Soap box – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Reading on vacation

I had a lovely Spring Break. I finished Wildwood Dancing before we left for Chicago (review to come), I read Just Listen by Sarah Dessen on the trip and on the ride home yesterday I got half way through Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes. It isn’t a massive amount but I did also enjoy my children, see my step-daughter in a play (She Loves Me) at Northside College Prep and visit with one of my oldest friends, Barbara and her lovely family. Barbara gave me back Jitterbug Perfume, which I had lent her and now I think I might need to go back and reread it as she said she needed a dictionary to read it…

We got home yesterday after picking up the dog at the kennel (which was not the doggie retreat it advertised and unpacked the car from out four day trip. You would have thought we had the kitchen sink in the station wagon. There is something about driving that makes our family pack anything we think we might need in that four day period. I love pulling out the bag of activities my daughter took along but never bothered to use. I love that we carted along Elizabeth, her AG doll, who spent the entire vacation in the car. I made some comment to peaceful girl about Elizabeth not having a very exciting road trip-never leaving the station wagon-her retort is “She’s a doll, mom!” Mmmhmmm…a doll who needs her own wardrobe, bedroom set and accessories, interesting!

I think I’m excited about Health Care Reform passing although I’m not sure. Yes, I do want health care reform but truthfully, I wish I could have written the bill myself. It would have said something like this …”If you do not have quality, affordable health care for you and your family then you may purchase health care from the US government public option. Public Option just gives us a good alternative to the rip-off insurance companies out there who keep upping the price of insurance with no extra benefits involved. I would have thrown in something about small businesses using the public option as well because they need to be competitive in today’s market.” It would have been about a paragraph long instead of the 100 page long document I researched online. Part A, Part B, Part C…to much filler.

In other current news I have been listening to The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, which is 17 discs long. I love the story and am anxious to get back to listening to it on my drive back and forth to work. I’ve had to renew it 3 times from the library (an ipod would help) so that both my husband and I can finish it.

How is your first day of Spring?

Where the wild things are…[movie spoilers included but still a must read]

It has taken me several days to process watching Spike Jonze’s version of Where the wild things are. I read Maurice Sendak’s version to k-2nd grade students all last week, which was good for them and me. It’s always good to rediscuss the theme of imagination with students. Many of my students haven’t grown up with the book as I did and my own children have. I also showed them the quick Scholastic movie which follows the book exactly.

Our family merrily went off to see the movie on Friday with great anticipation!! We loved the late 70’s clothes -it took me back to my childhood. The boy playing Max is adorable, lovable and wild. The opening scenes of him playing in the snow, having a snowball fight with his sister’s friends all give a feel of Max’s character-obviously more than the book; even as deep as the book is. We witness Max get wild and his wolf suit is perfectly impish! He fit the Max of my imagination, well, until he runs away! He runs away…which goes against everything kids learn from Sendak’s book. It’s about the imagination! Max takes of down the street to an empty lot with his mom chasing after him. She never catches up to him and Max makes his way to where the wild things are. The wild things are interesting characters, lovable yes, but argumentative, bossy, scared and sad. Max offers himself up as a king who can make everything right in their world. The movie is good maybe even great but it is so not what I expected. It is much darker than the book, which is fine depending on its intended audience. My 6-year-old peaceful girl turned half way through and said “I like the book better, mommy.” On the other side of me was peaceful teenage boy and he was riveted, really, really enthralled! He is 14 and he got all these varied levels of community and expectations of life [i overheard him talking] as he talked later with a family friend who also saw the movie the same opening night. My husband and I were disturbed about Max’s run down the street-literally running away in instead of running to his room. This sends a different message to kids-let your mom chase you down the street, come back much, much later and you will get chocolate cake and your mom will not be mad at all, only relieved.

I was very sad when I came out of The Tale of Desperaux movie because it was so far removed from the book and I love Kate DiCamillo. This one didn’t make me feel that way; I liked it and would watch it again but I was unhappy the writing team strayed so far from original imagination theme. Max could have run to his room and hid out in his bunk bed fort and still had the same encounter with the wild things. And why did they need to change the names of the wild things? Why Carol instead of Barnard???

Have you seen the movie??? What did you think???

How's your Reading Bubble?

