Lynn: “It was a quiet morning at preschool until Adelaide annoyed Bailey.” An escalating alphabetic chain reaction follows right up to the drenching moment when Zelda zaps Adelaide. Miss Mabel asks Adelaide to apologize and soon calm returns to the school as everyone settles in for story time.
Bottner’s delightfully droll disasters are cleverly captured by Michael Emberley’s illuminating illustrations, executed excellently in pencil and watercolors. Each sequential scene is seriously sidesplitting. Readers will love watching the merry mayhem multiply. OK – sorry – the book seems to be infectious! This little gem is a hoot, clever and funny and each illustration rewards repeat reading. Oops – I’m doing it again.
Our focus group who consider themselves waaaay to old for alphabet books loved this one anyway and I think it is going to become a family favorite. Ack – I can’t stop. I’m handing this off to Cindy before I’m permanently alliterized!
Cindy: I’ll tell you what’s annoying…returning from a busy ALA conference, tired and jet-lagged, and waking up to find out that Lynn expects me to be creatively alliterative in this post. Both bloggers being bouncy is too much for me this morning. I think she is nattering nervously on Newbery fumes! :) And as I flip through this book’s precocious pages again, this book is sounding much like the annoying adolescents in my middle school who are in serious need of a snow day to regain their calm. Or maybe they just need a spray with a watering hose and then a story hour. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Cindy: As I write this, Lynn is winging her way to The American Library Association Midwinter Meetings in Dallas…propelled as much by excitement and nerves as she is by Delta Airlines. Her 2012 Newbery Award deliberations start tomorrow and I am left behind to work for two more days before I can leave town and be ready to cheer for all of the award winners early Monday morning. I’ve had a little taste of some of the fun to come, though, as we completed our Mock Newbery at one of my middle schools this week.
We had a small group of avid 6th grade readers who worked the last couple of months to read as many titles as they could in a short list that we compiled from starred reviews and late year buzz. Their winner was Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar). They cited the characterization and humor as strengths. They selected just one honor book, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Candlewick). They admired the plot and the imbedded stories that helped Conor process what was going on in his life. They also think the Caldecott committee should be considering the illustrations. I like the way these young teens think.
Lynn also worked with another group, 5th graders at Waukazoo Elementary with their librarian, Lori Marco. They read from a slightly different short list of books with some overlap and they don’t want the book club to end with next week’s announcement. They selected a winner and four honor books. Their top choice was Masterwork of a Painting Elephant by Michelle Cuevas (Farrar). When we blogged this book in September I wondered “WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?” Famous last words…of course a group of bright, well-read 10-year-olds would appreciate its magical realism even if they are unfamiliar with the literary term! Their four honor books were The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens (Knopf), Toys Come Home by Emily Jenkins (Schwartz & Wade), Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan (Atheneum), and…drum roll please…The Other Felix by Booklist‘s own Keir Graff (Roaring Brook). We hope Keir has his Mock Newbery Honor acceptance speech written!
Lynn and I love making Best of the Year lists, as long-time Bookends readers know, but we have given that up this year while we are both serving on major award committees. Please comment here and let us know what YOU would choose for the Newbery before the announcements are made on Monday morning. And then you have another week or so to let me know what your favorite YA titles are before my deadline to select the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA Literature. The shortlist for that will be announced later in February. Stay tuned.
Cindy: I love when I find a nonfiction book that does something new. Music informational books are few and far between considering how much music means to teens. Of course, by the time you purchase and process a Justin Bieber biography, it seems there’s a new kid on the block so it’s hard to keep up. The names may change, but many of the instruments stay the same, and school bands are here to stay, budget cut worries aside. So, I was jazzed when I got my hands on Raggin’ Jazzin’ Rockin’: A History of American Musical Instrument Makers (Boyds Mills 2011).
The eight-chapter book gives the history of some of the most famous names in instrument history including: Zildjian cymbals, Steinway pianos, Conn Cornets, Martin guitars, Ludwig drums, Hammond organs, Fender electric guitars, and Moog synthesizers. Each chapter starts with a teaser about the musician who invented the famous brand, like Avedis Zildjian in 1623 Constantinople, a metalsmith who was given his last “cymbal-maker son” name by the Sultan who admired his work or 8-year-old William Ludwig whose father wanted him to play the violin rather than the drums. His father was a professional trombone player and “didn’t think drumming required serious musical skills.” Eventually Ludwig’s passion for drums won out, but not until he had worked through a variety of “real” instruments. Many of the musicians found a unique way to improve the instruments they loved and some could not contain their creativity and spawned side inventions. Did you know that Larry Hammond of electric organ fame also invented 3-D glasses, and less popular, an electric card-dealing bridge table! There are great family photos to illustrate the chapters.
