good friday

To provide context for today’s (re)post I invite you to listen to this excerpt from This American Life.

Through collage and watercolor illustrations by Bryan Collier, Martin’s Big Words tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. Stained glass windows, church steeples, and the American flag illustrate Martin’s message that “everyone can be great.” We read of bus boycotts, marches, bomb threats, accolades, and finally the assassination. A concise history of the great man’s life and work that will have you flipping back through the pages even after your listener has drifted off to sleep.

Martin’s Big Words Words by Doreen Rappaport and Pictures by Bryan Collier

Tin Cups and Peppermints

 

One of my favorite posts for Christmas, from 2011.

We arrived at this chapter of Little House on the Prairie the other night. As the chapter opens, Laura and Mary have been peering anxiously out the window for days. It's December and there has been no snow in Indian Territory. No snow of course, means no Santa. On top of that, all the rain has caused the creek to rise, and so their one Christmas guest, Mr. Edwards, won't be able to make it either. Pa brings in the Christmas turkey, but even the thought of such a fat turkey for Christmas dinner isn't enough to cheer up the little girls. Ma does let them hang up stockings, and Laura thinks her mother mentions something about white sugar as she drifts off to sleep.

The next morning, Laura is startled awake as Mr. Edwards comes in with a big bundle. He tells the girls he met Santa Claus in Independence, and Santa has asked him to fetch the gifts for the girls. After he tells the tale, the girls are allowed to look in their stockings. They both receive a tin cup, peppermint candy, cakes made with white sugar (and white flour), and a new penny.

"There never had been such a Christmas," Wilder writes.

After the girls thank Mr. Edwards ("and they meant it with all their hearts"), Pa silently shakes Mr. Edwards' hand. And shakes it again. And Laura observes how all of the adults seem to be on the verge of tears.

Yes, they are.

Maddi's Fridge

Best friends Sofia and Maddi play at the park and commiserate over their little brothers. One day Maddi invites Sofia over. When they go to the fridge for a snack, Sofia is shocked to see that it's empty apart from a bottle of milk. After promising not to tell, Sofia attempts to share the contents of her fridge with her friend. However, she soon discovers that however healthy fish and eggs may be, they aren’t very portable in her backpack. 

How can she help her friend without revealing her secret? As it turns out, some secrets aren’t meant to be kept.  

Great for any age, Maddi’s Fridge (written by Lois Brandt and illustrated by Vin Vogel) reminds us that hunger can be present where we least expect it. But it also emphasizes the importance of true friendship. When friends are hurting, we shouldn't stay silent.   

Martin's Big Words

Repost from January 21, 2009

Through collage and watercolor illustrations by Bryan Collier, Martin’s Big Words tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. Stained glass windows, church steeples, and the American flag illustrate Martin’s message that “everyone can be great.” We read of bus boycotts, marches, bomb threats, accolades, and finally the assassination. A concise history of the great man’s life and work that will have you flipping back through the pages even after your listener has drifted off to sleep.

Martin’s Big Words Words by Doreen Rappaport and Pictures by Bryan Collier

"She wishes for new stories to read"

Way back in September, this story caught my ear. It was about a group of librarians who ventured into the mountains of Kentucky to deliver books to families on horseback during the 1930s.  

Wanting to read more, I went to my local library (by car) and found three informative picture books, not only about those librarians in Kentucky, but about people all over the world dedicated to delivering books to those without easy access to a library.

My Librarian is a Camel: How Books are Brought to Children Around the World by Margriet Ruurs

From Australia to Zimbabwe, this 2005 book pairs photographs and maps with descriptions of books being delivered by boat, mail, bicycle, and elephant to remote areas.

That Book Woman by Heather Henson, pictures by David Small

Told from the perspective of an Appalachian teenager, this book shows how his attitude changes from cynical bemusement to gratitude for the passel of books the book lady brings.  

Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, illustrations by John Parra

Also based on a true story, this book magically captures one little girl’s excitement when she sees two burros carrying “so many cuentos!” to her isolated village.

"There's no turkey in it"

Since I'm quite swamped with writing papers for my classes this week, I decided to dust off and repost this Thanksgiving recommendation from 2009. I'm very curious to ask what the now 13-year-old thinks of her four-year-old self. Although, I have to say she's still somewhat picky judicious in her reading material.


This was my four-year-old’s assessment after sitting down with the first Thanksgiving book in our stack - Nickommoh! - and flipping through the pictures. Then as soon as I began reading the first page (“Kautantawwitt, the Creator…”), my listener exclaimed, “English please!” After stumbling through the pronunciation of “Taqountikeeswush” and “Qunnekamuck” I too was thinking, “English please!”

Unfamiliar language aside, Jackie French Koller weaves together an intriguing story of a Narragansett harvest celebration. We watch as they build the lodge, prepare the nasaump pudding, swim in the river, and dress in paints for the singing and dancing in the Sacred Circle. The illustrations by Marcia Sewall are a pleasure to look at – from bold black lines outlining photorealistic features on one page to the rough figures sketched around a bonfire on another.

The other book we were able to procure from the library two days before Thanksgiving was Word Bird’s Thanksgiving Words by Jane Belk Moncure and illustrated by Chris McEwan. Despite the inclusion of a turkey, my (picky) listener decided this one is “not really cool because that turkey’s not cool.” Cool?

We decided to stick with this week’s Pre-K issue of the Weekly Reader for our Thanksgiving reading.

Gobble up some fun Thanksgiving Facts here.

Turning Ten

Like all good origin stories, this one begins in a garage. No, wait. With a birth.

Ten years ago, my son was born at the tail end of August. I had a semester off from teaching, so I felt like I had a little time on my hands to do some writing. A coworker suggested I try a blog. So I did.

Four cities, four libraries, four book clubs later, I somehow have kept it going – in all weathers.

Only recently have I begun sharing my posts on Facebook. Before that, I would intermittently  send out an email, casually mentioning the link. After I shared it with a Moms book club I belonged to, I heard about the following conversation:

“That blog M* sent out. It’s so funny and smart.”

“Morningstar writes it.”

 “She does??!!”

Since the blog turns 10 this month, I’ve compiled a list of 10 of my favorite posts I hope you’ll enjoy reading (or re-reading).

Because, well, that’s kind of the point.

2008 That thing is Toad!

2009 Candy, Nuts and Ladies Underwear

2010 One Night Stand (or the other)

2011 Under the Wire

2012 Happenstance

2013 Care of Wooden Floors

2014 “The pulse of the post-strip-club shopping crowd”

2015 In Storage

2016 I Have My Own Quirks

2017 “Barbie and Ruth”

Thou shalt have no other…

 “Mom, can I believe in the Greek gods and still be Catholic?” asked my 10-year-old the other day.

After reminding him about a little list called the Ten Commandments, he seemed satisfied with my answer of “Ummm…No.”  

Apparently I have this series  to blame thank for so successfully capturing his imagination.

68.5 million

Did you hear this story on NPR?

Someone out there did and sent me the book it features, Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini.

The book follows one family, one out of an estimated 68.5 million currently displaced people, and their memories of before. And after.

Even if the one line that haunted me fades…

“I said to you,

Hold my hand.

Nothing bad will happen.”

the watercolor illustrations by Dan Williams will remain indelibly etched.

Author proceeds from this book will go to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and to The Khaled Hosseini Foundation. So thank you. 

42

Agreeing on a kid-friendly movie to watch in our house can be next to impossible. Mickey’s Magical Christmas…“Too babyish,” my son says. A Christmas Prince…”Seen it,” says my daughter. Talking Tom and Friends…”Um… no,” I say. Thankfully, 42, was there to save the evening.  Of course, about halfway through, I realized it was PG-13. Here’s why. Can’t win ‘em all.

