Bison

Deviating from my "typical" type of posts (do I have typical posts?) to share a family-friendly outing for fellow Cbus-ers.

Local readers may be interested to know that Battelle Darby Creek is the new home to 6 female bison. They come from The Wilds and seem to be thriving in their beautiful new prairie habitat.

We made our first trip to this park last Sunday and had a very enjoyable walk. The 1-mile path is wide and easy and pets were permitted. There are two playgrounds at the trailhead. A park volunteer was on hand at the bison viewing area, taking questions and sharing information. The park is apparently also home to coyote, fox, and of course many birds.

Bring your camera!

8/23/11 UPDATE: The Metro Parks Facebook page recently posted some tips about bison viewing. During the heat, early morning is best, or after a rain. 

Also, if you take your kids, you may want to swing by the library afterwards to learn more about bison. We always leave nature parks with more questions! The non-fiction area of the library is definitely becoming J's favorite--books about animals, insects, dinosaurs, volcanoes and planets abound!

We are also reading this cute new picture book right now about a buffalo. I need to look up the difference between buffalo and bison...again. I can never seem to get that straight!

Rainy Day Soup

After a week or two respite of Spring-like weather, we are back to cold, blustery winter weather and yet another sinus infection (which may be explained by these huge fluctuations in weather). I've been almost recovering from this sinus infection since Christmas. It's getting old. I'm feeling a little down.

So, today went a little something like this:

woke up (from a dead sleep with a pounding headache and sinus congestion) to the sound of J playing TRIOs, role-playing an elaborate Batman vs. Joker storyline, complete with the Joker's evil cackle (at the top of his lungs)

blow nose; cough; take Sudafed and guzzle water

shush J by wincing and pointing to my head

play LEGOs with J

put together a new birthday toy for N that (thankfully) has a volume control switch

blow nose; shush J

apply warm compress to face, but peel it back every 10 seconds to make sure N is not trying to eat LEGOs

repeat for the next 4 hours and pray I can muster enough energy to tire J out to the point that he'll agree to a nap

...

As I write this, the kids are napping (at the same time!) and I am lounging under blankets, watching it rain buckets from a bleak gray sky. Blah.

But the good news is that I pulled myself together enough to make a delicious hearty soup that I hope will help. When you're sick, you always want mom's chicken noodle soup, but this is right up there as well. It's my aunt's recipe for a vegetable minestrone, and I'm not sure where she got it. She brought us a pot of it the week we brought J home from the hospital, and it's been one of my go-to comfort foods ever since. It has a very savory flavor because it's made with bacon. Yes, bacon! Unusual, but trust me--it's good. And I'm not one of those people who thinks that everything tastes better with bacon on it. :)

Aunt Kathy's Minestrone

1/4 lb. bacon, cut into pieces
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion, diced
1 t. parsley
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
32 oz. carton beef broth
16 oz. can kidney beans with liquid
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 potatoes, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 can green beans with liquid
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 c. uncooked elbow macaroni
grated Parmesan to top

Brown bacon, garlic and onion in large soup pot. Add spices and broth. Stir in tomatoes and kidney beans. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, green beans and tomato sauce. Cook 1 hour on medium, or till vegetables are tender. Add macaroni. Cook 30 minutes. Season and serve with grated Parmesan.

one.

{one year}

 passes so quickly

~

begins full of hope and promise

~

is just a fraction of a lifetime

~

can bring change, change and more change 

~

cannot be slowed down or sped up

~

reminds you of the past

~

inspires you to dream about the future

~

is the result of a million happy, troubled, hilarious, difficult and miraculous moments

~

makes you want to go back and do it all over again

~

begs to be remembered

~

will always be cherished

~

concludes with gratitude and celebration

~

passes so quickly

P O M P O M S !

Hi there friends! We are making tissue paper pom poms today, in preparation for a baby shower I'm hosting this weekend. I love these as bright, fluffy party decor. The instructions and video tutorials that I found online still left me to do a bit of trial and error, so I thought I'd share what ended up working for me.

Most of the blogs and web sites I came across all referenced Martha Stewart's instructions.

I started out as they suggest, with 8 sheets of tissue paper, sized 20 x 30. Accordion fold to a width of about 1- to 1 1/2 inches, so it looks something like this:

I wanted small pom poms so at this point, I cut the folded tissue paper in half. If you want large pom poms, don't halve it. Next, secure the tissue paper in the center, as pictured below. I used a chenille stem (any color; it doesn't show when finished). Other tutorials suggest using a staple or a piece of floral wire. If you plan to hang your pom pom, now is the time to attach string or fishing wire to the chenille stem. 

