Archive for December, 2011
Before the haircuts, obviously
Keeper moments from this week:
* reading The Cottage at Bantry Bay to Rose, Beanie, Rilla (we’re nearing the end; it’s been lovely)
* listening to Jane read Green Eggs and Ham to Huck
* Wonderboy counting the days until his birthday (and his daddy’s)
* a great chat with my S&S editor about our next book
* Rilla’s pride in making her lunch All By Herself almost every day
* how my half-collapsed cake draws cheers because it’s only half-collapsed
* the flock of cedar waxwings in the tree on the street at the top of the hill
* Wonderboy’s birthday note to Scott (“…i love you so much you alway come out and get your coffee cup and make them your coffee you pour the little bit the milk for mom and you…”)
* the package from Small Meadow Press, full of treasures and joy (thank you, dear Lesley)
* Huck’s morning announcement to Bean: “I missed you! All night all morning all day!”
* watching Adjustment Bureau with Scott (we loved it)
* small fingers sliding a note under my door during work-time
* Dragonsong and Dragonsinger for the who-knows-how-many-th time (I had to, you understand)
* Huck’s daily clamor, quickly picked up by his sibs: “A’vent cawder! A’vent cawder!” (He means the Jacquie Lawson animated Advent calendar—we are so enjoying this year’s London setting)
Freshman year of college, my Voice and Diction instructor assigned a very long poem for memorization. I don’t think we had to recite the whole thing (she’d have had to spend the entire rest of the semester listening to us) but I do recall cramming a massive chunk of it. This came up in the car the other day in a conversation with my girls about words with confusing pronunciations. Without thinking about it, I found myself chanting,
“Dearest creature in creation, studying English pronunciation…”
I didn’t get much farther. Remembered a few more fragments. “Something something who can tell/ Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.”
Today, to my astonishment and delight, my friend Anne Marie Pace happened to share this very poem on Facebook.
Strangely, the Pall Mall line isn’t included. But I vividly remember the instructor staring disdainfully at us students over the tops of her enormous dark glasses, and blowing cigarette smoke out of the side of her mouth before informing us that the London Street was pronounced ‘pell mell.’ We were a bunch of Colorado kids who only knew the name as a cigarette brand and didn’t understand why “tell” was rhymed with “Mall” in that couplet.
The poem is called, I believe, “The Phonetic Labyrinth.” Really quite delicious, when no one is breathing smoke at you for flubbing a line.
December 6, 2011 @ 7:06 pm | Filed under:
Books …because I have written about three posts’ worth of book suggestions in yesterday’s comments. Others are chiming in there, too, with wonderful recommendations. Do take a peek. π
December 5, 2011 @ 6:18 pm | Filed under:
Books βTis the season to stroll around your favorite local bookstore and pick out the perfect tome for every name on your shopping list. Is there any nicer gift than a book? And they’re ever so much easier to wrap than a mug!
If you need ideas, MotherReader has a massive list of book-and-other-item pairings that would make splendiferous gifts. And over at GeekMom, Jenny devoted an entire installment of the Holiday Gift Guide to books. (I put in the rec for Nursery Rhyme Comics.)
The newly reissued Betsy-Tacy Treasury arrived last month. You know there’s someone on your list who’d be enchanted by that tome. (And I don’t just mean little girls. Teachers, neighbors, your aunt who grew up in the midwest…)
If you’re looking for picture-book ideas, there’s always my Rillabooks tag. But I’ll go you one better. If you’d like to give the perfect book to that special someone and you’re stumped for the right match, leave me a note in the comments telling me a little about the person: age, interests, other books he or she loves. I’ll make recommendations for you. (And other commentors may chime in.)
What books are you giving this year? (I promise not to tell the people on your list.) π
I was supposed to go to L.A. today to do something really super-fun, but I came down with a nasty cold instead. Because I am spontaneous and exciting like that. I’ve spent the weekend sprawled against my pillows in tragic poses (when someone is looking) and devouring Cybils nominees (when no one’s watching).
Last night, around ten, I finished Brian Selzick’s breathtaking Wonderstruck, bawling through the last forty pages. Which is the highest praise I can give a book: “it moved me deeply.” Now, I don’t know how people are writing reviews of this book without spoiling all its surprises, so I’m not going to say anything specific about it at all. Yet. Read it, and then let’s have a nice long chat about it, okay?
Picture books Rilla enjoyed this week:
Chicken in drawing decides to help with the painting; hijinks ensue. Delicious art. This would be lots of fun to pair up with other picture books that break the fourth wall, such as David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs or Melanie Watt’s Chester.
Lyrical poem with perfectly lovely art (I’d like walls the colors of her skies). “This book was very…unusual,” declared Rilla approvingly. I think what she meant was that it’s non-narrative, not plot-driven. Girl on swing thinking soaring thoughts.
More book recommendations here.
December already! Impossible.
I’ve been trying to catch up my GoodReads log, but with all these graphic novels I’m reading for Cybils, it’s hard to keep it up to date. November’s list is too long to recreate here, but I’ll call out a few of my favorite reads from the month.
(Links go to GoodReads.)
I keep calling this Trollville by accident because of the (perfectly delicious) subtitle: “Yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl.” Middle-grade graphic novel published by Amulet Books. Enchanted Beanie and me. Mirka wants to fight monsters but gets entangled with a foul-tempered talking pig instead. Her sometimes comical, often hair-raising adventures occur in the context of a full, tradition-centered home life. I love books that mingle the small, gritty challenges of daily life with grand, fantastic adventures—but maybe you already knew that about me?
This is the gift to give your 8-12-year-old nephew or niece if you want the Coolest Uncle Ever award. Or Coolest Aunt. Whichever. An aging superhero announces that he is holding auditions for a new sidekick. His pets, who miss his company, decide to try out. His pets? Are a dog, a hamster, and a lizard. That’s right. The hamster is trying out for the superhero sidekick gig. It’s equal parts heartwarming and hilarious. And the art just knocked—my—socks—off.
This book is really special. It’s a memoir in words and pictures. Allen Say recounts the story of his life with poignant candor. At age twelve, he goes to Tokyo to live alone (!) in order to attend a good school. His tiny one-room apartment has everything young Allen needs: solitude and a desk he can draw at. In a move full of gumption, he approaches a renowned cartoonist and asks to train under him. Amazing story. Beanie’s read it at least three times now.
I read some other excellent books this month and maybe I’ll do a part two of this post, but the days do roll away from me.
