June 15, 2014


There are been some recent discussion--via some Facebook sites, as well as among my friends and librarian friends--about the lack of diversity in books, particularly YA novels. Some good sources about the issue are Amy Poehler's Smart Girls Facebook site and Elizabeth Kennedy's posts about children's literature on about.com.


During my year-long project the issue of diversity was evident all along the way, pretty much any period of time that the book was written. And I probably don't need to say that minorities and ethnic groups were seldom the main character of a novel, seldom more than a novelty character, and too often the target of slurs. Times change. But is ignoring our diversity just another form of bigotry?


On Facebook I recently pointed out some books that do feature characters, main and supporting, of different ethnic groups and vowed that we should all point them out when we do come across good examples. Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan features a blended family formed out of an emergency and together they redefine what "family" can be. (This book is a 2014-15 Texas Bluebonnet book so it should get a lot of young readers' attention.) I recently downloaded a YA novel I'd seen on a library shelf (costs but not much and sometimes convenience outweighs "free"): To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. The three daughters in this book have a Korean mother. An interesting point was brought out in this book when Lara Jean, the main character, and her younger sister were choosing Halloween costumes. As Lara Jean says, anything she wears elicits the question, "What are you? A manga character?" So she chooses to dress as Cho Chang, from Harry Potter. Hmmm, Harry Potter books? Not a great deal of diversity there either.


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I do have some literature triumphs in my life, one being reading Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in its entirety in Middle English. Yes, you can get editions that have the old and new language side by side but my professor strongly advised us against doing that. She said to just start reading, maybe even aloud, and soon it would make sense. I felt I needed to apply that same diligence to reading the Southern black dialect in Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit. I cannot imagine tackling this as a youngster and making any sense out of it. But somewhere along the line I must’ve become acquainted with more than a Disney version of Brer Rabbit for it is familiar. And I did enjoy this.

IT’S BEEN SIX MONTHS SINCE I BEGAN THIS PROJECT AND IT’S TURNED OUT TO BE EVEN MORE REWARDING THAN I’D HOPED IT WOULD BE. I’VE READ SOME BOOKS THAT I’M SO GRATIFIED TO HAVE FINALLY READ. I THINK I’VE FOUND BOOKS TO PUSH MY GRANDCHILDREN TOWARD AS THEY GET OLDER. I’VE HAD SOME GREAT CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER PEOPLE ABOUT SOME OF THESE BOOKS ON THE LIST. I’VE EVEN CHECKED OUT MORE BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY WHICH I’VE LEARNED HELPS THEIR FUNDING WHICH IS BASED ON CIRCULATION! BUT, ASIDE FROM THE SIMPLE PLEASURE OF READING THE BOOKS, I THINK THE BEST PART HAS BEEN DOING A LITTLE RESEARCH ABOUT SOME OF THE BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS. I’M NOT TALKING THESIS HERE, JUST A READ-THROUGH OF WIKIPEDIA OR SOMESUCH. AS A LITTLE GIRL I JUST CRAVED THE STORIES, BUT WHAT FUN IT HAS BEEN TO LEARN THE “STORY BEHIND THE STORY,” SO TO SPEAK. FOR INSTANCE, I’VE LEARNED THAT THE INFLUENCE OF JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS AND UNCLE REMUS WAS WIDE-RANGED. BEATRIX POTTER, FOR ONE, BORROWED LANGUAGE SUCH AS “COTTONTAIL” AND “PUDDLE-DUCK.” MARK TWAIN WAS A FAN; THE DIALECT AND STORIES INFLUENCED THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. A.A. MILNE WAS ANOTHER AUTHOR WHO BORROWED DIALECT, PLOT, AND STRUCTURE FROM HARRIS. HE EVEN INFLUENCED WILLIAM FAULKNER!

I LOOK FORWARD TO MORE BOOKS AND FURTHER TRIVIA TO ENRICH THEM OVER THE NEXT SIX MONTHS.

Believe it or not, often during my lifetime I’ve been called a Pollyanna. I’ve always taken it as a compliment (whether that was the intent or not), and having just finished Pollyanna I now want to make it my daily goal to be a Pollyanna. It’s almost a shame that I didn’t read this book earlier (sometimes I wonder if I’ve read some of these but just have no clear recollection of them) because it would’ve become a companion and I’m sure I would’ve read it over and over. I LOVED this book! In fact, I’m GLAD I read it!

Found two little books hidden away on a shelf: The Little Sailboat by Lois Lenski and The House That Jack Built, a Mother Goose rhyme illustrated by J.P. Miller and another Little Golden Books Classic reissue. Lois Lenski books always have me smiling as I’m reading them. I wonder if I did when I was a little girl reading them the first time. Little Tinker the dog is so adorable! I was struck by the vocabulary a young reader could acquire from this little book. That’s a good thing, always. Jack is a fun rhyme to read aloud and these illustrations are pretty entertaining.

Unfortunately I chose to read A Little Princess shortly after reading Pollyanna. Both have a very similar plot—motherless girl loses her father and handles life’s difficulties with her attitude. Or mind games, so to speak. If someone had asked me if I’d read A Little Princess, I would’ve said that I didn’t think so. While details didn’t come streaming back into my head, I’m reasonably sure that I did read it when I was little. Which then begs the question of why I didn’t read A Secret Garden back then.  And I know I did not  read that one until starting this project.

