tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6573683788635600552024-03-14T07:19:25.861-04:00ANNIE AND AUNTfamily thoughts on reading with kidsAnniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.comBlogger666125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-27835832767794664332016-09-05T09:43:00.000-04:002016-09-05T09:43:31.329-04:00Harry Potter and the Girl who Reads EverythingDear Aunt Debbie,<br />
<br />
A couple of nights ago, Eleanor came into my bedroom needing to talk about why she wanted to stop reading a book. On non-school nights, we let the kids stay up with reading lights, and Eleanor is always the last to turn hers off, reading until 10 or sometimes even 11 PM. Then she'll come downstairs to find me and Jeff, or into our room, with a smile on her face, that little smile that says <i>I know I shouldn't be up, but now is my favorite time to talk with you, alone.</i><br />
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A couple of nights ago, she wasn't smiling. Earlier this week, she had begun to read <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780439358071&aff=annieandaunt">Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix</a>, the fifth Harry Potter book. <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2016/06/why-we-read-after-orlando.html">I wrote this summer about Eleanor starting the series</a>; how much I love what she is getting from the books, but how I have also been trying to slow her down, out of fear that the emotional content will take her too deeply over her head too young. I said I was fine with books 1-3, but discouraged book 4, in which Harry experiences the first death of a character we have grown to like, a fellow student murdered by Voldemort during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. My caution was rebuffed; she read on. After book 4, she reassured me the content was fine. She paused again, but late in the summer she began pushing to read book 5. She borrowed it from my parents last week.<br />
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Which brings us to Eleanor walking into my bedroom with <i>The Order of the Phoenix</i> under her arm, upset. A little more than 500 pages in, she had just read a scene set in a wizarding hospital, in which Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny run into their friend Neville and his grandmother. Neville and Mrs. Longbottom are there to visit Neville's parents, who were tortured into insanity by one of Voldemort's followers.<br />
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It's not a dramatic or violent scene:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Neville's mother had come edging down the ward in her nightdress. She no longer had the plump, happy-looking face Harry had seen in Moody's old photograph of the original Order of the Phoenix. Her face was thin and worn now, her eyes seemed overlarge, and her hair, which had turned white, was wispy and dead-looking. She did not seem to want to speak, or perhaps she was not able to, but she made timid motions toward Neville, holding something in her outstretched had.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Again?" said Mrs. Longbottom, sounding slightly weary. "Very well, Alice dear, very well -- Neville, take it, whatever it is...."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Neville had already stretched out his hand, into which his mother dropped an empty Droobles Blowing Gum wrapper. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Very nice, dear," said Neville's grandmother in a falsely cheery voice, patting his mother on the shoulder. But Neville said quietly, "Thanks Mum."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">His mother tottered away, back up the ward, humming to herself. Neville looked around at the others, his expression defiant, as though daring them to laugh, but Harry did not think he'd ever found anything less funny in his life.</span><br />
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In telling me what had upset her, Eleanor was close to tears: the image of parents unable to communicate with their child, unable to do more than hand him a useless gum wrapper, was deeply troubling. This, even more than the images of death threaded through the books, was what made her want to stop reading. It was empathy; the book striking too close to a horror she could imagine.<br />
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But she didn't feel she could stop reading. Why not?<br />
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"I'm supposed to be the girl who reads everything," she said, hugging me. Oh dear.<br />
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"No," I said carefully, "you're the girl who loves to read. And you're someone who reads deeply, and who gets emotionally involved in the books you read. This is a good thing. But sometimes that might mean that something your friends have read is going to feel different to you than it did to them when they read it." We talked about how people read in different ways, and how something that feels scary to one reader might not to another. I mentioned that J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books to be read by kids who were Harry's age in each book -- by that rule, she's a 9 year old reading something written for 15 year olds. There's nothing to be ashamed of if it doesn't feel like the right thing to be reading at the moment.<br />
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She decided she wanted to stop reading the book, and I said I thought that was a good decision. The wonderful thing about books is that they will be there for you when you're ready for them. Until then, you can reread the first four books, and pick up the next one sometime in the future, when it feels like the right time. We practiced what she might say to her friends who have read the whole series, if they ask why she hasn't finished. She said, "I'll say it makes me feel too much emotional pressure to read it right now." Then she asked if we could give the book back to my parents for now, "so I won't feel possessed by the urge to pick it up again."<br />
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Two things struck me deeply about this conversation. First, Eleanor's determination about what feels "real" and what doesn't. She compared Harry Potter to the <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/fabulous-monsters.html">Percy Jackson series</a>, saying that Percy Jackson felt less scary because "it couldn't really happen." Of course, both series are fantasy, filled with magic and impossible occurrences, but I understood what she meant: the situations in Rick Riordan's books feel more episodic; even when terrifying things happen, you're not really worried that the main characters will be hurt. There are so many moments in J.K. Rowling's books like the one between Neville and his mother: moments that feel emotionally real; not plot points, but character moments. (I googled the gum wrappers while writing this post, and found both that a lot of fans had wondered whether Neville's mother was slipping him secret messages, and that J.K. Rowling had said in an interview that that wasn't happening at all. She based the scene on the experience of a friend visiting his mother, who had Alzheimer's.) As she reads, Eleanor feels the difference.<br />
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The second thing that struck me was how much this book choice mattered to Eleanor in terms of her self-perception. I read somewhere recently that kids start to consciously carve out aspects of their identity around this age, 8 or 9; they start to see themselves as a certain type of person, and to act accordingly. This wasn't just about the question of stopping a particular book; because Harry Potter is so big, and because several of her friends have read the whole series, Eleanor saw it as something she <i>should </i>be doing as well as something she <i>wanted</i> to be doing. Because she's the girl who reads everything.<br />
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And that's where we try to step in as parents, right? To say yes, I see who you are becoming, and I love who you are becoming, and take my hand and step just a little over this way, see it just a little bit differently. See? It's still you, this slightly changed image. It's maybe even a slightly truer you.<br />
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I think often of something my Grandpa Frank, your father, used to say about kids: "You raise what you get." Here they are, these amazing young people growing into themselves; all we can do is try to know them and raise them the best that we can. Thank goodness we have books to help us along.<br />
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Love, Annie<br />
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<br />
As summer rolls to an end, we continue to be happily distracted by a plethora of great graphic novels. I realized recently, when recommending books to friends, that I have sadly neglected to blog about some of our favorites. Here's a roundup of our latest obsessions:<br />
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<a href="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/966/703/FC9781419703966.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" src="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/966/703/FC9781419703966.JPG" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781419703966&aff=annieandaunt">Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales</a><br />
We tend toward the fantastic and fictional in this house, but this historical graphic novel series has obsessed Eleanor and Isabel all summer. There are two Nathan Hales: There's the author and illustrator Nathan Hale, born in 1976, who we first encountered as illustrator of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/02/grabbing-life-by-braids.html">Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack</a>, and who created this series. Then there's the historical Nathan Hale, the Revolutionary War spy hanged in 1776, who serves as the narrator of the series.<br />
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The first book, <i>One Dead Spy</i>, tells the story of the historical Nathan Hale, and provides the frame story for every other book in the series. Hale is on the gallows in New York, about to be hanged by a cheerful, none-too-smart Hangman and a pompous British soldier. He says his famous last words ("I regret that I have but one life to give for my country"), and a giant eagle swoops down, picks him up, and drops him into an enormous magical history book. On emerging, Hale can see the future -- he now knows all of American history. He becomes a sort of Scheherazade, putting off his own death by telling the Hangman and the British soldier one story from American history in each volume of the series, as they comment throughout. There are <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/108377-nathan-hale-s-hazardous-tales">six books so far,</a> ranging from Revolutionary history to the Civil War (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781419703959">Big Bad Ironclad!</a>), from heroes like Harriet Tubman (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781419715365">The Underground Abductor</a>) to some of the least appealing episodes in American history (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781419708565">Donner Dinner Party</a>). Both of my girls are retaining a huge amount of historical fact from the books; we've had the whole series out from the library all summer.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781595828118&aff=annieandaunt"><br />Avatar: The Last Airbender</a><br />
<a href="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/118/828/FC9781595828118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" src="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/118/828/FC9781595828118.JPG" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>For a totally immersive world filled with compelling teen characters of both genders, many of whom happen to have powers that allow them control of the elements, check out the Avatar series. We stumbled on them at the library, not knowing anything about the <a href="http://www.nick.com/avatar-the-last-airbender/">animated Nickelodeon series</a> that preceded them (and which is also really, really good). I read the first out loud to Isabel and Will expecting it to be mediocre, as TV spinoffs so often are, and was happily surprised to find excellence instead. Looking at the title page, I was less surprised: the graphic novels are scripted by Gene Luen Yang, recently named <a href="http://geneyang.com/">National Ambassador for Young People's Literature,</a> author of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/09/graphic-novels-for-emerging-readers-and.html">American Born Chinese</a>, now also writing a <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/07/13/485723740/diversity-drives-the-story-in-the-latest-incarnation-of-superman">teenage Chinese Superman for DC Comics</a> -- is there anything he can't do?<br />
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The Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels follow the adventures of Avatar Aang (a teenage boy who is also the connection between the human and spirit worlds, and can "bend" air, water, earth, and fire), and his friends Katara (a water-bender), her brother Sokka (no powers, but funny), Toph (an earth-bender), and Zuko (a fire-bender, and ruler of the Fire Nation). The characters are complex--even the villains, like Zuko's evil sister Azula, have depth--and the plots are immersive. <a href="http://www.howtolovecomics.com/2015/09/03/avatar-the-last-airbender/">There are three 3-part series out right now</a>: The Promise, The Search, and The Rift. The first volume of North and South is due out later this year. It's looking like we'll all be dressing up as Avatar characters for Halloween.</div>
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<a href="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/827/435/FC9781596435827.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" src="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/827/435/FC9781596435827.JPG" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781596435827&aff=annieandaunt">Giants Beware!</a> and its sequel, <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781596438781&aff=annieandaunt">Dragons Beware!</a><br />
These excellent books came as gifts from you. They are the creation of Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado, and join the list of spunky, awesome heroines on our <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/graphic-novels.html">Graphic Novels list page</a>. The sword-wielding redhead on the cover is Claudette, daughter of blacksmith and warrior Augustine, who lost both legs and a hand to a dragon years ago. Behind her are her brother Gaston, who would rather whip up gourmet French food than fight; their friend Marie, daughter of the Marquis, aspiring princess and diplomat; and Claudette's dog Valiant. The two books (so far--it's clear that more are coming) include adventure with a touch of danger, but not so much that they become scary. Encounters with giants, dragons, and evil magic-wielding adults end well for all involved, and include a lot of humor. We're looking forward to more.<br />
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<a href="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/196/291/FC9781632291196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" src="https://images.booksense.com/images/books/196/291/FC9781632291196.JPG" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781632291196&aff=annieandaunt">Raven the Pirate Princess</a><br />
I wrote back in January about our love of Jeremy Whitley's graphic novel series <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-year-new-spunky-feminist-princess.html">Princeless</a>, which combines a feminist sensibility with a racially diverse cast of characters, headed by Princess Adrienne, a fearless black princess who breaks herself out of the tower where she's been imprisoned by her father, makes friends with the dragon who's been sent to guard her, and sets off to rescue her similarly imprisoned sisters. In Book 3 of Princeless, Adrienne meets Raven Xingtao, the Pirate Princess, and now Raven has her own spin-off series. If anything, Whitley takes his characters even further into fabulous feminist territory as Raven assembles an all-female crew for her pirate ship and readies herself to go get her birthright back from her brothers, who usurped her place.<br />
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This series feels like it's aimed at a slightly older audience than Princeless -- middle grade and YA, I'd say. There's a little more violence, a little more sexual innuendo (between Raven and her the half-elf, Sunshine, and with her old best friend, Ximena; it's pretty clear that this comic is headed towards a lesbian relationship), and a lot of jokes about stereotypes and cultural appropriation that are very funny to a college-age sensibility. Here's Raven interviewing a bunch of male pirates before deciding she needs to stick to a female crew:<br />
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So brilliant. So much love.<br />
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There are more, of course (<a href="http://marvel.com/comics/series/18468/ms_marvel_2014_-_2015">Ms. Marvel!</a> <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780785197027">Squirrel Girl!</a> <a href="http://goraina.com/books_bsc.html">Raina Telgemeier's Baby-Sitters Club!</a>), but I'll save them for another day.<br />
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I look forward to hearing about how it feels to be retired from bookselling!<br />
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Love, AnnieAnniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-19415031647066850292016-07-27T20:48:00.000-04:002016-08-31T20:58:27.596-04:00Joining the Nerdy Book Club Dear Aunt Debbie,<br />
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I've recently become an active reader of the fabulous website <a href="https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/">Nerdy Book Club</a>. Every day, the Nerdy Book Club posts an essay by a different blogger: some are personal "Reading Life" essays, some are reviews (of new or "retro" books), some are author posts, etc. There is always something interesting going on.<br />
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Recently, I had the privilege of writing an essay for Nerdy Book Club, about the importance of reading with kids: <a href="https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/why-reading-with-kids-matters-at-home-and-in-the-classroom-by-annie-thoms/">"Why Reading with Kids Matters, at Home and in the Classroom."</a><br />
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It's a pleasure to join another excellent reading community!<br />
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Love, AnnieAnniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-60389227263339266902016-07-11T21:51:00.000-04:002016-07-11T22:01:15.373-04:00How children's books help me talk to my kids about race and genderDear Aunt Debbie,<br />
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Here we are <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2016/06/why-we-read-after-orlando.html">a month later</a>, with three more horrific shootings to process, with more grief and more anger and more unanswerable questions. Along with a number of my friends and acquaintances, I'm searching for ways to talk with my children about current events, ways to be honest about the complexities of race and politics in America on a kid-appropriate level.<br />
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On my local neighborhood listserve, someone suggested the websites <a href="http://www.raceconscious.org/">Raising Race Conscious Children</a> and <a href="http://parents-together.org/talking-kids-dallas-baton-rouge-minnesota/">ParentsTogether</a>, both of which have some excellent essays about how to talk to children of all races about race, racism, and violence.<br />
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For me, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/02/pigs-spiders-and-mortality.html">as with so many other major issues in life</a>, I come at this conversation with my children through the books we read. Many of these are books I've brought into the house: I know their content, and when a complex issue comes up as we're reading together -- <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/02/perfection-of-doctor-doolittle.html">racist descriptions in Dr. Dolittle</a>, for example -- I'm prepared to talk about it.<br />
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But increasingly, as we visit the library two or three times a week, all three of my kids are picking up and bringing home books that they read first -- sometimes entirely -- on their own. I try to pay attention without leaping in to censor their reading, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/06/redefining-dork.html">even when I'm not crazy about the material they choose</a>, and engage them in conversation about aspects of books that trouble me. As the library books pile up, however, some things slip through the cracks.<br />
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Isabel has recently been reading the <a href="http://www.asterix.com/">Asterix comics</a>, which I remember my brother Michael reading when we were kids, but which I've never read myself. Eleanor reads them too, because she reads every book that anyone brings into the house.<br />
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Two nights ago, Jeff picked up one of the books lying on our coffee table and came over to me, disturbed. "Have you looked at the depiction of black people in these books?" I hadn't. I did. It's horrendous.<br />
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The black characters in Asterix (almost all of them slaves seen serving white Romans) are old-school stereotypically racist, with dark skin, round white eyes, and swollen red lips. Here's an enlargement of an image on the first page of Asterix the Gladiator:<br />
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Oy.</div>
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So yesterday morning, over breakfast, we had a conversation. </div>
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I started by telling the girls that Jeff and I had been looking at the Asterix book the night before, and that something we saw in it was really disturbing to us. We pulled it out to take a look together, and do a little kid-friendly image analysis. </div>
