“Life is too short to wear beige.”

-Susan Sargent

I have been following the wonderful Shana Norris‘ blog for a few months now and I have always loved her Friday tradition of sharing a single image. It is much like what I have been doing for a bit now so I was thrilled to discover that there is a whole community of people who share single images on Fridays.

You can view more moments at Amanda’s Soule Mama where she describes her Friday posts this way, “A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.”

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The Curious Reader is open and thanks to the ever talented Sally Morgan, their selection is absolutely amazing. Picture books are in (early readers, novels, leveled readers and non-fiction arrive next week) and you wouldn’t believe the amazing choices. There are many classics but also so many new titles that are just incredible. As I stood in the store, I watched Sally steer a customer to some of her favorite new board books when asked for selections and thought of the Once Upon Now piece I wrote last week about the importance of buying books other than Good Night Moon for new babies.

This store is a treasure both in selection and in knowledge of the owners. You simply don’t find either of these things at Barnes and Noble or while cruising around on Amazon. I consider myself pretty well versed in the children’s literature world and when I walked in I gravitated to old favorites, familiar authors but then to so many new titles that I had yet to hear about. Sally knows my taste and immediately brought me books that she thought I and the girls would like. I came home with the stack above and I’m counting down the minutes until the girls get home so I can share.

So now, enough of the touchy feely stuff. This post contains a lecture but please keep reading anyway…

While I was at the Curious Reader, a couple walked in and exclaimed how excited they were to have a book store open in their community. A real book store where they could browse and touch and feel the merchandise. When asked what they might like, they said they weren’t there to buy but they would be back when the children in their family needed gifts. I almost blocked their exit but I decided that Sally might not want an altercation in her store during the first week so I held my tongue.

“We’ll be back.”, they said. And I wanted to shout, “Well, will this amazing place be here when you return!?”

I am as tempted as anyone to get all our picture books at the library and our novels on our Kindle. Why not? It is cheaper and more convenient. There is simply no denying that. There will always be a place in my life for the library and my e-reader but purchased books must have a place too. If they don’t, there will be no more bookstores. Our children will have vague memories of book stores but they will have gone the way of the cassette and the VHS player if we do not buy books when we are in them.

I love having real books in our house but I buy books for a bigger reason than my love for them. I buy them so that bookstores will continue to exist. We financially support organizations we believe in and I consider my bookstore purchases part of our yearly charitable donations.

If we want to have bookstores to come back to, we must buy books when we are in them. Not later but now.

Lecture completed. Now please go buy some books.

 

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I’m taking this great on-line photography class right now called Picture Everyday with the amazing Tracey Clark. The goal of the class is to encourage you to find pictures and art in your everyday life. Each day Tracey shares a prompt along with pictures she has taken. In addition, there are message boards and galleries of classmates photos. I have ‘met’ some great photographers and am loving the inspiration the class provides.

Today’s prompt was ‘tiny’ and Tracey shared a picture of a necklace very similar to mine pictured above. I imagine that many of the gallery photos today will be similar and am anxious to conduct some informal research about these necklaces.

You see, when these necklaces first became popular, I misinterpreted the goal. I saw one on a friend and immediately wanted my own. I went out and got a charm for each of us. A ‘S,R,C, and K’ for me, Rob and the girls. Our little family. And then someone said to me, “You don’t have four kids do you?”

It seems that people only put on a charm for their children. I caved in to the trend and took off two charms. But often, when I look at my necklace, I wonder why. Why are we only celebrating our children with these necklaces and not our whole families?

Today, I will conduct some research and I will be very curious to see what I learn…

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Last week, I attended a lecture called Emotionally Intelligent Parenting, presented by Dr. Maurice Elias, Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University. Dr. Elias is a wise man and I walked away with lots of information and ideas. My favorite part of the presentation though was the very first activity he asked us to do.

He posed this question:

If you had a magic wand, which of these values do you wish your children could internalize forever?

You may only choose three.

Friendship

Peace

Wisdom

Beauty

Long Life

Riches

Popularity

Family

After a few minutes, Dr. Elias asked us to call out our answers. The crowd was relatively large so there was not consensus. However, not a single person said beauty, riches or popularity. Yet, as Dr. Elias reminded us, our culture seems to value and reward only those three values.

An interesting and important disconnect and one I can’t seem to stop thinking about…

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Today I am thrilled to be guest posting at Jessica Vealitzek‘s True Stories.

Jessica recently invited the writers at Great New Books to answer a perfect question for this month of Halloween. The question she posed was,  “Tell us about a time you were scared.”

Please click here to learn why the name Rocky makes me nervous.

