Country Favorites

Nov27

I’ll admit it. I grew up in West Texas among what we called back then “kickers and cowboys,” and I listened to a lot of country music whether I wanted to or not. I did develop a taste for some of it, sentimentality and cryin-in-my-beer notwithstanding. My mom called it “honkey-tonk music.” Anyway, I have a daughter who likes the twenty-first century version of country, even though we live in the big city, major suburbia, so I thought I’d make her a mix CD for Christms of classic country songs. These are the songs I’ve picked out so far. Any suggestions to add to it?

Delta Dawn by Tanya Tucker

I Can’t Help it (If I’m Still in Love With You) by Hank Williams Jr.

Hey, Good Lookin by Hank Williams Sr.

Tennessee Waltz by Patti Page

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash

Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine by Tom T. Hall

I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash

Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford. My daddy loves this song. He can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but he tries sometimes to do his Tennessee Ernie imitation, singing way down low.

Crazy by Patsy Cline.

Your Cheatin Heart by Hank Williams Sr.

Wildwood Flower by the Carter Family.

Luchenbach Texas by Waylon Jennings. My kids think this song is one of the funniest they’ve ever heard. Willie Nelson used to have a Fourth of July picnic at Luchenbach every July. I don’t think he does it anymore.

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain by Willie Nelson

King of the Road by Roger Miller

Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson.

The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.

Here You Come Again by Dolly Parton

The Most Beautiful Girl by Charlie Rich.

Kiss an Angel Good Morning by Charlie Pride.

Galveston by Glen Campbell. Because I like Glen, and because we live near Galveston.

Gentle on my Mind by Glen Campbell.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken by The Carter Family.

Happiest Girl in the Whole USA by Donna Fargo.

Happy Man by B.J. Thomas. I used to love to listen to B.J. in his pre-Christian phase and in his Christian incarnation. Raindrops anyone?

You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone. Is this one really country?

Through the Years by Kenny Rogers. I once saw Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in concert at Johnson Space Center. They were filming a TV special, and all the NASA employees got free tickets. It was outdoors by the big rockets, and we sat on a blanket and listened to Kenny and Dolly (I think) and others. Ahhh, memories.

I probably don’t need suggestions. I doubt if all of those songs will fit on one CD. Nevertheless, feel free to admit your guilty secrets if you’re a country music fan, and tell me your favorites.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Dear Jo by Christina Kilbourne

Nov27

Back when I was a teenager, the book Go Ask Alice was published (1971), the purported journal of a heroin addict who ended up committing suicide by overdose. I remember reading the book and believing every word of it. I also remember as an adult that I found out it was probably a fictional account, and I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised. Cautionary tales read like fiction somehow because everything in the story combines to carry the message.

Dear Jo is another cautionary tale written in the form of a journal, but this time the moral of the story is “don’t meet stranger through the internet because they might be internet predators or even murderers.” Maxine, the journal writer, is writing about her feelings in aftermath of the disappearance of her best friend, Leah. Leah went out to meet a boy she first met on the internet and never came back. At the beginning of the story, it’s been six months since Leah was last seen, and it doesn’t look as if she’ll ever be found.

This novel doesn’t claim to be the journal of a real person or based on a true story, but just as Go Ask Alice warned kids of the 70’s of the dangers of drugs, Dear Jo warns kids of the twenty-first century of the dangers of the internet. And just as Go Ask Alice didn’t keep a lot of kids from experimenting with drugs, I doubt a book like this one will keep kids off the internet. (In fact, Brown Bear Daughter read it, liked it because it was so sad, and immediately asked if she could get a Xanga.) However, it may make them think twice before engaging in risky behaviors such as corresponding with pseudonymous guys or arranging meetings with strangers.

The story itself is decently written with lots of pop culture references: Avril Lavigne, the Goo-Goo Dolls, downloading MP3’s, Bratz dolls, Bob the Builder. Many of these references will be dated in only a few years, but maybe the information about internet safety will be dated by then, too. Predators and police alike may have developed new methods and new gimmicks by even next year. All an author can do is include the most current information possible and hope that parents and kids take heed.

