The Story of Ferdinand



Ah, smelling the roses!

This classic story by Munro Leaf is about a peace-loving bull, Ferdinand, who lives a bucolic life outside Madrid, Spain.  Through a series of funny misunderstandings Ferdinand is "discovered" and mistakenly assumed to be a fearsome fighter, and is carted off to the bullfights with hilarious results! 

After checking it out from my local library, I read it first to myself and then asked my Girlie Girl to read it to me while I just looked at the pictures.  She did great, except I did have to help with the pronunciation of a couple of Spanish words like Matador and Banderilleros.  Simple words used in an easy rhythm make the book no trouble to read or understand.  But, it's the drawings by Robert Lawson that bring this simple story to life! 



Ugly things, aren't they?  And creepy!



We read it a couple of times and then looked back through it because we noticed several pictures of vultures.  Especially those picturing the journey to and the city of Madrid.  We counted ten!  Now, I read this story as a kid and I never even noticed the vultures, but my daughter saw them right away.  I was amused, but a little disturbed, too….although it didn’t even come close to the level of discomfort I felt when I watched the movie Snow White as an adult and saw the vultures smile. That's scary stuff.   

The best pictures, we thought, were of the men who “recruited” Ferdinand.  Leaf’s only description is this:  



Her fav? Eye-patch guy.
Yes, that is worrisome! 

  One day five men came in very
   Funny hats to pick the biggest
   Fastest, roughest bull to fight
   In the bull fights in Madrid

Lawson’s interpretation was brilliant and caught my Girl's attention for more time than any other drawing in the book.   She loved looking at all the different hats.  And those mustaches!  Ha!

Overall, my first-grader (6) read it just fine, aside from the Spanish words.  But, this picture book is for any age!  For us, this short story turned into a 20 minute talk about bullfights, Spain, the Spanish language and, of all things, ponchos!  

I’m reminded once again of what books can do! 

Different is Good!

If you’re like me, in high school you were forced to read books that you were told were “classics” like Billy Bud or Silas Marner.  And, you suffered through them, mostly hating them.  You may have been one of the lucky few who got to read something close to interesting, but for the most part you were completely turned off.  (I remember tucking my Stephen King paperback inside my English book during class reading time.)  Poe and Shakespeare were the only ones who caught my imagination.  If I am completely honest, the only reason Shakespeare got a second glance was because my 10^th grade English teacher told us to look for the bawdy jokes in “Romeo and Juliet.”  Brilliant man!  So, I tried really hard not to include all the “classics” that most kids read in high school (and hate) and stick to those that we read, or wish we read, in our childhood, adolescence and adulthood that make us think, wince, laugh out loud, reminisce, cry and generally enjoy. To that end, you’ll find my list pretty eclectic (and long!) but one that can be easily adaptable to any age group. 

Here it is already week three of 2012, and I’m finding the best way to end the day is to read to one or more of my kids, especially those books that I find so comforting and wonderful myself.  But, in keeping with the spirit of trying something new, I’ve tried hard to put in loads of children’s literature that I haven’t read myself (which is quite a lot, since I was obsessed with the occult, horror and sci-fi when I was a kid).  This week’s choices are a result of this conscious decision to go in a different direction.  Consider The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. 

First off, you’re right! “The Waste Land” is not a book, but a poem.  It’s included on my list for several reasons, and the first of which is this: T.S. Eliot was a tortured soul and a literary genius, whose great works are often hidden behind his most famous work, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”  This is a shame, because Eliot is so much more, I’ve found.  Second, “The Waste Land” is often quoted in other works and I’ve always been curious about the poem, but not enough to actually read and dissect it.  Third, I’ve always stood in awe of those people who have had a classical education (learned in Latin and Greek among other cool and equally daunting subjects) and used that education throughout their art with such mastery that a horrible feeling of complete ignorance overcomes me whenever I encounter it, so I wanted to “crack the code” so to speak. Finally, this blog is supposed to stimulate people (namely myself) to more critical thought and nothing, I believe, takes more brain power than poetry!



How creepy is this cover?

