Archives

Allen Say

Aug28

Say is a Japanese-American author who was also born on this date. He was born in Yokohama, Japan and came to the U.S. just after WWII with his father. His father enrolled him in a military school in California, and Say hated the school and the United States. He was expelled from military school after a year enabling him to explore California on his own. He began to write and illustrate children’s books while doing advertising photography for a living. His book The Bicycle Man is set in Japan immediately after World War II. In the story, two American soldiers visit a Japanese schoolyard and show the children tricks on a bicycle. Maybe this book would be a good one to distribute among American servicemen in Iraq. Then again, maybe the situations are not that analogous. The Iraquis seem to be more dangerous. Could two American servicemen visit an Iraqui school without guns (the book specifically says, “They had no guns.”) and hope to be welcomed? Would they even be allowed to do so by the U.S. and Iraqi authorities? I don’t know.
Say also won a Caldecott Award for his book Grandfather’s Journey about his own grandfather’s coming to the United States.

Allen Say’s books can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Phyllis Krasilovsky

Aug28

Krasilovsky is the author of several children’s picture books, but I am only familiar with our all-time favorite, The Man Who Didn’t Wash His Dishes. Read this one for a humorous answer to the kid question: “But why do we have to wash the dishes?” These titles by the same author sound interesting also.

The Man Who Cooked for Himself: “A man who lives at the edge of the woods discovers that he need not rely on the store for a supply of good things to eat.”
The Man Who Tried to Save Time: “A man drastically reorganizes his daily routines to save time, only to come to a startling realization.”
The Woman Who Saved Things: “A woman who prides herself on her extensive junk collection finds that there is no room in her home for her grandchildren to sleep.”
The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fix Things: ‘A lazy man takes shortcuts when repairing his aging house. He pastes a broken plate back together with flour and water, wraps band-aids around a chair rung, pounds a nail with his shoe, and spreads chewing gum over a crack in the sidewalk.”
It sounds as if Krasilovsky likes to write about the pitfalls of housekeeping in a humorous vein. SInce I live the pitfalls of housekeeping in a humorous vein, I might have to get some of her other books.

He was so very, very tired after carrying everything back and putting it away that he decided that from then on he would always wash his dishes just as soon as he had finished his supper. —The Man Who Didn’t Wash His Dishes

Ms. Krasilovsky’s books can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Roger Duvoisin

Aug28

I have a plethora of authors with birthdays today to present for your reading pleasure. First, we have Roger Antoine Duvoisin, born in 1904 in Geneva, Switzerland. He attended art and music schools in Switzerland and France and eventually emigrated to the United States. Duvoisin wrote and illustrated over forty books for children, and he illustrated more than 140. He won the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt. Roger Duvoisin created at least two delightful characters that I know of: Petunia the silly goose and Veronica the conspicuous hippopotamus. When she travels to the city, Veronica is “gloriously conspicuous.” However, after getting way too much attention from everyone including the police, “Veronica . . .was tired of being conspicuous. One can be too conspicuous.” Conspicuous is such a fun word to introduce to little children.

Mr. Duvoisin’s books can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Sin Leads to More Sin; Movies Lead to Catharsis?

Aug13

Alfred Hitchcock: “”Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.”

Today is also the anniversary of the birth of Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (b.1899, d.1980). I have seven Hitchcock films on my 102 Best Movies list: The Man Who Knew Too Much, North By Northwest, Notorious, Rear WIndow, Rebecca, To Catch a Thief, and Vertigo.

(Semicolon’s 107 Best Movies)

So Hitchcock is my favorite director. He made scary movies that were not (usually) gory nor full of gratuitous violence. I don’t include Psycho or The Birds on my list because I watched them both ages ago and they scared the bejabbers out of me. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I do know that I plan never to see either one of them again. As for the others that did make the list, they are full of suspense, plot twists and engaging characters. I would have preferred that Hitchcock had cast someone besides Kim Novak in Vertigo, but as compensation, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart are about my favorite leading men.

