Senor Parrot’s Perch

This has been the Summer of Almost No Reading. As temperatures here in Madison tumbled this weekend, school begins Monday, and my really big project may be over tomorrow, I am looking forward to Fall, and reading again.

Sometimes those seasons in life, and this has been an actual, not figurative season, its been hectic. I have a small pile of very nice books I want to talk about, some children’s, some for older kids and a few YA, as well as dog training – yes, we’re training the beast, all 8 hairy pounds – and I’ve found two superior books, and several others.

Then we’re going to try to hammer on lego robots and possibly a few other types of robots, depending on the cost and budget. I want to make some videos of the robots, and maybe dog training, too, though that is going so fast, I’ll probably miss all that.

Like many others, I’m sorry to see PBS‘ long running show, Reading Rainbow, leave the air. From what I heard on NPR as I drove in to work today, the funding decision rested on the choice to give reading mechanics a higher priority than actually reading something engaging and interesting.

The two go hand in hand, I think. Moreover, with out general knowledge, reading is difficult to impossible for kids to comprehend as they grow older and more advanced books have the tacit assumption that readers know something of the environment in which the book is set, whether it’s literature, history, or science. Starting early, reading the best books, as promoted on Reading Rainbow, is an excellent way to build that foundational knowledge that our kids need.

Levar Burton - Host of Reading Rainbow for 25 Years

There’s a growing perception that the focus on educating kids who aren’t up to speed, such as we have with No Child Left Behind, is reducing the opportunity for better readers, and better students in general, with a distinct disadvantage in the world marketplace.

This is probably true. School’s a breeze and they’re unchallenged. Until they’re challenged to perform.

Sometimes a kid just thrives intellectually, regardless of the level or quality of instruction. Most thrive best with a challenge and high expectations. We’re losing that environment and losing Reading Rainbow is more evidence.

Levar, sorry it had to end this way. You did an outstanding job for all those years and you deserve our thanks for all you’ve done for the kids all across this country. Thanks, and hope to see something else great, soon.

Last night I read The Velveteen Rabbit of How Toys Become Real to my youngest, age 6, for the first time. We sat on the floor, leaned up against her bed. As I neared the end, I glance at her and caught her wiping tears from her eyes. I had just read the part where Rabbit had wriggled to the top of the sack and shed a tear of her own that rolled from her eye to the ground. From that tear a beautiful flower sprang up and the nursery magic fairy appeared as the flower opened its petals.

This was the second time she’s cried at a story. The first was when I read her Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl. After reading that story, she asked me, “Why did you read me that story? It’s so sad.” I asked her if she liked it, and she nodded her head, “But it’s so sad.”

I have only generally read funny stories to her. So far she resists adventures, except the Jewel Fairy Series. She loves to laugh, and I really don’t quite see the reason she shows interest in the Jewel Fairy books, but then I’m a guy, and some girlish things always are a bit on the revolting side for most guys. It goes both ways, I’m sure.

After finishing The Velveteen Rabbit, I asked her how she liked the book. “I liked it. It started kinda boring, but it got good.”

She was right.

But in that boring part are held all the bricks and mortar for the sadness and tears at the end. Christmas morning, played with for two hours then forgotten; tossed in with old toys, flashy toys, also forgotten, and living a life of their own, with their own yearnings and their own faults.

THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged in the top of the Boy’s stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect was charming.

Some of words are hard for a six-year old, and some impossible,but they hold the magic. Would your publisher keep the word “charming?” No, they’d say a child wouldn’t know charming, unless it’s a prince.  It will have to be “cute.” Couldn’t we substitute “adorable?” Yes, but charming is the word, charming is the magic.

That boring part is like the plane ride to Disneyland. Disneyland is where it all happens, but nothing happens without the boring plane ride. Many great stories are like that, think of Chekhov, but the tendency is to want to get there all at once. This can make stories confusing to kids and it can make the stories more contrived as the author strives to add the missing bits along the way. So often, they just don’t create that magic. They lack what is charming.

Check out Google’s home page. They’re celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s Telescope.

The Book Smugglers reviewed Rapunzel’s Revenge today, and as is usual with them, their review was thorough and excellent, and they loved it. (Here’s the link to my review of Rapunzel’s Revenge). Reading their review, they let it be known that Team Hale (Shannon Hale, her husband Dean Hale, and not-at-all related Nathan Hale) have competed their sequel, Calamity Jack.

Oooohh, I thought, as my oldest daughter wandered into the kitchen for breakfast while I was reading The Book Smugglers’ review, she’ll will be excited to know about this! So I tell her, with an excited tone, and show her the cover image The Book Smugglers had posted. “Oh yeah, I knew”, she says. “How did you hear?”, says I. “I heard it a long time ago. I’ve known about that for a long time.”

Well, it didn’t really burn my toast, but I do hate being the last to know. (So, do I tell her that the newest graphic novel in the Kat & Mouse series,  Kat & Mouse Volume 4 (Kat and Mouse (Graphic Novels)),  is out in September? She’s been waiting for over a year and given up hope.)

Anyway, if you haven’t read Shannon Hale’s (and team Hale’s, to keep it short) graphic novel, Rapunzel’s Revenge, go out and get it today. It’s really aimed mostly at girls, but boys might get a few kicks out of it, too.

