Archive | October 2009

Hymn #9: And Can It Be That I Should Gain?

Oct12

Lyrics: Charles Wesley, 1739.

Music: SAGINA by Thomas Campbell, 1835.

Theme: There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:1-2.

Although I like this hymn very much, I’m rather surprised that it came in at number nine on this list. I don’t think I even heard of it until we came to the church we now attend, an Evangelical Free church. Maybe it’s not a Baptist hymn.

Some of the people who listed or wrote about this hymn had the following comments:
Jawan McGinnis: “Why did he die for me? I deserve nothing! I turned against him and went my own way but he chased and wooed me. I was helpless but he found me. I long for a life that lives in with the purpose of glorifying him in all things.”
Jennifer Donovan: This hymn rivals any praise chorus in my mind for evoking emotion (especially if it’s sung at a nice brisk tempo).
Sharon: An old pastor used to say, sing the exclamation points!
Subversive Influence: “This is one of those hymns which brims with wonder and resounds with gospel truth. They don’t write them much like that anymore. Boldly approaching the throne, mercy immense and free. These are lyrics upon which one can — and should — spend time feasting and meditating.”

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Enjoy the congregational singing in the video embedded above. One of the best side benefits of being a Christian and a church member is that we get to sing our hearts out every Sunday, no matter whether you’re a trained vocalist or a tuneless wonder. Everybody gets to sing, all together, unison or parts, loud or soft, as you will, to the Lord. Where do nonChristians go to sing like that? Singing along with the radio is all very well, but it’s not the same as singing out all of the emotions and worship in one’s heart along with a group in full voice. And I get to do this every single week, sometimes more frequently than once a week!

And I have something to sing about!

Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Oct12

“When I write I can be heard. And known.
But nobody has to look at me. Nobody has to see me at all.”

Jason Blake is twelve years old. He writes stories on a website called Storyboard. Jason is NOT neurotypical. He is autistic.

This story, told from the point of view of an autistic boy who is also very gifted in the area of language and creative writing, makes me want to know more about how other people think, especially those who are not mainstream, not what we would call normal. Reading about someone who is autistic or mentally different in some other way always teaches me more about the thought processes and communication protocols that we who are neurotypical take for granted. As Jason’s mom says toward the end of the book, taking a trip with Jason teaches her (and me) more about ourselves.

And this story asks questions that I’m not prepared to answer completely, but that are important questions:

What is love exactly? Jason says, “Love is like yellow. Warm and safe.” If you can’t really express love to someone in a language that the beloved can understand, is it still love? Does love only become real when it’s understood and accepted? Or is it there all the time, working and making the loved one warm and safe, even if he can’t understand?

How much do computers assist in communication and how much and in what ways do they hinder true communication? Jason’s only means of communication is his computer where he writes stories and sends messages to the outside world. However, Jason not only uses his computer; he hides behind it. When an opportunity comes for him to meet a girl that he has only known via the internet, Jason is terrified. He knows that when people meet him in person, they find him difficult and somewhat repellant. Jason uses the computer to reveal himself to others, and he also uses his computer skills as a bridge to neurotypical world. However, the computer can also protect him from reality and from trying to live up to the expectations of others. Is this kind of protection a good thing or a bad one? Is the help and protection that Jason gets from his mom and his dad and his aide at school good or bad? Probably a bit of both, and it’s difficult for them to know how much to push Jason to act “normal” and how much to protect him from the cruelty in the world and how much to just allow him to be who he is.

“Why tell a story if there is no one there to read it? Why make a sound if no one will hear it?”
One answer to these questions is given by a character in the book: “Writing is all we have. . . . All we are, all we can be, are the stories we tell.”
There may be other answers. If you knew no one would ever read your blog, would you still write? If I were alone in the universe, or if my only audience were God, could I still live? Would I have any reason to live?

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot of this wonderful children’s novel, but I do want to assure you that Anything But Typical tells a story worth reading . . . and thinking about . . . and reading again . . . and even praying about perhaps. How can we love the unlovely in a way that they can experience? How can communication happen between people who speak completely different languages? How can we experience the love of other people and of God when each of has his own limitations and language barriers?

