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To This Great Stage of Fools: Born June 19th

Jun19

Blaise Pascal, b. 1623 In 1656, while he was still in his early thirties, Pascal began collecting material for a book, Apology for the Christian Religion. He wrote down his thoughts “upon the first scrap paper that came to hand . . . a few words and very often parts of words only.” These fragments of thought became, after his death at age 39, the Pensees, edited by a group of monks who shared his Catholic faith. Some pensees:

“Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.”

“There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners; the rest, sinners, who believe themselves righteous.”

“Misery induces despair, pride induces presumption. The Incarnation shows man the greatness of his misery by the greatness of the remedy which he required.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Prince of Preachers, b. 1834.

Every Sunday evening Mrs. Spurgeon was accustomed to gather the children around the table, and as they read the Scripture, she would explain it to them verse by verse. Then she prayed, and her son declares that some of the words of her prayers her children never forgot. Once she said, “Now, Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance they perish, and my soul must bear swift witness against them at the day of judgement if they lay not hold of Christ.” That was not at all in the modern vein, but it was the arrow that reached the boy’s soul. “The thought of a mother bearing swift witness against me pierced my conscience and stirred my heart.” There was enough in him to cause his mother anxiety. His father recalled that his wife once said to him, speaking of their eldest son, “What a mercy that boy was converted when he was young.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon: A Biography by W.Y. Fullerton

I would that my children had a mother like Susannah Wesley or Elizabeth Spurgeon, but God has given them me, and my prayers, poor and inconsistent as they are, must be enough. Finally, of course, it is God’s mercy and grace that must suffice.

Juneteenth

Jun18

Those of you who aren’t Texians may be unfamiliar with this holiday, celebrated on June 19th, but I’ve heard about it all my life. According to the Juneteenth website,

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

Juneteenth is an official state holiday in Texas and it will be celebrated tomorrow, mostly by those of African American descent, with picnics, prayer services, carnivals, parades, and other festivities. Oh, yes, a typical Juneteenth celebration usually involves barbecue, watermelon, and red soda pop. Happy Juneteenth!

Author Athol Dickson on Juneteenth, Christians, and karma.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born June 14th

Jun14

Harriet Beecher Stowe, b. 1811. Harriet Beecher was one of eleven brothers and sisters, and she and her husband, professor Calvin Stowe had seven children of their own. In 1852, Harriet published her most famous book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Later, during their retirement years, the Stowes lived across the lawn from another famous author, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). During the time that the Stowe family and the Clemens family were neighbors in Hartford, Connecticutt, Mark Twain wrote his most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Laurence Michael Yep, b.1948. Mr. Yep writes mostly historical fiction for children and young adults. The books are usually set on the West Coast or in Asia and feature Asian or Asian American characters. I’ve read Dragonwings and Dragon’s Gate and enjoyed them very much. Laurence Yep also has a connection with Mark Twain. Two of Yep’s titles are The Mark Twain Murders and The Tom Sawyer Fires.

Sameera’s Blog Tour

Jun13

Here in Semicolonland, we’re quite comfortable talking with fictional characters. One daughter, who wouldn’t want me to even identify her by nickname, used to walk around the house talking to her fictional friends all the time. So, when author Mitali Perkins asked if I’d like to participate in her blog tour and interview fictional First Daughter Sameera Righton, I said, “Sure!”

First Daughter has a lot of information about blogs and blogging. How did you start blogging, and why do you do it?

I started when I lived in Brussels, setting up a small myplace.com blog and inviting 29 friends to tune in. During Dad’s campaign, I widened the circle and went public so I could stay in charge of my public image. But it’s more than that, Mrs. E. I’ve always loved to write and get other people commenting and chatting with each other. And as a kid growing up with two mongo-powerful parents, I figured out early that a pen (or a laptop) has way more power to change the world than a sword. That’s why I want to be a journalist or a screenwriter. Or both. And that’s why I blog.

I know you have your own blog now where you write whatever you want, but what if you decided to write about something controversial such as abortion rights or illegal immigration or the war in Iraq? Wouldn’t your Dad’s handlers want to have prior approval on topics like that?

Tough bunnies. I draw the lines when it comes to content, not them. I’m not scared to bring up the issues I care about, but I like to ask questions instead of giving answers. Don’t worry, Mrs. E., I get that how you ask a question about an issue can show people exactly where you stand. Usually, I know Dad’s position, so if we agree, I blog away. If I don’t know what he thinks, I find out. When we disagree, I hash it out with him in private (usually over dessert on Sunday evening), and after we’ve had a good intense discussion, I ask if it’s okay to share a sound byte or two from our conversation out in cyber-space. Dad’s such a champion of freedom of speech that he’d never stop me; he’s learned that letting me have my say on Sparrowblog shows off his passion for liberty. Bottom line: he trusts me, and I’d never trash him or shame him publicly, even when he drives me nuts. But hey, it is a good idea to put a disclaimer on the blog so that people know it’s my stuff and not Dad’s official position. Thanks for the idea.

