur. Imagine the mother's face as she is trailed home by a motley crew of dinos...
Fabulous.
3. Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanotto: Ivan keeps getting into the story and turning it on its head. The three bears are terrorized and the girl with the red riding hood will never be the same- neither will the three pigs. Fun.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
The Wonder of a Monarch Butterfly
It's one of those glorious summer/fall days in September and I've just come in from a trip out onto the Eastern Shore. It's the kind of day where the sunlight seems a bit lower than you're used to and it always makes me want to bake an apple pie or make oatmeal raisin cookies. That's what I've evolved to as a a member of my species. So, my oven is preheating and the Granny Smith apples are sitting on the kitchen counter. The pie cloth is spread out and the rolling pin is waiting to be dusted. Yes, I still make my own crust and I cut up my apples and I throw in however much butter and cinnamon I deem appropriate. No canned filling for this girl.
On the trip we headed out to St. Michael's with a stop along the way for oyster stew at the Fisherman's Inn. This time of year and all through the gray days of February that stew is a joy to inhale. They have the best saltines there, too. Not the oyster crackers but the square saltines made by Westminster. Just the right crunch and right amount of everything.
We drove through St. Michael's and on out to Tilghman's Island. If you keep going all the way out to the tip of the island you'll find yourself in full view of a Naval Research Lab that appears to have been taken over by a family of osprey. Then, if you're really determined to keep going, you can park (or drive which I don't recommend) by the Lab and walk through the daunting gate. The water is on your right. Today it was choppy and gray. There were some committed fishermen with their hoods up around their heads facing out to the water as though they did not want to be seen. It reminded me very much of Inchon in South Korea. The earth around them was disturbed by construction vehicles and due to the rain yesterday there were some puddles, some mud, and some just moist red dirt.
On the left side of our rutted path were native bushes - some multi-flora but I'm pretty sure some spice bushes. Beyond them were the skeletons of trees topped with osprey nests. The osprey were coming and going and truly putting the human fisherpeople to shame. Talons clutched gleaming fish headed to the nests. Persimmon trees marched along the way.
It was a magical place - totally unexpected and most magical when we found the Black Walnut Inn at the end of the road and stopped short to watch the jewels glittering on the spice bushes that edged the driveway coming and going to the inn. The jewels were monarch butterflies, and perhaps a red admiral, and a small one we couldn't name. You know all of those National Geographic specials you've seen where the flock of butterflies dances down onto trees and then quivers all over the leaves? Yep. That's it. It was real and it was right in front of us.
I was so thankful that we had found this very special moment in the monarch world. They sipped water from the mud and they feasted on the tight blossoms of the spice bush.
I have to tell you that I am currently re-reading SARAH PLAIN AND TALL to prepare to interview Patricia MacLachlan. The power of that little book is coming back to me. There is such strength in Sarah. She is so willing to risk loving life in spite of the challenges that come her way and she shows us how valuable the simple things like shells and sheep and hay dunes truly are. I look at the world around us and I wonder: Will our children carry on this wonder? As a PTSA president when my kids were in high school, I used to write a column for the school newspaper and I asked the parents to think ahead to Thanksgiving in 10 or 15 or even 20 years. You are sitting down with your children who are now grown. Who do you want to have sitting across from you? A child who has grown into someone you can love, respect and admire? Of course. How do you do that?
Well, one way, for me at least, is to share the wonders with children. And to preserve those wonders for those children. In his latest book, THE DAY THE STONES WALKED, T.A. Barron tells a story of a boy who lives on Easter Island. There is a wonderful bond between that boy and his mother and especially with his father. The boy feels his heritage very strongly. He feels his natural world very strongly. Then danger strikes and what will reach out from his world to save him?
In the author's note, T.A.Barron talks about the importance of teaching our children to safeguard and cherish our natural wonders. A child who can do that will grow to be a man or a woman that you want to eat your turkey with. They become wonders in themselves.
