Red Reading Boots - Page 2 - Bookology Magazine

E.B. White

October 5, 2017 No Comments

A couple of weeks ago I was in the basement of the Science and Engineering Library at the University of Minnesota getting a little writing in before work. It’s a good spot — there’s a nice coffee shop, nothing in the stacks is intelligible to me on that floor so I’m not distracted, and it’s quiet and out of the hordes of university traffic.… more

Bless This Mouse

September 21, 2017 No Comments

Over the last month or so, my nieces and I have been reading Bless This Mouse by Lois Lowry. We started it on one scaryish night when I picked them up at the hospital emergency room. My brother-in-law had a mishap with a chisel in the garage resulting in a flesh wound that created an enormous amount of blood. (He’s fine — couple of stitches and thankful it didn’t hit the artery.)… more

English Syllabus

September 7, 2017 4 Comments

I used to hate the night of the first day of school. I loved hearing about the first day details, new teachers, old and new friends…but The Forms nearly did me in. A whole packet for each kid filled with multi-colored papers, many of which asked for the very same information — so many emergency numbers, medical forms etc.… more

The Wild Flag

August 24, 2017 No Comments

Fifteen years ago this summer, I stood weeping in our local public library while making copies of letters on the public photocopy machine, dimes in one hand, folded linen stationary in the other. I remember it was fifteen years ago because I was enormously pregnant with Darling Daughter. People walked a wide circle around me without making eye contact. Which was just as well.… more

What’s a Favorite Book of Yours?

August 10, 2017 2 Comments

Lately I’ve been asking groups about their favorite books — as a get-to-know-you activity of sorts. You know: “My name is Melanie…and one of my favorite books is Anne of Green Gables.” That sort of thing. I’ve asked groups that include children and groups with only adults. (I ask groups of kids this a lot — great marketing research.)… more

Pinkerton & Friends

July 13, 2017 No Comments

I had a “Why in the world….?” moment the other day. It was unexpected and a little strange and it was this: When I imagine picture books that I am writing and/or thinking about writing, I imagine very specific illustrations. From a very specific illustrator. Even though I admire the work of many illustrators. (I admire this one, too, of course.)… more

Following The Ducklings

June 29, 2017 4 Comments

We have just returned from a trip to the Boston/Concord area and Maine. It was a bit of a literary trip. Three days in Concord, Massachusetts set the stage as we toured Louisa May Alcott’s house and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s, too. We followed The Amble, which became more of A Ramble, between Emerson’s home and Thoreau’s cottage at Walden Pond.… more

The Reading Summer

June 1, 2017 No Comments

A stressed mother of a first grader sought my counsel this week. The issue was reading. Her son wasn’t. And at the close of first grade he was expected to. There was talk of testing, remedial help over the summer, reading logs, etc. She and her spouse were dreading it, worried, and a little irked — not at the not-yet-reader, but at the expectations and the pressure.… more

The Bluest Eye

May 11, 2017 No Comments

It’s been years since I could keep up with my kids reading. When they first began reading independently, I’d often read (or at least skim) the books they were working on so I could ask questions and talk about it with them. Then for several more years, they would simply tell me about whatever they were reading — often in great detail.… more

Some Writer!

April 22, 2017 5 Comments

I had the wonderful good fortune of hearing Melissa Sweet talk about her work last week. It was a fascinating presentation about her process, her research, her art. I left inspired, and with a hankering to find scissors and a glue stick and do some collage myself. (Let’s be clear, things would not turn out at all like Sweet’s gorgeous works of art….)… more

This Is Just To Say

April 6, 2017 No Comments

April is National Poetry Month, which is as good an excuse as any to take some poetry books off the shelf and have a read. I’m quite methodical in April — it’s the hint of spring in the air, I suppose. I clean my office and then I build a stack of wonderful poetry books — some Billy Collins, a little Emily Dickinson, a tome of Robert Frost, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Mary Oliver, naturally…..… more

Pop-up Books

March 23, 2017 3 Comments

Our household’s fascination with pop-up books came as a surprise to me. As a child I didn’t like them much. We had a few — one was Sleeping Beauty, I think. But they popped with boring modesty and they always had these tabs that you pulled to make things move, only my brother pulled them too hard and so they didn’t do anything besides pull in and out.… more

Can’t You Sleep, Little Bear?

