7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #293: Featuring Andrea Dezsö
August 19th, 2012 by jules
but at night I’m just a dad who puts / the kids to bed. …”
— From “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”
(Click to enlarge)
Remember how we got a bit dark and grim/Grimm a couple weeks ago? I’m gonna do that again today, because I just can’t pass up the opportunity to post some of the illustrations of Andrea Dezsö.
And, to be clear right off the bat, this is an illustrated book, but it’s not a picture book for young children. This is very much a YA/adult title.
Many of you may have already seen this collection of free verse poems, Ron Koertge’s Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses, released in July by Candlewick. U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis has said it’s “the best antidote I know to the sanctimonious sanitizing of fairy tales.” (Once I read that, I knew I had to read this book myself.)
Here, Koertge isn’t afraid to get gruesome, subversive, and downright nightmarish in his re-telling of 23 classic fairy tales. The blood-red endpapers give you a taste of this, followed by an invitation right off the bat from our author: “Do you want to sleep? Find another storyteller. Do you want to think about the world in a new way? Come closer. Closer, please. I want to whisper in your ear.”
This is the world of Ever After, and this ain’t no Disney.
This is the world of Cinderella’s bitter, discarded stepsisters, Sarah and Kathy: “…As we entered / the church, Ella’s vengeful birds plucked out our eyes. / Then nobody wanted us. We were monstrosities, / blind and lame. / So here we are in this deep coffin of sisterhood. / We will hold each other and kiss but now one/ of us pretends to be Death and the other his / grateful bride.”
This is the version of Andersen’s “The Little Match Girl” as only Koertge can imagine it: “She’s selling CDs on the corner, / fifty cents to any stoner, / any homeboy with a boner.”
This is poor Mrs. Bluebeard: “Her husband’s a serial killer, and her bodice is wet / with tears, but there’s a chance her brothers / will show up like winning lottery numbers.”
and brave. / But I think the moral is that children pay / for the sins of their parents. Ask anybody / who hates to go home after school. …”
— From “Little Thumb”
(Click to enlarge)
And the miller’s daughter of the Brothers Grimm’s The Robber Bridegroom who, after the traumatic, cannibalistic events she witnesses, “finds men untrustworthy now.” (Can you blame her?) “She prefers / to live alone and teach Feminist Theory & Practice / at the local community college.”
This is a world in which the teen Little Red Riding Hood (“Like, where to even start,” she opens) wants to be swallowed whole: “Anyway, it’s weird inside a wolf, / all hot and moist but no worse than flying coach to Newark…”
And this is, in my favorite poem of all, the Beast of Beauty and the Beast stating:
We’re happy now. We’re very,
very happy. But I have to admit
there’s not much to do in Ever After.
It’s always sunny and 78°. Every
night the fireworks light themselves.With a sigh, sometimes, I brush
my perfect teeth and remember when
they were fangs.
The book has been described as no less than “fiendishly clever” (Publishers Weekly), “a wicked send-up of nursery tale morality” (Gregory Maguire), “sophisticated, witty and unnerving” (School Library Journal), “bewitching” (Betsy Franco), “insanely original” (Sonya Sones), and—my favorite description—“a swell mix of the comical, concrete, and macabre” (Horn Book). (The latter review asks high school teachers and librarians, “[n]eed to grab a restive class’s attention? Seek no further.”)
Dezsö’s illustrations—they look like cut paper, but a copyright-page note says they were created digitally—are dramatic and set just the right tone. She’s fearless, in fact. These illustrations are bold, haunting (in more ways than one), and bone-chilling in spots.
Want to know how the book closes? It gave me goosebumps, no kidding. The poem from which this very last verse comes is called “Wolf”:
This is our forest. Perfect before you came.
Perfect again when all your kind is dead.
For more information, here is Kelly Fineman’s review at Guys Lit Wire.
LIES, KNIVES AND GIRLS IN RED DRESSES. Text copyright © 2012 by Ron Koertge. Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Andrea Dezso. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.
Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.
You know how, when you’re in the middle of several good books, all you want to do is curl up and read? That’s me this week. I got up to type this post, but I think I’m going to head back to my warm covers and keep reading reading reading. I’m sure there were at least seven separate good kick-like things to my week and I promise to be more garrulous next week, but y’all … these books are good.
