The Mesozoic Era, the Middle East, and Hogwarts

July 22, 2011 - the pop-up dinosaur book

"Here, Mummy! Mummy, here! The Mesozoic Era!" she calls to me as she throws the book on my bed and begins the climb up.

Molly is fascinated by dinosaurs and frequently asks me to read books with her on the subject. Last month, I bought some miniature figures to add to her collection. I thought that we could compare our figures to images in the book for the purposes of identification. She loves that idea.

In June -- I think it was June -- we read Mary Pope Osborne's first in the Magic Tree House series: Dinosaurs Before Dark.

It's intended for children aged 6 to 9 years but the information it contains is pretty scant.  Frankly, I can't imagine a nine-year-old being satisfied with it. I know my four-year-old wasn't; thankfully, however, she's still of an age where meaning is found in amazing, unexpected places, and the mechanism of time travel was more important to her. It didn't matter where anyone landed, just that someone left now and went to then.

I enjoyed reading it with Molly. We call it our first chapter book. I'm not sure that it is our first but it definitely was a good time. I ended up having to teach her, and therefore teach myself, about the Mesozoic Era and the different kinds of prehistoric animals. 

We have a book called My First Book of Dinosaurs which she loves -- we get to look at what modern-day animals may have looked like about 65 million years or so ago.

At the local library, we've spent a lot of time mostly playing and reporting the girls' reading for the book club. Most recently, Molly devoured 35 books as I begged for the opportunity to redirect her. I even told her that it was quite a funny position for a mother to be in at a library: Telling a child to go play--i.e.,instead of reading--isn't something you imagine that you'd hear yourself saying.

-- I want to read 500 books and win the contest!

-- You do? That's a lot of books.

-- Is there a contest, Mummy?

-- No.

-- Oh. How many have we read?

-- Thirty-five. But, if there were a contest, we would have won it.

-- Yay!

I think, however, that anyone listening would have taken my side: My throat was hurting and we were far enough from her goal of 500 books, anyway, that pausing wouldn't have affected our progress.

Among those books was at least one title of the How Do Dinosaurs . . . series by Jann Yolen and Mark Teague. So, really, a day without dinosaurs hasn't gone by this summer.

Then, on August 1, as most of my summer nights have unfolded, I lay back and read another few chapters of Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron -- and finished it! Set in modern Israel, involving two men, one Jewish and one Palestinian, it is a mixture of satire and fact that really has my head spinning. It's clever, far more so than I think that I am able to appreciate at this point in my life, and it's so much funnier than I'd anticipated. 

I suspect that once I start to write about this book, it will go on for years: It's that important to me. Yes, but that's it; I won't say anything more about this book until I have sat down to write about it more meaningfully. 

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts . . .

Devyn and Keith are now reading Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (6th book). I believe I stopped after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (5th book), so I have no idea what's going on in the series at that point.

Because I'm not part of the Harry Potter book club at home, I asked Keith about his impressions of the reading time that he and Devyn spend together. First, he says, she's "absolutely enthralled" and he is amazed that, at her age (8), she can follow a story so well through six books. She knows the characters very well and understands the significance of plot events.

Each night, before reading, Keith asks her key questions about the prior sitting and asks her to make predictions; he says that she always gives intelligent answers.

What I find most touching is his report that she likes to follow his reading on the page. (Her reading, incidentally, has improved by leaps and by bounds over the past few months.)

Both us of were aware at the outset that the subject matter of the books would be, at times, frightening and mature; Keith says she handles it very well.

She knows the characters and greatly empathizes with Harry.

Though she and I have our books that we plan to read together, I know that Devyn really wants to be at Hogwarts right now with her Dad, so I don't press the issue. Our time to read together again will come, most likely, in a few months.

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Many changes are taking place here, on this blog, and some of them are not quite finished .

I plan to re-establish links between book images and the relevant blog posts as well as to create more pages . . .

So, don't mind the dust.

Time flies

I happened upon an online journal entry from almost three-years-ago to the day. 

The growth of my girls - July 9, 2007

"I didn't want to have my face painted today."

"No?"

"No. I was scared."

"Oh, I can see how that might be scary."

"Nobody else, just me."

"Nobody else was scared?"

"No."

"How did that make you feel?"

"Sad."

Devyn's aware of herself in the context of others. She compares herself to others.

She's also shot up another two inches in the last couple of months. She has a tiny waist, so her pants are long enough but she needs to wear a belt. (It's surprisingly difficult to find a belt for a preschooler.)