 

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We all have our favorite children’s books. Good Night Moon, Little House on the Prairie and Blueberries for Sal are just a few of mine. When my girls were born, I read them all my favorites. But I also read lots and lots of newly released titles. There are many books that have stood the test of time but there are many more that have not. I’ve been sad and I’ve spent time grieving for my favorites that would never sit on the girl’s bedside tables but I moved on. I moved on because I wanted my girls to be readers. Not readers of my favorite books but readers of their own favorites. Children really do judge books by their covers and it is important for them to see new titles. They also get bored. Hearing some of our favorites a few times is great. Hearing our favorites over and over again can get old.

So, today I am introducing a new series:

Once Upon Now

I will highlight some of my favorite children’s books and pair them with titles that are similar but newer. I hope that these lists will provide lots of new titles for grown ups to read and give to the children in their lives.

For this first post, I am choosing the most commonly given and read children’s book. Good Night Moon. A great book for sure. But there are so many other great books about bedtime.

Here are some of my favorite, recently released Bedtime Books.

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon

Are You Awake by Sophie Blackall

A Bedtime for Bear by Bonny Becker

Charley’s First Night by Amy Hest

Cuddle Up, Good Night by Kate Cleminson

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Night Knight by Owen Davey

Stars by Mary Lynn Ray

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen

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Every month or so I have lunch with my friend Donna. Donna and I met about five years ago when I was organizing a speaker series at our local YWCA. We have stayed in touch since then attending lectures together, meeting to discuss books, goals and writing. Donna’s son is significantly older than the girls. In fact, he and his beautiful bride recently returned from their honeymoon.

Today, as I talked (ok… complained) about how busy I was Donna began to ask questions and give advice. “Are the girls having fun?” “Are they doing ok in school?” “Did they ask to do all these activities or did you insist?” Well, yes, yes, yes. They are having fun. School hasn’t been affected. This was all their idea. But my complaints couldn’t be stopped. I talked about how worried I was about next year, about when the dancing got more intense, when there was more homework. When, when, when.

And then Donna began to talk about her son’s experiences. Of going from one sport to the other. Of eating a sandwich with one hand and changing his uniform with the other. Of wanting to quit a sport but not and then being glad he had continued. And in all her talking, I heard wisdom and experience. And I also heard hindsight. In hindsight, it had all worked out. Donna had known her son and made decisions that best met his needs. And it had all worked out.

As she talked, I thought about all the conversations I’ve had with parents of younger children who aren’t sleeping or who are struggling with potty training or who are having temper tantrums. And when I talk to them, those days seem so long ago and in truth, those problems seem so solvable, so obvious. “It will all be ok.”, I often say. “It will all work out.”

Because it does, right? I feel lucky to have shared a meal today with a friend who is walking on this path ahead of me. I feel lucky to be have been reminded that it will all work out. Because it almost always does.

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Over the summer, I feel back in love with photography. I participated in the August Break and began taking pictures every day. I read books and blogs all about taking pictures. I took a class at Creative Non-Fiction and rediscovered my need to write every day. I read lots of blogs written by writers I admire.

While rediscovering these loves has been exciting, it has taken time away from some old favorites. My time spent in the Kiditsophere (the name for the world of children’s lit blogs) has been extremely limited and just last week, I realized how much I have missed it.

When I discovered that a fellow children’s lit lover was opening her very own children’s book store in the next town, I was overjoyed. The Curious Reader is due to open this weekend and I can’t stop thinking about how wonderful it is going to be.

I decided to spend some time with old friends this weekend and discovered all the amazingness I’ve missed… It’s glad to be back.

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

In the time that I have been out of the loop, Jules has featured such wonderful authors and illustrators as Elisha Cooper, Joyce Sidman, Amy Hest and Helen Oxenbury.

A Fuse #8 Production

Here, Betsy has reviewed Real Boy by Anne Ursa, made her Newbery and Caldecott predictions and provided great information about a new and improved Children’s Book Council.

Jen Robinson’s Book Page

Jen discussed the concept of memorization in early literacy, announce the 7th Annual Kidlitcon and highlighted the five series that she is most looking forward to reading with her girls. Three of our favorites are on her list!

Nerdy Book Club

The folks at Nerdy Book Club wrote micro-reviews of banned books, discussed the importance of finding just the right book and celebrated the work of Roald Dahl.

Playing By The Book

Zoe introduced me to her favorite new author, Lari Don, interviewed on my favorite authors Nicola Davies and discussed the concept of ‘pink’ books.

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“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown-up.”

-C.S. Lewis from his essay On Three Ways of Writing for Children

Thank you to Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project for introducing me to this quote earlier this week.

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