But please do tell me, dear imps …
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Enjoy your curling up and reading, Jules. That sounds like the perfect way to spend some of the weekend!
The book today looks eerie and lovely.
My kicks:
1. A controlled burn got out of control in nearby bushland, but all under control now and no people or homes harmed. Phew.
2. A first birthday party for a lovely cheery baby of friends – a picnic style where we lounged around in their yard in the sun
3. And another birthday party last night that involved sitting around a brazier chatting for hours, and listening to my niece and her little friend giggle in delight over the fun of being on the swings
4. A multitude of cupcakes baked for various events through the week turned out well.
5. One of the events was a fundraiser for an animal protection charity at work, and a colleague’s friend visited with her therapy dog. This is a friendly dog that goes and visits the nearby hospital to make people feel happier and get better faster. We sure all cheered up having her around.
6. Watching my plants perk up after I water them. Sure I shouldn’t let them get to a point where I can see they’re wilty. But I feel very appreciated when I come in at the last minute and rescue them!
7. Lots of fun being had planning the US trip!
So glad you got some reading time in, friend! I had a couple of kicks this week…survived my first week at work; we’re slowly getting settled into the new house; and last night we had dinner with one of my college roommates whom I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. It was one of those brilliant moments where it felt like we’d just seen each other yesterday. I’m so happy to be here, but I will miss being so close to you and yours! XOXO
Jules: Glad you got in some reading time. Would love to know the titles if you can share.
Emmaco: I’m hoping to get into a cupcake kick soon. There’s so many books about them now.
Tracy: Glad you’re getting settled and happy about it too.
My kicks:
1. Coming here every Sunday and reading about everyone’s week.
2. Soaking up all the good cheer about celebrating Julia Child’s 100th birthday
3. Got a day with several downpours; the flowers and veggies are happy.
4. Finding a friend had left garden goodies on my doorstep
5. Going out in the wind and rain to walk my dog but finding a praying mantis had landed on a plant by my front door
6. Dicovering author Nicola Davies, illustrator Mark Hearld and one of my favorites Alison Murray has a new book
7. Reading new books by some of my favorite MG authors
Oh my, dark and gruesome, I like my fairy takes dark. So surprised that the illustrations are digitally rendered. They do look like woodcut.
Jules, do tell what are you readin?
Emmaco, where in the US are you visiting?
Tact, enjoy your new house
Margie, yay for friends and garden goodies.
My kicks:
1. Applications for the judging panels for the CYBILS opened. Need people for poetry and others.
2. Listening to my two grand girls (6 and 4) sing The chorus to “Tonight, We are young..” by Fun.
3. Re-organizing my writing room.
4. Lunch with a friend to discuss how to outreach to teens with writing.
5. Being home (we were to be traveling).
6. Waking to sweet warm summer rain yesterday.
7. TV series Grimm began 2nd season this week.
Have a great week.
I was so excited about this book I had to stop and order it before I could post my comments.
Yay! Now I’m going to get a book in the mail I love that.
Emmaco- Sounds like a lovely cake filled week.
Tracy- Glad to hear you are settling in.
Margie-Sounds like you are having a good book week as well.
Here are my kicks:
1. Finally took the kids to Water Wizz after many years of begging. We had a lovely, wet day.
2. My new postcards came in!
http://atlanticmo.tumblr.com/post/29517230828/the-new-postcards-are-here-the-new-postcards-are
3. The wisdom of my forties to handle tricky situations.
4. Brownies
5. Taking the time to read a very interesting and informative article about todays publishing world.
6.Coming home from work to see my dad looking content on my porch after having taken my kids swimming.
7.Brandi Carlile’s “That Wasn’t Me” song has been haunting me in a good way.
Have a great week all I’m going to start mine by swimming in Nantucket Sound.
‘Morning, Kickers!
Google Reader’s condensed view of this post exposed just its title, and the first few words from the opening image caption: My troll fiancée explodes in frustration… Which, y’know, sorta hinted that we might not — here, today — find puppy dogs and kitties and primary-colored board books. And oh my, what a fine-looking book this is. Like I just posted on FB, the cover image reminds me of that iconic Jurassic Park logo + poster, with a wolf instead of a Tyrannosaurus. Yikes!
