Being Observant

Walking around the U of M campus this week has been eye-opening. Not only did I take in new buildings and signs of spring, but I noticed things that had been there for many years, things I did not notice walking around campus 25 years ago. With my camera in hand, I looked at things with age and experience and wonder. Thousands of students walk by Northrop Auditorium (http://northrop.umn.edu/about/northrop-revitalization), a campus icon since 1929, but hardly any looked at the bare beams and emptiness (where the stage used to be). None stopped to take photographs!

What changed in me to make me more observant? I like to think books have broadened my world and given me different perspectives. Through my work, I have met so many incredibly observant people who teach me about seeing things differently. They help me to take time to observe.

The children I encounter each day certainly seem observant. They notice tiny details in book illustrations and tell me about things they see outdoors. Are they able to see and wonder more as a result of the books they read and have read to them? I hope they go out into the world seeing and noticing.

Overflowing With Words

Tonight we braved the light rail construction project and trekked across University Avenue to one of my favorite places to meet dear friends for tea and great sandwiches. In the middle of the lobby area is this gigantic cup, overflowing with the comforting sound of gently falling water. Its sides are engraved with numerous thoughtful quotations (and my teenagers each discreetly snapped images of their favorites). I appreciate it when words spill into our lives in unexpected ways.

Spring Book Festival

The school's spring book festival began today with bubbling enthusiasm from all the students who got to visit on the first day. I was privileged to meet with all the kindergarten classes to share highlights from the inventory with them. One afternoon student asked, "Are you going to talk about the same things with us as you did with the morning kids?" To be honest, I did not. There were so many interesting things to share that I kept selecting different titles for each of the six groups. Gathered in front of me on the floor, their eyes followed every book and movement. I love that books have that power!

Some of my favorites from the day:
Poem Runs by Douglas Florian - especially the illustration for "Catcher", which makes it seem like the catcher's mid-section is a big catcher's mitt

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers - in which Floyd gets his kite stuck in a tree and attempts to release it by throwing other things at it, all of which get stuck

Bird Talk by Lita Judge - with all the birds singing in spring, it is the perfect book to make us think about what all the songs might mean

Here Come the Girl Scouts! by Shana Corey - about the life of Juliette Gordon Low

Home Away From Home

While some construction is being done in our home, we are fortunate to live in a friend's home in the city. It has been nice to eat at different restaurants and walk/run in familiar (the U of M campus) places. Most delightful this evening was my discovery of a Little Free Library (www.littlefreelibrary.org) just around the corner. If you have not seen one of these yet, I hope you will find one soon. I would love to have one in my yard - to share books, to see what others bring, and to secretly watch others open the library door and take a treasure.

I Have a Question

Last week after I finished reading Rapunzel (Paul O. Zelinsky's 1998 Caldecott Medal version) to third graders, one usually quiet student raised her hand and said, "I have two questions."

First, if there are no doors to the tower, how did Rapunzel and the wicked stepmother get in it in the first place? Her classmates had lots of possibilities, all involving magic.

And then, how could the blind prince wander and still find berries and roots at the end? Again, creative answers helped her contemplate possibilities.

After that, they flooded me with more and more questions, the most interesting focused on how her wicked stepmother would have known Rapunzel was going to have a baby and was not just getting fat. I explained the best I could...I can only imagine the dinner table conversations that night.

Childhood Reading

Most of my early reading materials were Golden Books and those square cardboard books published by Witman. My paternal grandmother worked at Woolworth's, and I think she bought many of them for me. My maternal grandmother had a collection of books likes that (like Mr. Punnymoon's Train, published as a Rand McNally Elf book), and she read them to me and our extended cousins. When my maternal grandmother died, she left instructions that I should get the figurine of a little girl reading. I love its colors and thoughtfulness, but I especially love that my grandmother wanted me to have it. I hold it sometimes just to be a bit closer to her spirit.

Until a few weeks ago, I thought it was just a Hummel look-alike. A wise friend was admiring it and told me that Maria Innocentia Hummel often signed her pieces along an edge. She showed me the raised signature along the hem of the little girl's dress. What a treasure it is, sitting on a shelf near my picture book collection.

Chopsticks

Typing the post's title, I imagined the musical version of "Chopsticks" played by Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia in Big. Amy Krouse Rosenthal's newest book of the same title makes me smile just as much. Best friends forever, Chopsticks go everywhere and do everything with each other. When an accident results in a clean break for one of them, the friends decide they must separate during the rehabilitation. With a Chop, Chop, the healthy friend sets off to discover new possibilities (like pick-up sticks) until the two are reunited with a toast.  Her previous collaboration with illustrator Scott Magoon was Spoon, and it, too, is filled with puns.