Bird and Little Bird

Library Monday: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.

I know that I promised a special Library Monday post on a very, very favorite book for today, but Mariam and I are still deeply involved with our read-aloud of the book that I had wanted to share, and we need another week or so to finish it.  Because it is long.  Really long.  Many hundreds of pages.  And it is probably much better suited for older children because I am having to do a whole lot of on the fly editing as I read.  But it is oh-so-good just the same and the two of us are absolutely loving the shared reading of it.  We'll talk about it next week, okay? 

In the meantime, this week's Library Monday post is about another book that is generally regarded with much, much enthusiasm around our house: Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes.  I know that I have mentioned previously how much Mariam and I enjoy Kevin Henkes' books.  His characters are incredibly quirky and sweet and his stories tend to approach some of the trickier bits about being a small person in a big world in just the perfect way. 

This is certainly true of this book in particular.  Lilly is a mouse of great spirit and spunk.  She has incredible enthusiasm for everything that she undertakes and when she is excited about something new or wonderful, she struggles to contain that excitement in exactly the way pretty much every kid I've ever met also struggles.  When she returns to school after the weekend, sporting a shiny, purple, plastic purse that she thinks is simply magnificent, this excitement exceeds its school day boundaries and Lilly finds herself in trouble with the one person whom she admires the most: her teacher, Mr. Slinger. 

One of the things that is so great about this book, is the way that it gently approaches the idea of anger and the way that being angry can impact our actions.  It's obviously a useful lesson for the small set, but this book manages to discuss anger, remorse and making things right without coming off as being preachy or overwrought in any way.  In fact, it's pretty funny.  Lilly does indeed behave impulsively in her anger towards Mr. Slinger, and makes a mess for herself, but she also owns up to her mistakes, and then manages to be brave enough to admit to being wrong and to set about making amends.  If you ask me, this is a life lesson that many of us could still benefit from even as adults!  

Aside from the story, readers will appreciate the colorful, humorous illustrations in this book.  Lilly, her classmates and her family are all drawn with wonderful details, most especially some of their facial expressions as the story moves on.  The illustrations really bring this tale to life, and paired with the great narrative, this is one picture book that holds up well for repeated reading.  Very well indeed. 

My Feline Nemesis.

 

This guy.  I've been working on him here and there for the last week or two, and kept having this nagging feeling that something was just a little off.  I was getting really worried about it too, because this Mr. Meow was supposed to be the final prototype for the pattern, and his not coming out "just so" was making me feel very nervous that I didn't actually have the workable pattern that I thought I did.  I was taking pictures as I went along, hoping to use them for the photo tutorial of the Mr. Meow pattern, and maybe being so focused on each individual step in the making process somehow impacted my mental clarity.  Because, you see, I had this fellow entirely finished before I realized that indeed, something is definitely off.  He has a rabbit's body.  I'm not sure exactly how I got the pattern pieces mixed up, but I did, and now I've got a seriously funny looking cat on my hands.  I find this insanely frustrating.  This particular cat was intended to be a gift for my friend Max.  He is two, and kind of spectacular, and therefore deserves an absolutely perfect cat.  Not a weird rabbit/cat hybrid creature. 

So, this Mr. Meow is in need of a new home, and quick-like.  We are no longer on speaking terms and it would be best for all of us if he moved on.  I feel a little guilty for always offering you all my reject animals, so I promise that I'll offer up a giveaway of a perfectly perfect (or at least passably perfect) Bird and Little Bird creature very soon.  In the meantime, leave a comment here if you might be willing to offer this guy some shelter and three squares.  Assuming more than one person is interested, I'll pick a name out of a hat or some such thing around Wednesday or so.  

Last time we did favorite animals, I believe.  This time I'd like to know one place you absolutely want to visit sometime in your life.  For my part, I'm semi-obsessed with the idea of visiting the Galapagos and have told Dan that taking me there someday will be payback for supporting him through medical school.  Provided we all survive medical school, that is. 

Catch and Release.

Long mornings and evenings spent prowling the backyard have resulted in some quite unexpected encounters with our animal neighbors.  I'm more than a bit proud of how brave Mariam is (finally!) becoming when it comes to interaction with these animal friends.  However, I will also be the first to admit that Annie 2.0 was the only one among us actually brave enough to pick up the snake. 

Coconut Oatmeal Pancakes for You!

There is a great local restaurant in Burlington that makes excellent oatmeal pancakes that you can customize with things like chocolate chips and various bits of delicious ripe fruit.  Our favorite are the oatmeal coconut pancakes, and Mariam and I both woke up with a craving for them this morning.  We didn't have quite enough time before violin lessons to go out for breakfast, so although I could only assume we might not be able to truly replicate the pancakes in our own kitchen, I thought I might give it a go all the same.  I used Deborah Madison's Oatmeal Pancake recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (great cookbook, by the way!) as my jumping off point, but ended up with something quite different from her original recipe.  I think we were all pleasantly surprised by how well these turned out; a perfect combination of delicate coconut flavor and chewy oat goodness.  Definitely a keeper and super good with a dollop of blueberry jam or a nice puddle of maple syrup. 

