Purpose of this Blog...

You may have noticed that not all books are equal in capturing children's imaginations and in cultivating those innocent, tender souls. My goal is to help you find the ones that do!
(Painting by Mary Cassatt: "Mrs Cassatt Reading to her Grandchildren" -1888)




Monday, January 31, 2011

LIBRARY EXPLORATIONS

I've decided to see how many Orange County Libraries I can visit in the coming year.  There are 33 branches in the Orange County Public Library system alone; but there are also ten cities within O.C. that have their own public library systems and branches.  Lots to see, though I'm mainly interested in what the children's sections have to offer.  I'll try to highlight my favorites from time to time here on my blog.

I'd love to know about libraries from all around the U.S.!  Please let me know if you have a library in your town with an exceptional children's section.  Or better yet, if you have a blog, post about a day at the library with your kids (or grandkids) and I'll link to it!

Library #1: with my friend Yumi and her daughter Sophie. We visited the new OC Public Library in Tustin and I have to say I was impressed with its open design and natural lighting.
The computers for kids, though close by, were separated from the main children's area, designating that as a reading space.
Some noteworth features were its outdoor children's patio (with some inspiration from Dr. Suess), storytime room, and low reading tables, perfect for little ones.



  


Some of Sophie's picks for the day:
ELEPHANTS CANNOT DANCE! by Mo Willems
LITTLE SMUDGE by Lionel Le Neouanic
SAM AND THE TIGERS by Julius Lester, pictures by Jerry Pinkney
THE MAGIC HILL by A.A. Milne, pictures by Isabel Bodor Brown
LILLY'S BIG DAY by Kevin Henkes

My picks for the day:
KATY NO-POCKET by Emmy Payne, pictures by H.A. Raye
THE HOLE IN THE DIKE by Norma Green, pictures by Eric Carle

PUBLIC DOMAIN MONDAY: A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES

by Robert Lewis Stevenson, Illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith
published 1905

"To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare."  
-Yoshida Kenko
SOME EXCERPTS to intice you to go find a book by Robert Lewis Stevenson...


BED IN SUMMER

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

A THOUGHT
It is very nice to think
The world is full of meat and drink,
With little children saying grace

In every Christian kind of place.






AT THE SEA-SIDE

When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.




WHOLE DUTY OF CHILDREN


A child should always say what's true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able.



RAIN

The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.








FOREIGN LANDS

Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.

I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky's blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping in to town.

If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships,

To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.



AUNTIE'S SKIRTS

Whenever Auntie moves around,
Her dresses make a curious sound,
They trail behind her up the floor,
And trundle after through the door.


THE LAND OF COUNTERPANE

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.



TO ANY READER

As from the house your mother sees
You playing round the garden trees,
So you may see, if you will look
Through the windows of this book,
Another child, far, far away,
And in another garden, play.
But do not think you can at all,
By knocking on the window, call
That child to hear you. He intent
Is all on his play-business bent.
He does not hear; he will not look,
Nor yet be lured out of this book.
For, long ago, the truth to say,
He has grown up and gone away,
And it is but a child of air
That lingers in the garden there.

Friday, January 28, 2011

APPRECIATING EVERY HOLY MOMENT

MAKE TIME TO READ ALOUD A BOOK WITH YOUR CHILD TODAY.  AND APPRECIATE EVERY HOLY MOMENT YOU HAVE WITH YOUR FAMILY...

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TODAY'S POST IS DEDICATED TO THE FAMILY OF BARB DUNAWAY, A GRACIOUS WOMAN WHO WENT HOME TO THE LORD THIS WEEK.  SHE WAS A PRIEST'S WIFE, MOTHER, GRANDMOTHER, SISTER AND FRIEND TO MANY.  SHE WORKED HARD FOR HER FAMILY AND CHURCH, YET TAUGHT US ALL TO TREASURE EVERY HOLY MOMENT AND TO LIVE A LIFE WELL SPENT - TO ITS FULLEST - FOR HIM.  MAY HER MEMORY BE ETERNAL.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LEWIS CARROLL - CELEBRATING THE ALICE BOOKS WITH A MAD TEA PARTY!

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to  Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take MORE than nothing."
"Nobody asked YOUR opinion," said Alice.
"Who's making personal remarks now?" the Hatter asked triumphantly.


Illustration by M.L. Kirk
"Who are YOU?" said the Caterpillar.This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, "I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."                                       
"Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin," thought Alice;"but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!"
Disney's Animation.


The White Rabbit shop
The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. "Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?" he asked.
"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."


"Let's pretend that you're the Red Queen, Kitty! Do you know, I think if you sat up and folded your arms, you'd look exactly like her. Now do try, there's a dear!" And Alice got the Red Queen off the table, and set it up before the kitten as a model for it to imitate: however, the thing didn't succeed, principally, Alice said, because the kitten wouldn't fold its arms properly. So, to punish it, she held it up to the Looking-glass, that it might see how sulky it was -- "and if you're not good directly," she added, "I'll put you through into Looking-glass House. How would you like that?"


"Alice and Chessie"
The Fairies' Nest

"Your majesty shouldn't purr so loud," Alice said, rubbing her eyes, and addressing the kitten, respectfully, yet with some severity. "You woke me out of oh! such a nice dream! And you've been along with me, Kitty -- all through the Looking-Glass world. Did you know it, dear?"


