Booking Through Thursday (Dog Days)

From Booking Through Thursday:

Since my dog is turning 10 today...what animal-related books have you read? Which do you love? Do you have a favorite literary dog? (Snoopy, anyone?)

           So, at first I thought I wouldn't be able to answer this question as I hate all books about animals (as the animal usually gets some sort of disease or gets in an accident and dies and all those wonderful pages of getting to know a pet and loving said pet are there just so you cry harder at the end...like Marley and Me) and then I realized not all animal books are like that and while I've read those requisite books that are (Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows) I've read many that aren't, so here's my list of top books about animals. Oh and before I begin the list I don't have a favorite literary dog (Snoopy cartoons and books, except for Snoopy Come Home, are boring), but I do have a favorite literary...cat, Heathcliff. I own at least 8 Heathcliff books that I bought from Tabs or Scholastics in like 4th Grade. Ok, now on with the list. All summaries are from Barnes and Noble.

1. Blitzcat

In Robert Westall's critically acclaimed novel, a courageous black cat journeys through war-torn England searching for her beloved master. "A moving and stirring novel".--School Library Journal.

Annotation

During World War II a black cat journeys all across war-ravaged England in an effort to track down her beloved master.

2. Bunnicula

"Move over, Dracula!"* Could the bunny really be a vampire? The Monroes found him in a movie theater while Dracula was playing. Now all their vegetables are turning white! Chester, the Monroes' cat, sets out to save the world from the vampire bunny. Harold the dog tries to stop Chester before it's too late! And the rest, as they say, is history.

In the more than twenty-five years since the publication of Deborah and James Howe's Bunnicula, the book and its six sequels have sold close to nine million copies, won several kid-voted state awards, and become contemporary classics. Now the first three books are available in this handsome boxed set with stunning art by C. F. Payne.
*New York Times

3. White Fang

"So he became the enemy of his kind, domesticated wolves that they were, softened by the fires of man, weakened in the sheltering shadow of man's strength." -White Fang
A companion novel to Jack London's The Call of the Wild, White Fang is the story of a wild dog's journey toward becoming civilized in the Canadian territory of Yukon at the end of the nineteenth century. White Fang is characteristic of London's precise prose style and innovation use of voice and perspective. Much of the novel is written from the viewpoint of the animals, allowing London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans. White Fang relies on his instincts as well as his strength and courage to survive in the Yukon wilderness-despite both animal and human predators-and eventually comes to make his peace with man.

4. The Call of the Wild

A classic novel of adventure, drawn from London's own experiences as a Klondike adventurer, relating the story of a heroic dog, who, caught in the brutal life of the Alaska Gold Rush, ultimately faces a choice between living in man's world and returning to nature.

5. Because of Winn Dixie

One summer day, Opal goes into a supermarket and comes out with a scraggly dog that she names Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, her preacher father finally tells her ten things about her absentee mother, and Opal makes lots of unusual friends in her quirky Florida town. And because of Winn-Dixie, Opal grows to learn that friendship -- and forgiveness -- can sneak up on you like a sudden storm.

6. It's Like This, Cat

My father is always talking about how a dog can be very educational for a boy. This is one reason I got a cat.
Dave Mitchell and his father yell at each other a lot, and whenever the fighting starts, Dave's mother gets an asthma attack. That's when Dave storms out of the house. Then Dave meets Tom, a strange boy who helps him rescue Cat. It isn't long before Cat introduces Dave to Mary, a wonderful girl from Coney Island. Slowly Dave comes to see the complexities in people's lives and to understand himself and his family a little better.

7. National Velvet

The timeless story of spirited Velvet Brown and her beloved horse has thrilled generations of readers. And now the republication of this classic story in a fresh, up-to-date package will charm confirmed fans while captivating new ones. Fourteen-year-old Velvet is determined to turn her untamed horse into a champion and personally ride him to victory in the world's greatest steeplechase, the Grand National.

8. Ghost Horse

Emily Clark has just moved. She doesn’t like her new house, and she
doesn’t like her new town. But one night she wakes up to find a horse in her
backyard—a ghost horse! Where did he come from? And why is he haunting
Emily’s backyard? Only by solving the mystery can Emily set the ghost horse
free.

