I Love Classic Children's Books

I have a secret. I love to read children's classics.

When I was in college I took a Children's Literature course. We had to read, analyze, and write essays on classic children's literature. The book we were required to buy was called Classics of Children's Literature, edited by John W. Griffith and Charles H. Frey. The book contains classic fairy tales (the kind that don't always have happy endings,) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Treasure Island, The Secret Garden, The Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan, and even The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and excerpts from Winnie the Pooh. There are other stories, of course, but those are my favorites. I still have the book; its page ends are folded and tattered from wear, and many of the stories are littered with the marks of a hard working student of literature - notes and thoughts hastily scrawled in the all too narrow margins, and underlined sentences noting symbolism, style and theme.

This is one of the many books that has a permanant spot on my nightstand. Several times a year, I crack it open and read a new story. Believe it or not, I still have not read them all.

I love how well written the stories are. The sentences are complex, the vocabulary is challenging, and the dialect is masterfully interwoven into the plot. When I look at children's literature today, even young adult literature (and for that matter, adult novels as well), I am hard pressed to find anything that is crafted so well. Don't get me wrong, there are many good stories out there, but that is where it stops - at the story level. A good story is wonderful, but what happened to quality literature? Where has the craft of writing gone? Where is the dialect, the figurative language, the sophisticated vocabulary, the description, and the long well-crafted sentence so common in the yesteryear? My biggest fear is that I may already know the answer to this question - such a masterpiece would never sell in today's society.

That being said, I look to children's classics as one of my sources of quality literature when I get the itch to read something that stimulates my mind and satisfies my strange, but unceasing hunger for inspired, formal and grammatically correct prose. Call me a language snob if you will, but the sound of a good classic is music to my ears. And the best part of children's literature (yes, even the language snob sometimes starts a sentence with "and") is that the stories are delightful and entertaining to read.

As an added bonus, those of you who share my occasionally warped sense of humor may find pleasure in the fact that Little Red Riding-hood does indeed get eaten up by the wolf at the end of the classic Perrault fairy tale. Come on, she should know better than to talk to strangers, right?

Bea

Sunday Serenity

S-man is home from his mother's and already asleep. I have some fried chicken in the oven and I am settling into my Sunday night relaxation mode. I try to enjoy Sunday evenings because this is the last time I get to relax until next weekend.

Let me describe the serenity. Spaz is curled up under the desk light next to the computer absorbing the heat, and HappyD is lying on the floor by my feet vigorously ripping apart and gnawing at what is left of her rawhide bone. I can smell the Shake and Bake chicken cooking in the oven, and I can hear the last load of laundry flopping around inside the dryer, the buttons clinking with each turn like a hailstorm outside the window on a frosty winter's night. It's the simple things that make me feel at peace.

S-man came home in a good mood tonight, and that always makes me feel good too. I put some new books (new books meaning simply different books from his shelf) down on the floor for him to choose from. I have to admit this is not a very objective process because, of course, I pick my favorites off the shelf. He chose The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I love this book.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, is a short simple book about metamorphosis, and kids love it. The illustrations are bright and have a "painted" quality to them. S-man loves to count all of the fruits that the caterpillar eats through. We also talk about all the different colors and how they blend together. I know many of you are probably already familiar with this book, but if you're not, check it out. It is quick and fun to read with your toddler or preschooler.

I hope you are enjoying this wonderful Sunday evening.

BEA (retiring back into relaxation mode)

Fried chicken - yummy, yummy! (to the tune of The Wiggles, "fruit salad, yummy, yummy...")

Diary of a Bibliophile - Day 2

What I'm reading: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Coffee Consumption: 1 coffee, 1 chai (excellent!)

Okay, I've found another great book. I am reading this on the heels of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, so it is appropriate that it is about the mother of a teen killer.

In this book, Shriver tells the story of a sixteen year old boy who goes on a shooting rampage in his high school. What makes this book unique is that the story is told from the perspective of his mother through a series of letters written to her estranged husband.

The story takes a hard look at how it feels to be the parent of a killer. The main character searches her soul for the causes of her child's tragic downfall. She questions herself, her marriage, and her reasons for having a child in the first place. She examines her feelings honestly, and challenges the reader to take a closer look at the typical American family. In essence, her examination of her own life is really a microscopic look at one cell, of many, that breathes life into our culture as a whole. Are we, as a society, in some way partially responsible for breeding a generation of killers?

