Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
Yes, it’s the unbearably steamy dog days of summer, so here’s a short, random picture book shout-out to cool-’n-savvy Nina Crews for her One Hot Summer Day (1995). Sit down with your favorite toddler and soak this one in before it gets cool again in appreciation of Ms. Crews and her boundless talents.
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
A momma friend asked recently, ‘Is anyone else tired of Goodnight Moon? What else is there?’ Goodnight Moon is certainly a perfect little poem of goodnight farewells, but there is life beyond Margaret Wise Brown, the empress of books for toddlers. Here are some wonderful alternatives to the classic Goodnight Moon, a handful of bedtime beauties. (And, by all means, folks, pretty please send comments and tell us what your bed-time favorites are).
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
My friends — including my partner-in-crime here, Eisha — have informed me that I tend to speak in hyperbole (which is oh-so phenomenally and just categorically untrue). But with my abuse of hyperbole aside, I have to say that Sonya Hartnett, one of my favorite writers, is brilliant. Really, people. Just flat-out brilliant. Her writing is precise, exacting. It’s economical yet truly evocative. The reason she has quite a few one-sentence paragraphs is ’cause she writes like this: “My mother’s world had contracted like a dying spider.” There. She nailed it. What else do you need?
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
Dorothy Allison once wrote, “Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I would rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.” These sage words are ones that I think Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love (2006), would appreciate.