Now, you may be remembering the long lectures and boring, drool-inducing explanations that I, too, was subjected to and unfortunately, ended up being mind-numbed to and turned off of classic fiction, poetry, plays and essays.  This was a big hurdle for me to overcome.  But, I found the most wonderful website to work through this poem, and if you decide to read “The Waste Land,” which I fervently hope you do, please go here http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/table/explore6.html to have it all become crystal clear in an easy to read, easy to understand format!  I found out so much that I didn’t know and, even though I didn’t subscribe to the couple of critically accepted theories behind the poem, I learned enough to come up with my own theory, which can I won’t elaborate on in this blog (I don’t want to influence any future reader with my opinions). I’ll say this, though:  what may look like a bunch of nonsense strewn together is actually an intensely personal revelation disguised by Eliot as something altogether different – something only an expert at concealment and undeniable genius intellect could pull off.  As you read, consider it was published in 1922, but the themes of disillusionment, religious conflict, and passion thwarted by societal norms, can still be applied today. I’d love to hear your interpretations!



The illustrations are PERFECT!



Brake…switch gears….and full steam ahead to: Roald Dahl – a staple among the children’s lit greats – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Fantstic Mr. Fox,  and, of course, James and the Giant Peach.  I do love the way that Dahl writes and brings his characters to life, making you a believer amidst some pretty fantastical circumstances.  Poor James, a small boy whose parents are killed in a freak accident, goes to live with his evil aunties and after much suffering encounters a silly little man promising him an end to all his problems if James only follows his directions.  Of course, it all goes awry and James is caught up in a wonderful, glorious adventure that leads him and his new “friends” to new lives.  What a blast this was to read aloud and give voice to such funny and endearing characters! This short book moves at a fast pace designed to keep little ones interested and entertained, but with such a unique story that parents will be just as charmed as their children.  It was a great pleasure to read this to my daughter, who really liked it. (Little critic that she is though, declared emphatically that The Fantastic Mr. Fox was “better.”)

Sidenote:  It’s funny what kids take away from childhood books. In re-reading this with my daughter, I found I had completely forgotten about the fact the aunties perish when the peach rolls over them, but remembered with fondness the fact that Miss Spider spun all the peach’s inhabitants a hammock in which to sleep!  The same goes for all the PG movies I watched as a kid – so many happy memories, but when I watch them with my kids, I think, “Wow…did they just say the D-word 4 times in a row? I don’t remember that!”  But, my kids never bat an eye – doesn’t make the least impression on them.  Go figure.  On the flip side, I can trace my intense fear of sharks back to this book. (‘Course it didn’t hurt the same summer I read it, my older sister hummed the Jaws theme while I was swimming with her in the Atlantic Ocean!)   

Sadly, I haven’t finished The Last of the Mohicans and cannot, in all good conscience, report to you my review!  I’ll have to post twice this week, instead.  I’ll also put in this blog post my theory about “The Waste Land”. 

Keep Reading!!

Next Week:         Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut

                                    20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne

                                    The Story of Ferdinand – Munro Leaf

First Classics Post - A whole lotta Sci-Fi!

           This week has been an eye-opener in more ways than one.  I found that I am a faster reader than I thought, but that I take FOREVER to read aloud to my daughter.  It’s those voices!!  I just can’t read to her without making up some kind of crazy voice for each character and it makes reading S – L – O – W, but it’s so much fun that I can’t quit doing it.  To get a feel for what this week’s been like, check out the journal I’ve been keeping: 

January 1, 2012   Yea! Now I can start reading the very first classics book of 2012!  I picked these three for this week – 1984 by George Orwell, the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  Okay, I admit it, on Christmas I got a color Nook and I started reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz early on the Nook.  Oh my goodness, I so love my Nook!!!! 

January 2, 2012   Gotten through probably 50 pages or so in 1984 and we’re on chapter 3 in Wizard of Oz.  I am just so excited to be reading to my girl one of my most favorite books ever (and my VERY favorite movie ever).  She’s really liking it – course she’s seen the movie, and it pretty much follows the first part of the book.  I’ll see when they get to Oz what she thinks, but so far, so good!

January 3, 2012   Chapter 6 in Wizard.  Not quite yet halfway through 1984 and gotten through just a little of 451.  Panic is fluttering around the edges of my brain…what if I can’t finish them all?!

January 4, 2012   Couldn’t read in Wizard because we got home too late and didn’t want a grumpy girl in the morning.  Permission to read ahead DENIED.  Read only 10 pages in 1984 before falling asleep in clothes, with glasses on, over the top of the bedcovers amidst two loads of clean, but unfolded (and now rumpled) clothing.  I’m feeling very unoptimistic about my chances here. 

January 5, 2012   Read during lunch and resolved to FINISH 1984 tonight and write down my impressions.  Getting the girl ready for bed by 7 and reading Wizard for one whole hour tonight – maybe we can get through meeting Oz.  451 is on hold until tomorrow night.  I’m determined to do this!!

