What Betsy-Bee (age almost 11) Read: January 2010

Feb1

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass. The book was about a girl and a boy. Since they were born on the same day, a lady thought that they should spend every birthday together, and they did–until their tenth birthday when the boy said something that made the girl mad, and they didn’t talk to each other for a whole year. Then, on their 11th birthday strange things started happening to them, but I won’t tell you what they were because you have to read the story.

The story reminded me of the movie Groundhog Day, and my mom says it also reminds her of the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. However, I don’t think it’s like Sleeping Beauty much.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis wasn’t my favorite, but it was interesting. We talked about the book in my online book club. We talked about how Byron was kind of a bad influence and didn’t exactly follow the rules. He liked playing with matches, and he almost started a fire. It was good book.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale was my favorite book of the month. It was about a goose girl named
Ani, and you always wondered what would happen next and if people were going to catch her. It was very adventurous, and Ani gets almost captured so many times, but she always escapes. Ani also knows how to hear animals and talk to them and to the wind. I wouldn’t like to be in her situation, but I would like to talk to animals and to the wind. And Ani was a princess, and that’s always awesomeness.

(Betsy-Bee actually listened to the audio version of this book and followed along sometimes in the book. I think she could read the book herself if she wanted, but I’m not sure she’s quite ready for the other books in the series.)

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing Piano by Peggy Gifford. I’ve read other Moxy Maxwell books, and she is funny and very determined. In this book, she doesn’t like to practice the piano. Her mom wants her to just play the piece Heart and Soul all the way through with her little sister Pansy, but she won’t because she’s busy making fur-trimmed capes with cut-up towels and a black marker, and getting ready to get on stage, and be applauded. And while she’s doing that, her father is trying to figure out a word that rhymes with “spear” because he’s a poet. And her aunt is sleeping, after falling off of a ladder where she was feeding a giraffe. But her mom is frustrated that Moxy won’t play the piano. Moxy is just crazy.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in January, 2010

Jan31

Fire by Kristin Cashore. Semicolon review here.

The Children of Hurin by JRR Tolkien. My birthday post for Tolkien includes thoughts about The Children of Hurin.

After the Moment by Garrett Freyman-Weyr. Semicolon mini-review here.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray. Semicolon mini-review here.

Comfort by Joyce Hostetter. Semicolon mini-review here.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Semicolon mini-review here.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness. Sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go. However, we’re not finished yet. Resolution is yet to come. The story is not over. If you’re going to write a three-part novel, like Lord of the RIngs, then wait until you’ve finished all three parts to publish it. Do you hear me, Mr. Ness? Ms. Collins?

Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Semicolon review here.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell. Semicolon review here.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. Semicolon review here.

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore. The huge cover controversy has made it almost impossible to talk about the book in terms of its own merits or demerits. I”ll try to do so in a future review.

Hidden Voices by Pat Lowery Collins. The premise was promising: Antonio Vivaldi “wrote countless concertos to showcase the talents of orphan girls at a Catholic school in Venice.” Hidden Voices tells the intertwined fictional stories of three of those orphan girls. Unfortunately, the book starts out very slowly, and when about halfway through it finally starts to get interesting, the reader is suddenly confronted with a scene of graphic sexual violence (rape). The story goes downhill from there. And you don’t really learn much about Vivaldi either.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen.

Forest Born by Shannon Hale.

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith. Semicolon review here.

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon.

Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity by Charles R. Swindoll. Thoughts on this book and on the book of Esther in the Bible here.

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass.

Umbrella Summer by Lisa Graff. I’ll write about these last two children’s fiction books soon. However, If I’d read them sooner they would both have been on my list of best middle grade fiction of 2009.

Many Happy Returns: January 31st

Jan31

(Pearl) Zane Grey, Western author, b. 1875 in Zanesville, Ohio. He dropped his first name later in life. Engineer Husband has an uncle named Horace Pearl; Pearl was an acceptable name for boys around the turn of the century and before. Zane Grey wrote over 90 books, travelled all over the world, and became one of the first millionaire writers. Not bad for guy named Pearl.

Have any of you read any Zane Grey? If so, can you suggest ONE title as a starter?

Gerald McDermott, b. 1941, author and illlustrator who won the Caldecott Award in 1975 for Arrow to the Sun.
Gerald McDermott’s website.

Here’s a critical view of McDermott’s book from a blogger who writes about American Indians as portrayed in children’s literature.

An art activity to accompany the reading of Arrow to the Sun.

Semicolon Book Club: Esther by Chuck Swindoll

Jan30

This post necessarily combines thoughts about the book of Esther in the Bible and about Chuck Swindoll’s commentary on Esther, titled Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity. Mr. Swindoll’s book is the January selection for the Semicolon Book Club, and I chose it because the women of my church will be discussing and studying the book of Esther in early March at our yearly women’s retreat.

The first observation I read in any commentary, Bible study guide, or study of the book of Esther I picked up was that Esther is the only book in the Bible that never mentions God.

