What Makes You Happy?

Just a few words into Amy Schwartz's 100 Things That Make Me Happy, I needed paper and my rhyming dictionary. She thoughtfully combines everyday sorts of objects and experiences (lest one think only things can bring about happiness) in rhymed pairs. And it is not just one character featured in the charming illustrations. Children and adults of many colors express joy in "grandma's lap/a ginger snap" and "chocolate chips/camping trips" and 96 assorted other things. I could not help but make my own list of things that make me smile, experience that cause gratitude to bubble within me, people whom I appreciate and adore.

Caramel apple pecan pie

A favorite pen always nearby

My own bed

Homemade bread

Earl Gray tea

Lighted Christmas tree

The book's brightly-striped end papers make me happy. So do the kids doing handstands and those holding hands. So do the rhymed pairs I have been composing. My list continues. I would love to know some of yours.

Kid Book

Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads makes me giggle. When hope rides into Dry Gulch in the form of a kid on a tortoise, I find it humorous when the narrator tells the reader to "give him a minute." When the pot-bellied mayor asks the kid his business ("I'm your new sheriff"), I laugh at both his lack of qualifications and his key skill ("I know a really lot about dinosaurs"). Whenever the Toad brothers strike, the sheriff is certain they were not to blame! What a surprise Bob Shea incorporates into the story's resolution...and how perfectly Lane Smith's artwork complements the tone and text. The last page makes me giggle again. Every time I read it. Now I need to share it to some younger readers - and hope they think it is as funny as I do.

The only hesitation about it is the skin color of Kid Sheriff (white) and the Toads (brown). My middle son, ever cognizant of justice and fairness, pointed out that contrast immediately.

Santa Clauses

It looks like winter today in Minnesota. Half the buses were late at the end of the day (translating to 350 kids in the gym waiting to go home). Coats, snowpants, and boots spilled from the coat hooks onto the floor. A thick layer of ice coated my vehicle. My neighbor kids are still playing in the semi-darkness, savoring this first snowfall.

Perhaps it is fitting, then, to share Bob Raczka's new book today. Santa Clauses: Short Poems from the North Pole is a collection of haiku, written by Santa. One poem expresses his thoughts or activities for each day from December 1 to December 25, beginning with an onslaught of letters (what he calls "December's first storm"). The poet likens sprinkled sand to nutmeg, the elves's work to a holiday symphony, heavy workshop sawdust to snow accumulation. With images both beautiful and witty, the poems tell the story of preparation for a sleigh flight over "a toy train layout," with plenty of moments in between to indulge in winter pleasures. Chuck Groenink's artwork is the perfect accompaniment to the  haiku. Full-page spreads in wintry hues dominate the illustrations, and spot art focuses the reader's eye on Santa's skinny shadow or the wolf carolers on a hill. 

Many of my friends buy a holiday book each year for their families. This is the one for us. 

Winter Bees

Winter is coming. Soon, it seems. A winter storm watch is in effect for the early part of the week with lows in the single digits. Lover of winter that I am, I keep quiet about my glee while others lament the start of this long season in Minnesota. Thankfully, I have a few hardy friends who also like the chilly season!

My friend and teaching partner spent the afternoon at the Red Balloon Bookshop celebrating winter  - and Joyce Sidman's Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold - with me. Numerous starred reviews preceded today's book event. In Winter Bees, Joyce captures winter's images through the actions of creatures who must prepare for and endure winter by migrating, preparing shelter, gathering food, keeping warm, and hibernating. Accompanying each poem is text explaining each creature's habits and adaptations. Rick Allen's detailed and gorgeous illustrations "were made through the unlikely marriage of some very old and very new art mediums." Some of the linoleum blocks carved for the artwork are in the above photograph. After listening to Joyce talk about the inspiration for "Dream of the Tundra Swan" (hearing them fly above her at about this same time of year) and read two other poems, members of the audience shared their favorite winter poems and songs. 

It was a lovely inspiration for us to plan a winter poem event with our staff, a quiet way to celebrate a season of frigid temperatures and ways to be warm.