Poetry and Fine Art Friday: Candlemas

Feb2

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight
If on Candlemas Day it be shower and rain,
Winter is gone and will not come again.

If Candlemas Day be damp and black,
It will carry cold winter away on its back.
If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
Thereâ€™ll be two winters in the year.

Candlemas is a Christian celebration of Jesus, the Light of the World. It comes at the same time as a pagan celebration of the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day of the year and the day of the spring equinox. However, Christians celebrated the day as the ending of the Christmas season and a day of blessing of the candles used in worship for the new year. It seems to me to be a good day to light a few candles myself, and remember not only that Jesus is our Light, but also that he said, “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Here’s more about The Loveliness of Candlemas from a Catholic point of view, lots of ideas and thoughts on celebrating the feast of Candlemas.

Try Kelly at BigAlittlea for more Poetry Friday.

The Newbery Award: 1923 and 1924

Feb1

In 1923 and 1924, the second and third years that the Newbery Medal for Distinguished Children’s Literature was awarded, only one book was named for the award, no honor books or runners up as they were called at first.

1923 Medal Winner: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)

1924 Medal Winner: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)

Since I’ve already read The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle (it was OK, not my favorite kind of story), I thought I’d try to find a copy of The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes. I looked it up, and it’s available from several libraries in my area. But the most interesting thing I found was the subtitle. Get a load of this subtitle: wherein is told the story of Philip Marsham who lived in the time of King Charles and was bred a sailor but came home to England after many hazards by sea and land and fought for the King at Newbury and lost a great inheritance and departed for Barbados in the same ship, by curious chance, in which he had long before adventured with the pirates.

King Charles I? What was Newbury?

I read a book recently (From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s Books by Kathleen T. Horning) that gave this information about the early history of the Newbery Award:

The proponents and producers of formula series books launched a verbal attack on children’s librarians, claiming that since they were mere women (and spinsters at that), they had no right to judge what was fit reading for red-blooded American boys. Librarians, in alliance with the Boy Scouts of America, countered by emphasizing “good books for boys” in their early recommendations, thus advancing the notion of gender-specific reading tastes.

The first several winners of the Newbery Medal are a case in point. They are for the most part titles that would be touted as books for boys.
p. 151, From Cover to Cover by K.T. Horning.

So I’m thinking that Colum’s tales of ancient Greece, and Dr. Doolittle, and the adventure tales of Mr. Hawes are all books that were chosen to appeal to those red-blooded American boys who would otherwise have been reading Tom Swift or Horatio Alger’s stories or . . . what? What series were those spinster librarians trying to outclass in the early to mid-1920’s? Do the Newbery award committee members still try to choose books that will apppeal to boys or has the pendulum swung in other direction, to choosing books that will appeal to feminist girls? Or is gender appeal something that award committees should not discuss or consider?

Attitudes about “fit reading” have changed since the 1920’s. Most librarians (and parents) that I know of are perfectly content to not only allow, but positively encourage, boys and girls to read series books that are of very little literary value. I mean by this rather slippery term “literary” that the books that aren’t literary are books that won’t even make children laugh fifty years from now, much less make them think. They still don’t award the Newbery to Captain Underpants or to Garfield Takes the Cake, but nowadays, as long as they’re reading something . . .

Do you think children should be encouraged to read whatever attracts their interest, or should they be required to read books that will make them think, books that have literary value? Or is it a false dichotomy? Should they be allowed/encouraged/required to read both?

So, anyway, next week I’ll be reading The Dark Frigate, and on Sunday I’ll tell you how I liked Padraic Colum’s The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles.

Comparison and Contrast

Feb1

Z-Baby, age 5: Mommy, you know, Alice in Wonderland is like The Wizard of Oz.

Me: Oh, really, how?

Z-baby: Well, they both have a girl. And the girl has all these friends. And the girl is trying to get home.

Me: And they both go to a strange place with lots of odd characters.