9. Ribsy

Henry Huggins's dog, Ribsy, is hopelessly lost in a huge shopping mall parking lot. It's raining hard, the pavement is slick, horns are honking, and drivers are shouting. When Ribsy thinks he has found the Hugginses' new station wagon at last, he jumps in the open tailgate window and falls asleep, exhausted. When he wakes up find himself in the wrong car, lots of little girls pet him and make plans to give him a bath. All Ribsy wants to do is go home to Henry. Instead, he's about to begin the liveliest adventure of his life.

10. The Last Unicorn

From The Last Unicorn:
"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea..."

11. Millions of Cats

Wanda Gág's enchanting tale of the very old man who went off in search of the prettiest cat in the world for his wife and returned instead with millions to choose from has become an American classic, widely recognized as the first modern picture book. First published in 1928, it was a recipient of the 1929 Newbery Honor Book Award and has gone on to sell over a million copies. With its charming illustrations and rhythmic, sing-song refrain, Millions of Cats remains as beloved today as it was when it first appeared three-quarters of a century ago.

30 Day Song Challenge: Day Twenty-seven

Day Twenty-Seven: A Song you wish you could play

          I remember in 5th grade choosing to play the clarinet.

          All the parents who had children interested in playing an instrument were invited to a meeting in the band room. There students who knew what they wanted to play were matched with sellers of the instruments and those who didn't know were in invited to test out instruments to determine what suited them best. I knew I wanted to play the clarinet. As I said last week, my grandfather played the clarinet and he and I had already had, what I felt was a mature conversation, on the subject. We purchased a Bundy clarinet and I brought it to my grandfather's house that weekend to show him.

         I will never forget that weekend sitting in the living room watching my grandfather make my clarinet do things I never would. He played the scales (even the high notes) without squeaking, he played soft melodies and he played big Band music, a type of music I learned to love because of him. I can remember listening to Benny Goodman and Count Basie, Artie Shaw. Glen Miller and Django Reinhardt on those old heavy 78s. Later in my life I'd find Robert Johnson, Billie Holiday and the Blues, I attribute this find to my grandfather for putting me on the path to this great time in the History of American music. He even pulled out records of his Army days and he would point out instruments to me, so I'd know later the different sounds in a Jazz band and could tell the different between the brassy trumpet and sweet clarinet over the Jazz guitar or trumbone.
         If I could play any song I'd like it to be Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman, the Clarinet King, a song my grandfather loved and so do I.

Feel free to join in by commenting below (I really do love comments, on fb or here), or doing this challenge on your own blog.

The 30 Day Song Challenge

Day 01 – Your favorite song

Day 02 -- Your least favorite song

Day 03 -- A song that makes you happy

Day 04 -- A song that makes you sad

Day 06 -- A song that reminds you of someone

Day 06 -- A song that reminds you of somewhere

Day 07 -- A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08 -- A song that you know all the words to
Day 09 -- A song that you can dance to

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 – A song from your favorite band
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love

Day 15 --A song that describes you

Day 16 --A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17 --A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18 --A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19 --A song from your favorite album
Day 20 --A song that you listen to when you're angry
Day 21 -- A song that you listen to when you're happy
Day 22 -- A song that you listen to when you're sad
Day 23 -- A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24 -- A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25 -- A song that makes you laugh
Day 26 -- A song that you can play on an instrument

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

Entertaining Travel Reads

          As I plan several flights this summer I've been thinking about how to occupy the mind of a 20 month old on a plane full of people. At home, when she's bored I just pop on the TV, turn on the music or throw the bag of blocks all over the living room floor...these are not viable options on plane, as she doesn't use headphones yet, and for those of you who think these options are ideal (and, you know who you are...) shame on you as I'm not really in the market for annoying others on the plane, nor do I like the idea of treating the whole plane as my personal living room, as I am not so far removed from being on the other end of that experience. I remember quite clearly a mother and companion and three little people who sat in that space at the front of the plane (where there's leg room) and had crayons, markers, blocks, noisy toys et cetera all over the floor even as the plane landed and people wanted to get off the plane...not cool.
          To me, the easiest way to entertain a tiny tot is to give them books, one at a time. 1] Books are quiet, even if the tiny tot in question wants you to read the book you can read it to them at conversation level or a whisper (much quieter than a noisy toy). 2] Books are not messy, your tiny person cannot write with the book, sure, they can write on the book, but that's only if you give them a writing utensil. 3] Books are small and can be easily packed into your childs carry-on.

