Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Raising Brave Irenes

There are no Brave Irene costumes for sale at the Disney store. There are no little girls dressed in a hodgepodge of old drab winter clothes carrying around large cardbox boxes and exclaiming, "I'm Brave Irene!" In an era where pretty in pink trumps a bookworm, there's little chance that young girls will spend their pretend time imagining they're Brave Irene.

That's because the story of Brave Irene focuses on what this brave little girl does, and not on how she looks. Written and illustrated by William Steig (he of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, a childhood favorite of mine), the adventurous story of Brave Irene is one of fortitude and determination and independence.

Brave Irene is a bit of a fairytale, in that it thrusts its young main character into a precarious situation, alone. Irene Bobbin, whose mother is a dressmaker, learns that her mother is too ill to deliver the beautiful gown she's just sewn for the duchess to wear to a ball that night.

Undeterred, Irene resolves to deliver the gown to the duchess by herself while her sick mother stays home in bed. So out into the freezing winter landscape goes Irene, clutching the package containing the exquisite gown. 

The journey is not easy. Snowflakes are falling. It is cold. A fierce wind blows the dress right out of the package. Clutching the now empty box, Irene tumbles and falls, twisting her ankle. The weather worsens. Yet the strong willed Irene trudges on through the deepening snow. Finally, as night falls, a weary Irene sees the palace in the distance, its lights all aglow, the ball about to begin. Irene knows she has almost made it but how will she explain the missing gown, made wayward by the angry wind? But she has not time to think before she falls off a little cliff and gets stuck once more in the snow.

The journey seems like a miserable failure, a tale gone horribly wrong but then plucky Irene manages to free herself from the snowbank! Using the box as a sled, she slides down the snow covered hill, the wind chasing her, and arrives at the palace doorstep, without the gown, but with herself intact. Irene frets about how she will explain the missing gown to the duchess. Such bad news to break... and then, there pinned to a nearby tree by the wind, Irene spies the missing ball gown.

She is warmly welcomed by an appreciative and incredulous duchess and her cheering servants. Irene tells her tale and then explains that she must get back to her sick mother at once. No, says the duchess, stay here, stay warm and have a nice supper and we will bring you back by sleigh the next morning.

The duchess and her guests go on to have a fabulous ball, with Irene invited to join them as a special guest. The folowing morning, they drive Irene back home by horse drawn sleigh and plop her into the waiting arms of her very worried mother. 

Along with gifts of candy and cake, is a note from the duchess, saying that Irene is a brave and loving person.

So go read Brave Irene to your children. I can tell you that through the entire story, I did not really focus on what it was Irene was wearing (oh, a scarf, a coat, tights, boots, a skirt in the drab, practical style of a frontier girl, say) but I can tell you all the things that Irene did.

You can discuss the story of Brave Irene with your children. Point out the many times it seemed as if Irene might have just given up but didn't. Point out some of the words your young kids might not know, amusing words such as "yodeled" and what the author meant when he wrote, "...the wind yodeled." There are rich vocabularly words in Brave Irene - pick them out and have fun with it. Discuss how Irene might have felt being alone in the snow. Explain to your children what it means to set a goal. What were Irene's goals? You can even dig further and explore class differences (Irene and her dressmaker mom versus the duchess and the upper class) in history.

Irene Bobbin is more of a heroine to me than any Disney princess (ok, well, I do like Belle and her love of books). Those princesses may have their pink gowns, but Irene wears bravery like royalty.

Let's celebrate more of what our children do, and not what they wear or how they look.

 ------

I was given the CD/book set Brave Irene to review. I thought I might use this as an opportunity to promote a book with a valuable message particularly to girls in this era of gender stereotyping. As we'd already had the book in our library, and we'd once rented the audio CD, this new CD/book set will be donated to our school library. The audio CD is performed by the inimitable Meryl Streep, whose interpretation of this book will have your children absolutely mesmerized.

 

 

The Second Grade Book Exchange

Sometimes, I do not set the best parenting example. My son received a book during his second grade classroom's holiday book exchange. It was a board book. A search and find board book, the type my kids might have had when they were toddlers.

What he received:

The only rule for the gift exchange was that books had to be under 5 dollars. We headed over to Hicklebees and bought paperbacks for $4.99. My sons picked a book from the "Franny K. Stein" series which they thought would work for both boys and girls.

I was impressed. Here was a story about a GIRL with an independent streak who makes potions and likes bugs!

My boys picked out this book, my boys.