Even better than watching the film was when my son, later at bedtime, searched through his bookshelf and came up with two books he had about Jackie Robinson, wanting to read them again.

I am Jackie Robinson by Brad Meltzer (author) and Christopher Eliopoulos (illustrator) begins Jackie’s story as a young boy. It tells of his mother’s generosity with the neighbors, even the ones who didn’t get along. It follows his love of sports and recounts his first professional game:  “Krakk!! Some called it a home run. Others called it history.”

Teammates by Peter Golenbock (author) and Paul Bacon (illustrator) tells the story of Jackie and his teammate Pee Wee Reese. During one particularly hateful game, Reese takes a stand and stands up for Jackie as his teammate. “Maybe tomorrow we'll all wear 42, so nobody can tell us apart,” Reese says. 

Even though I don’t follow professional baseball, I’m going to pay attention next April for Jackie Robinson Day.  

Jezebel's Spooky Spot

Just in time for a Halloween, a repost from 2009.

When Jezebel’s Papa leaves for the war, she runs away to the forest. Despite the “googery-boogery creepy-crawly catchy” feeling in that spooky place, she claims it for her own.

As the seasons pass, the lonely feeling of missing her Papa doesn’t. Again and again she seeks out her spot even though she’s up against spiders, swamp ghosts, and pixie lights libel to steal her soul.

The book is Jezebel’s Spooky Spot by Alice Ross and Kent Ross and illustrated by Ted Rand. Like Jezebel’s Little Brother, your listener will be hanging on to every word. And you won’t mind reading it again because how often do you get to say “lawse a mercy”?

Banned Books Week

Celebrating the freedom to read during Banned Books Week, I picked up Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter. According to the American Library Association, this one was “challenged” in a Wisconsin school district because it “contains an Islamic prayer.”

Based on a true story, Winter tells the story with the voice of a grandmother living in Afghanistan. When the woman’s son and daughter-in-law disappear, she tries to find ways for her granddaughter Nasreen to cope. Discovering a secret school for girls, she enrolls Nasreen. Months go by. Nasreen never smiles. Finally, after the winter recess, a classmate reaches out to Nasreen, and she smiles for the first time since her parents’ disappearance.

With books, “Nasreen no longer feels alone…Now she can see blue sky beyond those dark clouds.”

Serafina's Promise

Today is a repost in honor of #internationalliteracyday and the storms ravaging the Caribbean.

Serafina's Promise by Ann E Burg

Serafina's chore each morning is to collect water for her parents and grandmother:

"One foot forward-

stop.

The other foot forward-

stop." 

This is only the first of many chores she faces growing up in rural Haiti.

After meeting the young doctor that takes care of her baby brother, Serafina decides that she too wants to become a doctor when she grows up. First, she must figure out a way to ask her parents to send her to school. She approaches her father and together they make a plan. However, nature decides to throw several obstacles in their way. 

Told in verse, the story drums with the beat of the parade Serafina watches with her father, rushes with the waters of the flood she flees with her mother, and shines with the hope she sees in the stars. 

After my daughter and I both read the book, we discussed it using the questions we found here. We both admitted to crying through most of Part III of the book. And we both agreed that we are very fortunate to be able to go to school. As Serafina says, "Education is the road to freedom." My daughter interpreted that to mean, "If we go to school, we can be whatever we want."

One foot forward.

Blessing in Disguise

The Herdmans are notorious for smoking cigars, setting things on fire, and having a pet that requires a “Beware of Cat” sign. As the narrator says in Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, “We figured they were headed straight for hell by way of the state penitentiary…until they got themselves mixed up with the church, and my mother, and our Christmas pageant.”

Lured to church by the promise of free refreshments, the six Herdman siblings show up at the first rehearsal for the Christmas pageant. Before anyone realizes it, all of the starring roles have been assigned to the various Herdmans. “And there they sat. The closest thing to criminals that we knew about, and they were going to represent the best and most beautiful.”

