From My Hands to Theirs

In the latest issue of The Horn Book, Viki Ash and Betty Carter attempt to answer what good books should be given at baby showers. Books have been my baby shower gift-of-choice for many years, so many that my husband adopted it for showers at given for his colleagues.

Today we celebrated with my cousin Amy whose first baby will arrive in August. She received Move! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, On the Day You Were Born Photo Journal by Debra Frasier (and inscribed for the baby by her), and Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.

I give the last title to every baby. Every time I go to the Red Balloon Bookshop, I purchase another copy. Really. Sometimes they have to order copies for me. The young mom who swipes my card at the community center got one. My neighbor down the street received one. All the relatives get one. My school nurse will get one this week. It was not on the list in The Horn Book, but it is the best gift for baby showers.

The simple, sing-songy text is perfect for young ears. "Here are my hands for catching and throwing./Here are my feet for stopping and going." Children of all colors demonstrate the things hands, feet, heads, noses, eyes, ears, knees, necks, cheeks, teeth, elbows, arms, chins, and skin can do. Best of all, it was illustrated by Ted Rand, a man who became dear to me near the end of this life and whose wife Gloria (an author) is a cherished friend. Ted dedicated this work "To Gloria, Theresa, and Martin. From my hands to your hands." Each time I hold the book in my hands and give it to another set of hands, I think of Ted, Gloria, and their children, knowing how special books - and this one in particular - are to others.

Buttons

Sometimes when a book I really want to read arrives in an order, restraint is difficult to find. Today I intentionally did not even open the box in an effort to contain my anticipation.

So, after school I took Anne Ylvisaker's Luck of the Buttons with me for a read walk - and immediately Tugs Button gained status on my list of favorite characters.

"Tugs used to think that everyone's name was in the dictionary, and when she had realized it was only hers, both Tugs and Button, she felt suddenly fond and possessive of it, as if this book were put here for her guidance alone." (p. 43)

Tug incorporates rapscallion into her vocabulary after being called one and then seeking its meaning in the revered dictionary. She forms an unlikely friendship with Aggie Millhouse, Goodhue's most prominent young citizen. Her fascination with picture making/picture taking leads to a charming relationship with Eldora and Elmira, the Thompson Twins, and their incredible camera collection. A sixth sense about mischief helps her warn others about the sly gentleman who claims he will bring progress to Goodhue, Iowa in 1929.

Instead of giving away too much, I will stop...and encourage you to read this lovely novel. Also check out Anne's wonderful blog entries to discover stories behind Luck of the Buttons: http://www.anneylvisaker.com/.

I Feel Better When

What makes you feel better when you have a headache? Most likely it would not be having hole bored in your head or getting a shock from an electric eel. Yet those are actual cures used over time and found in Carlyn Beccia's latest book I Feel Better With a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures.

The response from students has been tremendous. Though their facial expressions indicate disgust and disbelief, their interest in the topics is high. The book is in great demand! After every class, the children beg to read it until their library time is finished. A group of ten gathered around one reader today to hear about stomachache cures! Sometimes a solitary reader finishes the whole thing himself.

Teachers have been just as interested as the children! One fifth grade colleague was happy her simple machines unit transferred to other learning opportunities. A student pointed out that the eighteenth century process of terpanning (making a hole in the skull) was done with a simple machine!

Go to ifeelbetterbook.com for more information about it.

In the Fridge

This chocolate bunny cupcake (and dozens of others) were in the refrigerated case of a lovely cafe called Cupcake. With names like Carol Brady, Claire Huxtable, Mad Cow, Toad Stool, and Monster Bite, I imagine all sorts of conversations going on in there.

The same is true in Fran Manushkin's 2006 book The Shivers in the Fridge, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. The five members of the Shivers family appear to reside in a usually dark and scary place where earthquakes occur frequently and a monster (a human hand) invades to remove objects like Cheesy Square, Jelly, and Mt. Ketchup.