So, I cherish my time with the monarchs. They knew to migrate down through the Eastern Shore and the spice bush knew to be ready with the banquet. Civility at its finest. As for me,
my family just noticed the pie makings on the kitchen counter and I'm going to go finish slicing apples. Lucky to have had a such a day.
On the trip we headed out to St. Michael's with a stop along the way for oyster stew at the Fisherman's Inn. This time of year and all through the gray days of February that stew is a joy to inhale. They have the best saltines there, too. Not the oyster crackers but the square saltines made by Westminster. Just the right crunch and right amount of everything.
We drove through St. Michael's and on out to Tilghman's Island. If you keep going all the way out to the tip of the island you'll find yourself in full view of a Naval Research Lab that appears to have been taken over by a family of osprey. Then, if you're really determined to keep going, you can park (or drive which I don't recommend) by the Lab and walk through the daunting gate. The water is on your right. Today it was choppy and gray. There were some committed fishermen with their hoods up around their heads facing out to the water as though they did not want to be seen. It reminded me very much of Inchon in South Korea. The earth around them was disturbed by construction vehicles and due to the rain yesterday there were some puddles, some mud, and some just moist red dirt.
On the left side of our rutted path were native bushes - some multi-flora but I'm pretty sure some spice bushes. Beyond them were the skeletons of trees topped with osprey nests. The osprey were coming and going and truly putting the human fisherpeople to shame. Talons clutched gleaming fish headed to the nests. Persimmon trees marched along the way.
It was a magical place - totally unexpected and most magical when we found the Black Walnut Inn at the end of the road and stopped short to watch the jewels glittering on the spice bushes that edged the driveway coming and going to the inn. The jewels were monarch butterflies, and perhaps a red admiral, and a small one we couldn't name. You know all of those National Geographic specials you've seen where the flock of butterflies dances down onto trees and then quivers all over the leaves? Yep. That's it. It was real and it was right in front of us.
I was so thankful that we had found this very special moment in the monarch world. They sipped water from the mud and they feasted on the tight blossoms of the spice bush.
I have to tell you that I am currently re-reading SARAH PLAIN AND TALL to prepare to interview Patricia MacLachlan. The power of that little book is coming back to me. There is such strength in Sarah. She is so willing to risk loving life in spite of the challenges that come her way and she shows us how valuable the simple things like shells and sheep and hay dunes truly are. I look at the world around us and I wonder: Will our children carry on this wonder? As a PTSA president when my kids were in high school, I used to write a column for the school newspaper and I asked the parents to think ahead to Thanksgiving in 10 or 15 or even 20 years. You are sitting down with your children who are now grown. Who do you want to have sitting across from you? A child who has grown into someone you can love, respect and admire? Of course. How do you do that?
Well, one way, for me at least, is to share the wonders with children. And to preserve those wonders for those children. In his latest book, THE DAY THE STONES WALKED, T.A. Barron tells a story of a boy who lives on Easter Island. There is a wonderful bond between that boy and his mother and especially with his father. The boy feels his heritage very strongly. He feels his natural world very strongly. Then danger strikes and what will reach out from his world to save him?
In the author's note, T.A.Barron talks about the importance of teaching our children to safeguard and cherish our natural wonders. A child who can do that will grow to be a man or a woman that you want to eat your turkey with. They become wonders in themselves.
So, I cherish my time with the monarchs. They knew to migrate down through the Eastern Shore and the spice bush knew to be ready with the banquet. Civility at its finest. As for me,
my family just noticed the pie makings on the kitchen counter and I'm going to go finish slicing apples. Lucky to have had a such a day.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Madeleine L'Engle
I'm sure you've heard by now that Madeleine L'Engle just passed away. Another grand spirit marching on. Thank goodness we can hold onto her in her books. "The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it" says James Bryce. When you read Madeleine L'Engle's books you carry away questions and ideas and you feel you have taken your brain and your spirit on an adventurous journey to places where no one else dared to go. I think she lived in and out of dimensions that we don't all get to experience and she was willing to open them to us all.
