Those Little "Bits"

      Celebrating today with Ruth Ayres and others who share. 

            Sometimes celebrating happens in little bits:

• a nice phone call conversation with my son
• several visits with the grand-girls, at the bookstore, too
• good talks with my daughter 
• writing poems daily with a group on a closed Facebook page - ten poems so far, and celebrating the awesome poetry shared  
• a friend sent Ingrid one of her books with a special message 
• reading "Dear Girl" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and her daughter, Paris
• at the bookstore, a customer who's a former colleague, haven't seen her in years
• sunflowers found at the store (I also shared them Friday, still bringing sunshine!)
• I'm all clear after the cataract surgery, return for a check in a few weeks, AND, I no longer need my store-bought reading glasses. It's such a habit, I kept putting them on and wondered why everything was blurry. I've put them away!
• It's snowing today! Won't be much more than sprinkles, but I'm glad to have the wet for all the plants and trees!

Poetry Friday Sunshine

           
           Groundhog Day (Will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow?, Welcome February, the month that seems like the beginning path to spring and the month of hearts and rhymes, another kind of poetry month. Donna Smith from Mainely Write hosts today! 

             WAY BACK in January, I was reminded of the song by John Denver, Sunshine On My Shoulders. You can see him singing it here. Why? Because I participated in the postcard swap organized by Jone MacCulloch. Instead of the usual junk mail that lands in the recycle bin, several times a month brought sunshine from a swapper in the guise of a postcard with a beautiful picture and poem.

              I'm happy to share all that shine with you today, and thank each one for sending me some, too.

               Jone sent a part of her ocean.

first morning

grains of sand holding

our stories

~jone rush macculloch

Sally sent a pen and a wish.

A new year
Is an unopened gift
A Letter in the mail
A crisp new notebook
A story yet to be written.
                  - Sally Murphy -

Christie painted and poemed.

Matsu leaves of green

        longevity, virtue, youth

             blessing your new year

             Christie Wyman

This "frabjous" Book

art by Sarah S. Brannen

          Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  From her and others, you will discover and want to celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books!

         Sometimes books are so good that I just want to tell readers to go find and experience this book all by yourself. It is terrific! But I will share a bit. It is a picture book that tells about some main parts of Lewis Carroll's life. The subtitle is key, "A Celebration of Wordplay and a Girl Named Alice". Begin with the endpapers, blue words on blue background, Lewis Carroll's word gifts: gimble and gyre, callooh! callay!, snicker-snack and curiouser and curiouser, and more. (Spell check is going wild!) 
        The book opens before the title page with the final two verses of the poem "Solitude" by Carroll which can be found here. It ends "To be once more a little child/For one bright summer-day." Kathleen Krull writes Carroll's story in prose form, injecting his own words in delightful fashion. For example, even at the beginning, she tells of his joy when leading adventures with his brothers and sisters, "'galumphing'" along the leafy wonderland of the English countryside. Their 'burbles' of delight would brighten the 'tulgey' wood around them." There is also a part about riding in a boat with Alice and others, with Carroll beginning a story about a young girl named Alice who fell down a rabbit hole. And it is a wonder to see how Júlia Sardà illustrates that pack of cards, the "lobster quadrille", and the "Mad Tea Party". Her art fills the pages with whimsey and color. There is a double-page spread of the beginning of Alice In Wonderland with hints of all the incredible adventures to come.

         Lewis Carroll was one of eleven children and the book states he was the oldest, though I found in other research links that state he was the third oldest. I found conflict among several sources. Kathleen Krull does include a source list, an additional note, and a marvelous glossary of all the words included in the text with their definitions and possible origins/backgrounds. They are color-coded according to the text origin. One example: "'Snark'" is "an imaginary animal, perhaps combining 'snail' and 'shark'. Carroll always claimed he had no clear idea what it was."

My Experience Broadens My Knowledge

       I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community today. It's always a pleasure to read what everyone writes about their lives.

         

         I had cataract surgery last Thursday. I've put it off for over a year but knew it was worsening and I had to do it. I was scared but I did it and now I'm so pleased. Each day, and now today, it's totally better. I took a drive last night and can see everything without that funny ring around the lights! My insurance paid for nearly all of it and my doctor had a coupon that limited the after-care meds to sixty dollars. 

        I tell you this because my mind before and after has been questioning and researching. What if my doctor did not work hard to help patients with the price of the meds? I was told that this one bottle of drops would have been more than three hundred dollars! And I have three different prescriptions for drops! I have been watching the news and interviews from people who are paying so much for medical care because they don't have insurance. I am alarmed by those who believe that the Affordable Care Act, or something similar, is not what our country needs. 

          And then I discovered this site! There are others, too. The highlighted words are: "Of the more than 39 million people worldwide suffering from unnecessary blindness, more than half are due to cataract - which can be surgically treated. Most of these people live in the developing world, where poor nutrition and limited access to eye care can mean a life limited by needless blindness."  This article tells of a doctor who's restored the sight of thousands of people across Europe and Asia.  Here is a link to an organization that helps people in the U.S. who do not have the coverage for this surgery. Yes, the U.S. has people who need the surgery and cannot afford it, too. 

         I guess readers can call this a Public Service Announcement. I am grateful for my experience, but want everyone with a need to have it, too! 

  

Monday Books to Celebrate

        Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to discover books you'll love!  Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki who share so much with us by taking time to support this meme!

       I have some nice books to share, including one more from #MustReadIn2018 list!

       It is fiction but based on true stories of woman spies in the world wars supported by extended research by the author. And it is one that’s both hard to read and equally hard to put down. Swinging back and forth between a woman spy in World War I and a woman searching for a cousin survivor (she hopes) in World War II, Kate Quinn makes it very hard to switch at the end of each section. She is an expert at leaving one clinging to the cliff and at wrapping up storylines with perfection.

       From my #MustReadIn2018 list!           
          Things don’t always turn out the way one dreams but sometimes the way they turn out are wonderful anyway. There is a girl named Crow and the man who found her named Osh. And there’s Miss Maggie, and though they don’t live together, they are a family strong as any you might know. I will also remember Mouse, the cat who’s part of this family, who turns up at just the right moment like good cats do. Perhaps this is Crow’s story, a baby sent out in a skiff and found across the sea. Yet, it is everyone’s story who searches for who they really are.

        It seems lucky for a baby to survive a voyage alone in a leaky boat, but she did. No one knows from where she floated. As Crow gets older and in the story she is now twelve, she begins to notice things and to ferret out the mystery that was her beginnings. There are both bad people and good people in the story, just enough to make one shiver with fright or with a smile. Lauren Wolk’s beautiful and clever language made me smile more than once. There are books that Crow says “rang bells in her heart”. There is life’s advice that Osh tells Crow: “an island is one thing when a man has a boat, quite another when he doesn’t.” And there are “pocket lunches” which is food enough to fit in one’s pockets. Like so many who have already read this book, I adored it, am sorry I have finished it.