Here are some books that I recommend as ideal travel reads:

• Baby Einstein Cats by Julie Aigner-Clark It's a tiny board book that fits easily into any compartment of a carry-on, or in a pocket. You're kid can eat it or bend it and if he/she wants you to read it, it's short and easy. This is a cat. Cats are warm and soft to hold.
• I'll Teach My Dog A Lot of Words by Michael Frith Again, it's a board book, not as small Cats (but, I'm guessing you'll be hard-pressed to find many other books as small as Cats) and I can attest to the fact that it's really easy to read on the plane and can be acted out with little to no interruptions to other passengers (it's all in the voice and the eyes). My kidlet likes to read this to herself and that's...well, it's nice. The first words I will teach my pup are dig a hole and fill it up.
• Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills This is a lovely interactive book where Duck and Goose ask questions about where to find a pumpkin, most of the answers are "No" and your kiddo can catch on pretty quickly and answer. Trust me it's fun. I hear there are other books in the series, but this is the only one we know by heart! "Is the pumpkin in the leaf pile, Duck?" "No."
• Baby Einstein My First Book of Numbers by Julie Aigner-Clark The tiny person can be entertained for hours by this book. Seriously...there's counting, there's colors, there's rubber ducks and marbles and flowers and bees, there's pictures of little people. This book is really big though, so big that when I've taken it on trips, it's been one of two books I take (and the other is usually a squishy bathbook like Seahorse or, a small board book like, um, Cats--can you tell what book my kiddo really likes?!) If you start with three and add one more, did you know you have the number four? Just draw a triangle and add a little line for a number four that looks just fine.
• Seaside Bath Books-Seahorse by Julie Clough We bought this book at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and then spent the 8 hr. train ride home being entertained by it. It has a squeaker, but so far Lila can't squeak it, which is fine by me! Sally the Seahorse love to dance.

And, finally...

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. An oldie, but goodie it seems that everyone knows this story. Lila likes to guess what's coming up next, she likes to label the colors and label the animals. This takes a book that might take 5 minutes to read about 15 minutes of entertaining reading and communication. Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me.

Whatever books you choose, reading with your tiny tot while traveling can be loads of fun! What kinds of books do you like to read while traveling?

Happy 4th of July!!!

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What Does It Mean To Be An American? And, other essays...

Below you will find several essays that I consider the best when defining these United States of America. Enjoy some excellent Sunday afternoon reading!!!


Essay One
America: The Multinational Society by Ishmael Reed

"At the annual Lower East Side Jewish Festival yesterday, a Chinese woman ate a pizza slice in front of Ty Thuan Duc’s Vietnamese grocery store. Beside her a Spanish-speaking family patronized a cart with two signs: 'Italian Ices' and 'Kosher by Rabbi Alper.' And after the pastrami ran out, every­body ate knishes.—New York Times 23 June 1983

     On the day before Memorial Day, 1983, a poet called me to de­scribe a city he had just visited. He said that one section included mosques, built by the Islamic people who dwelled there. Attending his reading, he said, were large numbers of Hispanic people, forty thousand of whom lived in the same city. He was not talking about a fabled city located in some mysterious region of the world. The city he’d visited was Detroit."

Where you can find it: The Brief McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues across the Disciplines

Why it 'sings' America: North America should become a place where the cultures of the world crisscross into a quilt, they do not blend. Each of us should be proud to retain our own unique identities. The United States is unique in the world because the world is here all around us, we should be proud of that fact.

Essay Two
Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez

     "I remember to start with that day in Sacramento--a California now nearly thirty years past--when I first entered a classroom, able to understand some fifty stray English words.