Then shape the two ends of the tissue paper. I rounded mine:

Flip your bundle of tissue and fan out one half, like this:

Now, pull one layer of tissue up, towards yourself, as pictured below.

Do this with 4 layers of tissue. Then, flip it over and pull the remaining 4 layers. As you pull these 4 layers towards yourself, you'll be pulling them away from the first set of layers, forming a half circle.

Halfway finished, your pom pom looks like a tree! Swivel it around and do the same thing to the other side. (Note: Pull gently. I found that Hallmark tissue paper was more durable during this process. When I used Target brand tissue paper for another set, it kept tearing. You couldn't tell once it was all finished, but it stressed me out. :) )

Once you've pulled apart all the layers, you have a nice full pom pom, that looks like a flower (or if you're using green, it looks like a head of cabbage!) It may need a little tweaking and fluffing to get it filled out evenly.

A variation on this process makes your pom pom more appropriate as a centerpiece. Instead of pulling 4 layers of tissue up and 4 down, you could pull all 8 up on both sides, forming a half circle. This pom pom will be very full, and will lay nicely on your table since it's flat on the bottom.

My coworker has a favorite saying: Clear as mud? If this seems that way to you, you may want to check out some YouTube videos that demonstrate the process. This one was helpful, although the people talking and shouting in the background were quite distracting.

OK, that wraps up my first ever tutorial post! The combination of these scattered around my kitchen and the 60 degree temperatures we're having is making me think SPRING!!!

Goal: Cook More

One of my recent goals is to cook more frequently and be a better meal planner. Working three nights a week means I'm often eating PB&J in the car or heating up a quick frozen dinner on my 15 minute break. It's not the healthiest and I usually come home at 9:00 hungry. And, it leaves C and the kids up to their own devices. Which is okay; C is a good cook, but without a plan and a recipe, he usually resorts to frozen chicken nuggets or Marie Callender's chicken pot pies.

So, my best friend must have sensed what we were going through, because look what she made me for Christmas.

It's a kitchen-coordinated piece of stationery paper with the days of the week typed on to it. Slid into an 8x10 picture frame and paired with a dry erase marker, it makes a perfect meal planner. It's large enough that it has a presence on my countertop, meaning that I constantly notice it and am reminded to stay on track. At the end of the week, I wipe it clean with a paper towel and make a new plan without wasting any paper. As of today, we are rounding out 3 weeks of successful meal planning. It feels great!

I wish I could give credit where it's due...my friend got the idea from a blog somewhere out there, but can't remember where. So, whoever you are, I'm grateful!



What are your favorite resources for recipes? I'd be doomed without my subscription to Everyday Food!

{hand}writing

Dear Reader,

According to the Tiny Prints blog, today is National Handwriting Day! As someone who's a little obsessed with handwriting and letter writing, I couldn't let the day pass without mention. I plan to take a few minutes and write a friend a letter. I have one consistent "pen pal" in my life. My friend Katie, who is quite the jet-setter and has lived in quite a few different places around the world, most recently Guatemala. Now that she is back in Columbus for graduate school, we're no longer writing each other letters. But, that's silly! There doesn't have to be a great distance to cross in order to warrant writing a letter, right?!

Many have speculated on the demise of letter writing, and with it the dying art of calligraphy or even handwriting itself. The use of email, texting, iPads, Twitter, eReaders, netbooks and tablets means that we are spending less and less time actually writing. And kids are having less time in school devoted to penmanship and cursive writing. This was the focus of the Tiny Prints blog post from yesterday.

I remember being about 8 years old and just laboring over my cursive handwriting at the kitchen table, trying to craft elegant and uniform letters. Even then I was a handwriting nerd. I loved it. What I loathed, though, was that paper we had to use. Remember the extra extra wide ruled paper that was grayish in color and so thin that one little eraser mark made the paper tear? Ugh! We didn't have nuns cracking us over the knuckles with rulers over our penmanship, but still, we took it pretty seriously.

