Lament, and a Late Night's Reading

I have my first library card in years.

What?! I've worked in bookstores forever! I've read books before they were even ready for the shelf! Books not even bound sometimes, just pages wrapped with a rubber band. I haven't even needed a card from a library for a very long while. But this new stage of my life requires one. And a PIN! Who knew?

So, I went to the Douglass-Truth Library just up the hill from where I live and found a copy of Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, by Maggie Stiefvater. Holding it in my lap, I wonder who else has read this book? What caused the discolored upper right hand side warping? Jostled tea cup? Dropped and then caught just inside the suds in the bathtub? Why was the page turned down at chapter 4? How could the reader stop right there? Was s/he just marking a good spot? or was s/he (okay, probably a she, but, still, there is a GREAT male buddy character in here) really just ready to move on, no piece of grass or matchbook cover (my mom used those) to slide in as a memory cue? Time for a sandwich?

This book is well-read. It's covered in bends and scratches. I can feel the reader's additions to it, the backpack shove, encounters with a pen, the page edges softened where all those hands held it. There is an impression of words on the cover where someone used it as a flat spot to write a note.

The other thing I've noticed is that the spine is intact, smooth, no creases. It's as if it's always read in a single day, quickly, in one long rush of words and breath. Probably the same way I'm reading it: in bed, propped up by pillows, hoping that morning doesn't come too soon.
(Ages 12 and up. Flux. $9.95. Available now.)

Reading Mieces to Pieces

Sunrise was at 6:55, sunset will be at 7:34. Cold, wet, gray windy. It was spring once. At least there's no snow, yet.

tttttttttttttttttttttttttddddddddddddddddrrrrrrrrrr : cat typing.

She sits as close as she can to the edge of my keyboard, right where the heat vent is, her front paws just touching the edge. Every so often she hunches closer and ends up on the keyboard. She's gone, now, which is the only reason I can type. She swipes at my fingers so I have to type with a pen to keep from having her claws catching my skin. Poor baby, she is so cold, getting old, she needs a blanket and a water bottle.98888888 (oops, sorry, she came back.)

Enough about cats! The mice are coming!

One of the best things about books is how serendipitous the reading can be.

My book group (the one that met at All for Kids) used to read a couple of books at a time when they were short ones. We were always surprised at how often we found similarities between them, sometimes it was only character names, other times it could be an entire theme that connected them. We weren't very scientific about choosing books, either. We pretty much looked around the store, found titles we had enough copies of, and if people thought it sounded good, we'd read it. It was kind of cool how that worked, something out there must have guided our choices. We always got a lot more out of both when it happened.

Well, I had a copy of Young Fredle, by Cynthia Voigt in my bag, something I was reading for a book awards committee I'm on. Pretty much reading it when I walked to appointments or while waiting in lines. It's a good size for hauling around; you can get a lot read when they're small like that.

I had it with me when I went to lunch at a friend's house (hi, Sue!) and she brought up her favorite book of the year by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright, The Cheshire Cheese Cat. Something I'd been wanting to read because it's about Charles Dickens AND has Barry Moser's artwork, and is on the same awards list. She was actually able to find it and hand it to me IN SECONDS. Do you know how hard that is?

I headed home; it was a breezy, blue day, the chair was warming up in the window, and I settled in to give CCC a little read along, priming the pump for another book about mice. I looked up while figuring out how to get the cat to come and keep me warm and saw Richard Peck's Secrets at Sea in a little stack of books "to be read when there's time", the edge askew in the stack, begging me to pick it up and move it to the top. And since there's time, right now, it was moved to a brand new, sweet little stack of books about mice.

I love how the universe works.

Cynthia Voigt's Young Fredle is the story of a curious, adventurous house mouse, exiled from his warm home between the wall studs when he eats something and gets sick. He is shoved out of his nest and left to survive on his own in a house with a cat, two dogs, and a child. When the child's mother sees him, she scoops him up and puts him somewhere else, kindly, carefully, but somewhere completely alien to him. His adventures in this new world begin when he meets a gray meadow mouse, a cautious thing, who is willing to share most of what he knows with Fredle.