Z-baby: Yeah, and at the end it’s a dream. But Mommy, in The Wizard of Oz, what’s that thing on her forehead? She has a thing right in the middle of her forehead.

Me: I don’t know.

Z-baby: Maybe it’s an icepack.

Doe anyone else know about The Thing in the middle of Dorothy’s forehead?

February Homeschool Fun

Feb1

February 1: It’s Friendship Month, American Heart Month, Library Lovers’ Month, National Bird Feeding Month, National Cherry Month, Black History Month, and National Hot Breakfast Month.

February 2: Groundhog Day. Last year we watched the movie Groundhog Day because Barbara likes it.
Groundhog Day was first known as Candlemas Day, a holy day still celebrated within the Catholic Church. Candlemas Day marks the end of the Christmas season and the midpoint of winter, halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox. Light the candles in your house to celebrate Jesus, the Light of the World. The custom of predicting the spring weather from conditions on the 2nd of February also comes originally from Candlemas Day.
Here’s more about The Loveliness of Candlemas from a Catholic point of view, lots of ideas and thoughts on celebrating the feast of Candlemas.
Journey Woman on Ground Hog Day, the movie and the holiday.

On February 2, 1949 RCA issued the first 45 rpm record. Do you remember 45’s? If so, do you remember any specific songs you purchased on a 45 record? I remember listening to a set of 45’s of the music from the musical Oklahoma. “Poor Jud is daid. Poor Jud Fry is daid. He’s lookin’ oh so peaceful and serene. And serene.”

February 3: Felix Mendelssohn was born on this date in 1809.

February 4: Lord’s Day and then Super Bowl. Will you be watching the Super Bowl at your house?
Charles Lindbergh, the first man to make a solo transatlantic flight, was born on this date. If you’ve never read the journals of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, I recommend them. The first volume is called Bring Me a Unicorn and covers the years 1922-1928.

February 6: George “Babe” Ruth was born on this date in 1895.
Waitangi Day in New Zealand, celebrating a treaty signed in 1840 between the British colonists and the native Maori tribesmen.

February 7: It’s always fun to see that Laura Ingalls Wilder and Charles Dickens, two of my favorite writers, share a birthday. I think we’ll read some Little House today and maybe we’ll try something with the little ones that I did long ago with the older urchins: make a churn out of a coffee can and make butter. I think I used Tinkertoys for the dasher, but we don’t have any of those, so I’ll have to come up with something else.

February 8: On this date in 1932, John Williams, American composer and conductor, was born in Flushing, New York. I still enjoy the music from Star Wars although I have grown weary of the saga. Play it and remember, if you can, the first time you saw a Star Wars movie.

February 10: February is Friendship Month. Send a friend a letter or a card or a valentine. Renew an old friendship or make an effort to start a new friendship.

February 11: Thomas Alva Edison’s Birthday. On February 19, 1878, he patented the phonograph. Draw an invention that you would like to build. Name ten machines or inventions that are no longer in common use. (Actually, Computer Guru Son prefers phonograph records. Who knew they’d become popular among the musical snobs?)

February 12: On this date in 1924, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiered in New York City. Play a recording of it and draw a picture of the city that Gershwin put into music.
It’s also Abraham Lincoln’s actual birthday.

February 13: Betsy-Bee will be eight years old today.

February 14: Valentine’s Day. We’ll be giving out valentines to all our friends and neighbors with these verses printed on them: “Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.” I John 4:7-8

February 15: In 1874, Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer, was born. Of course, he wasn’t a “sir” when he was born.

February 16: On this date in 1923, King Tutankhamen’s burial chamber was opened by archaeologist Howard Carter.
Discovering King Tut Online.

February 18: On this date in 1885, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published. Some people say Huck Finn is the Great American Novel. What novel do you think best epitomizes the American experience?
On February 18, 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis’s Inaugural Speech.
Did you know that February 18-24 is National Engineers Week? Celebrate your favorite engineer.