Apparently, kids are not getting this heavy handed (ha!) instruction anymore. What do you think? Is it just no longer relevant? I understand that there are more important things that need to be accomplished during the school day, but it does make me a little sad. Working with kids in the library's Homework Help Center or helping my husband grade papers, I've seen the illegible chicken scratch of kids today. With the safety net of spell check, their spelling is atrocious too. And don't even get me started on how they use "u" in place of "you". I'm not talking about texting; I'm talking IN THEIR HOMEWORK!

But, I digress. And I'm getting a little negative. This was a happy post about making someone's day brighter with a handwritten note. I hope you'll take a moment to jot something down in your own hand.

Sincerely,

Katie

{two months}

OK, I knew it had been awhile, but had not realized it's been two months since my last post! It makes sense though. The holidays. There's my explanation in one word. If that's all you want to read, that's perfectly fine. But, if you'd like a more wordy explanation for my absence, read on.

In the last two months, I:

• crept a little further into my 30s
• celebrated my baby turning 4
• read a lot--perhaps I can't really say that I read a lot, but considering the slump I had been in this fall, for me to have read 3 books in the last 2 months is pretty significant. Do you use Goodreads? I've rated and reviewed the books there. But, to sum up, I read and liked Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Faithful Place, and The Hunger Games. I liked Tana French's Faithful Place so much that I forced it upon my husband and my mom, and immediately went out and got another of her books: The Likeness. That's next up, I think. Although, I do also have to start A Short History of Women for book group.
• shopped, baked, and gift-wrapped in preparation for Christmas (little N's first!)
• started wearing a hat!!! (This is noteworthy because I have never worn a hat. Honestly. I look awful in hats. That is, I look awful in every hat in the world except for the one that my fabulous husband found on Etsy.)
• shoveled a lot of snow (while wearing my new hat)
• lost my grandfather
• spent a great deal of time among family; some happy times and some very sad times
• witnessed some old family traditions be abandoned
• made some goals for myself and our family--in case you'd like to try to help me stick to and follow through on these goals, I'll share a few in some later posts.

And how are you?

That's a Wrap!

The gift-giving season will soon be upon us. I'm already doing quite well on my shopping, thank you very much! I always like to tackle a crafty project to give as gifts and I have some fun ideas on that this year. Hopefully, things will go as planned and I can share that as well.

But for now, I'll share a gift wrap idea that my friend Margaret gave me:

Reuse your child's artwork!

I love this idea for so many reasons:

No guilt about throwing away the multitude of paintings and drawings that we don't have room to keep.*

By not purchasing wrapping paper, I'll save money.

It's an opportunity to reduce and reuse.

It adds a personal touch to a gift.