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I asked them, "What do you notice about how the black people in this book are drawn?" Then I let them talk and observe the skin, the lips, the expressions, trying to allow them the space to notice things themselves rather than jumping in to tell them what I wanted them to think. (It took me several years of teaching high school to learn how well this works.)</div>
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After they had identified a number of physical features, I asked, "Do these people look like real black people?" </div>
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"No." </div>
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"How does this kind of drawing make them look?"</div>
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"They look like they're stupid."</div>
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Then I brought up the idea of stereotypes, which Jeff and I have talked about with the kids before: stereotypes are assumptions that you make about a whole group of people, which can damage people in that group by limiting what they are allowed to do and sometimes even hurting them in physical ways. A favorite entry point example in our house: many people used to believe that girls couldn't play sports as well as boys -- in fact, some people still think this. Because of that stereotype, girls who wanted to play sports were denied the opportunity. Bring this up, and both of my girls become immediately indignant. </div>
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I explained that the way the black characters in Asterix are drawn is an example of an old, racist stereotype that some white people have had about black people. (You and I touched on this particular stereotype a few years ago in two posts about <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/09/old-story-in-new-form.html">Little Black Sambo</a> and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/10/escaping-stereotype-with-difficulty.html">its many contemporary retellings</a>.)</div>
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Sometimes, I said, stereotypes like this can get into your head without you realizing it, because of what you read or see or hear around you. Subconsciously, those stereotypes start to change the way you think about a group of people.</div>
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We pulled out Will's <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062357984?aff=annieandaunt">5-Minute Batman Stories</a> to look for more stereotypes we might not have noticed. Here's a page of villains from the story "Harley Quinn's Perfect Prank": </div>
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I asked, "What do you notice about the way Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman are drawn?"</div>
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"They're all wearing lipstick and eyeshadow."</div>
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"That's true. Think about the way their whole bodies look, too. I'm a woman -- does my body look like this?" I held the book up next to me. My daughters cracked up. (Answer: No.)</div>
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Eleanor said, "It looks like they're wearing corsets. They have tiny waists and really big..." She dissolved into giggles.</div>
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"You're absolutely right, they all have really big breasts. So when you read this book and look at the pictures, what do you think you might start to think about what a beautiful woman looks like?"</div>
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More giggling. "They have really big breasts!"</div>
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<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />[Side note: The graphic novel series <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-year-new-spunky-feminist-princess.html">Princeless, which stars a strong, independent, black princess</a>, does a terrific job of pointing out and poking fun at both racial and gender stereotypes in comic books. The scene where Princess Adrienne examines and comments on the outfits worn by Wonder Woman, Xena, and Red Sonja, is spot-on and extremely funny.]<br />
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Next, we looked at the page at the beginning of the book that lists the cast of characters, heroes and villains alike: </div>
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"What do you notice about who's in this book?"</div>
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"It's mostly men. The bad guys and the good guys."</div>
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"What else?"</div>
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"There's almost no black people at all. It's mostly white men."</div>
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Will pointed out: "And Killer Croc. Because he's green."</div>
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Later, when the kids told Jeff about our conversation (which they remembered in great detail several hours later), he added the question: "Who do you think is probably writing and illustrating these stories?" It didn't take the kids long to figure that one out, either.</div>
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Finally, I made the connection to current events. We talked about the shootings over the last week, and the fact that a lot of people are angry and upset over the shootings of black people by police officers, in situations where it wasn't necessary. Eleanor (very upset and indignant about racism of any kind) asked why police officers would do that. I said that part of it comes from fear, and that I think part of that fear comes from the stereotypes and assumptions that white people have about black people as a group. And part of that fear comes from the images we see -- or don't see -- of black people in the books we read and the TV and movies we watch. That's why it's so important for us to look closely at and think about what we're reading, instead of just taking it in.</div>
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Then we closed the books and went to the playground. I pushed Will on the little kid swings, and Eleanor and Isabel got themselves some big kid swings and pumped really high all by themselves, and I thought about that as a metaphor because I'm an English teacher at heart, and everyone got a little wet in the sprinkler before it was time to go home for lunch. One more conversation to fold into our understanding of the world.</div>
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Love, Annie</div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-85095560417332235012016-06-14T21:42:00.000-04:002016-06-14T21:42:01.720-04:00Why we read (after Orlando)Dear Aunt Debbie,<br />
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I've been trying to write a blog post about children's books, but I keep stopping to cry. I keep stopping because I can't stop thinking about Orlando, about the 50 people, most of them barely out of their teens, who were killed on Sunday morning in the nightclub that was their sanctuary, their safe space. I can't stop thinking about how rare safe space feels right now. It is not safe in this country to be queer. It's not safe to be Muslim. It's not safe to have brown skin. It's not safe to be a woman. It's not safe to go to the bathroom. It's not safe to worship in your church. It's not safe to dance in your nightclub. It's not safe to sit in your school classroom.<br />
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How do we explain this to our children? How do we make sense of it for ourselves?<br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />In the last couple of months, Eleanor has started reading Harry Potter. <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/01/les-mis-just-right.html">She began a year or so later than many of her friends</a>, but she's still younger than Harry is when he begins his journey. I've been trying to slow her down. I don't want her to get to the worst deaths too soon. I don't want her heart to break for Dumbledore before she's ready.<br />
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Here is what she's learning from Harry Potter: that in this world, there is magic. That there are friends who sacrifice themselves for others -- true loyalty exists. That pure evil exists, too: there are those who believe there is no value to human life, who believe that an ideology and the quest for power are more important than anything else. That sometimes the person you think is the bad guy isn't the real bad guy. That sometimes, the person who seems to be the bad guy is more complicated than that: he has hatred in him, but when it matters most, he chooses to be on the side of good. That we can survive unthinkable tragedy.<br />
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This is why we read. Reading allows us to think through the complexity of human beings. We read because it allows us to understand and work through the issues, because we learn human things through literature. We learn how to live, and we learn how to keep living when those who we love die. We learn that people are not just one thing or another, that the world is not black and white. That there are no easy answers.<br />
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This is why books matter.<br />
<br />
One of the questions I've been trying to address in the blog post I can't write for the tears comes from Eunice, a friend who's started a book club for her 4th grade son. She started the book club because her son's school has essentially stopped teaching literature. Instead, they're teaching "critical reading skills" through passages that mirror what students will find on standardized tests.<br />
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There is so much wrong with this. I could write a book. (I'm actually starting to write a book.) As a parent, as a teacher, as a reader of long standing, I know down to my bones that the best way to develop "critical reading skills" is by reading things that matter to you, things that engage you, things that push your imagination and your skill, that make you question and wonder.<br />
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When our children read books that matter to them, they grow as readers, and as people. They become citizens who are able to assess the literature of the world around them, to read articles, speeches, bills, debates, and more with a critical eye. <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-fiction-improves-empathy/">They become more empathetic</a>, more likely to listen to others, more likely, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/12/a-holiday-choice-gift-of-other-lives.html">as you've written, to be willing to understand issues from someone else's perspective</a>.<br />
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When our children read test prep passages, they grow as test-takers, and little else. They learn to look for a single right answer. They learn that the form and length of their essays are more important than the content. When we evaluate our children solely through standardized tests, we are perpetuating a reductive view of the world. This has political consequences.<br />
<br />
Eunice wrote to me because she's looking for guidance -- a list? -- of good books for her son's age group. She's concerned about encouraging her son and his friends to find "great" books as well as "fun" books -- right now, each kid involved takes turns picking a book, and leads the discussion about that book. She's also concerned about the intensity and maturity of the material in some of the books her son's friends are choosing, a concern I've heard recently from a number of parents.<br />
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I'm going to save the list question for my next post (though anyone reading this blog might start by checking out our lists to the right of this page: <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/middle-grade.html">Middle grade books</a>, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/ya-books.html">YA books</a>, and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/lots-of-ages.html">Lots of Ages</a> all contain a variety of options).<br />
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For now, I want to say two things about the book club:<br />
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First, it's a wonderful idea. A book club like this provides two things vital to creating readers: choice and community. Looking to book lists can be <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-support-your-kids-summer-reading.html">a great way to find books to "interview" to see if you like them, as I wrote about last summer</a>. But allowing kids to choose books for their peers, to have that ownership and that enjoyment, goes a long way toward building their identities as readers.<br />
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Second, a book club, like a good classroom, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/03/explicit-content.html">can be a perfect place to talk about some of the issues of </a><a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/03/explicit-content.html">content that parents (and kids) find disturbing in a book</a>. It can be a safe space for both kids and parents to bring up their feelings about the content they're reading. These discussions might lead to a larger conversation about the goals of the book club: do the kids involved want to set guidelines about the content of books they pick? Do they want to agree to bring in classics every few books, along with contemporary fiction? How about nonfiction? Choosing the books can be an opportunity for critical thinking as much as reading and discussing them. But again, the decisions should come from the kids. We become readers when reading becomes something we want to do rather than something we feel we should do.<br />
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Part of what makes great literature great -- this goes for children's as well as adult literature -- is a willingness to engage with complexity. But a large part of what makes it great is pleasure.<br />
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We read to find so many things: joy, and peace, and excitement, and knowledge. Reading is a sanctuary. It is a safe space within which we can find ourselves or escape ourselves. Sometimes it's a space where we retreat just to laugh; sometimes it's a space within which we confront the things which frighten us most.<br />
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Reading with our children gives us a common language and an opening to try to understand the world together, in all its horror and all its beauty. Even when the world is inexplicable. Even when we know we cannot always keep our children safe.<br />
<br />
Love, AnnieAnniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-50308561095095462072016-05-04T21:24:00.000-04:002016-05-04T21:25:46.364-04:00Springtime: reveling in the wackyDear Annie,<br />
<br />
Earlier this week, I had a lovely conversation with a mother who told me how much her three year old loves <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/10/bad-manners.html">Maya Makes a Mess</a>, a book that was a big hit in your household a few years ago. It has a wonderful deadpan wacky sense of humor (food tastes better when eaten with hands? then we must do it!) which has popped up again in two new releases.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnbRamUKCtImSss4dKyrlPHLqDdG93fi-qRfZWdtbjt0z4H0x-Hxc3tihhTiOfZWS5P-Z-mpO0EGMtxzF0MK-Tpt9m23H_OKJCIM6WCmHqPTW6BAcGsAdpXcPn7WBnpPv3MzFukHL3FA0/s1600/Fletcher_Zenobia_CVF_2_2048x2048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUnbRamUKCtImSss4dKyrlPHLqDdG93fi-qRfZWdtbjt0z4H0x-Hxc3tihhTiOfZWS5P-Z-mpO0EGMtxzF0MK-Tpt9m23H_OKJCIM6WCmHqPTW6BAcGsAdpXcPn7WBnpPv3MzFukHL3FA0/s200/Fletcher_Zenobia_CVF_2_2048x2048.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
Back in 1967 Edward Gorey and Victoria Chess wrote <a href="http://www.nyrb.com/products/fletcher-and-zenobia?variant=6574333697">Fletcher and Zenobia</a> about a friendship between a cat who is stuck in a tree:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVYtEDlPAP5ia2wCdKtdNioQb2wk1PoNq4PKDAh8eII6P7ToxwQAoidPt9f6oxtf1mMINNW03golTp9Wa-HPdaw6rb3TWZhAY19Vk3Gra9SVVl9-VU8ORMICGwtHHqohEub2bNrkhT4ID/s1600/fletcher+in+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVYtEDlPAP5ia2wCdKtdNioQb2wk1PoNq4PKDAh8eII6P7ToxwQAoidPt9f6oxtf1mMINNW03golTp9Wa-HPdaw6rb3TWZhAY19Vk3Gra9SVVl9-VU8ORMICGwtHHqohEub2bNrkhT4ID/s640/fletcher+in+tree.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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and a doll who emerges from a papier mache egg inside a steamer trunk he finds in the tree:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLTKVYTErryhuVs7vIMD0aY3rpHXWXgrKqyL8CVP5qCj0UWSpBwIxO_j1laEtT5a1zOH-vJFeWe0S2_l2H9r0Mmh7sFRozga506ZrIB8FbjcHz5rPvl9jh91dfjSiJ25k14x5HyRRV-972/s1600/zenobia.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLTKVYTErryhuVs7vIMD0aY3rpHXWXgrKqyL8CVP5qCj0UWSpBwIxO_j1laEtT5a1zOH-vJFeWe0S2_l2H9r0Mmh7sFRozga506ZrIB8FbjcHz5rPvl9jh91dfjSiJ25k14x5HyRRV-972/s640/zenobia.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
Neither can figure out how to get down from the tree, so they have a party, complete with many hats which were in the steamer trunk, punch, four quarts of peach ice cream (there's a freezer), and a Zenobia-baked "lemon cake with five layers, which she covered with raspberry icing and walnuts and decorated with green and blue candles ('Perhaps it is one of our birthdays,' she said)."<br />
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While Zenobia is teaching Fletcher how to waltz (there's music on the gramophone), a friendly moth joins the party, eats most of the refreshments, and wakes up the next morning big enough to carry them out of the tree and on to new adventures. The matter-of-fact-ness of all the absurdity is so delightful. The New York Review of Books has resurrected this little gem from out-of-print land, bless them: it went on sale last month.<br />
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Fletcher and Zenobia somehow strikes me as not from this continent: the freshness of the absurdity, the high-end vocabulary (withal, gramophone, mauve, gondola, maharajah). Goes to show what I know. Both authors were born in Chicago; wiki tells me that Gorey only left the U.S. once in his life.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhY66LHAERNXmQNS4BE-8Q4ltfY1tGubnXjMLxRsVkYmXWbT4z4rV4di4t4fC4ZDdvc-_HJQg0pZfihIDkL-huldO2XkifuZ5nEkp3vhHDYb-XE-uPNBCNLhQs071ekQsbG3s5AW5S3nDuEoEJ7cHyNO8Py0nIcmYeaWJhQ0GrWi-iRZ_Q=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/043/805/FC9780992805043.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>But <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780992805043?aff=annieandaunt"><br />Daisy Darling, Let's Go to the Beach!</a> by Markus Majaluoma is definitely from elsewhere: Finland.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Daddy takes a look out of the window.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Daisy darling, let's have a jolly day on the beach!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Do you remember where you put the spades and other beach things?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yes, Daisy does remember. </span><br />
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Daisy is a curly-haired toddler whose pacifier never leaves her mouth. She gathers her buckets, swimfins, snorkeling gear and large inflatable alligator and they set off on Daddy's bicycle. When they get there, Daisy applies suntan lotion to her father's back with a spade. A cast of minor characters appears in marginalia and the end papers: each plays a role in one or two pages. There's the fisherman who gives Daisy a fish, the crossword puzzling woman whose hat Daisy adorns with the fish ("What has four letters and lives in the sea?" the lady asks. "Fish," Daisy whispers in the lady's ear.), an ice cream man and more. It's a book about some of the things a child is likely to encounter in a day at the beach, but all slightly off in its own nutty way.<br />
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Daisy and two children pile sand all over Daddy, but he's afraid he's stuck.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_M_JI1rWGi9U6SpN0KZG810a8pVQ2bDsOQHd6PG_8VN9O60jzmCwVrkRhEzc2V_GgGermQ4uDaPNW9_YgGFhQgGh4-P3nDLHUaqdxhSasgXXtj7YzV0AG1ULkAo35GZAqk2tGmiDPe3mx/s1600/daisy+daddy2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_M_JI1rWGi9U6SpN0KZG810a8pVQ2bDsOQHd6PG_8VN9O60jzmCwVrkRhEzc2V_GgGermQ4uDaPNW9_YgGFhQgGh4-P3nDLHUaqdxhSasgXXtj7YzV0AG1ULkAo35GZAqk2tGmiDPe3mx/s640/daisy+daddy2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On the way home, Daddy pedals fast.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Didn't we have a jolly day at the seaside?" he puffs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Daisy, too, is happy because <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Da</span>ddy's back is covered with many exciting sea creatures.</span></blockquote>
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A very satisfying day at the beach.<br />
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Here's to the anticipation of summer.<br />
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Love,<br />
<br />
Deborah <br />
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<br />
There's a new kind of reader in our house.<br />
<br />
I've always enjoyed the way that kids have their own reading personalities, their ways of approaching and engaging with books. Eleanor was <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/06/lion-witch-and-3-12-year-old.html">ready for chapter book read-alouds</a> far earlier than Isabel, and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/07/read-it-again-mom.html">her love of a long, gripping narrative</a> has continued well into her own independent reading years. Isabel has always responded intensely to visuals, and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/graphic-novels.html">graphic novels</a> have eased <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/02/breakthroughs.html">her transition from emerging reader to full-on independent reader.</a> Will, it turns out, has a categorizing mind.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhYXrRADxQCpvMd7nIlmxSL3V6gTi4AwIktlRT_AbYFBzzBOf878nWbg5uNv6qeglsnn91QG6_MFYAMfPEjb2zVGT598aMYGd6aIng-9OhfRpHdrEEplddnRoLMEIpvbjHcrV8hszenMMbyxjQUTE9qrdYynmUMjPzFspGd1GZN7DCdrcc=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/038/412/FC9780679412038.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>This first became apparent last spring when Eleanor was doing a 2nd grade nonfiction project about Jim Henson. We took a bunch of books out of the library (<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/06/libraries-and-bookstores.html">how much do I love the Brooklyn Public Library</a>?), among them a nice big coffee table book about all of Henson's creative projects ever: Christopher Finch's <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780679412038?aff=annieandaunt">Jim Henson --</a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780679412038?aff=annieandaunt">The Works: The Art, the Magic, the Imagination</a>.<br />