February 19: President’s Day. Since February is National Cherry Month, and George Washington may have cut down that cherry tree, and my Engineer Husband likes cherry pie and we’re still celebrating National Engineers Week, I declare today Cherry Pie Day. “Can you bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?” I’ll let you know how the pies come out.
Memorize the names of all the presidents of the US in order.
Plans for a President’s Day Cabin Fever Party.

February 20: Shrove Tuesday, also called Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras (Greasy Tuesday). On the day before Ash Wednesday, you were supposed to use up all the butter and cream in the larder before the Lenten fast. >Read about Shrove Tuesday in England.

February 21: Ash Wednesday. Christians from liturgical raditions may go to church on this day, and the minister or priest may smear ashes on the foreheads of worshipppers to signify repentance. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent, forty days leading up to the celebration of Resurrection Sunday. Does your family observe Lent, and if so, how?

February 22: On this date in 1620, the Indians introduced popcorn to the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. That fact sounds like a good excuse to enjoy some popcorn, the homeschool snack.

February 23: Handel’s Birthday. Listen to some Handel today. The Messiah is great, but be adventurous and try something else.

February 26: In 1932, Johnny Cash was born.

February 27: Birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Evangeline anyone? Or Hiawatha?
Also born on this date was Gioacchino Rossini who said, “Give me a laundry-list and I’ll set it to music.” What a challenge! Can you and your children set some words to music today? Perhaps something more significant than a laundry-list—a Bible verse or a poem?

February 28: On this day in 1854 a new political party was organized. Their common goal was the complete and final abolition of slavery; their slogan was “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont!” Their candidate for president, John Fremont lost the election of 1856, but in 1860 their candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won —a victory that caused the Southern states to secede from the Union in horror.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born February 1st

Feb1

Arthur Henry Hallam, b. 1811, the subject, upon his death in 1833 at the age of 22, of Tennyson’s famous poem In Memoriam. The poem wasn’t actually published until 1850; I guess it took Tennyson that long to work through his grief in poetic form over Hallam’s untimely death.

Charles Nordhoff, b. 1887, was the co-author, along with his friend James Norman Hall, of one of my favorite books, Mutiny on the Bounty, the fictionalized story of Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the mutiny that took place on HMAV Bounty (His Majesty’s Armed Vessel) in 1789. It is Nordhoff’s and Hall’s book that is the basis for most of the movie versions of the mutiny story.

Langston Hughes, American poet, b. 1902.

Jerry Spinelli, b. 1941, won the Newbery Award for his book, Maniac Magee.

Books Read January 2007

Jan31

JANUARY
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout A- Semicolon review here.

Atonement by Ian McEwan B+ Semicolon review here.

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg C Semicolon review here.

Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson B+ I didn’t get around to reviewing this book by one of my favorite Newbery authors. It’s about a strike in the early 1900’s, the early days of labor organizing. The girl who is the main character is afraid that her mother and older sister will be hurt or even killed as they participate in a strike.

Camel Bells by Janne Carlsson C+ Set in Afghanistan before and during the Russian occupation.

Camilla by Madeleine L’Engle B+ Semicolon review here.

Desperate Journey by Jim Murphy B+ Semicolon review here.

A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz A- Finalist for the Cybil Award for Middle School Fiction.

Edna St. Vincent Millay by Carolyn Daffron Iread this biography in preparation for a discussion in my American literature class at our homeschool co-op.

Gossamer by Lois Lowry B+ Semicolon review here.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I re-read this one for American literature, too.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh B I’m just not sure Eeeevelyn and I are on the same wave length. Both of the books I’ve read by Waugh just seem a little . . . off, somehow. Maybe it’s me.

Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck B

In Search of Eden by Linda Nichols C+

Inklings by Melanie Jeschke C+

Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller B+ Finalist for the Cyblil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce B+ I read this one because I liked Framed, another finalist for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

Penny From Heaven–Holm B Recommended by Jen Robinson. And by Miss Erin. Penny From Heaven was named a Newbery Honor Book for 2006. I thought it was solid, but not great.

Surviving Antartica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White B It wasn’t until I reached the end of this book that I realized that its author is the wife of the mayor of Houston. How many of you have a mayor whose wife writes YA fiction? Decent, well-written YA fiction.

That Girl Lucy Moon by Amy Timberlake. C+

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon A Nebula Award winner. Semicolon review here. Excellent.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre B Semicolon review here.

A Winter’s Love by Madeleine L’Engle B

The best book I’ve read this month: Definitely, The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

The worst book I’ve managed to persevere through: Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. Also the weirdest.

Most surprising book of the month: Kiki Strike. The more I read, the more I liked it. It was creative and sassy, and somewhat feminist, and I still liked it very much.

Best recycle: It’s hard to beat The Great Gatsby.

Best kidlit: A Drowned Maiden’s Hair. Funny, adventurous, heart-warming story about an orphan who lands in a nest of spiritualist con artists.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born January 31st

Jan31

(Pearl) Zane Grey, Western author, b. 1875 in Zanesville, Ohio. He dropped his first later in life. Engineer Husband has an uncle named Horace Pearl; I think 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.

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.

Credo and Marilynne Robinson

Jan30

I told you that I had an opportunity to hear Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Gilead, speak here in Houston at a conference on Christians and the arts sponsored by Houston Bapist University. Last Thursday I made the trek to HBU and spent the day there. It was an enlightening experience.

My first impression of the conference, called Credo, was that it was under-attended. I had the obviously mistaken idea that a Pulitzer-prize winning author would bring out the literati from their hiding places to fill the joint to capacity. Ms. Robinson first spoke at the Thursday morning meeting that the university calls “convocation.” There were lots of students and professors there, maybe a couple of hundred, but I got the distinct impression that most of them were there because they get “points” for attending sessions of this sort. Not that the students were impolite or unattentive, but I got this impression because the reading that Ms. Robinson gave at noon was much more poorly attended, less than fifty people total. It was a sad commentary on the priorities of the citizens of my fair city, but nice for me. I was able to sit front and center, get my copy of Gilead autographed by the author, and I could have asked her questions if I could have thought of anything intelligent to ask. If I had known the opportunity would be there, I would have come prepared.

Anyway her first speech, which she read, was called On Reverence. Maybe she doesn’t think any faster than I do since she read the speech, but she certainly does think deeply. I would like to read the address she gave because to be completely honest, I was having trouble following her at times. It was dense, not deliberately opaque or esoteric, just full of stuff that made wish she would slow down and let me catch up. I wrote down a few quaotations, which was a mistake because when I take notes I miss whatever is being said while I’m writing. These are loosely transcribed, maybe not her exact words:

“There is somethng about certainty that renders Christianity unchristian. Therefore I have cultivated a certain uncertainty. We inhabit a reality far greater than our certainties.”

“Both the doctrine of predestination and the doctrine of free will have a tendency to make God into a tyrant.” She said that she tends to come down, lightly, on the side of predestination since leaving things in God’s hands is a more comforting and merciful option than believing that ultimate reality depends on human decisions.

“I don’t know what to make of hell, but certainly it means that our human acts and choices have an eternal significance.” Again Ms. Robinson recognizes the tension that exists between God’s sovereignty and human freedom and chooses, for the most part, to live inside that tension.

“As a Christian I read about quantum physics or string theory assuming that I am learning about God’s creation.

“It a daily miracle that we are privileged to live among these beings whom God loves.”

She doesn’t like Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, but I’m afraid I didn’t follow the reasoning that caused her to call it “a bad little book.” I did ask her, as she was signing my book, if she was working on another novel, and she said that she was.