And, it's a special way to showcase your little artist's work. He or she will be thanked for the present and complimented on its one-of-a-kind wrapping!

~~~

*Of course I'll keep the really special ones. :) I've also been religiously photographing the art creations J brings home from preschool. At the end of the school year, I'll create a Shutterfly book of them as a keepsake.

Oops: A Follow-Up to Babywearing Pride

I have to share this as a follow-up to my post earlier this week on babywearing.

I was wearing N at the park yesterday while J and I were gathering acorns. I had noticed an older lady (with granddaughter) looking our way a few times. My immediate thought was that she was staring at N in my Gorgeous Baby pouch sling and passing judgement.

This had happened to me before. When N was just a few weeks old, J and I were out for a much-needed walk with N in the mei-tai when a nosy neighbor stopped me and lectured me on how she had seen "such bad things about those on the news". I politely responded that everything was fine and that I felt confident wearing her and that she was happy.

The lady stepped closer, peered in at N and continued to stare until she saw N make a little twitch. To which she replied, "Oh good, she is breathing." To which I replied, "Come on, J, let's get on with our walk."

So, yesterday afternoon, on the way to her car, I was not surprised when the staring lady approached us and said, "Be careful with those..."

My babywearing-defense radar went crazy and I opened my mouth to kindly but firmly refuse her unsolicited 'advice' when she continued, "We took some home the other day and they had worms and grubs inside."

Oh. She meant be careful with the acorns.

Oops.

Now I refer to her as the lady-who-kept-me-from-bringing-grubs (I'm not even exactly sure what these are, but what a hideous word!) into-my-house instead of the staring-lady-who-doesn't-get-babywearing-and-isn't-afraid-to-say-so.

That nickname, however, still applies to the neighbor.

Happy Babywearing!

is there a better time of year than fall?

No, there is not! :) And here's why I think so:

The richness of the colors...

The crispness in the air combined with the warmth of the sun...

The delicious smells and tastes...

This little guy's infectious anticipation and enjoyment of our annual trip to Lynd's Fruit Farm for apple picking and a hayride through the orchards

And, best of all, the family time that we are so anxious to carve out and cherish so much...

We were thrilled to have my parents along with us on our Fall Fun Day last weekend. It makes our hearts swell to see how immensely they relish in the company of J and N. I feel guilty for not capturing any of their special moments on camera that day, but am thankful that my mom was able to snap a rare family photo of the four of us.

I hope you are enjoying this lovely time of year as much as we are.

7 months and counting...

I use slings and carriers with my baby because...

I love having her safe in my arms and near my heart.

I love that she is content here.

I love seeing my husband get that extra cuddle time.

I love that she has an exciting view of the world around her.

{Post inspired by Stephanie's call to action. Visit Adventures in Babywearing.}

Many Moons

I have a special picture book review today. It might take some work to find it at your local library or bookstore because it was written many moons ago, in 1943, but it'd be worth it:


Many Moons by James Thurber, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin

I picked this book up for two reasons:

1) It's written by James Thurber, a humorist who grew up in and began his writing career in Columbus, OH. I would have loved to have met him. He traveled in the same circles as Dorothy Parker and E.B. White, had a career at The New Yorker... Oh, I just love it.

2) It won the Caldecott medal in 1944. My favorite book award is the Caldecott. I love picture book art. The illustrations are often what draw me to a book in the first place.

So, I curled up in bed last night and read this fantastic fantasy-fairy-tale of a picture book after the kids were in bed. I savored every word. I honestly felt myself smiling as I read it. It's light and fun, but also sweet and a little sentimental. It has a nice message about the innocence and creativity of children. You could even say that it's sort of a cautionary tale about over-thinking things and the difficulty in making a choice when you're presented with too many options.

As I read this tale (about a young princess who has taken ill and tells her father that the only way she'll get better is by having the moon), I once again had the feeling that kids' books today lack description. They lack language--beautiful language.

Without being wordy, Thurber incorporates lovely detail into this story.

For example, Princess Lenore is 10 years old, going on 11. A minor detail, yes, but what kid wouldn't pick up on that and identify with it? My 3 year-old is offended if we don't remember to tack on the "and a half" when we tell someone his age. And, his birthday is three months away, but he is already in a birthday-excitement-frenzy.

There's just a little extra something that "10 years old, going on 11" adds to the tone of the story as well as to the character.

I also enjoyed the fact that Thurber introduces each new character. They don't just pop in; they are introduced and have a backstory.

Many Moons is definitely an "escape" read. Each little detail, paired with the narrative and the illustrations sweep readers in. So refreshing! Check it out.

And, for those of you who are local, have you ever visited the Thurber House? I'm disappointed that I haven't yet, but I'll get there.

MOO!

For my birthday last year my parents got me the coolest gift. A mosaic photo frame from moo.com. It's hard to believe almost a year has gone by and I've not posted about it.