The book is perfect for illustrating point-of-view, and the primary students were enthralled with it today. They loved how Papa and Buttery Cliff disappeared when the monster invaded, how Mama gets stuck in Emerald Lake (Jell-O) and then removed with Jolly Whip, and how Sonny Shivers climbs the Purple Boulders (grapes) and eventually ends up looking at the smiling face of the monster. Eventually, all the Shivers end up on the fridge where magnets belong.

Though many students clambered to check out the book after storytime, we have nothing quite like it in the library. Several were content with Pam Conrad's The Tub People, and one like Not in the House, Newton by Judith Heide Gilliland.

Have You Read? #15

Favorite feasts are many in my life, and reading A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World, edited by Don George, has stirred my own experiences to the surface this weekend. The book is a collection of thirty-eight vignettes written by chefs, food critics, travel experts, and poets, and each brings something interesting to the table.

As a vegetarian, some descriptions are a bit too graphic and detailed, but I loved going to a place through someone else's words, to witness the circumstances and people that made the food experience possible. Even the titles are enticing: "The Ways of Tea" and "Italy in Seventeen Courses" and "Chai, Chillum, and Chapati."

Though I loved reading about the unique foods around the world, I loved more that the writers focused on the situation, those who made the meals, those who surrounded them as they ate. Yesterday my godmother brought me a quart of the maple syrup she and my uncle made just weeks ago. I love just looking at the jar, looking through the amber-colored syrup. When we eat it on our waffles or pancakes, I will savor it more, knowing someone I love gathered and boiled gallons of sap!

In the introduction, George writes: "We feast on the love behind and within the offering, love for a moment, a lesson, a gift, for companions and connections, that will never be repeated and can never be replaced." Along with my mom, my aunts, and close family friends, we cooked, served, ate, and did dishes together yesterday. There were many things I appreciated on the table: a fabulous quinoa salad, the butterhorn rolls we all love, my aunt's apple kuchen. But most of all, I loved being with the people I love. That never-to-be-repeated meal and circumstance rests in my heart today.

Back Home Again

"We're going home," I told many people today. I have a home, of course, in Minnesota. Yet "going home" also means going to my parents' home in Wisconsin. Every time we get close, I think of the things I love about this place, like the grate above my grandparents' fireplace and the secret pull-down stairs to their attic, the long walk-in closet of my childhood room, and the huge park just blocks from my home.

And as I write tonight, I am upstairs near the shelves of books I knew as a child...Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern (and illustrated by Simms Taback) which David reminded me of the other day, all those Tell-a-Tale books like Someplace for Sparky and Amy's Long Night, the Maj Lindman books. Downstairs is the bookcase with all the titles my nieces and nephew love to read with Grandma (and will want to read with me tomorrow).

Such comfort home brings.

More Than a Little Respect

Last winter in Italy, the food customs were not a problem for me! I love my morning breakfast tray, afternoon gelato, and late evening dinners. I did carefully consider the social customs as I entered and left buildings and interacted with salespeople and the concierge, thoughtfully choosing my Italian words to show my respect.

John and Aiko, the two characters in Ina Friedman's How My Parents Learned to Eat, are careful to consider each other's customs in order to demonstrate how much they respect and care for one another. John is afraid to ask Aiko to dine with him because he cannot eat well with chopsticks; he tries to learn one afternoon at a Japanese restaurant. Aiko thinks John would not want to dine with her because she does not know how to eat like an American; she goes with Great Uncle to a restaurant and learns to eat like the English with her fork and knife. Little does the other know the great effort it has taken to show their respect for the other person's customs...and then Aiko's skills are not even ones John has seen in America!

Our school's Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) model seeks to reinforce three basic principles of behavior: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Safe. We have started a book collection that supports many virtues in line with those principles. Fourth grade students listened to this book on the story steps this afternoon at their teacher's request for me to share a book that echoed acts and words of respect. How My Parents Learned to Eat shows so many respectful acts and words, and the students were so engaged with the story!

Though we talked about ways John and Aiko showed their respect for each other, they mostly wanted to talk about food customs in the cultures they know best, and the multi-cultural group before me had many to share. What an enlightening afternoon reading experience it was!