The reading she gave at noon was a passage from Gilead that told about the main character’s, John Ames’s, memory of how he and his father made a long trip on foot to visit the gravesite of his grandfather in Kansas. She read beautifully, and I followed along in my copy of the book. Then, she answered some questions from the audience and told us, among other things, that she doesn’t revise her work; she simply drops and adds things as she writes. She said that she began writing Gilead with a picture in her mind of an old man in a rocking chair who was telling a young boy about his life. She said before that she had assumed that her next book after Housekeeping would be told from a woman’s point of view, but after she saw that picture in her mind she began writing about that elderly man. She mentioned the difficulty of writing a book while knowing that your narrator was going to die at the end of the story. Who would narrate the ending?

I really enjoyed hearing Ms. Robinson speak. Again, I wish I had a transcript of her talk. Nevertheless, I recommend you be one of the few if you ever have the opportunity to hear her.

Another account of the first day of the Credo conference from Jenni at the blog Dreams of Genevieve.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born January 30th

Jan30

Walter Savage Landor, poet, b. 1775.

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 are about little children who misbehave and what will happen to such naughty little boys and girls–refreshingly politically incorrect in this day and age when we’re supposed to pretend that they’re behaving even when they’re not.

Gelett Burgess, poet, author, and humorist, b. 1866. He’s most well-known for his poem:

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one!

He also coined the word “blurb,” placing a picture of a fictitious character, Mis Belinda Blurb, on the dust cover of one of his books with a caption that said she was “blurbing.” The word came to designate the text telling about the book rather than the picture or the dustcover itself.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, b. 1882.

Angela Margaret Thirkell, b. 1890. Read some thoughts on Ms. Thirkell’s book, Private Enterprise or on County Chronicle by the same author.

Barbara Tuchman, historian, 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 first book for which Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize.

Francis Schaeffer, b. 1912, Christian theologian, philosopher, and apologist.

Lloyd Alexander, b. 1924, is one of my favorite fantasy authors (after CS Lewis and Tolkien, of course). His books have won the Newbery Award, Newbery honor, and have a place on my very exclusive list of the 100 Best Fiction Books Ever Written.

Last but not least, Richard Cheney, b.1941, the 46th vice-president of the United States, is 66 years old today. I watched him during the State of the Union address, and he didn’t look any happier or more supportive than the Democrat Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, did. Maybe he had a stomach ache. I wonder if he likes sharing a birthday with FDR.

Gossamer by Lois Lowry

Jan30

Let me say first that I really, really liked this book. I’m surprised it didn’t win some sort of award. (It was on the ALSC list of Notable Children’s Books.) Littlest One, the main character, is a dream-giver-in-training with a gossamer touch. Ms. Lowry has created in Gossamer a lovely imaginary world in which dreams have meaning, and even nightmares are susceptible to “dream therapy.”

My library system classifies this book as “young adult.” The main human character in the book, a boy, is seven years old, and Littlest One is of an undetermined age, but young. Maybe she’s the “young adult” character. Or maybe the book is “young adult” because it deals with child abuse. I wouldn’t suggest it for seven year olds, but middle grades and teenagers maybe? Alabama Moon, a book I wrote about not too long ago, was nominated for the Middle Grade Fiction Cybil Award, and I thought it was great but more appropriate for maybe junior high, or even high school students. Gossamer is also appropriate for the same age groups. So what is the age grouping for YA? Grades seven through 12? Through college? Does middle grades include middle school (grades 6-8) or just elementary school (grades 3-6)? Those poor twelve year olds, where do they fit in?

Anyway, I thought Gossamer was a satisfying story. It’s not too long; it felt more like a short story than a novel. However, it was meaningful and brought a smile to my face several times as I was reading. I’m planning to recommend it to Brown Bear Daughter and maybe even Organizer Daughter, the one who reads no fantasy except for Harry Potter. She might enjoy Gossamer, not that it will rival HP in any sense of the word rival.