I am only at the beginning of the book, and already I have all these questions racing through my mind. What is a good parent? What is our real motivation for having a child in the first place? Is it selfish? Are we responsible for the actions of our children? Up to what point? How much can we control? Whose fault is it when a child, like Kevin, loses control? The child? The parent? Both? Our society as a whole? What are our cultural values concerning children and are they healthy? What is our collective responsibility to our society and its children? I love a book that makes me think.

Shriver is also an excellent writer. Her sentences are long and witty, sprinkled with every day anecdotes to which everyone can relate. And as much as I love contemporary fiction, I find many of the novels I read mind-numbingly (okay, maybe I made that word up, but perhaps it will be added to Webster's next year?!) simplistic in style and vocabulary. Not so with this book. Shriver has a gift for artfully styling her sentences. She also uses vocabulary that is not geared toward your average fifth grade student (the practice of which has spread like a cancerous tumor through popular fiction these days.) I hate it when I have to read a classic just to get my fill of well-written prose. (More on that another day.) But this month, I won't have to do that. We Need to Talk About Kevin is written for an adult audience and it actually uses adult vocabulary.

Okay, enough ranting. This is a great book! Get it. Read it. You won't be disappointed. The theme is current, the story is well-crafted and the vocabulary is refreshing.

I give it five out of five Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans. (Stars are so passe'.)

Bea

Nineteen Reasons to Read Nineteen Minutes

"In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge."

~Jodi Picoult Nineteen Minutes

Here are 19 reasons you should read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult:

1. School shootings can happen anywhere.


2. Bullying is a reality for many teenagers.


3. You will recognize the setting - a typical suburban high school.


4. The killer, Peter, seems like just a normal kid.


5. The judge's daughter, Josie, has a secret.


6. Jordan McAfee is Peter's attorney.


7. Picoult will make you wonder who committed the real crime.


8. You will get to peek into the mind of an adolescent.


9. You will ask yourself, "How well do I know my own children?"


10. Picoult lets you be the judge.


11. Picoult examines the complexities of high school class structure and cliques.


12. Picoult will make you think.


13. Picoult will make you cry.


14. Picoult will open your eyes.


15. The plot is complex and intriguing.


16. You won't be able to put it down.


17. Picoult has a gift for seeing all sides of a story and communicating those sides in a compelling narrative.


18. The characters are realistic; they could be your neighbors, your friends, or even your own children.


19. Nineteen Minutes is timely; it is the here and the now.

Young Adult Book Buzz

Here are some Young Adult favorites:

1. Pretties by Scott Westerfield (also Uglies, Specials, and Extras)
2. Twilight by Stepenie Meyer (also New Moon and Eclipse)
3. Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (also The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass)
5. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (also Eldest)

Books and Growing Up

Tonight S-man and I read his Elmo "look and find" book for toddlers.

Here is how the book works: the child looks at about six pictures in a box on the left and has to find them in the scene on the right. Since the book is for toddlers, the pictures are bright and colorful portrayals of everyday objects. In this particular book, each page has a color theme. For example, all of the objects that you have to find in the first scene are red; there is a fire hydrant, mittens, an apple, a pair of books, paw prints, and a balloon.

Tonight I realized that my Superman (S-man) is growing up. When we read the book together, he confidently pointed to each object and immediately found its match on the opposite page. He did it in a bored, sing-songy way too. When I asked him what color the pictures were on each page, he looked at me like "Duh," before rattling off the correct answer. I was amazed at this sudden transition from confused toddler to blooming preschooler.

"When did this happen?" I thought.

It wasn't long ago that I was so worried he would be "behind" because he kept mixing up blue and green. And the picture search took an eternity; I remember having to remind myself to give him time. Don't rush him. Let him find it. He will get it. No, you don't need to give him hints. Yes, at some point this bedtime routine will end. The book will close. He will go to sleep. No, it will not really take him until tomorrow, it just seems that way right now.

Now that has all changed. He knows his colors. It's easy to find the pictures. It's time to put away the toddler "look and find" and break out the I Spy.

Thank you Elmo, for reminding me that time goes fast and I need to enjoy each moment I share with my little S-man. After all, he won't be little much longer.

Bea

Shakespeare in the hood?

"Fear not, Dude, I'll take care of it."

This is an eighth grader's rendition of Puck's line in Act II of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The original line:
"Fear not, my lord; your servant shall do so." ~Shakespeare