And here is a bit of the lowdown from the publisher on Calamity Jack, this snagged from The Book Smugglers review:

Jack thinks of himself as a criminal mastermind with an unfortunate amount of bad luck. A schemer, a trickster …maybe even a thief? But, of course, he’s not out for himself he’s trying to take the burden off his hardworking mum’s shoulders. She’d understand, right? He hopes she might even be proud. Then, one day, Jack chooses a target a little more …’giant’ than the usual, and as one little bean turns into a great big building-destroying beanstalk, his troubles really begin. But with help from Rapunzel and other eccentric friends, Jack just might out-swindle the evil giants and put his beloved city back in the hands of the people who live there …whilst catapulting them and the reader into another fantastical adventure.

Puppy training and Kid training seem to go hand-in-hand.

A few months ago, for her birthday, we got #1 a dog. It’s cute, super sweet, and still unpredictable. After she was spayed, her housetraining took a drastic about face and has only recently recovered. Her behavior was perfect on the long camping trip last week, except for some occasional barking, and some very uncharacteristic growling at strangers when they walked by when she was tied up. Given that she’s a small malti-poo, her growling engenders the same amount of fear as would a dust bunny, something about her size, so fortunately, no one really noticed that.

Formal training begins tonight. I think that that will be more beneficial to the kids than for the dog. The oldest is inconsistent and doesn’t really pay attention to the dog’s signals, and the youngest has become too rough when she plays, which a few days ago has led to her being banned from contact with the dog until she learns not to do things that may be harmful.

I have one very good book that we went through before the dog came home, called Tails Are Not for Pulling that I reviewed before. I have to dig it out and go through it again with her. We’ve obviously had a relapse in behavior.

For the older, I’ve just ordered Puppy Training for Kids. I haven’t received it yet, but it seems appropriate for her age level. It should mesh well with the doggie training school she’ll begin tonight.

Seems dogs aren’t welcome at the grand opening of this dog park. Madison.com reports

McFarland is holding a “leash cutting” celebration at its new dog park Thursday night. But the dogs have to stay home.

“Please NO dogs for the event,” a news release said of the gathering at 6 p.m. Instead, it is a chance for people to “see the park without their dogs and get a feel for the layout,” said village Trustee Sally Hansen. “We didn’t want to have too many dogs there all at once.”

Eventually, plans are dogs will get their day, by special permission only. My guess, it’s an exclusive club, since only Village of McFarland permits are accepted.

The dogs will finally get their day starting Friday, when the park at Elvehjem Road at Perrot Place will be open from dawn to dusk to properly permitted dogs. Permits can be purchased at the McFarland Municipal Center, 5915 Milwaukee St. A Dane County dog park permit is not adequate for the new 7-acre park because is too small to qualify for the county dog park system.

I’m wondering if parrots are allowed?

The Midwest Bookseller Association is made up of 240 or so independent, local booksellers. Annually they vote for their favorites in several categories. Today they’ve announced their award winners. Always, these are excellent picks.

At the awards dinner, to be held late this September, there are usually autographed copies available to the member booksellers. If you want to get your hands on one of these, go to your local bookseller, not Barnes and Noble, Borders, or other national chains, and find out if they’re members of the Midwest Booksellers Association and if they are going to attend the fall trade show in St. Paul, Minnesota this year. Ask, beg, or whine if they can get an autographed copy for you-you’ll need to pay, of course. They may even take your own copy to get it signed. Local booksellers are the best. In Madison, I like Booked For Murder.

These are their choices for this year:

2009 AWARD WINNERS

Fiction

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

David Wroblewski
(Ecco/HarperCollins)

Nonfiction

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting

Michael Perry
(HarperCollins)

Poetry

Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle

Freya Manfred
(Red Dragonfly Press)

Children’s Picture Book

Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken

Kate DiCamillo, Illustrated by Harry Bliss
(Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)

Children’s Literature

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman, Illustrated by Dave McKean
(HarperCollins Children’s Books)

2009 HONOR BOOKS

Fiction

A Reliable Wife

Robert Goolrick
(Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing)

Nonfiction

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
(Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group USA)

Poetry

Yellowrocket

Todd Boss
(W.W. Norton & Company)

Children’s Picture Book

Snow

Cynthia Rylant, Illustrated by Lauren Stringer
(Harcourt Children’s Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Children’s Literature

Savvy

Ingrid Law
(Dial Books for Young Readers/Walden Media/
Penguin Group (USA)

I learned to drive in South Dakota many, many years ago. Back then, and maybe still, I don’t know, we could drive when we were 14 with restricted licenses from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Most of us were driving before we ever took Driver’s Ed. I remember well those driver’s ed films, way before video, of bodies pulled from burning cars and lots of real, dead people.

Now we have texting to contend with, too. I’m sure you’ve seen people texting, or otherwise fiddling with their phones while driving, and not paying attention to their driving, or they wouldn’t be driving so badly. Our friends in Wales, that part of England that bonnie Prince Charles is prince of, has a new texting video designed for scaring kids into thinking before succumbing to the urge to communicate dangerously. Here it is:

It’s about right, don’t you think?

Image: Ameyoko by Hisaharu Motodam Post-apocalyptic Tokyo envisioned by , via Bldg Blog

Summer continues with no time for reading today, or over the next month. So I’m making a list.

Wars and rumors of wars is a hallmark of the start of the end of time. What will the world look like then? The Book Smugglers has a fantastic review of several books dealing with the post-apocalypse. Wars aren’t the only cause of the apocalypse, these days, we also have environmental catastrophes, and these are covered here, too.

I can’t affirm any of what they say because I haven’t read any of these books, but they are each on my look for list for a closer look and, most likely, an enjoyable read. They also do an admirable conjur of Rod Serling to add fun to the bucket of books they discuss. Head there  for a very interesting list.

The post-apocalypse in literature is an interesting genre. It synthesizes the fears and hopes we have for life as we know it now, and what it will be if we don’t leash the worst of our human nature.