Need a Hug?

Around this time of year (and especially this year), we all could use a warm, cuddly hug. With  Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day approaching, I thought I'd share a heartwarming book with you that features a hedgehog (hey, it's pretty close to a groundhog!)

"Why will no one hug me?" Hedgehog sniffed. 

"You're just a little bit tricky to hug," replied Owl, "with all your prickly prickles.  But don't worry, there's someone for everyone."

The Hug, written by Eoin McLaughlin, and illustrated by Polly Dunbar, is a unique format picture book that flips over, providing two narratives - and two characters - to love.

Book description: Both a hedgehog and a tortoise are feeling sad and looking for a hug.  They ask all the animals they come across, but for some reason, no one will hug them. Until a wise owl explains: Hedgehog is too spiky; Tortoise is too bony.  And that's when they find each other!

What your child will like about this book: The story read from the front cover to the middle is Hedgehog's story; you turn the book upside down and read from back to middle for Tortoise's story.  Both creatures have the same problem: no one wants to hug them and everyone has an excuse.  Both their stories collide - with a big hug - in the middle of the book.  These two just had to wait until they found their match. 

One more from this writer/illustrator duo: While We Can't Hug, a new picture book for kids in response to social distancing. Hedgehog and Tortoise find other things friends can do besides  hugging - they can wave at each other, write letters, make funny faces, and sing songs...all in a show of their friendship.

Good-by Amazon, hello bookshop!

I don't know about you, but I'm doing all I can for local businesses.  Yesterday I visited a new independently-owned little bookstore in quaint Old Town Tustin, here in Orange County, CA. It's the Arvida Book Co. 

I've often dreamed of opening a little bookshop like this on Main Street, USA, complete with used and new books, a great children's area, cozy reading spaces, bookish merchandise, local art, and good coffee! 

 

Our local newspaper had carried a story about the bookshop, and I finally made it for a visit. The owner, Sam Roberston (who chose the name "Arvida" in homage to her South American grandfather) has really gotten this book space right - with tons of help from her friends and family. 

She and her husband Mike opened the shop in October of 2020 - right in the middle of a pandemic situation that has had everyone shopping online!  

Brave Mama (she has two young children) - good for her!

In a second interview (here), Sam said, "The pandemic has given Amazon this crazy leverage over everything. We're not going down without a fight. We're not going to play their game." 

Don't you love her?

Shopping here is waaaay more fun than Amazon anyway! And everything at Arvida is very Covid-conscious, in a non in-your-face way.  They've got cute little book pages and pillows on all the chairs and couches, as a gentle reminder not too stay and read (until this is all past us).  Masks required, of course.

Did I mention there's coffee? From White Sparrow Coffee. (The Robertsons' landlord introduced them to the local vendor.) I didn't get a cup, since it was too late in the day for me, but I can hardly wait to go back for a morning visit! 

With hanging plants and succulents, the whole space is light, bright, and open, but still cozy.

There's a hip, creative funkiness...

...but all the books and antiques make it timeless as well.

And, saving the best for last, there is an awesome children's corner!  Take a closer look...

Sweetly curated, but not too precious. Lots of rustic cubbies for used and new books, 

...and billowing cloth for a tent-like ceiling that hangs over a little table and tree stump stools. What child wouldn't want to plop down here with a book?

There's a campy feeling of the outdoors, with lots of greenery around (even lining the backs of the bookshelves!) It reminded me a little of Neverland.

This place is so fun and inviting. Truly a little "Shop Around the Corner".  Lots of other unique shops and restaurants surround it, all ready and waiting for customers. 

Here was my take-away: a gorgeous new Chiltern's Classic edition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and a $2 used hardcover 1952 copy of Charlotte's Web. A good day. Even with a mask.

You might also like my past post, "Word Lovers UNITE! (With E.B. White and Others...), here.

Thumbelina? No, Saint Ia on a Leaf!

