Although I expect those words can be frustrating to a parent who just wants a child to go to sleep, the words are still something that I think all parents should be glad to hear, because it means the child is reading. Not watching TV, not playing yet another level of a video game, not …
Just one more chapter before lights-out? Please? Read More »
Imagine yourself a slave in the Deep South, struggling to survive, struggling to work hard enough to avoid the driver’s lash, then you hear it. A lone voice begins to sing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” To an outsider, the slaves are just singing to keep their spirits up, but you recognize the signal. Tonight will …
When I was a child, searching for something in my room, I’d eventually say, “I can’t find it!” and Mum would come into my room, say, “Open your big blue eyes…” and she’d quickly find whatever I was looking for. In later years, she would often lament that people don’t really look at things. They …
The book title that caught my eye, and inspired this reflection on writing, is Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. Although the edition I have is the 75th Anniversary Edition, I just bought it and read it for the first time this summer while I was in Walton-on-Thames, England. It says a lot for a book …
Because the observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (one of my earliest heroes) is this weekend, I wanted to choose a book for this Perfect Picture Book Friday that would honor that, while still featuring some connection to the arts, which is the broader theme of my work and my blog. …
Ellington Was Not a Street — Perfect Picture Book Friday Read More »
The book title that inspired today’s post in my ongoing miniseries is Something to Hang On To, by Beverley Brenna (whose name has come up a couple of times on my blog this week!) The book is a collection of Young Adult short stories, on a variety of topics, some serious, including one heart-wrenching story …
I’m doing a second Wednesday Worthies post today, because this is my blog, and I get to make the rules about posting. My friend Brian Sibley, journalist, author, broadcaster, raconteur, et cetera, et cetera and so forth, adapted Mervyn Peake’s novels about Titus Groan for BBC Radio, and the series was broadcast last year. It …
Great song, sung by a man named Piers Cawley, in support of libraries — “don’t say we can’t afford it anymore”… What would we do without libraries? Is there still a place for them in our digital society? Listen, sing along, support your local library!