If you were lucky, someone likely came along at some point in your life and set you straight--leaving in their wake a person who might have otherwise traveled a different path. A less interesting path. Or maybe just a less inspired one. And if you were especially lucky, this person came along when you were … Continue reading Jessica Wakefield, Paula Danziger, and me
Tag: Children’s books
“I’m gonna send your vote to college” (or 2nd grade anyway)
When, during the Democratic National Convention, they paid tribute to the late Ted Kennedy, I sat down on the sofa to watch even as the chaos of the dinner and homework hour pressed on. I expected to have to ignore the crashes and whines that usually come in the wake of my getting sidelined by … Continue reading “I’m gonna send your vote to college” (or 2nd grade anyway)
Have the day you have!
Sometimes, in the course of my day, I step on the tiny little pieces of whatever my five-year-old has collected from the universe of tiny little pieces and then methodically arranged across his floor--turning his bedroom into a rigged, land-mine experience for us and our bare feet. I can’t freak out, though. I have to … Continue reading Have the day you have!
Whatever would they do without us? (More than you might think!)
A friend recently told me that she went to a bookstore looking for something new to read to her daughter. The bookseller made some age-appropriate suggestions, like --(and I know I write this a lot—it’s an epidemic)—Rainbow Fairies. My friend was not so impressed and pushed back. How about The Boxcar Children? She wondered out … Continue reading Whatever would they do without us? (More than you might think!)
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt–Be Back in Five…
We were on the road, windows down, house locked up and alarmed behind us, as if we had hung a Gone Fishin’ sign on the door. We were giving ourselves a time-out. Time-out! For too much carpooling, too much rushing, too much yelling, too much organizing, too much working. But this was no sit-in-the-corner-time-out. Nope. … Continue reading We’re Going on a Bear Hunt–Be Back in Five…
Reading Out Loud (and in character!)
Sometimes, the book itself becomes the tin-can stilts. There is no great message, no big barn-raising moment. Not even one. These books are funny. They are spirited. They are weird. And all of these things make them the books that are easiest to read, night after night, year after year OUT LOUD to my kids. … Continue reading Reading Out Loud (and in character!)
Here Is Charlotte’s Web
Dear Readers, I could write about every one of E.B. White's books and never run out of ways to read them again and again. But let’s face it. Charlotte’s Web is the ultimate tin-can-stilts book. Wilbur lifts up Fern, Charlotte lifts up Wilbur, and ultimately each and every one of us is lifted up by … Continue reading Here Is Charlotte’s Web
What is it about tin-can stilts?
I recently read my very own childhood copy of Ramona and Her Father with my 7 year old daughter only to find out why--of all the books I could have kept, all those Sweet Valley Highs, the Judy Blumes, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit--why oh why I had let those paperbacks go and held … Continue reading What is it about tin-can stilts?
tin-can stilts 