The book also gives sidebar information with photos, diagrams, and period advertising about the instruments themselves, and about famous legendary musicians who have played them. No Justin Biebers here, but you will find the likes of Eric Clapton, Buddy Rich, Ringo Starr, and George Gershwin.
The chapter about C. G. Conn of Elkhart, Indiana, strikes a personal chord with me. In addition to Conn manufacturing cornets, the C. G. Conn Company became the oldest continuous manufacturer of band instruments in America. I lived just down the street from this factory and later we’d moved across the state line to Michigan but I bought my flute from them when I joined the school band and took it there for service. The company played a big part in encouraging school bands, including founding the Conn National School of Music in Chicago to be the first “band teacher” training school in the country.
Lynn: Stiefvater kicks off The Scorpio Races (Scholastic 2011) with one of the most attention-grabbing sentences of the year:
“It was the first of November and so, today, someone would die.”
Find me one soul who could put the book down after that opening! Stiefvater doesn’t make it any easier to stop reading after that either. First she creates and describes a place so vividly that atlases will be consulted. Secondly she develops characters who thrust their way into our hearts. We KNOW these people and we can’t stop thinking about any of them – from the main protagonists right down the the most minor secondary character. And then there is the plot that maintains a sense of mounting dread and an urgency that never flags.
Thisby Island is a stark and brutal place. The humans hang on but life is a battle every day. Not only are jobs scarce – the young people are fleeing to the mainland in droves – but basic survival is always in doubt. The sea takes it’s share of of fishermen and travelers but it also holds an unusual threat. The waters around Thisby teem with fierce water horses, the capaill uisce, carnivores who lunge from the waves to prey on the unwary and terrorize the island on storm nights. For the brave hardy souls who can capture and control them though, there are riches to be had. Larger and faster than horses, the capaill uisce, are used for the legendary Scorpio Races in November that draw throngs of enthusiasts to the island. The purse is fat and winning it can mean having a future but the risk is huge. In November people die racing on the beaches of Thisby, killed by the very creatures who carry them. The narrative alternates between two young racers, Katherine”Puck” Connolly who races to save her house from foreclosure and keep her brother from leaving the island, and Sean Kendrick, 4-time winner of the Scorpio Races. Sean races to buy the capaill uisce he loves from the greedy owner he works for and to start his own stable. Fiercely independent and determined, Kate and Sean fall in love and their relationship both strengthens and weakens their chances of winning.
As romantic as it is terrifying, the story crescendos to a heart-pounding finish that is both powerful and satisfyingly right. I listened to this on audio while I exercised and the terrifically crafted story and outstanding production was responsible for keeping me walking on that miserable treadmill for MILES longer than I usually do. My heart and blood pressure thank you, Maggie Stiefvater!
Cindy: I’m not a “horse girl” so I had shied away from this book in my pile, but I could not ignore the mounting starred reviews, best of the year lists, and praise I was hearing about it. Stiefvater’s story is just what I needed this cold, cruel January. Puck is a contrary girl who won my affection, although she probably could care less if she got it or not! This is a horse story, but so much more. Puck riding her small bay on a dangerous beach with carnivorous horses in a race in which no one wants a girl to compete may be the main event, but the story that takes us there is well worth the ride. The pace of the tale follows the pace of the race…a slow start…some daring moves, some tragedy, and a furious race to the finish.
I am so very tired of paranormal romances that I could go all “Puck” on you just thinking about it. But this one is fresh, unique, and the setting of Thisby is a character as surely as Puck and Sean and the fabulous cast of secondary characters are. The relationship between Puck and Sean develops in a natural and satisfying way. I care about these people. If you’d like a real treat (besides the one waiting for you in the pages of this novel), head to Stiefvater’s website. There you’ll find a fabulous photograph slide show of Maggie on location researching her setting. The photos of the cliffs and rocky narrow beaches are stunning. And there’s a book trailer with Stiefvater’s artwork animation and her own music you can use to promote the book with your teens. Did I mention the recipe for Maggie’s November Cakes? Lynn improved her physical health and I’ve improved my mental health–I’m in a better mood already just thinking about this atmospheric well-written book.
