Archive by Author | Sherry

Seven Quick Takes Friday

Dec19

I thought I’d write my Seven Quick Takes on seven of Cybils nominees that I read, but didn’t get around to reviewing:
1) Aloha Crossing by Pamela Bauer Mueller. This one is a sequel to Hello, Goodbye, I Love You: The Story of Aloha, A Guide Dog for the Blind by the same author. I didn’t much care for the further adventures of Aloha the guide dog and his owner Kimberly, but others really did.


2) Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains by Laurel Snyder. Lucy the milkmaid and Wynston the prince are best friends even if their favorite thing to do is argue with each other. But now Wynston’s father King Desmond says he must find a princess to marry, and Lucy longs to know what exactly happened to her mother who disappeared many years ago when Lucy was only a baby. So lonely with out her best friend, Lucy decides to go on an adventure all by herself up the Scratchy Mountains. I’m reading this one out loud to Z-baby.
Miss Erin interviews Laurel Snyder about this book.

3) Breathing Soccer by Debbie Spring. Too agenda driven for me, but if your child or friend deals with the issue of playing sports while coping with asthma, you might want to check out this story of Lisa, who rises above her physical challenges to play soccer in spite of the nay-sayers and fear-mongers in her life.


4) Lizard Love by Wendy Townsend. Grace really, really likes reptiles: snakes, iguanas, lizards, etc. When she happens into the store Fang & Claw and meets Wlater who likes reptiles as much as she does, she feels as if she’s found a home away from home in spite of her difficulties fitting in anywhere else. I liked this book even though I’m not a reptile fan. Discussions of reptilian sex and puberty and body image, although tastefully done, limit the audience for this book to adolescent girls and older.

5) Meeting Miss 405 by Lois Peterson. Dad says that while Tansy’s mom is away from home Tansy has to stay after school with boring old Miss Stella from Apartment 405—even though Tansy thinks she’s old enough to take care of herself and doesn’t need a babysitter. It’s not easy, but Tansy learns some things from Miss Stella, including how to become “super-concentrated” and what to do about missing her mother so much. The themes here are families dealing with mental illness and tolerance for others. Kim on Meeting Miss 405.


6) Anna Smudge: Professional Shrink by MAC. Comic-bookish storyline without the pictures. The book starts out with Anna in jail and then goes back in time to tell how she got there. It’s Anna and her friends against Mr. Who, the criminal mastermind, but who exactly is Mr. Who? And can a girl whose only talent is a gift for counseling really save New York CIty from Mr. Who’s dastardly machinations? I thought it was sort of silly, but Kim loved it and Melissa liked it, too. And Karate Kid who is the expert on what eleven year old boys will read liked it, too.


7) The Big Splash by Jack Ferraiolo. Either this one or The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey was Karate Kid’s favorite of all the Cybils nominees he read; he can’t decide. Adults will find The Big Splash rather, well, juvenile, with potty humor, and really cruel kids. It’s a hard-boiled noir detective novel for junior high kids. If you like Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler and can still channel your middle school self, or if you’re still in middle school, you might want to check it out. But even for fifty year old moms, it has its moments. The relationship between protagonist Matt and his single mom is beautiful and spot-on. See Presenting Lenore for a full review and and interview with the author.

Semicolon Author Celebration: Charles Wesley, b. 1707

Dec18

Today is the birthday of hymn writer Charles Wesley, author of two famous Christmas carols, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and the lesser-known Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus. In addition, he wrote approximately 5500 more hymns and spiritual songs.

Christmas in Charles Wesley’s Journal:

1743: “Christmas-day. I heard that one of our fiercest persecutors, who had cut his throat, and lay for dead some hours, was miraculously revived, as a monument of divine mercy. Many of his companions have been hurried into eternity, while fighting against God. He is now seeking Him whom once he persecuted; was confounded at the sight of me, much more by my comfortable words, and a small alms. He could only thank me with his tears.
I read prayers, and preached, “Glory be to God in the highest,” to a people who now have ears to hear.”