March 9, 2017 2 Comments

Once there were two bears. Big Bear and Little Bear. Big Bear is the big bear, and Little Bear is the little bear. They played all day in the bright sunlight. When night came, and the sun went down, Big Bear took Little Bear home to the Bear Cave…. There was a time — and it doesn’t seem that long ago, I might add — that this gentle book was read in our own Bear Cave on a daily basis.… more

Hidden Figures

February 23, 2017 No Comments

This week, my mother and I heard Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures, speak at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Distinguished Carlson Lecture Series. Shetterly’s book tells the true story of Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan — three of dozens of African-American women who worked in the 1950s and ‘60s for NASA in math, science and computing.… more

Frog and Toad

February 9, 2017 1 Comment

This spring, Minneapolis’ Children’s Theater Company will put on A Year With Frog & Toad, which has stood as one of my top three theater experiences for the last dozen years or so. We had three tickets the first time we saw it. Darling Daughter was still young enough for a “lap pass” at the time. Our household had been hit with The Plague and for days/weeks/month/going on years (it seemed, anyway) and we’d been sickly and unfit to leave our home.… more

The Awards

January 26, 2017 No Comments

In the children’s literature world, awards happened this week. They don’t receive quite the press or airtime (which is unfortunate) as The Tonys and Oscars, but they’re important and exciting all the same. Darling Daughter and I have just discussed them at some length over supper. I love the awards. I love feeling like I predicted a few of them.… more

The Velveteen Rabbit

January 12, 2017 No Comments

Meryl Streep is in the news this week for her speech at the Golden Globes. It’s a powerful piece — though, truth be told, I think she could read out a phone directory and it would be powerful. She began by apologizing because she’d lost her voice. It was loud enough to hear, but certainly rough. I was overcome by an urge to make tea with honey while watching.… more

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

December 29, 2016 No Comments

I confess, I’m a bit of a tough sell when it comes to fantasy books (unless they are for really young kids). I don’t do vampires, I’m not thrilled with dystopic settings, and although I love dragons and fairies, other fantastic beasts tend to make my eyes roll, and I…well, I lose interest. I believe in magic, but it has to be really well written to keep my interest, and frankly, I’ve not finished a lot of really well done fantasy novels.… more

Santa’s Favorite Story

December 15, 2016 No Comments

Verily, as if on cue, I have fielded the year’s first parental question about Santa Claus. It is the whispered earnestness of the askers that keeps me from rolling my eyes. What role, if any, should Santa have in a Christian family….? they whisper leaning away from the baby on their hip, lest that babe be tipped off.… more

Wish

December 1, 2016 9 Comments

I did not grow up in the south, but my parents did, so I like to claim a little southern heritage. When my kids were younger, I loved reading them books set in the south — willing into their souls the humidity, barbecue, iced tea with lemon, and accents that have the rhythm of rocking chairs found on great big porches.… more

The Tapper Twins Run For President

October 20, 2016 No Comments

My own flesh and blood accused me of stealing the other day. When it was I, not she, who procured the book, and I, not she, who was part way through it…and then she stole it from me! Hid it, really, intentionally or un- beneath her bed. I practically had to clean her room to find it.… more

Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection

October 7, 2016 No Comments

Once upon a time, we had a little boy who was completely enthralled with all things having to do with trains. When he fell for Thomas the Tank Engine, he fell hard, and he was not yet two. We have an extensive collection of Thomas and friends (thanks to the grandparents) complete with a living room’s miles worth of track, corresponding stations, bridges, and assorted other props.… more

Kingfisher Treasuries

September 22, 2016 No Comments

There was a time — although it seems like it’s becoming a tiny dot in the rearview mirror — in which one birthday child or the other received the birthday-appropriate book in the Kingfisher Treasury series of Stories for Five/Six/Seven/Eight Year Olds. Those beloved paperbacks reside on my office shelves now, but it was not so long ago that they were opened on the appropriate birthday to big smiles — there was something sort of milestone-like about receiving them.… more

Raymie Nightingale

September 8, 2016 1 Comment

Darling Daughter and I host/participate in an occasional parent-child bookgroup for middle-grade readers and their parents. We call it Books & Bagels and we meet at the bagel shop down the street from church and nosh on bagels while talking about books. I think we can safely say the bagel aspect of things increases participation — but all the kids who come are great readers and we love talking with them and their parents about books.… more

Calvin Can’t Fly

August 11, 2016 No Comments

When I was doing storytime weekly, a book about a bookworm starling was in my regular rotation. Yes, you read that right — a Bookworm Starling. That’s exactly what Calvin (the starling) is — a bookworm. And that is his shame — his cousins call him “nerdie birdie,” “geeky beaky,” and “bookworm.” Unusual (gently derogatory) labels for a starling. Not that it deters Calvin — he mostly shrugs and turns the page.… more

Cook-A-Doodle-Do!