It has been decades since I’ve heard anyone use the term “little Lord Fauntleroy”—another remembered favorite of my grandmother’s—but until reading the actual novel I didn’t realize that I’ve had the wrong perception of a “little Lord Fauntleroy” for most of my life. I thought it meant a sissified, pampered, fancily dressed, imperious little man. The title character, Cedric Errol who becomes Lord Fauntleroy, is, yes, a long, golden-curled boy in velvet suits and often big hats, but he is a loving and lovable, charitable, caring child. And the good he does is heartwarming. It’s also uncanny how similar Little Lord Fauntleroy is to Pollyanna and A Little Princess (by the same author, Frances Hodgson Burnett)—here a fatherless boy “loses” his mother (they’re not allowed to live together for a short period of time) and his innocent personality wins over everyone and gives him a wonderful life when it could have been a harsh experience with his brash grandfather. I could hardly put this one down I enjoyed it so much.

Thank you, Elizabeth! She bought The Rooster Crows at a book sale benefiting the Adult Reading Center of Pearland, a total win-win proposition in my book. The Rooster Crows is subtitled A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles, and it is chock full of things I learned by heart growing up but I suspect they’re no longer part of the modern curriculum. Too bad. I need to incorporate more of these in my times with my grandchildren.

Pollyanna, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and now Anne of Green Gables. This project has been worthwhile if only because I’ve read these four books. Thoroughly enjoyed them, got a lot out of them, was affected by each of them. And now for a little op-ed:

Sometimes I do feel I’m one of those little ol’ ladies who pines for the good old days. Even if I know they weren’t all that good. But growing up in the mid-20th century was a lot more pleasant than growing up in the early years of that century, when these books were written. I prefer indoor plumbing and cook stoves, dishwashers and clothes washers and dryers, automobiles, televisions, record players, telephones—you get the idea. Now, into the second decade of the 21st century, it saddens me to see the malcontents all around. Malcontents seem to come in two varieties: those who don’t have “it” and those who have “it” and don’t appreciate it or want more. Furthermore they all feel they are entitled to “it.” Bicycles are now ten (or more) speeds, automobiles are now Hummers, telephones are now iPhones, televisions are now high definition and color and huge and ubiquitous, record players are now iPods, indoor plumbing is now jetted spa tubs, cook stoves are now microwaves and convection ovens and double ovens, and the excess goes on and on. No, I don’t want to give up some of these inventions that I love dearly but I don’t obsess over things I do not have and I certainly don’t feel that I deserve to have everything available out there. I pray that my grandchildren don’t grow up to be the type that cannot appreciate having something as opposed to demanding the best, designer, Brand Name whatever. There’s a time for video games—which I stink at but they fascinate me anyway—but there’s a time for Scrabble and Yahtzee and Solitaire. There’s a time for a read-to-me NOOK book (again, one of the reasons I began this project) and a time for a lap and a cuddle and a giggle or seven and a book to maybe be read 12 times in a row. There’s a time for fast food and a time for breakfast for dinner at the family dinner table. I didn’t lead a life like Pollyanna or Anne Shirley, my children didn’t, my grandchildren don’t. Life was sterner when those books were written. Orphans and homes for them were commonplace. There were classes of people, de facto as in Little Lord Fauntleroy or not. There was WORK to get through each day. Each of these children suffered and led lives that were not cushy by any means. Yet they were happy and they triumphed. Why does the populace today want to have what everyone else has without working for it, and why does the populace drag down every person or institution that has seemingly made it and revels in their demise? Somewhere along the line we’ve lost our sense of self—self-acceptance, self-determination, self-reliance, self-respect. A line from Anne of Green Gables hit me deeply: That is one consolation when you are poor—there are so many more things you can imagine about. Imagining about how to earn a pair of $200 sneakers and imagining your $50 sneakers are as cool as those $200 ones rather than beating someone to a bloody pulp in order to steal a pair of $200 sneakers seems to be such a better, more civilized, kinder way to live. Not having a pair of Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses is not a tragedy. Not being able to see is a tragedy. Not having designer sunglasses is a disappointment. Make life’s disappointments matter less by playing the “Glad Game” or caring about other people worse off than yourself or imagining good things around you or seeing the real beauty of the world and the people around you. They’re all free.

 

I’d love to hear the critiques of young readers today of these books. Does any class expect them to even read such “out of date” novels?

 

February 23, 2014


How embarrassing that I've neglected this blog for FIVE MONTHS! Not that it is likely to reveal a cure for Parkinson's Disease or stop the fighting in Syria or even get the Kardashians off television, but once started I feel an obligation to keep it up.