At her last Well Baby appointment (June 29th), Molly was 10lbs 8oz (I won a bet with K about how much she weighed) and 23 inches long. Funny, we didn't know how long she was at birth because that measurement isn't routinely sought.

We've had a difficult month, I'd say. Devyn's feelings about having a sibling aren't always positive and this is to be expected.

She's told me that she's disappointed that I can't spend as much time with her, so I spend as much as I can.

She's told her father that she doesn't always like being a big sister.

She's asked if we have to take Molly along on drives, etc. One day last week or so, while at the kitchen table, she asked:

"Why do we have to have Molly?"

"Because she's part of the family," I struggled. Begging the question, I know.

"Why was she born?"

So, she's struggling with big questions, too.

This might explain why, a couple of weeks before her 4th birthday, she is extraordinarily defiant, argumentative and generally difficult. This makes for long days.

One funny expression lately: when asked if she's ready, Devyn will say, "Ready as a liver bee!"

At least, Molly sleeps through the night. The breastfeeding clinic told me a few times that she's too young to miss feedings and that she needs to be awakened in the middle of the night. Everyone else, including my family doctor, told me to allow her to sleep and that demand-feeding is perfectly fine at this age (10 weeks). I've stopped going to the clinic.

We're continually amazed by Molly, just as we have been amazed by Devyn. She's started kicking and making sounds other than crying. She smiles easily and raises her arms up and down quickly when she's pleased with her toys, etc. She kicks now, lifts her head (but she has since the first week) and always has a pacifier in her mouth.

She's so calm, never cries anymore unless we let her go beyond the hand-sucking stage of hunger. Colic only lasted a few weeks.

Finally, my concentration has returned and I finished reading the first book since becoming pregnant (I'd been averaging about one per week prior to pregnancy) on July 7th.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I haven't collected my thoughts about this coming-of-age story set in a strife-ridden Nigeria. I do know that it made me long for some fiction by Uwem Akpan.

Pregnancy -- and then sleep-deprivation -- really affected my concentration and made reading impossible.  Considering thatI was on bedrest for much of the latter part, this was a problem. 

Devyn is now very comfortable with being a sister and they're usually the best of friends.

What a pleasant surprise it has been to look back!

Serendipity and A Reading Milestone!

Last Saturday, while Keith took Devyn to ballet and music classes, I took Molly to the library. While browsing the shelves for titles that might interest Devyn, I found Arthur and the Race to Read (Marc Brown) nestled among the picture books. A chapter book? I hadn't considered that Devyn was ready to begin this phase.

The Arthur Good Sports series (of which The Race is the first title) is recommended for children aged 8 and up but that didn't matter. Why not try? I put the book with the others I intended to borrow.

I ignore the age-appropriateness recommendations attached to children's titles (including picture books) because I think I usually have a good sense of what my children can or cannot appreciate.

I'm also drawing from personal experience. I loved The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Barbara Robinson). I think it was my first chapter book and I was about six years old when I sat for a reading of it.

Also, as a rule, I do not like to make books off-limits. (Trust me, this is a tough one. I cringe inwardly when Devyn brings home a Powerpuffs book from school because I find them too violent. I tell her why I find them violent, even if "only bad guys are getting hurt", but that she's welcome to read -- or, in her case -- look through them.)

It was simply Devyn's ability to sit still long enough or to delay gratification long enough to hear the whole story that I questioned. But Devyn, newly five years old, is changing so quickly. I was wrong. She loved it. She and Keith had started reading it a few days ago and this evening Devyn announced, before bedtime, that they'd read the last two chapters.

Moo, Baa, La La La!

When Molly was very young, about two months old, I found that reading Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton would calm her down if fussiness was near at hand. Eventually, of course, having the book in my hand was not necessary.

It was so successful a tactic that, after a short while, I only had to begin to recite the poem (because that's what it is, really) and she would immediately smile. She is almost a year-and-a-half (16 months) and the approach still works as well as it did the first time!

Now, she tries to mouth the words as I intentionally slow my speech and enunciate each word. So far, I've only heard "la".

Admittedly, reciting this in a crowded doctor's office when the baby starts screaming is a little embarrassing. But, I've asked myself, after giving birth, can anything really embarrass me anymore?



At any rate, I have enjoyed a rare opportunity of having had my first baby while already raising my first child and this places me in another odd category: I'm the mother of an older child and yet I have spent the better part of a year discovering how a baby relates to books and pictures.

At first, when she grasped a book, her interest was in turning pages. Then, after a short while, I noticed that she would go back through a book and look for a specific page, examine it and then continue through.

