{"id":163,"date":"2006-09-12T12:32:04","date_gmt":"2006-09-12T19:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=163"},"modified":"2010-03-06T14:54:35","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T20:54:35","slug":"lifes-little-literary-surprises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=163","title":{"rendered":"Life’s little literary surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"

alphaoops.gifI woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, and that’s for sure. The morning just started off badly. But, despite my crabby mood and as a devoted children’s librarian myself, I still planned on taking The Girls on our usual weekly library story time trip. I usually drive a bit to one of the Nashville branches; there’s a library down the road from us, but this Nashville branch has a story time schedule that happens to jibe with my wee one’s nap schedule. But, to make my already cantankerous mood this morning worse, this aforementioned wee one was particularly fussy and didn’t nap as long as she normally does, so off we went for the first time to the story time at Smyrna Public Library, just down the road from us, which is scheduled a bit earlier in the day. Miss Thang (yes, we call her that — I know, it’s a tired ‘ol, blah nickname, but it stuck and is often fitting), the least wee of the two, screamed at me for the unanticipated and untimely termination of “Sesame Street,” but, hey, I had five minutes to get to story time. Oh, the toddler wails! Oh, my tetchy, ugly mood! Oh, I needed some more coffee! But we made it out the door, me still scowling, I’m sure.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And, lo and behold! There was a children’s book author at story time. From Smyrna. Yes, little ‘ol Smyrna. I say that respectfully. Really, I do. But, well . . . Smyrna, Tennessee, isn’t exactly a literary metropolis. Alethea Kontis<\/a><\/strong>, who I can now say has written one of my new favorite alphabet books, was there, reading AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. And at our first story time ever at this library. My frown turned upside down; yes, indeed. My morning finally was improving.<\/p>\n

I can hear you now, devoted blog reader. One of her “new favorite alphabet books”? We’re on to her. She’s that one who is so in love with hyperbole<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. But, it’s true. This book is loaded with personality and energy and much pizzazz. And the event was treated so un-momentously. There’s nothing wrong with that, mind you. It was actually quite charming. I just expected this woman standing before us to, oh . . . I don’t know . . . be the librarian’s cousin or something, to read us some unpublished manuscript, some “kiddie lit” musings — one of those hey-writing-children’s-books-must-be-easy-I’ll-write-one kind of moments, and then it would turn out to be a book that really stunk. (And that’s not a slam at all on this library system. They are known for their stellar programming<\/a><\/strong>). I guess what I mean is that in retrospect, knowing now how irresistible this book is, I would have expected a glowing marquee out front, a huge stack of the books for sale behind the author. Instead, the author humbly (but enthusiastically — she herself used to be a children’s librarian) shared the book with all of us with nary a word as to how or where to buy it.\n<\/p>\n

So, I’ll say it for her: Go buy this book<\/a><\/strong> for your child (ooh, um, I sound downright despotic; how about, consider<\/em> buying this book for your child). If you’re a librarian or elementary teacher, order this clever alphabet book for your collection.\n<\/p>\n

I gotsa have my alphabet books. Love them. The list-lover in me wants to compile the world’s most comprehensive bibliography of well-done alphabet books, and this one would be added. In Kontis’ creation, “Z” is really put out about always being the last in the alphabet. The other letters agree to present our dearly beloved alphabet backwards, but then things go awry when letters with a mind of their own have varying opinions about how to line up (a lot like your average elementary school classroom). Things on stage (as our letters are presented to us) quickly turn to pandemonium in this sharp picture book with Bob Kolar’s expressive, waggish letters that appear to have been created digitally, but don’t quote me on that, since I was sitting many feet away. (No, I don’t even have this book in hand yet, but I just wanted to share it, since it’s fresh on my mind — and share my serendipitous literary fortuity from this morning! Woo hoo for picture book surprises!) . . .<\/p>\n

The stand-out (and most amusing) letter moments are with “V” and “U,” but I’ll let you discover them — oh, and the final double page spread (or one of the last ones anyway) in which “A” presents us with a slew of objects beginning with her, since, for once, she’s had a great deal of time to sit around and wait for her entry in the alphabet. Lots of laughs here for children and adults alike, and there’s much to see with repeated viewings. According to Kontis’ web site, Orson Scott Card<\/a><\/strong> says, “{a}s a paean to unpredictability, this book is a charmer. You don’t want to use it to learn the alphabet, or your child’s future as a file clerk will be severely limited.” True, my friends. But, future file clerk or no, don’t miss this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, and that’s for sure. The morning just started off badly. But, despite my crabby mood and as a devoted children’s librarian myself, I still planned on taking The Girls on our usual weekly library story time trip. I usually drive a bit to one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}