Advanced Reading Survey: The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang

Oct12

I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going to post to Semicolon the entries in the reading journal that I was required to keep for that class because I think that my entries on these works of literature may be of interest to readers here and because I’m afraid that the thirty year old spiral notebook in which I wrote these entries may fall apart ere long. I may offer my more mature perspective on the books, too, if I remember enough about them to do so.

Author:
Lin Yutang, or Lin Yu-t’ang, was a Chinese American author born in China and educated in Christian schools there. He later moved to New York and still later to Singapore. He also moved from a childhood immersed in Christianity to a sort of joyful paganism and then back to a deep commitment to Christ and to the church. At the time that his most famous book of essays, The Importance of Living, was written (1937), Mr. Lin was in the happy Chinese pagan chapter of his life. He later wrote another book, From Pagan to Christian, in 1959 that detailed his return to Christianity and the reasons for it. Lin Yutang was a best-selling author, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature several times in the 1970’s. He is said to have been a writer who bridged Eastern and Western cultures. Oh, and he also invented and patented a Chinese typewriter.

Quotations:
“Somehow the human mind is forever elusive, uncatchable, and unpredictable and manages to wriggle out of mechanistic laws or a materialistic dialectic that crazy psychologists and unmarried economists are trying to impose upon him.”

“The world, I believe, is far too serious, and being far too serious, it has need of a wise and merry philosophy.”

“A plan that is sure to be carried out to its last detail already loses interest for me.”

“Somewhere in our adult life, our sentimental nature is killed, strangled, chilled, or atrophied by an unkind surrounding, largely through our own fault in neglecting to keep it alive or our failure to keep clear of such surroundings.”

“No one should aim at writing immortal poetry, one should learn the writing of poems merely as a way to record a meaningful moment, a personal mood, or to help the enjoyment of Nature.”

“Scholars who are worth anything at all never know what is called “a hard grind” or what “bitter study” means. They merely love books and read on because they cannot help themselves.”

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”

I really would like to re-read Mr. Lin’s essays on living a good and wise and simplified life. Maybe when I simplify my life . . .

Nonfiction Monday: The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton

Oct12

The Day-Glo Brothers is subtitled “The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors.”

These are the closest examples I could get of Day-Glo (fluorescent) colors:

Fluorescent Green
Day-Glo Yellow
Day-Glo Orange

They’re those colors that crossing guards wear and that characterized the 1960’s, and they glow in the daylight or when illuminated by an ultraviolet light source. The Switzer brothers, Bob and Joe, invented these colors just before World War II, and the colors became useful in wartime, especially on aircraft carriers and in naval warfare and rescue, and later in peacetime as companies and individuals began to think of multiple uses for these easily visible colors.

I can see how a book like this one might inspire young inventors and scientists who are still in elementary school to think about the many unexplored areas of science and about the intersections between science and other disciplines, in this case art and advertising. Mr. Barton tells the story in straightforward prose and yet includes enough anecdotes about the Switzers’ lives and personalities to keep readers interested. The bright Day-Glo illustrations on black background complement the story perfectly.

Buy some Day-Glo make-up.
Day-Glo Brothers Activity and Discussion Guide
Chris Barton’s blog, Bartography.

This book has been nominated for the Cybil Award in the Nonfiction Picture Book category. I received my copy of Day-Glo Brothers from the publisher for the purpose of review. Nonfiction Monday is hosted today at Jean Little Library.

Unsigned Hype by Booker T. Mattison

Oct11

O.K., really, really outside my comfort zone. I don’t even know the difference between hip-hop and rap. And when the narrator of this story, fifteen year old Tory Tyson, starts talking about “laying down some banging beats” and “reggaeton tracks”, I’m lost. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this essay into urban fiction from Revell Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group (yes, that’s a Christian publishing house).

The story is classic: Tory’s rise to fame as a rap/hip hop producer is fraught with temptations and with danger to his reputation and even his life. But Tory’s “moms” is praying for him, and he finds a friend who keeps him grounded in discussions of the meaning of absolute truth, character, and integrity. He also gains a girlfriend and loses a best friend in the process. Some of the scenes were a little high on the drama scale: Tory gets arrested at one point, and he survives an attempted shooting. But I think the drama will appeal to young adult readers, and the story doesn’t get too preachy for me, although some non-Christian readers may disagree with my assessment in that area. As Tory says, “Christians are masters of the bait-and-switch. They invite you to something like they’re really interested in being around you, but what they really want to do is turn you over to Jesus.”