I just conversed via e=mail with some college friends and said how my project begun in 2011 still continues to this day. So to catch up, here are some current recommendations of children's books. If I am repeating myself, I'm not really repeating myself; I just want you to know how sincere I am in recommending these books. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is based on a true story, and if you love Bambi, you will love Ivan. A wonderful book (pun sadly intended) is Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Inspired by a real-life incident, written for children ages 8 and up, marketed to all ages, and a must-read for everyone in my opinion. This book is about KINDNESS. Along with love, that's what the world needs now. I have already mentioned my love of the Benedict Society books by Trenton Lee Stewart but they now have rival in Chris Grabenstein's Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (for which the rights were just purchased by Nickelodeon for a TV movie). Another new book (first in a series) I liked A LOT is Nick and Tesla's High Voltage Danger Lab by Steve Hockensmith and "Science Bob" Pflugfelder. My only hesitancy with Nick and Tesla is that this grandy is not up to all the experiments (we've done the Coke and Mentos a couple of times without propelling anything with it though). Steve is a favorite author of adult mysteries and his first venture into kidlit shows as much promise for enjoyment as his Holmes on the Range series. (My husband is Steve's Number One fan. Really. You can check out his website/fan page and see that Bob is right there. One of the Holmes books even mentions him by name.) Regarding my project, I found myself sort of bummed by some "modern" books I was reading, so I went back to some of the series that I'd read for the first time during that year. Read another tale of the Bobbsey Twins and Anne of Avonlea, which was just what I expected. Yup, I have my curmudgeonly days when I wish for days of more goodness and less animosity. Hardships maybe, but people tended to work together more and families truly were families.


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Growing up in Colorado the summers were often hot so the places where it was cool in the long afternoons were places we would hang out. The museum, the library, the shade beneath bushes alongside our houses, our basements—finished or not. All fertile places for imaginations to grow and make-believe games to be played. Alice in Wonderland would have been the perfect book for those hot hours just after lunchtime when our mothers/grandmothers/babysitters asked us to rest for a while. I don’t think anything I ever imagined was quite this fanciful but, oh, we did have some adventures of our own.

Another journey back in time with the Bobbsey Twins, but this time the plotline, while thrilling and heartwarming, was a mite contrived.


Through my friendship with our local children’s librarian I have learned a few things about the Houston Public Library system. Their staffing is based on their circulation—so I’ve been checking more and more books out of the library. Books may be returned to any branch; however, books remain at the branch they’re returned to unless they originated at the Central Library Branch downtown. I’m conscientious about only returning books to our local branch, Park Place, now. For some reason, which I’ll determine later, our branch was closed yesterday, so I have a bulging bag of books to be returned there on Monday and I had to go to another branch to look for some of the books I’d like to put on this list. Checked out about half a dozen that I haven’t found at our branch—and I’m going to be sure to return them to Park Place this week. How to help the neighborhood!


I was able to pick up the second Madeline book and the first Babar book. Madeline was as adorable if not more so this go around, and I learned something new about Babar—I didn’t realize that Celeste was his cousin whom he married. Another little fact I didn’t know, and the kind of thing I appreciate knowing in case it ever comes up on Jeopardy!:  Jean de Brunhoff is often referred to as the father of the contemporary picture book. It did disturb me a bit that right off at the beginning Babar’s mother is shot and killed. I’m sure English literature majors have written many theses about the dead mother motif/wicked stepmother motif in children’s literature. The third book I’ve read from my recent library jaunt is near the top of my favorites list for this project thus far. The Courage of Sarah Noble was written in 1954 so it is entirely possible that I did read this when I was a little girl. Since it’s a Newbery Honor Book, I think it might have been recommended or at least displayed at the library as a choice offering. Oh, and it is! Not only did I relish this little story (it’s less than 60 pages long) but I know myself well enough to know I would’ve felt the same about it at age 10 or so.  

There were many reasons why Pippi Longstocking was one of the first books I thought of for this project. One, of course, it’s a children’s classic, and two, I’d never read it. Also, I’d recently read that Stieg Larsson, author of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, said that he envisioned Lisbeth Salander as a grown-up Pippi. That's reason #3. When I went to check the library shelves I found several editions of Pippi but the one I just had to check out—and reason #4 for reading Pippi—was the edition illustrated by Lauren Child, of Ivy and Bean and Charlie and Lola fame. After reading this book, I have to say: It’s a classic, I’ve read it, I can rather see Lisbeth being a product of Pippi (in the book notes Pippi is described as “fearless, independent, original, and lives exactly how she chooses”), and Lauren Child’s illustrations were perfect for Pippi.

Little Black Sambo. Wow, for the price of one you get two: a classic and a banned book. I loved Little Black Sambo as a child and remember buying the reissued original version for my children—where that particular little book is, however, I don’t know. Gotta be on a shelf around here somewhere. But in the meantime, I checked this out from the library. Then I read up on the “controversy.” So Helen Bannerman used a lot of black ink in her drawings? Have you read the story, folks? With modern and updated versions, is it still an offensive book? So Sambo resembles a typical pickaninny? OK, growing up I heard the word “pickaninny” often. I don’t recall it being used as a racial slur, however. It was more like an imp or a rascal. That great modern-day source of all answers, Wikipedia, defines pickaninny as a juvenile, dark-skinned and immune to pain. I don’t know where that came from and I see no relevance to this little story. What do I still see in Little Black Sambo? A little boy, well-dressed and well-loved by his mother and father, who successfully barters with a series of tigers by giving them clothes rather than being eaten alive and then succeeds in taking advantage of the tigers’ egos and self-centeredness to retrieve the clothes and get home unscathed. Brainy little guy, to be admired. Plus there’s just something so delightful in the image of the tigers racing around that tree, turning into butter, and then being served on those delicious pancakes.

As I said above, I found Alice in Wonderland to be an imaginative delight. Through the Looking Glass, though, was more of an absurd tale. In my opinion, of course. I do adore Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter but the rest was just sort of silly.