What we gave:

Book exchanges are challenging because the book's recipient is a mystery. What they like to read, what they've already read and what they're capable of reading is an unknown.

So I thought this book would be perfect, it shows a girl doing something. And she's not playing with dolls or putting on makeup either.

We put a lot of thought into purchasing this book, but then again, we are book people. We love to read.

When my son came home with the bargain bin (it had the Big Lots clearance sticker on it) Search and Find: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall book, I just couldn't help but be disappointed. There are plenty of quality books out there for less than five dollars.

My other son came home with a Magic Treehouse book which we already had but which is a safe bet for this age group.

When I saw the Search and Find board book, I was disappointed. I snapped, "Give it to someone else in your class." I wanted people to know that he'd gotten a crappy gift.  I wanted to shout to the other mom, "Hello! There are 8 and even 9-year-olds, not toddlers!" Heck, even the classic Goodnight Moon with its beautiful words and illustrations would have been a better choice.

My son, on the other hand, managed to keep his disappointment at bay. He didn't let it show in class, which is hard to do when you're seven. He told me, "Mom, I can't bring the book back, that would embarrass the girl who gave it to me."

Well, yeah. That's the point.

I was modeling some very bad parenting behavior and my son was having none of it. He got a crappy book and that was that. He'd moved on.

I won't even re-gift the book, it's so bad.

I might not be proud of my behavior but I am proud of my son. Even when I gave him license to complain about the book, he didn't.

We talked about gifts and appreciation yada yada but when Christmas came, the boy twice was unable to mask his disappointment (shoes! a finger printing kit to share with my brother!) so clearly, there's still work to be done.

Still, if you're thinking of giving a search and find board book to a typically developing second grader, don't do it. Opt for a Magic Treehouse book instead.

Dude, it's Count Olaf!

"Dude, you dropped something," said my almost 7-year-old son, helpfully.

I look over and see that my son is speaking to... a baby. The word echoes in my head, "Duuude" and yes, the tiny dude in his father's arms has indeed dropped something - a tiny toy.

"That was nice of you to tell him," I say, cringing a bit, "but you really shouldn't call babies 'dude', ok?"

"Sure, mom, " he promises.

But I hear it more and more, the word dude dropping into conversations.

I heard it on the first day of school last year when his  teacher addressed her male students as dude. So how could he not pick up on the word? It's  everywhere.

My boys love a good potty mouth talk. Get a bunch of same-age boys together and it quickly devolves into a racous laughter about "farts" and "stinky diapers" and it all makes me want to vomit (vomit! hahahahaha!).

Fortunately, to counteract the dumbing down of my boys' language skills, we are reading A Series of Unfortunate Events. I read it to them every night, usually a chapter or two and sometimes more if we have time. My boys are enraptured by this series, hopping into bed every night imploring me to read, read, read! (We read it just before bedtime, you know, to stir up crazy dreams about Count Olaf.)

A friend denounced the books, saying it was too down and depressing. But I say children love to read books in which children have resolve and cleverness. It is a dark book but my children don't scare easily.

Cheese Touch!

The little first grade girls were glancing over at me, then snickering. "Do it, " said one. More snickers. I didn't see the crossed fingers until it was too late.

"Cheese touch!" she said quietly, for we were in class, in centers.

When the laughter settled down, I knew I was done for but I wasn't sure why.

"You didn't protect yourself, like this!" said another girl, crossing her fingers.

Against my better judgement (for we were in class), I cheese touched her back but she said, "No, I'm protected" and lifted her arm to show that her fingers were crossed.

Darned grammar school games. What the heck was cheese touch?

Soon after, my own sons started tagging me. Cheese touch! Cheese touch! I have to admit this is the kind of game I would have loved when in grade school.  We played cooties and after we'd touched someone to pass it on, we'd "spray" ourselve for protection. I've been trying to cheese touch my boys, but they always claim they were protected. I even have pictures of my kids that show, if you zoom in, that they've got their finger crossed, just in case. The other day, I displayed my crossed fingers to my friend's 10-year-old daughter who immediatly crossed her fingers and giggled.

Oh, I do think it's funny! Can I be in grade school again? We should do a virtual game of cheese touch, kind of a like a Rick Roll.

It wasn't until today that I found out that the game of cheese touch was made popular in the book series and film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I've exposed my boys to a lot of big kid films and books, but surprisingly, I thought to wait the Dairy series out only because my boys don't need to add any more big kid naughty words to their vocabulary.

