A Good Day Everyday

     Celebrating with Ruth Ayres and others today. Thanks for giving yourself to this community, Ruth. It's a good thing to celebrate the pieces of our lives.

      I agree with Ruth, "hope is sensible" and I found another quote that feels good to me at this troubled time in our country. It is anonymous: "When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time." I am thankful and celebrate the good things in my life that help me begin each day with "hope" for more ahead.

Celebrating this week that:
         I'm loving a poetry challenge started last year named #haikuforhealing. Each morning begins with quiet writing time. Holding on to that moment of contemplation is a comforting start to my day.  Here's one for all of us celebrating:
                                               attention paid,
                                               my breathing slows -
                                               then I smile
                                               
       I got a perm and I am finally getting used to it. It's great that I no longer need to blowdry my hair.

        Imogene and I visited the Museum of Nature and Science for the first time in a while, and it was just as fun as always. As we leave, Imi has to do a bit more fun with the rear-screen part. Here, she's 'holding' hands with an astronaut.

Making Life Different

           Lisa at Steps and Staircases is hosting today. She shared a unique challenge last week via Mary Lee's post which you can access here! Be sure to stop by to see Lisa's poem and everyone else who shares. Thanks for hosting and for the inspiration, Lisa!





I've had fun writing this past week for Mary Lee's challenge, #Haikuforhealing starting December 1st, mostly posting on FB and twitter. But I did decide to give Lisa's challenge a try, too. Here's what I created! I am not a great artist, yet I enjoy the sketching that I do. And I'm looking forward to seeing how others responded to this challenge. 

When life feels like a bouncing ball

with UPS and DOWNS each day,

Quick! Grab it at its high point

and shoo the DOWNS away!

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

Two Who Persisted

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

              I know that many are talking about this book. I feel that every teacher should share this with their middle grade and older students, or every parent should share with their even younger children, bit by bit, then researching more about those people that Schomburg learned about, those whose "works", first writing then art, he collected during his entire life. Carole Boston Weatherford uses Arthur (born Arturo) Schomburg's own words as an opening quote: "The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future. . . .History must restore what slavery took away."
        I became angry as I read this book, so filled with bits of historical figures who were never written about in my own years-ago history textbooks. Oh, I may have heard a little about Fredrick Douglas or probably George Washington Carver, but few others, until I got to college. Yet even then, there were limits. Carole Boston Weatherford has chosen to write Schomburg's story as a timeline, telling of the first spark that made him curious and determined. A teacher told him that "Africa's sons and daughters had no history, no heroes worth noting." He did not stop searching and learning, first enthralled by an early almanac written by Benjamin Banneker, self-taught inventor, astronomer, and draftsman. The book is a sort of list, and shown beautifully with Weatherford's descriptions through the years of Schomburg's studies, are Eric Velasquez's illustrations. He shows Schomburg aging but surrounded by those very heroes and the artifacts representative of what they created, which his teacher said did not exist.

New Holiday Books plus One Old Favorite

              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 their own reading lives and support this meme, too.

        I have been reading many books, but choose today to share some wonderful Christmas/holiday books that I have received thanks to Candlewick Press. I know that some of you have read and enjoyed the books below, but perhaps there are a few you don't know. 

      This is a small accordion-style, pop-up book that shows the first six days on the front folds, then it should be turned to view the final days. Small pop-outs of the main “gift” objects with lots of details in the background by Graham Baker-Smith’s beautiful art behind are special to see. The bonus is that it has a slipcase that makes a nice home for the book!
      




       How Bonny Becker knows how to create the sweetest story with her text and her most congenial characters is a mystery many might wish to know, but she does, every time. Here is Bear about to give his first Christmas party, and here is Mouse, honored guest, ready to open presents! Bear insists that’s silly, that the party is for good food, like pickles, and a long and serious poem. Oh, the expression on Mouse’s face. But he doesn’t give up! Each time Bear leaves for the kitchen for another party treat, Mouse scurries off to look for, you know, presents. Bear finds Mouse and gives his most stern look and Mouse returns it with chagrin. This is a book that’s a smile from the opening page all the way to a bigger one at the end. 

A Book That Teaches Us To Celebrate

     Celebrating with Ruth Ayres and others today. Thanks for giving yourself to this community, Ruth. It's a good thing to celebrate the pieces of our lives.

          I've been busy catching up today after a full week, or perhaps they're always full? Recently, writing and reading fill much of the spare time with a quick scoot out of doors for more nature time while our weather is still warm. Today I've been reading and prepping some books to share another time, but I just received one from the library after a long wait. Clearly, it's very popular. 

     The book fits so beautifully what we do each weekend, to share our celebrations, naming what we are thankful for. Gracias Thanks by Pat Mora and illustrated by John Para is a bilingual picture book showing a young boy moving through his day, from rising to bedtime, telling what he is thankful for. Each time he tells what and why! Sometimes it's amusing: "For the sun that wakes me up so I don't sleep for years and years, and grow a long white beard, thanks." And other times, he's serious: "For Mom, who found my homework in the trash, thanks." John Parra illustrates with double-page spreads with the text in Spanish on the left, English on the right!

        

          for my waking up early (without an alarm) so I can watch the sunrise. Thanks.

          for the sunshine nearly every day, and the shades that let it in. Gracias.

          for my family that keeps in touch. I talk nearly every day with my daughter, and often enough with my son and brother that I know how their lives are going and they want to know what I'm doing too. Merci.

           

          for my evenings to settle in and on cold winter nights to get into my old, worn, but still cuddly fleece bathrobe. Thanks.

          for my writing that keeps me focused and for the reading that inspires  Gracias.

          for my new bookstore co-workers, who are willing to take time to brainstorm and solve problems, who don't take the easy way, but make an effort to create a solution that will work for a long time. Merci.

Wishing everyone a good week ahead, with small times that feel just right.