With my oldest grandson I discovered a little animated show on Nick Jr., or probably Noggin back then, called The Backyardigans. Fantastic music, simple but make-believe adventures, characters designed by one of our family-favorite illustrators, Dan Yaccarino. These days the episode Polka Palace Party is a favorite, much-requested show. But Abby probably first discovered The Backyardigans through an interactive book called Polka Cowboys. The story is a little bit condensed from the TV episode but it features “buttons” to push to make the appropriate sounds within the story—tuba, clarinet, accordion, drums, runaway horses, Cheyenne River, etc. This book was published in 2006. Recently I downloaded the same story but called Polka Palace Party onto my NOOK. And it’s yet another version of the TV episode. Abby and I—we like them all!

When I looked The Swiss Family Robinson up on Wikipedia to get the publication date I learned something that really made the book make a great deal more sense to me. While I read it as an adventure tale along the lines of Treasure Island, it’s really written as an educational treatise on moral lessons such as frugality and family values, resilience and cooperation, for example. I downloaded this one also onto my NOOK—all 805 pages of it! It was enjoyable but hard to get to the end. It didn’t take me long to realize that if I was ever stranded on an island, even one this large, in the East Indies or wherever, I would’ve lasted about a week. For sure not 805 pages worth.

And now for something completely different… The Borrowers is a fantasy (maybe? maybe not?) and pure pleasure. Having read this, I’m now eager to watch the recent movie, Arrietty. I’m wondering if this might be a good book to read to my oldest grandson this summer. After all, I have a whole set of Borrowers books. Why do I own so many books that fit the criteria for this project but I’ve never read them? Guess I’ve always had an itch that needed scratching plus I bought them for my children either because they were lucky enough to have someone (a teacher) tell them it was worth reading or I wanted them to read something I wished I’d read when I was their age. ("Better late than never." That should be the title of this project.) Not only was The Borrowers one of my favorite books so far but I learned that it was a Carnegie Award-winning book. The Carnegie Award (named for Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie who established libraries all over the world) is given to the outstanding book for children or young adults by the British Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, which in 2007 also named The Borrowers one of the most important children’s novels of the previous 70 years.

September 29, 2013

Whether it's a new author, an adult book, fiction or nonfiction, something outside my usual favored genres, or a children's book, when I run across a fantastic book and it totally delights, I treasure that feeling of serendipity. Sipping Spiders Through a Straw: Campfire Songs for Monsters is exactly that kind of book. If you interact with kids at all, this is great fun for the Halloween season in particular. My daughter and her family are singing these around the dinner table (which if you know some of the words to these parodies seems a bit off-putting!) and having a ball. Because the songs are pretty much all familiar to the kids, it's easy to get them into the swing of things: "If You're Crazy and You Know It," "If Your Guts Hang Low," "99 Bottles of Blood on the Wall." From a review of the book: Sung to the tune of "Oh My Darling, Clementine," "My Delicious Frankenstein" has lyrics like, "Oh, my crispy. Oh, my crunchy./Oh, my frosted Frankenstein./You're so yummy…in my tummy…/My delicious Frankenstein." The song is illustrated with a downtrodden-looking monster, complete with whipped cream and a cherry atop his head. He's portrayed against a red-and-white-check tablecloth and opposite a woman licking her lips and brandishing a carving knife and fork. Bon appetit!

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Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski was a recent NOOK Daily Find for Families—and it was a real find! Yes, I’d heard of the book before but hadn’t read it, but it was learning more about Lois Lenski and her books that caught my attention. This is one of her Regional books—a genre I was unaware that she had published. Now I’m curious to see if I can possibly find others available either for my NOOK or at the library. Her illustrations add much to her stories.

Another publication celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Little Golden books also features one of my all-time favorite illustrators, Joan Walsh Anglund. A Child’s Year is a simple, short book—as many of hers are—that is ideal for teaching little ones just a bit about the months in a year.

I watch about as many children’s movies as I read children’s books, and for the same reason. One of my favorite movies is Stuart Little, with Stuart voiced by Michael J. Fox. (Geena Davis as the mom is one of my all-time favorite cinema mothers.) So I especially wanted to pick up E.B. White’s novel and read it for the first time. For a book I think I prefer his Trumpet of the Swan, but it was nice to see how much of the Stuart Little book was made into the movie, including Margalo from the sequel. Books let your imagination fly but, oh my, can Jim Henson Studios and special effects do a lot too!

Yeah, yeah, I know I’ve said this before but I’m saying it again: I love Eric Carle but Abby LOVES Eric Carle. How I wish I could get inside her toddler mind to discover the essence of the appeal! Of course his artwork is bright and eye-catching. The text of Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?  is simple and repetitive—a good thing in a children’s book. Abby could probably read this one by herself by now (that’s how many times we’ve read it so far).  It doesn’t bore me either. Kudos to Mr. Carle!

Serendipity! I’d forgotten about this gem from my childhood at the library but when I spotted The Story about Ping at our local library the other day, I was grinning from ear to ear. What an odd little book, about a foreign world—just as I remembered it. This was a perfect find to add to this list.