Coconut Oatmeal Pancakes

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup coconut

2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup flour

Mix the oats, coconut and milk together in a bowl and set them aside for about twenty minutes to soften up a bit.  Beat the eggs, vanilla, brown sugar and oil together and stir this mixture into the oats.  Combine the flour, salt and baking soda and add them to the oat/coconut mixture.  The batter will be slightly runnier than you might normally associate with pancakes, but this is fine.  Pour 1/3 cup batter into a hot skillet and let cook until bubbles appear in the top of the pancake batter.  Flip and cook the other side of the cake.  Serve hot with maple syrup, fruit jam or a dollop of vanilla whipped cream. 

Sunday Sunshine.

Greetings from the land of sudden and frequent thunderstorms!  We've had two days of thunder, lightning, wind and rain so far, and apparently two or three more are on the way.  By Sunday morning, news of the weather week ahead had reached our household and had me very, very anxious to get outside while it was still a reasonable thing to do.  So, we headed over to a nearby walking trail that winds through the woods just above the lake. 

Mariam decided to don her superhero outfit for the occasion.  This consists of a cape, binoculars, and a "utility belt" carrying a couple of fabric pouches filled with all sorts of important items.  I'm not entirely certain, but I believe that these items include a wind-up mouse, a toy car, some miniature pandas and a feather.  According to Mariam, this superhero outfit is "guaranteed to scare bad guys two times out of five."  I'm not too sure about those odds...

While we were walking, we kept coming upon rocks covered in the nicest, fluffiest pale green moss.  At least I think it's moss, although I might well be mistaken because it seems to have a much different texture than what I generally associate with moss.

We also saw a couple of these things.  I have not a clue what this is, but I'm assuming that it is some kind of woodland fungus.  It's perhaps hard to tell from this picture, but it's good sized, probably about the size of a small cantaloupe.  Any ideas what it might be? 

Library Monday: The Wind in the Willows.

And... we're back!  My unplanned blog break got extended just a tiny bit by a combination of busy, lazy and summer, if you know what I mean.  But, we have been enjoying a particular book a very great deal over the last few days and I thought that Library Monday presented the perfect opportunity to share a bit.

On Friday morning last week, we received a surprise package on our doorstep.  I hadn't ordered anything, and therefore assumed it must be for Dan.  He hadn't ordered anything and thought it was probably mine.  In fact, it was a gift from our dear friends who had been visiting all week and had just returned to California the day before.  Inside the package was a hardback copy of The Wind in the Willows.  Somehow the subject of this book had come up during our friends' visit, and they had been surprised to hear that we didn't have a copy and hadn't read it to Mariam yet. 

Their surprise makes good sense.  The Wind in the Willows is a definitive childhood read-aloud that no child (or parent) should miss.  How had it thus far escaped our bedtime routine?  I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect it has something to do with the woefully inadequate illustrations that accompanied the paperback version I myself read as a child.  I remember loving the story, but needing a little something more to feel truly immersed in the tale (I read it to myself, I believe).  This edition has exactly that.  The illustrations here are provided by Inga Moore and they are absolutely beautiful.  The color and texture of these pictures really helps bring the characters and settings in this book to life, and Mariam has been head over heels for it since the first page of chapter one.  In fact, our whole family is finding ourselves delightfully engaged in the reading of this one.  Last night, when Mariam asked Dan to read her chapter five, I almost balked because I didn't want to miss a chapter myself.  We haven't been quite this in love with a story since we picked up the original Winnie the Pooh stories a few years back. 

Part of what makes this book such a very good read is the way that the characters have huge and hilarious personalities that are so well portrayed through great writing and clever plot twists.  When you read tons and tons of children's literature, it sometimes begins to feel as though there is a whole lot of recycling going on when it comes to plot and problem in children's stories.  Reading older classics of the genre, like this one, can be such a breath of fresh air because everything about the story feels new and unexpected.  The main characters in this book, a water rat, a mole, a badger and an unusually stubborn and impulsive toad, are the best of friends and a constant source of adventure, consternation and amazement to one another.  Each individual chapter tells a particular story about the animals and their adventures, with more than a few chapters centering around the toad's obsession with bad driving and the promise of the open road.  We are in the middle of those chapters now, and Mariam has asked to go to bed early so that we can get to them as quickly as possible this evening. 

A book that has my girl watching the clock and hoping for early bedtime?  Um, pretty much priceless.  We are definitely moving through this one pretty quickly, and normally I might feel just a bit sad about such a wonderful story being finished so soon.  However, next on our reading list is a true favorite tale of mine, one which I have been waiting for Mariam to be old enough to hear (it is really long).  I'll share it with you next week, and may even have a copy to give away to somebody out there, just because.

It's nice to be back!