making space for creativity
When I feel sick or sad or overwhelmed, I instinctively reach for either my well-worn paperback copy of CS Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader or the comforting sounds of Jim Dale reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. Those are my very favorite books, and the ones I’ve re-read the most. When I read the sentence…
1992 Newbery winner, Shiloh, by Phyllis Renolds Naylor is about a 11 year-old-boy named Marty Preston who discovers an abused beagle in the woods near the old Shiloh schoolhouse. Marty names the beagle Shiloh, although he knows his poor West Virginia family can’t afford to keep and feed a dog. When Shiloh escapes a second…
“Do you mind if we open this bottle of red wine for our anniversary?” Evan asks me as I set the kids’ soup bowls on their trays. I think he is asking me in part since I’ve been going on and on about how I read that alcohol suppresses the immune system and increases the…
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (1991 Newbery winner) follows the crazy fast, incredibly athletic, kind, and lonely Jeffrey Lionel Magee. Magee runs into town, and outruns, out-catches, out-reads, and out-unentangles everyone in Two Mills. He was orphaned at a young age, taken in by two quarreling relatives and is in search of a family. He’s…
Most years, Holy Week means going to many, many church services. To be forced to miss all those service this year because of COVID-19 was so sad and hard. But it was also a special opportunity. The sheer amount of energy and work to bring toddlers to Holy Week services (not even all of the…
Lois Lowry’s 1990 Newbery winning book, Number the Stars, centers on ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her Jewish friend Ellen Rosen in 1943 Copenhagen, after the Nazis have taken over Denmark. It’s a beautiful book that manages to be suspenseful and authentic for such an intense topic, while still being a good first book gentle enough…
A few weeks ago, when my husband Evan, a middle school social studies teacher, was getting ready to start e-learning, I mentioned that I’d seen a couple compelling suggestions by people I admire online to keep a journal of this time. I thought it’d be great to have his students write down their experiences. He…
Paul Fleischman’s 1989 Newbery winning book, Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, is a short book of poetry that conjures up the noise of summertime insects. Each page has two columns of text, one for each voice, mostly alternative and unison parts, although there are some parts where the two voices are saying different things…
In the middle of all the little pamphlets and one sheet reminders that we left the hospital with was the instruction to “read to your child 20 minutes a day.” This is, of course, wonderful advice. It’s the kind of public health initiative meant to convey that it’s never too early to expose your child…
Russel Freedman’s 1988 Newbery winning book, Lincoln: A Photobiography is a great biography (with lots of photographs) of Abraham Lincoln. Even though one of my first quasi-dates with my husband Evan in the spring of 2006 was to the Lincoln museum in Springfield Illinois, I don’t think of myself as having an above average interest…
This is my 6th year of birthday reading lists! (You can see the others here: 30 // 31 // 32 // 33 // 34 ). My top picks for this year were Circe, When Life Gives You Pears, Being Mortal, The Blue Sword, and The Blue Castle. The full list is broken down by nonfiction / memoirs / novels / YA/ middle grade reads (but doesn’t include any…
Sid Fleischman’s 1987 Newbery winning book, The Whipping Boy, is about spoiled Prince Horace (Prince Brat by his subjects behind his back) who has a servant for everything, including taking his whippings. But when he runs away, and takes his whipping boy, Jemmy, with him, Prince Horace learns that only by experiencing the harsh realities…
Dear Family & Friends, Merry Christmas! 2019 started out with our sweet Lily baby learning to crawl and ended with a little girl with brown curls bouncing as she runs after her brother (or Bro, as she often calls him now). Highlights of the year were our trips to North Carolina for…
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan is told from the perspective of ten-year-old Anna as she and her younger brother Caleb await and meet the woman who answered the advertisement for a mail-order bride their father had placed. Set in 19th century American Prairie, the book is short and sweet, honest and compelling. I’ve…
For me chopping up onions and celery for paleo stuffing feels like one of the first moments of the holidays. While this is certainly not a recipe from my childhood (I’m pretty sure that we often had boxed stuffing for our Thanksgivings. Not that I’m complaining, I loved boxed stuffing. It’s magic and delicious…