Archive | April 2006

Picture Book Preschool Book of the Week #15

Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer.

“The stars are made of lemon juice . . . and rain makes applesauce.

The wind blows backwards all night long . . . and rain makes applesauce.

Salmon slide down a hippo’s hide . . . and rain makes applesauce.”

I used to read this book to my kindergarten and first grade classes many moons ago when I was a school librarian. The children would soon join in on the chorus: “Rain makes applesauce!” It only takes a few pages for kids and grown-ups to get the idea of this ridiculously nonsensical picture book poem. Take a modicum of rhythm, maybe a rhyme or some alliteration, and add the refrain “rain makes applesauce,” and you can play this word game all day long. After you finish reading all the silly sentences in the book, you and the kids can make up your own.

(Z-baby saw me looking at this book, and she had to have me read it to her. She says, “Rain doesn’t really make applesauce; rain makes WATER!”)

The illustrations in this picture book by Marvin Bileck are delightfully busy, harlequin-like pictures of children and giants and clowns and fairies and gnomes doing all sorts of silly things. Some of the pictures look as if they’ve been washed over by the rain that makes applesauce.

And at the end we visit The Sea of Applesauce and realize that rain does make applesauce.

(Oh, you’re just talking silly talk. I know I’m talking silly talk, but RAIN MAKES APPLESAUCE!)

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. Click on the link in the sidebar if you are interested in purchasing a copy of the preschool curriculum, Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 10th

Apr10

William Hazlitt, b. 1778. Journalist, essayist, Shakespearean scholar. He wrote many books, Characters of Shakespeare and A View of the English Stage.

Matthew Calbraith Perry, b. 1794. US Navy commodore who negotiated the first treaty between the United States and Japan in 1854. The 1986 Newbery Honor book, Commodore Perry in the land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg, is a great introduction to this historical episode.

Lew Wallace, b. 1827. Civil War general, Governor of New Mexico Territory, Ambassador to Turkey, and author of Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. We’ve never done it, but wouldn’t Ben Hur be a great family read aloud book for the Easter season? We have watched Ben Hur with Charlton Heston at Easter time before. Long, but worth the time.

William Booth, b. 1829. He and his wife Catherine founded the Salvation Army, a Christian ministry to feed, clothe, and evangelize the poor.

Joseph Pulitzer, b. 1847, d.1911. Hungarian American journalist and newspaper publisher. He left in his will an endowment to create the Columbia School of Journalism, and Columbia began in 1917 to award annual prizes for journalism, letters, fiction, drama, and education. I looked at this list of Pulitzer-prize winning novels and counted the ones I’ve read: 12 out of 80. (8 years say No Award. I wonder why.) My reading looks fairly shabby when compared to this particular list. Which of the books on the list have you read and which would you recommend? I would say that from my list of twelve, I enjoyed all but two. (Neither Hemingway nor Steinbeck is my cup of tea.)

1921 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
1925 So Big Edna Ferber
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
1932 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
1937 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
1939 The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 The Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck
1952 The Caine Mutiny Herman B. Wouk
1953 The Old Man And The Sea Ernest Hemingway
1961 To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee
1975 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
2005 Gilead Marilynne Robinson

Autism Awareness Month

Apr9

April is Autism Awareness Month. The always-insightful blogger who is Blest With Sons talks about her family’s recent forays into poetry, from which she suggests that poems are best for the Asperger kids with which you’ve been blessed. It’s called Rhyme Time and features Mr. Milne—again.

Interesting reading on autism:

A Guardian article about literature and autism.

Autismland, a blog by Kristina Chew, mother of Charlie who is autistic.

Books I Have Read about Autism:

Dibs, In Search of Self by Virginia Axline

Nobody Nowhere by Donna Wiliams

A Child Called Noah by Josh Greenfield

Son-Rise by Neal Kaufman

I’m not necessarily recommending any of these books. Some of them are quite out-dated according to the autism websites I looked at. However, if anyone wants to recommend a narrative account (no textbooks) about autism or Asperger’s that you think I might learn from, feel free.

I think I’m fascinated with “autismland” and with other mental differences (the OCD of Monk, for instance) partly because it is by looking at the edges of normality that we define what is normal in the first place. Autism experts talk about the “autism spectrum” and being “on the spectrum” as if there’s a continuum that encompasses autism and Asperger’s and similar personalities, a continuum that can be mapped and understood and defined and contained. Can the human mind be understood in these terms? Is “normal” just another place on the “spectrum”? Are autistic persons missing something, or do they have something extra like the extra chromosome in Down’s syndrome? Are autistic behaviors abnormalities that need to cured, or differences that need to be celebrated?

I don’t claim to know much about the whole subject, but I’m definitely interested.

Poetry Party

Apr8

Last night we had a poetry party. I wish you could have joined us. To start us off, Engineer Husband read two of his favorite poems, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and The Wind by Christina Rossetti.

