Reading Warriors

As good parents, we encourage our kids to find their own path, their passion, that thing they love.  But, all along, we're hoping that that thing will just so happen to be the same thing we love.

For me that thing is reading and that's one of the passions I'm rooting for for my kids.

Although he'll listen to books all day, my son has always leaned a little towards the reluctant end of the reading spectrum.  He reads quite a bit, but mostly because I require it.  He does it more dutifully than enthusiastically.

There have been bursts of enthusiasm over certain books, mostly those in a series.  I remember Dav Pilkey's Ricky Ricotta books as being the first series he requested over and over

He later showed some inclination toward The Magic Treehouse series

and The Secrets of Droon.

He read these with more eagerness than usual, but those tell-tale sign of a reader in love were not there...the reading into the night, the toting of books to places books don't belong (e.g. baseball practice), the suspension of all other interests.

But this year his cousin recommended the Erin Hunter's Warriors series to him, and I began to see book-wormish signs.  From the first book, he began clamoring, begging, and wheedling for these books and was devouring them in short order.

What?  You want another Warriors book so soon???  Sure, son, I'm happy to comply, you chip off the old block.

Jeopardy!

I've been obsessing a little about Jeopardy! lately (I'm going to dispense with the exclamation point now).

First, there was the Battle of the Decades pitting the best against the best from the last 30 years.  For the May finals, I mostly cheered for the guys from the end of the third decade.   As a johnny-come-lately fan of the show, my personal favorites, Stephanie Jass, Keith Whitener and Kristen Morgan, were all from the 2012 season.

None of them made it to the finals, which left me cheering for the newer guys who were left--the guys I formerly loved to hate, Colby Burnett and Roger Craig.  Colby Burnett won me over when he told that he bought his mom a house with his winnings and Roger Craig won me over with his fool-hardy gutsy wagering in the finals.  Although Ken Jennings was before my time, I cheered for him most of all.  I found his Opie Taylor looks and lisp endearing.  And, of course, he has the brains.  One cannot forget the brains.

We all know how it turned out.  None of my guys won.  It was that Brad Rutter.  Ugh.  Still.  So fun to watch!

Then there was Julia Collins, the one with the second longest winning streak after Jennings, who ended her run yesterday.  It was fun to see history (Jeopardy history anyway) being made.  I watched 20 of her 21 episodes.  As the shows progressed, she didn't really make that strong of an impression because her style is rather low-key.  She's sharp but shy.  Reportedly, she was too tongue-tied to pass the auditions in a previous attempt to be a contestant.  Shy girls unite!

I'm somewhat inspired to invest in a crew neck sweater in every color in her honor (maybe a few nice necklaces too).  I was so sorry to see her streak end.  Now I have to wait for her Tournament of Champions appearance, which will hopefully end in a show-down with the other 2014 standout, the infamous Arthur Chu.

Presidential Biographies: Washington and Adams

I have half a mind to read a biography of all the U.S. Presidents.  Knowing myself, I expect to accomplish much of the goal, but since, to me, reading biographies is something of a chore, it's not likely I'll finish.  I have, however, recently read two:  His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis and John Adams: A Life by John Ferling.

His Excellency: George Washinton

The Ellis book focused on the inner Washington.  It was more of a character study than a comprehensive story of his life.   Ellis expounded on Washington's bravery, self-possession and innate ability to lead leaving no doubt Washington was a man born for his time.  It would seem he was the ideal individual to lead the Continental Army and to serve as the first president of a fragile, new nation.

John Adams: A Life 

Ferling's book was much more thorough.  As I read the Adam's biography, I was struck by both the contrasts and similarities between Washington and Adams.   There were, of course, physical differences--Washington was tall and muscular while Adams was short and rotund.  While relatively uneducated, Washington rose to his position because of the competency he demonstrated in leading and fighting during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War.  Adams, on the other hand, was highly educated and earned his place in history primarily by sheer brain power.  As a statesman but never a soldier, Adams' weapon was his tongue.

There were many similarities as well.  Neither were instigators of revolution.  They were a little slow to come around to the idea of independence from Britain.  However, once they embraced it, both sacrificed the majority of their adult lives to the cause.  Although both ambitious, they were also men of principle who put the nation's best interests ahead of their own.


Of all I read, what leaves me pondering the most are the peripheral players in the Washington and Adams' sagas:  Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.  These two are treated differently by Ellis and Ferling.  Ellis describes Thomas Jefferson as the 'original snake in the grass' (I don't have the benefit of having the book anymore, but I'm fairly certain he used those words).  He was the forerunner of today's conniving politicians using underhanded means to promote his own interests.  Ellis' treatment of Hamilton was more favorable.  He did describe him as smart, ambitious and powerful, as the key advisor to Washington, but he didn't cast him in a negative light.

Ferling, on the other hand, makes Jefferson a comparatively benign political player.  Certainly he was mentioned as John Adam's opposition in the 1800 election, and their idealogical differences were explored.  However, Thomas Jefferson was NOT portrayed as the villain by Ferling.  To Ferling, Hamilton was the villain.  He was Washington's puppet-master, he was an unprincipled blackguard, he was the reason Adams lost the second election.

The difference in treatment helps me to see that these biographies are subject to interpretation and bias.