I did have a little trouble with the time element in the book. A lot of Maxine’s journal is her memories of Leah and what happened before Leah was abducted. Then, the narrative switches to events that are happening six months after Leah’s disappearance and following. And sometimes Maxine writes about what happened immediately after Leah left. So the sequence of events gets a little confusing. But I think most kids would be able to keep up with what happened when.

The book does describe some pretty serious crimes: abuction, murder, and child endangerment. However, the descriptions are never gratuitously graphic, but more matter of fact. Most of the book deals with Maxine’s feelings as a survivor and her struggle to come out of her depression and make something good or redemptive out of a very bad thing. Dear Jo would be a great book to have available in every library and to reccomend to teens and pre-teens who spend a lot of time on the internet. (Are there any kids who DON’T spend time on the internet these days?) It’s propaganda, but it’s good propaganda for a worthy cause. And the story is absorbing enough to keep kids reading all the way to the end where the obligatory page of “tips for internet safety” is printed. I just hope they read those tips, too —and use them.

Dear Jo has been nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction, and here’s what another blogger thought about it:

Charlene Martel of The Literary Word: “Via way of this journal, we follow along this painful story of loss and tragedy. A story that is all too real as these things can, and do happen all the time. It’s a great book in that it really brings home the message about the perils of the internet and why parents should be more “hands on” in supervising when their kids use it.”

Children’s Fiction of 2007: My Last Best Friend By Julie Bowe

Nov27

Bethy-Bee’s review:

Iva May has one last best friend, Elizabeth Evans who moves away (she didn’t even get to say good bye!). When Iva May goes to her first day of school Jenna still picks on her and —wait a minute, let me tell you about Jenna. Her name is Jenna Drews and she is bratty, bossy and other mean things. Anyway, Iva May comes in the bus, and mean old Jenna is there waiting for her. Jenna is the meanest girl ever. Anywhere. You get the picture. She gets on and Jenna picks on her and she sits down and wishes Elizabeth was there to comfort her, but she was not. Later, in recess she wishes Elizabeth was there to play with her, but she was not. Iva May needs a new friend, but not Jenna.

Sherry’s thoughts:

This book is another one about friendship, making friends, telling stories in order to impress a new friend. It reminded me of Tall Tales, another Cybil nominee, without the alcoholism and pitched to a little bit younger audience. Iva May is an engaging character, and the story feels believable and fun. The idea of having a secret friend with whom you exchange notes hidden in a secret hiding place is a great device. Kids love secret messages and secret languages and secrets in general. Does anyone remember The Secret Language by editor and author Ursula Nordstrom? It was one of my favorite stories many, many years ago. I should re-read and see if it’s held up to the passage of time.

My Last Best Friend is a cute school story about how to and how not to make friends. It may not last a hundred years, but it should be good to pass an afternoon for the younger set and inspire them to their own secret-message writing and receiving.

Other bloggers review My Last Best Friend:

KidsReads: “Without meaning to do so, Ida has slipped into another special friendship. Should Ida risk revealing her true identity?”

Laura Bowers: “Debut author Julie Bowe tells a charming story that will win the heart of any girl who’s faced her fear sideways.”

Little Willow interviews author Julie Bowe.

Catching the Thoughts as They Pass Through

Nov26

I’m reposting this tip from last year for MotherReader’s edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature. She’s asking for tips “as a reader, writer, illustrator, reviewer, publisher, or editor of children’s literature. I want a lesson learned from a teacher, librarian, author, or parent with regards to kids’ lit.” Send them to her by Tuesday.

“It is an unhappy thing, but it is the fact with many men, that if you do not seize your fancies when they come to you, and preserve them upon the written page, you lose them altogether. They go away, and never come back.” —A.K.H. Boyd

“A really good book . . . should make you walk into a lamppost. That’s because you can’t stop reading it when you are walking down the street.” —Nick Hornby

I’ve always been forgetful. I’ve lost my keys more times than I can count. I’ve left my purse in the grocery cart in the Kroger parking lot about as many times as I’ve misplaced my keys. (And it always is there when I come back for it, either in the cart where I left it or turned in to the service counter. So far.)