January 6, 2012   Only got to page 211 (out of 314) in 1984 last night, but got all the way to Chapter 11 in Wizard – halfway!!  Man, 1984 is crazy good, but so difficult to read easily – I keep stopping to yell things out to my hubby.  “Hey…listen to this…’Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph.’  Doesn’t that sound like FOX News’s target audience?”  I’m definitely going to finish 1984 tonight and work through at least 5 chapters of Wizard.  I only have tonight and tomorrow to finish ALL of them.  Good Grief!  I’ve really got to be sure to stagger these well enough so that I am not hating doing this.  I want to learn, but I don’t want it to be like Finals Week!  Next week I’ve got to make it a little bit easier!

January 7, 2012   Holy Moses!  We have 8 more chapters in Wizard to read!!  Finished with the others and feel slightly depressed and discombobulated. 

January 8, 2012   Still feeling a little sad.  Reading Wizard like mad.  Still have three chapters to go!!!  My blog will be LATE! Disappointed, but can’t make the girl stay up any longer.  I can’t believe how much longer it takes to read aloud!  My throat hurts from doing the King Monkey voice.  Need hot chocolate.

January 9, 2012   The sweet pea wasn’t the best behaved and had to lose out on the last two chapters! Read ahead, though and am going to post the blog today, anyway.  Feeling better and got the next three books – The Last of the Mohicans is HUGE! 

            I never realized the work and planning that goes into reading all these books, plus writing a consistent blog about all this.  It’s overwhelming – which may be one of the reasons why I’m late in posting this very first one!  On to the reviews….   



What a great cover this is!



            My daughter has loved reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and we stopped a lot to talk about how it was different from the movie and why. (She loved acting out the charm the Wicked Witch of the West says to call the Winged Monkeys).  I was actually surprised to see how much DID make it into the movie, but then, I’ve seen the movie at least once a year without fail and the last time I read the book, I think I was 10 (I will not go into how long ago that was).  I have to say, as much as I absolutely love the movie, the book was better.  I do love how the Winged Monkeys tell their story (reminiscent of Greek mythology) and that Oz is different for each of the travelers.  I’d forgotten the beauty of the language and the specialness of all the characters.  If it has been years since you’ve read this book, it’s totally worth it to read it for yourself or to your kids so that they can appreciate the quirky little people and scenarios that make the book something so supremely special! 

            I have to say my decision to read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 on the same week was pure chance as I had absolutely no idea they were both stories about the future.  I knew of George Orwell and thought this was a story about the future, but really knew nothing else.  Ray Bradbury I knew from Something Wicked This Way Comes, a big favorite of mine, so I thought 451 may be sci-fi-ish.  But, really, I didn’t know what I was getting into, especially with 1984.    



The back and front covers - look at that camera!



            Let me say right off that I liked both books, but in different ways.  When I first started reading 1984, I felt that I knew how it was going to end, and so settled in to read a good story of man’s ability to persevere through hardship, oppression and war – all the while keeping humanity intact and hope on the horizon.  Midway through, I realized that I had no idea what was going on and I had to put it down and mentally re-assess so that I wouldn’t read mad (there’s nothing worse than getting mad at a character or an author so much so that you are unable to finish the story).  After clearing things up, I went back to it and finished it pretty quickly.  My poor husband (as you can kinda see from the journal entry above) had to stand proxy and listen to me read to him those parts that I felt were important and wanted to argue with Orwell or Winston, the main character (it didn’t go well – I lost and then sulked loudly).   Since finishing the book, my subconscious will not let it go and I keep coming up with arguments (most of which my husband refuses to even listen to now).  So, you may be asking…is it worth it?  Was it good?  And, my answer is Yes, Yes, Yes!  Read this book and argue with your spouse, your mother, your father, your teacher, your librarian – criticize it, hate it, love it – whatever it takes to make you think.  Orwell would approve, I’m sure of it. 



A powerful image!