Molly now thumbs through books with a purpose: she's looking for something, usually food (she calls it 'na-na' ) or balls (known as 'bah') and will point to it when she sees it. Initially, I couldn't decide if she was asking me for food or just showing me that she knew what an object was.

(Last week or so, she was trying to tell me she was hungry. She was already in bed, so, having unsuccessfully proffered a bottle, I assumed she was extending the meaning of the word 'na-na'. In a fit of absolute frustration, she held up a soft block and pointed to a very unrealistic depiction of a slice of a citrus fruit and yelled, "Na-na". When the lightbulb appeared above my head, I raced downstairs to get her some yogurt and she was happy.)

So, you see, it isn't entirely improbable that she could be asking for food or for a ball when she points to the picture and utters the word. But, usually, she's just showing me a picture.

Also, I've noticed three behaviours: she will point to any circular thing -- usually, an image -- and call it a 'bah' and it happens at home or in public; she will lately try to grab an object from a book (so it seems) which creates a noise similar to nails on chalkboard; and, she likes to use her finger to outline an image in a book.

Down The Pipe

I just ordered Manil Suri's The Death of Vishnu. I also just bought Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea and Intrepreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri . I've steadfastly avoided seeing anything about the movie based on The Namesake because I don't want it to spoil the reading experience for me (because I do intend to restart and actually finish it soon).

But, even though at times I don't want to do so, I'm faithfully reading Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. It's well-written and the characters are interesting; the plot creates suspense but it's not magical for me though I was drawn to its setting in Denmark. I'm not excited about this book; but, then, I haven't finished it, either. I'm uncomfortable saying much about it at the moment.

For Devyn's Easter present, I ordered The Pigeon Finds A Hot Dog by Mo Willems. The series promotes complete interaction from page to page and Devyn goes "crazy like a pig" for Mo Willems's pigeons.

What I am really waiting for is Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan, a collection of short fiction due out in June 2008. I actually have it marked on my calendar. In the meantime, I ordered from Audible a reading of one of Uwem Akpan's short stories from the New Yorker Festival 2006 (it also features fiction by Louise Erdrich). I haven't even had time to find out which story it actually is!

Devyn and Molly's Scholastic order arrived on Friday. It's large. Maybe I'll post the titles with links later. No promises.

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Short fiction, Uwem Akpan, "My Parents' Bedroom" The New Yorker (June 12, 2006)
Uwem Akpan Interview with Cressida Leyshon, The New Yorker (June 13, 2005).
Short fiction, Uwem Akpan, "An Xmas Feast" The New Yorker (June 13, 2005)

Short fiction, Jhumpa Lahiri, "Once In A Lifetime" The New Yorker (May 8, 2006)
Article, Pulitzer for Jhumpa Lahiri, Rediff.com (April 11, 2000)
Article, Lahiri as one of 20 writers for 21st century, Rediff.com (June 19, 1999)

Reading: A pill for intellectual development?

An article in the Telegraph.co.uk by Michael Morpurgo today about instilling the love of reading in children is followed by the Telegraph's guide to the 100 books that every child should read (per three age groups).

Mr. Morpurgo says that Britain (though it sounds pretty widespread to me) is in a muddle about literacy. Treating the ability to read as a tool for success rather than focussing on the appreciation of storytelling and the story have created the commodification of reading. He partly blames education:

Ironically, it may be responsible both for the great blossoming of our literature, and at the same time for leaving so many with the impression that literature is not for them, but the preserve of a certain educated elite. As a consequence, much of our society has become separated from its own stories.

When I reflect on my early reading experiences, those that come immediately to mind involve teachers/librarians/authors reading to the class. I guess that I already had a love of story.

At any rate, there are some surprising choices for the Top 100s (because I haven't seen them very often on other lists of the sort) and I'm glad that I have copies of many of the titles. I've not read all of what I own.

There's a story by Jacqueline Wilson -- one of my favourites -- that I haven't read and now intend to do so: The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Some of my childhood favourites, read over and over again, made the lists: Pippi Longstocking, Winnie The Pooh, Tom's Midnight Garden, The Outsiders.

Books I've avoided appear: Watership Down. (I've avoided it because I've heard that it's powerful emotionally and it has taken me years to grow comfortable with The Velveteen Rabbit. I don't want to go through that again.) Charlotte's Web. As a child, the story saddened me.

Book(s) I didn't like appeared, as well: The Story of Babar. Anything Babar, really, I just don't like.

Some books that I've even recently considered reading: I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith and Coraline by Neil Gaiman (both started years back but remain unfinished).