Hitchcock, again, with the last word: “‘Once a man commits himself to murder, he will soon find himself stealing. The next step will be alcoholism, disrespect for the Sabbath and from there on it will lead to rude behaviour. As soon as you set the first steps on the path to destruction you will never know where you will end. Lots of people owe their downfall to a murder they once committed and weren’t too pleased with at the time ‘”

Children’s literature is for everyone

Aug5

Today is the day for birthdays of authors of “children’s literature.” However, I am in agreement with C.S. Lewis who once said the “it certainly is my opinion that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.” I also think there’s something to be said for adults who still have enough “childlikeness” to enjoy good children’s literature. So, these authors who have birthdays today are all three worth reading and enjoying–even for grownups.
Robert Bright wrote My Red Umbrella, the story of a little girl with an umbrella that expands to protect all her animal friends from the rain. Shouldn’t we all have just such an umbrella?
Maud Petersham (b. 1890, d.1971), along with her husband Miska, wrote and illustrated more than sixty books for children and illustrated more than one hundred books written by other authors. The Petersham book I like best is called The Box with Red Wheels.. I would love to own some of the Petershams’ other books, many of which are out of print. Maud was the daughter of a Baptist minister, and she and her Hungarian husband wrote and illustrated many retellings of Bible stories.
Ruth Sawyer (b. 1880, d. 1970) was a storyteller, folklorist, and children’s author. I need to re-read Roller Skates, the book for which she won the Newbery Award. It’s the story of a girl who explores New York City, or maybe her section of NYC, on roller skates. I found out when I looked for information about Sawyer that she started the first storytelling program for children at the New York City Public Library. Also, Robert McCloskey, author of Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal, was Ruth Sawyer’s son-in-law! And my favorite Ruth Sawyer book, Journey Cake, Ho!, was illustrated by Robert McCloskey.
By the way, all the books mentioned in this post (except for Roller Skates which isn’t a picture book) are recommended in my self-published book, Picture Book Preschool.

Born Today

Jun25

Today is the birthday of:
ABEL BOYER (b. 1667, d. 1729) He was a French Huguenot refugee who fled to England. He published various historical worka and a French-English, English-French dictionary. He also wrote a memoir.
JOHN HORNE TOOKE-(b.1736, d. 1812) A British lawyer, politician and priest. Among other things, “in 1775 Horne attacked the government’s actions in America and was imprisoned for libel.” So he was one of our first British friends and supporters.
GEORGE ORWELL (b. 1903, d.1950) I read Animal Farm and 1984 a long time ago. I seem to remember that the pigs took over the barnyard in the first, and there was something scary about mice in the second. I also remember that the government was very fond of slogans such as War is Peace”, “Ignorance is Strength” and “Freedom is Slavery.” Orwell was a socialist, but anti-communist. One quote: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
ERIC CARLE (b. 1929) Born in New York, raised and educated in Germany, Eric Carle is most famous for his picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Our favorite Eric Carle book is Pancakes, Pancakes; however, The Grouchy Ladybug is not bad. I sometimes feel like a grouchy ladybug. Wouldn’t that book title make a great blog title? (I’m sometimes embarrasssed that my blog title is so mundane.)

G.K. Chesterton

May30

Whoa, go back three steps–actually one day. Yesterday was the birthday of G.K. Chesterton, and I can’t miss that one. He has so many great quotes. And Father Brown and The Man Who Was Thursday and Orthodoxy are such great books.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. To me, this means do it and enjoy it no matter what your level of competency. You don’t have to be a great singer to sing, and you don’t have to be a great writer to blog.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. Often quoted, but still true.

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.

The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense. Chesterton on homeschooling?

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. I get very impatient with children who are bored or who say they are bored.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare. I wish I could develop true contentment, but I greatly fear that I am unwilling to put in the work required to get there.

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. Wow, talk about praying without ceasing. This habit, too, would be good to develop.