However, I’m getting worse, not better. I do believe I’m slowly losing my mind altogether, and it’s an interesting process. I forget thoughts I want to hang on to. I forget what I read and why I liked it. I forget why I started reading a particular book in the first place. (I also forget my name, but I haven’t come to the place that my mother predicted I’d get to a long time ago. I haven’t lost my head—because it’s still screwed on.)

So, what works for me is to start a blog post for each book I’m reading and type in the quotations and profound thoughts I want to remember about the book as I read it. If I wait until I finish the book, or heaven forbid, a week or two after I finish reading those thoughts are gone and the quotations are un-find-able. If I have a draft of a post with quotations and observations, I can go back and organize and edit it later —or delete it if there wasn’t really much there to write about.

Check out the carnival at MotherReader on Wednesday, and if you find my mind or any tips on reclaiming it, please leave a comment here.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Nov26

I was prepared to like this new historical fiction novel by Newbery award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis. After all, Bud, Not BUddy, the book that won the Newbery in 2000, is a great story. In fact, I was not disappointed, although I must say that the book starts out a little slowly. I read someone’s review of the book comparing it to The Great Brain series (sorry, I don’t remember who), and the book does begin with that flavor. Elijah is an eleven year old boy living in a settlement for free (escaped or bought out of slavery) Negroes in Canada just across the border from Detroit, Michigan. The year is 1860, and the name of the settlement is Buxton. (It’s a real place, by the way. A little of its history is recounted in the author’s note at the back of the book.)

In the first few chapters, Elijah gets into all sorts of scrapes because of his fra-gile constitution or because of his typical boylike mischief. He runs from an imaginary “hoop snake”, scares his mother with a toad frog, and finds out he has a gift from God, the gift of “chunking rocks” quite accurately. The story reads like a typical boyhood adventure story, with a bit of an atypical setting.

About midway through the tone and plot turn serious as Elijah learns to get past being fra-gile in order to help a friend redeem his family from slavery. There’s also a great discussion of why it’s inappropriate for even black people among themselves to use the n-word. Elijah casually uses the word “nig—” to refer to himself and his friends, and his friend Mr. Leroy jumps all over him, saying, “How you gunn call them children in that school and you’self that name them white folks calls us? Has you lost your natural mind? You wants to be like one n’em? You wants to be keeping they hate alive? . . . You thinks just ’cause that word come from twixt your black lips it man anything different? You think it ain’t choke up with the same kind of hate and disrespect it has when they say it? You caint see it be even worst when you call it out?”

Elijah learns his lesson, and I think the author meant for there to be a lesson embedded in there for kids of today, too. Derogatory terms have a history; words have meaning; sticks and stones and words can all hurt.

The entire book is written in first person from Elijah’s point of view, and it’s all written in dialect like the language Mr. Leroy uses in the above quotation. Some kids may have a little trouble with the dialect, but I don’t think it will be too bothersome. I thought after I got used to it that it gave the book a sense of history and transported the reader back in time as well as or better than any other device the author could have used.

As I said, the ending turns serious and pretty much heart-rending. This is not a book for younger readers, and older ones (grades 5-8) may have some challenging questions about what happens in the book and about the dark side of U.S. history. That’s a good thing, but be prepared for the discussion.

Wonderful story. Probably a Newbery contender. Nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Three for Another Reader

Nov25

I read the following three books because they were nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. As my mom would say, if these books come in parts, you can leave mine out.