Melinda Johnson has a new picture book about St. Ia.  Her hagiography (which we'll get to in a minute) is fairytale-like and her mode of transportation reminded me of Hans Christian Andersen's Thumbelina! 

Children love fairytales, which, much like stories of the saints, have a lot to teach us. When I was a little girl, Thumbelina was one of my favorite fairytales.  We had the Little Golden Book version, with illustrations by the Swedish artist, Gustaf Tenggren. 

Thumbelina was as small as your thumb. As fairytales (and some saints' stories) go, the beautiful girl had several mishaps involving unsuitable and unwanted suitors.  But luckily, several creatures took pity on her and came to her rescue.

Thumbelina may have been defenseless, but she was not helpless. She made do with what nature could give her to survive (a leaf for a boat, blades of grass for a bed, honey for food...). One day she found a swallow, numb with cold and near death. She wove him a blanket from hay and took care of him all winter long.

To repay her kindness, in the spring the swallow let her fly away with him on his back to avoid her unwanted marriage to a mole.  The swallow took her far away to a lovely lake and put her down on a flower petal right next to a little man just her size.  He was the King of the flower spirits. 

You can guess the ending: they got married and lived happily ever after.  Is it irresponsible to read children fairy tales, or can they point us to our King? Go here for thoughts from Fr. Stephen Freeman: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2015/10/28/about-fairy-tales/

So now to Saint Ia of Cornwall, an Irish Virgin-martyr, remembered on February 3. 

source

I first came across Saint Ia's story in a lovely new book, Seven Holy Women, just put out by Ancient Faith Publishing.  This not-to-be-missed collaborative book was Melinda Johnson's brain child.  I could hardly wait to gift Seven Holy Women to several close friends, my daughter, and our new daughters-in-law for Christmas.

The lives of the saints are important for us to read, especially now during our Covid-enforced isolation - many of the saints certainly lived in isolation. We can definitely learn from their example of time spent with God. 

The science and news of Covid has become for many a distraction during the boredom that can come from isolation. We want connection with life outside our small space. We want answers. So we turn to the news/internet, and as we are inundated with daily (even hourly) updates, science and politics become THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. Suddenly everyone has an opinion to share on their facebook and instagram feeds because we also want people to pay attention TO US. And the more urgent, the more of a possibility that we'll get people to pay attention to us, but unfortunately away from THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. We all need to try our best to use this extra time found in isolation for meditative and fervent prayer and inspiration from our Saints. The last thing we need is more distraction from this.

Some in the world may tell us our saints' stories aren't important, that only truly historically accurate and scientifically explainable stories are to be taken seriously. For more thoughts on this, please refer to Orthodoxartsjournal.corg for excellent articles, especially several from Nicholas Kotar regarding the truth of the Lives of the Saints, here.

Nicholas Kotar says: Seen from the prism of today's mundane reality, which has been rendered practically black and white by the precision of the scientific method, these events [he is referring to a historical mythical event he previously recounted] are simply impossible. But every wise man from time immemorial has warned about judging the past through the lens of the present. Who's to say dragons didn't threaten the monks of the Egyptian desert...that's a question one would be foolish to try to answer until one has tried to understand what these dragons really are, and not in the sense of trying to find a specimen to dissect.

The poet, then, instead of assessing the truthfulness of a certain aspect of a Life or of the Life itself, has a much more important calling - as an apologist of the mythical and improbable in the lives in general.

Back to today's picture book...

As mentioned at the top of my post, Melinda Johnson is also the author of this new little board book, Saint Ia Rides a Leaf. I think it will help parents to know a few details of the life of St. Ia before reading the picture book to their children. 

Saint Ia was an Irish virgin-martyr saint born around 480.  She was baptized into the Christian faith around the tender age of thirteen and wanted to go to Cornwall with missionaries Sts. Fingar and Piala to help teach the Gospel of Christ. 