Incidentally, David McCullough's biography of John Adams did treat Jefferson as a treacherous individual.  Although it's been several years since I read McCullough's book, I don't recall similar descriptions of Hamilton.

My interest in both Jefferson and Hamilton is definitely piqued.

I'm Looking Over...Clover

Oh, what a beautiful morning here in Oklahoma.  In this state, there may not be a better time to spend out of doors than a morning in May a few days after a three-inch rain.

I have spent the last hour and a half hunched over a row of onions carefully removing clover from between the bulging bulbs.  Earlier this spring, we got another truckload of horse manure from our cowboy friend.  I'm happy to report that Mr. Forrest's horses are frolicking in fields of clover.  The clover has been reconstituted and iswas  thriving in our little garden.

Gardening is so great for so many reasons.  Not least among them is the happiness to be gained from sticking your fingers in soil that gets compacted under your finger nails.  Removing clover plant after clover plant really gets that Art Mooney song playing in my head.  My mom used to play it on the piano.

Anyway, we got the onions planted a little too close to get a hoe between.  Since they weren't easy to get to, I'd pretty much yielded to the weeds until I saw my dad's Missouri garden this week.  He's roughly twice my age with a garden 20 times as big and there was hardly a weed to be seen in the entire thing.  It shamed me..

Fortunately, it got me digging in the dirt...a by-product of which is pure joy.

Childhood of Famous Americans

When I was a kid my book of choice was typically fiction leaning toward The Black Stallion, Nancy Drew, or the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series, but in school we were required to read some non-fiction, too.

For non-fiction, I gravitated toward two series.  The first was a series of natural science books about the life cycle of various mammals.  Each book followed the same formula:  the baby was born, the baby was raised by an attentive mama, the baby was mercilessly kicked out on its own into the wild.

The second series I enjoyed was about well-known Americans and focused on their childhoods.  They were fast-paced yet informative, always ending before the subject's adulthood.  I still remember that section under the front window of the library where these were located.  Here's an example:

Fast forward 30 years to when I'm a new home-schooling mama trying to find my way, diligently studying my new copy of The Well-Trained Mind, using it as a guide for how to give my children a strenuous education and consulting its book recommendations to direct me toward the good books.

In the book recommendations, I noticed several references to a series described like this:

"Written on a third- to fifth-grade level, these imaginative biographies in the Childhood of Famous Americans series focus on the childhood of each subject.  Highly recommended."

No libraries in my whole county carry these books, so over the past five or so years, I've been diligently combing used book sales for this series.  I've even purchased a few new ones that were specifically high-lighted in the Well-Trained Mind or those about baseball heroes that I knew my son would enjoy.  This year, my son has read books from this series on Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson, and I read a couple aloud three years ago when we last studied American history.

It was only as I was preparing again to cycle into American history for the 2014/2015 school year, that I realized these books collected by me over the past several years:

are my old buddies made-over with shiny new covers.  It is a case of literary serendipity.

Reunited. And it feels so good!  They're as good as ever and ready for a new generation.

Book Club 2014

Last night was book club night!  I love book club night.  Only partially because I don't have to cook.

It's also the company.  At the local Lone Star seven of us sat around a table eating subpar food and discussing two books:  Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster and A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. The former was the more popular of the two.  In fact, I was the only one who even liked the second.

Our club started in September 2008 after a couple of us bookworms were talking at our kids' play date.  We've met every month (except for two or three) ever since.  We've grown from three members to about 12, if everyone makes it.  We're not a very diverse group.  We all have similar backgrounds and belong to the same church.  Our main disparity is our ages.  There's about a 50-year swing between the oldest and youngest member.  There are also differences in taste.  As the group grows it gets harder to please every one.  It's also challenging to choose books that are appropriate.

Here's our book list for 2014:

January - The Giver by Lois Lowry

February - Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

March - True Grit by Charles Portis

April - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

May - Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilot by Diana Wallis Taylor

June - Life with Father by Clarence Day, Jr.

Little Britches by Ralph Moody 

July - Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly

August - Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole

September - Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

October - The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

November - A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

December - I'm Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

Transitions

Yesterday's "I-cannot-tell-a-lie Cherry Pie"

It's 70 degrees outside and my daughter is asking if she can start wearing shorts.  I reminded her that  there's still a month until spring...ample time for more winter weather.

This winter has proven to be a little more wintery than most.  The more stalwart of the daffodils that sometimes start blooming right about now are still a no-show, nary a leaf poking out of the ground.  I checked this morning, and the hellebore still looks the same as it did a month ago.

And while winter is not over, I think it is safe to say that the transition to spring has begun.  There is this 70-degree day for starters and the wind, oh the wind.

There was also a raucous robin making a racket outside my window this morning.

Basketball officially ended on Saturday.  Baseball practice starts on Friday.

We're practicing Irish fiddle music with more diligence, getting ready for St. Patrick's season.

My son is hacking and coughing and sneezing and sniffing.  Could it be true that spring pollen is in the air?  Or does he just have a cold?  I wonder.

Ah yes, and the looming tax deadline is really starting to make my blood pressure to spike.  It's not all pleasant.

These signs all point to spring.  I've enjoyed the extra-wintery weather, but my windows need washing and I could definitely benefit from some sunshine.  However, I think we'd better leave the shorts stored a way for a few months longer.