Karate Kid (age 9) recited Sing a Song of Sixpence.

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the King?

The King was in his counting house
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes,
When along came blackbird;
And snipped off her nose.

Brown Bear Daughter (11) had memorized Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, but she had trouble keeping a straight face while presenting her poem. So she let Betsy-Bee (7) go ahead of her.

This poem by Kate Greenaway was Betsy-Bee’s contribution. She worked all afternoon to memorize it:

The Tea Party
By Kate Greenaway

In the pleasant green garden
We sat down to tea;
“Do you take sugar?” and
“Do you take milk?”
She’d got a new gown on
A smart one of silk.
We all were so happy
As happy could be
On that bright summer’s day
When she asked us to tea.

Brown Bear Daughter tried again and gave us a wonderful rendition of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense.

Then Z-baby(4) said her poem: Little Miss Muffet sat on a puffet, eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider and sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.

Brown Bear Daughter had another poem memorized for our edification: Eat-It-All Elaine by Kay Starbird.

Then Mom read Ogden Nash’s Custard the Dragon.

All the poetry presenters got a treat, and even the teenagers scrambled to remember some lines of poetry in order to merit a piece of chocolate.

Moral: Poetry is great, and it goes down even better with chocolate.

Happy Hearts Mom of the blog Sweetness and Light also reads poetry with her young children and helps the older ones to memorize poems. She writes about Poetry at Our House. The poems they’re memorizing? A.A. Milne, of course. The Deputy Headmistress at The Common Room has a wonderful tribute to Mr. Milne from his birthday back in January. Accept no substitutes, says she.

The next Poetry Party at our house is scheduled for Friday, April 21st. The young adults, Dancer Daughter (16) and Organizer Daughter (14), promise to contribute a poem the next time we meet.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 7th

Apr7

April 7, 1770 is the birthdate of the English poet Wiliam Wordsworth, and Cindy at Dominion Family is putting together a bound family poetry book consisting of a few favorites from each member of the family. One of Cindy’s favorites is Lucy II by the birthday boy himself.

Semicolon Family’s Favorite Poems:

Z-Baby: Drummer Hoff by Ed Emberly is her current favorite. She’s also quite fond of Green Eggs and Ham.

Betsy-Bee says she likes Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe the best (her mother’s favorite). She’s at the time in her little life and has the sort of personality that likes to like whatever Mother likes. Sweet little mommy-shadow!

Karate Kid:

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
They all began to sing.
Now, wasn’t that a dainty dish
To set before the King?

The King was in his countinghouse,
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlor
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes.
When along came a black bird
And snipped off her nose!

He especially likes the “snipped off her nose” part.

Brown Bear Daughter:

Rules by Karla Kuskin
Do not jump on ancient uncles.
Do not yell at average mice.
Do not wear a broom to breakfast.
Do not ask a snake’s advice.
Do not bathe in chocolate pudding.
Do not talk to bearded bears.
Do not smoke cigars on sofas.
Do not dance on velvet chairs.
Do not take a whale to visit
Russell’s mother’s cousin’s yacht.
And whatever else you do do
It is better you
Do not.

Organizer Daughter says her favorite poet is Arnold Spilka. (I think she likes the sound of his name as much as she likes his poems.) He writes silly poems for children; you can find many of them included in any modern anthology of children’s poetry. But Organizer Daughter says she’s actually, usually, kidding about it. She really just likes the name and thinks his poetry is funny.

Dancer Daughter: My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, the lyrics of Sufjan Stevens, Christina Rossetti

Computer Guru Son won’t admit to liking any sort of poetry. However, he likes some musical artists and lyricists quite a bit.

Eldest Daughter: waiting for an answer from France about her current favorites. She likes T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland.

Semicolon Sherry: Since Bee took Annabel Lee, I can choose another: Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.

Engineer Husband: When Daddy Carves the Turkey by Jack Prelutsky

Of Cats, and Poles, and Poetry, and Mysterious Adventurers

Apr6

Robert E. Peary reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909 along with his assistant, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimo guides. Henson and two of the guides were actually the first to reach the Pole, and Peary arrived forty-five minutes later and confirmed that they were in the right place.

This week is The Week of the Young Child (April 2-8, 2006). The Queen of Carrots has some advice on Poems To Say All Day Long. She writes, “The first introduction to poetry I can remember is the poems my mother would recite at suitable times. These are poems I find myself reciting to my little ones (both still under two) when the occasion arises.”
Meanwhile, Camille at Book Moot ponders Poetry and the Very Young. Do you consider a bookcase to be essential furniture in the nursery? Yeah, me too

I don’t usually do cat-blogging. I don’t have a cat. I like cats that belong to someone else. Nevertheless, for today and for this poem I’m making an exception to the rule.

