BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKS!

That's Just Pretend

Several times lately while reading her books (especially Corduroy Goes To The Doctor on the page with all the children playing with toys in the waiting room) Julia will take her foot and push it against the page. She gets very frustrated and starts kicking harder and harder with the bottom of her foot. Finally I asked her, "Are you trying to get in the picture?"

"Yep."

"Well, honey, that's just pretend. You can't actually get into the book."

And then she puts her foot down and continues reading.

Movin' Along

Two of the books I had on hold arrived at my local library yesterday. So this morning I left Dave with Julia (both asleep), returned two of the books I had checked out the other day (I'm still working my way through the biographies) and picked up:

• Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds by Susan Gregory Thomas
• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

This first was recommended to me by a good friend of mine (with a fairly similar parenting style) and the second I picked up because I loved the author's first book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

More Books ...

It was library time again here at the Bouldin House. I'm trying to be very responsible and not accrue any more fines. So Julia and I took our books back and checked out some more to keep us busy. And since it's cool now to post what you're reading ...

Julia:

• The Subway Mouse by Barbara Reid
• Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems
• Flotsam by David Wiesner

Joanna:

• My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
• The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
• Tears of the Giraffe by Alexandar McCall Smith

Thank you, Dolly Parton!

That's right! You read that correctly. The Bouldin House sends out thanks to Dolly Parton. She of country music singing fame started a program back in 1996 called "Imagination Library." Here in Knox County, the Imagination Library partners with the Knox County Public Library. We signed Julia up as soon as we got home from the hospital. That means that from now until she turns five years old, Julia receives a brand-new, age-appropriate book in the mail every month. FOR FREE!

Yesterday, Julia's first book, The Little Engine That Could, came in the mail. (This is the first book that every child signed up for the program receives.) While she wasn't all that interested in it right then, I'm sure she'll enjoy listening to us read it to her and then reading it herself.

The Imagination Library is available in 90 of 95 counties in Tennessee and has spread to other communities in thirty-six states as well as on up into our friendly neighbor to the North, Canada. Last year the program mailed out over 2 million books to over 200,000 children! That's a program that warms my book-loving heart! If it is not available in your community, there is a link on the website with information on how to get it started.

Books

I ordered two architecture-themed board books for Julia the other day, and they finally arrived: Architecture Colors and Architecture Animals by Michael J Crosbie and Steve Rosenthal. These are two in a series of four board books that use architectural elements to introduce basic concepts. Books + Architecture = Perfect for Our Julia!

Reading through the books, I thought the author took the easy way out in Architecture Colors with his "Brown Brownstone" reference, but I loved this poem in Architecture Animals:

Turtle
He hasn't budged yet
With grimace so solemn
A load-bearing turtle
Whose shell holds a column.

I totally steal these ideas from other blogs ...

I loved looking at this photoset on Flickr from a woman comparing a 1963 and 1991 version of Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever. It is interesting to see how the illustrations have changed with the different editions. I wonder what version my brother and I read growing up. Richard Scarry was one of the first authors I added to The Peanut's wishlist at Amazon. I remember searching through all the details for Gold Bug. A much more difficult task than finding Waldo.

Even when I can't read, I read

When I was in either middle school or high school, my mom decided to try something new (not an unusual occurrence). This wasn't the time she cooked a roast of lamb rather than one of beef for Sunday lunch. Nor was it the time she decided to stencil the border around the bonus room. Nor was it the summer she attempted to limit my brother and I to 30 minutes of TV a day. This was the family vacation she decided we would listen to a book on tape rather than the radio during the car ride. She ordered a Mrs. Pollifax book (by Dorothy Gilman ... I don't remember who it was read by) from Recorded Books and introduced us to the world of audiobooks.

A world I enjoyed, but have largely ignored since then.

Until about a year ago when I saw the audible.com website mentioned in several articles within the space of a couple of weeks. Being behind the times, this was the first I'd heard about it. I eventually visited the website, began browsing through their selection to choose my two free trial listens, and knew I was sunk. By the end of the hour, I had a 54 item wishlist. I signed up for the Premium Listener plan (now called the AudibleListener Platinum plan) and started working my way through my list at the rate of two downloads per month. Since they keep adding great books to their site and I keep adding them to my wish list, after 8 months with audible.com, I now have a 73 item wishlist.

Problems I've run into:

1. Deciding whether to download books I've never read or getting as many old favorites as I can.
2. If you download one book in the series, should you go ahead and get the others?
3. Not being able to skip to the end to see how everything turns out. I freely admit to doing this all the time with printed books. I want to know if the characters I like are going to die. I try not to with mysteries since it ruins the story, but I usually end up reading the solution about one-third of the way through the book.

Good things I've discovered:

1. Not being able to skip to the end of the book.
2. Not being able to skip descriptions. I hate descriptions. In Junior English, no one could understand why I liked The Grapes of Wrath until I explained that I skipped whole chapters of nothing but descriptions. It's much more difficult to skip them in an audiobook, so I have to listen to the WHOLE book. This leads me to ...
3. I have to pay attention when someone else is talking. I say the words, "I'm sorry, I got lost. Could you repeat that?" too many times in conversations. My mind tends to wander. I tell myself that the audible.com subscription is helping me become a better listener. Does that qualify as a tax write-off?

Out of all the books I've listened to, my favorites so far are

Stephen Briggs does an amazing job narrating these two books. Sure, the story is great "with witty dialogue and a wacky cast of characters....A funny and thought-provoking fantasy, with powerfully visual scenes and characters that remain with readers. A glorious read." (School Library Journal) blah, blah, blah. I picked up the paperback version at McKay's and flipped through looking for my favorite scenes. They just didn't have the same punch. The Nac Mac Feegle's "Wailey! Wailey! Wailey!"s, Wentworth's "I want sweeties!", and Granny Aching's advice about The Chalk should be heard, and Stephen Briggs does an amazing job. I downloaded The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents because it had the same narrator. I'll start that one next week.

I also enjoyed listening to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. The story is what caught my attention. I haven't heard of any other novels told from the perspective of an autistic fifteen-year old boy. The narrator did a great job, but I would think the story would have just as much impact if you read the book. Although, I did learn how to pronounce "Siobhan."


I chose this book out of all the other fantasy on my wishlist not just because I enjoyed reading The Thief Lord and Inkheart, but because Brendan Fraser is the narrator. A fact which should give a small hint as to the decade in which I spent the majority of my formative years. He can make his voice incredibly squeaky. He does a fabulous job doing the different characters voices.


This one mom told me about. She and Dad listened to all three of his novels and really enjoyed them. I did, too. Set mainly in South Carolina, Jay moves to town from Dallas and is advised by his real estate agent as to the best place to meet women: church singles groups. So he heads to church. The book is funny without being mean.


I don't even know why I picked this book. I can't remember. I'm glad I did. I've listened to it twice so far and will probably listen again. Loved it. I still don't understand how teenage guys come up with so many stupid ideas that they think are smart.