Is there a Doctor in the House? Two by Seuss

Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat, 1957.

Singsong rhyme and controlled vocabulary are great for beginning readers. The story is incredibly imaginative, with the twist that the cat is the “child” who tears up the house and makes a mess, while the children are the “adults.” An early lesson in empathy for ones’ parents, perhaps? St. Nick, Fish, and Pie have all loved this book. And I've loved skipping pages while reading it.





Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham, 1960.

Every parents’ “must have” for the picky eater. “You don’t want to be like Sam! You’ve never even tried it.” The story mimics the child in a way that can make him laugh at himself. It’s silly to see an adult (creature) being so picky! Again, rhyme and almost exclusive use of short, easy words aid beginning readers in decoding the story.

Welcome, Fisher, to this Loony Land!

We have a new family member, as of today. His name is Fisher and he's about 90lbs, three years old, and the sweetest BIG guy ever!!

A little background: eight years ago, before kids, we thought of getting a dog. An Old English Sheepdog would be perfect, we thought. So we found a rescue organization, and who would know, they had a dog needing adoption! We drove across the state to get him. After a three hour drive home, the big fellow needed a walk, so I took that on. Sort of. More like he took me for a walk. Long story short, the guy was still a puppy, just over a year and was already huge. Too much to handle even had he been a good dog. But he wasn't. He growled at us, didn't listen, showed his teeth. We drove another three hours to take him back and discovered he'd bitten the breeder's spouse.

Oh, Deer!

Here's a fellow we met this morning, him and three companions. That stretch of asphalt is our driveway.

Fish and St. Nick hurried to the window, but poor Mud Pie was getting dressed. She did catch a final glimpse, so excited she rushed down in the buff, and then had to hurry upstairs to put some clothes on!

No Holes Here

Holes by Louis Sachar. Random House, 1998.

Most distinctive for its magnificent plotting, Holes is the adventure story of the unlikely hero, Stanley. He’s been falsely convicted of a crime and sent to a work camp for boys in the Texas desert. There he and the other boys dig holes, only he quickly begins to suspect that he’s digging not to rehabilitate himself, but rather to find something. A treasure perhaps.

Woven through the 3rd omniscient narrative are snippets of other stories: Stanley’s no-good-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather for example, who was cursed by a Gypsy woman, and his family’s bad luck ever since, and the history of the now-dry lake where the boys are digging. Every plot thread is tied neatly from the pig-stealer, to the role of the venomous yellow-spotted lizard, and onions. Yet even with tight plotting, the story does not seem forced or contrived. Events unfold and come together naturally and always with suspense and clear, accessible writing.

That #$%& Co-op!

Halfway into first hour at coop this morning the director knocked on the door. She had St. Nick beside her, and neither of them was happy. He was being kicked out of class for his first time ever. Kicked out! Sent to the office! Sent to sit in the hallway! Whatever that horrible thing was that happened to the bad kids in school, but never to me. How have I managed to raise one of those bad kids? Is St. Nick a bad kid? Am I a bad parent?

For the next two hours I had half the moms in the school giving me advice, asking questions, trying to be helpful. Helpful of my son's "Special Needs." But why is it that the other two hours of class passed without incident? How is it that the second hour teacher has found ways of getting St. Nick out of his funk and into the group, without bringing him down, red faced (both him and herself) to talk to me about how disrespectful and disobedient he's been? And what on earth is so bad about letting him observe rather than participate?

Something to say

That's what I haven't had for a while now. Homeschool coop has been going better. Fish loves it, Pie doesn't know that she has a choice, and St. Nick is under strict orders to put up with it or else. He may well find out what "or else" means before it's said and done, however. I guess I should put some thought into what "or else" means, eh?

So, I'm sitting here at Biggby sipping a Big Chill despite the cold. I love the taste! I can't help it. And I'm thinking about how it didn't feel like I went grocery shopping today. Which is really, truly amazing! Our local grocery just started a program where you fill your cart online and, for a small fee, someone else collects all your items, bags them, rings them up, and all you have to do is park in the designated spot at the designated time and ring them up to say, "I'm here!" and out they come to take your credit card and load the bags into the back of your vehicle. It's awesome!!!! Not only did I save probably $40 (no impulse buys, no "Well, it's on sale so even though I don't *need* six boxes of Cheddar Crisps ..."), I avoided the whole tugging kids through the asiles, forgetting that one thing way in back, the oh crap I need to get shampoo which is all the way on the other side of the store, the Put that back! No, we aren't going to buy that! Put it back, I said! Hey, how did this get in my shopping bag?

I can hardly contain how excited I am by this new program. No more pushing a cart through slush in the winter! No more embarassed forevers in the checkout lane while the kids scream and fight and try to open all the candy bars (nooo, they don't really do that. No, of course not.).

I'm sure next time my computer crashes I'll regret saying this, but isn't technology great? I can sit here at Biggby, jamming to my iPod, typing on my laptop, posting via wireless, and all this after going grocery shopping without even leaving my car. Ahhhhhhh.

Not-so-Captivating Classics: Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil (1952)

Red Sails to Capri was published in '52, won a Newbery Honor, and I guess that's why it ended up in St. Nick's curriculum. Or maybe the sheer drudgery made it adequate school reading?

But I'm being unfair. It's a book for younger readers, so it can't be too breath-holding (or so I've heard, which is totally false), and while I'm none too fond of it as a whole, there are many things to appreciate.

It's the story of Michele Pagano's adventure with three foreign guests at his family's inn. Together they search for the truth about the mysterious cove, an inlet and cave that has terrified the village of Capri for generations. The book is incredibly fun to read aloud. Each character has a unique voice that simply sings with authenticity and life. I got to read adventure-loving Monsieur Jacques with a terrible French accent, and the artist Lord Derby with an even worse English one. I didn't so much as attempt German for philosopher Herre Nordstrom, but read Signor and Signora Pagano's lines with a rolling Italian lilt. Or so I like to tell myself. Probably they all sounded like a Midwesterner faking an undisclosed accent badly. I tried, and I had fun.

And by chapter nine, my son was having fun, too! The cove! What is so mysterious about the cove? Unfortunately, to get to chapter nine, we had to slog through chapters one through eight, and after chapter nine, we had only chapter ten and then the book was finished.

In short, despite lovely writing, fabulous voices, vivid details, on and on, the book had very little plot. Boy has to entertain guests at the inn, guests want adventure, boy knows the cove is scary and adventuresome, but doesn't know why, no one knows why, so off they go to investigate and by golly, the cove is just ... ah, but that would be spoiling it, now wouldn't it? And that could have been accomplished in, oh, two chapters perhaps? Instead of ten? Because, see, nothing else happens. There's no subplot, nothing to drive the story forward beyond, "what's so scary about the cove?" which, honestly, wasn't enough to drive anything, beyond a mother and son slightly bug-eyed with boredom.