making space for creativity
Elizabeth Borton de Treviño’s 1966 Newbery Award Winning book, I, Juan de Pareja, de Treviño creates a beautiful story of the real life slave of seventeenth-century Spanish artist Diego Velázquez. Using the few written records available (those relating to Velázquez inheriting the young slave from relatives and giving the old slave his freedom) and a…
To kick off summer break and celebrate our ten-year anniversary, Evan and Jackson and I headed west to gorgeous Sonoma County in Northern California. And now we know where—if someone were to drop a few million dollars in our laps—we’d move: the Russian River Valley where ocean and redwoods, wine and mountains meet….
In 44th Newbery, Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska, Manolo Olivar, age 11, is the son of a famous matador who died in a bull fight when Manolo was 3. Since then, Manolo has grown up in the shadow of his famous father and the townspeople of Arcangel, Spain who are convinced…
This week I was invited to preach! I was super honored and touched that our pastor invited me to be part of the regular cycle of lay people with whom he shares his pulpit. On Sunday, people were so encouraging and kind after the service. We have a pretty tight-knit little community, so it…
Emily Neville’s 1963 Newbery winning coming of age tale, It’s Like this, Cat, follows 14-year-old Davy as he navigates New York City and his family in the 60s. I found the depiction of New York City life in the 60s so great. Davy as a 14 year old has so much freedom to…
My parents met while traveling, and I think that has always made travel a part of our family. The summer before their last year of college, my parents spent the summer semester traveling through the Holy Lands taking Bible and archaeology classes and sharing a first kiss over the old city of Jerusalem just…
I finally have arrived at the chance to re-read one of my all-time favorite books: the 1963 Newbery A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. (I’ve written about it before when I wrote about all the unties, and it’s on my list of favorite children’s fantasy series) It has always been the light ahead…
I know that 12 months is the big mile stone for most parents, but for me 15 months is the one I keep thinking about. I started full time nannying my little godson at 15 months, and I’ve been counting the weeks until my own son is that old. Five years ago, I left…
The toughest thing about Wisconsin life for me is icy winter days that keep me indoors. We’ve had, on the whole a pretty mild winter, and last week February seemed to forget that it was winter all together and we hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit–an all time record! But we’ve gone back to our regularly…
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare, the 41st Newbery, is set in 30s AD Galilee and tells the tale of teenage Daniel, runaway blacksmith apprentice who is living in the mountains in hopes of avenging his parents’ death at the hands of the Romans. Daniel gets swept back into village life, meeting zealots…
This weekend I overheard a typical mother-child exchange at the Whole Foods cafe in which the mother laid out a plan for her five or six-year-old son: “You need to eat your lunch and then we’re going to go,” she said. The boy, all wiggles and distraction, said nothing to this plan. To which…
While I wouldn’t necessarily think that having a baby would help my reading life, all in all, I somehow made time for the usual number of books, and not all of them were baby-related. About half the books on this list I listened to on audio book (often while lying and nursing), and the…
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell is based on the true story of 19th- century Nicoleño Native American Karana’s 18-year lone survival on California’s San Nicolas Island. When most of the men of the island are killed in a battle with Russian and Aleut fishermen, the remaining Nicoleños decide to travel to…
Dear Friends and Family, It’s a very snowy week before Christmas here in Milwaukee. With snow falling, snow on snow, Milwaukee looks like a snow globe, everything fresh and clean and quiet and quaint. It’s hard to believe that during the last Christmas snows we had a nine-pound month old baby who was just…
Joseph Krumgold won his second Newbery in 1960 with Onion John, becoming the first (of 6 to-date) authors to win two Newbery medals. Onion John follows the unlikely friendship of Andy, a baseball loving 12 year old in Serenity, New Jersey, and Onion John, an older Eastern European immigrant who lives on the…