The thing I was most struck by is the mythology Ms. Voigt invents for Fredle and the mice folk. The primary rule of mice is to Stay Safe, but when they don't, when they could endanger the others, they are thrown out of the nest and are considered went. When a mouse is eaten by something or they don't come back after that loud SNAP, they are went. Once Fredle was exiled, his family cast him from their memories.

House mice don't know what the twinkling lights high above are, they don't have a language for grass or dew, and Fredle's connection to this brand new world could have been a fragile one except for the new friend who keeps him safe in it. Lots of adventure with raccoons and other scary things. (Ages 8 and up. Knopf. $16.99. Available now.)

The Cheshire Cheese Cat is a wonderful book featuring Charles Dickens and a few other historical personages. Skilley is an alley cat with an awful secret and he really wants out of the alley life. He blows into Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a public house that features the best cheese in the country and rapidly makes himself indispensable to the cook, catching the mice that are such a problem in her kitchen. Or does he?

Skilley's embarrassing secret is that he doesn't like mice- He likes cheese! In exchange for keeping the mice safe, he makes a deal with Pip, the head mouse, for the thing he loves most. When another cat makes its way into the pub, everything is turned upside down and the mice and Skilley are in danger! The crisis may even bring down the British Monarchy! The whole thing is watched closely by Mr. Dickens who comes in every day to write, stumped by writer's block; if he could only find that first line! This was a really funny book for middle readers, history in a small slice, and there are scenes that will have kids laughing aloud. The artwork and the artfully designed pages are a good addition to the whole package. (Ages 8 and up. Peachtree Publishers. $16.95. Available now.)

I have loved Richard Peck's books forever. Secrets at Sea is filled with his singular humor and love of history but taken to a new "low": a little family of mice follow their human family abroad hoping to find a husband for the oldest daughter. As the ship heads east across the sea, both families find love and adventure while becoming a part of history.

The details of the time period are what set this particular book apart. It's Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and the ship is filled with titled gentry, both human and mouse. This is history as experienced from the mouse's point of view, "...we are among the very First Families of the land. We were here before the squirrels. The squirrels came for the acorns. We sold them the acorns." Lots of information about traveling on a ship, both above and below decks, lots of information about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and Mr. Peck has included wonderful words and descriptions about fabric, clothing, and how people dress. Sweet, lovely artwork by Kelly Murphy perfectly captures the world of this mouse family. (Ages 9 and up. Dial Press. $16.99. Available now.)

Two of the three books feature Queen Victoria and cheese!

If you like books about mice, you should try to find a copy of Ally Sheedy's book She Was Nice to Mice: The Other Side of Elizabeth I's Character Never Before Revealed by Previous Historians. It is a wonderful book about Elizabeth I's friendship with a mouse named Esther and the secrets she holds. It's historically accurate and just a great read. And, yes, it was written by THE Ally Sheedy when she was 12 (Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy), illustrated by Jessica Ann Levy when she was 13, and published in 1975.

(Please note: No remuneration was received for reviews of any book in this blog.)

SCIENCE! Planets, Moon, and Stars, OH MY!

Sunrise was at 6:37 am, sunset will be at 6:04 pm. Getting closer to equal daylight and nightlight. It's been great to see the sky still light in the west as late as 7 pm. I've been picking D up when he's finished at work and we've been walking home in the daylight, as the sun starts to go down. Happy happy happy to have more light in my days!

The night sky's been so amazing lately - have you had a chance to watch as Venus and Jupiter come closer and closer to each other? Soon, well, relatively soon anyway, there will be another crescent moon stacked under J and V and the Pleiades above all like a bunch of grapes. The skies have been so clear (except for today-this photo was taken just as the sun was going down, it's hazy, but the planets are so bright!) that the planets seem to pin the sky to the vault above.

The moon and Mars are putting on quite the show, too, tonight, just turn and look the other direction. They are going to appear to be quite close and Mars should be a pretty good size! You can go here for pictures and more information.

I wonder how the massive solar flares that occurred today will affect the electrical grid when they hit the earth tomorrow. Will we see aurorae? Will there be ripples of light across the night sky? I don't know if we'll notice anything tomorrow during the daylight except for power loss or static, but maybe we'll see some night sky action. Will birds be affected? Will the flares have some sort of magnetic field effect? I'll have to keep an eye on the cat, see if she notices anything that will make her act differently.

Ooh! Science!