            A friend of mine, who upon hearing I was going to read Fahrenheit 451, actually jumped up and down with delight and said I would love it.  I completely trust her, since she’s an assistant librarian and knows of what she speaks.   This time was no exception.  I did love it.  I loved the entire book.  I wanted to read it again as soon as I was done.  You’d think being such a lover of books I wouldn’t appreciate the fact that the entire book revolves around the banning and burning of books, but the plot doesn’t make the book.  I believe the plot is secondary to the message (I so wanted to put that as Message) that knowledge is salvation – not that you get that in your face from the beginning.  Of course not!  Bradbury subtlety uses his characters to deliver it.  Oh, the characters!  The beautiful, fantastic, deep, lovely characters! It isn’t until the end that you see where Bradbury’s been leading you the whole time and then, WHAM, you are caught – you are a believer!  The reader of 451 becomes a “Reader.” I hereby nominate this book for “the list that doesn’t exist” – those books that should be on the high school English teacher’s curriculum, but aren’t.

All three of these books should be at your local library - one thing that this week has made me appreciate even more is the fact that anyone can go into a library and pick up a book and read.  Never forget how lucky we are and LOVE your library!!

Ali's Choice

When my mother, the Benevolent Book Goddess and tech geek, rushed out to buy one of the first Amazon Kindle eReaders and gushed about how cool it was, I have to admit I was pretty obnoxious in my refusal to even hold it.  I just couldn’t imagine reading a book on a computer screen.  After about a year of my Mother asking me if I wanted her Kindle [there’s a button to turn pages on both sides and it was hard for her to hold it], I finally decided to try it out – and was blown away!  I absolutely love the little thing and the fact that around half my books on there were downloaded FREE was a fantastic bonus!  Now, those of you with kids can understand the tendency to do this:  when I get something, I must then get my kids something, too.  I think it’s a balance thing.  So, after getting myself a couple of books, I started looking around for something for Ali, my 6-year old daughter. 

First, you have to understand that my daughter loves being read to. She just started to read for herself last year, but together, we have gone through an insane number of books. Oh, and we don’t read the books – we make a production out of it.  I am the silly voice maker, the get off the floor acter-outer and the freaky face-maker of readers.  So, her favorite books are always going to be the ones where I have a horrible British accent [‘a-low gov’na], act like an animal, or some other such craziness. Here are two of her very favorites that never [and I mean never] get old for her.



Mo Willems - Genius!



We call them “The Pigeon Books.”  That pigeon is one of the funniest characters in children’s books I’ve come across.  He begs, he pleads, he threatens [sound familiar parents?], and he teaches. The very first time I read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, my daughter looked down at the floor sheepishly [she recognized some of her own tactics].  I immediately opened it back up and gave it the full-on Brit treatment. She fell out laughing.  When the last page was turned, she looked at me and said – with a straight face – “that pigeon’s kind of a brat isn’t he!”  It took every ounce of willpower I had to hold in the maniacal laughter.  Mo Willems is awesome.  Check out his Knufflebunny books, too!

             Another favorite is Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton (who also wrote Russell the Sheep – another good one).  Splat is a neurotic cat whose fur seems to float on the page.  In fact, Ali reached out her hand to see if he was fuzzy like he looked on the page. Her very favorite Splat book is Love, Splat because she’s into all that mushy love stuff.  That one is a sweet, funny Valentine's story.  But the one she likes me to read the best is Splat the Cat because it’s all about Splat going to school for the first time and how he overcomes his anxiety. It was a great book for her to read, especially last year as she entered kindergarten. She's kind of a worrywart herself, so she relates.



Mmmmm....hamburgers!

            Okay, so back to the Kindle. The only book of these three I downloaded to the Kindle was Stick Dog Wants a Hamburger  [because we already own the other two].  I got Stick Dog for FREE from Amazon.com.  Tom Watson takes it to the next level with his hilarious comparisons and descriptions. It’s a little long, but I split it up into two separate bedtime readings, which worked great [especially since my throat was getting a little sore from doing the voices].  A few words of caution:  Although this book was great – funny and smart with lots of action, there are a few things worth knowing before reading it.  First, it’s really for kids 6+.  Second, it’s going to make your kid want to run around like a small Tasmanian devil.  Third, prepare yourself for snickers, giggles and outright horselaughs every time you say one of the character’s names. Finally, it may cause a gigantic urge to grill out some thick, juicy hamburgers.  We liked the book, and the drawings showed up really well on the Kindle.  Since they're pencil drawings and because the Kindle is black-and-white, they looked good.  I won’t hesitate to download another picture book if it turns out as great as this one.

            All in all, I am extremely satisfied with my Kindle, and now that I can get some really cool books like Stick Dog for free [or close to it], within a couple of minutes, without even leaving the house, I greatly fear that I’ll need to keep a good supply of throat lozenges handy for some marathon reading sessions.