Bird and Little Bird

Here and There.

By which I mean here.  At home.  It has been raining like crazy for the last two and a half days, and considering the baby's lack of enthusiasm for tromping around in the out of doors in a storm, plans like sailing paper boats down at the lake have had to be put on hold.  Which is fine, I suppose.  It's four o'clock on a Wednesday and I'm in my pajamas, and if I were younger or cooler (or both) I might try to pretend that this doesn't constitute my idea of awesome.  But I think we all know better. 

I needed to re-up on my various gluten-free flour blends, so a few minutes was dedicated to that cause this afternoon.  I'm pretty much exclusively baking out of the magical book at this point, so I use the flour blends from there.  I have strong and deep feelings about the importance of having the kitchen situation run as smoothly as possible these days, hence the need to mix up larger batches of flour ahead of time so that I can just bake when the whim strikes (instead of doing lots of measuring and mixing when I would just like to eat a cupcake already). 

In other news: 

- Imagination Soup has a nice little post about Alphabet Glue up, and you can find both a free project download and a discount code by hopping on over to check it out.

- For Read Aloud Book Along families, the first surprise activity has been posted to the site, and you can find it on the picture book page.  The chapter book activity should be up in a day or two.  I've chosen the books for the July round of the Book Along and will be sending out an email with the selections by the end of the week.  They are uniformly awesome reads, and the chapter book is so incredibly good that I cannot wait to read it along with you.  If you'd like to join us for July, email me at [email protected] and I will get you set up. 

- It is more than possible that I have been secretly working away on a very fun project that I will be sharing with you all shortly.  Hopefully by Monday, if not sooner. You'll totally know it when you see it.

Library Monday: The Tree House

The Tree House by Marije and Ronald Tolman is that rare type of picture book that truly gives readers credit for their imagination. The story, or rather the illustrations that create the skeleton of a story, is constructed in such a way that it is the reader who truly decides what is happening here, and the possibilities appear endless.  

Wordless and whimsical, The Tree House depicts the arrival and departure of various (seemingly incongruous) animals from a tree house that begins the tale partially submerged in a nameless body of water. First a polar bear arrives by whale, followed by a brown bear via boat.  The water recedes, revealing the land below and making the treehouse accesible to others.  A procession of other animals follows, including everything from flamingos to pandas, owls, and a peacock. In the end, the water rises again, leaving the polar bear and his brown bear friend alone in the treehouse to catch snowflakes in butterfly nets and watch the moon rise in the sky above.  

Being wordless, the illustrations in this book take center stage and are entirely captivating.  The animals are rendered using simple, clean lines, but the treehouse itself has a layered, complicated look to it that is reminiscent of architectural plans or something similar.  The combination is perfect for encouraging the reader to look closely so as not to miss anything that might be happening in the picture.

The Tree House appears to be one of those books that gets excellent reviews and is well loved by those who come across it, yet remains a bit tricky to find.  We got lucky at our local library, although we needed to go to the larger downtown branch to find the book.  I highly suggest doing a little search to see if you can find this treasure for yourself. 

Revisiting a Summer Reading Resource.

If I wasn't before, I am now reasonably certain that the reason that people have more than one child is so that they can witness the ridiculous heartwarming cute of the older one reading to the little one.  Goodness. Reading together on the couch is a new favorite activity with my small people this summer, and it is whole heartedly endorsed by the folks running this place, let me tell you. 

Which reminds me, since there are a lot of new readers checking in here these days, I wanted to do a quick reshare of a very nice little resource for summer reading.  As some of you may remember, my friend Evan was so kind as to spend the time a couple of years back to take the Newbery Medal and Honor books and turn them into a handy printable document that you can tote along to library land when you are needing some extra guidance in filling the book bag.  It lists all of the medal winners and honorable mentions going back to 1950.  You can download the list as a PDF by clicking the link below.

Evan's Super Book List

Important and Also True.

I always forget this, but it turns out to be true, time and time again: if you grow it, you won't have to buy it.   One of those tiny miracles that also happens to be quite convenient.  

Day One.

Here is the thing about summer vacation: it makes it considerably more difficult to eat cake for breakfast without getting caught when your kids are hanging around the house all day.  

And so it begins.  Mariam spent our first official morning of summer vacation buildng a "toy factory" out of a mailing tube and a cardboard box.  It manufactures and delivers very small bears, as well as a chubby little stuffed penguin that appears to get stuck in the tube on the way down with some regularity.  Which, as I'm sure you already know, then requires taking apart your music stand so that you can attach colored pencils to the poles and use them to push the penguin on through.  Good stuff.

 

This summer, I am also taking my own advice.  Although we always check out mini-stacks of books from the Alphabet Glue booklists to read together, I generally read a lot of the titles on my own while I'm writing each issue and looking for good books to include.  This might be the first time that I've loaded up our library bag almost entirely with titles from the lists in the current issue so that Mariam and I can read a bunch of them together all at once.  We couldn't (and probably shouldn't) get all of the books from this issue; there are three very full lists in Volume Seven.  But, we did get a lot of the books from The Seasonal Shelf as well as some from the travel-themed list.  It's made me realize why exactly it is that I put so much time into making those lists in the first place.  They take forever to compile, but honestly, they really are all sorts of handy to have. 

With that in mind, between now and June 21st, if you purchase a copy of Volume Seven, I'll throw in a free copy of Volume Two (the last summer issue).  Then you'll have an absolute ton of seasonally themed reads to choose from, and that would mean nothing but good things.  Just make sure that the email associated with your PayPal address is the one that you'd like me to email the Volume Two file to since I'll need to do that manually.  

 

Playful Learning and Recycled Art Treasure Boxes.

