In a high-fantasy style, 1938 Newbery winner The White Stag, written by author and illustrator Kate Seredy, lays out the mythology of the ancestors of and prophecy surrounding Attila the Hun and his epic journey into his European promised land. In a tale that seems both like a tiny Wagner opera and Norse-Eastern…
Month: August 2014
Fishing Resorts & Celebrity Cousins
I have nine first cousins, all on my mom’s side. I’m the fourth oldest, which puts me smack in the middle of admiration (boarding on adoration) for my cool three older cousins and complete acceptance and enthusiastic adventuring with my five younger cousins. As a child, I loved seeing my cousins. Comedian…
Newbery Review # 16 (Roller Skates, Sawyer, 1937)
This week’s Newbery, Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer, features feisty 10 year-old-Lucinda, who is a bit like if Anne Shirley (of Green Gables) got stuck in Manhattan with a pair of roller skates. Set in the 1890s, affluent and inadvertently-troublemaking Lucinda has a year of freedom when her parents go to Italy for…
4 of My Favorite Paleo Books & 4 on My To-Read List
When Evan and I went Paleo over two and half years ago it was sort of by accident. We didn’t read any books about the philosophy, or tips about how to transition. We did a hard-core, slightly sketchy medical elimination diet. It worked, and when we added things back in, what made me sick…
Newbery Review # 15 (Caddy Woodlawn, Brink, 1936)
I do not know how I grew up not reading this week’s Newbery. It was great! Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink is based on the life of the author’s grandmother Caddie. Caddie is the middle daughter of a miller’s family growing up near Menomonie, Wisconsin in the 1890s, and Caddy is a…
Baseball Game, Distillery Tour, & Carpet Removal — A Milwaukee Summer Weekend
This weekend we stayed home and enjoyed Milwaukee. Milwaukee shows off in the summer. The whole city seems to linger on porches or backyards, sipping drinks to the sound of kids running around. Or if they aren’t home basking in the upper 70 degree weather, they are off to the state fair, or Summerfest,…
Newbery Review # 14 (Dobry, Shannon, 1935)
This week’s Newbery, Monica Shannon’s 1935 Dobry, follows a little Bulgarian peasant boy named Dobry, who loves the beauty of his farming community but longs to capture it in drawings and sculpture instead of just tending the fields. A cozy tale for the beginning of winter, Dobry has vibrant characters — a storytelling grandfather,…
Friends’ Weddings & Remembering Our Vows
This past weekend we drove down to Illinois for the third week in a row, this time for a wedding. It is, by my count, the 20th wedding Evan and I have attended together. The day we got engaged we went to a wedding, and every year since we’ve been witnessing the sacred vows…