Cindy: This morning when I saw this video it had 310 views. I emailed Lynn to ask if she’d seen it and said we need to blog this but we were both busy today. This evening as I write this, the video has over 74,000 views and will be climbing. But you can’t miss this, Bookends readers, so at the risk of repeating something you’ve seen on Facebook already, take two minutes and check this out. The Type bookstore in Toronto spent several weeks after hours staging and filming this fabulous tribute to the magic of real books. Take a look:
Lynn: I KNEW it! This is the reason I can’t find the books I’m looking for! They get up and dance around the room when we are sleeping.
Cindy: Paper or plastic? We are all familiar with that question, but I wasn’t familiar with the female inventor who gave us the machine to make a paper grocery bag. In The Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up (Tundra 2011) is a delightful picture book biography of a little known inspiring woman. The book opens in 1850 with 12-year-old Mattie buying some nails for her projects. The store owner counts them out and then rolls a piece of paper in to a cone shape and twists the bottom to make a container for her to carry the nails.
Mattie’s first invention was a stop-motion device that prevented women from being injured with the shuttle while working their looms. She was too young to register the patent and did not make any money from it, but was satisfied with the knowledge that she had helped improve working conditions for the women.
There’s plenty to get indignant about in Margaret Knight’s biography: age discrimination, sex discrimination, theft of intellectual property. You name it. By day Mattie worked in a paper bag factory, folding and gluing the flat-bottomed bags by hand. By night, she worked on a design for a machine to make this work easier (among other inventions). But after working two years and successfully designing and building the machine, she got to the patent office to discover that a worker at the machine shop had stolen her idea and patented it ahead of her. Not one to give up without a fight, she took her case to court. I’ll never take a paper grocery sack for granted again. And, while this is meant for a younger audience, it would make a great short read aloud for my 6th grade scientist and inventor unit.
Lynn: I didn’t know anything about Margaret Knight either and I’m so glad to make her acquaintance through this engaging book. Kulling leads off this entry in the wonderful Great Idea Series (Tundra) with a poem in the style of William Carlos Williams. (See our post on Kulling’s All Aboard: Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine) I love stories about smart and determined young women and Kulling’s lively text tells an inspiring story about this determined woman who “never gave up without a fight.” David Parkins’ charming illustrations are filled with carefully drawn period details and engaging humor. Each page turn reveals at least one full-page illustration in authentic-feeling sepia tones. The focus group loved this book as much as I did. They were drawn in by the humor but stayed to savor the intriguing details. An author’s note provides more information about Margaret Knight and a nice bibliography on the verso provides additional resources both in print and online. Don’t miss this really excellent book that opens the door to a multitude of curricular uses.
Cindy: Do you mind if I gush? I’ve fallen in love with the Wren family. I don’t get to read as many children’s books as I do middle school and teen books so I missed What Happened on Fox Street, the prequel to Mo Wren, Lost and Found (Harper/Balzer & Bray 2011). Readers can easily start here, but like me, they will be driven back to read the first one. Mo is almost eleven and lives with her father and younger sister, Dottie. Mo loves Fox Street and the people who live there and is devastated when her father sells their house and moves them to the other side of their small Ohio town to move in above a closed restaurant that he plans to renovate and reopen as “The Wren House.” The usual emotions in a household move and starting a new school are all in evidence by one Wren family member or another. Dottie is thrilled with her new school, new friends, and her new pet, Handsome, a lizard. Mr. Wren is nervous and excited about his new venture and the opportunity to start fresh. And Mo? She goes through many stages of grief: denial, anger, loneliness before she find her place in the new neighborhood. The theme of lost and found permeates the story in many ways in addition to the tangible (where could that lizard have disappeared to?) As much as I love the Wrens, it is the setting and secondary characters that won my heart as well. There’s Da, Mo’s best friend’ grandmother who is losing her independence and Carmella who runs the local laundromat while also “running” the neighborhood by caring for its residents and supplying the just-in-time perfect item from the Lost & Found when someone needs it. They are not alone, and the cast builds as the story continues and we know we will hear more from these new friends in the next installment. This story would make a great class read-aloud, or even a parent-child read aloud. There are many child-centric poignant and humorous moments, but plenty of lines that the adult reader will appreciate in a different way. Like this one, a description of one moment in the laundromat:
An old couple folded sheets together, stepping close and then apart as if doing a dance they knew by heart.