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It's a pretty fabulous book, especially if you're interested in the Muppets at all: accounts of Henson's early life, his first commercial projects, the birth of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show, his later, weirder TV shows and movies. Lots of glossy pictures, including a four-page spread with thumbnails of the guest stars in every Muppet Show episode that ever aired. (Bob Hope! Lesley Ann Warren! Alice Cooper!)<br />
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Will became obsessed with this book. He was just over 2 years old, and would sit on the couch turning the pages over and over -- so much so that, after he ripped a couple and we taped them, we returned the book to the library and bought our own used copy. He called it "Gog Book" (for "Frog," a.k.a. Kermit). And as he turned the pages, Will was categorizing: memorizing names and faces, putting things in order in his mind.<br />
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He particularly loved the big Muppet monsters: <a href="http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sweetums">Sweetums</a>, <a href="http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Thog">Thog</a>, the purple-bodied twins/triplets <a href="http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Mutations">The Mutations</a>. One double-page spread contains pictures of the cast of puppeteers, showing who played which characters, and Will would ask us to read all the names: Richard Hunt played Janice, Scooter, Beaker, and Wayne of Wayne and Wanda. "Who played Thog?" The book didn't say. "Look it up on your 'puter, Mommy." I looked it up. Turns out it was Jerry Nelson.<br />
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Probably three weeks later, Jeff was reading the Gog Book with Will, and got to that page. "Daddy, Jerry Nelson played Thog." Okay, though it doesn't say that in the book. "No! Jerry Nelson played Thog!" Total nerd recall.<br />
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While full-bodied Muppet monsters still hold a place in his heart, Will has lately moved on to a full-fledged superhero obsession. Again, there is so much categorizing going on: the names of superheroes, followed of course by the powers and weapons of each one. What does Batman carry in his utility belt, you ask? Why, among other things, Batarangs, Batcuffs, and Batrope, of course.<br />
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<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-year-new-spunky-feminist-princess.html">As I mentioned in my last post</a>, we've been reading a ton of superhero early reader books, some better than others. Generally speaking, we've found the I Can Read! books featuring the DC superheroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) to be better written than the World of Reading books about the Marvel superheroes (the Avengers, Spiderman, X-Men). Not loads better, but enough that the language allows you to read aloud with a little dramatic flair.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhP9FQ4tzv5FKxoPVQHEEtjzQ7ZvOMRJqqwgNC0p1xb7jol2smMncXSaLgeernACoOe13RodwgBog5i0_Gdakvm3tnZF1xx86lYEJwMMBrxOMmzGvCny8ovyfPh957SV0SCSOI4GV7m63NnXqMBgion8CyXW7ovH80Jft8cviv6PqJBy0E=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/584/364/FC9780606364584.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Here's Donald Lemke writing <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780606364584?aff=annieandaunt">Batman: Winter Wasteland</a>:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When he arrived in Gotham City, he spotted his coldest enemy, Mr. Freeze.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The frozen felon fired icy blasts at nearby buildings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Stop right there!" shouted Batman.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The villain turned and smiled.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Don't you mean freeze?" he asked.</span><br />
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Compare that to Clarissa Wong writing <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781484725177?aff=annieandaunt">This is Black Widow</a>:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEixerCeXjjdaJXvdm2IqanILSyK88rCCFs8Hab5qNIoLAsy4UZ9nA_56-ZpCI838S3F56vRODcmjWjFHTr4LcP8djqz_rZjlocV-GJOGI7yBBV4N3Hyqq9o_blZXXyiDNXx4suwXdJm8e5Sq_eEMaU8QNujv6qDRZUnpDlNLx4Ajse67iI=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/177/725/FC9781484725177.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She was an orphan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She lived at the Red Room.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Red Room was a secret camp.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It was an evil place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The camp leaders trained her to be a spy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">They taught her to steal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She knew the Red Room was bad.</span><br />
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Yup, that's the book I read aloud five times yesterday.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjlHOuYeojtPW4yvtUJZeedQmADVnn4YcAAncV84B2Gku_ZrOaHPOYkvl8o1qNiTtMPRZcgcM70zaJWnri5sCAyzu2q5BR1JWOgOT45wIJhH8_UzGK4ozzSCIciUBtk-wcvPOCcMATNqXoBlQv_z057_xPZx-iFFE8Zgh8GBVgeJoLJac4=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/701/706/FC9781484706701.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Your latest slam-dunk gift, however, gives me hope for the Marvel universe. A month ago, you gave us Will's current favorite book, <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781484706701?aff=annieandaunt">Meet the Marvel Superheroes</a>, by Chris "Doc" Wyatt. It's an illustrated character encyclopedia, listing more than 100 Marvel superheroes, from the best-known to some I'd never heard of (Squirrel Girl, anyone?). The lineup is more diverse than I feared it might be -- lots of women, and a decent if not huge number of superheroes of color (Ms. Marvel, a.k.a. Kamala Khan, is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants; Black Panther stars in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/all/2015/12/conceptualizing-the-black-panther/420759/">a new series this year written by Ta-Nehesi Coates</a>). None of the depictions of women are so sexualized as to make me cringe, though it is interesting to note how many of the female superheroes have powers that involve mind control. (Those crazy women -- they can make us do anything they want!)<br />
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We read this book <i>all the time</i>. Will has memorized names, relationships, weapons, powers. Each page contains handy thumbnail illustrations of the superheroes related to the one depicted on the page, which helps with the categorization.<br />
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I hesitate to be gender reductive here, but it does strike me that I've seen this kind of reading pattern -- learn all the facts about a particular universe, categorize them, repeat them -- more often with boys than with girls. But even as I write that, I think of the power of the superhero narrative: Will takes all of his knowledge and puts it into 24/7 roleplay, dressing up and casting all of us as superheroes around the dinner table, stopping our conversation to announce: "There's a new villain in Gotham City!"<br />
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So I'll take a step back from trying to categorize this type of reading, and go get ready to fight crime. You might not know it, but I'm Batwoman.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie
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<br />
Happy New Year!<br />
<br />
It's been an intense and happy holiday season, filled on our end with lots and lots of good reading. As it's been a while, here's a quick snapshot of the reader profiles at my house these days:<br />
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Eleanor, in 3rd grade, tries very hard to read at every waking moment: at the breakfast table, brushing teeth, on the street walking home from the library. We've outlawed reading at dinner, but allow it during dessert; consequently, it can now take up to 25 minutes for her to eat a single cookie.<br />
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Her tastes run to big novels about mythology and magic: she's read and reread all of Rick Riordan, from <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/fabulous-monsters.html">Percy Jackson</a> through his Egyptian series and the <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781423160915">new foray into Norse mythology</a>. For lighter fare, there are the <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/06/redefining-dork.html">Dork Diaries books (not my favorites, as you know)</a>, and lots and lots of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/01/early-chapter-books-step-by-step.html">Geronimo and Thea Stilton, the strange, translated-from-the-Italian series</a> about talking mice with long hair and clothes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiHUKB72Gu-WUu5ZFPbaW8o9ykAiGDJnxEHjwZIUBt-lfqi3xbY_2JDa6D2zFSHP-1iNZmBs0T_a0IVR4WtQndbTeu4qT4P89tS1CqpP0PZHRxMTGNyADHLRnddtCiq3Osd-advYwutCJ5uIBGc_4DXyzpm2OHjgZJ1Q7bZGdNdF3F37Bg=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/805/813/FC9780449813805.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Isabel, in 1st grade, has become a full-fledged independent reader in the last several months. She went from early reader books leapfrogging up to the <a href="http://pages.simonandschuster.com/critterclub">Critter Club series</a> (early chapter books focusing on girls who love animals -- a clear fit), and just this past month I looked over and she was reading Ruth Chew -- real, full-on chapter books, with hardly any pictures -- and telling us all about the stories. I remember loving Ruth Chew as a kid. <a href="http://ruthchew.com/about-the-books/new-books.htm">The Matter-of-Fact Magic books</a> are set in 1970s Brooklyn, actually not far from where we live now; in each, children encounter small, imaginative bits of magic that change their lives a little bit, but aren't scary or terribly permanent. The fate of the world is never at stake, and practical details pop up regularly: what do you do when you use a wizard's magic umbrella to transform your clothes into bathing suits, then lose the power to change them back, and no longer have the front-door key to your house? (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780449813805?aff=annieandaunt">The Trouble With Magic</a><i>.</i>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhP9FQ4tzv5FKxoPVQHEEtjzQ7ZvOMRJqqwgNC0p1xb7jol2smMncXSaLgeernACoOe13RodwgBog5i0_Gdakvm3tnZF1xx86lYEJwMMBrxOMmzGvCny8ovyfPh957SV0SCSOI4GV7m63NnXqMBgion8CyXW7ovH80Jft8cviv6PqJBy0E=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/584/364/FC9780606364584.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Will, closing in on age 3, picks up books almost as often as his sisters. He's currently obsessed with superheroes and Yoda, so we're reading aloud a lot of I Can Read! books from the library with titles like <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780606364584?aff=annieandaunt">Batman: Winter Wasteland</a>. He is building up a baseline of specific character knowledge that I'm sure will come in handy later. Meanwhile, we all know much more about the specific powers of a wide variety of superheroes, in both the DC and Marvel universes.<br />
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Despite their different interests and ages, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/graphic-novels.html">graphic novels</a> remain a major go-to for all three kids, a kind of common denominator. When one picks out a new graphic novel of any kind, from <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/search/book?searchfor=Gene+luen+yang+avatar">Avatar: the Last Airbender</a> to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic_(comic_book)">My Little Pony</a>, they all vie for a turn to read it.<br />
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We stumbled across our newest favorite graphic novel series at the library, and the girls kept the first three books in such solid rotation that it was clear we needed to own them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgevn_rWlQ1V1SnGeUXfoWJH_w8sIPvM5ZzMfzBp-K-252sqi2mPxXMfFhsfO9R7_RrDVNIeszc2z9fL_VcmGYtQ_dgNQiKI9n6THz0WhhNPEoctPYZTEEacYS6s-BzPMI9AtU3Z8IuGau417WMoioZcau1shZiJnFa95GI5zbmp90A9ic=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/545/352/FC9781939352545.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781939352545?aff=Annie%20and%20Aunt">Princeless</a> is centered around the adventures of Princess Adrienne Ashe, who begins the series at age 16 having been trapped in a tower -- like her 5 older sisters before her -- by her parents, in the hope that a dashing prince will come to save her. Unlike her sisters, Adrienne makes friends with the dragon guarding her, puts on the armor of one of the hapless princes who's been eaten by that dragon, and busts out of her own tower. Her goal? To save herself, and then to head out and save her sisters.<br />
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There is so much to like here. First, Adrienne and the entire royal family (King Ashe, Queen Ashe, 7 princesses and one prince) are black. This is obvious from the illustrations, of course, but it's also front and center in the text: the first three pages of the first issue show Queen Ashe reading Adrienne a prince-saves-the-blonde-princess-in-a-tower story, and Adrienne angrily critiquing it while her mother struggles to comb her hair.<br />
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Adrienne is confident, strong, and smart, not to mention physically capable -- she teaches herself swordfighting, and almost immediately does pretty decently in combat with her father's soldiers (they think she's a knight who has killed the Princess Adrienne). She's not invincible -- there's a good amount of slapstick with Adrienne falling from balconies and being tangled in her ill-fitting armor -- but she's resilient.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgNVBwOYo95tA28s9A1OQpM6LamIUmeE9DSVucwRMJLPDE7Fs_dsS_DSzPNqpBAIAYOJGWbUOCiaUOLBE_erg-XxR184THB0E76L2nzyBnmbuanFYWHhDKA7AjM9-bBZCFBlni-WIa2t0_EkpU17MFxQvSDqF7ONt6MZinTF3PJx1hzR5c=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/028/291/FC9781632291028.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgNomLBUt3AOFifilpdwD0GRg_RnQFb3AhShDAj1tTwE9CcPusxr9fb_it5gOIU1xYszXi9cvuKpNL3zAifoZXENGkYn0aMZt63HAWYpbDfkinCfckhqmg7N7lxf9P_YU0z8HfDT2hcTG-Su81fBg6WYSwUdIiG2BgZssP8-v2DIv8VLEE=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/242/965/FC9780985965242.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Almost all of the supporting characters in the series are female. In book 1 (Save Yourself), Adrienne meets and befriends Bedelia, the teenage daughter of a dwarf blacksmith who, it turns out, has been doing all the smithing for years while her father goes to the bar. Book 2 (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780985965242?aff=Annie%20and%20Aunt">Get Over Yourself</a>) brings in Adrienne's sister Angelica, the most beautiful of the princesses, who has positioned herself as the muse for a town full of artists. In Book 3 (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781632291028?aff=annieandaunt">The Pirate Princess</a>), Adrienne and Bedelia rescue, fight, and team up with Raven Xingtao, the daughter of a pirate king. (Raven is getting <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781632291196?aff=annieandaunt">her own spin-off series</a> this month.) Book 4 (<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781632291165?aff=annieandaunt">Be Yourself</a>) focuses on the quest to save Adrienne's sister Angoisse, who is shut up in a dark swamp castle with a gorgeous but creepy vampire boyfriend. There are also Kira, a werewolf being groomed to take over her father's position of wolf pack leader; Delores Grunkmore, a dauntless goblin guide; Queen Ashe, who disappears mysteriously partway through the series (Eleanor and Isabel and I have a theory about that); and of course Sparky, Adrienne's dragon.<br />
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Contrast this with the lineup in the (otherwise wonderful) <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/01/zita-spacegirl.html">Zita the Spacegirl</a>, in which the rag-tag bunch of creatures and robots Zita gathers on her journey are entirely male, in classic <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/04/dear-aunt-debbie-you-started-giving-me.html">Wizard of Oz</a> fashion.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEggheoxzaQJ39x8GLAhST_NutKM3kffy63CePbcUWdL6F-A6XDu674ZV4EqHaI2EDxWlRMlCxnUVm2obN5XUsuNb0VABsnEcHhK4EBQjtYE7gcyhc9am9h4XD1U5jxJ-laBEYGfwKASorD05y79zkVWr-6qB7NyuVxdqOyeSm7twwHMCq4=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/165/291/FC9781632291165.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Characters throughout the series are diverse, both racially (so nice to see such a variety of skin colors in a comic book) and in ways that play with stereotypes. I say "play with" rather than "defy" because author Jeremy Whitley's tone is often knowing -- he's consciously poking fun at and retooling narratives we've seen before, sometimes in ways that feel a little heavy-handed to me, if not to my kids. I think of Adrienne's twin brother, Devin: a sensitive guy, an artist and designer, written in direct opposition to the hyper-masculine King Ashe, who so far has no redeeming qualities.<br />
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But I felt that way about the stereotypical aspects of both Princess Angelica (the beautiful one) and Princess Angoisse (the goth one) too, and Whitley managed to find endings which allowed each princess to find her own way of being empowered. I'm willing to reserve judgment as the series goes on.<br />
<br />
And some of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge moments are Whitley's funniest. When Adrienne first meets Bedelia in Book 1 and expresses an interest in getting some armor that fits her, Bedelia ushers her into the "Women Warriors Collection":<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_0p3UyO5HaKSCs4dKZy4pdHrul-tJ2JBifTgNeZZSFOUL4h6RoWmZxEGmAJv-CTSu1KHQOa2eJCArP_uTcPrEMnxJENIqep6vD2Hu_qlqLDm7ZV2cj5qxKmycW1_mCDpxc3Op0VmbEpN/s1600/Princeless+1-p1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_0p3UyO5HaKSCs4dKZy4pdHrul-tJ2JBifTgNeZZSFOUL4h6RoWmZxEGmAJv-CTSu1KHQOa2eJCArP_uTcPrEMnxJENIqep6vD2Hu_qlqLDm7ZV2cj5qxKmycW1_mCDpxc3Op0VmbEpN/s400/Princeless+1-p1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br />
That would be, from left to right, the costumes worn by <a href="http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_(Diana_Prince)">Wonder Woman</a>, <a href="http://www.comicvine.com/red-sonja/4005-2439/">Red Sonja</a>, and <a href="http://hercules-xena.wikia.com/wiki/Xena">Xena, Warrior Princess</a>. Adrienne and Bedelia's commentary:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJ0abwsbIhDXnd5TPNiGqXvHRpgervfrMzy5eLMOBgwShyphenhyphenY_uq3o4eTlaaBByvMwMssT24XGX6RaSkVOxVZlUvUeHLh8Pyapht_HNsj2yWAoIRySlx_DPzg9md6P9UyibI7Fgc2pDdsyx/s1600/Princeless+1-p2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNJ0abwsbIhDXnd5TPNiGqXvHRpgervfrMzy5eLMOBgwShyphenhyphenY_uq3o4eTlaaBByvMwMssT24XGX6RaSkVOxVZlUvUeHLh8Pyapht_HNsj2yWAoIRySlx_DPzg9md6P9UyibI7Fgc2pDdsyx/s400/Princeless+1-p2.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
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[Side note: I mentioned Will's current superhero obsession, which, among other things, is bringing home to us just how sexy and sexist the depiction of female superheroes is. Here's what happens when your son asks you to <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=poison+ivy+superhero&safe=active&espv=2&biw=1348&bih=741&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjxtNu-3KTKAhXG6x4KHYoIDHAQ_AUIBigB">google pictures of Poison Ivy</a> -- and this is with Safe Search on! We have a lot of conversations about how Wonder Woman must be really cold.]<br />
<br />
After walking us through the implications:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEw_jgcPftYoJnmbmqnOplP5Q9Kk8aathfs9Lb4k4ZP309_eHUz6FL-xBMdv69gXL34TMWao9uqWyY8T_c7apM8a7OkSXs4u3aen8YY-Ahn6_GkZ71QtbK4gbW5G-9JUxJQfor8CTV9UG8/s1600/Princeless+1-p3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEw_jgcPftYoJnmbmqnOplP5Q9Kk8aathfs9Lb4k4ZP309_eHUz6FL-xBMdv69gXL34TMWao9uqWyY8T_c7apM8a7OkSXs4u3aen8YY-Ahn6_GkZ71QtbK4gbW5G-9JUxJQfor8CTV9UG8/s400/Princeless+1-p3.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
<br />
Adrienne requests that Bedelia make her some real armor. Which she does:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGmzVo5m_WJo01zGiW9yVGdRlZxhLKVkKmczdqgvgCE-I6s8a_Qqr2D4hxcggzgJHLJXrmG806MDbkzpwz-c2owIPxf87hLQAANw8SeTUfzomplkFinQpPS-2c81c5kKu1tf_3pbVDWb6/s1600/Princeless+1-p4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixGmzVo5m_WJo01zGiW9yVGdRlZxhLKVkKmczdqgvgCE-I6s8a_Qqr2D4hxcggzgJHLJXrmG806MDbkzpwz-c2owIPxf87hLQAANw8SeTUfzomplkFinQpPS-2c81c5kKu1tf_3pbVDWb6/s400/Princeless+1-p4.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
<br />
In my googling, I found <a href="http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2013/01/11/interview-with-jeremy-whitley-of-princeless/">a nice interview with Whitley</a> about his inspirations for the Princeless series. He's white, but his wife and daughter are black, and he saw a huge gap in the kinds of comic books he'd be comfortable giving her to read:<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Good heroines are few and far between. When you look for ones that are leading books, it narrows the scope more. When you look for one that is appropriate for kids, it gets much narrower. When you talk about one with a lead female of color, the number drops to nearly zero (they exist, they are just very difficult to find). My daughter is black and while I encourage her to look for role models of all colors, girls need to be able to see girls that are like themselves in media. They need it even more when it comes to seeing them portrayed with strength."</span><br />
<br />