Macavity
Your poem for today:

Macavity’s a Mystery Cat: he’s called the Hidden Paw–
For he’s the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He’s the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad’s despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime–Macavity’s not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no on like Macavity,
He’s broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime–Macavity’s not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air–
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity’s not there!

Macavity’s a ginger cat, he’s very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly doomed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he’s half asleep, he’s always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square–
But when a crime’s discovered, then Macavity’s not there!

He’s outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard’s.
And when the larder’s looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke’s been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair–
Ay, there’s the wonder of the thing! Macavity’s not there!

And when the Foreign Office finds a Treaty’s gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scap of paper in the hall or on the stair–
But it’s useless of investigate–Macavity’s not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
“It must have been Macavity!”–but he’s a mile away.
You’ll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macacity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibit, or one or two to spare:
And whatever time the deed took place–MACAVITY WASN’T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!

Who’s the author? What famous musical is based upon the cat poems of this author?

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born April 5th

Apr5

No race can prosper, till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” Booker Tallaferro Washington, b. 1856. And vice-versa.

Arthur Hailey, b.1920. I read Hotel long before I saw the movie, and I remember it being very entertaining. I don’t remember much about the movie.

Wednesdays are poetry days at The Immaculate Castle, and the family there recently found themselves memorizing Tennyson. Then, mom asked the question: What did Alfred Tennyson’s mother read to him as a child?

I wonder whether Shakespeare’s mother read to him?

The Reading Mother

I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
“Blackbirds” stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings —
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be —
I had a Mother who read to me. – Strickland Gillilan

What are you reading to the children in your life?

Picture Book Preschool Book of the Week #14

Apr4

The theme for this week in Picture Book Preschool is rain, and the character trait to be emphasized is independence. Umbrella by Taro Yashima is a good book for thinking about both of these themes. Momo, the little girl in the story, gets an umbrella and a pair of red rubber boots for her third birthday. She is so anxious to use her new umbrella that she asks her mother every day why the rain doesn’t fall. She even tries to talk her mother into letting her use the umbrella and boots to keep the sun out of her eyes, but she is admonished to wait and keep the umbrella for a rainy day. Finally the rainy day comes, and Momo has an exciting walk to and from nursery school in the rain with her new umbrella, a walk in which she grows up just a little without even realizing it.

I love this gentle story, and so do my little girls. It speaks to so many preschool concerns: growing up and acting grown-up, the difficulty of waiting for good things to happen, the excitement and joy of experiencing those long-awaited pleasures. The watercolor illustrations also by Yashima include various Japanese characters for nouns used in the story.

Possible activities to complement the reading of Umbrella:
Did you know that you can get a cheap umbrella at the dollar store? At least, out dollar store has them. What a wonderful gift for a three or four year old.

Talk about the letter “U” and how it’s shaped like an upside down umbrella.

Try to copy the Japanese characters in the book using watercolor paints and brushes.

Draw or paint rain pictures.

Talk about the weather and about the different kinds of clothing needed for each kind of weather.

Make a rain storm with your feet. Start out patting your feet softly and slowly, then faster and harder, then slow down again. Does it sound like rain?

Go walking in the rain, with an umbrella, of course.

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

A Word from Karate Kid

Apr4

Karate Kid (age 9) wanted to write a book review, so here it is:

Last year in about December I read about Star Wars; it’s called Star Wars: Jedi Apprentice. It’s a really good book. It tells about how Obi-Wan becomes the apprentice of Kuigon Jin. Obi-Wan doesn’t get accepted as Kuigon Jin’s padawan at first, but on a mission they meet up and get into a fight with the Slugs. They’re on a boat; the boat crashes; Obi-Wan proves himself and becomes Kuigon Jin’s padawan.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born and Celebrated April 4th

Apr4

It’s National Library Week (April 2-8, 2006), and Kim Winters, author of Kat’s Eye, an online journal featuring rants, raves, and musings about writing, balancing work and family, and life after the MFA, commits the Faux Pas of all Faux Pas in her post by the same name. Unfortunately, it involved a library book and RAIN.

Do you have any librarians on your blogroll? I have several who are worth a visit: Camille at Book Moot, Norma of Collecting My Thoughts, Sarah Louise at pink sneakers n’at. H2Oboro Lib Blog is, I assume, written by a librarian. Kendra at Preschoolers and Peace owns and manages her own private library. I have a soft spot for librarians because I was one once upon a time, and I’m still a librarian at heart. My library threatens to take over my home, and I like it that way.

Born April 4th:
Children’s author Glen Rounds, b. 1906. The Blind Colt and its sequels are great selections for elementary age horse lovers. Rounds wrote both fiction and nonfiction about the American West.

Poet Maya Angelou, b. 1928. Touched By An Angel

Children’s author Johanna Reiss, b. 1932. She wrote The Upstairs Room, a fictional story for children about two Dutch Jewish girls who were hidden in a secret upstairs room for three years during the Nazi occupation of Holland.