This is a series that I hope continues for many more books. Now, excuse me while I go track down the first book. I want to be ready for the next sequel.
Lynn: I am definitely in agreement with Cindy on this charming book. I don’t know what planet I was on last year to have missed the first book but I am tracking it down the minute Midwinter is done. There is so much I love about this book from the lovely language and images that sit so strongly in the reader’s mind to the vivid characters that feel like our own neighbors. Here are a few examples of the delicious descriptive language:
“…her sister’s fuzzy apricot of a cheek.” “Mo and this tree had known each other so long, its trunk and her spine were friends. “The sounds of E 213th St. bumped against the glass trying to get in.”
There are some lovely child-centered themes here from the impact of change to identity. Mo, who has seen herself as responsible for her father and little sister, feels adrift when her Dad becomes more involved on the home front and Dottie begins to grow up and need her less. “Your job, “says her father, “is to make new friends and work hard in school…In other words be normal growing girls.” Springstubb clearly respects her young readers and skillfully shows us how Mo struggles with this concept, trying to discover who she is as the family builds a new life in a new place. Mo, and all the characters, are painted with a sweet humorous insight that rings true and strong. Here’s hoping there are many more stories to come.
Lynn: I’m reading for Newbery this year so I’ve gifted myself with only an occasional upper YA book and most of them have been on audio. Few have shaken me as much as Mal Peet’s newest, Life: An Exploded Diagram (Candlewick 2011). When brilliant narrator Simon Vance (Brilliance 2011) read the last sentence, all I wanted to do was tear home, grab the book and start reading it again, this time to savor the language, ponder the connections and howl at the moon. Peet, as always, pays scant attention to conventional wisdom, breaks most of the YA thou-shalt’s and creates a book that rocks the socks off readers.
Beginning with a birth during an air raid and ending with the planes flying into the World Trade Center, Peet’s scope is at once wide ranging and narrowly focused. The book is told primarily by the adult Clem looking back at his first world-exploding discovery of sex and love against the backdrop of the unraveling British class structure and the Cuban Missile Crisis. His relationship with upper-class Frankie would have horrified both sets of parents so their stolen time together had to be planned like a battle campaign. Focused entirely on each other, Clem and Frankie are oblivious to the larger world where other battle campaigns are in motion. An unseen narrator alternates with the lovers’ intensely personal moments, revealing in scathing caustic fury, just how close the world came to having the button pushed by madmen. I was 13 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Peet’s writing brought back my sense of helpless infuriated terror like it was yesterday. This is a book that is tender and terrifying, that whispers sweetly and shouts in anguished anger. Life and death, love and war – we humans are inescapably formed by the impact of both forces – and Mal Peet explores this theme with as explosive a power as I have ever encountered. Is it conventional YA? No, but thoughtful teens will connect with the passion and the honesty in these pages.
Cindy: I, too, listened to this book…and pardon the pun, I was blown away. I’ve been delayed writing my portion of the blog because I am dipping into the hardcover and keep getting sucked into the story again and again. But here’s a shot at it. The book opens with endpapers illustrated with an exploded diagram of a rocket and English teachers could have a blast (sorry) with that metaphor alone for a week. The story is divided into three sections: Putting Things Together, Blowing Things Apart, and Picking Up the Pieces. The chapter titles alone are worth the price of admission:
The Heartbroken Nazi
A Wink in the Barley
The Girl Who Ate His Heart Bums a Smoke
You Learn Nothing About Sex from Books Especially If They’re By D. H. Lawrence
The Limited Opportunities for Obtaining Contraceptives in North Norfolk in 1962
The Shifty Word Standstill
Lynn has mentioned many of the strengths of the book so I’ll take another tack. I want to address audience with this book as I’ve heard some rumblings that it is an adult book masquerading as a YA publication. I will agree that Life will appeal to adults and it would make a great book club selection. Angelina Benedetti, author of the Booksmack “35 Going on 13″ column for LJ, listed it among the Best of 2011: YA Books for Adults and it certainly deserves a place among those other titles on her great list. I acknowledge that the adult sensibilities of the grown Clem looking back on his life will be offputting to some who like their YA lit to be completely teen-centric (exit adults stage left in Chapter One) but most high school students are regular readers of adult literature and we often underestimate their interests, capabilities and predilections when we assume we know what they want to read. I have many strong 8th graders reading and enjoying Mal Peet’s Tamar, another complex historical fiction with teen and adult characters and this story will appeal to those readers who have moved on to high school. Do teens shy away from Stephen King novels like Pet Sematary with their adult sensibilities? No. The bulk of the novel is set during Clem’s teen years and his decision to try to get Frankie to “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” is appropriate and that tension alone will keep some teens turning the pages. In between those steamy pages is a rich story full of metaphor, meaty themes, and gorgeous writing. It’s an exploded diagram of life with all of its longing, sadness, love, humor, regret, indifference, anger, power plays and all the rest of the emotions that make us fully human. Don’t miss this one. Carpe diem! Pluck the day…or better yet..pluck this book off your nearest library or book store shelf.