Here's hoping these books keep selling like hotcakes. We'll certainly be buying them.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie<br />
<br />
P.S. What did you think of <a href="http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2016/01/matt-de-la-pe-sophie-blackall-win-newbery-caldecott-medals">yesterday's Newbery and Caldecott winners</a>? I was thrilled to see <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/05/roller-girl.html">Roller Girl</a> named a Newbery Honor Book!<br />
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<br />
One more shopping day to go. The store has been its usual nutty busy self these past few weeks. We've sold out of a lot of good books, but are having fun finding the right matches for the kids Santa is just starting to think about. Almost 200 of the <a href="http://www.dk.com/us/features/all/star-wars-the-force-awakens/">new Star Wars movie books</a>, which went on sale last Friday, have already sold.<br />
<br />
In keeping with the season, I thought I'd mention one more nativity book. As you probably know from your mother, our parents' household always incorporated the Bible story of Christmas into our non-religious life. My interpretation of that as a grown-up is that if you're going to get all the pagan and commercial benefits of the holiday, you need to acknowledge the religious underpinnings too. In 1950s Pleasantville, this meant staging a nativity pageant in our living room. Two of us would be Joseph and Mary, Judy's doll Annie played Jesus every year, and the third child would read relevant Bible passages aloud. Someone would play whatever instrument he or she was learning at the time, and there would be some giggling about the King James wording.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEho5YVDnYAkIBxVKnZUelDfrpJP9K3VEVzd2elk-iWvoZn31QCNaMHnkqjv9gEw-YoLrYQfLzOXBjx2HJ0sdyEE4RHCug8BGDDe824VUjF2UOXEE7FCrlcAVZDefuAv4QXQ6l10_zC4BojJdqQs8vhVa8kkhR8WealZIS4kXI675Vkv0FE=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/737/871/FC9781620871737.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>I've already written about my favorite nativity book for kids: Julie Vivas' exuberant <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/12/nativity.html">Nativity</a>. (That post is full of links to many of our other Christmas blog entries.) It's still the best. But here's another for the construction-minded child:<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781620871737?aff=annieandaunt"><br />The Christmas Story: The Brick Bible for Kids</a> by Brendan Powell Smith. Yep, it's the nativity illustrated with tableaux of Lego figures. Smith seems to have the corner on many stories with Lego illustrations, including several <a href="http://www.thebrickbibleforkids.com/">Bible stories for kids</a>, and more comprehensive <a href="http://thebrickbible.com/">Old and New Testaments</a> for adults (circumcision in Lego: who knew it could be so vivid?).<br />
<br />
The wording in this one leaves something to be desired. But the illustrations are a kick. Consider, for example, the progression of Mary's pregnancy, from annunciation (left), to Joseph's discovery of her condition (center) to the arrival in Bethlehem (right):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8VvXeyXuyBe_5Q2Xz_uj4q0BcZDjqu1fno0jUXoAHJpLNl6p6ixdhdHZqqRsLhcYE1rAoLyoxFruFCMNZobAAsU3NeznXZ2LMym_UBJJp31DOw2EnzF1MUz9f5X6Dl5TB9yrjCF3npDzh/s1600/mary+pregnancy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8VvXeyXuyBe_5Q2Xz_uj4q0BcZDjqu1fno0jUXoAHJpLNl6p6ixdhdHZqqRsLhcYE1rAoLyoxFruFCMNZobAAsU3NeznXZ2LMym_UBJJp31DOw2EnzF1MUz9f5X6Dl5TB9yrjCF3npDzh/s640/mary+pregnancy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Makes one think about Lego bricks a little differently.<br />
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The baby ends up in a sort-of manger in a stable Joseph is trying to make livable:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbwVkUgMWQ9hN7Hp9yf5SXY4YIiFq1IUqwN0-Tcld16BPT9KSu7dWmbGFiS4bDJiXpxOlPEUDBvj_D3P-CxCWFcb2dJhKc8bOpxE0x5tJLM9IQcSHagLb5f3DXl98InWFMUv0Is6BYxpx/s1600/brick+nativity+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbwVkUgMWQ9hN7Hp9yf5SXY4YIiFq1IUqwN0-Tcld16BPT9KSu7dWmbGFiS4bDJiXpxOlPEUDBvj_D3P-CxCWFcb2dJhKc8bOpxE0x5tJLM9IQcSHagLb5f3DXl98InWFMUv0Is6BYxpx/s400/brick+nativity+cropped.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Always a pleasure to have a variety of interpretations to offer readers.<br />
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Merry Christmas and much love to you and yours!<br />
<br />
Deborah
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<br />
Here we are this holiday season, with many of us are feeling horrified at the tone and content of political discourse in America. How to handle this with the children we love?<br />
<br />
You know me: I look to children's books. One of the things we can do this year -- and any other year -- is to give children the gift of other people's lives.<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/01/kindness.html"><br /></a>
We've written <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/06/little-house-big-reach.html">here</a> (and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/05/book-as-window-book-as-mirror.html">here</a> and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/05/dear-annie-i-think-i-may-have.html">here</a>)
about books as mirrors/books as windows. The mirrors reflect back
readers' own experiences; the windows let them experience worlds they
haven't known. And of course, one reader's mirror can be another's window. Americans need more looking into the windows of those who
we are not.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhV64Js5KucUsKX3HuaX1NEpn4yV2tYuJpaQUF6ZyfS457mcVm_4sjDY2U4X5y1MwH_Fun2iahEHVcvG5WQjbeWdzRtISIW0RgsUTF10cl-AFG9Y_1C58KB4cHKb_J8Hf9sr5JxhBVf7T8c1-henc-LkA_tRHxL2ncpuE1YJfq_QneS5fg=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/355/672/FC9780763672355.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780763672355?aff=annieandaunt"><br />Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco</a> by Judith Robbins Rose provides a nuanced window for many of us. Aimed at kids from 9 to 13 or so, it's the story of Jacinta, the U.S.-born child of undocumented parents in Colorado. Most of her world is the barrio in which she lives, with little contact with the Anglo culture. Then a white television news reporter reluctantly agrees to become her mentor through a community center. Everything is new and threatening, including a ride with her sister to an indoor swimming pool:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Long after we should've been at the pool, we took another turn. Then we were on a <i>freeway</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I gripped Rosa's hand. Her <i>sweaty</i> hand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> We'd been places in Papi's truck, but never on the freeway. Driving on a freeway is like begging <i>la policia</i> to drag you back to Mexico. </span></blockquote>
One of the things I like about this book is that it's full of flawed characters. Jacinta gets jealous, fights with her sister, tries to manipulate situations to her advantage. But she's a very believable 11 year-old. Her mentor introduces Jacinta to white privilege in action: she's an assertive woman who's used to getting what she wants through manipulation of her fame and veiled threats. The girl is impressed by what she sees as a woman being powerful, but eventually understands the arrogance.<br />
<br />
Lots for readers to think about in this book.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Thinking about others</i> is one of the things we can give children in books. Here's a quick list of books we've written about over the years that speak to some of the issues roiling around right now. They immerse their readers in other lives. There are lots more -- readers, please add more below. This is just a start.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-very-different-look-at-africa.html">A Long Walk to Water</a> - what leads people to become refugees<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/11/diversity-in-details.html">Day of Ahmed's Secret</a> - daily life in a busy arab city.<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/11/amazing-africa.html">Anna Hibiscus</a> - daily life in Africa, including children learning about poverty<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/01/brown-girl-dreaming-my-newbery-hope.html">brown girl dreaming</a> - growing up black in America <br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/09/graphic-novels-for-emerging-readers-and.html">American Born Chinese</a> - one teenager coming to terms with his Chinese identity<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/09/graphic-novel-as-first-person.html">Persepolis</a> - living under -- and eventually leaving - an increasingly repressive government<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/11/increasing-kidlit-diversity-in-book.html">diversity in kidlit</a> - lots of resources<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/01/kindness.html">Wonder</a> - an amazing and now-classic book about a severely deformed child.<br />
<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780142427484?aff=annieandaunt">Almost Home</a> by Joan Bauer and <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780545299893?aff=annieandaunt">Hold Fast</a> by Blue Balliett - we haven't written about these: both are middle grade novels about American families becoming homeless.<br />
<a href="http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2015/11/18/all-american-boys/">All American Boys</a> - I haven't read this one but it sounds excellent -- link is to School Library Journal. The story of an incident of police violence told through the voices of the black teenage victim and a white classmate who witnesses it.<br />
<a href="http://blogs.slj.com/printzblog/2015/11/18/all-american-boys/"></a><br />
Wishing good holidays to all,<br />
<br />
Deborah<br />
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<br />
<br />
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<br />
Welcome back from summer! It's lovely to hear from you, and to get a glimpse of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/09/national-book-festival.html">the goings-on at the National Book Festival.</a><br />
<br />
You asked whether Harry Potter has made an appearance in Eleanor's life. It's interesting: several of her friends and 3rd-grade classmates have gotten very into the books, but Eleanor is holding off. Twice, she's tried starting to read the first book on her own, and each time she has stopped because she feels like it's "too scary." This from a girl who within the last year devoured all of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/10/fabulous-monsters.html">Percy Jackson</a>, and is two-thirds of the way through the <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/07/read-it-again-mom.html">Books of Beginning</a>, both series which include great violence, battles, magic, and end-of-the-universe stakes. And yet there's something about Harry that she doesn't feel ready for. As we've discussed in person and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/01/les-mis-just-right.html">you've mentioned on the blog</a>, there's a lot of material in the later Harry Potter books that isn't really appropriate for elementary-age kids, so I'm fine with Eleanor waiting until the books click for her. I've thought about beginning it as a read-aloud, but right now most of our read-aloud time also includes Isabel, and I don't really want to start Harry Potter with an almost-6-year-old.... Ah, well. Thankfully, there's plenty of time for reading and rereading.<br />
<br />
Isabel has started out her first-grade year by declaring that she wants to become a rock star, and that her favorite subject is science. As if by magic, two of your recent gifts chronicle female scientists who became rock stars in their fields. Both books have become huge hits over here.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgPf9x3oH7BZVdSawCHUS5A_X0r0TeYvkOxjp_KDLgXcR6RF_NnXrjUwGJZR7y56eTSq3vI-2XOJJem0jiC3J4W6VGOV9zkOoIP3JpTLEIeeXTiynoWyi1vlO70Szt3z99KCLvsFjf1JAdAaQRHF98v3mPV1SWfYKs8Q_lLxWUAg7elQQs=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/020/414/FC9781442414020.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781442414020?aff=annieandaunt">The Tree Lady</a>, by H. Joseph Hopkins, is a picture book chronicling the life and times of Kate Sessions, the scientist and tree hunter who brought trees to the desert climate of San Diego in the early 1900s.<br />
<br />
On each page, Hopkins positions Kate as an exception to the rules of her world:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Katherine Olivia Sessions grew up in the woods of Northern California. She gathered leaves from oaks and elms. She collected needles from pines and redwoods. And she braided them together with flowers to make necklaces and bracelets.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It was the 1860s, and girls from Kate's side of town weren't supposed to get their hands dirty. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Kate did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Kate grew up, she left home to study science in college. She looked at soil and insects through a microscope. She learned how plants made food and how they drank water. And she studied trees from around the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No woman had ever graduated from the University of California with a degree in science.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But in 1881, Kate did.</span><br />
<br />
A nice proud feminist vibe throughout!<br />
<br />
The illustrations, by Jill McElmurry, are beautifully specific: pictures of plant cells, specific (labeled!) types of leaves and desert trees, a real sense of the desert climate in the San Diego scenes.<br />
<br />
There's enough of a story here to make it interesting, and enough scientific detail to encourage questions and further investigation.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhtp6zI1HM6ovtyW4NTXboiXNsYfAwdODbuemE-RA0Z3Od1bxFVMh6jUACfUo_UbuztWIojX_IsI4ZAVa2sFNbf0dOA7B7StAdv2MHXyfLdktF3bb91xUuB0YdiB1tru_uaiCDrHPrlfKWqPe4xxARAQV3CH8BAmRHKSvvZSzgwey2_RiY=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/932/062/FC9781250062932.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><br />
<br />
The graphic novel <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250062932?aff=annieandaunt">Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas</a>, by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks, gets far deeper into the complexities and triumphs of scientific research. This is a book you can get lost in.<br />
<br />
<i>Primates</i> provides a clear and well-dramatized introduction to the work and lives of these three primatologists, the first to live with and study primates for years in their natural habitats: Goodall with chimpanzees, Fossey with mountain gorillas, and Galdikas with orangutans. Each woman tells her own story in first-person, and in her own font and color, which helps keep the voices distinct. There are similarities in the stories, but the very different personalities of the researchers come through well.<br />
<br />
The fourth voice in the book is that of Louis Leakey, the anthropologist and archeologist who gave all three women their start. He believed that women were better-suited to this kind of work: more patient, more observant. Through Leakey, the three women meet each other, so there are some nice moments of crossover.<br />
<br />
Ottaviani and Wicks don't romanticize the details of living in the bush. You get a real sense throughout of the difficulties and privations of each woman's chosen career: leeches, trekking through forest, sitting for hours, days, weeks in observation. All three come across as passionate and unconventionally brilliant, deeply dedicated to the animals and their land.<br />
<br />
While non-kid-friendly details are alluded to in the book -- Louis Leakey's womanizing, Dian Fossey's murder -- the stories are kept age-appropriate. It feels to me like a book that will deepen with rereading as you learn more about each woman's life from other sources.<br />
<br />
I think that Isabel responds to the fierce determination of the women depicted here: their focus and refusal to be put off. I have a feeling there are more animals in her future.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
I spent last Saturday at the National Book Festival, which now takes place in a huge convention center and not in the circus-like tents it formally occupied on the National Mall. Worse ambience now, but better climate control.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhZOTbzWycI-IpLnhqQmT6QK-y_fq9HRxSxqJKv7MA-iUCzzcfYux0I-9nfzQHssGSXKyk-ifoM8wYCHA8zQk1-EjzqbEFxB6ySPrwzJed3Z1dAshAgBGfK9-4uOxURL5msACJLdJtbHFloNbhfZy_cwfUjGthLlCCHbPpBvYI6_5_7Ie4=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/717/107/FC9780544107717.JPG" height="200" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" width="132" /></a>The day felt like a series of meditations on the theme, "Why write?" First up was Kwame Alexander, who won the Newbery Medal this year for his novel-in-poetry, <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780544107717?aff=annieandaunt"><br />The Crossover</a>.<br />
"There's no such thing as a reluctant reader," he said, only someone who hasn't found what they want to read (a man after my own heart). His own discovery of poetry at age 12 connected him more intensely to the written word. He talked about poetry, because of its economy of language, as a basic building block, one from which the reader can move on to other genres. When children are small, he said, they love poetry -- Seuss, Silverstein. "My goal [in writing] is to bring back that love." Start with poetry, he says, and other kinds of reading will follow.<br />
<br />
For others, it has to do with the author's need to write. The person who introduced <a href="http://libbabray.com/writing/books">Libba Bray</a>, author of a slew of hugely popular YA novels, many of them historical/magical, quoted from her website bio:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Three weeks after high school graduation, I had a serious car accident. I
demolished my face and lost my left eye. ... It took many years to put me back together again, but most of
the pieces seem to be in the right places, and anyway, that’s when I
discovered how powerful writing can be, because writing everything down
kept me alive. This is how I know that writing can save your life. ... Should you ever find yourself in a bad,
hopeless place, please know that you can write your way out of something
that feels completely unwinnable and into something better and, just
possibly, into something wonderful.</span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cecebell.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/phoniceardiagram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cecebell.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/phoniceardiagram.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>El Deafo</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Cece Bell, author of<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/12/graphic-memoirs-for-kids-and-adults.html"> El Deafo</a>, came with the clunky hearing aid which was central to the book and strapped it on herself (still fits: she's a small woman). A strong contrast to the two small aids she now wears behind each ear, which she removed to show us.<br />
<br />
She talked a lot about how uncomfortable she had been with deafness, not identifying with other deaf kids when she was growing up. A child in the audience asked how it felt to write about herself. "It was terrifying to write an autobiography." she said. "I live in a hearing world. I was terrified I would offend others who are deaf." The result of taking the risk and writing about herself, though, brought a profound result: deaf people reacted to her account, she met more members of the deaf community than she ever had. "I've made new friends who are deaf. It's been a great ride," she said, with a trace of tears in her eyes. Writing about her isolation led to new connections.<br />
<br />
Books as a connection among people came up frequently at the festival. I spent some time listening to kids who had won writing contests read their essays. Allison Templeton, a winner in the "A Book That Shaped Me" contest, credited the Harry Potter series with staving off loneliness. She wrote about changing schools in fourth grade, and finding new classmates who were also reading the series. The most important thing, though, was how the books kept an old friendship going:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Without the same teachers, classes, or even friends in common any more, we turned to Harry Potter as a topic of conversation. We spent hours debating whether Professor Snape was good or evil. We laughed about Fred and George Weasley's funny sayings. Being able to discuss our favorite characters, our emotions while reading and predictions about what would happen next helped hold our friendship together.</span></blockquote>
Anyone who was of reading age when the books first came out will recognize this behavior. For an earlier generation, Harry Potter was a mass phenomenon. It makes me happy to see that Harry provides the same connections -- of immersion, anticipation, speculation -- on a smaller scale for succeeding generations.<br />
<br />
How does your family feel about Harry Potter? Does Eleanor have interest in reading the books?<br />
<br />
Love,<br />
<br />
Deborah<br />
<br />
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<br />
Yet again, you've provided me with <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/07/bad-things-happening.html">a treasure trove of titles to add to my own YA reading list</a>. I have a feeling Eleanor will be getting to these stories of responding to adversity as well, fairly soon.<br />
<br />
An interesting thing has happened in my reading with Eleanor over the last few months. We have always managed to carve out reading time for the two of us alone, time for the longer chapter books that Eleanor has had the interest in and stamina for since she was quite young. For almost five years, the books I read to her during this time were books above her reading level -- books she quite literally could not read on her own. As her reading level has skyrocketed, I knew this was going to change.<br />
<br />
There are a shrinking number of age-appropriate books that Eleanor is interested in and can't read to herself -- we're pretty much down to <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/11/dear-aunt-debbie-weve-entered-new-era.html">Anne of Green Gables</a> and its ilk. This summer, I bought her 26 E. Nesbit novels for 99 cents on a Kindle, and she's read about half of them already. I started <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416940289?aff=annieandaunt">Caddie Woodlawn</a> with her recently, hoping to read that together, but she took it to bed with her and finished it that night.<br />
