a little book chat, plus some extra noodling

I'm still a little fuzzy from our long holiday weekend. We really like to follow a consistent path; Ramona, Brian and I. Being away from home for all those days really threw us for a loop.

Ramona had so much fun, more fun than I thought a 7 month old baby really could be expected to have. She totally got the idea of it being a holiday and she really lived it up. She is going to LOVE Christmas. Ramona was so wild by Saturday night that I had to finally give in and let her sleep with us.

My house feels like a disaster, my blog neglected, bills unpaid......on and on it goes. Glad to be home and glad to begin the process of putting it all back together again.

So, for the sake of normalcy and coming back to daily life, I'm going to do my (new) Monday night routine of chatting about the books.

I want to talk about Pam Munoz Ryan. She is my new favorite author. I have written about Paint the Wind several times. A few weeks ago I read Becoming Naomi Leon. I don't think it is as epic as Paint the Wind. (After Ryan wrote that one she probably sat back and thought "Well....that's the best I can do.") I bet a lot of my students would relate to Naomi's story. She's a young girl, living a perfectly fine life with her great grandmother and little brother in a close knit trailer park. Everything is going great until her train wreck mother comes into the picture and starts messing things up. Many of Ryan's protagonists are Latinas and in the story Naomi travels to Mexico to escape her mother. While there, she gains a new confidence from reconnecting with her family and learning the honored family tradition of carving.

On a side note, every book I have read by Pam Munoz Ryan gives a little shout-out to breastfeeding, which just delights me. It's unheard of to mention something like that in a book for 4th and 5th grade students. I like to think there is no such thing as "girl books" or "boy books", but who am I kidding, Ryan's books are meant for young girls to enjoy. I think it's sweet and appropriate how Ryan will put a mother nursing her baby in the story as scenery. No big woop, just a mama and a baby. She describes this just as lyrically as she does a tipped over pot, tortillas cooking on a grill or a wild desert flower.

Monday Book Talk - The Unfinished Angel

You know you are reading a nice book when you immediately think of all the people you want to buy it for. You also know you are reading a nice book when you start reading it aloud even though you are all by yourself.

On Friday we got a box of new books and on top was The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech. (She also wrote Walk Two Moons.) I had other important things to read, but I couldn't help myself. I had it finished by Sunday afternoon.

It is about a little angel that lives in the Swiss Mountains. The angel speaks very cutely. I didn't find it especially funny, but very endearing. The angel talks a lot about swishing in the peoples heads and shining warm beams down to them. Then a little girl, Zola, shows up and can see the angel. She has lots of ideas about what angels do and it perplexes our angle. "How is she knowing what angels are doing? I am the angel! I missed some teachings I believe". Zola discovers a problem that she would very much like the angel to solve and the two set out together to make things right.

This is a tiny book. It's like a novella. The characters are not too deep and we don't get much back story, but it is a dear little book.

thankful for the very large things, too

I am very thankful for my home. It is a modest, cookie cutter split level, but I am thankful to have it.

Two summers ago, when I was newly pregnant with Ramona, Brian and I decided to buy our first home. At the same time, my mom was ready to move into a smaller place and simplify her life. It wasn't glamorous or new, but I bought my mom's house. It was a favor that we both did for each other and now I live in my childhood home, with my new little family. I give Ramona a bath in the same bathroom that I got ready for prom in. Charming, no?

It isn't a dream house, but we can afford it and isn't that really the makings of a true dream?

Thankful for the small things...

...the small, five pound things with wet noses and very awful breath.

Okay, it may seem trivial, but I'm thankful for my dog.

Seven years ago I got a dog as a college graduation present from my mom. I picked out a tiny Yorkshire terrier and named her Sophie. (Aren't all yorkies named Sophie?) I proceeded to spoil the hell out of this tiny, neurotic little dog.

I fretted a lot about what was going to happen with Sophie when Ramona was born. I worried that my spoiled, crazy dog was going to attack my small baby girl.

I did not even consider for a second that Sophie would be the greatest joy in Ramona's life. Yesterday I actually got Sophie out of her kennel especially to help me entertain the baby. I have to stand on my head to get a laugh out of Ramona, but all Sophie has to do is walk by.