(Good for you on the day of reading, Jules. It was rainy here when I first got up, so rainy that I wouldn’t be taking The Pooch out for our Sunday-morning constitutional. So I thought my day, too, might at least start as a book-reading one. I actually got about 10 minutes’ reading done on the sofa before The Pooch got up there with me and proceeded to give me the longest, most thorough facial tongue bath in history… stopping only when the rain did. With a sigh, I put the book aside, harnessed and leashed her, and got on with the requisite schedule.)
emmaco, I love the whole idea of therapy dogs (and therapy animals in general) but have never spend time around one. (Well, not the official sort anyhow.) That sounds like a wonderful extended moment!
Tracy, I don’t know your details but I remember well the excitement of going to a New Place. To be able to share it with a “new-old” friend must have really sweetened it!
Ah yes, Margie: love those moments, too, of not really wanting to do a chore (like dog-walking in a storm), but finding something small (like a praying mantis) which totally redeems the effort.
We really like Grimm, too, Jone! We had no idea the new season had started, and were happy the next day to see it had been recorded the previous night on the DVR. (Yay for technology. :))
Great-looking postcard, Moira. But — maybe none of my business — why is that Tumblr post tagged “steve martin”???
Brief kicks from here:
1. Planning for a long weekend starting Thursday night. No TV. Possibly no Interwebs. Just The Missus, The Pooch, The Me, and the sound of Atlantic surf outside the French doors of a beachfront B&B.
2. Just came across a hilarious, brilliant series on Tumblr (as usual there, you’ve got to read “up” from the bottom to read it in order; the link is to the earliest page in the series): The Broship of the Ring. The caption says it all: “Yeah so I kind of really want to interpret Lord of the Rings as a modern-day buddy road trip story. In that vein, I give you everyone’s favorite orc-hunting trio: Aragorn as a rugged outdoorsman, Legolas as a private school pretty boy, and Gimli as a truck driver.” The confrontation with the Balrog (a bouncer) must be seen to be appreciated.
3. Still taking my time, working my way through the streaming archives of 30 Rock episodes… wait, let’s make that a kick by itself.
4. …but I especially like one little thing in the opening credits: when they show Tina Fey, I love that little sorta-closed-mouth snort of a laugh she makes.
5. Good cheesesteak sandwiches, operative word “good.” Do not belabor me with soft rolls, nor with Cheez Whiz, nor peppers. But do bring on the catsup, and I don’t care if the onions are fried or raw. (But if the latter, it’s a nice touch to place them under the pre-melted cheese.) (And I love that cheesesteaks have a Wikipedia entry.)
6. This exchange of spiteful, snippy letters from/to Camille Paglia, which I found quite funny even though it doesn’t paint any of the participants in a particularly flattering light.
7. Boysenberry preserves.
Have a great week, all! (Ditto next weekend, when I won’t be able to drop by.)
Jules: That certainly sounds like a dark book. Enjoy your readathon!
emmaco: Happy birthday to them. Three cheers for the therapy dog!
Tracy: Sounds like a nice reunion.
Margie: Hello to the garden and the visiting critters!
Jone: Good luck to all helping with the Cybils!
Moira: Cool postcards.
My kicks for the past week:
1) The re-release of Sleepy Hollow High by Christopher Golden and Ford Lytle Gilmore, now available as eBooks with new covers – pretty snazzy!
2) This post at whatshouldwecallplaywrights
3) Singing
4) Writing
5) Hoping
6) Venting
7) The Fallen by Thomas E. Sniegoski
JES- The Steve Martin reference is for the scene from the movie, “The Jerk”, when he gets excited about the new phone book. That’s how I felt when the postcards arrived.
JES, Grimm is filmed in Portland. Love that.
I’m speechless. I need to read that book. And you have perfect timing, Jules. On Wednesday, I am moderating a panel discussion at an academic conference about “the business of frightening our children.”
Kicks:
Saturday was the second Filipino ReaderCon and the ceremony for the first Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards. I was one of the panel moderators for the ReaderCon and one of the organizers for the Awards. I also hosted the Awards ceremony. It was all so much fun! And it was all to promote reading and school reading programs and book blogging and book clubs in the Philippines!
I know I should be napping, but the endorphins are still flowing. I finished my 10k in 62 minutes and 12 seconds. I’m so pleased, and now I have new goals for faster times and longer distances. No marathons, though! Thirteen point one miles is my limit, I say. And now, I’m going to see if the library has Lies, Knives, etc.
