Senor Parrot's Perch

Wow, I’m not waiting for this one. Seems Danielle Steel, author of best selling, steamy, adult fare, is entering the kid’s book market with The Happiest Hippo in the World about a hippo born, not gray, but green. It’s expected to be published in the later part of next year by HarperCollins Children’s.

Nothing in the story about what the message might be. Hmm… born green instead of gray. It wouldn’t be about trying to fit in when we’re born with differences, but resolving to accept ourselves the way we are and just be happy about it. Naw, that’s been done before, at least once.

Maybe this green hippo has super magical powers that explain the why of being green and that enable, no, obligate, this hippo to save the world… naw, not from Steel.

The story is at theBookseller.com.

I read this piece in the Fleming Island Messenger, commenting about HarperCollins Children’s Books disturbing plans to add product placements into a new series of books they are planning to publish. The article, “Keep Disguised Ads Out of Children’s Books”, by Jennifer Wedekind, refers to a press release from a month ago.

Wedikind writes:

Although touted by the publisher for teaching kids about protecting the environment and promoting global understanding, the Mackenzie Blue series actually aims to be a vehicle for delivering commercial messages, through product-placement hidden advertisements, product tie-ins, and affiliated multi-media corporate sponsorships. The author of the series, Tina Wells, is chief executive of Buzz Marketing Group, which specializes in marketing to children and adolescents. (more…)

I’ve just upgraded my blog software to Worpress 2.3.3. Also, I recently made a number of other changes, customizations, so to speak, some of which wreaked havoc. I’m not especially good at coding yet.

So far upgrading seems to have fixed some of the problems I introduced. If you have problems, please let me know and I’ll try to fix them.

I have the conversation a lot with friends, especially moms, who can’t find books that their boys like too much. These are boys who like to read, and eat their books whole when they find one palatable. It seems they are very hard to find in any great quantity, unlike the seemingly infinite stream of princess girl and friendship girl clones. The difficulty increases as they age.

Yesterday, I actually recommend (more…)

Coffee remains my last principle addiction, having left several others behind as I grew older. I found this passage in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The House of the Seven Gables”, chapter 7. Hawthorne couldn’t have described the brightening qualities of that potent elixir better:

In a little while the guest became sensible of the fragrance of the yet untasted coffee. He quaffed it eagerly. The subtle essence acted on him like a charmed draught, and caused the opaque substance of his animal being to grow transparent, or, at least, translucent; so that a spiritual gleam was transmitted through it, with a clearer lustre than hitherto.

“More, more!” he cried, with nervous haste in his utterance, as if anxious to retain his grasp of what sought to escape him. “This is what I need! Give me more!”

Under this delicate and powerful influence he sat more erect, and looked out from his eyes with a glance that took note of what it rested on.

Ah, yes! I love my coffee. (more…)

The thaw has started. Proof is all around the city of Madison where drivers can now see the curbs along streets again and in some places the snow has receded enough to allow two-way traffic. All this gets me pretty excited about Summer. I can see it so clearly its as if I’m there – on the pier, hopping into a little sailing dinghy and racing about the lake!

I checked out my favorite webcam, high atop the UW Soils Science building and snagged this photo of the lake. Perhaps it is just my overheated imagination, but I think the ice is thinner than it was yesterday.

But the water still looks a bit too hard for sailing.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, a new young adult novel by Jessica Day George, is a fun book to read. A richly imaginative re-interpretation of an old Norwegian folk tale, Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow centers upon a girl, who, through her kind heart, wits, personal sacrifice, devotion and courage, struggles to solve the deep mysteries that have ensnared those she loves most. I admit that I read this mostly out of curiosity, having received an advanced reader’s copy from the publisher. Generally, I avoid this sort of girl’s book, but I found myself very pleased and I recommend it. (more…)