Runaround by Helen Hemphill.
From the inside cover blurb: “Everything eleven year old Sassy knows about love comes from romance magazines. But now that she has her eye on her handsome neighbor, Boon, she wants more details.”
Yuck. I will admit to reading my grandmother’s copies of True Romance in secret when I was a kid of a girl, and like Sassy, I had lots of questions about what went on in those magazines. But in Runaround Sassy has no other source of information. Her mother is gone, and her dad is uncommunicative. Her sister, Lula, is only thirteeen and already has boyfriends galore. And Sassy flirts outrageously with Boon who’s a year older than Lula, until Sassy finally gets Boon to kiss her. Again, yuck. They might as well be reading True Romance magazine, not a practice I would recommend for eleven year olds or twelve year olds or teens or even adults.

Other views:
Kidslit: “This is a well-crafted novel that is perfect for tween readers. It has just the right amount of romance, including french kissing, but doesn’t go so far that it would make it more appropriate for older readers.”
Camille at BookMoot: “There are some wonderfully funny and painful moments as Sassy and Lula learn about guys and life. You do not want to get into a haircut fight with these sisters.”

Penina Levine Is a Hard-Boiled Egg by Rebecca O’Connell.
“I’m Jewish, and I shouldn’t have to write a pretend letter from the Easter bunny because the word “Easter” offends me. And my teacher is a jerk because she gives me a zero for not completing the assignment. Oh, and by the way, I’m jealous of my little sister because she gets more attention than I do.”
That’s my summary of the book. I think Penina is a brat, and the teacher really is a jerk or at least unbelievably dense. Any teacher I know of would have given an alternate assignment when Penina started yelping, even though I agree with the teacher that her complaints were unjustified and overblown. (A bid for attention?) There are an interesting couple of chapters about the celebration of Seder in a large Jewish family. That part might be worth reading aloud to kids, but the rest of the story is forgettable.

Other views:
JessMonster at BookPyramid: “At any rate, while part of me sympathized with Penina for being the religious outsider (rebelling against attending mass in honor of the Immaculate Conception, anyone?) I also found her profoundly irritating on some level.”
Behind the Stove: “Penina herself is a winner – I liked the kind and intelligent way in which she ultimately makes her point to her teacher, and I loved Penina’s stubbornness, her enthusiasm for her heritage, and her refusal to be untrue to her nature. I found Penina downright endearing, the sort of little girl I would have liked to be friends with.”

Bird Springs by Carolyn Marsden.
Ten year old Gregory and his mother and baby sister have to move from their Navajo reservation home in Bird Springs to a homeless shelter in Tucson when Gregory’s father skips out and the rains don’t come. The blurb says the story has a “sense of hope,” but I thought it mostly had a dearth of action. Gregory wanders around the shelter, worries, makes a new friend, worries some more, gets a haircut, worries, and goes into a sewer tunnel with his new friend Matt. And Gregory talks like a six year old: “My dad is a warrior. He gots a horse called Blackie, and one day when he gets Blackie back he’s gonna ride on down and get me.”

I couldn’t find any other blog reviews of Bird Springs. If you’ve read the book and have a second opinion, please leave a comment and a link.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Perch, Mrs. Sackets, and Crow’s Nest by Karen Pavlicin

Nov25

I liked the quiet, natural references to God and prayer and spiritual solace. I liked the family vignettes and country cozy details. I liked this conversation between Andy and his mom. Andy’s father is dead, and his mother is trying to answer some of Andy’s questions about the future:

“Mom set down the bag of mulch and sat back on her heels. ‘Andy,’ she said, ‘Our lives are like novels. The first book didn’t end the way we thought it would, but it was still a really good book.’

She brushed her hands on her jeans. ‘Now we begin the second book,’ she said. ‘There will be some of the same people in this book, but some new characters, too. We don’t know what will happen next or how the story will end up, but what fun would it be to read the last chapter first?’

She picked up a few stray pieces of mulch from the grass.

‘The best part of reading a good book,’ she added, ‘is seeing the story unfold, page by page, chapter by chapter, even with all its surprises.’ She leaned over, kissed my forehead, and smiled. ‘We can still suggest edits to God along the way.’

I nudged her back and swallowed hard. Our next book sounded sad and hopeful at the same time.”