I won’t lie; there’s a lot of Jesus stuff in this novel. But there’s also a lot of rap music talk, a lot of growing up, and a lot of figuring out what it means to preserve a man’s integrity. I’m not going to be listening to any hip hop (or rap) artists as a result of reading this novel, and you’re not going to be rooked into becoming a Christian if you’re not one already. However, it gave me a new perspective on the urban music scene, and you might find something of interest here, too.

I nominated this one for the Cybils in the Young Adult Fiction category because it’s fun.

Other views:
Au Courant: “Unsigned Hype astonished me. I was amazed at how someone so culturally different than me could actually be relatable and REAL. It further impressed me with a mature teenager, Tory, as a main character.”

Nominations Still Open for Cybils

Oct11

Thursday October 15th is the last day for you to nominate your favorite children’s and young adult books published in the last year for a Cybil Award. The book(s) you nominate should have been published sometime between October 15, 2008 and October 15, 2009. You are allowed to nominate one book in each of the following categories:

Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books
Fantasy & Science Fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non-Fiction Picture Books
Non-Fiction: Middle Grade & Young Adult
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction

Click on the category title to see the list of books already nominated in that category. I’ve already used up all of my nominations, but the following are books that I think are eligible and that have NOT been nominated (last time I looked):

The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill. Middle Grade Fiction. Published in late 2008. (ISBN978-1590786376) Semicolon review here.

Family Reminders by Julie Dannenburg. (ISBN978-1580893206) Middle Grade FIction.Semicolon review here.

Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem. Middle Grade Fiction. (ISBN978-0811866538) Semicolon review here.

The Locked Garden by Gloria Whelan. Middle Grade FIction. (ISBN9780060790943)

Days of Little Texas by R.A. Nelson. YA FIction.(ISBN9780375855931)

The Unknowns by Benedict Carey. Middle Grade Fiction. (ISBN9780810979918)

The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratz. YA FIction.(ISBN9780803732247)

A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson by Barbara Dana. YA Fiction. (ISBN9780060287047)

Rock ‘n Roll Soldier: A Memoir by Dean Ellis Kohler. YA nonfiction. (ISBN978-0061242557)

Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson. YA Nonfiction. (ISBN978-0061664687)

The Duel: The Parallel Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Judith St. George. Middle Grade Nonfiction. (ISBN978-0670011247)

If you’ve read any of these and want to nominate them, rush on over to the Cybils website and do so —posthaste. A book can only be considered if it’s nominated.

Sunday Salon: Take a Look at My Shelves

Oct11

The Sunday Salon.comIt is my plan for the second Sunday of the month that Operation Clean House kicks into gear. I will post before and after pictures of one area of the house that I’ve managed to clean, and as a reward to myself and to you for looking, I’ll also post a picture of a favorite shelf of books in my house and highlight some of the Good Books on that shelf. SInce I have approximately 250 shelves of books in my house and more areas that need to be cleaned than that, this project should last my lifetime if I choose to continue it that long.

How about “the area to be cleaned” is the same area where the bookshelf is, the corner where I spend a lot of time: my computer corner. As you can see, it hasn’t been cleaned yet, but I’ll spend some time on it today and Monday.

IMG_0346

This shelf of books is in my bedroom just to the right of my computer desk. Several of the books pictured are worth a mention.

IMG_0341

William Zinser’s On Writing Well is a fine guide to the art of writing nonfiction articles in particular. I should get it out and go over the material in it with Karate Kid who needs to be writing more. I could use some tips on making my writing a bit more sparkle-y and interesting, too.

The Homeschool Journey by Susan and Michael Card makes homeschooling sound so so artistic and beautiful and homely.