This would be a good time to re-read Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker. I've been thinking about it all day. It isn't out yet, but you definitely need to put it on a list ASAP.

It's about a girl whose family is beginning to fall apart just as some sort of massive world event has slowed the rotation of the earth. It's been slowing for awhile but it's now obvious that the days and nights are getting longer. Julia's worried about it but not as worried as she is about getting a boyfriend or filling in her bra or her parents breaking up. Nobody's able to sleep because sometimes night-time isn't dark, school is sometimes in daylight, sometimes not, and the magnetic field is screwed up so birds have to walk to migrate, but life goes on even so. A brilliant book about being able to adapt to brutal times, especially if you're waiting for your first kiss.
(Random House. $26.00. May 20, 2012.)

Why Books?

It was a dark and stormy night...

Most people would find this kind of night perfect for curling up with a book and a cup of tea, a perfect chance to read to your kids, all warm in their fuzzy jammies and slippers, propped up by pillows and stuffed animals, surrounded by a sliding stack of books to choose from. Those kids will grow up literate, able to spell and read more easily than the kids who won't be exposed to books and being read to.

Many children who don't have the opportunity to have books at home to read whenever they want, or to parents who have the energy to read aloud after a long day, will always be at a disadvantage in their schooling. Well, Page Ahead is working to change that.

The night that the Page Ahead Book Awards committee met at the Washington Mutual building featured an absolute downpour, a lot of rain even for Seattle. There were buckets of rain, bouncing knee high as it hit the streets, it was hard to see through the windshield, wind twisting the sheets of water sideways as I drove through the cross streets. The light in the streets was that yellow specifically featured in old movies, the rain glowing as the streetlamps came on all at once. Stormy, while inside the car it was cozy, dimly lit.

The Page Ahead meetings are held on the 48th floor, the Perkins Coie floor, and my ears always pop at 44. The windows in the office where we meet face the Sound and the ferries, West Seattle and the islands, and they shudder when gusts hit. It seems we are often just above jets as they fly in from the north to land at SeaTac. As awful as the weather was outside, it was warm and comfortable being in a room filled with people talking about choosing the best books for children.

Eight pages of books for us to peruse and choose from, we are looking for the single best book for children ages birth to 12: the best multicultural, read-aloud, and science books for at-risk kids. Page Ahead gives new books to kids who may never be able to own their own and studies show that children who own their own books are much better readers and so become much better students, and who knows where they will go from there?

So, we set out to choose books that could change a life, might inspire someone to become a teacher, a scientist, an astronaut, show that books can entertain as well as teach. Giving books to kids helps them to learn skills that will enable them to navigate the big, wide universe, to realize that there are other worlds out there than the ones they're in, that with what they learn they can make a difference in their lives, in others' lives.

I was from a pretty un-wealthy family and I can tell you that a library card and a mom who let us all buy books from the racks at the grocery store with the little bit of leftover money made a huge difference in who I grew up to be. Owning my very own books, books I could go back to over and over whenever I wanted, was like having a map of how to grow up.

I was given two books on my 9th birthday: A Wrinkle in Time was the very first, but not the last, time in my life that books showed me how a plain girl in glasses has power, and To Dance, To Dream showed me that grace and joy can belong to everyone (and that being a strong woman is really cool). Every child should have the chance to see themselves as heroes in their own lives.

So, here we are, feet firmly planted in the twins' broccoli patch, getting ready to send someone off onto an unending adventure, one that starts with the breathless opening of their very own books.

One Door Closes....

Sunrise was at 7:07, Sunset will be at 5:40.

In a time of tumult, it's calming to look at how big things like sunrise and sunset still happen. The world still turns, the ground beneath us still holds tight to the hillside, birds migrate, the waves roll on. It connects us all, this turning of the earth and the rising of the sun, and it's comforting to me to know that, wherever you are, we will still experience it together.

I haven't written in a while: I've been laid off and so am taking the time to do all those laid off things one must do when one is not actually being paid a wage, like updating profiles and sending job requests and signing up for unemployment. It's daunting and uncomfortable most of the time and I look forward to the sun setting (or at least its going down - we haven't had a sunset since last Tuesday; and what a sunset it was on that Valentine's Day: it was raining, the sun was going down and there was a triple rainbow) so I can do those other things not related to a computer like making dinner and doing the laundry; just leave the computer and feel righteous in not looking for a job for awhile.