<br />
Which is the other problem: reading on her own, Eleanor can finish a thick novel far, far faster than she and I can read one together. Our reading time is limited to early mornings and stolen afternoons; her solo time, especially over the summer, is almost endless.<br />
<br />
The result? Eleanor will read a book to herself, sometimes even re-read it alone, and then ask me to read it aloud to her. Our last three read-alouds have been books she has read on her own, but I haven't yet read.<br />
<br />
This leads to a major role-reversal: it's Eleanor who knows the plot of the story, where the climax is coming, what's going to happen to the characters. She's read the ending. I'm reading it cold, trying to fend off her hints and reveals (she's terrible about spoilers), and sometimes surprising her when I guess which way the plot is going to go, based on my own years of reading.<br />
<br />
What is it that makes Eleanor choose some books and not others as read-alouds post-solo-read? (I need a name for these: read-agains?) I think part of it is that they're books with characters and subject matter she wants to talk about in more depth. She races through books so fast that sometimes Jeff and I wonder how much detail she's retaining, and how many words she might be skipping over (though her vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds each month). Read-alouds are a way to slow things down.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjAceSICCmmJCha411LR7zIxzJVsy79TDM3KwUii2XtVs3zTRZwmPHWyiz8f9XSxFUO_OLlv3ocJLOLeM6HzIOV398NbQKotyjsdu6MsUOEjrddr33cnu82IDQ3RCEHQIts6Mdg5YyxEa6IhCEyVfOq_GFsP448bODKMY5ljN9gh_Zn870=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/353/851/FC9780375851353.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>The first books Eleanor chose as read-agains were the Penderwick series, which <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/03/after-harry-potter-good-and-different.html">you wrote about here as a series to follow Harry Potter</a>, and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/04/heroines-of-month-penderwicks.html">I wrote about here when Eleanor asked me to read it aloud</a> a few months back. We've now done the second and third Penderwick books as read-agains, and the fourth book (which Eleanor read in one day when we took it out from the library) is next on our list. There's nothing too disturbing about the Penderwicks, but there are some fairly adult emotional themes that reading aloud has given us the chance to discuss. The Penderwicks' mother dies of cancer before the beginning of the series, just after the birth of the youngest daughter, and dealing with her loss is a theme that runs throughout the books. Jeffrey, the boy befriended by the Penderwicks in the first book, has never known who his father is. In book 3, <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780375851353?aff=annieandaunt">The Penderwicks at Point Mouette</a>, he and his father discover each other, and their reactions are complex -- there's a lot of anger and hurt along with the joy of discovery, which Eleanor wanted to talk through.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiwGcwzR89erCCKgHOyUHsx__mVp8FwarQgYkNVsJEXgHQ2Ksru6IJ_H39GiirN7WH7uIzFd8a2QL7JHNnvYhf5B8UUlZSH9wTxyA2BYJBvKIn6XvF2uxat8KGK8e0Sp8KAvt5xsswWp5R6MFF58B4X08S1OtNBexAsLKhf2WavZKdccDI=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/716/872/FC9780375872716.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><br />
Our most recent read-again was <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780375872716?aff=annieandaunt">The Emerald Atlas</a>, the first book in John Stephens's trilogy The Books of Beginning. This is high fantasy: dark magic, time travel, dwarves, wizards, a quest to save the world from a deeply evil power. The heroes are siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma, who were separated from their parents as small children and have moved from orphanage to orphanage for ten years when the story begins. Over the course of the novel, they discover that each of them has a special, prophesied connection to one of three Books of Beginning, which together contain magic which can create and destroy worlds. The Emerald Atlas, which imprints 14-year-old Kate, allows its possessor to move through time. It's a gripping, well-written book, and the siblings emerge as realistic and likable characters -- I want to get to know them better.<br />
<br />
Isabel moved in and out of this read-aloud -- some parts of it are quite scary, and much of the plot revolves around all the children of a town being separated from their parents and under threat of death. <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/07/dear-aunt-debbie-i-love-your.html">Eleanor often reacts strongly (and loudly) to suspense</a>. But because she had read the book already, Eleanor was able to reassure Isabel (and me) that all of the main characters were going to be okay. Reading it first gave her this power.<br />
<br />
I'm tempted to pick up the fourth Penderwicks book on my own, to finish The Books of Beginning myself after I've put the kids to bed -- I want to know what happens next! But I'm also loving this new reader's role my oldest child has placed me in. It's a good summer for surprises.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie
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<br />
I love your <a href="http://www.annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-support-your-kids-summer-reading.html">Summer Reading post</a>. The pick-up-a-book-for-yourself line to grown-ups was a lovely reminder at the end.<br />
<br />
I would add one other element in helping one's children be engaged with reading: give them space. Unscheduled time when they can curl up with a book or play in other ways helps kids to find their own pace, including the most satisfying times to read, and for how long. And limiting screen time for the entire family will help everyone to engage more with books and each other. Just as kids benefit from seeing parents read, it helps them to see parents who don't need to be constantly plugged in. <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/how-to-cut-childrens-screen-time-say-no-to-yourself-first/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below">NY Times column</a> on this last week.<br />
<br />
I had a lovely challenge from a mom the other day. I often speak with parents who are looking for books with action and adventure, but nothing scary. There are lots of concerns out there about kids' fear thresholds. And many parents recoil from books in which the mother is dead. But this mom said, "My daughter wants books where bad things happen." The girl was 10, and it turned out she wasn't looking for unalleviated tragedy. It was more wanting a plot driven by some form of adversity. I offered a lot of books, most of which the girl had already read, but the process of applying her Bad Things standard to familiar stories gave me fresh eyes.<br />
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She wanted neither historical fiction nor fantasy.<br />
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Books which fit into the definition, but which she'd read already:<br />
<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780142422861?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/861/422/FC9780142422861.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />Counting by 7s</a> by Holly Sloan: Both parents are killed in an accident in the first chapter. The book is about the odd and endearing main character's quest to find people with whom she can belong.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW0-qj1LXoYTYj3ehL5AaR_CVGaxX8v0WFk59DQbJxDn8JCY0gowaCHuRSOEgizrE6sTyHcBnfq1xxMJcaVKhOXOhZvXl3a7fJ_xI6sHBqFKCgAhX5zvVF5yOk3fVm5k2DXVh2Na1Y2XGc/s1600/wonder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW0-qj1LXoYTYj3ehL5AaR_CVGaxX8v0WFk59DQbJxDn8JCY0gowaCHuRSOEgizrE6sTyHcBnfq1xxMJcaVKhOXOhZvXl3a7fJ_xI6sHBqFKCgAhX5zvVF5yOk3fVm5k2DXVh2Na1Y2XGc/s200/wonder.jpg" width="137" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/01/kindness.html">Wonder</a> by R. J. Palacio: Spectacular book about a boy with severe facial deformities. Link is to blog entry singing its praises.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgTmiZhDzreIOYXyu_TzJL9wktMYHYOpBK-V0a2y9cGFsl22eg2svbrk8bf7h80lyIudO29Jxl1GVwIrHFpEFdJ9gS1p0sbBaWXHBrNjDl5s0zo9q8KcwQVZMM5SN2QD-e4PLpXwFh5aC3aTpxIuz9ij8Y3574XUrK1y9uhoOrA2gUzNrQ=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/719/971/FC9781416971719.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); cursor: move;" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416971719?aff=annieandaunt"><br />Out of My Mind</a> by Sharon Draper: Spectacular book about a girl with cerebral palsy who can't communicate.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780439443838?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/838/443/FC9780439443838.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />Rules</a> by Cynthia Lord: Girl grappling with her relationship to her autistic brother.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780312643003">Rain Reign</a> by Ann Martin: Girl on autism spectrum who finds and loses a dog.<br />
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<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/07/true-love-ceremony.html">Walk Two Moons</a> by Sharon Creech: Girl sets off in search of her missing mother (at that point, I was searchng for dead-mother books).<br />
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All of these books are basically optimistic stories which affirm the goodness of human nature. But in order to get to that conclusion, bad stuff has to happen. This girl wanting bad things is, I think, a step in becoming a more mature reader. If bad stuff happens -- we're talking about kids' books here -- the journey to resolution is bound to follow. Which makes for a more interesting and also more emotionally complex read.<br />
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The winners were:<br />
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<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-very-different-look-at-africa.html">A Long Walk to Water</a> by Linda Sue Park. Set in what is now South Sudan, it's the grimmest of the list. The book alternates chapters about a fictional girl who must walk 8 hours a day to bring water to her family, and a real boy who was one of Sudan's Lost Boys, displaced by war. The fictional character and the real guy meet at the end of the book.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416995005?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/005/995/FC9781416995005.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />Anything But Typical</a>, by Nora Raleigh Baskin. Like two of the books above, this one features a kid on the autism spectrum. He befriends a "neurotypical" girl through a kids' online site, then panics when he's presented with the opportunity to meet her in person, afraid that she'll see only his difference.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780152045685?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/685/045/FC9780152045685.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />Love, Ruby Lavender</a> by Deborah Wiles. A delightful, often-epistolary novel about the relationship between a small-town girl and her grandmother. During the course of the book, the circumstances of the grandfather's death come to light.<br />
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<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-first-kiss.html">Saffy's Angel</a> by Hilary McKay: Well, I just love it. And Saffy is dealing with the pain of not having known for 8 years that her birth mother had died when she was little, leaving her to be raised as a sibling among her cousins.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780064408233?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/233/408/FC9780064408233.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />Bloomability</a> by Sharon Creech. A girl who really really doesn't want to go is sent to a Swiss boarding school, in the midst of kids very different from her.<br />
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Things I should have offered:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780440228004?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/004/228/FC9780440228004.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963</a> by Christopher Paul Curtis. A black family goes from Michigan to Birmingham, arriving just before the church bombing. It has a lot of grim intensity, but also wonderful characters and hilarious moments.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780545417839?aff=annieandaunt"><img src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/839/417/FC9780545417839.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid #000;" /><br />The Search for Baby Ruby</a>, by Susan Shreve. Baby is kidnapped while being babysat in a hotel by her teenage aunt -- much family drama.<br />
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I didn't try the concept of action thrillers: books where bad things are perpetrated by villains, the CIA, or enemies of the CIA. I don't think they would have had the emotional depth she was going for.<br />
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Now I'm longing for the mom -- or preferably the mom and the daughter -- to come back so I can see where she'll be heading from here.<br />
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Love,<br />
<br />
Deborah <br />
<br />
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<br />
Summer! A little later than much of the rest of the country, we here in New York are finally done with the school year, and ready for the mix of camps, playgrounds, travel, and crushing humidity that awaits us. Of course, there's also summer reading.<br />
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Ah, summer reading. That list you get from your kid's school of a variety of titles suggested -- or required -- to be read over vacation in order to prevent a summer slide in reading skills. The list that promises nagging, nudging, even bribing to get your kid to read. The list that threatens to make reading feel like homework, something to be avoided all summer long.<br />
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It doesn't have to be this way.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB62G5UU_B46LXm6r4VIhms2NQg3s2-VhwrmCeMBwPMOtec71ODF161XySj6_cYv-iiwLcWPk1Ka8_gZ5lcAHR4hkPITQ1ZoeC4In0XEqXLPujOf3CJ9LF9oGoR_CbCz5BN6yt13V2K_To/s1600/IMG_5424.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB62G5UU_B46LXm6r4VIhms2NQg3s2-VhwrmCeMBwPMOtec71ODF161XySj6_cYv-iiwLcWPk1Ka8_gZ5lcAHR4hkPITQ1ZoeC4In0XEqXLPujOf3CJ9LF9oGoR_CbCz5BN6yt13V2K_To/s320/IMG_5424.jpg" width="213" /></a>As a teacher and as a mom, I've spent a lot of time over the last 15 years thinking about what makes kids want to read. Our whole blog is based on the idea that if you surround kids with books, read to them regularly, and help them find the books that will spark their interest and deepen their passions, they will become readers. Summer reading can be a positive part of this. Here are a few suggestions on how to make it work for your whole family:<br />
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<b>Let your kid choose what to read.</b><br />
Many summer reading lists are actually "suggested summer reading" lists. If your child's school encourages reading over the summer, but doesn't require that students read books strictly from the list, branch out! Use the list as a jumping-off point, but look for other lists as well (we have a few good ones over there on the right side of this page, like <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/middle-grade.html">this for middle-grade readers</a>, and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/ya-books.html">this for YA</a>). Find out what your kid's friends are reading, and pick up some of those books, or do a book swap. Browse libraries and bookstores. Think about your kid's interests, and look together for books that will support and deepen those interests.<br />
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If your child's school <i>requires</i> that students read a selection of books from the summer reading list, help your child "interview" the books in order to choose which ones to read. That is, teach your child what adult readers do when deciding whether or not to read a book: look at the cover, read the back cover or jacket flap, open up the book and read a few pages, look up book reviews. Learn a little bit about each of the books before making a decision. And let your kid be the one who makes that decision.<br />
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<b>Let your kid read books s/he loves, even if you don't love them.</b><br />
There's a lot of talk these days in education about helping students find "just right" books: books that they enjoy and are able to understand independently. The more kids enjoy reading, the more they will read. The more they read, the better readers they'll become. As they become better readers, they will naturally want to find books that are a little more challenging -- but challenge isn't something you need to push for during the summer. (Think about what you choose for your own beach reads.) The most important thing is that your kid is reading something s/he wants to read. Is it a comic book or <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/p/graphic-novels.html">graphic novel</a>? There's a lot to be said for the joy of text combined with visuals. Is it <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/06/redefining-dork.html">an endless series you find totally drekky</a>? Well, at least you don't have to read it to your kid out loud.<br />
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<b>Make choosing a book feel like a special event.</b><br />
Plan trips to your local library. Before you go, do some digging: find titles and authors you're going to look for. Look books up online and put in a hold request. I've downloaded the <a href="http://www.bklynlibrary.org/my-bpl-mobile-apps">Brooklyn Public Library app</a> onto my phone, and now all three of my kids know that they can ask me to put something on my hold list at any time. They love looking at book cover images on the phone, and the excitement when a book they've requested arrives is huge. There it is on the hold shelf, with their last name on the spine in bold letters, waiting especially for them. Browsing in the library can also yield terrific finds, but it's good to go in with a plan.<br />
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Plan trips to your local independent bookstore. Again, make a list of titles and authors you're looking for, and call ahead if there's something you want to order in. Booksellers can have great suggestions, and there's nothing like browsing through shelves of brand-new books.<br />
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<b>Read aloud to your kid.</b><br />
Along with your child's independent reading this summer, choose books to read together. This might be a place for you to introduce some of your own childhood favorites, possibly books that are written a little above the level your child can read on his or her own. Recently, Eleanor has been asking me to read aloud chapter books that she's already read on her own. Sometimes this means that she knows the plot before I do, which she clearly enjoys; often I think the re-reading allows her to process more deeply what she sped through the first time. Reading aloud is warm quality time, and can lead to wonderful conversations.<br />
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<b>Pick up a book for yourself.</b><br />
One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to help your child with summer reading is to pick out some good summer reading for yourself. Talk to your kid about what you're reading, and why you chose it. Let your kid see you reading -- it's the purest kind of modeling.<br />
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Of course, none of these ideas are limited to summer use -- they're good year-round. Happy reading!<br />
<br />
Love, Annie<br />
<br />Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-41253692624952356192015-06-12T14:53:00.001-04:002015-06-12T14:53:57.190-04:00Redefining DorkDear Aunt Debbie,<br />
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And then there are the books that your kid loves and you hate.<br />
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Over the last couple of months, as we read <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/04/heroines-of-month-penderwicks.html">The Penderwicks</a> together each morning and Eleanor encouraged me to make <a href="http://www.annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/05/surprised-by-past.html">The Marvelous Land of Oz</a> our next bedtime chapter book with Isabel, she has also continued her own voracious independent reading habits. At school, she exhausted her own 2nd-grade classroom library, and wrangled herself permission to go book-shopping in a 3rd-grade classroom (with a teacher known for her love of books). At home, Eleanor provides me with a constantly updated list of titles she wants to take out from the library (thank heavens for the public library!), and we cart them back and forth to our local branch.<br />
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The series that has risen to the top of the library list most recently is Rachel Renée Russell's <a href="http://dorkdiaries.com/">Dork Diaries</a>. I glanced at them as we brought them home: cartoony drawings, fake-handwriting font, lots of lines WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS!!!! Very tweeny feeling.<br />
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I had a sense that these were not going to be my new favorite books. Still, like you and <a href="http://readingagency.org.uk/news/blog/neil-gaiman-lecture-in-full.html">Neil Gaiman in this 2013 lecture</a>, I'm a big believer in letting kids read pretty much anything they want, at least if it's not wildly age-inappropriate and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-love-santore-illustrated-wizard-of-oz.html">if they can read it to themselves without you getting involved</a>. But I do like to keep tabs on what Eleanor is ingesting, so we can talk about it afterwards.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhyPHO5Y3OqDZ8ryE3Jvl0qd4rZRkaQ_RSEDP0gB2anM0wBWdjO8do2wXyVU01C8I5JKGLWahFt03D0F2PPIeX8SbF6CqWOFf1Mo7YjqQdaD-HkjkZSzUpP3LPV-cUchIDs2gwH3NZHVAcvCT9A5vZW1fNueTyKaojjFgRUC4Ie9G97mHg=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/633/449/FC9781442449633.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><br />