There are a couple of very old books on this shelf:

The Mother’s Book is from 1921, edited by Caroline Benedict Burrell and WIlliam Byron Forbush. It’s a collection of essays and advice for mothers from the Jane Addams settlement house era. In fact, one of the articles in the book, “Companionship vs. Loyalty in the Gang”, is by Jane Addams. The advice in the book is sometimes good, but more often it seems rather quaint and even silly to twenty-first century readers. I really ought to excerpt some of the more amusing and telling passages for a beginning history of child-rearing advice in the U.S.
I also have an 1812 fifth edition copy of Noah Webster’s Elements of Useful Knowledge, Volume 1, Historical and Geographical Account of the United States for the Use of Schools. I’m wondering exactly how this little book was used in schools. It contains 529 sections, about a paragraph or half a page each on such topics as RIvers of New York, Settlement of Georgia, Introduction of Printing, Trade of Connecticut, etc. Did students read an assigned passage aloud or recite it back to the teacher or write about a section or what?

The large yellow book called A to Zoo is a discarded older edition of a reference book that lists picture books by subject. It’s useful for finding picture books on a certain subject to read to preschoolers, but it’s somewhat outdated. If you’re interested in having one of your own, you might be able to pick one up at a library discard sale. Or you can get a brand new 2005 edition for $67.00 at Amazon.

First Time Out: Debutante Authors

Oct10

The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice.

The Beef Princess of Practical County by Michelle Houts.

Other than a female narrator and the fact that both are written by a first time author, these two books don’t really have much in common. Oh, also the setting in each book provides a nice hook for the story.

The Year the Swallows Came Early is set in San Juan Capistrano. I remember reading about the old mission town where the swallows return each spring to make their home until they migrate in the fall. Groovy, aka Eleanor, the eleven year old narrator tells the story of how her own father betrayed her trust and went to jail. Groovy is a likable young lady with ambition to become a fine chef someday, and Ms. Fitzmaurice, the author, gets her voice just right. Groovy is growing up, dealing with issues of deception and forgiveness, and yet she’s still a child. She talks and thinks like an eleven year old, with a refreshing innocence that is often missing in these days of precocious, sometimes jaded, child book characters. And I loved the ending to this book. It had hope and realism and lessons learned and growth for all of the characters in the book, without being saccharine-sweet.

More reviews of The Year the Swallows Came Early
Natasha at Maw Books: “Kathryn Fitzmaurice develops these characters so well and so early that I just had to see where this story was going to go. In addition to Groovy and her parents, we meet other wonderful characters who each have a story of their own.”
Into the Wardrobe: “I also enjoyed the novel because of the simple food descriptions that realistically captured the fun, wonder, and passion of a foodie who is only eleven years old.”

My favorite part of The Beef Princess of Practical County was the setting; it takes place on a modern-day beef farm in Practical County, Indiana. I’ve read several books about farm life, but I can’t think of another book that focuses on the farm itself and on what it’s like to be a part of a family farming operation in the twenty-first century. Most farm books I can think of are either about historical farm life or about escaping farm life. The Beef Princess celebrates the beef industry while also showing how difficult it can be to raise and eventually sell animals that are destined for the dinner table. I was a bit disappointed to find an instance or two of bad editing in the book, and some of the minor characters are a bit stereotypical (a set of snooty, bad girl sisters, the Darling sisters). However, the setting and the gentle story of a girl growing up on the farm save the book from being too formulaic and make it a good choice for rural readers looking for a book about “someone like me” and city dwellers looking to see what it’s like to live on a farm.

Other opinions on The Beef Princess of Practical County:
Bookworm Readers: “There’s not much to say about The Beef Princess of Practical County except that it was a simple, clean, and sweet book about growing up and letting go. The narration was excellent–Libby had a real voice and actually sounded like a 12 year old girl.”
Amanda at A Patchwork of Books: “Libby and those calves are just going to pull at your heart strings and seriously make becoming a vegetarian a possibility in your life. Such a creative plot concept with true-to-life characters, great emotion, and just enough funny moments to really melt your heart.”

These two good solid stories are harbingers, I hope, of more to come from both of these debut authors. Both of these books were nominated for the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Award.

Poetry Friday: The Pumpkin by John Greenleaf Whittier

Oct9

Since we’ve been celebrating pumpkins this week:

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o’er Nineveh’s prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored;
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before;
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye,
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin, — our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E’er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o’er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!

Today’s Poetry Friday takes place at Anastasia Suen’s blog, Picture Book of the Day.