Sitting in a chair in front of a computer taking online courses isn't particularly hard work, but it's certainly not exciting! Even so, it's amazing how quickly time slips by while sitting here. Eventually, I get antsy, that restless leg thing takes hold, and then I have to get up and go downstairs for a bit, think about doing something else, look out the window and contemplate moving the hummingbird feeder.

It helps to keep me focused when the weather has been uninviting, to say the least: wet, cold, gray. It's misty today and the buildings downtown are only a darker shade of gray than the water in the air. It's cold in the house and the cat's been sitting as close as she can to the computer's heating vent without stepping on the keyboard. Her little paws are radiant.

So send me happy thoughts and job opportunities! Something with books and/or children would be great but everything will be appreciated!

I'll get back to writing about books in the near future; I haven't been reading a lot recently but I'm sure that will change soon...

Unraveling

Sunrise is at 7:34, sunset will be at 5:13

There is something elemental about getting up before most other people, cleansing. My eyes were tired, my brain was wide awake.

I got up long before D's alarm went off at 4:45 (that's a.m.) - just couldn't sleep for the I Could Walk 500 Miles refrain cycling over and over in my head. I've cleaned the meat off a chicken carcass, made (and drank most of) a pot of coffee, made lunch for D., made the bed, folded and put away my clothes, fed the cat, put out the recycle and garbage, got dressed, took D. to work...all before 6:30.

The drive downtown and then back home was gorgeous. I love the stream of headlights into the city, a beautiful ribbon of light in the clear air of this morning, and coming over the hill to Rainier Avenue from Boren is the broad southern vista of the Rainier valley, lights twinkling as people start to get up and out. The sun was coming up and the mountains were silhouetted against the transparent indigo of the lightening sky. Stars everywhere! And now the Olympics are pink, the fog is violet, and the sky is going to be clear. Seagulls, little popcorn birds, it's noisy out here.

The sun is up, orange light bouncing off the windows of the houses facing east and the day feels kind of common now that everyone is up...it's a Friday like the others (except for the clear and warming up part).

I was up late last night finishing Unraveling, by Elizabeth Norris. Janelle is going into her junior year, she has a popular boyfriend, a great family (except for her mom's bipolar disorder which seems to be getting worse), and a best friend named Alex.

Everything is great until she's hit by a truck while walking home. Her brain is shutting down and her life is flashing by when she is ripped back to sensation and vision and sees one of the stoner kids from her school standing over her. She is certain he saved her life but he won't admit it and there's nothing to prove that anything was ever broken or that she actually died.

Janelle's never really noticed Ben before, just that he was a part of a small group of loners and stoners, but now can't stop thinking about his role in her world, especially, since she met him, her life as she knows it is ending.

While sneaking into her father's FBI files to find out about her accident, she finds connections to her case and a count down clock, some sort of weapon, radiation poisonings and these connections may be leading back to Ben.

Fun, funny, great dialogue, interesting discussion about parallel universes and physics. It's got good drama, good romance, smooching, and great friendships. I really want to have the loose strings tied up but that wouldn't happen in real life; I'm not holding out any hope that there will be a sequel but I'd love to see what happens next. Age 13 and up. (Harper and Collins. $17.99. Available April, 2012.)

DFTBA

Sunrise was at 7:38, sunset will be at 5:08.

The days are surely getting longer and it didn't rain yesterday, nice weather for the hundreds of people waiting for the John and Hank Green Tour de Nerdfighting concert and book event at the store.

That was the most fun EVER! Hundreds of people chanting, playing ukeleles, all of them filled with awesomeness, willing to wait up to 3 hours to get in the store, 3 more hours to meet the boys one to one, the best book concert ever.

The excitement rises as the venue fills, there's a little plucking of acoustic instruments going on, voices rumble, call and response of DFTBA, the wave happens (appropriate since Seattle is where it was invented). The astonishing roar of all those throats yelling when the curtains move. There's dancing in the aisles during Hank's songs, everyone is riveted to the stage, and you could hear a pin drop - a big pin - when John was reading from TFiOS. So many boys in the audience, so many adults reading his books, tears, shaking girls, boys who have found characters they can identify with, and all of the phones and cameras spitting light and capturing the moment.

Thanks, Boys.