Love, love love these images!! It’s so exciting I’ve been finding so many Grimm’s related things recently, and I”m taking that course as I mentioned on Grimm’s fairy tales, so I just love all the interconnectedness of it all and hoping maybe in all of this some cool paper topic will present itself to me 🙂
Jules- Also the curling up with the books sounds amazing!
Moira- Love the postcards!
Emmaco- Good luck with the planning!
Tracy- You know those are true friends when it feels like you’d just seen each other yesterday 🙂
Margie- oooohh garden goodies!
Jone- Is this Grimm’s series good? I’ve just seen commercials and have been wondering what it’s all about…
JES- Boysenberry preserves sound amazing
Little Willow- Singing, writing, hoping, venting…those are wonderful verbs 🙂 I think I need more of them in my life
Kicks this week:
1. Maile Meloy’s The Apothecary! Love this book, I’m just really stumped on how to express my love in words for my review!
2. Beth Kephart’s Undercover, this book had a wonderful story but I also felt like I drew so much inspiring advice on writing from it, and I’ve started a word journal which has been fun!
3. My first guest post is up on There’s a Book, a review of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, excited to see it up and it was fun to write 🙂 (here it is in case you want to take a look: http://www.theresabook.com/2012/08/guest-book-review-the-fault-in-our-stars-by-john-green/)
4. Was at Michaels with my mom and little brother and was excited to see that their hardcover sketchbooks were on sale (50% off!) and when we went to pay my little brother said, “Wow, Jess is that for me!!” and he was just so excited I couldn’t say no, and so now I have one happy little brother, but I’m sketchbookless, but it’s ok it was worth it to hear him say in the car, ” This is my new best friend!” haha he loves drawing and did his first three drawings last night in it before bed 🙂
5. Rain that actually cooled the scorching weather down here which is nice.
6. Got a copy of Morris Lessmore, it’s such a beautifully made book 🙂
7. Watched the Hunger Games with my dad last night (he hasn’t read the book, so I’m curious to hear today what he thought, we didn’t get to talk about it last night, tooo t i r e d)
wow, there are a lot of smiley faces in my comment…. sorry about that! haha
Think I have to buy this book and put it on shelf next to Anne Sexton’s “Transformations”. (Really? Those aren’t papercut illustrations? Wow, sure nails the feeling of that technique.)
Read-away, Jules! I’m working on “Where Things Come Back” (purse), “Beauty Queens” (bedside) and “Starters” (car). Summer reading is the best.
Love the shared kicks: rescuing wilty flowers, roommate reunion, praying mantis visitor, reorganizing writing rooms (I wish!), new postcards of my fave Moira image, snippy letters (OMG clearly discretion should be the better part of bitchiness!), Little Willow’s “ings”, reader-Cons and Choice Awards, 13 miles (!) and Happy Face abandon.
I’m still pecking left-handed, so I’ll finish with:
1. My writer groups: BB Master Class and GOYA critique group return to their normal meeting schedules now that we’ve finished ‘summering’. (I’ve got to FINISH my dang novel so this is very good news.)
2. If anyone wants see a movie that is sure to leave you thinking and rethinking for days and talking to those you saw it with for hours — GO SEE “The Imposter”. CAREFUL! Do not read reviews or ask questions or anything apt to spoil it for you. View it cold; I guarantee you, it will be a documentary experience to remember.
Have a good one Kickers!
Jess from Alice in Baker Street: Yes! Grimm is fabulous. I jump every time and it has gotten better throughout the series.
Denise, I am so glad that you said to see a movie cold. I love that.
Ha! Thanks Jone. Yep, cold, cold, cold. I wouldn’t watch the trailer either. I’ll just include two taglines:
NPR: “An astonishing look at human nature.”
Variety: “Mind-boggling.”
Emmaco, so glad you and yours (and your property) are safe after that fire. What a good, party-filled, cupcake-filled week you had. Glad your trip-planning is going well. Also, therapy dogs are special souls, indeed.
Tracy, it makes me happy that it’s working out so well after your move and that you got to see an old college friend.
Margie and Jone: To answer your question, I finished A Monster Calls, as you know, and I’m enjoying Phil Nel’s bio of Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson. More on the latter this week at Kirkus! … Also, I LOVE Mark Hearld’s artwork. I posted some of it this year, and it really stands out in my mind.