A book isn't just something printed on paper. It's energy and vibration and thought and connection. Hers were vivid and sparkling.
Whatever dimension she's in now, I'm sure she can still see us. She knows she made a tremendous contribution. Let's keep the books flowing into the hands of young readers. Something more than hot dog heroes and tv scripts. It's a glorious world out there in the land of literature. Keep the spark alive.
A book isn't just something printed on paper. It's energy and vibration and thought and connection. Hers were vivid and sparkling.
Whatever dimension she's in now, I'm sure she can still see us. She knows she made a tremendous contribution. Let's keep the books flowing into the hands of young readers. Something more than hot dog heroes and tv scripts. It's a glorious world out there in the land of literature. Keep the spark alive.
Library Thing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=langridb&shelf=shelf
I have 5 thrilling titles on my shelf at Library Thing. I'm working on developing a website to recommend children's and young adult books. Library Thing is giving me some good ideas about linking recommendations.
Frankly, though, I don't know what My Sister Ate One Hare has to do with Bright Shadow.
I think some people have a little too much fun with the concept.
I have 5 thrilling titles on my shelf at Library Thing. I'm working on developing a website to recommend children's and young adult books. Library Thing is giving me some good ideas about linking recommendations.
Frankly, though, I don't know what My Sister Ate One Hare has to do with Bright Shadow.
I think some people have a little too much fun with the concept.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Wandering with an avatar? Where would we go?
Allrighty then. I have now explored the warm and cozy world of image generators online. My reaction: disgust. Sorry, but it's just not for me. It's not for me the same way comic books and graphic novels are not for me. It's flash in the pan and airless. It's an image that floats in cyberspace with no dimensions and no connecting ports. Yikes.
I just read a book review in the Washington Post about reading and the brain. The book is Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf - it explores what parts of the brain need to operate to make reading a possibility. The book sounds way beyond me and was a self-admitted stretch for Michael Dirda, the reviewer. But what I culled out of it was the simple fact that it is important to read or tell stories to kids when they are young because the brain needs to start developing the physical pathways that will enable reading. It turns out those pathways to reading may also be pathways to empathy and critical thinking. Dirda poses the possbility that it "may already be too late for many young people. They will never be able to read with the same thoughfulness and comprehension as their parents. Think about that."
I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Yes, I know the computer has wonderful possibilities and potential and yes, you're all correct - how wonderful that we can all connect with each other on such a grand scale. I guess it's those smaller scales that I value so highly. A cup of tea and a chance to hear about someone's life from across the table. A smile at a stranger whose face lights up in return and you know you just gave that person a gift at a time when he/she really needed it.
A journey through the pages of a book that takes you inside your own brain perhaps via your own heart for a bit of a tune-up.
No avatar will take me there.
I just read a book review in the Washington Post about reading and the brain. The book is Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf - it explores what parts of the brain need to operate to make reading a possibility. The book sounds way beyond me and was a self-admitted stretch for Michael Dirda, the reviewer. But what I culled out of it was the simple fact that it is important to read or tell stories to kids when they are young because the brain needs to start developing the physical pathways that will enable reading. It turns out those pathways to reading may also be pathways to empathy and critical thinking. Dirda poses the possbility that it "may already be too late for many young people. They will never be able to read with the same thoughfulness and comprehension as their parents. Think about that."
I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Yes, I know the computer has wonderful possibilities and potential and yes, you're all correct - how wonderful that we can all connect with each other on such a grand scale. I guess it's those smaller scales that I value so highly. A cup of tea and a chance to hear about someone's life from across the table. A smile at a stranger whose face lights up in return and you know you just gave that person a gift at a time when he/she really needed it.
A journey through the pages of a book that takes you inside your own brain perhaps via your own heart for a bit of a tune-up.
No avatar will take me there.
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