Just read this wonderful post from Joyce @ Getting kids reading, which I found via Jen Robinson’s Booklights PBS site. I love the idea of a reading bubble and know I have one that I carry with me. This post reminded me of a conversation my husband and I had about “what’s it like being married to a bookish person, now bookish, blogging person?”
I posed this question to my husband on our recent road trip to St. Paul before I started reading The Luxe to him.
I have always been a reader and live by the motto that you should take a book with you wherever you go… because you never know when traffic might come to a stop, a line might stop moving etc. I read in the car every chance I get and thank my lucky stars that I’m not one of those unfortunate souls(sorry Kaylee) that get car sick while reading. In other words I love my reading bubble and do not like it to be poked.
Of course, when you are married you have to be nice to that other person. You have to listen to their stories and conversation (yes, you love that person and their stories but still!); it bursts your reading bubble frequently. Years ago when my father found out I was getting married he told Greg one of “his jobs would be to drive me places!” My Dad failed to mention that I would be reading every time we got in the car! My husband loves to converse and over time I’ve learned when I hear this audible sigh…it’s time to put the book mark in and have a two-sided conversation. I don’t think I got a straight answer to my posed question but it did open a great conversation and I did read to him, which then caused more great conversation about the book. My answer would be intellectually stimulating, of course!!

Beyond Junie B.

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Those of you who are following along might remember me ranting about how much I disliked, then grew fond of Ms. Junie B. Jones because she was making J. and I laugh at bedtime and sometimes randomly throughout the day, which is a great thing, of course, but after reading a bunch of Junie B.’s I am pretty tired of the language. How many stupid’s, shut up’s and your just dumb do we have to plow through? Many of those particular words are not acceptable language in our peaceful, hippie house so often I would pass over every third insert dumb, stupid, shut up… in reading chapters to J. but then I keep thinking when she is able (soon) to read these to herself she will read those on her own and think me a liar or be disagreeable that the author had to choose these words over and over even though J. is taught to expand her vocabulary. Sorry Barbara Park…yet the books are so funny. I wish we could go back and rewrite them with out those words because those are not the words that make the stories drop down funny. I am happy to see many other books out there for this age group though that don’t have any stupid’s, shut-up’s or dumb. For example, we and many of my 2nd and 3rd grade library patrons love the Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrow( see previous posts). I hope to find more kid lit out there like this for this beginning chapter book, mostly girl group. I think maybe it is a generational thing, Ms. Park?

Laughing during this time must be healthy!!

I read this article from Huffington Post, which I love and it really, really made me laugh, which made me feel good at this time of high stress. I thought I was the only one who looked at how well their suits fit and lo and behold, Nora does too…and she says it way funnier than I could!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/life-in-the-shallow-end_b_132850.htmld

Anne Lamott

This is a great article. Please read and she is right-we need to talk everyday about Barack Obama and the good things he stands for in his run for the biggest job America has to offer.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/16/anne_lamott/

Obama, Obama, Obama

Now that school is in full swing I have less and less time to read even though my job requires me to read and be current. Plus I am spending all my other “extra” time working for DMC/the Obama campaign making phone calls, drumming up support for this once-in-a-lifetime intelligent candidate!!! It confuses me when I get such angry people on the phone. If someone called me to talk about John McCain I would simple tell them how much I like my candidate. The people I call seem angry about their candidate. They don’t want to discuss him or their own views they just are mad, which is too bad because a good debate could follow but instead they close themselves off to any new light coming in. I want to say to them (these angry people on the other end of my phone) “don’t be so angry-I didn’t call and yell at you” Common decent human feelings seem to escape the opposite party at this time I guess. Still the work continues and we will all rest after November 4, we hope with all of our hearts.

red flag Olympics

I am over the Olympics already and really, they have barely begun. I realize this is a slightly un-American viewpoint-but that’s part of the problem to me. I am mad because it is China, saluting China and all their human rights errors. I am mad because it gives G.W. Bush a platform to be all “he, he, he, I am the president of the greatest nation in the world and if those Chinese would just get religion all would be better for them!! and shame on Russia for all that naughty violence…!! more he, he, he’s” I even think Bob Costas couldn’t believe rambling Mr. Bush. And my third complaint against the Olympics is that it really isn’t an even playing field. Some countries can afford to pay their Olympic athletes, some cannot, some practice under extreme condition like the swimmer who has been training without an Olympic size pool. I just don’t think the smaller countries come out ahead. Well, and the fourth thing is what a lot of money for pomp and look-at-me fireworks…the money spent on the opening ceremony alone could have brought good feng shui and food to many Chinese workers.