Found The Witches of Worm on my bookshelf; my son read this probably in 5^th or 6^th grade. It too is a Newbery Honor Book. Why? I just didn’t get this one. It seemed to be a beginning and an end with no substance any place. ... OK. It’s been about 24 hours since I finished the book and I’ve read some reviews of it—and I still don’t get it. I suppose the only child, single parent, alienated, friendless, overly imaginative main character is more a mid-70’s profile than the white picket fence, Mom/Dad/two kids family of my era. The only negative comments I’ve found so far are the expected anti-witchcraft ones. Still don’t think this would be on my “must read” list. Ever.

Pop Corn and Ma Goodness, as I just recently learned, was a Caldecott Honor Book and the illustrations are delightful. I wonder though if they’re studied that much by readers as they zip through the hilarious rhymes of this book.

I didn’t really want to re-read The Velveteen Rabbit but felt sort of obligated for this project. When I originally read this, as a young girl, it made me sad—and I think I was in a quandary about whether I wanted my toys to become real or not. (And as an only child, my toys were very often “real” to me!) I’m pretty sure I read it to my son and daughter though probably only once. The edition I read for this project is from 1997 and illustrated by Don Daily in a much more elegant, intricate style than the original by William Nicholson. It didn’t make me cry this time. Perhaps I’d steeled myself for it beforehand.

September 16, 2013

I don't remember if I have mentioned here or even in my original Second Childhood Project write-up about About.com's Children's Books expert. http://childrensbooks.about.com/?nl=1
Elizabeth Kennedy is a wonderful resource for children's literature and so much more. You can sign up for a monthly newsletter and she is also on Facebook. I also share the newsletters with my daughter-in-law to use, not only for my grandson, but for her 2nd-grade class. I do know that I've mentioned how much I enjoyed doing a teeny bit of research about authors throughout the year spent on my project, and that is something I value Ms. Kennedy for--her insight into author's, recognizing their awards, their birthdates, their significance.

With my still eager taste for children's literature* and three grandchildren--8, almost 6, and 3 1/2--there is a lot for me to keep on top of.

*Aidan turned into quite a reader this summer--with the discovery of the Wimpy Kid series and the Captain Underpants series. Yea! I'm remembering to check out library books that are new to Abby but are ones her brother and mother enjoyed in the past. Then they can share. Plus I pick out ones she hasn't seen in a couple of years. I ordered several volumes of a series written by a former Fort Collins, Colorado resident. The setting for his books are Fort Collins in the 60s/70s. I haven't started reading them yet but look forward to it. And a high school friend and Facebook friend had a link to another Fort Collins author, so I bought the first book in her series, Artsy Fartsy. That one, I believe, will be a Christmas present for Aidan. One of his best friends turned 8 last week. Because Bryce's birthday is mid-September he started to school a year after Aidan. Bryce is only in 2nd grade but easily reads on a 4th grade level. In looking for books to buy him for his birthday present, I discovered Dan Gutman's My Weird School Daze series. He's written A LOT of books, some nonfiction. I bought the first in the MWSD series for Aidan, again probably a Christmas present. (I buy many, many books for Christmas.) Rowan's birthday is coming up, October 19, and I saw an adorable book featuring a pug but since their family pug just recently died I passed on it for now. Instead I bought The Monstore, which looks like a fun read-together book.

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Eloise Wilkins, as I’ve said many times, is my favorite children’s book illustrator from my childhood and my feelings endure today. When my daughter was born, I fell in love with Joan Walsh Anglund, even decorating her nursery with linens, statuettes, dolls, and books featuring Anglund’s characters, primarily Emily and Adam. But reading—and looking for—books from my childhood that I loved and read again and again, I realize how much I love the illustrations of Lois Lenski. The Little Family and The Little Train stand the test of time while also being sweetly old-fashioned. Mrs. Little washes the family’s clothes with a washboard while Mr. Little wears a bowler hat to work; the coal-powered steam engine makes me nostalgic for railroad travel. I’m glad I’ve bought these books for my grandchildren.

When I bought Harry the Dirty Dog for my oldest grandson it was the 50^th anniversary edition (2006). I read it way back when, still think it’s funny, and I think the grandchildren like it too. I think the “twist” at the end is adorable.

If you ask people to name a favorite beginning reader full of rhyming words and repetition, most people, I believe, will say Hop on Pop or Green Eggs and Ham. Not me. I like P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog, Go! Great on the rhymes, rhythm, repetition—with an ongoing joke with a visual punchline. Yeah, go, dog, go!

I’ve always believed that books should be shared. In fact, it disappoints me when I finish a book and can’t think of anyone appropriate to give it to. (Rarely is a book such trash I don’t want to share it with anyone but it does occasionally happen.) So I find it particularly delightful to “share” books off my oldest grandson Aidan’s bookshelves. Danny and the Dinosaur and Sammy the Seal, both by Syd Hoff, are gems that I’d purchased for Aidan. Written in the late 50s they seem to be too easy for me to have read when I was in grade school, yet I think I did. Perhaps I wasn’t as accomplished a reader as I think I was! I know I read them to my children also.

How many editions of The Tale of Peter Rabbit are there? Who knows. The WEEKLY READER version, which I found on Aidan’s shelf, is one of the best. I find that as I grow older I appreciate the beauty of Beatrix Potter’s illustrations and the timelessness of her stories. I read a bit about her and did not realize that she died just three years before I was born. Her books seem from very much another time and place.