Even now, when I’m writing about the real First Kid wannabes, Sparrowblog’s not an op-ed column; it’s about safety, respect, trust, and fun, and good old-fashioned courtesy, something my Gran and Poppa hammer into every member of the Campbell clan. I want red people and blue people and purple people to feel welcome on Sparrowblog.

How many famous people have you met, and who were the most interesting celebs? Whom would you like to meet?

Most of the movie stars I’d want to meet are dead — that’s the down side of being into classic films. I have to say it was freaky meeting Governor Schwarzenegger in California, because I couldn’t stop imagining him terminating me. I guess I like the old meaning of “stars” better — people who shine in the universe because of how they serve the planet, not because of how beautiful or powerful they are. When it comes to that kind of celeb, I’d love to meet Aung San Syuu Ji of Burma, who’s spent the last decade under house arrest taking a stand for democracy. My Mom met her years ago, and said she’s as lovely and graceful in real life as she seems in the media. Or >Given Kachepa and Grace Akallo, two former child slaves who have become on-fire abolitionists. Now those are shiny people. I’d also like to host a retreat for all the real First Kid wannabes where we could chat about how to take charge of your own image, handle the press, how to date in the public eye, and what to do when your parents are driving you crazy but you have to campaign with them anyway.

Do you feel a lot of pressure to always look and sound your best? How do you get opportunities to relax and be casual?

You bet I feel pressure, but that’s part of the game. The weird thing was figuring out that I look and sound my best when I’m not worrying about how I look or sound. The blog definitely helps me stay real. But I also head to my grandparents’ farm as often as I can (milking definitely gets your mind off yourself), and on Sundays, we go to church in the morning and chill at home without screens and plugs for the rest of the day. Despite my addiction to techno-toys, I have to admit that I wouldn’t survive without our Sundays. I also go dancing with my buddies, love, love, love movies, and of course, there’s nothing more peaceful than noshing on oatmeal scotchies and watching a House and Garden channel show with my cousin Ran.

If your dad weren’t running for president, whom would you like to see in the 2008 race? Which Democrat candidate? Which Republican?

I’m all for making this as interesting an election as possible to bring out a gazillion voters. Every four years, we get the chance to show the rest of the planet how awesome it is to be free. Take the extra-tight race a few years ago where Mr. Gore eventually lost to Mr. Bush and nobody tried to off anybody or start a civil war. How great is that? The more people who vote this time, the better the ad for democracy. That’s why I’d like to see an Obama-Clinton combo versus a Romney-Rice Republican ticket in November ‘08. A Christian convert Democrat taking on a Mormon Republican, and Dr. Rice debating Mrs. Clinton — now that would get people into the election, wouldn’t it?

When does your book come out? What do you like about the book Ms. Perkins wrote about you and the campaign? What would you change if you could?

First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover releases in June 2007, and the sequel, First Daughter: White House Rules, releases in January 2008. Here’s my beef — if she’d have put a bit more action into it, like have me or Ran get kidnapped or something (rescued eventually, of course), or maybe have me try and elope with Bobby, the Walden Media people or Disney just might have optioned the books for a movie. Now that would be sweet. One of the girls who played Parvati or Padma Patil in the Harry Potter movies could play me. Oh wait, they’re Brits. I’m sure there are great South Asian teen actors in the States, but they’re all unknown, so (sigh) Vanessa Hudgens would probably end up hitting the tanning salons and getting the job.

Thanks for a fun interview, Mrs. E. I’m so glad you and Brown Bear liked the book.

And thank you, Sameera and Mitali for an enjoyable read and something to look forward to in presidential election year 2008.

Sherry’s Semicolon review of First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover.

Brown Bear Daughter’s review of First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born June 13th

Jun13

Dorothy L. Sayers, (b. June 13, 1893) “I always have a quotation for everything – it saves original thinking.”
Dorothy Sayers quotations.
Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy Sayers
Top Ten Mystery Writers
Biographical Sketch of Dorothy L. Sayers with a list of her published writings.
Dorothy L. Sayers’ Feminism by Susan Haack

I like Dorothy Sayers. She was something of a character. She was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford with a degree in Medieval and Modern languages. She had an illegitimate son, Anthony, when she was thirty years old, and although she felt she could not raise him herself, she entrusted him to the care of a cousin and supported him financially and by writing him letters. She later married a war hero, Arthur Fleming, who was in poor health, and she took care of him until his death. She taught herself old Italian and translated Dante’s Divine Comedy She also translated Song of Roland from the French..