I've got the cheese touch now. I stink. So beware if I'm near because I just might pass it on...

Original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

 

Balloon Books Dot to Dot 1 to 50 is full of Euro style Ones

A friend's kindergarten son recently whizzed through a 0 to 100 dot to dot. I used to love doing dot to dots as a child. My sons rarely do dot to dots but occasionally, their interests change so I decided to thrust a dot to dot book in front of them.

(I have a whole drawer of activity books ranging from mazes to Taro Gomi coloring books to Star Wars sticker books to plain sketch pads. And the whole lot of it goes with us on road trips.)

One of my sons was keen to get going on the dot to dots. He was sitting on his grandma's lap and she was relishing the extra snuggles she was able to squeeze in while he honed in on connecting the dots.

Then suddenly, he stopped, tripped up by the number 7. The 7's were everwhere - or so it seemed. Grandma and I took a look. 

The book we had was called, Balloon Books Dot to Dot Count to 50 and all the dots inside were numerically ordered like this:

 7 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 70 77 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 20 ... 50.

MY CHILD WAS CONFUSED.

I imagine if he were to have continued, the end picture would have been a very interesting interpretation of a seal, a bear, a goat, etc.

This book was littered with Europeans ONES which of course my child thought were SEVENS. Heck, even I would have had to do a little switcheroo in my head to remind myself that a "1" looked like a "7" and a "7" was a "7" with a strike through.

That is confusing for an American 1st grader attempting to do a dot-to-dot picture.

The cover of the book did not show the European style numbering so I didn't notice anything was amiss at the time of purchase.

I can't believe the buyer for Barnes and Noble (I bought ours at the Stevens Creek Barnes and Noble) would even think to put this book on their shelves.

What a waste of money. Being that I can't find the receipt, I guess I'll hang onto the book so that I can teach my kids the Euro style 1 so they can impress their friends.

Do me a huge favor and do not buy this book, unless of course, you're European or you'd like your child to learn the Euro style 1.

If Alice Teakle were on Four Square

This post was inspired by the novel, "Following Polly" by Karen Bergreen. "Following Polly" is a featured selection of the virtual book club, From Left to Write, founded by Linsey Krolik.

Alice is a shy and quirky Harvard educated 30-something woman who walks through the streets of New York City as if shielded by a two-way mirror. She sees the details in the everyday, noticing everything yet is not noticed herself. Oblivious to her own beauty, she prefers to be the fly on the wall, barely noticed.

That makes Alice the worst candidate for social media addiction. It's not her style to draw attention to herself. It's not her style to connect with a network of people from past and present. Alice is not on Facebook, she doesn't tweet and or update her location on Four Square. She rarely has her cell phone at hand.

Alice spends her days following people. She follows Polly and Charlie and Rosalie and William Redwin. Hours fade to days and there she is, waiting. Stalking.

If only she'd had an iPhone!

Certainly, the glamorous and showy Polly would have had a Facebook fan page for her lingerie business, Principessa. Would this have been enough to get Alice to join Facebook and become a fan of Principessa?

She and Alice might have even been Facebook friends, with Polly never noticing that she is Alice's only "friend."

The fan page would likely have listed important upcoming events which Alice might have duly noted. Then perhaps Alice might not have spent so many hours waiting in the cold.

What would have happened if Polly had been addicted to Twitter or to Four Square?

Then Alice might have known at once when Polly had checked into a Chinese restaurant. She would have known the name of the restaurant and could have even passed the time reading its Yelp reviews.

She wouldn't have had to follow these people on foot; it could have been a virtual pursuit.

What if Alice had used her camera phone to find clues? She could have studied the photos in detail at home, memorizing faces.

And in true Alice style, she would have checked in on Four Square as soon as she'd seen Polly check in. She would have left a trail.

Alice prefers to live her life in what Four Square calls "off the grid" and I applaud her character for that. She finds love in the end with someone who sees beauty in her unconventional ways. Alice Teakle may be quirky, but she is genuine.

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm a big fan of understated beauty. The dust jacket illustration of "Following Polly" bothers me because the woman on the cover is not the Alice as I imagine her to be. Alice Teakle would never wear such bright lipstick or fashionable sunglasses.

Polar Express and Wild Horse Winter: Same illustration?

I was in the middle of reading the somber but captivating book Wild Horse Winter by Tetsuya Honda to my sons when Chalk Boy suddenly ran out of the room, returning after a few moments with the holiday favorite, Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. He flipped through the Polar Express until he found the page he was looking for and held it up next to the  page of the book I was reading and said, "See mom! It's the same!"