    The third of four children, I had been preceded to a neighborhood Roman Catholic school by an older brother and sister. But neither of them had revealed very much about their classroom experiences. Each afternoon they returned, as they left in the morning, always together, speaking in Spanish as they climbed the five steps of the porch. And their mysterious books, wrapped in shopping-bag paper, remained on the table next to the door, closed firmly behind them."

Where you can find it: Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez

Why it 'sings' America: Rodriguez considers Spanish to be a private language and believed, in 1983, that being taught in a Spanish-speaking classroom would have delayed his assimilation into American culture and into his own 'public identity'. All cultures that come to the United States have to grapple with the duality of being part of their culture and still being American. Almost thirty years later, we are still discussing which would be better full immersion into the English language or evading 'public society'. Which is better for the child in the long run, especially if he is going to prosper in the country of his second language?

Essay Three
What is an American? by J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur

     "I WISH I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent. He must greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair country discovered and settled; he must necessarily feel a share of national pride, when he views the chain of settlements which embellishes these extended shores. When he says to himself, this is the work of my countrymen, who, when convulsed by factions, afflicted by a variety of miseries and wants, restless and impatient, took refuge here. They brought along with them their national genius, to which they principally owe what liberty they enjoy, and what substance they possess."

Where you can find it: Letters from an American Farmer

Why it 'sings' America: In 1781 Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur asked, for the first time, a  question that we still ponder today. How do we fit into a globalized society and still maintain our identity. Then, the identity of the USA had to be defined as something different than the British aristocrat. Now, we must define ourselves as someone who is part of the world. In some cases, people define the United States citizens as being the world police, the ultimate religious leaders, doormats, altruistic donors, bridges and/or abusive lovers, but we must rise above all the labels to be truly American.

Essay Four
The Plastic Pink Flamingo by Jennifer Price

     "Five years ago, I visited the Union Products factory, the birthplace of the plastic pink flamingo. It nestles among a flock of plastics factories in Leominster, Massachusetts, on Route 117 west of Boston. I have come to believe, and would like to persuade you, that the blow-molding department in the basement, where they still melt polyethylene crystals with pink dye and extrude the hot pink plastic into flamingo-shaped molds, can be just as useful a place to search for the deepest meanings of nature as the most remote wilds of the Rockies, where I have also looked.
     Since then, to plumb my nature-loving instincts and the fierce attachments to nature harbored by many members of my generation, I have been tracing the flamingo's history through the annals of landscape architecture, south Florida, middle-class inventions, Las Vegas, fifties styles, sixties rebellions, organic gardening, John Waters movies, Elvis, wilderness areas, Andy Warhol prints, the Culture Wars, and my fellow baby boomers' thirty-year march to economic dominance. At some point, I began to listen carefully to the stories people told me. My graduate-school adviser heard a National Public Radio report on a kidnapped pair of flamingos that sent back postcards from the Eiffel Tower. Friends had stolen the birds off lawns on drunken latenight outings in college. A New Yorker editor had a famous collection. My roommate's traveling partner had taken a flamingo named Eudora backpacking, mountain-biking, and cross-country skiing through the White Mountains, the Arctic, and the Sierras before forgetting it one summer in a cabin at Donner Pass. And so, by degrees, I became cathected to the plastic bird that the nature writer Terry Tempest Williams has branded "our unnatural link to the natural world."

Where you can find it: Flight Maps: Adventures with Nature in Modern America

Why it 'sings' America: I love 'kitsch' and it seems that most of the USA does too! I'm reminded of a joke one of our London professors said:
          "What's the difference between a petri dish and the United States?"
          "If you put a petri dish in the dark it will eventually develop a culture!"
The thing is this cheesiness, this lack of 'culture', as Price so profoundly writes, is our culture--the pink flamingo (and our need to drive it almost to extinction) is what makes us bright, exotic and hard to come by...add to this that now the company that made the plastic bird is no longer up and running and you have America today. Long life all things kitsch!

Essay Five
The Cult of Ethnicity, Good and Bad by Arthur M. Schlesinger 

     "The history of the world has been in great part the history of the mixing of peoples. Modern communication and transport accelerate mass migrations from one continent to another. Ethnic and racial diversity is more than ever a salient fact of the age.