1749: “Christmas-day. The room was full as it could contain. We rejoiced from four to six, “that to us a Son is born, to us a Child is given.”

Dueling Hymns: Augustus Toplady and Charles Wesley

In church last Sunday our pastor preached on the Biblical sources for Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I am so thankful that God saw fit to give human beings the gift of song and of music to give joy and aid memory. And I’m thankful for all those Wesleyan hymns, most of which I’ve never heard. A gift yet to be discovered.

Hymns by Charles Wesley That I Do Know and Love:

A Charge To Keep Have I
Amazing Love! How Can It Be?
Arise My Soul, Arise
Christ The Lord Is RIsen Today
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Jesus Lover of My Soul
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing
Rejoice the Lord Is King

If you have a post today (or any other day) concerning Charles Wesley, please leave a link to join in the celebration. And thanks to Hope for reminding me, forgetful thing that I am.

1. Hope in Brazil
2. God and Sinners Reconciled		 3. Ruth (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing)
4. Circle of Quiet (Come Thou Long Expected Jesus)5. Challies on Charles Wesley

Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.

Christmas in South Dakota, 1910

Dec17

She unwrapped an unwieldy bundle, covered with newspapers. Out of it fell a giant tumble weed, its spiny leaves dried on its skeleton stalk; its bushy top mounted on a trunk made of a broomstick. “Do you think that would do fer a Christmas tree?” she asked.

Becky looked at the dry bush with softened eyes.

“I thought maybe I could use some plum brush fer a tree, went on the child. “But I just hate the switchey look of’em for Christmas. So when this whopper tumble weed came along last fall it stuck in our chicken wire, and I hung it up in the barn. It dried just that way, and I thought maybe the children would like it fer a tree. The little ones never seen no pictures of one, even, and they wouldn’t know if it wasn’t just like. I got a pail of sand to stick that broomstick down in. I could hang the popcorn and the light strings on the tumble weed, and put the rest around it. Do you think that would work, Miss Linville?”

“I’m sure the children would love it.”

~The Jumping Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely

Last night and today I have been enjoying this story, first published in 1929 and republished this year by the South Dakota State Historical Press for a new generation of readers. (The cover pictured here is from the older edition since the new paperback cover is not available at Amazon.) Little House on the Prairie fans who have exhausted Ms. WIlder’s canon and all its spin-offs, should try this story of a family of four orphan children who take up a homestead in South Dakota, determined to hold down their claim for fourteen months until they can gain title to the 160 acres of South Dakota farm left to them by their beloved Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim’s death at the beginning of the story gives the children a grief that is slow to heal, but the words and plans that he left them guide them in their new life on the prairie.

The Jumping-Off Place was a Newbery Honor book in 1930. (Laura Ingalls WIlder didn’t win her first of four Newbery Honors until 1938.) It’s a wonderful story of pioneering on the Great Plains in the early part of the twentieth century. Only one caveat: one of the characters does use the phrase “ni— work” to refer to the hard work of making a life on the prairie, a phrase I’m sure was common usage in that time and place, but offensive to modern ears nevertheless.

The book is for a bit more mature readers than those who first come to the Little House books. Ms. McNeely doesn’t sugarcoat the drudgery and suffering that those who settled the Great Plains had to endure. In one scene a baby dies of snakebite in a poverty-stricken dugout home, and fifteen year old Becky, the oldest of the four children, helps to lay out the body of the little girl and prepare it for burial. Some of the settlers are kind and helpful to the children, while others are mean and ornery. I think older children (ages 11-14 or so) who like this sort of tale will read anxiously to see if and how the children hold their claim and become part of the new Dakota society.

Other read-alikes in the pioneering children and young adults genre:

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. Another Newbery Honor book, reviewed here at Maw Books Blog.

By Crumbs It’s Mine by Patricia Beatty.