Jone, I have really gotta hear more of fun.’s music (did I get their name right?) … Adrienne Furness likes them, too. And you both have good taste.
Moira: Beautiful postcards! I’m partial to that image on there. Enjoy Nantucket Sound. Also, did you see Brandi Carlile’s Tiny Desk Concert at NPR? Here you go: http://www.npr.org/event/music/156300534/brandi-carlile-tiny-desk-concert
John, have fun on your computer-free weekend! We’ll miss you. Did I tell you we finally finished 30 Rock — the eps, that is, that are on Netflix. (The season happening now we are not currently watching, but we’ll wait for Netflix.) And I just finished Fey’s memoir, which is so funny.
Little Willow: I’ll have to show my girls the cat. They will crack up.
Tarie: The ReaderCon sounds fun. Go, you. Good luck on Wednesday!
FARIDA IS MY HERO.
Jess: I have The Apothecary on my to-read list still. Glad to hear you like it. And I still haven’t even read The Hunger Games. I mean, really. Someone should take my library degree away. …. I love that story about your little brother.
Denise (and everyone): Yes, they look like papercuts, but there’s a note that they were done digitally. I’ll try to find out more from the publisher, deal? …. Hope you’re healing fast, Denise, and thanks for the movie rec. I always love your film recommendations.
hey all, great night catching up on 7 imp reading… this art is very wicked in both a cool 80’s slang way and an actual appropriate style way;) I agree with Jess that it has the same graphic punch as the Jurassic park logo. I also agree with Jess that the Broship of ring is pretty funny;)
Jules: congrats on being under the covers reading. and i Can. Not. Wait. to see the sketches from David small.
Moira: Beautiful postcards… love the spare color with the line!
Denise: thanks for the movie rec… i love it when movies make you think for hours after.
my kicks:
1) getting all my crazy summer illustrations done on Friday!
2) getting a call about a new job on friday.. “being slow” at first sounded good, but you know after a few hours of that i start to get antsy;)
3) fantastic night bouncing on trampolines at sky high sports with the 6 year old (nashville area parents this is a must do)
4) just finished Sweet Jiminy by Kristin Gore, so good – poignant and funny
kicks 5 – 7) are all going to be today: we spent the whole day at the wilson county fair. I love fairs. We rode every single ride available for someone less than 48 inches tall. We drank about 13 gallons of lemonade. I loved watching the ferris wheel rise in arc over our head with the sun throwing daggers off the metal rubbed smooth by machinery. Everytime i see a ferris wheel from standing on the ground looking up i want to draw it and paint it. We rode in car 13. Isn’t there something spooky about riding a carnival ride in car 13?! we survived obviously;)
ya’ll have a good week!
Amazing scarey book! I think I like the idea, but I don’t like scarey stuff. I might have to order it anyway just because the writing is so brilliant!
I love that you are doing lots of reading, Jules! READ ON!
Great Kicks everyone – so love to read them every week.
My kicks this week:
1. article in the Arts and Books section of the LA Times today called “Educating A Leader” where authors and thinkers select books they’d like Romney and Obama to read to to lead the country for 4 years.
2. my little starts kindergarten tomorrow!!!!
3. my little announced that he likes his new kindergarten classroom better than his preschool classroom after visiting his classroom for the first time yesterday. (phew!)
3. Only 5 days to NEW ENGLAND!!!!!!
4. my workshop on picturebook biography is pretty much ready!
5. my new nephew should be born any day now…
6. book review is done (phew!) and I figured out how to tie in to my blog
7. on my trip home to New England I’m going to get to see my oldest friend – we met when we were 1 1/2! I haven’t seen her in about 30 years.
Have a wonderful week everyone and I’ll try to tune in from Eliot ME next Sunday and find out what everyone is up to.
My Kicks
I was just re-reading my comment to check for typos, etc. and am shocked I’m old enough to not have seen a friend for 30 years!!!!!
But actually I think it has only been 20 years. I’m not any younger for it, but still…
Happy Sunday Imps!
Late with my kicks – love the dark illustrations, and loved last week’s too!
My flyby kicks:
1) Just home from seeing Pink Martini at the Portland Zoo awesome!
And China Forbes sang Eugnene among other songs.
2) Kickball tournament last weekend – Jules! when are you coming to Portland to play on one of my kickball teams? We actually made the playoffs, and played Multnomah County Sheriffs Deputies, who see me/ know me in my life as a defense attorney, and talked trash through the whole game – SO. MUCH.FUN. And we won.