MOO is a site that takes your photos/designs and prints them on a variety of products, one of which are the mini-cards. These cards are approximately 1 inch by 3 inches and are the perfect size for storing in your bag (inside the handy MOO holder) and whipping out to share when asked for recent pics of your kids. But, they also fit into a mosaic-style picture frame to make really cool, interchangeable wall art.

Right now I'm having trouble deciding which of my cards I want displayed, so I've been playing around with different themes and layouts... I could go with calming scenery stills:

...or showcase the many {silly} faces of my kiddos:

I also think it could be fun to scan in J's artwork and create a mini-card mosaic of his masterpieces! Like these watercolors he painted this week:

I really like that idea, actually! Arranging the tiles would seem to him like putting together a puzzle, only there is no "right way" to do it, so the process would be completely open-ended and creative. Then, there's the added bonus that the images he's manipulating are his own creations. And, once he's older he would have ownership over swapping new images in and out of the frame--creating sort of a fluid, fluctuating portfolio!

What do you think? How would you MOO?

{And, whether you're new to MOO or not, check out their blog for inspiration!}

Good Grief

I've found myself missing my mother-in-law a lot lately. All of us who have experienced loss know that it is so hard to wrap your mind around the fact that someone is gone. For good.

If I see a purpleish-bronze PT Cruiser I automatically look at the driver to see if it's her. It's strange how ingrained these things are. Strange and very jarring at times, but I think it's also probably a comfort to us. It's comforting to know that we can remember so easily, or in this case, forget so easily that someone is no longer with us.

Here are a few things that always make me remember her. (And I hope this does not read like a eulogy.)

Books. Fran loved to read, and I think my career as a librarian gave me an automatic "in" with her. We read some of the same books, and she usually liked my recommendations. I remember when she borrowed my childhood copy of The Secret Garden, she couldn't believe she had never read it before. She liked to read outside her comfort zone; she'd go from Stephen King to historical fiction, from Harry Potter to some inspirational book about Catholicism. She also loved David Sedaris and went to see him speak the same night C and I went. It was a little awkward to laugh at his readings, knowing that my MIL was a few rows back!

Coffee. C and I were lamenting our home-brewed coffee recently, as it's just as savory as the cups we've been splurging on at some of our local coffee shops. C's mom drank coffee practically all day. She always got her pot ready the night before and set the timer. C remembers weekends as a kid when he'd go out to the kitchen, pour his mom a cup, and bring it in to her in bed. Even way back then he was a gentleman!

The Sunday Ads. What goes better with coffee than lounging on the sofa on Sunday morning, flipping through the ads? We used to go to Fran's a lot on Sundays for church and then breakfast and then camp out in the living room leafing through the newspaper.

This ring. Isn't it kind of neat? The family recently went through some of her jewelry, selecting pieces that were significant to us. I chose this. It's kind of fun to jiggle it around and try to line the little beads up in different configurations. If you sometimes get restless or fidgety like I do, then this is the right jewelry! I know that she bought it at one of the summer art shows, which she loved to shop.

And the summer art shows remind me one of the more "memorable" Christmas gifts she gave me. A leather fanny pack. It was beautifully made and probably pretty expensive, but...not my bag. Literally.

But, of course the passage of time can make things seem funnier than they were at the moment. Although I was raised in a strict it's-the-thought-that-counts environment, at that moment I was thinking, "has she ever seen me wear a bag like this? Does she still not know me after all these years?" Now, it's a funny story that gets an eye-roll and a smile before everyone starts up telling of their own worst gifts.

Maybe like worst gifts, we endure grief because we're going to come out better on the other side. With greater compassion. More understanding. More ready to laugh things off. And more hopeful that we'll remember it all.

For the Love of Pete! {the Cat}

Have those of you with young kids seen the picture book Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin? Pete the Cat loves his white shoes, and we love Pete the Cat!

If you have a toddler, preschooler, or young elementary student, you'll want to check it out. Jazzy rhythm, cool illustrations, and a feel-good moral. Plus, there's this really cool YouTube video of the author doing a live reading. We are having fun watching it at our house.

I hope to be posting about some other exciting new picture books that have been getting repeated readings over here. Blogging has taken a backseat to the back-to-school frenzy!

Who's Schooling Who?

We have a big black lab named Maggie and although she's a pretty good dog, "heeling" is not her strong suit. In fact, it's not one of her suits at all. She simply doesn't do it. Whether her leash is extended the full 16 feet or if it's reeled in nice and tight, she is barreling forward with not an ounce of concern for our shoulder joints. Typically on our walks we get that look from people, the one that suggests, "who is walking who?".

Well, right now we are in a school frenzy. C is gearing up for his 7th year of teaching and we are also researching, touring, and talking up preschool for J. It seems like every misbehavior comes with a school-related warning or reprimand:

"You need to wash your hands so that when you are at school you won't spread your germs."

"Let's practice listening because when you are at school you'll have to listen to your teacher."