“The only Christian work is good work, well done”

“I am occasionally desired by congenital imbeciles and the editors of magazines to say something about the writing of detective fiction “from the woman’s point of view.” To such demands, one can only say, “Go away and don’t be silly. You might as well ask what is the female angle on an equilateral triangle.”

Dorothy Sayers was first of all a Christian, secondly a writer and a scholar, and her identity as a woman came in a distant third–or later.

Book-spotting #26

Jun12

Alexander McCall Smith tells Newsweek about his favorite books. A man who lists Pride and Prejudice as one of his five favorites must have something going on in the upper story.

The blogger at The Rap Sheet “e-mailed invitations to more than 100 crime novelists, book critics, and bloggers from all over the English-speaking world, asking them to choose the one crime/mystery/thriller novel they thought had been ‘most unjustly overlooked, criminally forgotten, or underappreciated over the years.'” Here’s the compiled list of all the books that were suggested.
Fuse #8 has a list of best children’s novels you’ve never read. What is your favorite under-appreciated children’s novel or crime/mystery/thriller?

Tom Payne writes in The Telegraph about words and phrases reviewers overuse. I checked it out, and I’m not sophisticated enough to use many of these cliches. I have been guilty of “take one ****, mix in some ****, add a dash of ****, leave to simmer, and what do you have?” But I never actually required anyone to simmer any of my mixtures. Roger Sutton and his commenters take on overused words in reviews of children’s books. I don’t think I’m (over)using many of these either: feisty, endearing, compelling, quirky, spunky, kerfluffle, quotidian, romp, appealing, zany. I’m sure I have my own cliches and frequently used terms. What words do you see overused in blog reviews?

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale

Jun10

Disturbing. Somewhat frightening. Feverish. Violent.

A tale of love and friendship?

Enna Burning is a sequel to Shannon Hale’s successful and enjoyable first novel The Goose Girl, but in this book things turn darker and more violent in Bayern. Tira, their neighboring country and traditional enemy, has attacked, and Bayern must defend its borders and its villages. Enna, Princess Isi’s friend and confidante, has been living quietly in her village in the forest, but now is the time for all good men, and even women, to come to the aid of Bayern. Enna finds that she has the ability to save Bayern, but she may destroy herself in the process.

The book, although it’s fantasy, has an anti-war message comparable to that of another book I read this weekend, Red Moon at Sharpsburg. Again, Hale seems to be saying through her story that although war may sometimes be necessary, it’s never glorious or untouched by moral ambiguity.

I enjoyed Enna Burning, but I liked The Goose Girl better. I’m looking forward to reading a third book in the series, published last year, River Secrets.

Shannon Hale’s website, Squeetus.

48 Hour Book Challenge Final Report

Jun10

Books read: 6 1/2

The Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman. (225 pages)

Marika by Andrea Cheng. (163 pages)

Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins. (91 pages)

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt. (216 pages)

Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells. (236 pages)

Marie, Dancing by Carolyn Meyer. (255 pages)

I also started The Miner’s Daughter by Gretchen Moran Laskas and read about halfway (145 pages) through it before the end of my challenge at 10:00 A.M. this morning.

Total pages read: 1331

Time read: I forgot to keep track, so I have no idea.

What I learned:
I like historical fiction and stories from other cultures.
I’m not so fond of contemporary realistic fiction unless it’s done really well.
It’s hard to write really good realistic fiction for kids and young adults set in the the present time.
I still can’t read in the car for very long without feeling queasy.
48hbc
Suggestions for next year:
Time the 48 Hour Book Challenge to coincide with the closing of nominations for the Cybil awards, and give extra points for reading and reviewing Cybil nominees.

Maybe it should be just a straight 72 hour book challenge from Friday morning until Monday morning. Some people have church or meetings to work around; others have work on Friday or Saturday. But everyone ought to be able to get in about 24 plus hours of reading and reviewing in three days.

Just a couple of non-binding suggestions. Thanks, MotherReader for sponsoring the challenge.

Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells

Jun9

I know Rosemary Wells, and maybe you do too, as the author of the Max and Ruby picture books for young children. She can write for young adults, too. Red Moon at Sharpsburg is proof that Ms. Wells has the ability to write and research and create a wstory and a world for young adults as vivid as the one created with very few words and pictures in her Max books.