So far, Sophie has shown herself to be gentle and tolerant of Ramona. She has adjusted her behavior to match our new expectations. She even lays at my feet when I rock Ramona and never asks to sit in my lap when Ramona is curled up there. She seems to take pleasure in guarding her family.

That Marley doesn't have a thing on Sophie. She is from that place where really good dogs are made. Bless her little doggy heart.

thankful, round two

Next on my thankful list: Ramona's babysitter.

This makes me nervous. You know how when you proudly declare that your baby sleeps through the night, never cries anymore, eats everything you serve her....and then, what do you know, you end up eating the mud? Well, it makes me nervous to declare victory at any turn.

But, in honor of the coming holiday, I'm going to go there.

We really like Ramona's babysitter. She is a good, honest, caring, sweet person. Because of her, Brian and I are carrying on with our lives very much like before Ramona was born. Sometimes I hate being a working mom, sometimes I feel a huge relief when I'm driving off to work....it just depends on the day. But I know that I would not feel this bouncy ambivalence if I didn't honestly feel safe with who we had chosen.

I am thankful that I have a safe and caring person to care for my child while I am at work.

On the First day of Thanksgiving.....

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is only since being a teacher that it became my favorite holiday. My first year as a teacher I was a hopeless mess. I didn't enjoy teaching that first year until November. By then I finally got my class under control and began to enjoy teaching. It just so happened that it was while teaching about pilgrims, turkeys, and the first thanksgiving (real or fictitious,whatever) that teaching got my heart. I associate this holiday with taking a giant breath and releasing.

I also love the nice break we teachers get, the time with family, and enjoying a holiday with food, but no gifts.

In honor of this holiday, and this very fortunate life I'm living I am going to write about something I am thankful for every day until the BIG DAY.

*********

I am thankful for books. I am thankful that I get to base my livelihood on their existence. I'm thankful that they make up a big part of the Ego that is Nova. Read from a musty library page or from an electronic device, whatever, I'm deeply thankful for the stories.

Book Review - Walk Two Moons

sheesh.....I totally need more structure. I haven't blogged in a week, and not because I didn't have stuff to say. So, introducing....Monday Night Book Review! Darn it people, I'm going to keep picking nights until one works.

I'm reviewing an old book tonight. Copyright 1994. A few weeks ago a teacher friend suggested I read Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. He said it was my kind of book, and that it was "winsome". It must be my kind of book, because there is a mom in it and SPOILER ALERT....SPOILER ALERT....

she dies. I alert you that it's a spoiler, because the best thing about this book is the really wonderful plot twist, and I've just ruined it big time. But, how can I resist telling you about another sick/dying/dead mom? Seriously, what is the deal, children's literature? I guess moms are pretty much huge in the life of a child. What is more heartbreaking than a motherless child? Well, they are definitely children's literature gold. It seems like most of the books that I've read during my quest this year have been about a sick or dying mother.

What? My quest, you ask? Nova, you are on a quest?

Oh, why yes I am. (I have a 6 month old child, I am really really good at carrying on both sides of a conversation.) At the beginning of this school year I took a vow to stop reading all grown up books. I haven't read a book of adult fiction since Ramona was born. No matter how tempting, I'm just not going to do it. Last year, even though I was a school librarian, I didn't crack a book in my very own library. I just went about my own personal reading goals with no concern at all for the books at school. But then Ramona came and my mind got very fuzzy. The chapter book fiction of my 4th and 5th graders have become the only game in town for me. Seriously, I'm a reading maniac. I will go back to reading adult fiction, maybe. Right now, I'm just reading my way through the shelves of my library.

But, back to Walk Two Moons.....The story is about a grieving girl, who is on a cross country trip with her wacky grandparents to bring her mother back home. Our girl, Sal, tells a story about a new friend, a girl named Phoebe. She spends the entire trip telling the story of Phoebe, and for a good reason: "Beneath Phoebe's story was another one. Mine."

Shon, you are right, this book was totally winsome.