Earlier this week, I had a chance to sit down and read one of the Dork Diaries books: number 6, <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781442449633?aff=annieandaunt">Tales from a Not-So Happy Heartbreaker</a>. And wow. There is so much not to love.<br />
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The books are written as a series of diary entries of middle-schooler Nikki Maxwell, the "dork" of the title. Nikki has two best friends (sorry, "BFFs!!!"), a bratty younger sister, a perfect-boy crush, and a nemesis, MacKenzie: "a shark in lip gloss, skinny jeans, and platform heels." Pure evil. Nothing redeeming here.<br />
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What does dork mean, in this context? Apparently it means that Nikki sees herself as unpopular, second-guesses and self-censors her thoughts and actions, and pays extreme attention to every possible slight from the kids around her. Like <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-twilight-oy.html">Bella in Twilight</a> and a host of other middle-grade and YA heroines, she's a girl who constantly talks about how uncool she is without noticing that the people around her all seem to like her. Her intense focus on her own flaws is accurate to the middle school state of mind, I suppose, but it's also not really what I want my daughter reading as she grows into those years.<br />
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As I read, then skimmed, through the book, I started thinking about the conversation I wanted to have with Eleanor. Not an "I hate your book choice, please stop reading this series" conversation -- <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-greeks-tweaked.html">as I've mentioned before</a>, I read my share of Sweet Valley High and other gender-essentialist drek in my time -- but a "Hey, I read this book, and here's the thing I don't like so much about it, what do you think?" conversation.<br />
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One of the things that bothered me the most about Nikki was her self-censoring. There's a subplot throughout the book about Nikki needing to pass a swimming skills class, but being terribly afraid of sinking. She talks a lot about how she's going to fail, brings in flotation devices she's not allowed to use, almost drowns during an exercise, and then in the last chapter swims perfectly across the pool when she thinks there's a shark following her (it's a scuba fin). So apparently she could swim just fine the whole time.<br />
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At one point, Nikki dives in scuba gear:<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Sorry, Miss Maxwell," my teacher said. "But you're diving for plastic rings, NOT sunken treasure! No scuba gear is allowed!!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Apparently, it was against the pool rules. But HOW was I supposed to know THAT?!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The only sign about rules I saw said...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">WCD POOL RULES</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. NO running!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. NO eating!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. NO horseplay!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. NO peeing in the pool!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. NO float toys!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There was nothing on that list that said...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">NO SCUBA GEAR!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That's when I totally lost it and yelled at my teacher: "Sorry, lady, but I'm NOT some humpback whale capable of diving to the deepest, darkest, most dangerous depths of the pool. I NEED my mask, wet suit, regulator, tank, and scuba fins. Besides, the water is so deep my eyeballs could pop out. And I could die from decompression sickness.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Worse yet, YOU didn't even bother to have an ambulance here just in case I needed to be rushed to the hospital! So let me see YOU dive to the bottom of the pool without having a massive stroke or something!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But I just said that in my head, so no one else heard it but me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That diving skills test was SO unfair! I should definitely get a do-over!! I'm just sayin'!!</span><br />
<br />
Whew. Good thing she didn't actually try to make a case to her teacher directly when she thought something wasn't fair. Much better to keep quiet and rant about it afterwards.<br />
<br />
Walking Eleanor to the school bus yesterday morning, I opened the conversation. I told her I'd read the book, she asked what I thought, and I said I wasn't crazy about it. I focused on the way that Nikki talks about herself negatively, her lack of self-confidence, and how those things play into stereotypes about girls. Eleanor said, "Mom, I don't want to be like Nikki -- it's just a book!" and I said I knew that, but I wanted her to think a little bit about how Nikki talks about herself while she's reading. She agreed that it was weird that Nikki acted like no one likes her when they clearly do. And then the bus came, and she got on, with another couple of books tucked into her backpack. So much more to take in, so much more to process.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
Your latest gift may have changed the course of our lives. Thanks to you, and thanks to graphic novelist Victoria Jamieson, we spent last Saturday evening watching the Brooklyn Bombshells battle the Bronx Gridlock, rooting for Hela Skelter, Sexy Slaydie, and Squid Vicious.<br />
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We're on our way to getting deeply hooked by roller derby, and here I'm holding up the reason why:<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780803740167?aff=annieandaunt">Roller Girl</a><span style="text-align: left;">, Jamieson's first graphic novel, is the newest addition to our Must Have Graphic Novel shelf, which also houses </span><a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/12/give-people-what-they-want.html" style="text-align: left;">Bone</a><span style="text-align: left;">, </span><a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/01/zita-spacegirl.html" style="text-align: left;">Zita the Spacegirl</a><span style="text-align: left;">, </span><a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/08/greek-gods-as-superheroes-oh-yes.html" style="text-align: left;">The Olympians</a><span style="text-align: left;">, </span><a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/12/graphic-memoirs-for-kids-and-adults.html" style="text-align: left;">Sisters</a><span style="text-align: left;">, and </span><a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-great-graphic-novels.html" style="text-align: left;">Smile</a><span style="text-align: left;">. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh5kPIRv8infnfBcRnh_0X6ImZaaOeRxSAelIcd7v_GFdgnhf5pc1t3UBWqMFMoBDIYOrBVuipUivD3Ea7rWLwNKFH9lx1Q7CPg2UxHzWfT6GPglMpDDExX2pTB9lHQ1huQYs8umTiGTH1099g0EVIeBxa31StHqBNUxymXUG0s7CMgqX0=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/167/740/FC9780803740167.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="text-align: left;">The heroine here is 12-year-old Astrid, in Portland, OR, the summer before junior high school. Astrid falls in love with roller derby after her mom takes her and her best friend Nicole to a game. Though she can't skate, she signs up for junior derby camp over the summer, assuming that Nicole will sign up with her. When Nicole chooses dance camp with a friend Astrid hates, Astrid finds herself going it alone -- working hard to become a decent skater, pushing herself intensely, and working through all of the complex friend-breakup feelings that so often come with junior high. </span></div>
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Before reading the book, I had only the dimmest notion of what roller derby was. Jamieson -- a derby player herself; she skates for the Rose City Rollers under the name Winnie the Pow -- explains the basic rules clearly at the outset, and weaves in more information throughout the storyline.</div>
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When we got to the game last Saturday, both Eleanor and Isabel were immediately able to identify not only blockers and jammers, but several moves by name: "Look, pivot turns!" The technical detail, presented smoothly as part of the story, is one of the book's big pluses.</div>
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Astrid's sports success narrative is another. While her story follows the basic plotline we've all seen before in movies and books (start out a newbie, train hard, weather disappointment, keep training, play in a big exciting game at the end), what I loved here is that Astrid is initially really bad at skating, and that she toughs it out. Her stubbornness and at some points real burning anger are part of what give her the strength to get good, and when she gets good, she's still, realistically, not all <i>that</i> good. She feels like a real 12-year-old, all the way through.</div>
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And more things to love: Astrid is the only child of a single mom who regularly takes her and Nicole out for Evenings of Cultural Enlightenment (roller derby is one). The single mom status isn't the story -- there's no mention of Astrid's father, and she and her mom are just presented as a family without further comment. </div>
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Perhaps most of all, there are the warmth and humor that go hand in hand with the celebration of female toughness. Derby names are an art form, punning and tongue in cheek. In the book, Astrid's idol is named Rainbow Bite, and her coaches are Heidi Go Seek and Napoleon Blownapart. At the game we went to on Saturday, one of the players called herself Davy Blockit, and did her first laps around the track with a coonskin cap before putting on her helmet for the game. Of course, the kids came up with their own names after reading the book: Eleanor chose Conan the Librarian, Isabel went with Twisted Sister, and Ian with Freakachu.</div>
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There are lots of tattoos in roller derby, much dyed hair (hair dyeing plays a big part in Astrid's plot, too), and a general sense of campy fun. And there is deep heart. Roller derby in its current incarnation has deep ties in the LGBT community; on Saturday, derby players all over the country wore warmup jerseys reading "Do It for 57," a reference to the suicide of a 15-year-old transexual derby player who killed himself because of bullying.</div>
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Both Eleanor and Isabel finished reading the book and immediately declared that they wanted to join junior derby. <a href="http://www.gothamgirlsrollerderby.com/">Gotham Girls</a>, the New York derby league, has <a href="http://www.gothamgirlsrollerderby.com/junior-derby">a junior derby team</a>, and they take girls as young as 8. After watching the junior derby play at halftime on Saturday (my favorite names there: Little Orphan Slammie and Smacklemore), we're starting to do the research to sign Eleanor up. If it works out, I'd be proud to be a derby mom.</div>
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Love, Annie</div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.booksense.com%2Fimages%2Fbooks%2F167%2F740%2FFC9780803740167.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh5kPIRv8infnfBcRnh_0X6ImZaaOeRxSAelIcd7v_GFdgnhf5pc1t3UBWqMFMoBDIYOrBVuipUivD3Ea7rWLwNKFH9lx1Q7CPg2UxHzWfT6GPglMpDDExX2pTB9lHQ1huQYs8umTiGTH1099g0EVIeBxa31StHqBNUxymXUG0s7CMgqX0=" -->Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-75175207023034467272015-04-20T23:06:00.001-04:002015-04-20T23:06:10.150-04:00The Exiles: so much better than the cover!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWqzNklFtD6cDcN6dbAkwP3hChO37JDQsXYyHCshyGzu-4JrjQwVNPjYFypM-sFSRjJO9Nlc6hzz0el-2LhWN_1MJlXKHKTZ6ZwqwgifkXus3n8ivA7bTLz0oAFQ3byT_9Bv3UfClVFmGO/s1600/exiles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWqzNklFtD6cDcN6dbAkwP3hChO37JDQsXYyHCshyGzu-4JrjQwVNPjYFypM-sFSRjJO9Nlc6hzz0el-2LhWN_1MJlXKHKTZ6ZwqwgifkXus3n8ivA7bTLz0oAFQ3byT_9Bv3UfClVFmGO/s1600/exiles.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a>Dear Annie,<br />
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Spring is finally arriving, but it's fall book ordering season in my world. I've been reading lots of books about Santa and dreidels the past few weeks. By chance, in the middle of all that, I discovered that a book that I'd believed to be long out of print is alive and well. Well, but cursed with what may be The Worst Cover Ever for a children's book.<br />
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<a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416967286">The Exiles</a> is another <a href="http://www.annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/03/after-harry-potter-good-and-different.html">four-sister book</a>, this one by Hilary McKay, author of the wonderful <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-first-kiss.html">Saffy's Angel</a> and sequels. Even more than Saffy, this one is all in the characters. The Conroy sisters are sent to the seaside for the summer to live with their grandmother while the parents renovate their house. The two older sisters (Naomi and Ruth) find it difficult to do anything but read books constantly; the younger two (Phoebe and Rachel) love a good book, but also manage some imaginative mischief. <br />
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Their grandmother -- called by all Big Grandma -- puts them on a regimen of outdoor activities, chores, and no books. The girls are not enthusiastic.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There were plenty of reasons why she should be called Big Grandma. For a start she was very tall and muscly, and she ate a lot. Also, she wore men's pajamas and drank whiskey at bedtime. In a lot of ways she was huge. Her house was very big, too; even the toilet was higher than ordinary people's toilets. It had a wooden seat which always felt warm, and by Monday morning Naomi had decided that the only thing she really liked about Big Grandma's house was the toilet seat.</span></blockquote>
Big Grandma sees the girls' escape into reading as anti-social, and she's determined that they find other ways to engage themselves. Slowly, of course, they all adapt to country life even as they resist it.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">All by herself Phoebe [age 6] had acquired a new hobby. It was her own invention. Nobody had helped her, nobody but Phoebe would even have thought of it. You filled a bucket with water, tied a bit of string on the end of a stick, held the stick over the water, and there you were. Fishing in a bucket. The total hopelessness of the activity was very soothing. It was the perfect sport. Without the emotional stresses of success and failure, she was entirely free to enjoy the pleasure of the moment. </span></blockquote>
After a hike in which she is immobilized by fear of heights, Naomi (11) sneaks back to the high spot, willing herself to overcome the fear, and falls and breaks her arm. She trudges back to the house and the swirl of breakfast conversation around her as she repeats four times, "I've broken my arm" before she is heard, distills the chaos of the family. The reader feels her pain, but still has to laugh.<br />
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McKay creates completely believable characters all of whom can be intensely annoying and yet children one would want as friends. The sisters' constant search for reading material -- cookbooks are read and re-read, Shakespeare is the only volume that's rejected -- continues through the summer. Slowly the reader takes in that it's all a grand plan on Big Grandma's part. <br />
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Big Grandma becomes more likable, but maintains her crusty aspects. The night after Naomi breaks her arm, Big Grandma sleeps in her room:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"D'you mind if I put the light on and read?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "Very much indeed," said Big Grandma. "Try counting sheep jumping over a gate."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "I don't know what sheep look like jumping over a gate. I didn't know they could jump." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "Try it."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Naomi tried it for a few minutes. "They keep bashing their knees," she said eventually. "Big Grandma?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Big Grandma dragged herself awake again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "D'you think this house is haunted? Ruth does."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Big Grandma made an enormous concession, recognizing that if Naomi did not have something to take her mind off her broken arm she was quite liable to lie awake and talk all night.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "I suppose it might be a little bit haunted!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "Is it?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> "Perhaps a bit," repeated Big Grandma grudgingly. "In a manner of speaking. A rather flamboyant manner of speaking, and not strictly true."</span></blockquote>
It's a delightful book, and a perfect summertime read.<br />
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Love,<br />
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Deborah<br />
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<br />Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884808522573795909noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-1595806691527219392015-04-03T22:48:00.000-04:002015-04-03T22:48:07.260-04:00Heroines of the month: Penderwicks, Clementine, and FrancesDear Aunt Debbie,<br />
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We're coming out of a rough March, which culminated in a stomach flu that decimated Isabel's kindergarten class and knocked us for a loop. Through it all, we've continued to read up a storm. All three kids have gravitated recently towards reading and rereading of books with terrific, spunky heroines.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgdSP8jtvAJXZkY5qIdnEUBo_8369i5VLUhoE1KE-Ev974d6A9Cr-sihLTwJwftgyiUcDx8pk6Ox4bfnhtAhdoUCmGXZafdMLJi7jN-ShuLRDb2MjtFTbABI5Z5GLfRwtJPUN7vpof9dcpEYDNMiX7-5PbLw_4J3JeqvyHkKYZ8-39HDwk=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/477/420/FC9780440420477.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>It's funny you should mention <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780440420477?aff=annieandaunt">The Penderwicks</a> in <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/03/after-harry-potter-good-and-different.html">your last post.</a> I tried reading it to Eleanor a couple of years ago, when she was still too young for it, then finished it myself and thought, eh, as you did. But Eleanor read it on her own last month, and liked it so much she asked me to read it to her again as a read-aloud. It's growing on me this time through. I like the variety in the characters of the sisters, who are Little Women-ish in some respects: Rosalind, the oldest, has a mothering/romantic Meg vibe; Skye, the second, is the rebellious one, and the one I suspect is author Jeanne Birdsall's favorite. But there the similarities begin to break down: it's Jane, the third daughter, who is the writer in the family, while Skye prefers to do math, and both are terrific soccer players. Batty, the youngest, is an animal-lover and wears butterfly wings everywhere. We've just gotten the second and third books from the library; I think we're hooked.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhKHOCNXoZfkbzjnTjhBEpeKofU_Fmj5gSbdeoyojX3x5zRlht8w6fs0NKPsakF5SO-Dbd8h9jeiha2wvJDne05l0Q5_oMRZnl4II1U7iMLpRm6W0mWD2vSe8TbJSU_KBfrk_Mwz3Oazr8pzJTXWbKKkokKz4Gc9se80z0ZmekZUS7jmGA=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/714/838/FC9780786838714.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Isabel has for the first time found a non-graphic novel chapter book series she wants to read straight through: <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/07/rule-breakers-and-their-siblings.html">Clementine</a>, by Sara Pennypacker. These books have just the right combination of elementary school suspense and relief. What will happen when Clementine cuts off her friend's hair (at her request) and then her own (to match) and colors both of their heads with marker? What will happen when she sells items that people in her building have given to charity back to other people in her building to earn money for a present for her mom?<br />
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Pennypacker's quirky sense of humor first jived with Isabel when you sent us <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/10/adventuresome-boys.html">The Amazing World of Stuart</a>, and continues here. We never learn Clementine's little brother's name, because she refers to him by the name of a different vegetable every time he's mentioned (she got stuck with a fruit name, so why didn't he get a vegetable name to match?). In one book, Clementine goes on a shopping trip to an Asian grocer to look for new vegetable names: Mung Bean Sprout, Bok Choy. Clementine is a terrific artist, can do advanced math problems in her head, and really doesn't like pointy things. As a parent, I appreciate her family as well: Mom is an artist who wears overalls and tolerates a good amount of mess; Dad is the super of their apartment building in Boston, and they have a sweet, affectionate relationship with each other and their kids that reminds me of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/06/first-loves-lois-lowry.html">Anastasia's parents in Lois Lowry's series</a>. Isabel's favorite so far is <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780786838714?aff=annieandaunt">The Talented Clementine</a>, which focuses on a talent show and Clementine's fear of having no stage-worthy talent. We have not been allowed to return any of these to the library, and our library shelf is pretty much glowing orange.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgGs6BaZRWY6eR1s-y3xDUlly2WcOXVRHbY_3b7r3cpWwDPoQaXaLr3aw1VjSwe1h-lEyYBEPCQi6BBfWv-9tGVL4-t38MLTuulEH1fndosQtgz3-T6_8QIktWi1UxcZEbNL6TTcXuLgJZT7DnSFSsPm9DVuMZHO4fwyS_JMc8JDhnN-4E=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/034/838/FC9780060838034.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>Finally, what does Will want every day? <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/05/bravo-for-frances.html">The Frances books</a>! I wouldn't have picked these fairly long picture books for a two-year-old, but this is the kind of happy discovery that you get to make when your house is full of books for kids of all different ages at once. Will doesn't say "Frances," but refers to each of her books as "My book." (In the case of A Baby Sister for Frances, it's "My baby book.") He asks for them every day, morning, afternoon, and night. I think I could probably recite all of A Birthday for Frances from memory, and that is not a short book. I'm not sure how much of the story he's getting -- mostly, he likes to point to the characters and name them, and refer to any character who's shown smaller in the distance as "baby" -- but he wants us to read them, cover to cover.<br />