Arnold Lobel

May22

Today is the birthday of Arnold Lobel, author and illustrator of many, many children’s books including, Frog and Toad Are Friends and Owl at Home. In fact, one biographer noted that Mr. Lobel died in 1987 leaving a legacy of over 100 books that he either wrote or illustrated. What a legacy!
It’s an especially fine legacy since many of Lobel’s stories are memorable and thought provoking for adults as well as children. A long time ago a friend read me the story Cookies from the book Frog and Toad Together. In this tale, Toad bakes some cookies, and then Frog and Toad try, unsuccessfully, to keep themselves from eating all the cookies. In the midst of their fight against temptation, Frog says that they need will power which he defines as “trying hard not to do something that you really want to do.” At the end of the story, Toad is sad because the cookies are all gone. Frog says, “Yes, but we have lots and lots of will power.” Toad is not consoled. Neither am I when left with useless will power but no cookies. And isn’t it true that when I need will power to resist temptation it’s never enough, and I only have plenty of will power in the abstract when there’s no real place to exercise it.
Other unforgetable stories include:
A List in which Toad loses his list of things to do and is paralyzed and unable to do anything
A Lost Button in which Toad loses his button and shouts this immortal rant, “The whole world is covered with buttons and not one them is mine!”
A Swim in which Toad looks funny in his bathing suit.
Tear-Water Tea from the book Owl at Home in which Owl thinks of sad things to make himself cry so that he can make tea from his tears.
Mouse Soup in which a mouse tells stories a la Sheherazade in order to keep from beng cooked into a weasel’s soup.

Lobel was a great story-teller himself, and I am indebted to him for many smiles and pleasant read-aloud times.

Books by Arnold Lobel can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Authors’ Birthdays This Week

May14

May 9:
Eleanor Estes: The Hundred Dresses is a wonderful chilldren’s book about prejudice and cruelty and repentance and how sometimes we repent but are unable to repair the damage we have done. It turns out Eleanor Estes was a children’s librarian. I like librarians.
Sir J.M. Barrie (1860-1937): Peter Pan is fun, but I really enjoyed The Little Minister when I read it many years ago. It’s the romantic story of a new minister in a a small village who falls in love with an elusive gypsy girl.

May 12:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): I will never forget watching a film in some literature class with Oliver Reed as Rossetti. He played a dark and tortured poetic genius, misunderstood, of course. I’d love to see the film again to see if it’s as memorable as I remember. Anyway, Rossetti was a Victorian, Pre Raphaelite poet and artist.
Try Edward Lear, for poetry that’s a little lighter than that of Rossetti. My personal favorite is The Pobble Who Had No Toes. It’s a fact the whole world knows,/That Pobbles are happier without their toes.

May 13
Daphne Du Maurier: I already jumped the gun and wrote about her here.

May 14
Hall Caine (1853-1941): I never heard of him, but according to VictorianWeb , he was a novelist and a protege of . . . Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Dante Alighieri: Last, but not least, I found this date for Dante’s birth in some source, however, this Dante website says that he “was born in Florence in May or June 1265.” Since it fits with what has become the theme of this post, we’ll use this date.

Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy Sayers

Apr29

Today is the birthday of Jill Paton Walsh, author of several good children’s and young adult novels. However, of even more interest, she is also the author of Thrones, Dominations a continuation of the Lord Peter Wimsey saga by Dorothy Sayers and based on notes Sayers kept for another Lord Peter novel. I have a copy of Thrones, Dominations, and I have read it and thought it was well done. Now I find in a visit to Walsh’s website that she has published another Lord Peter novel–A Presumption of Death. I also found this speech given by Walsh at The Dorothy L. Sayers Memorial Lecture in May 2002. In the speech Walsh talks about Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, the characters Walsh has “inherited” so to speak. She says something interesting about writing with someone else’s characters:

The point I am making is that if Peter is to remain himself, a recognisable person, continuous with the person we have come to know and love, then he must change. Married love will change him, fatherhood will change him, war will change him. There will be more Lord Peter, but no more of the same Lord Peter.

Definitely, for a series of books to continue to be interesting, the characters must change and “grow.” Is this true of real people also, of marriages? If the two people in a marriage stay exactly the same people that they were when they married, do they become bored with each other? Too much change and Lord Peter would be unrecognizable as Lord Peter. It seems we need just enough growth to keep it interesting. Is this one reason the Holy Spirit changes us, remakes us into Christ’s image, but slowly? Sometimes I seem to change so imperceptibly, and the pace is excruciatlingly slow. I am impatient. But I don’t want to become someone else. So, Lord, change me slowly, carefully, into the person you created me to be. Even in heaven, won’t there be change, growth, learning? Otherwise, heaven would be a slow death instead of life everlasting.
I’m looking forward to reading this new Lord Peter book by Jill Paton Walsh as one looks forward to a particularly favorite meal.