Eric Carle (yes, again) and Bill Martin, Jr., are responsible for several modern day classics. Great for beginning readers, learning colors, learning observation, interactive. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is one of the best.

No one seems to disagree with me when I say I don’t have much of a sense of humor. For one thing, as an only child who spent a great deal of time alone I didn’t laugh out loud very much at anything I found funny. I mean, really, wouldn’t that have been a bit peculiar? The things I do find funny are usually what I’d call “off the wall” or “offbeat” humor. If I were a kid today, The Dumb Bunnies series would be a huge fave of mine. I just think they’re hysterical. Not only the text but the illustrations. I grant you I’d love The Dumb Bunnies for just the cover mocking Goodnight Moon.

Though only written in 1994, Guess How Much I Love You seems to be another modern classic, or at least a consistent bestseller. It’s a sweet book but I wouldn’t name it to my top five list of sweet books about how much a parent loves their child. But that’s just my opinion.

My, my, my. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White wasn’t what I expected at all. Another long-time shelf sitter, I wish I’d read this one to Paul and Betsy when they were little. I thought it would be similar to Charlotte’s Web but more serious-minded. Turns out it was a quirky delight, more reminiscent of Stuart Little (or at least the movie version, since I’ve never read that book either).

Loved them then, love them now! I’ve finished my set of Nancy Drew mysteries and thoroughly enjoyed them. Sure I can see the holes in the logic, the leaps of imagination, the preponderance of coincidence, but they’re just mystery novels for young readers after all. It’s not just the juxtaposition of reading a 1930’s book in the 21^st century but little niggling things that stand out as an adult reader. In these first six volumes I bought, Nancy was 3 when her mother died, but Wikipedia states that in earlier editions Nancy was 10. What editions earlier than the first six published? I don’t know if changes have been made over the last 80 years and it’s gotten all confused or what. The original series ended in 2004; updated versions with more modern attitudes and contrivances have taken over. One thing I found curious was one solitary mention of Ned in #4. Nancy had a few dates in the previous editions with other guys but I remembered Ned as being THE boyfriend throughout. And that mention was very, very offhand. I had to laugh too that a cellphone would’ve aided Nancy, her father, and her friends a great deal in all these plots!

August 8, 2013

Raise your hand if you've ever seen You've Got Mail. Yeah, me too. Lots of times, in fact. (That kiss at the end is one of my favorite all-time cinema kisses.) So raise your hand if you've read Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. I never did until now. Always curious about the books Meg Ryan's character recommends to the customer in the mega-bookstore but did not get any of them on my list of second childhood books. And they must've been around the local library, Ballet Shoes having been first published in 1937. I enjoyed the tale of Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil but the novel fell a little short of other classics like The Little Princess and The Secret Garden. There are more in the series available in paperback. Yes, it's likely I'll pick them up too. I mean--what happens to the girls as their futures unfold? (I almost put some spoilers in there. Shame on me!)

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Every so often—and I wish it were more often—I discover a book like Frederick by Leo Lionni. Why didn’t I ever read this to my children? Will my grandchildren appreciate it? Proves that sometimes it’s a good thing, a heartwarming thing to be a poet. Yea, Frederick!

Then there is Munro Leaf’s Ferdinand. Let me tell you, I loved Ferdinand as a little girl, everything from the flowers on the cover to the intricate black-and-white illustrations. I read Ferdinand to my children and I know I’ve read it to my oldest grandson. I think I need to buy this one for my youngest grandson now. Being 65 years old I was pretty young when we got a television set but radio was a huge part of my growing up and of my memories. There was programming just for children and somewhere I remember hearing stories being read. So Dear to My Heart is one, Song of the South another…and Ferdinand. That’s what I remember—I wonder if I’m remembering correctly. Anyway, sometime, somewhere I heard Ferdinand read aloud, on radio or television. I paid even more attention this reading to Robert Lawson’s drawings. Oh, my! I love the buzzards perched in so many of them, just observing what’s going on. The startled look on Ferdinand’s face when the bumblebee stings him in the butt is priceless, and memorable from my original readings. I’d forgotten, however, the growth chart for the bull. And the big bell around Ferdinand’s mother’s neck which says “MOTHER.” A classic book, no doubt.

I guess I’ll never change my opinion: Little Golden Books are just the epitome of childhood. I might pine for my paper dolls and a couple of my dolls, but at least I still have Little Golden Books. The Classics series really speaks to me too. Did I read The Kitten Who Thought He Was a Mouse as a little girl? Don’t know but I would’ve liked it then if I had. Even though I didn’t have cats—or mice—when I was little.

My, oh, my, but the Betsy-Tacy books are funny and sad at the same time. Poor Tacy contracted diphtheria (a sign of the times) and was quarantined for a long period of time. That made Betsy, the imaginative one, fearful that one of the good friends might die and they all three needed something to remind themselves of each other forever. Her idea? To carry locks of each other’s hair in lockets made out of pill boxes. Which resulted in five of Tacy’s ten long, red sausage ringlets getting cut off and half of Tib’s yellow curls and one of Betsy’s brown pigtails. Just like their mothers I laughed and cried.