Ray Stedman (quoted in Swindoll’s Esther): “For many this little book is a puzzle, for it seems to be out of place in the Bible. There is no mention in it of the name of God; there is no reference to worship or faith; there is no prediction of the Messiah;there is no mention of heaven or hell–in short, there is nothing religious about it, at least on the surface.”

Matthew Henry (also quoted in Swindoll’s book): “But though the name of God be not in it, the finger of God is directing many minute events for the bringing about of His people’s deliverance.”

Swindoll: “When I come to this book that never mentions God, I see Him all the more profoundly and eloquently portrayed throughout it. It’s there in invisible ink. Just like life. I’ve never seen skywriting that says, ‘I’m here, Chuck. You can count on me.’ I’ve never heard an audible voice in the middle of the night reassuring me, ‘I’m here, My son.’ But by faith I see Him, and inaudibly I hear Him on a regular basis, reading Him written in the events of my life–whether it be the crushing blows that drive me to my knees or the joyous triumphs that send my heart winging.”

It’s probably not an original thought with me, but one of the things this “God-in-the-background”, God as the Silent Orchestrator of all things, made me think of was the writing of fiction by Christian authors. Why wouldn’t the book of Esther be a wonderful model for Christians who write fiction?

I’m not saying that the book of Esther is a fictional account. I believe it’s true history. I also see the hand of God very clearly in the events that are recounted in Esther. However, the human author of Esther felt no need to point out to his readers that God was the one who moved the heart of King Xerxes to love and listen to Esther, that it was God who preserved the Jewish people from annihilation by their enemies by manipulating events and moving people to do His will. And yet it’s so obvious. God is the main character in the book of Esther without his ever being named.

Wouldn’t it be a challenge to a Christian author to see if one could write a God-permeated book without ever mentioning God or prayer or worship or faith? Even better, what about a book filled with the teaching and person of Jesus that never tells the reader exactly what to think and what words to use and how to define Jesus’ presence in the world?

I’m not talking about a book with some vague new-age spirituality. I just wonder if a book that presented the gospel of Jesus Christ without ever telling the reader exactly what it was doing and what to think about it might be more of a paradigm shifter than a book that preaches explicitly. Fantasy can do something like this if it’s done skillfully (Tolkien, C.S.Lewis), but I believe it can be done with regular realistic fiction, too. I just don’t know of very many Christian authors who are writing that kind of book.

So Esther made me think about how we write and read and present stories. It also made me think about how God works in our wold and how often we can miss His presence if we’re not looking with eyes of faith. God is at work all of the time. But we don’t always have eyes to see or ears to hear. I have people I’m praying for who seem as lost as they’ve ever been, in whose lives I see nothing of God’s hand. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work. But it may be a while before I can see it. I may never see the complete picture this side of heaven. Esther may not have had any idea that God was at work in her elevation to the position of queen. But He was.

Key passage from the book of Esther: Esther 4:12-16

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

Where has God placed you for just such a time as this? What is He calling you to do?

Many Happy Returns: January 30th

Jan30

Walter Savage Landor, b.1775.
“I strove with none; for none was worth my strife,
Nature I loved, and next to Nature, Art;
I warmed both hands before the fire of life,
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.”

Ann Taylor (b. 1782) who along with her sister Jane published several books of poems for children. Among the poems she and sister Jane wrote was the well-known Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. I found an online copy of a book of the sisters’ poems entitled Little Ann. Most of the poems in the collection sound quaintly didactic to modern ears, but I rather enjoyed reading them. This one, unlike most of the others, is just for fun:

DANCE, little baby, dance up high:
Never mind, baby, mother is by;
Crow and caper, caper and crow,
There, little baby, there you go;
Up to the ceiling, down to the ground,
Backwards and forwards, round and round:
Then dance, little baby, and mother shall sing,
While the gay merry coral goes ding-a-ding, ding.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, b. 1882.

Angela Margaret Thirkell, b. 1890. Read a short piece on Ms. Thirkell’s book, Private Enterprise or County Chronicle by the same author. I need to read some more books by Ms. Thirkell.

Barbara Tuchman, b. 1912. I am very fond of Tuchman’s book, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, a history of France during the high Middle Ages. However, I must enjoy reading about the Middle Ages more than I like reading about WW I because I have yet to finish The Guns of August, the book that won Tuchman her first Pulitzer Prize in 1963. She also won a 1972 Pulitzer for Stillwell and the American Experience in China.

Lloyd Alexander, b.1924. Everyone is, or should be, familiar with Mr. Alexander excellent Prydain Chronicles. The five books in this series rank only just after Tolkien’s and C.S. Lewis’s fantasy series in my list of fantasy fiction. Taran, the assistant pig-keeper, Eilonwy, the princess who has a way of asking inconvenient questions, Fflewddur Fflam, the would-be bard whose truth-telling harp boasts a number of broken strings, and Gurgi, the rhyming creature of indeterminate origins, are all memorable characters and endearing ones.