However, when she arrived at the shore the morning of their planned trip, the ship had already set sail (they probably thought the undertaking too dangerous for her and left early).  Distraught, Ia prayed to God for help.  And He brought it - in the form of a miraculous leaf.

The leaf grew when St. Ia's staff touched it, and she stepped in and was transported across the Irish Sea to England. This is where the simply-told picture book story ends in its telling. 

Saint Ia ultimately ended up landing in St. Ives in Cornwall. She actively evangelized across the countryside. There was a chapel erected by her in Troon, fourteen miles inland to the east. You can read about it here, on historicengland.org.  Ia was eventually martyred under the persecutions of the wicked Breton Prince Tewdwr in the middle of the sixth century.

Author Melinda Johnson is an excellent story-teller, and you will love her fun, energetic portrayal of sweet Ia.  Young children will enjoy Kristina Tartara's cute, colorful illustrations as well as Ia's three companions - a fish, a crab and a sea bird.  

Did Ia really sail to England on a leaf?  She certainly did get there, as history shows. As much as we can learn from a fairytale Thumbelina, we can learn much more from a historical young girl named Ia who loved God with all her heart.  Saint Ia, pray for us! 

Saint Ia Rides a Leaf is available here, from St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.  It can also be found from the Ancient Faith Publishing Store, along with Melinda Johnson's other books Letters to St. Lydia, and the Sam and Saucer chapter books. 

Go here, to Raisingorthodoxchristians.com, for some fun activities as well as a cute coloring page to go with this book!

The People Could Fly: Remembering Those Gone As We Continue To Move Forward

If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. The will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

-Isaiah 4:21-31

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I offer two beautiful books written by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon:

The People Could Fly. 

William Kilpatrick (from Books That Build Character) writes, "Myths and folktales reflect man's attempt to understand both his greatness and his ability to inflict and to endure suffering". The 24 folktales in this book were mostly shaped by the "given" of slavery in America and are offered in a wide range of imaginative telling...the title story is a hauntingly beautiful tale of slaves on a plantation who recall the ancient African incantations that allow them to fly. There are also riddle stories and the comic tales of Brer Rabbit - which represent the slaves' need to find ways to maintain dignity while evading their masters' cruelty.

Many Thousand Gone. 

From Publisher's Weekly: "The inspired pairing of this Newbery winner and these two-time Caldecott recipients has yielded a heartfelt and ultimately heartening chronicle of African Americans from the earliest days of slavery to the 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery in this country. Made up of succinct yet compelling profiles of celebrated and lesser-known individuals, Hamilton's narrative deftly peels back time's layers and lends an unusual immediacy to this critical chapter in American history."

The stories are heroic and the illustrations are beautiful. Many Thousand Gone is a must-read in helping our children understand the horrors and honor the bravery shown by so many during the time of slavery in our country. It traces the history of slavery in America in the voices and stories of those who lived it. 

Both good reads for this day, as we remember a courageous man who wanted to change the world through his life example of non-violence, belief in equality for all, and civil rights activism.

You may also be interested in my past post about Ruby Bridges, here.

Good-bye to the Twelve Days...

Yesterday marked the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

There may not have been twelve drummers drum-ing, but there was definitely rejoicing in heaven and on earth as God incarnate became manifest to the world: in the East, "Theophany" - the appearance/manifestation of God Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit at Christ's baptism - is celebrated and remembered on January 6, across the Orthodox World. (In the West, this January feast is referred to as "Epiphany", the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.)

Thus ends the festive Nativity season. And thus, I must now un-decorate my house of all things Christmas and get back to blogging. 

Good-by Nutcrackers, St. Lucia, and my tree.  Hello to more Good Books for 2021!

Signed, Sealed, And Ready To Be Delivered

This afternoon I finally got my Christmas cards all signed and sealed, ready to be delivered out into the wild, wild world!

The journey these cards will make and the Christmas playlist that I've been obsessing over lately reminded me of a charming Christmas picture book I got for my grandchildren: The Queen's Present, by Steve Antony. 