There’s only one problem. They’ve never heard the Christmas story before. As the pageant director patiently tells the story, the siblings interrupt asking her to explain manger, swaddling clothes, Wise Men, and myrrh.

“’And, lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them,’ Mother went on, ‘and the glory of the Lord shone round them, and ---‘

‘Shazam!’ Gladys yelled, flinging her arms out and smacking the kid next to her.”

Eventually they make it to the dress rehearsal but fail to run through the whole play. On the night of the pageant, the whole town shows up to see just what the Herdmans are going to do. When Joseph and Mary are late for their cue, everyone figures they forgot. However, a few minutes later the disheveled couple show up in the doorway. Mary pauses to burp the baby and they make their way up the aisle. Some are appalled that Jesus gets burped, but the narrator comes to some realizations that will change her perception of the Holy Family forever.  Jesus could have been a colicky baby. After all he “was born and lived…a real person.” And Mary “is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman – sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who laid a hand on her baby.”

The story is not about a peaceful scene you might find on a Christmas card, but it’s “about a new baby, and his mother and father who were in a lot of trouble – no money, no place to go, no doctor, nobody they knew.”

And long after your daughter has finished the book, she’ll randomly, gleefully yell out the Angel of the Lord Gladys’ immortal words,” Hey! Unto you a child is born!”

"Come, Mrs. Bunny, we must hop!"

This week’s challenge was to read a book out loud to someone else. Mr. and Mrs. Bunny Detectives Extraordinaire! by Mrs. Bunny (translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath) was just the thing to amuse both the reader and listener.

Madeline is disappointed in her parents’ disdain for graduation ceremonies and the need for a pair of white shoes for said ceremony. However, new shoes seem less important when she comes home to find a note that her parents have been kidnapped by “The Enemy.” Meanwhile, on an island nearby, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny have decided to become detectives. Mr. Bunny suspects Mrs. Bunny is looking for an excuse to buy a new hat. Mr. Bunny is right. However, their detective skills (and new fedoras) are soon put to the test when Madeline asks for their help in rescuing her parents from, dramatic pause, the foxes. With the assistance of a code-cracking Marmot, a mooching neighbor called Mrs. Treaclebunny, and plenty of carrot cake, the bunnies solve the case.

The charm in reading this story out loud is giving voice to Mr. and Mrs. Bunny’s quick-witted exchanges. Equal parts sarcastic, long-suffering, and endearing, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny are just as eager to criticize as they are to compliment each other. Also amusing are Madeline’s off the grid parents and their dealings with their kidnappers.  

Next on the list is Lord and Lady Bunny – Almost Royalty! This time writing credit goes to both Mr. and Mrs. Bunny. 

Advent

My daughter had to give a presentation at school about her family’s holiday traditions. She chose to talk about Advent. When she had finished speaking, a boy in her class raised his hand and asked, “Do you still celebrate Christmas?”

Actually, this year we may be just celebrating Christmas since, in the move, I’ve managed to misplace our Advent wreath, children’s nativity set, and Advent calendar, a book called The Storyof Christmas. 

Those objects are replaceable of course, but one of the nice things about traditions is unpacking the ones you have used year after year. The corners may be dog eared, the wreath may be splattered with pink and purple wax, and the donkey may be missing a tail, but that is part of what makes them yours.

Whether you are starting a new tradition or supplementing an old, perhaps one of these books will add to your Advent season:

The Light of theWorld: Daily Meditations for Advent and Christmas by Phyllis Zagano

Advent of the Heart: SeasonalSermons and Prison Writings - 1941-1944 by Alfred Delp

A Gift for the ChristChild: A Christmas Folktale by Anne Wilson and Linda Schlafer

Manger edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Light Upon Light: ALiterary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur

Who Built the Stable?: A Nativity Poem by Ashley Bryan

Pretty Paper by Willie Nelson and David Ritz

Write about...

