I wasn't sure what to call this post ~ just so many bits and pieces that are too small to make posts of their own!
Fuse #8's 100 Children's Novels countdown is heading into the homestretch. Four spots left, and all four of my "must-be-there" books have yet to be named. So once again I'm predicting/hoping that here's what we'll see, counting down from 4-1: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; A Wrinkle in Time; Sorcerer's Stone; Charlotte's Web. I actually have no clue about order and am basing my predictions on the random thoughts that a) I've had a funny feeling all along that Charlotte/Sorcerer would come in as 1 and 2 (and my husband reached the same conclusion independently, leading me to believe we can't both be wrong!) and b) if the American/British pattern holds for books in the first two spots, it may hold for books in the third and fourth spots as well. I know...that makes little logical sense. Just humor me!
The sweet girl is loving the 30 Poets/30 Days over at Gotta Book. Just like last year, one poem in particular has totally captured her imagination. This year it's the poem "Re:Me" by Calef Brown. She's read it five or six times (and it's a long poem) and chortles her way through every time. We both appreciate its sense of fun, clever rhymes and wordplay. She's now trying to write a funny poem in imitation. Last night she got down from the dinner table and brought back paper and pencil. "I need to begin writing my poem," she explained. And then she asked, "Does it have to have punctuation in it?"
The taxes are alllmoooossstt done. Have I mentioned how much I don't enjoy having to work out self-employment taxes? And yet I love the freedom of working from home, which allows me to do other things I love, like homeschool. So I will try not to complain. Though I must say that I did a lot of sighing over the utterly un-downloadable forms on the state website. All I really have to do tonight is assemble the forms, write the checks, and make copies for the files. And I can do that while...
watching Scarecrow and Mrs. King! How utterly delighted I was to get the Season 1 DVD (which for some reason had never been released until this year) from my sister for my birthday. Scarecrow is just about my favorite television show of all time, perhaps recently dethroned by LOST (though let me wait on that judgment until the finale) and it's been so much fun to see these early episodes again. I even finally got to see the season 1 Christmas show, one of the few episodes of the entire series I'd never seen. Like the rest of them, it was sweet and sentimental in that wonderful early 1980s/Cold War/spy adventure sort of way.
I'm in a real reviewing slump at present, but last week did finally post my review of Eric Metaxas' book Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. If you know anyone looking for an introduction to the life and work of the great Wilberforce (perhaps someone who saw the recent movie and is intrigued to know more) point them to this excellent book.
Sherry over at Semicolon kicked off her classical poems postings with a reflection on Psalm 23. That happened to be on the list of favorites I sent her. She's going to be posting about poems that got multiple votes/mentions, and in chronological order. I especially smiled to see that she posted a link to Keith Green singing "The Lord is My Shepherd." This Easter week has definitely been colored by Keith's music for us, especially this live recording of "The Victor" on youtube. I both tear up and smile whenever I watch it.
6 comments:
Glad your daughter's enjoying the month o' poetry. I'm a big fan of Re: Me, too. I still laugh every time through, and I've read it more times than her!
I got a kick out of Re:Me too, and the others as well. Always smile when I see Gregory K. in the inbox! :) Speaking of poetry, did you hear a new Shel Silverstein book is coming out, I think next year? Super-excited!
Scarecrow and Mrs. King is going in my Netflix queue. As for LOST, do I detect some trepidation about the finale? I'd like to think there's nothing they can do at this point to make me disavow the show after all my investment. But I can think of several things, I think, that would really tick me off.
I hope you're right about the top four; those sure sound like winners to me!
Greg, thanks for stopping by. My daughter (nearly eight) is absolutely loving your poetry series. We did it for the first time last year and she was so excited that there were going to be more poems this year.
Her poem, by the way, begins "Once I was chasing some bees./I decided to give them some cheese." She told me, quite earnestly, that she knew bees didn't eat cheese. "But I want this to be a FUNNY poem."
Thank you again!
Hadn't heard about the new Shel Silverstein, but I'm sure there will be much rejoicing!
No, no real trepidation about the LOST finale. :-) Well, not much anyway! I've been realizing they have probably taken over as my new favorite show, though MASH and Scarecrow are still up there. Be warned if you go for S & Mrs. K -- it is *utterly* 80s. Which is one reason I love it!
I sure hope I'm right about the top four too, regardless of order. I can't imagine anything else beating those books out...and if we had a top 100 children's novels with no Lewis or L'Engle, I might just have to weep!
Update! So far so good...Lion, Witch and Wardrobe did indeed come in at number four!
I don't think I would be so generous with my cheese. But then, that's mostly because bees and I historically do not get along very well... ;)
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