July 28, 2016 No Comments

I’ve got dessert on my mind — berry shortcake, to be precise. I’ve already done the strawberry shortcake during strawberry season. My raspberry bushes are producing at a rate that might call for shortcake in the near future, however. And whenever I make shortcake — or even think of it — I think of Cook-a-doodle-doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel (who are sisters, I believe).… more

Bink and Gollie

July 14, 2016 No Comments

Early this morning I read Bink and Gollie books to my nieces. We were killing time while their parents picked up the rental car for their Great American Summer Roadtrip. To say that the level of excitement was palpable is an understatement — it was a wave that nearly knocked me down when they opened their door. They talked — both of them — nonstop for an hour while we sipped our breakfast smoothies.… more

How To Make An Apple Pie and See The World

June 30, 2016 2 Comments

A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to make a really good pie. I asked around — bakers, caterers, cooking store owners etc. and the book The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum came up consistently. One person mentioned How to Make An Apple Pie and See The World by Marjorie Priceman.… more

The Sandwich Swap

June 2, 2016 2 Comments

Normally, I spurn picture books written by celebrities, be they actors or royalty or what have you. If it’s a person in the headlines, I quite assume they could not possibly write a worthy picture book. The only exception on my shelves, I believe (and I realize there are other exceptions! Feel free to leave titles in the comments.) is The Sandwich Swap by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah with Kelly Depucchio, illustrated by Tricia Tusa.… more

One Day at the Farmers Market

May 19, 2016 No Comments

Saturday was gorgeous, and (Oh joy! Oh rapture!) the opening day of the Mill City Farmers Market, one of my favorite markets here in the Twin Cities. I got up and out the door in such a hurry I forgot my market basket, but no matter — there were just the earliest of crops available: asparagus, spinach, rhubarb….… more

The Odious Ogre

May 5, 2016 No Comments

I’m a big fan of Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer. I can remember reading it as a kid and thinking it both hilarious and clever. And I loved the words! So many words! So when the Juster-Feiffer team came out with The Odious Ogre a few years back, I leapt at it. A picture book! A long picture book! My favorite kind!… more

Books as Therapy

April 28, 2016 No Comments

I confess to using books therapeutically. When my kids were little and the day had gone wonky and none of us were at our best, a pile of picture books was a sure-fire way to reset us all. It was partly the snuggles, but mostly the shared experience of reading the stories we loved. As they’ve grown, I’ve been known to read them happy books when they are sad (and sometimes sad books, just to help us lean into it) and silly books when anger and tears have had their way with us.… more

Beverly Cleary

April 12, 2016 No Comments

For the last month I have been reading articles, toasts, essays, and interviews with one of my favorite authors of all time: Beverly Cleary. She turned 100 years old this week. Everything I read about her makes me misty-eyed — the birthday plans in her home state of Oregon … her memories of being in the lowest reading group, the Blackbirds, in elementary school … that she writes while baking bread … how she named her characters … that she was a “well-behaved girl” but she often thought like Ramona (me, too!!!)… more

Rose Meets Mr. Wintergarten

March 31, 2016 No Comments

Rose meets Mr. Wintergarten by Bob Graham has been around for awhile. I’ve been reading it to kids for almost as long as it’s been on this side of the pond. But I’ve read it two different ways, and I’m ready to confess that now. I love most everything about this sweet picture book. I adore the Summerses — what a great hippie-like family! … more

Caps for Sale

March 17, 2016 No Comments

My college boy is home this week. So far his spring break has been spent fighting a doozy of a virus, lying about feverish and wan. Perhaps there is slight comfort in Mom making tea and soup, verses the non-hominess of the dorm, I don’t know. He seems grateful. I asked if he wanted something to read and went to his bookshelves to see if there was something light a98nd fun — an old favorite, perhaps — to while away the languishing hours on the couch.… more

Worm Loves Worm

March 3, 2016 2 Comments

I finally had a chance to read one of my new favorite picture books—Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian, illustrated by Mike Curato — to a group of kids. It was Valentine’s Day — the kids were making valentines, learning origami, and listening to love stories read by moi. My mistake was trying to call them away from the origami and stickers and scraps by saying: Hey kids!… more

A Walk in the Woods

February 18, 2016 2 Comments

I tend to win things. Not always, of course…but if there’s an “enter to win” offer that shows up on Facebook and I don’t mind the sponsoring party having my email or mailing address (usually they already do), I enter. I’ve won concert and play tickets, music, dinner, and books this way. I think maybe not many other people enter.… more

Little Peggy Ann McKay

February 4, 2016 No Comments

“I might have instamatic flu,” said the young girl as her mother checked her in at the doctor’s office. “Let’s hope not,” her mother replied. Instamatic flu. Instamatic…flu…. The words bounced around in my head. “My mouth is wet, my throat is dry…” the girl said in half-hearted sing-songy voice as they took a chair in the waiting room.… more