     But what happens when people of different origins, speaking different languages and professing different religions, inhabit the same locality and live under the same political sovereignty? Ethnic and racial conflict -- far more than ideological conflict -- is the explosive problem of our times."

Where you can find it: The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society

Why it 'sings' America: Melting pot or salad bowl?...Are we losing something when we try to become 'one nation'? Is it important to have a national language? These are the things that I think about when I read this essay, and no matter how many times I read it I can't seem to figure out how we are one nation with diffferent nationalities and races that function separately and together at the same time.


Essay Six
Here is New York by E.B. White

     "There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company. . . ."

Where you can find it: book of the same title

Why it 'sings' America: What I love about this essay is that when I have my students read an excerpt they always think it was written a few years ago, when actually it was written in the 40s. The New York City that White experienced on that hot day when he penned this essay is still here, I also love how this essay can relate to the whole American experience in general, no matter who we are or were we come from, those of us who choose to live in this great nation of ours embrace it with all of our hearts and minds.

Essay Seven

What Does It Mean to Be an American? Patriotism, Nationalism, and American Identity After 9/11 by Qiong Li and Marilynn B. Brewer

     "The meaning and consequences of national identification have long been the subject of debate among philosophers, historians, and social scientists. Of particular concern is the question of whether identification with one's country-in the form of national attachment, pride, and loyalty-is or is not necessarily associated with derogation and contempt of nations and cultures other than one's own. On the positive side, group identification at the national level, like other social identities (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), creates bonds of solidarity among all members, aligns individual interests with national welfare, and provides the motivation for being a good group member at the individual level-that is, for enacting the voluntary,participatory behaviors that constitute the citizen role (Brewer, in press). On the downside, high levels of national identification ("hyperationalism") have been associated with authoritarianism, intolerance, and warmongering (Van Evera, 1994)."

Where you can find it: Political Psychology, Vol. 25, No. 5, 2004

Why it 'sings' America: While this is a psychological case study (and, has graphs and charts and variables I'd rather just skip over), I think it hits on some very interesting points about how Americans feel after 9/11. I am reminded of a teacher who got reprimanded for playing the Dixie Chicks in her classroom because they were anti-American (for voicing an opinion, might I add) and then was told that we are not here to teach children to 'think'. It is important that we have national pride, but it is also important that we remember the basic tenents on which this country was founded. It was Voltaire that said, "I may not agree with a word you say, but I will fight to the death your right to say it." No matter what, isn't that true patriotism?

Happy
4th of July!!!

Six Word Saturday #11

My life in six words
" Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"
~President Whitmore in Independence Day

Anybody else go watch this movie on opening day with their friends and/or family and have to wait in, what appeared to be, the longest line ever, like ended in the hot, hot sun out the door and around the building, longest line ever?

Here's what I aspire to make for the 4th of July...

Tyler Florence has all the answers for the main course in Tyler's Ultimate

Other choice burgers:
Michael Chiarello's Roasted Garlic burger
Paula Deen's Black and Blue burger
Rachel Ray's Turkey and Bean burger
Bobby Flay's Regionally Inspired burgers
Steven Raichlen's  Butter Burger (anything Steven Raichlen would do, as he is the master of all things 'grill')

Dessert
Katie Brown Workshop Season 3 Episode 8

There isn't a picture, but it's b-e-a-utiful!

Of course, it isn't the 4th without...

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What foods say the 4th of July to you? 

Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. The full list and linky can be found here. And, here's where I found it.

I Hear America Singing!

I friggin' love the United States of America!

I made this cake from scratch, myself, several years ago.
I love the United States so much I want to bake about it!

I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

I love this country so much that this Toby Keith song just makes me feel all patriotic!

Made in America

AZsongs

Made In America Lyrics

My old man said oh man Spent his life livin' off the land Dirty hands and a clean soul Breaks his heart seein' foreign cars Using fuel that isn't ours and Wearing cotton he didn't grow He's got the red, white, blue flyin' high on the farm "Semper fi" tattoo on his left arm Spend a little more at the store for a tag

full lyrics

more Toby Keith lyrics

Have a great 4th of July Weekend everyone (yes, those of you who are not from the USA, as well!)