Red Reading Boots - Page 3 - Bookology Magazine

Old Bear

September 18, 2014 4 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about our family’s obsession — I mean love — of Christopher Robin’s Silly Old Bear. Our family also has a deep and abiding love for Old Bear by Jane Hissey and I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about it. We’ve found that too many people do not know about these delightful books.… more

Winnie-the-Pooh

September 4, 2014 2 Comments

There are a lot of “challenges” happening in the social media sphere these days — books, ice buckets, kindness, gratitude, etc. All great things — perhaps one of the better uses for social media even, though it doesn’t quite beat out birthday greetings and first-day-of-school pictures, in my book. Last week, a good friend and fellow reader “challenged” me to list ten of the books that have shaped or stayed with me in some way.… more

Just Like A Baby

August 21, 2014 2 Comments

I’m missing a dear friend who died very suddenly this past spring. Liz was old enough to be my mother and my kids’ grandmother. She loved to give gifts and had an almost magical way of doing so. Her taste in books for kids was exquisite and she always found the most perfect, most unique books for us — books I’d somehow never seen before.… more

On Flower Girls

August 14, 2014 No Comments

A year ago this weekend, I had the honor of officiating at the wedding of dear friends. They’d planned a grand celebration — organ and trumpet, dramatic readings, fantabulous attendants, family and friends, and not one but two flower girls. In my experience, flower girls and ring bearers increase the “chance element” in a wedding ceremony.… more

Kuplink, Kaplank, Kuplunk!

August 7, 2014 5 Comments

We missed strawberry picking, and therefore jam making, this year. We were in the mountains, a dandy excuse to be sure, but now we’re in a bit of a pickle (no canning pun intended). We have a strong homemade jam habit at our house, and last year’s bounty is dwindling. We’re trying to figure out how to get jam of some variety in the freezer in the next few weeks.… more

We Need Longer Picture Books, Too!

July 31, 2014 3 Comments

I’ve just read yet another article about the new length of picture books. Some say publishers won’t even consider publishing a picture book over five hundred words anymore. Others say they should be under three hundred words. Why? Inevitably, the shorter attention spans of children are cited somewhere in the reasoning. Rubbish, I say! As a frequent storytime reader in various venues, I can tell you that children will sit (even the ones you think won’t) for quite a long time for a good story well read.… more

Harry Potter

July 24, 2014 9 Comments

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book in the Harry Potter series, came out a few months after Child #1 was born. In my sleep-deprived stupor, I didn’t notice for awhile; but it quickly became difficult to be a citizen of the world and not know about Harry Potter. Suffice to say, the first four books were in the house by the time that baby boy went to school, which is when and where he found out about Harry and friends.… more

This Vacation’s Audiobooks

July 17, 2014 2 Comments

Many have asked what our family listened to on vacation this year. We have recently returned and I can now report back. We had a lot of hours in the car — Minnesota through the Black Hills and into the Tetons and up through Montana etc. And back, of course. Good to have three drivers. Good to have three stellar audio books.… more

The Ruby in the Smoke Audio-book

July 3, 2014 2 Comments

In our roadtrip/vacation van there are four very different readers — different interests, different reading interests, varying attention spans, etc. In addition to these differences and variances, the kids are five and a half years apart. Finding a book that keeps everyone entertained and is appropriate for all ages can be a challenge. Two years ago, The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman fit the bill just fine.… more

The Borrowers (audio book)

June 26, 2014 1 Comment

One of the first books we listened to in the car was Mary Norton’s The Borrowers. We had one child and he was very small. But he’d been well-trained on audio books. He fell asleep to The Velveteen Rabbit (Meryl Streep and George Winston) or Winnie-the-Pooh (The BBC version) every night. So we popped in the tapes (yes, cassette tapes — this was a good fifteen years ago) to The Borrowers on a trip to Bloomington, Illinois to visit friends.… more

Audio-Books: A Three Week Series

June 19, 2014 6 Comments

‘Tis the season for vacations and car trips. Our family is heading out soon for a good long drive to the mountains. I’m no further in the preparations than thinking about which recorded books we might take on our journey. (This is easily one of the most important decisions of any trip we take.) I asked for requests at dinner last night, which resulted in a trip down memory lane of past vacations and the books we listened to in the car.… more

Pulling Radishes, Thinking About Books

June 12, 2014 5 Comments

In the garden this week I am pulling radishes. Weeds, too, and maybe that’s why I appreciate the small, crisp, spicy little radishes. Pulling those rosy red globes out of the black dirt makes me think of one of my favorite books from childhood: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. I have especially vivid memories of my third grade teacher reading us the Mrs.… more

Fevered Reading

June 5, 2014 No Comments

Let me be very clear. I do not ever want my kids to be sick. We’ve had run-o-the-mill childhood sickness and we’ve had serious sickness — I don’t like either kind. I would wish only good health, happiness, sunshine, and lollipops for my children and the children of the world. And we are fortunate and grateful to have excellent health care and, generally, very good health.… more

Touching the Reading Spot

May 29, 2014 No Comments

About a year ago, I found myself at weekly appointments with a speech therapist who specializes in functional breathing difficulties. I was dealing with some breathing and voice issues and my allergy and asthma doctor thought I might benefit from “relearning to breathe.” The process was fascinating — we worked on posture, word lists, tongue placement, swallowing, different kinds of breaths, etc.… more

An Ode To Beeswax

May 22, 2014 No Comments

Back in the days of small children and little money, I regularly saved pennies for The Best Art Supplies that could be found. I’d read something terribly inspirational about giving your children real art supplies: gorgeous colors and textures that would help them produce fantastic works of art even if all they did was scribble, pummel, and spill.… more

The Privilege & Responsibility of Reading in Bed

May 15, 2014 No Comments

The indomitable Gertrude Mueller Nelson gave our family the ritual of Birthday Privileges & Responsibilities. Each birthday our kids receive a scroll of paper festooned with ribbons. Inside, in the fanciest (and hardest to read) script our printer can manage, we have ceremonial language awarding the birthday child his/her next year’s Privilege & Responsibility. We started this on their respective third birthdays, at which time they each received the privilege of using markers in addition to crayons…and the responsibility of washing off any marker that accidently found itself on the craft-table.… more

The Miss Rumphius Challenge

May 8, 2014 3 Comments

Henry was a regular. He was in afternoon kindergarten and he and his nanny had the mornings free to come to the storytime I did at the indie bookstores near his home. He was older than most of the other kids — a very wise and erudite six years. His eyes were black and luminous, his curls dark and unruly, and his brow furrowed when he thought deeply, which was the only way he thought.… more

Seussical the Musical!

May 1, 2014 No Comments

Darling Daughter has discovered the stage. She is in her first musical this spring and is having a ball. Ninety-four middle schoolers (with help from some wonderful teachers and staff, of course) are valiantly putting on Seussical. I say valiantly because it is a big project. It’s really a mini-opera — very few lines are not sung.… more

Of Knitting and Books and Tattoos

April 24, 2014 No Comments

I met her while knitting. She worked at the children’s bookstore next to the yarn store I frequent. I was knitting with the usual group gathered around the table at the yarn store when she came in. “Cat!” my tablemates called out that day. (I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know if she spells it with a C or a K.… more

My Son’s First Book

April 17, 2014 1 Comment

Seventeen years ago today, I became a mother. My water broke in the middle of the night and I called my husband, who was working the night shift, to come and get me. It was time. I was ready. More than ready. I had a bag packed with slippers and the new bathrobe my mother had given me, along with wee little onesies and sleepers for the long-awaited baby boy.… more