"Teachers don't let their students come to school without shoes."

And some recent events here have caused me to wonder, "Who's schooling who?" Here are a few examples that have stopped me up short:

• With a dad who's a teacher, J has picked up on the phrase "my students". "Mama, at school, what do you think my students will want to play?" "Don't worry, I will share things with my students." Oh, what are his poor classmates in for?
• Prepping J for a preschool tour this morning I said, "We are going to look around at the preschool and see what kind of things they have there. You'll have to also be quiet and patient for a little bit while Mommy and Daddy talk to the teacher." He dryly replied, "You will need to be quiet and patient too because I might have to talk to the teacher."
• During the visit, C and I nodded as the director discussed the behavior, mindsets, and learning styles of 3 year-olds as it all sounded very familiar and we were reassured in our thinking that J is right on target and a very bright boy. We were no sooner back home and in the door, though, and he was acting up, giving me sarcastic answers, and while in a self-imposed time-out, peed and pooped his pants.
• Lastly, like the naive parents we are, we spontaneously decided to reward J's patience during the visit with a trip to Tim Horton's for some tim bits. Of course after he finished his two, he asked for more. C told him that was all we had and that two was a lot. J's face darkened and he said, "No, it's not. Two is two. Next time I want five."

As one of my coworkers would say, "What a trip!"

Speaking of trips, on our recent trip to Cincinnati, J appointed himself our navigator and frequently tried to grab maps out of our hands because he "knew the way". He'd also ask us questions about the animals and fish we saw at the zoo or the aquarium. We'd answer as best we could and he would promptly disagree with us and then impart his own knowledge on us.

No matter my opinions on Reggio Emilia philosophy, the Montessori Way, development-based or academic-based preschools, I think C and I are in for some schooling the J Way.

::winner::

The winner of The Elephant Keeper is... Emily H.



Thanks to those who entered. You should all go get a copy from your library. If you need more insight into the story to sell you on it, here is an essay from the author on his inspiration behind the novel.



In His Own Words
Christopher Nicholson, author of
THE ELEPHANT KEEPER

Exactly where The Elephant Keeper spilled from isn’t easy to say, but its origins seem to lay a long way back. If it is, to some extent, a celebration of the English countryside, it must be significant that I was brought up right on the edges of London; that, if I walked up a nearby hill, I could look in one direction over the vast expanse of the city, dark and, in those days, still subject to dense smog, while the other direction offered a view of unbroken green breached only by the spire of a distant church. The novel also emerges from a fascination with the exotic, and as a little boy I used to fantasize about zoo animals roaming the English countryside. In my bedroom I had a long procession of carved elephants, and downstairs, on the hall chest, lay a curving ivory tusk, half a meter long, fashioned into a paper-knife and engraved with the Nicholson coat of arms. I still have this grotesque object.


In 1984 I visited Nepal to walk round the Annapurna mountain bloc, and afterwards traveled to the Chitwan National Park, where I rode on an elephant for the first time. It was during this period that I made a series of radio documentaries for the BBC on the relationship between humans and animals; this work helped develop my thoughts on the differences between human and animal language. About the same time, I happened to visit the stately home of Longleat, in south-west England, where a safari park had been started, and I remember how excited I was at the sight of giraffes grazing in the park, which was landscaped in the mid 18th century. They looked perfectly matched to their surroundings. Although there were no elephants at Longleat, it was easy to imagine that there might have been; and maybe this thought eventually gave rise to that part of The Elephant Keeper set on a country estate.


During my twenties and thirties I began to collect old natural history books, especially those of the 19th and late 18th centuries - which I loved (and still love) for their eccentric illustrations and wonderfully romantic language. When I began to write the novel, one of my aims was simply to enjoy swimming in some 18th century language. The first draft was written in a whirl & probably took no more than six months, but there was a lot of reworking and rewriting. I carried out a good deal of library research into obscure 18th century texts on such matters as veterinary science, horse-breeding, gout, and I visited a number of 18th century estates for descriptive detail. The great country house and deer park at Petworth, in southern England, had some influence on the deer park in the novel. I also spent time with two elephant keepers at a zoo that held, in addition to several female elephants, a very large male. Male elephants are dangerous creatures; this one was not only ill-tempered but half-mad. I learnt a lot about the phenomenon of ‘must’ or ‘musth’, in which male elephants are attacked by a kind of frenzy; I used this in the novel.

GIVEAWAY: The Elephant Keeper

Once again Harper Collins Publishers are offering my readers a giveaway! This time it's a copy of The Elephant Keeper by Christopher Nicholson.

I wasn't familiar with the title, which is now being released in paperback, but there are a lot of positive comments surrounding it. The highly talented poet Nikki Giovanni said The Elephant Keeper is "the best book I've read in the last twenty years or so". High praise indeed!