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We have read <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/05/bravo-for-frances.html">our four Frances books</a> so many times over the last month that I went ahead and added a fifth to our bookshelves: <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780060838034?aff=annieandaunt">Best Friends for Frances</a>. My dim memory of the book was that it was about kids excluding each other because of gender, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring that idea into the house. Happily, the way Russell and Lillian Hoban handle the issue is lovely. Frances's best friend Albert does exclude her, first to walk around by himself and catch frogs and snakes, which she doesn't know how to do, and then to play baseball with another boy, who says it's a "boys only game." What I'd forgotten is that the story is largely about Frances realizing she can be best friends with her little sister Gloria. It turns out that Gloria knows how to catch frogs, and wants to play baseball, and the two of them get together a giant picnic and bring along two frogs in a jar, for frog races. The picnic basket attracts Albert, who realizes the error of his ways, and everyone ends up playing baseball together. The moral: anyone can be a best friend, even sisters. I'll confess that I've read the book a little louder, hoping my girls would hear it, too.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie
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<br />
Funny you should be writing about the <a href="http://www.annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/03/cute-for-grownups-but-also-for-kids.html">BabyLit books</a> now. Just last week a customer came in saying her 6 year-old insisted on being Anna Karenina for Book Character Day because she loved reading Will's favorite BabyLit book to her baby sister. Go figure.<br />
<br />
Hi, I'm back from a hiatus of sorts. The always-interesting Cyd has sent us a question I couldn't resist. Rebekah -- 7 years old? almost 8? -- plowed through all of Harry Potter recently. So Cyd wants to know:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">...what to read next? What can I give her that won't
feel like a huge let-down after those enormous HP volumes, that fully
realized world? It doesn't need to be fantasy - in fact, she's not
particularly into fantasy - but I want something just as rich. I think
of some of the things I loved at her age - Edward Eager, E. Nesbit, -
but they feel so much less compared to HP. I think she's a little young
for Cynthia Voigt; I have read her all of Frances Hodgson Burnett; I
have read her all (yes, ALL) of Louisa May Alcott; I am reading her much
of L.M. Montgomery. She really likes historical fiction and for
Hanukkah I bought her a 30-volume set of My Story books, which is the
British version of the My America books (which she had already ripped
her way through), and they are decent books but they're not <span class="ZmSearchResult" id="DWT405">Harry</span>. </span></div>
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When one's child is doing amazing things -- in reading or any
other endeavor -- she doesn't have to have a steady diet of the same
kind of amazing. Just as adults vary what they read, kids like to do that too. As you know, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/01/les-mis-just-right.html">we read the unabridged Les Miserables to Lizzie</a> (at her insistence) when she was in second grade. The following year she fell in love with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animorphs">Animorphs series</a> and charged through about 12 of them before abruptly dropping them and moving on to other things that I'm sure her parents liked better. Variety is a great thing in all our lives.<br />
<br />
So Cyd, I'm interpreting your query as looking for good stuff Rebekah can immerse herself in next. So here are a bunch of authors worth sampling.<br />
<br />
These four, like J.K. Rowling, wrote series in which one returns to beloved characters in successive books, seeing how they're growing up and their worlds are changing.<br />
<br />
<b>Hilary McKay</b> wrote <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-first-kiss.html">Saffy's Angel</a> and its sequels. Plots and themes abound in these books, but what makes them special is the four children of the eccentric Casson family. One goes on to book after book to find out how these friends are doing.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgdSP8jtvAJXZkY5qIdnEUBo_8369i5VLUhoE1KE-Ev974d6A9Cr-sihLTwJwftgyiUcDx8pk6Ox4bfnhtAhdoUCmGXZafdMLJi7jN-ShuLRDb2MjtFTbABI5Z5GLfRwtJPUN7vpof9dcpEYDNMiX7-5PbLw_4J3JeqvyHkKYZ8-39HDwk=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/477/420/FC9780440420477.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>When it came out, I wasn't immediately taken with <b>Jeanne Birdsall</b>'s <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780440420477?aff=annieandaunt"><br />The Penderwicks</a>. It felt like it was trying a little to hard to have an old-fashioned feel: a family of four girls (oh. you probably already know this one, Cyd) having wholesome adventures on summer vacation while still missing their dead mother. But talking with kids over the years, and seeing how many come back for the sequels -- <a href="http://jeannebirdsall.com/books/the-penderwicks-in-spring/">#4</a> is due out on Tuesday -- has changed my mind. I gave an advance copy of the book to a wonderful family one of whose children dressed at The Penderwicks: the book for Halloween. They talked with me about the excitement of opening the book and catching up with the characters, who are now old friends. It sounded so much like our family's experience with the Harry Potter books -- it was really moving.<br />
<br />
<b>Madeleine L'Engle</b>'s Wrinkle in Time and sequels has more of what Cyd calls the "fully realized world." You did a lovely blog on them <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/03/first-loves-science-fiction.html">here</a>. <br />
<br />
<b>Arthur Ransome</b>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallows_and_Amazons_series">Swallows and Amazons</a> books feature children from three different families who have summertime adventures in England and Scotland in the 1930s. They have everything to do with kids and boats and elaborate games of imagination.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhXYd3OlFRPCqs8aqCjIUizVeBIjxcHgKTuKyYTiv2yohm6BH6g0MNuBgQJqqBqIvuesd6Buw0tdy6hVwLCD69MVkV0_5-500APPkZUyhHO1BzFV3u2e-rkLLHfAQWY7Qvusr3SLSWoi0jcNNycpI_cXmJOrLO8nvdYC_DXIMh5TcLzB_A=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/608/321/FC9780141321608.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>I would encourage Cyd and Rebekah to pick up E. Nesbit and Edward Eager again. They're both delightful, and they spend a lot of time -- with a heavy dose of humor -- on siblings in large families. <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/08/hurricane-reading-half-magic.html">Eleanor loved the Half Magic series</a> almost four years ago, but if she were to revisit those books now, she'd get lots more out of them. Just as Rebekah may end up with the thrill of discovery all over again if she picks up Harry Potter when she's 12. E. Nesbit is viewed as a seminal writer of 20th century children's literature because she wrote about realistic relationships among family members. My favorite of her magical books is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Children_and_It">Five Children and It</a>, in which everything that can go wrong with a wish does. But the one our entire family loved best was <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780141321608?aff=annieandaunt"><br />The Railway Children</a>, the story of city children who move with their mother to the countryside after their father is falsely accused of spying.<br />
<br />
The Prydain Chronicles -- starting with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Three">The Book of Three</a> -- by Lloyd Alexander could be a lot of fun for Rebekah. They're loosely based on Welsh mythology. Harry Potter incorporates elements of lots of mythology of the British Isles -- she might find some familiar stories. The current Book of Three paperback has a scary image that I've found turns some kids off. The book isn't as creepy as the picture.<br />
<br />
And while we're adventuring, don't forget Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island is still a great read. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRsFFHZCGMs6pJ5eGWHEKY51eOzNZ5wzFS7_RuIDQPc6E8koCNhrJ8vrcA7fkDi94aGzdkxAUwLnJDeDogoHzdP0-elTI2msL5KRAAJyZfpXIT6opI0APnFlrJ0Um0NRMRzyWi_j7wXLo/s1600/FC9780064408233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRsFFHZCGMs6pJ5eGWHEKY51eOzNZ5wzFS7_RuIDQPc6E8koCNhrJ8vrcA7fkDi94aGzdkxAUwLnJDeDogoHzdP0-elTI2msL5KRAAJyZfpXIT6opI0APnFlrJ0Um0NRMRzyWi_j7wXLo/s1600/FC9780064408233.JPG" /></a></div>
Moving closer to the twenty-first century, I suspect Rebekah would connect with Sharon Creech's books. <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2010/07/true-love-ceremony.html">Walk Two Moons</a> is her best-known, and spectacular -- it has a lot to do with characters telling each other stories. Mona and Lizzie's favorite was Bloomability, about a lower-middle class girl who ends up in a Swiss boarding school for a year, completely out of her element, and figures out what's important in people and in life.<br />
<br />
And last, there's some contemporary historical fiction. Has Rebekah tried any books by Karen Cushman yet? Here's a <a href="http://www.karencushman.com/books/books.html">complete list</a>: most of them are set in medieval or Elizabethan times. She's probably best known for The Midwife's Apprentice, which won a Newbery medal. Most of her main characters are children who have been rejected by the people who should be caring for them. They learn to make their own way in the world, often with the help/supervision of unlikely adults.<br />
<br />
I hope there are some surprises in this list. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
Love,<br />
<br />
Deborah<br />
<br />
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<br />
Among the many kinds of board books out there in the world, one of my least favorite has always been the Cute for Grownups board book. You know the kind I mean: books which feel like they were written to be marketed to the hip friends of new parents who will pick them up at the counter of a trendy gift shop on their way to a baby shower. These are the books that a browsing shopper might find chuckle-worthy in the moment, but they're not really for children.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEg4f95zJ_elT4gPfdtQLp9i4jZig7iS03gs8QQGXQsFFx5fF0wUnj8HYATQ_7Xy_nBpeER9TTVBEYA1XnInzJP4Tod5Q8CVieqEU4pq3mwZLbQ-54Yf0xNMFR2CfvfDaWXULifiHxzeNnrSMtYv1euY7w1V6K5QOxYxuIFBcVSwEUjot5Q=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/588/461/FC9781582461588.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgfB29eVKxCjB6ME-aVolIrbxzRt-7mzfZPj0bnG-MgvxXc4-Ov_58HZFBsAf0LLVtRYMKEKgunZcuBM4LnnJh3jMBd6ZB-562pEPGPSfQyKyUUmiq4nkNc8mqCQDdFDAN1U4gJN3ZmjDa1__TGsFzf2-mIbqRzuZdPvcSnAYXIUNL79G8=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/459/416/FC9781932416459.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>I'm talking about titles like the <a href="http://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/baby-be-of-use-six-book-bundle">Baby Be of Use</a> series, or the nine book series which started with <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781582461588?aff=annieandaunt"><br />Urban Babies Wear Black</a>. And of course there's <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/05/cursing-at-your-children.html">Go the Fuck to Sleep</a>, which made the rounds a few years ago, and for which <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/05/fuck-you-kid.html">you had much less patience than I</a>.<br />
<br />
I've been given a few of these types of books over the years, and have quietly deep-sixed them before having to run the risk that a child will get attached to one and I'll have to read it aloud twelve thousand times while feeling vaguely annoyed.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjtkXf0UrkxtfTPcOuxmgC3s7de4l7Kcsr0AKI_C4mu01B3cKwNdfz9SBMzm6ocDTnjP1OiOxpTNSYRaDNAG8XN7-iIHZCUpvYg2mjCGH4a26rUCEJ0QZilFjIQiaXirc8WPRlhvwq1eGWFQFyzhOYL6MGlerQYo5NK6ZrtYqeYQVEFw7w=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/836/634/FC9781423634836.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>So when my mother (your sister, and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/06/guest-blog-poetic-language-of-lorenz.html">generally a terrific judge of children's literature</a>) bought us a board book version of <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781423634836?aff=annieandaunt">Anna Karenina</a>, I was skeptical.<br />
<br />
In the <a href="http://www.babylit.com/shop-books/">BabyLit series</a> -- of course it's a series -- Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver reimagine a number of classic works of literature as concept board books. Anna Karenina is "A Fashion Primer," and introduces dress and accessories vocabulary; Wuthering Heights is "A Weather Primer," using direct quotes to illustrate the various kinds of weather Heathcliff and Catherine are exposed to ("Breezy," "Stormy"); Frankenstein is an "Anatomy Primer."<br />
<br />
Despite my misgivings, Will fell in love with Anna Karenina immediately. I think the attraction resides in part in Oliver's illustrations, which are attractively blocky and colorful. Will's love of dress-up, which he shares with his older sisters, may also play a part.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjitix6lUKHhcd-kldzMKHT2cgjB_-JdMb-A9ezZHKku66TpCgkG8XpTRhBUM7PR_YuM1hxrEm3beb7TN8jZQIoqAK30wLxnF4eZb_7oivN_mf3jNot6Nrjo8WFemfV8qGUoPqhh9WZoExAqYwFeR9eyeb0_6c1osprWZq9kZVdj9w20TU=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/024/622/FC9781423622024.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>In the last year, I've read a number of the BabyLit titles in stores and at friends' houses (suddenly, they're everywhere!). I've found them a little uneven in quality -- some are spot-on, both funny for the grownups reading them and interesting for the kids, some less so.<br />
<br />
Hands down, my favorite is <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781423622024?aff=annieandaunt">Pride and Prejudice: A Counting Primer</a>. Here's the entire text, with a couple of illustrated pages to give you the flavor:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1 English village</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2 rich gentlemen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3 houses</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4 marriage proposals</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5 sisters</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6 horses</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7 soldiers in uniform</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8 musicians</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9 fancy ballgowns</span> (this is Eleanor and Isabel's favorite page)<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">10 10,000 pounds</span><br />
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<br />
When I got to 10 the first time I read it, I laughed out loud.<br />
<br />
Have I been bamboozled by the hip nerd feel of these books? Are they just as obnoxious as the other Cute for Grownups books I've eschewed over the years? They feel different in character to me, but I'm willing to hear an argument. What's your take on this genre?<br />
<br />
Love, Annie
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<br />
Suddenly, Isabel can read.<br />
<br />
Of course, it isn't sudden at all: we've been reading together for more than five years, pretty much since the day she was born. She's been "reading" on her own for quite some time as well, poring over picture books and graphic novels, staying up on weekend nights with her own reading light and our copy of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/02/grandfatherly-wisdom.html">Smile</a> or one of the <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/08/greek-gods-as-superheroes-oh-yes.html">Olympians books</a> while Eleanor whizzes through another chapter book in the bunk above and Will sings to his stuffed animals.<br />
<br />
But, like Eleanor when she was first learning to read, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/09/resistance-and-repetition.html">Isabel has been resistant to reading out loud</a> at home. Her fabulous kindergarten teacher sends her home every night with a book baggie containing a small pile of early readers. As part of her homework, she's supposed to read these books aloud to an adult, and practice the sight words taped to the baggie.<br />
<br />
Cue the misery: resistance to reading aloud, complete resistance to trying to sound out any word she didn't know (or hadn't memorized). Book baggie evenings often culminated in hysterical wild guesses and dissolving onto the living room floor in boneless refusal. Needless to say, we weren't doing this every night. The level of the readers Isabel was bringing home (first A and B, then C and D) was rising based on what her teacher saw at school, but we weren't seeing any difference in her reading at home.<br />
<br />
A few weeks ago, I went in to meet with Isabel's teacher to talk about her reading. Ms. Mazor took me through Isabel's school work, showing me how Isabel has been telling stories: first in pictures, then through accompanying words, and in her latest story, writing the words first so that she could get them down, leaving space for the pictures to come later. The writing she showed me was dramatic and vivid, and her message was clear: silly mama, you have nothing to worry about here.<br />
<br />
Here is Isabel's story of her own birth:<br />
<br />
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<br />
For Isabel, clearly, writing and reading are happening hand in hand. The comprehension is there, and the mechanics are catching up.<br />
<br /><br />
The week after this meeting, Isabel picked up a note I was sending in to her teacher and read it aloud. Then it was a couple of pages of P.D. Eastman's <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780394800202?aff=annieandaunt">Go, Dog. Go!</a> Then every other page of <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/06/unrestrained-id-so-attractive.html">The Cat in the Hat</a>.<br />
<br />
On Sunday, we sat down with The Cat in the Hat and <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/06/oh-graduations-youll-attend.html">One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish</a>, and Isabel read <i>100 pages of Dr. Seuss in one sitting</i>. (As our guest blogger/kindergarten teacher Clara noted when Eleanor was learning to read, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2012/03/guest-blogger-teaching-kids-to-read-in.html">some of those early readers are weirdly long</a>.)<br />
<br />
Her mom and her dad and her sister are so delighted.<br />
<br />
Love, Annie<br />
<br />
<br />Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10668869030805539811noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-39095185760327007092015-02-08T22:42:00.001-05:002015-02-08T22:42:44.219-05:00Guest blogger: Brooklyn baby booksDear Aunt Debbie,<br />
<br />
<a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/01/placing-my-bets.html">Despite your protestations</a>, your Newbery picks this time around did very well! <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2015/01/brown-girl-dreaming-my-newbery-hope.html">Brown Girl Dreaming </a>didn't take the top prize, but it was named a <a href="http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberymedal">Newbery Honor Book</a>, along with the marvelous <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/12/graphic-memoirs-for-kids-and-adults.html">El Deafo</a>. You've got skills!<br />
<br />
Our house has been a whirlwind of birthday celebrations and fevers for the last couple of weeks, and I've been feeling a little overwhelmed. Happily, our regular <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/07/guest-blogger-reading-to-your-newborn.html">guest blogger and new mom Emily</a> has some thoughts about several Brooklyn-themed baby books that have entered her life since the arrival of her daughter Alice. Here she is:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjUVIL1xNSop-0UGRYPEC5JtWofauzj7Kr9yqWDYIRTzCtd93mEeYUq3HDfBbPDVHBycqUBPvRbDccXF77uhB2gMeojlE5UoNSnyfkrizq-autpqEFJE6xfiCQvCEfjFc7bqOHzrR6EzcWtZglNJz_5gY-jucTZFvjwTSKevWEHUAfoBJ4=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/272/093/FC9781938093272.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A realtor gave us a copy of <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781938093272?aff=annieandaunt">Brooklyn Baby</a>, by Lisa McKeon, which has quickly become
one of my eight month old daughter Alice’s favorite board books. Both of us love
illustrator Violet Lemay’s busy, happy streetscapes featuring familiar food carts and
subway signs. I also love the silly local touches. “Brooklyn baby, now it’s time to go
to sleep,” instructs the last page. High up in an apartment window, a little Brooklyn
baby responds with a big “Fuhgeddaboudit!!” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiLc-yrWUGloFmyGbPZ_NU9CxH2cW7AOBfCzYIQjko3579gb1PHnwz8HzFwJllYu2qgeTesq_sMx1C8C-fQI-yiBqodPbHDeTR1rA_5aDG_AKcw8o1s80JRh3Jd8I8DsfnBchSwUd8ADecfHvfgScilzkV0Xm6Y-tHZT3kefhScQTRWyN4=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/230/392/FC9780984392230.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alice is still too young for books she can’t eat, but when she can handle paper pages
she has a lot of local options ahead of her. In <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780984392230?aff=annieandaunt">Homer the Little Stray Cat</a> by Pam
Laskin, a scruffy street cat finds a home in the arms of a Brooklyn boy named Adam.
