Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
Some of you may have read about this already at A Fuse #8 Production this week, but we’re going to post the same content, as passed on to us from author Rose Kent. Here is an announcement about November being National Adoption Month, in the words of Ms. Kent:
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
Below is today’s Robert’s Snow schedule.
The snowflake pictured here is an ’05 one, “A White Chanukah,” created by Ann Koffsky. Ann’s ’07 snowflake, “Jerusalem, City of Peace,” can be seen here in Anne Boles Levy’s feature of it on Tuesday of this week at Book Buds.
Did you see yesterday’s features? It was a good day for illustrators talking about their art-making processes in several interviews, including Jeremy Tankard at the excelsior file and Sara Kahn at Kate’s Book Blog. (And did you know that Kate Messner at Kate’s Book Blog is a middle school English teacher and that her students are collaborating with her on her series of illustrator profiles? They ask some good questions of their illustrators).
And remember Betsy Bird’s feature on Thursday of Meghan McCarthy’s ’07 snowflake? Well, yesterday she showed us the box Meghan made in which the snowflake will be placed. Look at that thing! Wahoo!
Don’t forget this page with the master schedule of all the features thus far.
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
And when my husband and I watched Mirrormask the other night, we started talking about something I’m going to call The Alice Motif: that pattern that repeats itself over and over in children’s books, where a girl is transported to another reality, and has to figure out how things work there, forge alliances, and complete some kind of quest before she’s allowed to go back home. I’m pretty sure it began with Alice, and then continues with Dorothy, Meg, Coraline… etc. The male version is different: a boy is transported to another reality and takes on a quest, but usually it’s linked to discovering the secret of his own identity, in a version of the Arthurian/Joseph Campbell/Heroic Epic motif: Frodo, Taran, Will, Harry… and so on. The Narnia Chronicles are a notable hybrid, in that they combine male and female protagonists; and also because of the way they merge the concept of the identity quest with the protagonists being able to go back and forth between the realities. The only “classic” children’s book I’ve been able to think of with a male protagonist following the Alice motif is James and the Giant Peach. Anyone else have a suggestion?
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Alice is THE icon of children’s literature for a lot of us, and means a lot to me (and Jules) personally for being a gateway drug into literature in general. We pay homage to that with the title and header image here at 7-Imp. So when I saw this posted as a featured poem on the Poetry Foundation’s website, I knew I had my Poetry Friday pick.
“And as in Alice”
by Mary Jo Bang
Alice cannot be in the poem, she says, because
She’s only a metaphor for childhood
And a poem is a metaphor already
So we’d only have a metaphorInside a metaphor. Do you see?
They all nod. They see. Except for the girl
With her head in the rabbit hole.
Click here to read the rest.
*Edited to add: The Poetry Friday Roundup for this week is at Mentor Texts, Read Alouds and More, and it is fabulous. Check it out.
Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Below is today’s Robert’s Snow schedule.
Today’s ’07 snowflake by Alissa Imre Geis, “Hope in Winter,” was already featured this past Monday by Elaine Magliaro at Wild Rose Reader. But, since it’s so beautiful and has some verses by Emily Dickinson on it, I figured it’d be a fitting Poetry Friday snowflake today. Go read Elaine’s feature to learn more about Alissa, the snowflake, and the auction dates for bidding on that beautiful work of art.
Did you see yesterday’s features? I think Elizabeth Burns at her feature of Diana Magnuson’s beautiful snowflake put it well when she wrote:
You know the problem with all these snowflakes? It’s like books. Every time I look at a new one, I go, “oh, THIS one is my favorite! This is the one I must own!”
Probably a lot of you are nodding your head right now. Word, Liz.
Don’t forget this page with the master schedule of all the features thus far.
I’ll close today with Cheryl Klein’s mantra, which she posts at all her snowflake features: FIGHT CANCER! BUY SNOWFLAKES! YEAH!
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
For our final post over at ForeWord Magazine (we’ve been guest-blogging all month and have enjoyed it), we offer a co-review of Haven Kimmel’s latest novel, The Used World (Free Press; September 2007; review copies), which is made of awesome-ness (that’s not a very eloquent way to describe an eloquent book, but it’ll have to do for now). Eisha and I adore Haven’s books, and if you do, too, head on over to this week’s “Shelf Space” column to read our co-review, if you’re so inclined. We may — at a later date — post the co-review itself here at 7-Imp, but for now if you want to read it, you’ll have to click once. That’s not too much effort, no? Enjoy.
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Here’s a zippy-quick post about the Robert’s Snow schedule for today. Hey, I’m typing this on Halloween night and am mostly tricked-and-treated out, so it’s a bit shorter than my usual posts.
Did you see yesterday’s features? They were all fabulous. Who made me laugh out loud when he said, “I have always been terrified of snowflakes. I distrust their uniqueness and they way they lurk”? You’ll have to read all the features to find out.
Excuse my hasty post. As I am every day, I am filled with much gratitude for all the bloggers doing these features, and I thank them all. That’s my story for today, and I’m stickin’ to it.