My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, A Prairie Teacher. Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881 by Jim Murphy

West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 by Jim Murphy.

Any other suggestions?

The American Patriot’s Almanac by William Bennett and John Cribb

Dec16

I just got this book in the mail from Thomas Nelson publishers, and I wanted to get a review posted before it’s too late because I think it would make a wonderful Christmas or New Year’s present for anyone interested in American history or any homeschooler or teacher of American history. As soon as the book came, Brown Bear Daughter was browsing through it, reading me excerpts, partly to avoid finishing her math lesson, but also because she was genuinely interested in the short vignettes from U.S. history.

The book consists of a story for each day of the year related to events that occurred on that date. For instance, for today, December 16th, Bennett and Cribb recount the story of the Boston Tea Party which took place on the evening of December 16, 1773. Then, underneath the short four paragraph account, there’s a list of other events that also happened on December 16th.

I have a similar book called On This Day in History, but what I like about this one is its unabashed Americanism and willingness to mention, and even feature, Christians and spiritual heroes as well as secular ones. For example, the entry for October 5th tells about the Great Awakening and about preacher Jonathan Edwards who was born on that date. Another entry features the first American-born Catholic saint, Elizabeth Seton. Also, I think the entries in The American Patriot’s Almanac are more kid-friendly and interestingly written to draw you into the story and inspire further research.

In addition to the page for each day of the year, there are extra features scattered throughout the book: Flags of the Revolutionary War, The History of the Stars and Stripes, Fifty All-American Movies, Flag Etiquette, The Declaration of Independence (text and history), The U.S. Constitution (text and history), The Gettysburg Address, The Emancipation Proclamation, The Pledge of Allegiance, The American’s Creed, songs and poems of American patriotism, and the written words of various prayers for America called Prayers for the American People. You get a lot of information here, a lot of bang for the buck, packed into 515 pages, including an index.

The American Patriot’s Almanac isn’t a chronological look at U.S. history, but I plan to use it daily next year as we study through the history of our country chronologically. These daily nuggets will review or preview what we’re studying and help me to reinforce the meaning of the events that make up our history. I”ll be using it for blogging, too, since I like to feature birthdays of famous people and events in history. Can you tell that I’m really excited about this book?

Thanks to the folks at Thomas Nelson for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Christmas in Switzerland, 1948

Dec16

“On Christmas Eve Georges Laurens stirred himself from his books and they all went out and climbed up the mountain and brought home a beautiful Christmas tree. Flip and Paul had been making the decorations in the evenings after dinner, chains of brightly colored paper, strings of berries and small rolled balls of tinfoil, and Flip had carefully painted and pasted on cardboard twenty delicate angels with feathery wings and a stable scene with Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus, the kings and shepherds and all the animals who gathered close to keep the baby warm. When the tree was trimmed they sang carols, ending up with The Twelve Days of Christmas. Paul took Flip’s hand and threw back his head and sang.

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love sent to me:
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings
Four calling birds
Three french hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree!”

~And Both Were Young by Madeleine L’Engle

Christmas in London, 1876

Dec15

“Christmas and New Year are a very merry time for some people; but for cabmen and cabmen’s horses it is no holiday, though it may be a harvest. There are so many parties, balls, and places of amusement open, that the work is hard and often late. Sometimes driver and horse have to wait hours in the rain or frost, shivering with cold, while the merry people within are dancing away to the music. I wonder if the beautiful ladies ever think of the weary cabman waiting on his box, and his patient beast standing till his legs get stiff with cold.” ~From Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse by Anna Sewell.

I wonder whose hard work and maybe even suffering we ignore in our pursuit of a merry Christmas? Sales clerks? Restaurant workers? Who else?

Black Beauty was published in November, 1877, and its author never wrote another book. In fact, she died on April 25, 1878 only five months after the publication of her classic horse story, whose aim she said was “to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.”

