Ten writers for children. All with something to say.

5/19/09

What to Read First?


Last weekend, my wife and I went to Portland, Oregon, for a late Mother’s Day getaway. While there, we visited the art museum, attended a play (“Uneasy Chair”) at a small theater, and of course spent a couple hours at the justly famous Powell’s bookstore.

Earlier in the week, I had compiled a lengthy list of “sale” books from the Powell’s website, after which I culled the list through online research of reviews, then made a revised “must buy” list to take with me. The upshot? I bought 20 books for just a little over $60. What a score!

Now, the inevitable (enviable?) problem: what do I read first? My haul ranged from chapter books to young adult titles, though most were middle grade level. I spent Sunday night reading first chapters, trying to decide, and finally settled on Horns and Wrinkles.

An engaging narrative voice, an immediate air of mystery and suspense, a dose or two of humor, a sympathetic main character in an interesting situation—it’s all there, and it hooked me. I would tell you more, but I need to sign off and read another chapter before I start working on my list of chores for the day….

5/18/09

Reading list

My present reading list contains titles such as Contemporary Linguistics, Language Development, and How Languages are Learned. Pretty exciting stuff if you're a Noam Chomsky or B.F. Skinner fan.

But I did just buy a book that's not on my assigned reading list. It's called haiku mind, and in glancing at it I see haikus by Jorge Luis Borges and Jack Kerouac. Kerouac's haiku is quite lovely:
The taste
of rain
- Why kneel?
The simplicity of the haikus and commentary is refreshing amd relaxing. And the best part is that I can read it without having to worry about being tested on the key points!