April 22, 2013

I realize I just posted but I don't want to overlook my blog and not record my feelings about the book I just finished--When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt.

A cheap download. Something I just stumbled across. Sorta enticed by the title and cover. Didn't really pay attention to the fact it was a National Book Award winner for Young People's Fiction right away. (It won in 1999.) I've even had it on my NOOK for several weeks without any big urge to start reading it. But having spent 3 1/2 days in the hospital and the last 2 1/2 days trying to rest a lot, I've read a lot. I love excuses for doing what I'd be doing anyway but feeling guilty about doing it!

This is a quirky story about realistic people in their mundane lives in a little Texas town. Just a slice of small town life from the viewpoint of a young teen boy. What makes it quirky is that Zachary Beaver comes to town. He is a freak, billed as the Fattest Boy in the World. The story is about friendship and love and loyalty and growing up and being nice. I'd want my kids to read about those things.

I recommend it for anyone, any age, who wants to read an uplifting book.

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Ah, an overdue notice from the Houston Public Library! I believe in supporting nonprofit organizations. But it did make me go through the book bag to fetch out the ones that didn’t make it back to our local branch last Thursday. I found (and read) two that I’d picked out for Abby but I don’t think she’d have liked them. Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres is a good book on many levels but I don’t think the text or the illustrations would’ve appealed to a 2-year-old. To teach a toddler about directions, yes, but I don’t think Abby is quite ready for that. I could be mistaken so I might try this with her tomorrow. And for people wanting to start a garden and especially to get their children to help with it and eventually reap the yummy rewards, this is a delight. I liked the overall message of Hug a Bug by Eileen Spinelli but getting there just didn’t have any “zing.” I won’t inflict it on Abby, even if she’d let me.

But then there was Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans which I’d intentionally checked out for myself. This book is exactly why I started this project of reading children’s books. I know I’ve never read Madeline (or any of the subsequent stories) and I’ve always wondered why. It wasn’t quite what I’d expected it to be but I can certainly see the long-lasting appeal of Madeline (the book was published in 1939 after all). I enjoyed it a lot—wondering what Madeline and Eloise would do if they got together. What totally confounds me is how I could’ve overlooked this book set in Paris when Paris was and is one of the strongest influences of my life. My parents met during World War II and married in Paris in 1945. Our house was full of Paris memorabilia and French photographs. I wrote so many papers throughout school on France; I encouraged my own children to do the same, and they did. If I’d found Madeline at the Fort Collins Public Library I would’ve kept it checked out all the time. Or asked for my own copy for Christmas.
It’s possible that some librarian or teacher recommended Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson to me. Or maybe not, back in the day when certain books were for boys and certain books were for girls. Whether they did or not, I never read it. And approaching it for this project I was dreading it, thinking I would not like it. About 80-100 pages in I was liking it even less than I expected. By the end, however, I could appreciate it. It’s quite an adventure—a swashbuckling tale!—and I could imagine young boys thoroughly enjoying fighting those “gentlemen of fortune” alongside Jim Hawkins. I guess kids don’t expect logic or sense in their tales of escape. Well, I can say I’ve read it now. Yea!

I don’t know when my fascination began with Peter Pan but I don’t remember ever not loving the story of Peter, Tinker Bell, Wendy, and the Lost Boys. So, I ponder, why have I never read the book—the REAL book, not the Disney version—before now? I find it interesting, charming, and heartwarming that all the versions I’m familiar with are quite true to J.M. Barrie’s story. This is one I look forward to reading to my grandchildren.

April 22, 2013

Beginning my project, back in 2011, I aimed to read books that were available back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s when I was becoming a reader but books that somehow I never read, but I also wanted to read more contemporary books, children's and young adult's both, that I might recommend to my grandchildren. I realized that other than the years that I didn't have a little one to tuck onto my lap and read to, I'd actually read a number of the "modern classics." (Oxymoron?) Now, long after finishing my project, I realize that I will never NOT read young people's fiction. Picking up a Looking for Alaska or Benedict Society edition will always, always, be a delight and wonder.

My daughter started her son on a chapter book, a Texas Bluebonnet choice, and since they were reading it on her NOOK, I wanted to download it also so he and I could continue reading it during the afternoons. First I needed to start on The One and Only Ivan though to catch up. Only took me a couple of hours to read it. Might've taken less time except for the moments spent wiping tears from my eyes. -sigh- What a heartwarming, heartwrenching story! And it's inspired by a true story which is just as heartwarming and heartwrenching. LOVED this book today--and if I'd read it when I was 8 years old, I would've been searching all over to find a copy to read to my grandchildren. (Well, eventually. This is not a book for the especially tenderhearted. But it will foster respect for all living things, for sure.)

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Library day! Touch and Feel Farm is one of those books that will drive a parent (or grandparent) to “lose a book.” If possible. Ten pages, 34 words. And I probably read it a dozen or more times today. I think it will go back in the book bag before Abby arrives tomorrow morning! She did let me read Little Quack’s Hide and Seek twice however. Since she’d enjoyed the last Little Quack book so much—and I did too—I specifically looked for another at the library today. Just as cute as the New Friend one we recently read.