However, I must mention that Mr. Alexander also wrote other books, some that I’ve read and appreciated and others that I have yet to enjoy. His Westmark Trilogy consists of Westmark, The Kestrel, and The Beggar Queen. The series features a protagonist named Theo who finds himself on both sides at various times of a simmering revolution against the monarchy of the country of Westmark. The themes of the trilogy center around the difficulties of making moral choices and the ethical implications of war and violence. I thought the books were wonderful when I first read them, and I’d like to go back and read them again sometime.

In addition to writing children’s literature, Lloyd Alexander produced the first English translation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s La nausee. Mr. Alexander died May 17, 2007.

Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, b.1941. “Four years ago, some said the world had grown calm, and many assumed that the United States was invulnerable to danger. That thought might have been comforting; it was also false. Like other generations of Americans, we soon discovered that history had great and unexpected duties in store for us.”

Trivia Questions for Tomorrow’s Birthday Party

Jan29

Quite a few famous authors and other people have birthdays on January 30th. Can you guess the answers to these trivia questions before tomorrow’s post on the Birthdays of January 30th?

What famous children’s song lyrics did Ann Taylor and her sister Jane write?

Who wrote the book A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century?

What fictional part of England forms the setting for Angela Thirkell’s 30+ novels?

What is the name of Lloyd Alexander’s Assistant Pig-Keeper?

Who said, “Four years ago, some said the world had grown calm, and many assumed that the United States was invulnerable to danger. That thought might have been comforting; it was also false. Like other generations of Americans, we soon discovered that history had great and unexpected duties in store for us.”?

Who said, “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”?

Who said, “I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.”?

Many Happy Returns: January 28th

Jan28

Sabine Baring-Gould, b. 1834. Victorian archaeologist, he had fifteen children and wrote the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers”. More information on his eccentricities here.

Vera B. Williams, b. 1927, children’s author and illustrator. She wrote and illustrated two of my favorites, A Chair for My Mother and Two Days on a River in a Red Canoe. Her bio sounds as if she’s led a colorful life: she helped start a “community” (sounds like a commune) in the hills of North Carolina and a school based on the Summerhill model. Then she moved to Canada and lived on a houseboat for a while–where she wrote her first book. Oh, and she spent a month in the federal penitentiary in West Virginia after a “peaceful blockade of the Pentagon.” Well, anyway, the books are great and not really counter-cultural at all.

Lesson plan for teaching A Chair for My Mother.

Soundtrack for the Book of Esther

Jan27

I’ve been reading and studying the book of Esther all month. Here are a few songs that go well with the themes of Esther: courage, trust, God’s sovereignty, our willing obedience.

God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry Emerson Fosdick. Grant us the wisdom of a Mordecai and the courage of an Esther.

God Moves in a Mysterious Way by William Cowper. God is always at work behind the scenes. “He fashions all his bright designs and works his sovereign will.”
Listen to song sample at Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Oh, God Our Help in Ages Past by Isaac Watts. Tune by Hannah Jackson. “Under the shadow of Thy throne, thy saints have dwelt secure; sufficient is Thine arm alone, and our defense is sure.”

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms by Elisha Hoffman. We’re safe and secure from all alarms, leaning on His everlasting arms.

Be Still, My Soul by Katharina von Schlegel. “Thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past.”

What songs would you suggest to go along with the themes in the book of Esther?

What Z-Baby Read

Jan27

Z-Baby (age eight) listens to a lot of books, but I think this is the longest one she’s read herself, not by herself, mind you; I slogged through each and every page with her. But she read it and finished it and enjoyed it.

Amelia Bedelia, Bookworm by Herman Parish. Illustrated by Lynn Sweat.

Z-Baby’s Thoughts:

Amelia Bedelia takes everything literally. Mrs. Page says, “Take our bookmobile . . .” And Amelia Bedelia thinks she means literally “take our bookmobile.”

Amelia Bedelia makes coats (jackets) for the books. A girl named Lisa says that Sam devoured the book, and Amelia Bedelia thinks that an actual person ate the book. But it was a dog named Sam. And there’s one more funny part. When they tell Mrs. Page that Sam devoured the book, Mrs. Page thinks that Lisa means that Sam really, really liked learning form that book. So she asks Lisa, “Did he enjoy it?”

And Lisa says, “He sure did.”

I learned that a thesaurus is a book that has words that mean the same.

Heroes for Haiti

Jan27

Haitian Doctor Takes 100 Patients into his Home. “The injured sing Christian hymns as they huddle close together beneath sheets strung up as tents, but the earthquake still haunts them. Aftershocks rattled the city as recently as Friday morning.”

Couple Donate Wedding Reception Money to Haiti: “Guests at the Bogen-Nicholson wedding in June will have an interesting tidbit when they describe the couple’s big day: The bride and groom served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

Matt and Mandy Poulter bring Maya home. They’re members of an E-free church, and they homeschool their five children. Yeah!