Bibliotherapy

Pets die, darn it.  And when you happen to have very small pets, they die fairly often.

I was particularly fond of our dwarf hamster Tina, who passed away a couple months ago.  She spent all her time sleeping, eating, and exercising - if you throw in reading, those are my favorite things, too, so we bonded right away.  Someday I'll be ready for a new hamster, but for now, when I need a dose of Hamster Love, I read Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord and watch some footage of Tina doing what she loved best.


And then one of our venerable hens died.  Angel had been languishing for a while - the wet winter was hard on her - and finally quietly drifted away while nestled in her nesting box.  In this clip, filmed just a few weeks before she died, Angel is the one standing on the porch by herself, looking longingly into our house.


I brought Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein home the other night - and read it to my 16-year-old.  She thought it was hilarious, and I found it comforting in more ways than one.  Reading a picture book to my big, purple-haired teenager reminded me of when she would grab a book and back her diaper-butted self onto my lap at the slightest opportunity.  My little book-addled girl has grown into a big book-addled girl!


And we still have 3 hens who are doing very well.  They aren't particularly spunky, though.  In fact, when we let them out recently during a family gathering, it was a toddler who did all the interrupting.  Those poor hens couldn't get a beakful of bugs without getting all loved up.

Same as it ever was

Here's my horoscope for today, according to the LA Times:

"Some of your thoughts are the same as yesterday and will repeat again tomorrow.  There will be unique thoughts, too."

Which seems as good an excuse as any not to write a post today.  Perhaps tomorrow some of those unique thoughts will arrive, but today I've just recycled the old ones.

For picture book fanatics...

Horn Book will be presenting a blog that discusses Caldecott contenders, a companion to SLJ's Heavy Medal blog that presents Newbery contenders.  Thank you, Roger!

State of Preschool report

The National Institute for Early Education Research released their annual State of Preschool report today.  Covering the 2009-2010 school year, it looks at spending, enrollment, quality control, and other important factors of state-funded preschool in all 50 states.

The report notes that there have been modest gains in some states, and others have mostly held steady.  But -

"The 2009-2010 school year was the first tracked by NIEER in which total state funding for pre-K fell from the prior year. State spending per child decreased by $114. The decrease in inflation-adjusted spending per child was on top of another modest decrease the year before. The funding situation for pre-K may get worse even as the economy slowly recovers."

 In other words, in several states (including CA), it was only ARRA money that kept our spending levels up.  And as the LA Times noted today:

"Seeking to fill a $26.6-billion budget gap, Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed legislation that imposes a 15% across-the-board cut in subsidized child care and early learning programs as well as other program changes that take effect July 1.

In addition, Brown signed legislation to shift $1 billion from state and county First 5 programs, which are paid for by tobacco-tax funds. Several local agencies filed a lawsuit to block the shift."

Just another example of slashing programs for the young and poor, demonstrating that politicians seem unable to take the long - and rational - view.  Research has proven over and over how important early childhood programs are in narrowing the achievement gap and getting kids ready to learn and read when they enter school.  And kids who do well in school from the beginning are more likely to graduate from high school - meaning they won't be filling the prisons that are costing us so much.

This makes me even more convinced that the work libraries are doing promoting early literacy to parents and caregivers is more important than ever.  And clearly we need to think about taking this message to our elected officials as well.

As you know, Children's Book Week runs May 2 to 8 this year, and here in Los Angeles, we're celebrating big time.

Southern CA is rich in natural resources, and one of them happens to be children's writers and illustrators.  I don't know if it's the mild weather or our gorgeous coastline and mountains, but this place is teeming with creativity, not to mention generosity.  When I put a call out to folks asking them if they would come visit one of our Los Angeles Public Library branches during Children's Book Week, 20 of them said yes!  And many more expressed dismay that they would be out of town or busy that week, but asked me to keep them in mind for future events.

Writers of children's and YA books are the best people EVER! 

Here's the schedule - I hope you're able to come out and show a children's author - and library - some love.

To kick off Children's Book Week, drop by the LA Time Festival of Books, April 30 and May 1, at its new location at the University of Southern CA.  As always, admission is free of charge - and there is plenty for fans of children's and YA literature to marvel at.  One tiny example - a panel on "Worlds Beyond Imagination" with Jonathan Stroud, Megan Whalen Turner, and Rick Yancey.

Finish off Children's Book Week with an invigorating and enlightening program held at my own Central Library.  The Children's Literature Council of Southern California is presenting "Read the Movie?  Using Movies Based on Books to Promote Literacy" on Saturday, May 7 from 8:30 to 1 pm.  It features Wendelin Van Draanen talking about the process of having her fabulous book Flipped turned into a rather wonderful movie.  Tickets are still available - register today!

Ah - springtime and books!  Life is good.

Review of The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm

Holm, Jennifer L. The Trouble with May Amelia.  Atheneum, 2011.

The Finnish-American heroine of Newbery Honor-winning Our Only May Amelia is back, and her life is as tumultuous as ever.  On the one hand, being a 13-year-old girl on a farm in the wet middle of Washington State nowhere in 1900 means a whole lot of monotony.  On the other hand, having 6 older brothers (plus a male cousin), a fierce and dour father, a kind but busy mother, and penchant for trouble means that May Amelia's life is never quite dull enough.

Life is hard for May Amelia's community.  No one makes enough money from farming or from the logging camp, and the latter job is hazardous to one's life and limbs.  There are natural disasters and tragic deaths and accidents and financial ruin and disastrous fires and a favorite teacher who gets married and must quit.  Somehow, May Amelia stays buoyant despite all this AND the constant put-downs from the males in her family - so it's a good thing she's telling this story, or the reader might get sucked down into a bog of despair.  I'm SO glad I don't live by the soggy Nasel River in 1900! 

But May Amelia does just fine.  She's strong enough to take tough luck and scathing remarks - though even May Amelia buckles a bit under her father's scorn when she's made the scapegoat for the family's losing all their money to a scoundrel.  I'm betting that with her resilience and sense of humor, not to mention her scads of tough older brothers, she'll be a force to reckon with in a few years.  The local boys won't know what hit them...

Highly recommended for readers ages 9 to 13 who enjoy quirky historical fiction with tough yet tender heroines, and of course for everyone who loved Our Only May Amelia.

Maybe it's time to finally buy a Kindle

Seeing as how I like to BORROW my books, not buy them, I've been waiting for this.