Do you know one thing that I like very much? When I finally get to let you all in on a secret project that I've been working on behind the scenes, that's what.  I am therefore delighted to report that today you can read my very first post as an official and regular contributor to Mariah's awesome website, Playful Learning.  I'll be posting over there a couple of times a month, and I'll be sure to let you know when there is something new there that you might like to check out.  My first post is a Glue-style tutorial for making origami boxes out of recyled artwork.  You can find it here. They are perfect for the stashing and safekeeping of tiny summer treasures and I think that you will like them very much.  Make one, make a dozen, and, if you feel so inclined, perhaps you would pin the tutorial on Pinterest or share it via Twitter or Facebook?  It's always nice to get a new project started off on just the right foot, if you know what I mean. 

In other news, our friends at Sparkle Stories have a free story available in honor of Father's Day.  Click here to have a listen.  

Library Monday: Freedom Summer.

A book that is both full of hope and honesty, Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles has become a classic in children's literature because of its gentle but truthful approach to the story of desegregation in mid-century America.  Although the book could perhaps be faulted for being too kind to history, and it is certainly possible to argue that the story it tells is a simplified one, I would counter argue that these things are exactly what makes the book a good introduction to a challenging topic for young people.  

The students in the urban public school where I used to teach really loved this book, and I think that it resonated with them for a few reasons.  Among them was the idea that although the Civil Rights Movement was by no means as simple as a couple of kids deciding to get a popsicle together, it was hugely impacted by the small victories in the everyday lives of Americans from all walks of life. Viewing the movement through the eyes of individual children living their individual and ordinary lives allows young readers to imagine what their own feelings might be if they found themselves in a similar situation.  I've seen children who were read this book react with every emotion from amazement, to shock and outrage, to being really and truly touched by the genuine friendship of the boys in the story.  And one of the very best things about this book is the story of the friendship found within; it has a natural rhythm to it that will resonate with any child, I think.

A well-written text with beautiful pictures that become a perfect visual representation of the hazy heat of summer, Freedom Summer is a expertly crafted introduction to a chapter of American history that still desperately needs to be kept alive in our modern national discourse.  This book isn't just good; it's really important too. 

None.

It makes absolutely no sense how good these cupcakes are.  Especially considering that when I think about the recipe, it seems as though there isn't really anything in them.  So I don't understand how they could be so uniformly awe inspiring.  But they are.  They are gluten-free and vegan and are also soy and nut free. And, they are amazing.  Easily comparable to the best of conventional cupcakes and probably better than many of them.  They are the kind of baked good that challenges my conception of adulthood.  There is this circular argument going in my brain about how I could totally eat all of them because I am the grown-up here and I can do that if I want to.  But, I then reason, I absolutely should not eat all of them because I am the grown-up here and I should know better.  Sigh.  The recipe, like everything that I bake these days, is from here.

Oh! And speaking of food allergies, it looks like I owe a few of you guessing types a copy of Alphabet Glue, Volume Seven.  Indeed, baby Z. is currently allergic to both dairy and eggs.  The mystery allergen is still outstanding, but I'm not suprised that it wasn't guessed.  It's a weird one: black beans.  Anyhow, I will take another peek at who guessed what and get folks their Glue. 

If you'd like to read a funny little interview with yours truly, head on over to K.C.'s blog.  You can learn all sorts of new things, such as how frequent trips to the principal's office as a child resulted in my encyclopedic knowledge of Nancy Drew.  

And lastly for this particular Thursday, for those of you participating in the Read Aloud Book Along, I did pop in over there a day or two ago and post a little update as far as where we are at with our reading.  Feel free to do the same- you know where to find us! 

 

Signage.

My daughter is a regular maker and poster of signs.  On walls, doors, cupboards and pieces of furniture.  If there is room for a sign to be hung on something, sooner or later it probably will be.  If you have been reading this blog for a very long time, you may remember that this tendency was present from an early age.  

Although she is quite serious when it comes to her various signs and the proclamations that they make, I still haven't gotten over how very, very funny they can be.  My favorite thing might be how it seems that the act of inspired sign making so excels at highlighting her little kid sensibilities about writing.  No proper spelling is needed; there are things that need to be said  and they need to be said with passion and expediency here, people.  The above sign is a new one; it appeared over the weekend.  You may be thinking that the various warnings expressed by said sign appear unrelated to one another.  That is because you don't live at my house. 

Another all time favorite sign is the one that Mariam made for Dan's office door.  It takes up about three pieces of paper and is a list of all of the things that he "thinks are a bad idea."  This list includes such items as:  cancer, meetings, frosting, mad people, bad driving, alligators, running, cheap coffee, decisions, overcooked eggs, folding laundry and vitamin e. 

Dan confirms that yes, he is dubious of each and every one. 

Transit.

You know those moments when the parent that you aspire to be has to take the parent that you actually are at that precise moment aside and give her a little pep talk?  Where she says something like "It does not matter that is is 6 p.m. on a Tuesday and dinner is not ready and everyone needs a bath and your daughter has not done any homework. Again. You are supposed to be raising your kids to be outdoorsy nature lovers who are enthusiastic about science and regard the universe with wonder.  Would you just get out there already?!?" 

Yes, I'm talking about the Venus Transit.  And, after Ideal Me gave Current Me a good talking to, we did indeed get out there already.  We headed up to a local park where the Vermont Astronomer's Association had set up telescopes for the public to view the event and it was, in short, wholly fantastic.  There is something about standing around in an open field with a bunch of complete strangers regarding a cosmic event with wonder and excitement that does good things for one's sense of being part of the human family. 

I also really love the fact that when it comes right down to it, the sun kind of has all of our fancy modern technology beat.  You want to look at Venus crossing in front of the sun?  Sure.  But, you will need an oatmeal box, an embroidery hoop and a plastic funnel from the hardware store to do it.