Red Moon at Sharpburg is, as can be deduced, a Civil War novel. It’s told from the point of view of a southern girl, India Moody, who lives in Northern Virginia with her family —her daddy, a harness maker, her mother, her little brother and her aged grandfather. The Moodys aren’t rich before the war begins, but they are comfortable with a home and a profitable business. The war, of course, changes everything. In spite of a couple of holes in the plot, I thought Red Moon at Sharpsburg was one of the best Civil War novels written for young adults that I have read. The “holes” involve minor characters, namely India’s baby brother and her elderly grandfather, who have a tendency to disappear when they might interfere with the action. I also found it difficult to believe that a young girl in the South during the war was able through a series of fortunate connections to obtain medicines (aspirin?) from Europe that would cure fever since aspirin wasn’t really invented until the late 1800’s. And the one of the characters has a suspiciously modern knowledge of medicine and chemistry and bacteriology that would have made him somewhat prescient in the mid 1800’s.

Still, the narrator and main character, India, is a delightful young lady and role model. And the descriptions of the war, of battlefields and prisons, and of atrocities are accurate and chilling. Ms. Wells says in the back of the book that part of her purpose in writing it was to reveal “the profound immorality of war.” She goes on to say, “Sometimes we must fight wars, but it is unforgivable to pump war full of glamour and glory.” I’m no pacifist, but I agree with Ms. Wells. She also has a mildly feminist agenda, but it doesn’t become overbearing or preachy.

The best thing about this novel was the gems of language and writing that popped up when I was least expecting them. Here are a few examples:

“I follow him down to Buckmarsh Street to catch a last glimpse of him. Then I cry, standing in the the street like a child with a skinned knee.”

Mauve is a pinkish purple of such delicacy I can only hold the silk square to the light and gaze at it. I have seen it only in petunias and stained-glass windows.”

“The moon is in its last quarter. It appears low on the horizon above the smoke. The crescent sits like a bloody smile in the sky.”

“I am aware of a sudden force, as if I have been flung through space at the speed of a comet. I know what this speeding ahead is without being told. It is me being hurled forward in time to the empty spot at the head of my family. It is a place where I was not meant to be for years to come and now I’m there.
48hbc
Other good Civil War novels for young adults:

Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
Beatty, Patricia. Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee.
Beatty, Patricia. Charley Skedaddle. (Bowery Boys and deserters)
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils.
Fleischman, Paul. Bull Run.
Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie. (Cherokee Indian leader Stand Watie and the repeating rifle)
Paulsen, Gary. Soldier’s Heart: a Novel of the Civil War.
Perez, N.A. The Slopes of War: A Novel of Gettysburg.
Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness. (Lincoln’s assassination)
Rinaldi, Ann. The Last Silk Dress.
Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones. (Andersonville Prison)
Wisler, G. Clifton. THe Drummer Boy of Vicksburg.

Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins

Jun8

I don’t know if this book really qualifies for MotherReader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge; the books were supposed to be about fifth grade level or above. I’d estimate that the reading and interest level for this book woud be about second or third grade. Nevertheless, I don’t care. I read it, and I loved it. Your little girls (and boys) need to read this book. I’m going to add it to Betsy-Bee’s (age eight) summer reading list. Rickshaw Girl is a great book.

Naima is a ten year old village girl in Bangladesh, and she’s a talented artist. She’s already won one prize for her alpanas, decorative rock paintings. But Naima sees how hard her father works as a rickshaw driver because he has no sons to help him drive the rickshaw. Naima wants to do something to help out, but her ideas are sometimes counter-productive. How can a girl help the family financially when girls are only allowed to “stay home and help their mothers”?

The themes of making mistakes, and being forgiven, and trying to fix your mistakes are universal ones, and at the same time the sense of place in this simple story is strong. Children will get an understanding of what life is like in a small village in another part of the world. And they’ll appreciate the story of how Naima perseveres in her goals even after she has a near-disastrous accident.

The illustrations in the book by artist Jamie Hogan are wonderful, to, and certified as authentic by Mitali’s Bengali mother, Madhusree Bose. It would be fun to read this book aloud and then have the little girls create some of their own alpanas, or an approximation thereof.
48hbc
For those of you who homeschool and use Sonlight, this book needs to be part of the Kindergarten level emphasis on world cultures. It would make a great read aloud book at that level, or it would be perfectly suited as a reader for second or third graders. In fact, I need to email the people at Sonlight and tell them about Rickshaw Girl. I think they’ll love it.