Reluctant about having such a yowly new addition, Adam’s parents are won over by
the ways Homer draws their shy son out. One of the more endearing aspects of this
story is that Kirsi Tuomenan Hill’s illustrations present Adam’s interracial family
without making them the center of the story. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiliiwUUxRr-TKdZz3ZziFVJxIXHpmLizdxS6MXT5XMoc0WJAk023y3GT64hkevC2NTlRAtxzfD90qBFWT4weCfTdwuZL6hoW85IobXefejbS1r8KxZn437V9ABDT5ofmIz2nazte-JM8vLGvTIUhOqn-ScgMpBq-r7lyA09ukNSrRXoKM=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/088/247/FC9780399247088.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We discovered <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780399247088?aff=annieandaunt">Mermaids on Parade</a> </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">at a public library sing-a-long when the author
Melanie Hope Greenberg stopped in </span>[Note: Mermaids is also a huge hit at our house, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2011/06/guest-blog-picture-books-that-capture.html">introduced to us by our guest blogger Denise</a>] <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. With bright, pastel illustrations featuring all
sorts of costumed characters, Greenberg tells the story of a young girl’s trip to the
Mermaid parade amid lavish descriptions of Coney Island’s steamy summer
electricity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjyEX2LYa0LRkIlzZlOqlcLoVwNseCAAFk0YsBSkaB4526Mcr8rFMLlw_obZN99avN4diJU0ORKsLI_lkqM4-F71CTFooO6xnjidJGBFmV7qZ1RRcy1_pfA6v_1y1t7ydRjEVw1tprAQdrxu_DTrz1bScHzVQw31nBfiuHQ4svSmhDy9g8=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/709/818/FC9780786818709.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It almost goes without saying that <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780786818709?aff=annieandaunt">Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale</a>, by the
inimitable Mo Willems, is a total gem. Against photographed backdrops of
brownstone stoops, a bespectacled cartoon dad makes an alarming discovery during
a trip to the laundromat with his daughter. This one is wonderful to read out loud,
filled as it is with onomatopoeic kid language – “’Aggle flaggle klabble!’ said Trixie
again” – and the flustered, outer-borough dad is completely recognizable. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I suspect it will be fun for Alice to see her world of brownstone stoops and corner
laundromats - a world that would have been unrecognizable to me as a suburban
kid - reflected in the books she reads as she grows up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Emily</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm sure it will. More from our crazy house soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Love, Annie</span>
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj0eSzdssYactr_O1AUr87MCei1pSbCGGEvnhRBtjPZ0i9cvZC1_zB8WwKt7HJZLYazGpKh3aC6FnmhEgBD7fWE_kGnQhX_x-NsQuqIHpm8mgd3v19po_bjYhTO6cvfKcBqYySnFMHWPKCeF9XJdr_0xVevA6CMosZOETE9gRi3A5FuzN8=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/850/722/FC9781595722850.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
sell a lovely little board book, called <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781595722850?aff=annieandaunt"><br />My Face Book</a>, with photographs of
babies' faces, one to a page. There are several books like that, but what
I particularly like about this one is that the faces are majority
non-white. It's one of those happy baby books. I showed it to a
customer the other day (Caucasian) who was looking for a book of faces for a
baby gift. Thanks, she said, but this one is “<i>too </i>diverse,” and
she added a sentence I've heard more times than you'd expect over the years:
"I want him to see faces that look like him." One can point out
that a 3 month-old has no idea what he looks like, or that they’re all human
babies, or that the bunnies in Goodnight Moon don't look like him either, but
it won't change anything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I bring this up to say that there's a
section of the white buying public -- no matter what their political beliefs
may be -- who aren't comfortable mixing books about children of color with
their own children. It's a minority, but I'm frequently reminded that
it's there. When kids get up to the chapter book age, it's really
noticeable: it's hard to sell novels about African Americans to some white
parents. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5XWCA88ti-NeNQkLkYwUW-0XUnrQ9PQdjS-ozAt6Rbprgd6H8bx1wiNXVj1wPMetdNvzNWemGKCBn4OFmCknggPSMKaqzE4ic97HBhNE5Q1Uq19jEAOc5xtkLOTVK4RjCRnum8r8k85R/s1600/brown-girl-dreaming1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5XWCA88ti-NeNQkLkYwUW-0XUnrQ9PQdjS-ozAt6Rbprgd6H8bx1wiNXVj1wPMetdNvzNWemGKCBn4OFmCknggPSMKaqzE4ic97HBhNE5Q1Uq19jEAOc5xtkLOTVK4RjCRnum8r8k85R/s1600/brown-girl-dreaming1.jpg" height="200" width="131" /></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A year ago, when I was selecting
yet-to-be-published books to carry in our store,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780399252518?aff=annieandaunt"><br />Brown Girl Dreaming</a> by Jacqueline Woodson was
one of the offerings from Penguin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
sometimes cynical self, I confess, heaved a sigh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a memoir written in poetry – poetry! not
a big seller either – focusing on an African American girl growing up in South
Carolina and New York in the 1960s and 70s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was skeptical about being able to sell it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when I got around to reading it, I knew I
had to try: it’s an amazing book.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>We won't have a girl named Jack</i>, my mother said.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And my father's sisters whispered,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A boy named Jack was bad enough.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But only so my mother could hear.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Name a girl Jack</i>, my father said,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and she can't help but </span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">grow up strong.</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Raise her right</i>, my father said,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and she'll make that name her own.</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Name a girl Jack</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>and people will look at her twice,</i> my father said. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For no good reason but to ask if her parents</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>were crazy</i>, my mother said.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So how was I going to sell the
book?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/books/review/jacqueline-woodsons-brown-girl-dreaming.html">review in the New York Times</a>
raved about the universal nature of the story: how it would resonate with any
girl growing up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The title seems to confine
the book in too narrow a box,” wrote the reviewer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Will girls who aren’t brown know, without
prompting, that they too are invited to the party?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Because we have a right</i>,
my grandfather tells us –</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">we are sitting at his feet and the
story tonight is</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">why people are marching all over the
South –</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to walk and sit and dream wherever we want.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">First they brought us here.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then we worked for free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then it was 1863,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and we were supposed to be free but we weren’t.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And that’s why people are so mad.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The reality of a black family’s life in the South during the
civil rights movement is here. There are sit-ins and marches,
back-of-the-bus moments, anger, pride, a school burned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To dismiss the title and sell it as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an Everygirl memoir denies who Woodson is. She
is a brown girl, first in the South, then in Brooklyn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book shows us a loving and very religious
family, a marriage that has ended, joy in nature, friendship, and how it feels
to discover the amazing power of words. The poetry, the language, is what
plaits all the elements together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">How amazing these words are that slowly come to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">How wonderfully on and on they go.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Will the words end</i>, I ask</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">whenever I remember to.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Nope</i>, my sister says, all of five years old now,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">and promising me</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">infinity. </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Brown Girl
Dreaming was released at the end of August, and despite my enthusiasm, sold not
as well in the store as I’d hoped, but not horrendously either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wrote a blurb that tried to say how much
the book encompassed, and even listed page numbers of four poems which would give a
browser a sense of the many elements of the book. Then in November, it won the
National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The awards
ceremony had a horrifying incident in which Daniel Handler (aka Lemony
Snicket), MC of the event and a friend of Woodson’s, commented as she left the
podium, “Jackie’s allergic to watermelon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just let that sink in your mind.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Woodson wrote an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/29/opinion/the-pain-of-the-watermelon-joke.html">incredibly eloquent response</a> in the New York
Times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">That Handler
remark – of a white man flamingly uncomfortable with the blackness of a friend
and colleague – brings me back to the rejection of the baby book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would Handler shop for a board book with not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">too much</i> diversity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The National
Book Award had many happier outcomes also.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My pile of Brown Girl Dreaming started to sell a lot faster: that gold
circle on the cover said “read me” better than I had been able to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It's on the bestseller list now. </span>But the National Book Award for children is
an odd duck: it doesn’t guarantee that a book will stay in the public eye over
the years.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The award which
makes a massive difference in kids’ literature, of course, is the Newbery
Medal, which will be announced this coming Monday, February 2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last time a book with an African American
protagonist won the prize was <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780440413288?aff=annieandaunt">2000</a>, my first year selling books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before that, one <a href="http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberywinners/medalwinners">has to go back</a> to the years
of Woodson’s childhood: the 1970s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">So I am hoping –
and we know <a href="http://www.annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2013/01/placing-my-bets.html">my record on Newbery predictions</a> is abysmal – that Brown Girl
Dreaming will pick up another gold circle for its cover on Monday, and that it
will enter the canon of classics which all kids will be reading for decades to
come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be tuning in for the <a href="http://live.webcastinc.com/ala/2015/live/">webcast,at 9 a.m.</a></span></div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.booksense.com%2Fimages%2Fbooks%2F850%2F722%2FFC9781595722850.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj0eSzdssYactr_O1AUr87MCei1pSbCGGEvnhRBtjPZ0i9cvZC1_zB8WwKt7HJZLYazGpKh3aC6FnmhEgBD7fWE_kGnQhX_x-NsQuqIHpm8mgd3v19po_bjYhTO6cvfKcBqYySnFMHWPKCeF9XJdr_0xVevA6CMosZOETE9gRi3A5FuzN8=" -->Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17884808522573795909noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-657368378863560055.post-84507042489452753212015-01-27T12:18:00.001-05:002015-01-27T12:18:12.165-05:00Multicultural Children's Book Day!Dear Aunt Debbie,<br />
<br />
A couple of months ago, in response to reader requests for books to help make their kids' school book fairs more diverse, <a href="http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com/2014/11/increasing-kidlit-diversity-in-book.html">I posted about a couple of organizations dedicated to increasing kidlit diversity.</a><br />
<br />
I was so taken by the work being done by the folks at <a href="http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/todays-day-multicultural-childrens-book-day/">Multicultural Children's Book Day</a> that I signed up to be an MCCBD blogger, and to link today's post to their website <a href="http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=485122">along with a host of other excellent bloggers</a>. The co-creators of the event are Mia Wenjen from <a href="http://www.pragmaticmom.com/">Pragmatic Mom</a> and Valarie Budyar from <a href="http://www.jumpintoabook.com/multicultural-childrens-book-day/">Jump Into a Book.</a> I've listed their sponsors at the end of this post.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8k5nIrkXvEep4nYHCSfts4nW9e0tfsZLsEOMTpniGlDXhscb9bB_qvSWd__pfGJz9cRk9Qaw6YVAzyMSUQ5ctnZLNE05kXbgKwcC5bsc_HsuWJZ4uwJR9fYg71179iMwXQhjqBqwJCO_/s1600/mcbd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8k5nIrkXvEep4nYHCSfts4nW9e0tfsZLsEOMTpniGlDXhscb9bB_qvSWd__pfGJz9cRk9Qaw6YVAzyMSUQ5ctnZLNE05kXbgKwcC5bsc_HsuWJZ4uwJR9fYg71179iMwXQhjqBqwJCO_/s1600/mcbd.jpg" height="243" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Here's their mission statement:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day, Mia and Valarie are on a mission to change all of that. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries. Another goal of this exciting event is create a compilation of books and favorite reads that will provide not only a new reading list for the winter, but also a way to expose brilliant books to families, teachers, and libraries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The MCCBD team hopes to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjTKmJUA_Y8Wd_lqDZ3eFut9Vk2pEZ-SOxBSOizTieS8_Jal99h0orCnOm0xHAGMPVpBYS3ksNMC9VDENmqH2wn5-xU0ZHM-5zosvAGJWztVSVLf6CFMV8XoavxL1p0oRNcLWL91VGMOYWLmNna6NGOF_49mJEjbcqzLsZ31TDyxzBdoUA=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images.booksense.com/images/books/458/141/FC9781620141458.JPG" onerror="this.src = 'http://www.indiebound.org/files/book_not_found.jpg';" style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" /></a>After I signed up to be an official reviewer, the publisher <a href="https://www.leeandlow.com/">Lee & Low Books</a> sent me the recent YA novel <a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781620141458?aff=annieandaunt">Drift</a>, by M.K. Hutchins. (Their website is another nice place to look for a variety of children's books celebrating diversity.)<br />
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Drift is an interesting read. It's set in a fantasy world based on the Mayan legend that described the world as perched on the back of a giant turtle, floating on a watery underworld. Hutchins takes this idea farther: in her universe, people live on multiple turtles, which swim around, feed on coral reefs, and sometimes go to war with and conquer each other. Each turtle/floating island home has a huge life-giving tree in its center. The roots of this tree are constantly being attacked by nagas: semi-human monsters with vicious teeth, who kill people in the water. You don't really want to go swimming.<br />
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Because a turtle is slowed down by having more people to carry, being married and having children is seen as a major negative. The top echelon of society are the Handlers (male) and the Tenders (female), who live in and protect the tree. They remain celibate, but come out to settle disputes among the artisans (also celibate) and the farming class (they're the ones who have kids, ew).<br />
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Our hero and narrator is a boy named Tenjat, who escaped with his sister from their previous turtle-island after something (Tenjat doesn't know what) forced them to leave. They left their father and younger brother on the island, and their mother sacrificed herself to the nagas so their raft could reach the new shore. Over the course of the novel, Tenjat passes the test to become a Handler, and begins to learn about the inner workings of the tree and the secrets in his past -- just as the turtle and tree are threatened! The story culminates with a satisfying explanation of how this world fits into the world we know -- thought-provoking stuff, especially for a 12-14 year old.<br />
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The world Hutchins creates is a fascinating one, and multicultural in that it's based in Mayan legend, and there are a few descriptions that imply everyone in the book has brown skin. I was struck, however, by the restrictive gender roles throughout. Boys and men have one set of roles, girls and women another, and all interactions between them are loaded with the threat that women might seduce men into becoming "hubs" (husbands), a terrible fate.<br />
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Hutchins sets up her two main female characters as exceptions to the rule: they're two of the most powerful people in the book. Eflet, Tenjat's sister, turns out to be a Seer; it is her powers that have put the family in danger. Avi, Tenjat's Handler trainer and love interest, is the only female Handler, and has both Handler and Tender gifts. Tenjat, it turns out, has Tender gifts as well as Handler ones, so there's a little gender-bending there.<br />
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But ultimately, Eflet, Avi, and Tenjat play into gender stereotype. There aren't any male-female friendships unaffected by romance. Eflet is oddly secretive, revealing almost nothing to Tenjat about their shared past. Even when all is revealed by the end of the book, her sphere remains domestic and child-bearing, and you get the feeling Tenjat still doesn't understand her mysterious femaleness. Avi is kicked out of the tree, and while she has saved Tenjat's life several times, they start a new life together in a place where he has experience and knowledge, but she has none.<br />
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The fact that I was prompted to think so much about this, to trouble it deeply, speaks to the staying power of the world of the novel, and the imagery in it. Still, it's a book I'd want to discuss with my daughters if they read it on their own. (Eleanor, age almost-8 but with a crazy high reading level, tried picking it up, but deemed it "too scary." Maybe later.)<br />
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For now, I'm thrilled to have another set of lists where I can look for titles for all three of my children, and for the classrooms and book fairs I'll be involved in in the future.<br />
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Love, Annie<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">MCCBD’s 2015 Sponsors include <b>Platinum Sponsors:</b> </span><a href="http://www.wisdomtalespress.com/about_us.shtml" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">Wisdom Tales Press,</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;"> </span><a href="http://daybreak.rabata.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">Daybreak Press Global Bookshop</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">, <b>Gold Sponsors</b>: </span><a href="http://satyahouse.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="line-height: 21.4666652679443px;">Satya House</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; 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