Found another old Little Golden Book on my bookshelf. The Taxi That Hurried, reissued on the 50^th anniversary of Little Golden Books, was familiar, so perhaps it is one I read when little. Now it’s not so captivating but I could see the appeal for a small child.

At the same time I picked up our copy of Flat Stanley. I remember discovering it with my son and daughter. I’d forgotten how charming it is—and with a little bit of tongue-in-cheek humor that appeals to adults. At one time, Flat Stanley school projects were big—where children sent Flat Stanleys through the mail, to be passed on for a certain amount of time or for each to be returned to the child, who could then report on how far and wide Stanley had traveled. Could be fun.

In between re-readings of Handy Manny The Best Repairman and Little Quack’s Hide and Seek I read Abby another book from our library trip this week, Cock-a-Doodle-Hoooo.  Since she’s quite the owl lover—and pretty fond of chickens (“Bock! Bock!”), I expected her to like this one and she did. Me too! Even thought it could be appropriate for our favorite nature course, Bayou Buddies at Sims Bayou Urban Nature Center.

Because Abby, my 2-year-old audience for children’s books, adores Please, Baby, Please, I dug out Please, Puppy, Please also written by Spike Lee and Tanya Lewis Lee and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. She liked it—at least she asked me to read it a couple of times. Personally, I would read an economics textbook if it were illustrated by Kadir Nelson. When I was little I adored the drawings of Eloise Wilkin (as I have mentioned) and with my own daughter I adored the drawings of Joan Walsh Anglund and Mary Englebreit, so I suspect that if I was a little reader today, particularly a little African-American person, I would be collecting Kadir Nelson books. So lifelike, so appealing. Now I think I need to get out Please, Baby, Please because we haven’t read it in a while. At the same story time we read The Search for the Perfect Child by Jan Fearnley. Would maybe grade this one a high B. It’s appealing and for several different ages but seems a little disjointed for probably that same reason. But the ending is adorable and just what any kid wants to hear: You are the perfect child!

Then, because it just happened to be in the same book basket, I picked out Llama, Llama, Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney. YEA! Abby let me read it all the way through to her. To be honest, she was strapped in her high chair at the time but she didn’t try to close the book or anything.

You have to understand that on a daily/weekly basis I read dozens of children’s books. Many of them multiple times.  In the same day. Before, I was reading them as a grandmother; now I’m trying to read them as a grandmother, sometimes even a mother, and as a child. Lends a different perspective.

I have read Elmo’s ABC Book by Sarah Albee many, many times. I’m including it here for two reasons: It is an ABC book enjoyed by both Aidan and Abby, and I downloaded it onto my NOOK. Back in my childhood, as an only child, I’m sure my mother and daddy would’ve been thrilled to have a more convenient way to cart books around to entertain me and as a young reader I would’ve been thrilled to not be limited to only getting to take two or three books along with me. Having been a backseat passenger with Abby last weekend, it was nice to have the diversion of Elmo for her. (I have several children’s books on my NOOK.)

Recent library trips have yielded some real gems for Abby and me (and the boys) to enjoy. Wee Little Lamb by Lauren Thompson has been requested several times. This is the same author as the Little Quack series but a different illustrator (John Butler). Different but just as good, more realistic. A sweet story.  Lettice, the Flying Rabbit by Mandy Stanley was a book I’d read to Aidan; Abby was not as fond of it, but I still think it is rather cute.  Abby asked for The Three Little Kittens by Anna Alter a couple of times; I could’ve been done with it after one reading. Odd, squinty-eyed cats rather bothered me. I didn’t have cats as pets until I was an adult and this book probably would’ve convinced me as a child to stay away from them. In contrast, I Love Cats by Sue Stainton and illustrated by Anne Mortimer is chock-full of adorable, lifelike, charming cats. And we’ve read this one often enough that Abby mimics words.  I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen didn’t interest Abby so I read it on my own. I don’t think the sense of humor is “modern” and I think this would’ve cracked me up as a kid. I probably would’ve made my daddy and grandpa read it to me often. I’m sending this one home to big brother Aidan and I’m going to check to see if I can buy a copy for Rowan. It’s that funny. To me. Michael Shoulders is an educator and lecturer (“Reading Is Magic”) and the author of Goodnight, Baby Bear, the dearest book I’ve read since Baby Cakes. This is a sweet book, great illustrations also (by Teri Weidner), and a repetitive pattern of story-telling that appeals to adult readers, little listeners, and beginning readers.

I’m giving up reading the Oz books, at least for a while.  Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz truly bored me with its absurdity. This one sounded more like a book written BY children than a book written FOR children. “People” made entirely of wood or who were vegetables? Earthquakes sending people falling through air they could’ve walked on? Piglets the size of mice? “Gestating” dragons? Gonna take a bit to entice me back to the Land of Oz.

And how odd that I’d next read a book written a hundred years after Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. John Green wasn’t writing books back when I was a child but if he had I surely would’ve gobbled them up just as I have as an adult. Like the young me read Nancy Drews or Beany Malones. Paper Towns is the second of his books I’ve read (I read Looking for Alaska a number of years ago), and I’ve already downloaded his newest book to my NOOK. Young Adult (YA) fiction is one of the fastest growing, most popular genres on the market today. Yes, there’s always been fiction for “older” children—what today are considered “tweens” or teenagers—but today’s books are on a more sophisticated level, often tackling problems most adults didn’t face 50-60 years ago. J.K. Rowling can be credited with a good deal of this publishing phenomenon. Harry Potter books are read by all ages. Personally I know an 8-year-old girl who just finished the series (yes, for real) and my husband has read all of them too. (A note: The Mysterious Benedict Society books, which I mentioned earlier, are for 7- to 12-year-olds but with the publicity NPR has given them by including them in their Backseat Book Club, no doubt more adults will discover them as I did.)

April 7, 2013

For me it's been a fairly productive week--which means that while I've read a lot, I've also gotten some other projects worked on! (Often reading is my incentive for getting stuff done around the house. Hey, any carrot as long as it works!)

I read a biography, Kay Thompson by Sam Irvin, that I bought a year or so ago at Big Lots, of all places. I adored Kay Thompson when I was growing up (I guess from appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show") and then there was Eloise. Enjoyed the biography immensely but when I finished it and went to fetch Eloise off the bookshelf, I was surprised that I'm missing a couple of editions and even more surprised to realize that I didn't read Eloise for my second childhood project. What could I have been thinking?

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Just finished Little Men by Louisa May Alcott. I realize it is early on in this project but Little Men may be the highlight of the year. For many reasons. It’s embarrassing to say how long I’ve had this book and not read it. It was given to me, along with Little Women and Black Beauty, by my Aunt Bertha when I was probably about 8 to 10 years old. Her grandchildren were already college age, I spent a good deal of time with her, and I know everyone thought of me as a bookworm by then. I read—and loved—Little Women then; read and loved Black Beauty a few years ago. The copyright date on this particular volume is 1928 and the book was inscribed to the recipient in 1945! I enjoyed  the story, the moral lessons, et al. With this book I truly began to realize why so many of these are classics: they hold up over the years. I get so quickly taken up by the world’s they present and the characters that inhabit them, even though they are so remote from life in Houston, Texas, in the 21st century. (NOTE: I complain a lot about typos and factual errors in books I generally read—hey, it’s how I make my living!—so I was surprised and a little saddened to note three errors in the last couple of chapters of this version, including a name misspelled.)

Ah, Golden Books! I know that, outside of the Fort Collins Public Library, Golden Books (and comic books) were my meat-and-potatoes for reading. While I have a number of Golden Books on my shelves most are recent releases, not stories I was likely to have read when I was little (except for some of my Eloise Wilkin books). I need to start visiting the antique/junk shops and look for books. That won’t be a hardship! I did indulge in a purchase of a few Golden Book Classics, reissues of older books for today’s readers.

If anyone pays attention to my rantings about children’s literature, they know that I don’t like Dr. Seuss and that I think Goodnight Moon is a stupid book. Three of the Golden Book Classics I bought were written by Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon. The Color Kittens is almost as ridiculous as Goodnight Moon. I found the story practically pointless and the illustrations boring. The other two books, Two Little Gardeners and Seven Little Postmen, were co-written with Edith Thatcher Hurd. Thank goodness. I loved the richness of the story of the little gardeners, and I was inspired to start a garden. The illustrations by Gertrude Elliott were equally rich, old-fashioned and lovely. I’m quite certain I read Seven Little Postmen when I was little. I still found it charming—but it would be like a history lesson for any child today. Makes you rather nostalgic for the USPS of yore.

Walt Disney’s Mother Goose, a Golden Book I’ve had on my shelf for a long time, has never truly interested my oldest grandson nor me and didn’t grab the 2-year-old granddaughter either. I sat and read it through though and rather did enjoy it. Before, the illustrations of the traditional nursery rhymes with Disney cartoon characters seemed to be jarring; now they were rather cute. I have changed my mind and will try to get the grandchildren to change theirs. Another Golden Book Classic I bought was Charles Perrault’s Puss in Boots, retold by Kathryn Jackson. I don’t recall ever reading the original but this retelling seemed familiar. Can’t say I loved it though. The last Golden Book was L. Frank Baum’s The Road to Oz, adapted by Peter Archer. I am certain I never read this one when I was a young girl. Since I am currently reading all of the Oz books for the first time for this project, the oddities of this book made more sense than they would have if I’d only been familiar with the Judy Garland movie. Yet this read like snippets of Baum’s original stories strung together with no rhyme nor reason. Didn’t enjoy it at all.