I wonder which of my friends owned Pat the Bunny. I’m quite sure I didn’t, but I’m also sure I read it long before my children did. Paul and Judy visiting that farm—with the soft bunny and the ring to “put on” and the mirror to look into. Definitely the forerunner to all the lift-the-flap, pop-up, touch-and-feel books that fill so much space on bookstore shelves these days. Alas, all not available as e-books.

One thing that nudged me into doing this project was getting a NOOK, but I chose to buy the first six Nancy Drew books as hardcovers. Who knows how people will be reading books in 10 or 12 years. Surely black ink on paper won’t be completely antiquated. And I did want to have Nancy Drew available for my granddaughter, even if she only reads them as a quaint look at the past. For me, it’s great fun to relive those adventures of the “girl” detective in the convertible. Number one, The Secret of the Old Clock, is re-read. Good times.

On the back cover of this Little Golden Book Classic, Diane Muldrow, Editor, is quoted: “Each of us remembers our own favorite Little Golden Book.” Yes, I do—and I will eventually add that particular one to this list. For now, A Day at the Seashore, was a “blast from the past,” as the silly saying goes. Sunsuits—and I was immediately taken back to days of sunsuits. Particularly a blue-and-white checked one I loved.

As much as I dislike Goodnight Moon, I sure do read a lot of books by Margaret Wise Brown. Big Red Barn fails for all the reasons I’ve found in her other books but it is charming in its simplicity and the animals alone. What little kid doesn’t like a book where you can point out your favorite farm animals?

July 14, 2013

This time I have a follow-up to the previous post. Remember, I explained how Dan Yaccarino's Go, Go America was the inspiration for Grandy Camp this summer? Just on a whim I went to his website and sent him an e-mail thanking him for the inspiration from that book and the enjoyment all my grandchildren have gotten from his books and television shows. The next day I got the kindest e-mail in return from him! I like "customer service" from authors as well as salespeople. (There's another author, Chris Grabenstein, who writes funny mysteries set in New Jersey, who always reads reviews of his books on Goodreads website. I like that also.)

There is a wonderful series of books about the states--wish I could afford to buy them all in hardback--revolving around the alphabet. We checked out P is for Pelican for Louisiana and I'm hoping to get M is for Magnolia from the library for Mississippi. I bought a copy of C is for Centennial for Colorado and will do the same with L is for Lone Star for Texas. Worth a look!

Back when we "visited" Vermont I recalled the story of the Morgan horse. My daughter was able to find a copy of Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry at their neighborhood library. It was close to 200 pages long, and Aidan was already in the midst of a couple of other chapter books so I didn't start it with him. I just read it for myself. This really is a book of many things: being an original, being an American, being resourceful, being determined. As well as love between a boy-turned-man and a horse.

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Second item on this Saturday’s to-do list was to go to the library. By myself. To look for books for this project. I got three Curious George books, thinking I got the first three in the series but it turns out that I got numbers 1, 3, and 4. I’m reasonably sure I read Curious George books as a little girl so we’re on the third generation reading them now—they don’t go out of style. I found the first one endearing for a number of reasons. Right after the title page is a page with a drawing of the book cover and underneath it says “This book belongs to ____________.” Yes, books should belong to children, and they should have pride of ownership. I guess that’s why I buy so many books for so many children. Then I was impressed that the text of this one was geared for early readers; some of the others get pretty plot-intensive and vocabulary is expansive. And the subtle lesson of getting into and out of trouble, especially with the help of your friends, is a good one to hear. Again, the era of this book made it a little jolting to read, when both the Man with the Yellow Hat and George smoke pipes.

Gritting my teeth, I checked out and read Goodnight Moon. Yeah, yeah, I know I must be a minority of one, but I think this may be the worst children’s book ever written. It’s insipid, boring, has an awkward rhyme and rhythm, and is nonsensical. Who in the world goes to bed with a bowl of mush on the nightstand? Just to be clear on this—I’ve always thought it was a dumb book.

I found Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats. All my life I’ve loved this rhyming, counting story, and this is one of many versions I’ve read. And Keats has written and illustrated a lot of quality, award-winning books. Having not paid much attention before, today I learned that the text is based on a traditional Southern Appalachian rhyme dating back to the 1800s and attributed to Olive A. Wadsworth. So I wanted to learn more about “Olive A. Wadsworth,” which turns out is a pen name for Katherine Floyd Dana, used because it was unseemly for a woman to be a writer in that era. “Olive A. Wadsworth” was specially chosen and the initials alone often used because in Mrs. Dana’s circle “OAW” stood for “Only A Woman.” In addition to writing such as Over in the Meadow, Mrs. Dana anonymously helped her husband write his Commercial and Financial Chronicle, which was the leading publication regarding commerce of its day.

Judy Blume’s The Pain and the Great One was written long after I was grown up, even after I’d had my children, but I don’t know why I never read it to Paul and Betsy. I can’t say that they were ever “The Pain and the Great One” and I can’t say that Aidan and Abby are either, but I might read it to them one of these days. It strikes as true note regarding siblings.