Magic Happens

Oct8

Wow! I just read two books for my “job” as a panelist for the Middle Grade Fiction Cybils, and they were both fantastic. Only it turns out that we’re not allowed any, or not much, magic in our category. Both of the books I read were nominated in the Middle Grade Fiction category but got moved to Science FIction/Fantasy. Heads up to that other judging panel: the following two books are absolutely wonderful. Read them first. (Yes, I am openly trying to influence the judges and all you readers out there. What’s the FTC going to do about it? I got these books from the library.)

First I read When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I was already pre-disposed to like Ms. Stead’s novel because Madeleine L’Engle is one of my very favorite authors. And I had already read a lot buzz about When You Reach Me, and one of things I’d read was that the girl protagonist in the book is a great fan of A Wrinkle in Time. Any friend of Madeleine L’Engle is a friend of mine.

However, as I began reading the book, I began to think that maybe my expectations were too high. I stayed confused about three-fourths of the way through the book, but I was willing to hang on because of Madeleine and and because it looked as if there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. I could sort of, kind of, see where the book was going, but on the other hand, it was really confusing. Of course, as you might have guessed, there’s time travel involved. And where there is time travel there is bound to be mind-bending confusion. What you need to know going into When You Reach Me is that:
a) it’s not as good as A Wrinkle in Time, but it’s pretty good. Definitely worth your time.
b) you need to keep reading even if you don’t understand what’s going or exactly when you are. All will become clear.

Any Which Wall by Laurel Snyder is also about magical time travel, and it’s also fan fiction of the very best kind. Only this time it’s Edward Eager, author of Knight’s Castle and Half Magic and other wonderful, magical books, that is the focus of the the author’s tribute. In Any Which Wall, Eager’s books are barely mentioned, but the flavor of his writing and of his joy in magic, is right there. Four children find a magic wall that can take them anywhere, anytime. And there’s a bit of an allusion to the Problem of Susan in the Narnia books: there’s a Susan here who has been too eager to grow up in all the wrong ways and who learns a lesson about what it really means, and doesn’t, to become mature.

As the author says in her “Brief Note on the Existence and True Nature of Magic”: “There are many kinds of magic in the world, and not all of it starts with a sound track of thunderous music to alert unsuspecting explorers to fabulous adventures ahead.” So, just in case you’re not alerted yet, I’m telling you very plainly that When You Reach Me and Any Which Wall are a couple of magical books.

I liked When You Reach Me, and I loved Any Which Wall. Anyone who enjoyed L’Engle and Eager and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia when he was a child (and who hasn’t lost his ability to experience magic in the world) should check out both of these new fantasy/scifi titles. And any child who loves magic books and has already read all of the above should also try these.

Other bloggers on When You Reach Me:
Welcome to My Tweendom: “Refreshingly different and filled with insight, Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me is part mystery, part slice-of-life, and part science fiction. It has the feel of the kind of book that is going to stand the test of time.”
The Book Muncher: “When You Reach Me is a truly delightful and remarkably unique story that incorporates themes as simple as friendship and love to concepts as complex as the scientific possibility of time travel. Readers will be drawn into Miranda’s story from the first page with the exciting air of mystery Stead creates.”
The Reading Zone: “In 6th grade I have a lot students who enjoy the tv show LOST (as do I). I would call When You Reach Me LOST for the middle school set. The strands of the story all start weaving themselves together, leaving you breathless at the end, much as I imagine I will be at the end of the final season of LOST.”

Other book bloggers on Any Which Wall:
Charlotte’s Library: “a splendiferously fun journey through time and space in the best Edward Eager tradition of great characterization, brisk writing, and snappy dialogue among the children.”
Never Jam Today: “Strangers to Edward Eager will still love Any Which Wall, and will hopefully be led back to the master of us all. But devotees will have even more fun. They’ll spot brilliant strokes, like Henry and Emma playing Parcheesi … a game played by the children in Eager’s novels.”
Jen Robinson: “Any Which Wall is about remaining childlike. It’s about keeping your eyes open to glimpse potential moments of magic. it’s about paying attention to how other people feel, doing the right thing, and displaying initiative and bravery. It is a return to Eager’s golden age of children’s literature.”