Fish in the Basement Aquarium of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA

On My Blog

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• The post is called Hermit Crab – see an inspiring, beautiful watercolor by Carol Feldman.
• I am happy to see Batya participating in Ruby Tuesday – be sure to visit her photos with red, too!
• A Texan visits the Dachau Concentration Camp. (hat tip: Louis La Vache)
• Ilana-Davita posted a recipe for chicken with red peppers, which I made on Friday. I grilled it and then baked it a bit in the oven right before Shabbat. Tasty, though I think next time I should add more garlic.
• A disturbing post on Jews Leaving Sweden – talks about Malmo, which I read about in Caldwell’s book (see below).
• A discussion about modesty (tzniut or tznius) on Rachel’s blog.

Book Bits

Books I’m reading: I read most of the stories in The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories by Max Apple. I would like to write a post on the story called “Stabbing an Elephant.” Can anyone guess what the story about stabbing an elephant is about? Hint: which Jewish holiday?

I started reading My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar, a birthday present from a dear friend (thank you). It is a captivating book; Ariel Sabar tells his story and the story of his father with great flourish and engaging description.

I finished Reflections on the Revolution In Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West by Christopher Caldwell – I highly recommend it, though the topic is a disturbing one.

Last week I made two mini faux pas where I rushed through reading online. In one case I misread a tweet on Twitter; in another I misread an email note. On Twitter I caught the misreading right away, and I tried to explain it to the other person, but I’m afraid the humor got lost (He wrote, I have time to write because my daughter is back in school, and I read, I have a hard time writing because my daughter learned to read in school). Hard to explain in 140 characters that at first I misread his tweet in a humorously wrong way. In the email the other person wrote Why should I comment. I read What should I comment. Two different lines! Note to self: slow down. Years ago I misread an email where I thought the person wrote “some idiot” and she had written “some idiot like me.” I should have waited to respond to that one!

Have you ever misread something and had it come back to haunt you?

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Haiti’s devastation due to the earthquake has been so much in the news. When one reads of the earthquake, it is hard not to feel sad and helpless. Sometimes reading about one person, even when the person dies tragically, can provide connection to the terrible news. Sometimes the one person might be a helper, who is doing some rescuing (Baila has information about donating to support the Israeli relief team in Haiti). Then after a while, you just can’t take more of the news, and you want to look at a beautiful flower of spring (Michelle has some information in her left column about donations that might help Haiti as well).

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Thanks to Jack for including my post Protect Children from Abuse in the latest Haveil Havalim, the blog carnival of the Jewish blogosphere.

So you don’t have to squint to see the book titles, here they are (have you read any of these?):

• The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
• Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
• Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
• The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
• How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, Blu Greenberg
• Improvisation for the Theater, Viola Spolin
• Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
• James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

For more posts with a little or a lot of red, visit Ruby Tuesday:

From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis:

…Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons. That is why he was so puzzled at the surface on which he was lying.

So you should read some dragon books. In case you end up in dragon’s lair, like Eustace did.

Carin Berger

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Michelle Kondrich

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Gabi Campanario

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Timothy Banks

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Lotta Nieminen

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Favorite Illustrators of Some of My Friends

Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff (Babar)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)
Darryl K Sweet -born in 1934 in Highland Park, New Jersey
Hillary Knight (Eloise)
Maurice Sendak
John Tenniel (Alice in Wonderland)
Theodor Seuss Geisel
Arthur Szyk
Ian Falconer (Olivia the Pig)
John Bauer
E. H. Shepard (Winnie the Pooh)
John R. Neill (Royal Illustrator of Oz)

Tweet This!

For my own personal favorite, I’ll pick:
Brett Helquist, who illustrated Lemony Snickets’ A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Are any of these your favorite(s)? Any other illustrators you would like to mention?

My Favorite Picture Books from my Childhood

Curious George, Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey
Babar the Elephant, Jean de Brunhoff
Little Bear, Else Holmelund Minarik
  ”I am making Birthday Soup. Will you stay and have some?”
Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans
  ”‘Miss Clavel, get rid of it please,’
   Said the president of the board of trustees.”
   (from Madeline’s Rescue)
Runaway Bunny, Margaret Wise Brown
Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown
  ”Goodnight noises everywhere.”
The Pooh Story Book, A. A. Milne
  ”It’s a little Anxious to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water.”
Snow, P.D. Eastman
  ”Do you like snow? Yes or no? Do you like it in your face?”