He was right. Look at those trees!

The two illustrations look remarkably similar. I wonder if the two author/illustrators went to art school together?

In any case, both illustrations draw us in, making us feel mist clouds upon our cheeks and each book will remain a family favorite for long time.

Top illustration, Polar Express

Bottom illustration, Wild Horse Winter

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

Bookstores: Toys :: Libraries: Video Games

When I go to the bookstore, I expect to see books. Likewise at a library, I expect to see...books. No surprise there.

Imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner at a local Barnes and Noble bookstore and saw not just books, but row upon row of toys. My first thought was that this could be a very convenient thing. I could shop for books and toys under one roof! I liked that the toys on the Barnes and Noble shelves were more or less educational toys, the types usually sold at small, independent toy stores. There were wooden toys and science kits. I saw Play Mobile and Lego sets. There were even LeapFrog products. Score!

But then when I looked past the toys, the books my children and I had so loved seemed to have receded into the background, defeated by not only the competition from digital books but also by toys. The picture book section is smaller than the plush animal section, smaller than the magazine section and smaller than the scrapbook supply section.

I don't like seeing my beloved books slip away. My boys will likely bypass books in favor of toys. I'm sure even the Star Wars DK Readers series could not compete with a Star Wars Lego set.

Good for a struggling Barnes and Noble. Not so good for me.

When I take my kids to the bookstore, I want to show them books, not toys.

A 360 Look at Neverland

When I was a little girl, I had recurring dreams of flying. I still remember that incredible sensation of flying while holding my magic box. Yes, in my dreams, I had a magic cardboard box which I would hold onto and soar above my home and over the suburban landscape of my childhood. I wish I could still have that dream. I never have dreams like that anymore.

My boys, like most children, dream of flying. They've done their share as Wright Brother wannabes, flapping their arms in descent from the couch. They've worn capes and outstretched their arms. They've leaned belly first over swings, soaring over a sandbox, imagining flight.

When I see that, I smile because that's what you should be doing as a child, dreaming of flight.

I had no idea what to expect when we were invited as part of the From Left to Write Book Club to experience Peter Pan the Show in San Francisco. I loved the story of Peter Pan as a child. I've seen the Disney movie, of course. But the only theatrical interpretation of the story I knew was the one with Sandy Duncan. I love musical theater and any mention of Peter Pan sends the I'm Flying lyrics into my head.

I always thought it was odd that Peter Pan never seems to be played by a young boy. It was always hard for me to get past the lady-as-Peter-Pan thing. In the San Francisco show, it's no different, but it's closer. Peter is played by the likable Nate Fallows, a young actor not too far out of boyhood himself, but still, well well beyond a 10-year-old boy. We'll never likely see an age appropriate boy play the part of Peter Pan because there's just too much liability in all that flying about over the stage.

Chalk Boy at the De Young

Whenever my children express an interest in something (besides Star Wars), I love to just run with it. It's like the window of opportunity is wide open so I make that interest our theme du jour, especially if it's something that interests me as well. The other day, while looking through our bookcase for something to read to my boys, I came across a long forgotten book I'd had since way before kids, when I first fell in love with France.

The book, Linnea in Monet's Garden, is a favorite of mine and while I wasn't a child when I read it, I wanted to be that child, that child who gets to go to France and see art and paste a city map of Paris into a scrapbook.

Then, of course, many years later, I became a mother of boys. I shoved the book way in the back of our bookshelves, behind the Harry Potter and the Mercy Watson and the Magic School Bus. Linnea has a lot of text so I thought it might be a bit of a tedious read to my boys who love Star Wars and who don't, at the moment, like to read books where the protagonist is a girl (with the exception of Princess Leia and Hermione, of course).

Chalk Boy was all mine for story time one night (his brother was reading with dad) and so I pulled out the book, expecting him to give it the thumbs down. But Chalk Boy was game.

So we read the book, with Chalk Boy engaged the entire time. After he went to bed, I planted the Tiny Folios edition of the Great Book of French Impressionism amongst his bathroom reading (yes, we have a basket of books in the kids' bathroom) and opened it to the pages showing Monet's Japanese footbridge.

The following morning, Chalk Boy came running with the book in hand. "Look what I found!" he said, smiling, showing me the pictures of the footbridge. "It's just like in the book we read last night."

I love manipulating my children.