The story is set in Bristol, England in 1766 as two baby elephants arrive from India nearly dead. An unassuming stable boy, Tom, finds himself their new caretaker and thus begins a remarkable bond.

My copy is en route and I'm anxious to read it.

To be entered in the giveaway, leave a comment sharing your favorite novel featuring an animal as one of the main characters. Charlotte's Web tops my list, which would also include Seabiscuit and Water for Elephants.

Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents. A winner will be chosen on Saturday, July 31, 2010.

Tweet this post for a second entry into the giveaway. Copy and paste the message below (and leave me a comment to say you did so):

Book giveaway from @k8ie: The Elephant Keeper http://www.dundeewriter.blogspot.com

How does your garden grow?

The latest lunchtime routine in our house is for J to have a PB & J picnic in the living room, watching DVR'ed Sesame Street, while I get some "me" time (or, more often, some baby time!).

Today's episode featured Mother Goose's Mary Mary (quite contrary) who planted a flourishing garden surrounding Oscar the Grouch's trash can abode. Aside from drawing smiles and compliments, the garden also provided opportunities for learning: reciting the nursery rhyme as well as discussing what gardens need in order to bloom.

It reminded me of this article I read recently in School Library Journal, discussing a new initiative in schools to incorporate gardening into the curriculum. According to a recent study from the U.K., gardening in schools encourages a healthy, active lifestyle, teaches teamwork and responsibility, and amazingly also "help[s] increase scientific knowledge and understanding, as well as improve[s] literacy and numeracy".

An independent research organization surveyed 1300 teachers and conducted in-depth observations of 10 schools to evaluate the impact of gardening in school. Results of the studies were incredibly positive. Teachers felt that gardening provided an opportunity to give their lessons a hands-on, real-world perspective, which "improved students' readiness to learn, encouraged them to take greater control of their own learning, and helped them become more active in seeking knowledge and solving problems".

I hope this kind of creative curriculum development is a growing (ha ha) trend in American education. Certainly, there is much more discussion these days about meeting kids where they are: experimenting with various teaching methods to aid students who may not learn in a traditional classroom setting. It seems that our public schools are taking cues from the success of more non-traditional forms of education like Reggio Emilia and Montessori.

One teacher interviewed in the study noted that gardening provided a positive contrast from the traditional teaching environment, which can be "frustrating for those who have difficulty focusing or other barriers to learning".

An inspiring book on this topic, and one that my husband uses with his middle schoolers each year, is Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. It is a simple, yet moving story of how a community garden in a low-income neighborhood changes many individuals' lives. I highly recommend it--actually, all of Fleischman's books are gems. He's one of those authors who write with such beautiful simplicity that his characters and stories remain prominently with

you for a long time.

I hope you are enjoying some great summer reads as well as sampling some tastes of the season from a local garden. If you have thoughts on gardening, especially with children, please share!

To Kill a Mockingbird Anniversary

To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary

Thanks to my friends at Harper Perennial for reminding me that Sunday, July 11 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. They are making a big celebration out of it here, including the publication of a special 50th anniversary edition. I couldn't let this pass by without a mention. What a special and spectacular book. And what about Gregory Peck in the movie? So powerful. I think To Kill a Mockingbird may be the only instance in the history of turning books into movies that the movie actually does the book justice.

I'm not sure how old I was when I first read To Kill a Mockingbird, but I think I was probably in middle school or junior high. I remember it being summertime, so the sweltering Alabama heat in the novel was made all the more tangible for me. Having read this book at a relatively young age, it was a real eye-opener. It was the beginning of reading not just for fun and pleasure, but to become immersed in settings, cultures, and mindsets different from my own.

Recently, I've read a couple of books that reminded me in various ways of To Kill a Mockingbird. First, Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief. The main character Liesel's foster father Hans is a German Atticus Finch. Set during World War II, the novel explores the racial persecution of the Jews in a unique manner--through German characters who are opposed to Hitler. Hans is a sturdy rock for his family to trust in, as their world is turned upside-down by war, fear, and injustice. He is an incredible model of patience and tolerance; the word 'noble' best describes his character. Atticus and Hans will always be memorable characters in my mind because of the tenderness they show their children, which is an often rare virtue bestowed on men in literature.

Two other books are being compared to To Kill a Mockingbird for the way they narrate stories about racial segregation in the South during the 1960s. One is the phenomenal book by Kathryn Stockett, The Help, and the other is Minrose Gwin's The Queen of Palmyra (of which I previously blogged a review).

What are your emotions and memories associated with reading To Kill a Mockingbird? I'd love to read your comments here. What other books do you consider to be as powerful? Are there any current books you think will be in the spotlight 50 years from now?