When I was pregnant with our first child, my husband and I joked about how our children were destined to be dorks. When your father is a former “mathlete” and your mother’s nickname in middle school was “Nerdstar,” there’s really no escaping it.

One of the “dorky” things we’ve started doing as a family is “Writing Night.” With a little help from a book called unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston, we choose a prompt from the book, set the timer for five minutes, and all produce a short piece which we then read out loud.

From the prompt, “Write a sentence where each word starts with the letters of the word sentence,” our son wrote this:“She eyes nuts too eagerly, now cowardly eats.”

When the prompt suggested we write a paragraph using as many words we could that rhyme with blue, our daughter produced this:

“Sue bought new blue shoes. She wore them to her Aunt Coo’s farm. When she got there, she heard the cow moo and the sheep boo. And then her Aunt Coo called, “Watch out!” She turned, but it was too late. “Choo Choo.” The blue train swept her away, and poor Sue, was never seen again!!

(Her Aunt Coo was very blue. Boo hoo! Who knew??!!)”

Dorky, but cute, yes?

My husband found another book for our preteen to use on her own. Rip the Page by Karen Benke

alternates word lists, writing terms, writing prompts, and advice from writers. This activity book kept my 11-year-old happily busy this summer. And it will double nicely as a go-to resource for writing warm-ups for my own students this fall.  

“a perfect layup”

My earliest memory of being read to at school was in fourth grade when Ms. Walker read Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt.  Then in seventh grade, my reading teacher astounded everyone when she said she was going to read to us from this book. What?! We were too old to have someone read to us. However, as soon as she started reading (using different voices for each character), we were hooked.

Even today, I still love being read to…as long as it's a children’s book. I will gladly oblige my son when he asks me to play any of the following audio books in the car: The Stink books by Megan McDonald (read by Nancy Cartwright), the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne (read by the author), or the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy (read by David Pittu).

This week’s challenge was to listen to an Audie Award winner. Keeping my seven-year-old in mind, I chose H.O.R.S.E. by Christopher Myers (read by Christopher Myers and Dion Graham). In the story, two boys play the basketball game of horse, which quickly expands from the court to the neighborhood to the galaxy. On our first listen, we didn’t have the printed book in front of us. My son was confused. For our next listen, we followed along in the book and the story clicked. Along with the narration, the rhythmic background music and sound effects made the story come alive. 

"Can you play it again?" my son asked. And I knew we had found a winner. 

Scholastic Santa

Around Thanksgiving every year, the kids bring home the November flyers from Santa's bookshop.

Then the hard decisions have to be made. Orders must be placed! What will Santa leave in stockings this year?

For the seven-year-old mystery (mythology?) lover - New Year's Eve Thieves by Ron Roy and Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne

For the ten-year-old bookworm starting a new school - "When Life Gets Tough" value pack including Courage for Beginners and Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel

For the six-year-old who started a Spanish immersion program this year -  Loved looking at the Club Leo flyer and chose the Paquete Biblioteca bilingue (but I've bookmarked the Paquete Chicas Valientes for when she's older)

For the four-year-old lego lover - Anything/Everything Ninjago

For the hard to shop for reader - When in doubt, give Guinness




Who's on your list?

“Well....there's been a murder and we're out of soup.”

Searching for summer reading lists for the kids, I came across the Sasquatch Award.

From this list my ten-year-old and six-year-old discovered:

• The puzzling world of Winston Breen in The Puzzler’s Mansion by Eric Berlin 
• Greek Mythology. After reading Have a Hot Time, Hades! by Kate McMullan, my daughter wanted me to request ALL the books in this series from the library. Meanwhile my son started looking at this book and realized Pandora is more than an Internet radio station. 
• What it might be like to live on an Indian Reservation in 1960s Oregon in Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe 
• Their mother can do a pretty decent Southern Accent when reading Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage