Easy reader books

Our library at some point decided that since every publisher has its own ideas about how to rank reading difficulty levels, they would have their own system. So, our easy readers go from yellow to orange to red to light blue. After that, you move to chapter books. Unfortunately, most easy reader books are awful. Just horrible crap. And that is why, my friends, Dr. Seuss made a fortune. His books are entertaining without being too difficult. Most authors are total shit at this. A new contender in the field is Mo Willems, with his wonderful Elephant and Piggie books. Sadly we didn’t discover them and/or they weren’t published yet when they would have been truly appropriate for my kids. But we read them anyway. Good fun.

Nea has finally graduated (third grade, 8.75 years old) to the light blue books. Maybe that’s why the quality is slightly better. The first one at this level that blew my socks off was No More Monsters for Me! by Peggy Parish. 64 pages, and I was gripped by the plot the whole way, as was Nea. You may think I’m overstating the case, but no, really, I swear. So I checked to see what other wonders might await us from Ms. Parish. I had no idea she was responsible for the awful Amelia Bedelia books. I thought they were dated when I was a kid. But she’s got a few others, so we’ll be checking those out.

Any other suggestions? Nea has made great strides in reading, but it’s still hard for her, and a good story helps so much. 

Book Club

So, the last few selections were: 

• May -  The Fault in our Stars by John Green (looove this book. Contains both a Venn diagram [but not that one] and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Win!)
• June - Sh*t my Dad Says by Justin Halpern (actually a better discussion than you may imagine)
• July - Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt (good fun)

We've been skipping August for awhile now, as vacation plans make it too difficult to read or show up. 

So, September is my pick: 

• Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

You know me and my whole end-of-times books. I claimed at that time to be over this genre. But this one is different! Cuddlier! No cults! Just a mom and her kids, trying to survive a global weather-changing event and the breakdown of society. You know. The usual.

I'm expecting a good, if depressing, discussion. 

Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen

I'm sure most of you, if not all, have heard the sad news that Maurice Sendak has died. I've been meaning to write this post for years. I guess today is the day.

Back, way back, when I taught German to high school students, I would occasionally read them children’s books that I hoped they were familiar with. Die Kleine Raupe Nimmersatt and Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen. And also some others that were new to them, like Gustav will ein großes Eis and Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissenwollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat -- both also excellent, if somewhat weird.

Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt was pretty fantastic for the vocabulary covered. Days of the week, common food items ("Ein Stück Schokoladenkuchen, eine Eiswaffel, eine saure Gurke, eine Scheibe Käse, ein Stück Wurst, einen Lolli, ein Stück Früchtebrot, ein Würstchen, ein Törtchen und ein Stück Melone."), some nice adjectives. But Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen is that rare bird, a book that is arguably even better when translated.

Die wilden Kerle brüllten ihr fürchterliches Brüllen und fletschten ihre fürchterlichen Zahne und rollten ihre fürchterlichen Augen und zeigten ihre fürchterlichen Krallen.

That’s some fine literature right there. Makes the original seem a little wimpy: 

The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.

See?

RIP, Mr. Sendak.

Book for kids

Just a quick recommendation. So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George and David Small

I read this to both girls this week and could barely get through it because they kept asking so many questions. My only complaint is that it was published during the Clinton presidency. Please update and republish!

Book talk

Next pick for book club: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Back to Unwind (last month's pick) for a minute. As is typical for books we feel strongly about (especially negatively), we talked about it longer than usual. It didn't hurt that there was plenty of current events that fed into the discussion. With the GOP trying to take away women's rights to contraception, the Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood kerfuffle, lots of material to discuss that related to the book. My final take on Unwind? Neal is pulling out all the stops to offend everyone. How juvenile. There's much better literature out there. Read something else.

And in this politically charged atmosphere, as so often happens, a carrot cake bake-off throwdown was launched. Yes, 7 of our 8 members are bringing a carrot cake to the April meeting. Judging will be on appearance and taste. We've been promised a prize by the one person not participating. She's more of a éclair baker. I can eat her éclairs for hours! Good thing that opportunity doesn't present itself monthly. Good lord.


Anyway. I assume I'll win the bake-off, har har, but in case I don't, I'll try to procure the winning recipe to share here. I definitely should win the appearance part. I have a Secret Weapon that I plan to use. My dad knows what it is. I bet he won't tell you what it is, either.


In non-book club reading, I just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (interview and excerpt). Recommended. First book I've read in a long time that reminds me of what college was like during the 1980s.

For some reason this paragraph (page 49) struck me as particularly poignant. She's reading Roland Barthes A Lover's Discourse for homework:

It wasn't only that this writing seemed beautiful to Madeleine. It wasn't only that these opening sentences of Barthe' made immediate sense. It wasn't only the relief at recognizing that here, finally, was a book she might write her final paper on. What made Madeleine sit up in bed was something closer to the reason she read books in the first place and had always loved them. Here was a sign that she wasn't alone. Here was an articulation of what she had been so far mutely feeling. In bed on a Friday night, wearing sweatpants, her hair tied back, her glasses smudged, and eating peanut butter from the jar, Madeleine was in a state of extreme solitude.

Other books by Jeffrey Eugenides that you may have read: Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides. I liked the first but found the second unsatisfying. The movie, too. I'm pretty sure I saw the movie first. That probably ruined the book for me.

Boo's book recommendations

Boo is in third grade and is a voracious reader. Half of my life's ambition is realized. One kid down; one to go. We go to the library weekly, and I often reserve books online and pick them up when we go -- a service I LOVE. Nothing brings me greater joy than hearing about a good book and surprising Boo with it. Please share your recommendations!

   

Disclaimer: I have only read a few of these books. I'm not a fan of censorship. Shocker, I know. Boo is allowed to read whatever she likes.

  

Here are the top two books she gushes about:

• Rules by Cynthia Lord
• The Big Book of Girl Stuff by Bart King (she read the Boy one, too. Just to be sure they weren't getting away with anything.)

Books in a Series

What is it with kids in this age group and series books? Most of these are well-known, but maybe the list has an idea or two for parents of kids who like similar books:

• Judy Moody by Megan McDonald and Peter H. Reynolds (also their Stink books)
• Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall
• Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
• Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell
• The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler and Sarah Gibb
• Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel
• Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce
• Sophie the Great by Lara Bergen
• Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee
• Non-fiction American Girl books (like Friends: Making Them & Keeping Them)
• Klutz books (like Me and My Friends: The Book of Us)

 Graphic Novels

  

Boo is seriously into this genre. Yesterday she asked me the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel. I said length. I just looked it up and apparently that's as good an answer as any. Binding is a side effect of length, right? 

• Owly by Andy Runton ("sad")
• Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi ("lots of action. Like Star Wars. Don't read them at night when no one is around.")
• Fashion Kitty by Charise Mericle Harper
• And a shout-out from me: The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Wordless. Beautiful. Recommended for all ages.)

Books, books, books

It's official. I'm only telling you the book club picks every other month. No reason. Don't really know why I still blog it anyway. Now that Amazon refuses to play nice and share 4% of the purchase price. Which I gave to charity. Whatever.

Anyway, I already mentioned that April was Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply, but I want to add that it reminded me of the movie Momento, both of which really need more than one reading/viewing. They are Complex and Make my Brain Ache. But in a good way.

May was Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Other people liked it.

July/August is Welcome to Utopia by Karen Valby which I have no opinion on yet, as I'm on page, um, 8 or something.

And as a bonus book recommendation, I'm halfway through In the Land of Invented Languages by Arika Okrent. Super fun for language geeks like me! Thumbs up. Geek quiz: How many invented languages can you name? There are at least 500.

Book talk

Five books I've recently read, in the order that I would recommend them:

• Little Bee by Chris Cleave (must read the other book he wrote)
• We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (want to do for book club)
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (what Her Fearful Symmetry was trying to be)
• A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
• Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (just don't read his newest, Tell-All. It's godawful. I made it to page 18.)

Books I plan to read next, in no particular order:

Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (loved the movie. Want to read the book, then watch the movie again)

Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It by Maile Meloy (I don't remember where I heard about this one.)

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (recommended by Tish, my librarian friend, who has very similar taste to me and rarely steers me wrong, although she has a weird thing for Pete Hamill that I don't get.)

One Day by David Nicholls (Tish, I'm reading it now)

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Tish)

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst (Tish)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Tish)

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Tish)

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (Tish)

What have y'all been reading that's good?

Warning: geek book talk ahead

It's funny, I used to almost exclusively read fiction. Is it common in middle age to turn to more non-fiction? Maybe during our educational years there are just too many facts and too little immersing oneself in alternate worlds. I have every copy of the Best American Short Stories from 1985 to the present. But more and more I'm enjoying the non-fiction side of this series, such as The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. This one was fantastic! The 26 selections came from 16 magazines including Harper's, National Geographic, Discover, and New Yorker.

Here's a short description of my favorites.

Andrew Curry - the Stasi, the East German secret police, and how they tried to destroy a staggeringly enormous amount of paper as the Wall was beginning to fall.

Frederick Kaufman - the story of POOP and how it is dealt with daily in New York City. Processing, decontaminating, and profiting from human waste. An amazing story, although I'm sure you wouldn't necessarily agree until you read this. I bet you didn't know that NYC has the world's 4th largest navy. For moving around human waste.

Virginia Morell - Understanding animal intelligence. I always love a good Alex the Parrot story, and this article contains so much more.

David Quammen - All about an infectious cancer in Tasmanian devils. And what it means when a cancer evolves like this.

Oliver Sacks - Covers what Darwin did other than write "Origin of the Species". A great guy, that Darwin.

Mark A. Smith - A beautiful piece on the wonders of little animalcules in pond water as seen under a microscope. My favorite bit is: "When Arcella divides, it first makes a second shell, into which the daughter cell is born. These are single cells making snug little homes for themselves and providing the same for their offspring. I smile at how utterly ingrained and universal these domestic activities turn out to be."

Michael Specter - A thought-provoking article on Tesco's attempt to label all the foods they sell with a carbon label, explaining the carbon footprint to get that food from seed to production to the supermarket shelf. It's a lot more difficult to define than you'd think.

Wow, it really is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day!

As usual, it's the library's fault. It's the library's fault that my house is unorganized. It's the library's fault I don't greet my husband at the door with a pitcher of martinis, or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing these days. Because the library feeds my reading addiction. Of all the nerve.

So, a few months ago I checked out a copy of Mother Earth News (I've blogged about just that activity before). That issue had a review of this book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I put the book on hold at the library, as I was intrigued. I used the Internet to perform the hold, as I am slothful and enjoy reserving books from the comfort of my unorganized home.

Yesterday I made the basic bread recipe. Today, I ate the first slices. Alone. With Nutella. Several of them, to be honest. I immediately decided that perhaps you, my adoring reader, had heard of this book but had not yet taken the time to investigate further. Well. Let's just say that the library copy will not do. I will be purchasing a copy. I gleefully look forward to the light whole wheat, oatmeal, and sunflower seed breakfast bread. And the pizza dough. And others.

It's super easy and tastes just like the fancy bread from the store. The expensive stuff. Crispy exterior, chewy yet light interior. I mean, look at the cute things. Are they not adorable? Do you not want to just EAT THEM UP. With very little effort you make enough dough for 4 small loaves, which you can make at any point in the next two weeks. Like you're really going to wait 14 days. Sure.

You know, I'm sick. I probably shouldn't share this bread with the rest of the family. That seems foolhardy, doesn't it? No need to risk further spreading illness.

Remember, buy through my blog to help support Heifer International! Thank you!

Vices of the literary kind

Bluestem, why is your house a disaster? Why can’t your second child talk? Why aren’t you spending more time volunteering at the schools? What the hell do you do all day!?

Well. I have a confession. I am a reader. I read. It’s an addiction. It’s a problem. Recently, I was reading Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad about My Neck: and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman when I came across this beautiful passage:

When I pass a bookshelf, I like to pick out a book from it and thumb through it. When I see a newspaper on the couch, I like to sit down with it. When the mail arrives, I like to rip it open. Reading is one of the main things I do. Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.

Which is lovely. And makes me feel much much better about my relationship with reading, which I often feel guilty about.

However, for real Reading about Reading Pleasure, I heartily recommend Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. In fact, I plan to read it again tonight. It's been a few years. It's the only book I've ever bought multiple copies of to give as gifts to all the readers in my life.

Schuyler's monster

I just finishd reading Schuyler's monster: a father's journey with his wordless daughter by Robert Rummel-Hudson. I was so excited with I found it in the new books section at the library! Nea's apraxia is not the same as his daughter's diagnosis -- she has a brain malformation called bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria -- but I'm just loving reading something related to what we are going through.

Actually, it’s eerie, how the journey is similar. Daughter, non-verbal, very happy, accepted by peers, very social. Also, beautiful. And funny and smart. And the hand coordination issues that make signing difficult. And then the realization that there are assistive communication devices. And the repetitive breaking of the parent’s heart. Why, really, the whole book felt like a validation of the difficulty of our journey in the last two years. Hey, remember that super-fun sedated MRI, last summer? They were checking whether Nea had that same rare brain malformation.

Giant plus on this book: the guy is really funny. I truly can’t distance myself enough to say whether this book would appeal to a wider audience, but if it was written for an audience of me it’s hard to imagine a better fit.

For even more Schuyler, see http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/.

Two books about sex

Thanks to Kate for recommending Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. A hysterical romp through scientific articles on sex, covering the last 150 years. Read the book, then go rent Kinsey, if you haven't seen it yet. That Kinsey, he was kooky!

But for the best book on gender, the front-runner remains Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier. Fascinating from start to finish. We wimmenfolk, we are COMPLICATED.

Books and worms

Aha! I have located the problem with yesterday’s posting. This is why you weren’t impressed. I forgot to mention that I had been out with book group boozing until almost 2 a.m. the night before. Now my time sounds amazing, n’est pas?

Speaking of book group, next month's selection is Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. I just finished it, and it is my favorite book of the last 6 months, at least. The story behind the book is also remarkable, in that the manuscript was unpublished until 60 years after her death in Auschwitz.

The main reason, as I believe I've mentioned, why I'm posting less is that it is high-season for gardening. All my veggies are planted into the actual dirt in the actual ground except for the tomatoes. I'm thinking they'll go in Friday.

Here's what we have this year:

Potatoes
Zucchini
Kohlrabi
Bok choi ("baby" variety, very annoying. Wanted "adult")
Carrots (haven't sprouted yet)
Strawberries (free plants, whee)
Rhubarb
Asparagus (purple!)
Tomatoes (5 kinds)
Bell peppers
Green beans
Cucumbers
Butternut squash (of course)
Basil (purple and regular)
Cilantro
Parsley (about to sprout, I'm sure)
Chives (massive)
Onions
Peas
Spinach (unsure whether they are up, as I don't know what they look like)

Whew. That explains why I'm a little tired. Everything except 8 of the 21 tomato plants were started from seed.

Fortune cookie says what?

If I apply for this job, should I mention that one of my very favorite read-aloud books is Baker, Baker, Cookie Maker?

Between that and my vast writing skills, I would think I'd be a shoo-in.

Eating locally and organically

OK, you know how sometimes you save a blog topic and you just add and add and add to it until it’s so huge that you don’t know what to do with it? Well, this is one of those.

A few years ago I read The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, and raved about it like a lunatic for a few years. That book forced me to start buying only organic potatoes.
Then I read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. And I wanted to stop eating corn.
Then I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. And now I’m crazed completely and plan to expand my own vegetable patch. An interesting illustration from that book is the "Vegetannual" which explains nicely why the foods in season have to come from a specific part of the plant at a specific time. She’s also online, with lots of other resources.

Find a CSA (Community-supported agriculture) program near you
Find farmer’s markets near you.
What produce is in season now, by state.
Here’s a fascinating look at which companies own different branches of the organic industry.
If you happen to live near Chicago, as I do, there is a lot of info on the Vital Information blog.

If you don’t enjoy reading and would rather watch a nice documentary, in which a somewhat wacky farmer goes from conventional to organic farming, there’s The Real Dirt on Farmer John. I hear King Corn is good, but I haven’t seen that one yet.

And lastly, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) helps grassroots groups ensure fair prices for family farmers, safe and healthy food, and vibrant, environmentally sound rural communities. For when you are ready to take up pitchforks to change the world.

Please let me know if any of this was helpful to you! The comments section is always open.

Books for the Littlest "Readers"

I was giving someone a tour of our bookshelves a few weeks ago and realized how many books I love. Why this is a revelation is unclear. Anyway, since I can't possibly type up all of them at once, here's just the board books we own and love.

Board books to sing

I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon – Jeff Moss
Snugglepuppy – Sandra Boynton
The Belly Button Book – Sandra Boynton
Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats (ok, not a board book. Whatever.)
If You Were My Bunny – Kate McMullan

Other top-notch board books my kids love

Dear Zoo – Rod Campbell
What Makes a Rainbow? – Betty Schwartz
Machines at Work – Byron Barton
Arthur’s New Puppy – Marc Brown
My Many Colored Days – Dr. Seuss
First Book of Sushi – Amy Wilson Sanger
Where is Elmo’s Blanket? – Shana Corey
Good Night, Gorilla – Peggy Rathmann

And really anything by Boynton, Barton, Richard Scarry, Lucy Cousins, and Maurice Pledger.

Book recommendation

Just tore through the new Ann Patchett book, Run. I nearly blogged its recommendation when I was only on page 28, but I thought maybe I should hold back, just in case. "What if page 29 is a dud?" I worried.

After recently rereading Bel Canto, I felt like this one was much in the same melodic tone. I have read nearly all of her books, but really didn't like the others. In these two, the way she reveals her character's secrets and their inner voices is so beautiful, so effortless, so much like how I think.

Someday I'll write a book just like hers, except, you know, better.