I'm pretty much an Anglophile, even more so at Christmastime.  My happy place right now is listening to my Christmas playlist of English carols. There's just something about the Choir of King's College, Cambridge that sets a festive, yet majestic mood!

Maybe that's why I love Antony's "Queen books"! In addition to The Queen's Present, there is The Queen's Hat, The Queen's Handbag, and The Queen's Lift-off.  

My daughter had already discovered and given her kids The Queen's Hat - which is a windy tour of London, with it's fun and majestic landmarks. I think it's my favorite.

The Queen's Handbag is a wild goose chase across the UK, and The Queen's Lift-Off is a lightning tour through space! Each book features pages of famous landmarks and lots of fun-to-find details (like the butler, for example). My grandchildren pretty much have a giggle-fest when we read these books!

In the The Queen's Present, the Queen sets off on a global search to find the perfect present for her grandchildren.  Who helps her?  Father Christmas! (And of course the Queen's butler and her Corgi, who are always somewhere to be found along the way)!  There's a sweet ending, as you see what they deliver to the prince and princess.  

The Grinch Can't Cancel Christmas

For Orthodox Christians, the second Sunday of Advent is almost here (we celebrate 40 days of Advent, with six Sundays as opposed to four), so we started our journey well before Thanksgiving! 

Across the U.S. we are still in various stages of COVID and feelings regarding lockdown.  Especially here in California, where cases are up and deaths are way down, we are sadly expecting not to be allowed to gather in our homes with large extended families and friends for Thanksgiving, or in our churches for our Advent and possibly even Christmas services - even if we are healthy, wear masks, and practice physical distancing of six feet, as we've been asked to.

But even if our governor(s) make these decisions and end up cancelling Christmas services, this time of continued isolation is a good reminder that our homes are all little domestic churches, and there are so many things you can still do to make this a joyful season for your children!  

If you haven't had time in the past to make an effort for family Advent traditions at home, this is definitely the year to start! So, what can you do to help your kids enter into Advent and the Incarnation of Christ?

MAKE AN ADVENT WREATH:

Last week, I gathered candles for my six-candle Advent Wreath [Note: a seventh white candle will be placed in the middle of the wreath, to be lit on Christmas Day.] 

This is a tradition I learned from a book by Fr. Anthony Coniaris (of blessed memory), Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home. I highly recommend the book, which is in its 13th printing.

"The circle (wreath) is a symbol for God who is eternal. The evergreen branches symbolize eternal life, or the life of God, of which Jesus came to make us partakers. The candles represent Christ who is the light of the world. The color of each candle expresses something special that will be discussed each week of Advent as the family celebration unfolds. One candle will be lit each week by a different member of the family." 

Father Coniaris outlines a family devotion time for each of the Sundays of Advent, including Scripture readings, prayers, Christmas carols, and topics for discussion, all based upon the meaning of the candle colors. 

The basic meaning of each candle color follows, together with a brief statement for the head of the family to read when lighting the candle - you can find this adapted here if you need the Sunday Advent readings (but I highly recommend the book for great ideas all year long):

https://www.st-philip.net/files/Bulletins%20plus/Advent-Wreath.pdf .

MAKE AN ADVENT CALENDAR OF BOOKS:

Go to my Advent and Christmas Resource Page for lots of ideas of how to make your family reading time special for all 40 days of Advent (or you can simplify the idea to all 25 days of December). 

http://goodbooksforyoungsouls.blogspot.com/2012/11/advent-christmas-resource-page.html

Need Christmas book recommendations?  You'll find all mine here, 

http://goodbooksforyoungsouls.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-book-resource-page.html

I pray you have a blessed Advent. Stay healthy: pray, sing, exercise, breath fresh air, take your vitamins, eat right, keep washing those hands, hug your kids. And if you are high risk, health-compromised, or have been exposed to sickness, be safe and stay isolated to avoid - or avoid spreading - illness (Covid included) this holiday season.