Some books that I'd like to buy made the lists: The Worst Witch Collection, by Jill Murphy.

A longer version of the article in the Royal Society of Literature Review: http://www.rslit.org/

Here are the lists:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/01/19/bokidsbooks219.xml

Note to self: Er, stop avoiding the books that require intense, emotional engagement. This is a comfort-zone alert!

My Self

Just bought: Junk Mail (2006) by Will Self (his literary journalism, bought last week) and Edmonds's translation of War and Peace. This afternoon I had occasion to read the first article of Junk Mail. Typical, hot Will Self. In this piece, he's hanging out with drug dealers and describing the subculture. Deceptively casual, reminds me of banter.

It's 1991 all over again for me when I connect with him. The Quantity Theory of Insanity Together With Five Supporting Propositions, see "The North London Book Of The Dead" and "The Quantity Theory of Insanity." Actually, read it. Doris Lessing did:

Very funny and very good, with that unmistakable sign of the genuine comic writer: absurdity unfurls logically from absurdity, but always as a mirror of what we are living in- and wish we didn't. (Back cover blurb.)

I love Dr. Jules Smith's description:

His narrative voice, whether in short stories or lengthy novels, is relentlessly surreal-comic, smart and vehement... (British Council Arts, Biography: Will Self)

When At A Libary Book Sale...

If you're not a collector and, therefore, don't mind a picture book ex libris, grab any title by Kevin Henkes. He is, by far, one of my favourite authors of children's books. Yesterday, I found a copy of Chrysanthemum in much-greater-than-readable condition.

I also found Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox. It's nice to have a copy of our own since, when we read it last year, we had borrowed from the library.

It was a nice surprise to find A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway:

This classic ABC first appeared with Kate Greenaway's illustrations in 1886 and immediately met with considerable success in Britain, America and France.

The publisher's note describes the rhyme as very ancient and indicates an early reference to it in 1671 by John Eachard.

I also picked up quite a few works of nonfiction since I believe that my daughter's collection is lacking in this particular area: birds, electricity, house construction, etc.

For myself, I picked up some interesting titles but I'll have to list them later.

Lola Rose

Children are resilient.

How many times have we heard this? As trite as it sounds, I know this to be true and, in this book, the author heartily assents. Fairy tales today seem to enlighten but not to frighten children; however, perhaps the sanitized versions no longer impart the kind of insight that is found in Jacqueline Wilson's Lola Rose.

The reader might well label this book an "Anti-Fairy Tale": the pre-teen narrator has many responsibilities and ugly realities with which to deal and she does so with the heartrending acceptance and grace so characteristic of abused children.

When life at home suddenly gets really frightening, Jayni, her mum and her little brother Kenny have to pack their bags and escape in the middle of the night. They also have to choose new names -- and so Jayni becomes the glamorous, grown-up Lola Rose!

As another element of instability enters Jayni's already tumultuous life, we watch a young girl as she struggles with identity, body image and the responsibilities of raising a younger sibling as well as herself. Her journey is more than that of self-discovery: it is about learning such harsh realities as injustice, dread fear and addiction in a seemingly impersonal world.

As the pressures mount at home and her mother's behaviour becomes more disappointingly predictable, Jayni cannot concentrate at school--even in her new life, everything new is old again--and she must find a way to cope that will not result in the destruction of her family unit.

For the older child, this book has so much to offer by way of illustrating certain universal conditions: the need for acceptance, peer pressures and issues of identity. Most importantly, for a child who has always worried about not having "normal" parents, this book brings comfort and reassurance.

For the child who has not had her childhood yanked away, it brings enlightenment and, probably, an appreciation of her family life as she knows it. It also aids in developing personal identity. We often define ourselves through the negative: "this" is "not me". I am confident that many readers--teenage and adult alike--will declare this throughout the book.

For the adult reader, the book is a humbling experience. In Jayni The Child we find the adult that we would like to become: insightful, strong through adversity and wise, very wise.

In the end, we want more for Jayni but she is much stronger and wiser than we: she knew all along what to expect about her circumstances; she has inhabited no fairy tale.

So, it is we who have grown. She has taught us that sometimes hope is not the strong, faithful night-light in the dark hours that we all would like; it is sometimes as brief and as fleeting as a firefly, but it can be just as stunning and powerful wherever it appears.

Don't be put off by the harsh subject matter: there is wit and humour enough to sustain even a casual reader from page to page. As trite as it sounds, trust me: you'll laugh and you'll cry and you'll want to read another Jacqueline Wilson book right away.

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Here is The Guardian's Review