Favorites of Some Friends

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Dr. Seuss
Happy Birthday to You, Dr. Seuss
  ”The Official Katroo Birthday Sounding-Off Place!”
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss
Scrambled Eggs Super, Dr. Seuss
The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss
Hippos Go Berserk!, Sandra Boynton
Potato Pancakes All Around: A Hanukkah Tale, Marilyn Hirsh
Bembelman’s Bakery, Melinda Green
Piggie Pie, Margie Palatini
Are You My Mother, P.D. Eastman
The Little Engine That Could, Watty Piper
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
  ”his mother called him ‘WILD THING!’ and Max said ‘I’LL EAT YOU UP!’ so he was sent to    bed without eating anything.”
Frog and Toad, Arnold Lobel
  ”When I was just a little pollywog…”

Books I enjoy reading to children

Not the Hippopotamus Sandra Boynton
  ”A moose and a goose together have juice”
One, Two, Three, Sandra Boynton
  ”Five is fine for a ride in the car, as long as the car ride isn’t too far”
Thomas the Tank Engine, Rev. W. V. Awdry
Don’t Let the Peas Touch, by Deborah Blumenthal
  ”THEY MIX IN YOUR STOMACH ANYWAY!”
Tikun Olam: Fixing the World, Anne Lobock Fenton
  (a sad and true story about a wonderful doctor who dies)

Update with more books:

My husband’s favorites

Mr. Putter and Tabby series: See the complete list on Amazon, Cynthia Rylant

Books I Appreciate Now that I didn’t appreciate as a child

Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey

And your favorite picture books are…?

In the first chapter of the Miller book, Laura Miller poses the following question:

Do the children who prefer books set in real, ordinary, workaday world ever read as obsessively as those who would much rather be transported into other worlds entirely?

So here’s my challenge to you. Did you read books in Category A as a child or Category B? Or perhaps you read ones in Category M (M is for mystery). If you want, describe your own category.

Category A:

• Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis
• Oz books by L. Frank Baum
• Half Magic and other books by Edward Eager
• The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Category B:

• Laura Ingalls Wilder books (Little House on the Prairie)
• Anne of Green Gables and other books by L. M. Montgomery
• Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Note that Anne, Harriet and Jo of Little Women all had vivid imaginations. They just didn’t travel to other worlds.

Category M:

• Nancy Drew books
• Hardy Boys books
• Encyclopedia Brown

Aside: when do kids start reading science fiction, especially those that later become fans (or addicts)? Is it pre-teen or in teen years?

Here are some modern day versions of Cateogy A. Have you or your children read any of these?

• His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
• Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
• Books by Lemony Snicket about the Baudelaire children (Series of Unfortunate Events)
• Bartimeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud

Perhaps, as my rabbi friend remarked on Facebook, your favorite book is none of the above; rather, the book was begun again this past weekend (i.e., the Torah).

See also:

• Favorite Illustrators, Past and Present
• Favorite Picture Books

I read a graphic novel called Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi today. It is a young girl’s tale about living through the Iranian Revolution. I would like to write more about the book, in another post; but I’ll first ask: have any of you ever read the book? Or seen the movie? I relate the book a bit to going to the beach, because at the beach I often find people wear less than my comfort level, and in the book, the women and girls are obligated to wear the veil (two extremes). Her story reminded me of my grandmother’s own story, of living through the Russian Revolution. Marjane, however, had it easier: at least her family had food to eat. During the starvation period, my grandmother used to tell me, she had to walk many miles in the cold Russian winter just to get a frozen potato that was often black inside. One ate what one could find.

Thanks, Robin, for a summer shared with others.

“The peddler that was here this afternoon. I bought the dye from him.”

“Anne Shirley, how often have I told you never to let one of those Italians in the house! I don’t believe in encouraging them to come around at all.”

“Oh, I didn’t let him in the house. I remembered what you told me, and I went out, carefully shut the door, and looked at his things on the step. Besides, he wasn’t an Italian—he was a German Jew. He had a big box full of very interesting things and he told me he was working hard to make enough money to bring his wife and children out from Germany. He spoke so feelingly about them that it touched my heart. I wanted to buy something from him to help him in such a worthy object. Then all at once I saw a bottle of hair dye. The peddler said it was warranted to dye any hair a beautiful raven black and wouldn’t wash off. In a trice I saw myself with beautiful raven-black hair…”

What do you think? I won’t tell you what I read in the book “Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic,” a recent biography by Irene Gammel. I’d like to hear your reaction to this passage.