3) Soapbox Derby at Mt Tabor yesterday. And beer and friends.
4) Painted the guest bedroom yesterday.
5) Bought 2 couches from craigslist today – super awesome deal.
6) Houseguests from out of state coming next weekend.
7) Life, which continually amazes and surprises me!
Have a great week everyone!
Link didn’t work, try this:
http://youtu.be/9vf4X6WKPtk
So many great kicks!
JES I am adding cheesesteaks to my Food to Eat in the USA list. Though I thought they were from somewhere in particular (Philadelphia?). Can one get them in DC and New York??
Margie, I have been using my sister’s cupcake recipe book, this one, and it’s great! But it’s Australian Women’s Weekly so don’t know that you could get it in the US…
To those interested in the therapy dog, I was interested to learn that she gets drained by her interactions in the same way people are when they interact with strangers. Her handler said she is drained by visiting hospitals even though she loves it when she’s there.
Jone, I’m going to Washington DC while my husband works there (the reason we can justify the holiday), with a likely Chesapeake Bay day trip, Shenendoah NP visit and then 4 days in New York City. Extremely excited!
Hi everyone! Sorry I didn’t get to post yesterday…internet was down.
Jules…I’m really into cut paper right now…so these are particularly interesting to me. Especially since they’re digitally done. I really like the creep feel they evoke.
Emmaco: So glad you and yours are safe and the fire didn’t get out of control. And so interesting about the therapy dog.
Tracy: Good luck with the new job and home
Margie: I love praying mantis!
Jone: Will you come organize my office?
Moria: Love the new postcards. Great illo pick. The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!
Tarie: Filipino ReaderCon sounds great. Keep up the good work.
Jes: Enjoy all the back episodes of 30 ROck! Such a brilliantly hilarious show.
Little Willow: Enjoy venting!
Saints: Congrats on your running!
Denise: Your typing is great for pecking!
Allison: Good thoughts headed your way for 1st day of kindergarten. You’re either a ball of weepy tears or Tom Cruise from Risky Business dancing in your underwear….Whatever the emotion for you, enjoy the beautiful day of a new chapter for your lovely little one.
Rachel: Enjoy those house guests!
My kicks (just two for now since I gotta run):
1) Signing my girls up for girl scouts for the 6th year in a row! My dear friend Rachel (Jules…Jinx’s daughter) heads up the troop and she’s amazing at emphasizing service so the kids are lined up for lots of good stuff this year. So fortunate to have a wonderful village.
2) Currently NOT experiencing back pain : ) I’ve been having trouble with a bulging disc this summer and the days without pain are enjoyed so much.
Thanks all for the lovely kicks and Jules for the post. Hope you are still enjoying some cozy reading!
Mary: I liked reading about the fair. It’s also so very Charlotte’s-Web. … Congrats on the new work!
Allison: So glad to read Kindergarten is going to work out. I hope it went well today. Have a safe trip, and have a lot of fun!
Rachel, I SO WANNA BE ON YOUR KICKBALL TEAM. And I love that you talked trash while you played. I can talk trash, too. Me! Me! Pick me! (I wish.) … Have fun with your houseguests next weekend.
Emmaco: You’re going to NYC, too? Woo and hoo!
Lori: Any daughter of Jinx’s has gotta be great. Hope that they enjoy the Girl Scouts this year. Glad your back pain is gone. And, yes, I enjoyed my reading. I have a new novel now, too, as of today!
BTW- Anyone who wants a postcard, fb message or email me with your mailing address.
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Hello! My favorite kick in Elementary, JHS and HS was to be creative and keep running from bully popular mean girls who knew every schtick in the y/a book. Read, play the violin, try to keep sane by sewing my own clothes, go to plays, play in competitions against the tough pop girls who were good in school. Keep trying to keep fit, even when I could not eat because most food made me sick. Made good friends with crazy grease girls friends, who had amazingly odd choices for boyfriends. PS I loved a dark and handsome 8th grade and he did not notice me. Years years later I received my BA and traveled… The good looking dark and handsome guy ended up with 7 kids. I married a brilliant man from The Netherlands much like my favorite book HANS BRINKER AND THE SILVER SKATES. I married for love and wild experiences of a crafter and designer of ideas for art/education. ATK