Earlier I complained about being able to just walk into my local library branch and find children’s classics on the shelves. So imagine my surprise when I found a book that, to me, is classic only in my own sentiment. I was given a copy of Open House for Butterflies as a high school graduation gift. It’s been on my bookshelf all these years but I’m afraid to go look now: I might’ve purged it fairly recently in an effort to get rid of the less popular ones. I’m sure I never appreciated the fact that it is by the author of The Carrot Seed, Ruth Krauss, and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. What I do appreciate is that, almost 50 years after the fact, I still quote lines from this little book. “When you run out of cereal can you run into it again?” “I think a race looks prettier when everybody comes in even.” “You can always boast that you DON’T have it.” “A little tree is a good thing not to be because you might grow up to be a telephone pole.” And my all-time favorite and one I quote very often: “The minute you meet some people you know you will hate their mothers.” So very true.

June 15, 2013

I'm old so I get to say this: Where has the year gone? It's already the middle of June, and even though school has been out for barely over a week, the end of the summer seems so close. During the summer months we have Grandy Camp around here. Lots of fun, some chores (money-making opportunities), some adventures, and some learning. Bet no one is surprised that READING is big on my list of favored activities. Yup. We read and we log and we win prizes. (Grandy especially loves the places that reward the kids with books rather than fast food coupons!) In the past Grandy Camp has had "theme days"; this year we're doing an overall theme of the USA. Part of our planning and learning for the summer comes from Dan Yaccarino's Go, Go America! book. He's a favorite author. This past week, our first official week of Grandy Camp, we learned about Maine, Arizona, Hawaii, and New Mexico. And, Grandy coup! I found THE perfect book: Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin. Why was it perfect? Well, you see there was a request for Knight Day this summer. There aren't a lot of knights, princesses, castles, or dragons in America. But ... there is London Bridge ... and it did come from England ... and it is in Arizona. So in a convoluted way, Grandy worked in Knight Day on Wednesday when we "visited" Arizona. And other than just about any street corner in Houston, where are you likely to find tacos? New Mexico! Hence, Dragons Love Tacos was the perfect book for the week. Super funny too--Aidan read it twice and laughed a lot both times. I have it on my books-as-gifts list now. (Coincidentally, one of the books mentioned below was appropriate for this week's Grandy Camp. We all read One Morning in Maine on Tuesday.)

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On Thursdays my granddaughter and I go to our neighborhood library for toddler storytime (did this with her big brother also). Today was a disappointing day, not just because our favorite children’s librarian was home sick. Granted, with a 2 ½-year-old to keep in tow, it’s not easy perusing the bookshelves, but I was looking for classics to pick up for myself, along with books for Aidan and Abby. There still seems to be just the one Lois Lenski book on the shelves. (No, I haven’t checked the catalog yet and I can always request books from other branches; I’m just talking about today.) Then I looked for a Raggedy Ann book—to find only a “re-write” using the original characters. Among the new books was one of apparently a series featuring “classic characters” in new stories. This one featured the Velveteen Rabbit. It was an early reader and the story appeared to be nothing similar to the original story. Not that that is bad—that is one classic I’m not certain I desire to read again. Finally I found two books: By chance, Noodle by Munro Leaf and on purpose, One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey.

I remembered reading Noodle as soon as I saw the cover. But, boy, I sure didn’t remember that Munro Leaf was the author—he wrote one of my favorites: Ferdinand. Nor did I remember that the illustrator was Ludwig Bemelmans, of Madeline. A simple story but cute as all get out and a lesson of being happy in your own skin.

How many times will I use the word “remember” before this project is finished? I didn’t remember One Morning in Maine until I began reading it. The warm feeling that memory brings is like pulling a comforter up under your chin—so cozy and homey. Enjoyed that story and that feeling. I’ve read Make Way for Ducklings  so often it probably isn’t fair to include it in this project but I think it might be incomplete without it.

Spent a much too rare weekend with my middle grandchild, 4½-year-old Rowan. Love just being around that smart little guy but I especially enjoyed getting to read four books to him (as well as baking cookies!). One of the books was I Want My Hat Back, which I read a while back and enjoyed. Perhaps it’s not truly a children’s book since neither grandson particularly “got” it or enjoyed it. However, I got to read Bone Soup, Toy Story 3 Together Again, and Go Away, Big Green Monster and he enjoyed those. Bone Soup was a new one to me and I did like it a lot; I’ve never really seen the Toy Story movies so I’m just so-so on those books; and Green Monster was familiar from several readings over the years at library storytime. I think it might’ve been Rowan’s first exposure to it though—I liked doing that.

This project would be remiss without a Curious George book or four—and I will get some of the original Margret and H.A. Rey titles on here. That curious little monkey never goes out of style or popularity, especially in the last five years with the PBS series and the movies. Curious George Goes to the Zoo, which I read half a dozen straight times this morning to Abby, is not an original but how heart-warming that new authors and illustrators are adding to George’s adventures. The story was essentially like all others—George’s curiosity always takes him places it shouldn’t, gets him in trouble, but all is well in the end—and the illustrations “done in the style of H.A. Rey” were remarkable, just as familiar as George’s well-loved face.

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (illustrated by Lois Lenski)—this book is exactly what this project is about. Why didn’t someone one day hand this book to me at Fort Collins Public Library and say, “Here, sweetheart, you should enjoy this book. It’s about little girls just like you.” But I never heard of this series until my “Betsy” was a little girl. Reading it was kind of a time machine—no cars, just horses and buggies—but the universality and timelessness of Tacy’s baby sister Bee dying and Betsy’s baby sister Margaret being born were very touching. And a lesson in what friendship really is about.