However, the short, episodic chapters made the story choppy and disjointed. It almost felt as if I were reading photo blurbs for a summer vacation, vignettes that attempted to encapsulate the story of Andy’s “summer of courage.” And Andy himself, the fourth grade protagonist who’s lost his father, is a bit too good to be believable. I’m tired of reading about bratty, out-of-control kids, but there is a happy medium. Andy’s father has died, and his best friend has moved to Colorado. As the story begins, his mom has decided to spend the summer in the country at Andy’s grandma’s house. While they’re at grandma’s Mom reconnects with an old flame, and Andy isn’t sure where the relationship will lead. Still, the worst feeling that Andy experiences is a “knot in my stomach.” He never acts out or questions, and his worst fault is a bit of laziness which is cleared up with the help of a five dollar bill.

Mrs. Sackets is a neighbor, and I’m not sure what her place in the story is. She’s eccentric, which is OK, but in this instance she’s unbeleivably eccentric and serves no purpose in moving the story along. And Andy thinks the things Mrs. Sackets says and does are odd, but he just plays along and never criticizes even in his mind. My kids would be much more taken aback by Mrs. Sackets dancing around catching moonbeam messages from heaven.

Show, don’t tell. Tie the narrative together in smoothly connected whole. And most of all, give me believable characters with flaws even if everything does turn out all right in the end.

Questions about Phillip Pullman and his books

Nov25

Christian film critic and author Jeffrey Overstreet on Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.

I think these are some good questions (from Mr. Overstreet’s post) to discuss with your children if they and you read the books or see the movie together:

If we cast off all “Authority” and set up “free will” as the ultimate source of guidance, where will that get us?
Has the world shown us that the human heart is a trustworthy “compass”?
Does free will lead us always to the right choice?
If the heroes accept the “truth” of the aletheometer (the compass itself), aren’t they letting themselves be guided by just another source of truth… another “Authority”?
But wait a minute… the movie told us that “Authority” is bad and we should only follow our own hearts, didn’t it?
If there are “many truths,” then aren’t these heroes being as self-righteous and wicked as the oppressors by demanding that their version of the truth is better than others?
What is so inspiring about the battle between the bears?
Hasn’t this story led us to a place where it’s just “survival of the fittest” all over again?
Should we really hope that the world falls into the hands of the strongest fighter, rather than into the hands of love?

Disclaimer: I’ve not read these books, probably won’t, and won’t be seeing the movie. I’ve got a list of books a mile and a half long to read, and Phillip Pullman’s opus is w-a-y d-o-w-n off the list. However, I thought Mr. Overstreet gave an excellent analysis of the books, the movie, and their impact and background from a Christian worldview perspective.

Free Stuff

Nov23

Homeschool E-Store has a bunch of FREE downloads today (11/23) only, including a booklet study of Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas just in time for holiday fun homeschooling. Just click on the banner, and it will take you to the Homeschool E-Store site.

Some other Christmas-y homeschool stuff available for purchase at the Homeschool E-Store:

Our Christmas Journal by Sheri Graham

Christmas Around the World

Christmas Traditions unit study.

Christmas Notebooking Pages.

Symbols of Christmas Lapbook.

Christmas Unit Study by Amanda Bennett.

Yes, I get a small kickback if you purchase using my links. The free stuff is really free, no strings attached. And I’ll probably buy one of the curriculum products above for my children to use this Christmas.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere: Contagious Faith

Nov23

Psalm 23 from the Mouth of a Child. Surely goodness and love will follow me . . .

Jennifer on turning the other cheek: “Thinking about all this made me realize that I had always mentally compartmentalized people into two different groups: the people who live through horrible tragedy who I hear about on the news, and the people who I interact with in my daily life. The people on the news had almost theoretical status: they were people who I will never actually meet but, if I hypothetically were to meet them, I’d be extra motivated to be as perfectly Christ-like as possible, no matter what, so that I didn’t add to the suffering they’d seen in their lives. However, the thinking went, I don’t actually know anyone like that.

But of course I do.”

In a different vein, what could be better than a combination of Bible verse memorization and a storytelling daddy? I think this, too, is contagious faith.