Christmas at Winchester, 1234

Dec12

“The whole court was beginning to hum and shine with Christmas hilarity, for Henry loved Christmas, loved to celebrate it as a day of high jollity with, of course, religious undertones.

The Christmas matins had been sung just before dawn with all the proper ceremonial. The bishop himself, wearing his dalmatic, had chanted St. Matthew’s Genealogy, after being escorted by the acolytes to the rood loft, where candlesticks were elevated above him. It had been a solemn occasion. The King had spent it on his knees, thrilling to the deep gloom of the edifice, the drone of the bishop’s voice and the the rich chorus of the monkish voices in the Te Deum which followed. He loved ritual. It uplifted him, made him feel more than an earthly king, gave him, perhaps, a sense of participation in heavenly rule.

Now the festivities of the day were starting and everything would be done with the refinement and magnificence which the Normans had introduced into such celebrations. The yule log had been dragged in already while gleemen sang the popular carol of the day, To English Ale and Gascon Wine, the refrain of which ran:

May joys flow from God above,
To all those whom Christmas love.

The wassail bowls were ready with the fragrant hot spiced ale and the roasted apples. The meats were making on the spits, pig and boar and goose, and the kitchens were still busy preparing such holiday delicacies as dilligrout and karum pie.” ~From The Magnificent Century by Thomas B. Costain.

What, pray tell, is a dalmatic? And what are dilligrout and karum pie? The aforementioned Henry is Henry III, aka Henry of Winchester, son of John I (Magna Carta) and father to Edward I, Longshanks.

7 Quick Takes Friday: Living and Learning

Dec12

Jennifer at Conversion Diary sponsors 7 Quick Takes Friday. If you’re in the mood for some trivia about the quotidian pursuits of ordinary people, which after all is what life is made of, check it out.

***1***

I like the word “quotidian”. I first saw it at someone’s blog. I think one of the reasons I blog is so that I can use words that I find and like, and no one will look at me with a puzzled expression and a “who are you trying to impress” attitude. I’m not trying to impress anyone; I just like words.

***2***

I’m still reading Cybils nominees. I would like to review all of the books, over 80, I’ve read for the Cybils, but I know that it’s not going to happen. THis morning at homeschool co-op, I was reading Chancy of the Maury River by Gigi Amateau. I’m not really a horse person, but this book reminds me of Black Beauty. I think horse-loving girls would love it.

***3***

Another book for horse lovers is last year’s Paint the Wind (Semicolon review here). Those two books together would make a great gift for some horsey young lady. All my friends in junior high loved horses, and they were all going to grow up to be veterinarians —except for me. I don’t even do small pets, let alone horses.

***4***

Mostly we learned about snow this week. We saw, we experienced, we froze. I’m still freezing, and it’s supposed to be up to 68 degrees today.

***5***

We also did a little math this week, read a little history, made this fudge (thanks to Brenda and Rachel). Our learning week has been somewhat desultory (another nice word), but relaxing.

***6***

I had planned to make several crafty-type Christmas gifts with the girls from this list, but we made exactly one of them so far, the play dough. I should already know that I’m just not the crafty type, except in the sly sense of the word. Maybe this next week will be craft week at Semicolon house.

***7***

Tomorrow Artist Daughter and Engineer Husband have their piano recital. I’ll miss the sounds of their practicing their pieces at random times of the day, but I’ll be glad to have the recital done. Christmas music playing here when someone isn’t playing the piano: Sufjan Stevens and Kemper Crabb.

See you all tomorrow at the Saturday Review of Books.

Christmas in Arizona, 1902

Dec12

“In 1902 an Act of Congress officially opened for land claims what had previously been the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. One fellow, upon hearing the news, immediately rushed there to stake his claims on December 25, Christmas Day. He then rapidly rode on horseback to file them the next day at the government office.”

This eager beaver land claim is what gave Christmas, Arizona its name.

~The Naming of America by Allan Wolk