I hope you enjoyed my Mad Hatter Tea Party!  If you're one of the first 6 people to leave a comment (excluding mine of course) by then end of  today, 1-27-11 - I'll send you a little package of Disney Wonderland Teabags ... just enough for your own tea party.


Click Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to see the broad range of choices for these books from Amazon. (You can arrange them by age.)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

"CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER": AUTHOR LEWIS CARROLL

Born: January 27, 1832
Died: January 14, 1898
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Dodgson invented his pen name by translating his first two names into the Latin "Carolus Lodovicus" and then anglicizing it into "Lewis Carroll")  Besides being the author of the "Alice" books, he was a Victorian-era logician and mathematics tutor at Christ Church, Oxford (you'll see how that comes into play in a minute).
  
Disney's Alice
Because of the popularity of the Disney movie, many people don't realize there are two Alice books and that neither of them is titled "Alice in Wonderland". The first book (published in 1865) was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and has an undeniable card deck theme - with "The Queen of Hearts" being a dominant character. The second book, titled Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, (published in 1872), switched to a chess theme - where two Queens, Red and White, appear.


Anyway, back to the math:  I recently came across a fascinating article written by Melanie Bayley for New Scientist about the curious mathematical aspects of the Alice books.  She says that what many have assumed to merely be fantastic imaginary tales for children, were actually Dodgson's (Carroll's) attempts to parody the absurdities of mid-19th century's new abstract mathematics - "Wonderland's madness reflects Carroll's views on the dangers of the new symbolic algebra".


And in this nonsensical world, Carroll seems to make the Cheshire Cat the logical voice of traditional geometry:
"'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where--' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'"

Speaking of nonsense, I can't even begin to understand ykcowrebbaJ!!!!!


Illustrations by John Tenniel (1820-1914/English)
Click here for some fun ideas in case you want to throw a MAD HATTER TEA PARTY to celebrate Lewis Carroll's birthday tomorrow!
(By the way, I just realized in re-reading Carroll's texts: that whole "un-birthday" thing doesn't take place at the famous Tea Party, but is rather a conversation that takes place between Alice and Humpty-Dumpty in the second book!  I guess I watched the Disney version too many times!  What misconceptions have you had?)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

A FATHER WHO LOVED TRAINS


Most children in the U.S. and their parents were introduced to THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE through the television series, "Shining Time Station", which aired from 1989 through the 1990's on PBS, FOX FAMILY and NICK JR.  What many Americans may not know is that this Britt Allcroft production (which spawned the huge collection of merchandise in toys, dvd's, and books that are so popular with kids today) was based on a hugely popular series of books written by an English clergyman between 1945 and 1972!

Wilbert Vere Awdry was not only a "Reverend", but a railroad enthusiast.  In the early 1940's, when his two-year-old son Christopher suffered a bout of the measles, Rev. Awdry began telling him stories about steam engines.  His first stories were about Henry, Edward, and Gordon, and were eventually published as The Three Railway Engines in 1945.  In the dedication of his second book of the series, Thomas the Tank Engine, Rev. Awdry wrote:

Dear Christopher,
Here is your friend Thomas, the Tank Engine.
He wanted to come out of his station-yard and see the world.
These stories tell you how he did it.
I hope you will like them because you helped me to make them.
Your Loving Daddy


By the time Rev. W. Awdry had stopped writing in 1972, his Railway Series numbered 26 books.  He was very involved in railway preservation and building model railways, which he took to exhibitions. A year before his death in 1997 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.  He also lived to see his son Christopher continue his beloved series (books 27-40).

Our own family (back in 1985, before the t.v. series came to the States) was fortunate enough to have been sent a copy of Thomas the Tank Engine (Series No. 2) as a gift from some friends in England for our firstborn son, David - along with a set of children's dishes by Wedgewood, painted with characters from the stories - now regarded as one of our Family Treasures!  Our third child, Jonny, knew all about couplings, sidings, "silly" trucks,  and "cheeky" engines by the time he was three. (And he wouldn't go to bed each night until he'd pointed out and recited the names of all the engines and cars on his "Thomas Poster".)

I love that the original books are done in a small-format style (reminiscent of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books).  You can read about the series' illustrators on the Sodor Island Thomas Fan Site.  Most of THE RAILWAY SERIES books are now out of print (as is Brian Sibley's excellent biography of Rev. W. Awdry), but many can be found used on Amazon.com.   Warning: reading aloud phrases such as, "rubbish", "bother", and "don't stop dawdling, don't stop dawdling" can be addictive to U.S. born Moms and Dads! -peep, peep!
THE THREE RAILWAY ENGINES (RAILWAY SERIES NO. 1) by Rev. W. Awdry
The Three Railway Engines

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE (RAILWAY SERIES NO. 2) by Rev. W. Awdry
THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE (RAILWAY SERIES NO.2)

JAMES THE RED ENGINE (RAILWAY SERIES NO. 3) by Rev. W. Awdry
JAMES THE RED ENGINE (RAILWAY SERIES NO. 3)

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION by Rev. W. Awdry
Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection

THE THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE MAN, by Brian Sibley.  A biography of Rev. W. Awdry, released to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of The Railway Series.