Bambi

January 21, 2016 10 Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill When I was 16, my aunt gave birth to twin boys. We did not see them nearly often enough as they were growing up (we were separated by several states), but the memories I have of those boys when they were little are clear in a way they are not with regard to my other cousins.… more

Tales from Shakespeare

January 7, 2016 No Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill One of my favorite classes in college was a Shakespeare class. It was well-known, well-loved, hard to get into, and mandatory for all English majors. It organized my life the semester I took it. The rhythm it dictated was this: Arrive at class on Monday having read the assigned play and accompanying critical literature. Inspiring lectures on Monday and Wednesday on the week’s play.… more

The Nativity

December 24, 2015 9 Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill It was my job to read to the children. There were many other stations — crafts and coloring, games and songs — all built around the most important task of the morning: The Trying On of the Costumes for the Christmas Program, which was to be held later that afternoon. I had my own little nook.… more

Red Reading Boots: Lucia Morning in Sweden

December 10, 2015 8 Comments

This week is full of preparations at our house. Lucia Day comes on Sunday and our household’s Lucia wishes to make the Lussekatter buns this year. I’ve learned not to stand in her way — she cannot be deterred. The magic of St. Lucia was introduced to our family fourteen years ago. It was a difficult December for us and our dark days were in need of some light and love, which was provided by some dear friends who arrived on our doorstep in the very early morning, waking us with song, candlelight, and a scrumptious Swedish breakfast feast.… more

Red Reading Boots: The Tapper Twins

November 25, 2015 No Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill I’m generally a reader of “traditional novels,” by which I mean novels that have chapters with titles, paragraphs with grammatically correct sentences, and perhaps the occasional complementary art under the chapter number. I’m intentional about expanding my horizons and reading graphic novels, hybrids, and the like…but I still have to be intentional about it, I’m afraid.… more

Judy Blume

November 12, 2015 No Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill I had the extraordinary fortune of seeing Judy Blume a few weeks ago. I was going to say “seeing Judy Blume in concert” — that’s sort of what it felt like, actually. She’s a rock-star in my world. And she was interviewed by Nancy Pearl, no less, so the whole event felt like I’d won a prize and been dropped in A Dream Come True.… more

Keeping Track

October 15, 2015 No Comments

I’ve not kept track. Not really. I mean, I can peruse our many bookshelves and make a sort of list, but it would be missing things. What about all the library books we’ve read together? I was in a book discussion earlier this week with a woman who keeps A Reading Journal. She writes as she reads — notes and quotes, questions and lists, impressions and recommendations, etc.… more

Mouse and Bear Books

October 1, 2015 2 Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill When I plan a storytime, I always plan for the kiddos first and foremost. But I do like to give a nod to the grownups who have brought them when I can — something they’ll “get” at a different level than the kids, a treasure they might remember from their own childhood, a book that will make them smile or laugh. The Mouse and Bear Books by Bonny Becker, illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton, are always an inspired fit.… more

The Berenstain Bears

September 17, 2015 2 Comments

Last night, I was reminded of our family’s love of The Berenstain Bears books. (Happy Sigh.) Before I go any further in my homage, please understand — I’m not claiming these books are stellar literature. I’m just saying that we read a lot of Berenstain Bear books at our house once upon a time, and we loved, loved, loved them.… more

Brambly Hedge

September 3, 2015 1 Comment

by Melanie Heuiser Hill
When they were little, both of our kids had a fascination with anthropomorphic mice. One actually had a set of imaginary mice friends who preceded us into anxiety producing situations, of which there are many when you are a small child. These benevolent mice (who had names, specific jobs, and amazing vehicles of transportation) went ahead and checked out weddings, Mommy-and-Me music class, doctor’s offices, campsites, kindergarten, etc.… more

Enola Holmes Mysteries

August 20, 2015 No Comments

by Melanie Heuiser Hill The summer’s roadtrip is behind us — a wonderful vacation had by all. We were in two cars this year due to different destinations at the start, but we met up for the second half of the week. The car my daughter and I drove was equipped with several audiobooks. The boys neglected this detail, probably because they were packing for survival in the wilderness.… more

Mockingbird…

August 6, 2015 1 Comment

by Melanie Heuiser Hill We are talking a lot these days at our house about Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman. As a family we listened to To Kill A Mockingbird, narrated by Sissy Spacek, last summer on our vacation. Everyone in the car was riveted to the story…but both of the kids will tell you they really didn’t like it.… more

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