Cindy: I’m still digesting carbs from all the cookies I’ve consumed in the past week, but I am also chewing on the Cover Story blog post over at Booklists’ Book Group Buzz blog. Neil Hollands asks us to think about book covers that trigger memories or are iconic. I left a comment there this morning about how any Nancy Drew or Little House cover will take me back to my long days of childhood reading. I remember the settings of my favorite reading places…on a blanket under a maple tree in our side yard was a favorite. But the post this morning sent me to a special book case to retrieve The Silver Nutmeg by Palmer Brown (Harper & Brothers 1956).
This was a book that I checked out of my elementary school library a thousand times….give or take. Just holding it is a treat, paging through to see the intricate tiny drawings…bliss. Anna Lavinia’s father thinks she needs to have a wider point of view, so to help her, he cuts a hole in the stone fence…she throws acorns in Dew Pond but is amazed when they are thrown back at her from the water. Toby is throwing them and he takes her to a new land…and her horizons are broadened.
Anyway. Seeing the cover of this book (and the charming illustrations inside by Palmer) takes me back to Eagle Lake Elementary School library and librarian Jean Ducey…where I got my first library job as a fourth grader. The images on my e-Reader screen will never be as memorable. And some good news? While looking for information about this book, I stumbled across this “upcoming release” note…it looks like Random House is bringing this back in April 2012. Calloo, callay! (And, apparently I missed the Oct. 2011 reissue of the prequel, Beyond the Pawpaw Trees. I’ve never read that!)
Lynn: Our family celebration just ended. There were 12 of us here for 4 days ranging in age from 91 to 18 months and it was wonderful even if my grandsons and I were sharing pink eye. Anyway Cindy’s question came as I was starting to restore order to a much-too-quiet house and I immediately thought of a very special book – or actually a SET of books. (Cindy will tell you I can never stick to a number limit) My grandfather purchased a set of books called My Book House edited by Olive Beaupre’ Miller for my father when he was born. He gave them to me when I was old enough to treat them carefully. There are six volumes and I adored them. The set is a collection of classic fairy tales, legends, myths, poems and songs and I read them over and over again. The set was published in 1920 so it was pretty fragile when I shared them with my sons and now, 91 years old and going strong, the books are loved also by my grandsons. We are working our way together through the stories and sometimes while we sit together with the books, I get such a lump of emotion I can hardly read! The pages are a little yellowed and have to be turned with care but the stories are still enchanting. Just the sight of that green binding and gold lettering is enough to bring back a feeling of a hot summer day, the slightly scratchy fabric of my reading chair and the blissful certainty that I held magic in my hands. Sigh! It’s a treasure I’m hoping to hand on.
So…what cover art triggers a strong memory in you?
Lynn: “Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock,” is a rhyme most of us know from childhood. Even in today’s too-busy-to-read-world at least some nursery rhymes are passed along to children. Nursery rhymes have never been as much fun though as in Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists (Roaring Brook/First Second 2011). Face it, nursery rhymes are sometimes pretty strange but in the hands of these creative people we get a fresh new take on them. There are many familiar rhymes like Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle, and Rock-A-Bye Baby but there are also some I’ve never encountered before such as I Had a Little Nut Tree and Yon Yonson. Some of the treatments are sweet and some definitely on the weird side but ALL of them are fun. Rhymes get 1-3 pages and the book is in full glorious color.
Leonard Marcus provides a thoughtful introduction concluding with this wonderful observation:
“From each of the artists’ efforts gathered in this collection we come away not so much knowing what to think about this or that rhyme as realizing that there is no end to where our own thoughts might take us, given only the chance.”
Teachers – what a great way to kick off the start of the New Year! Put this fabulous book on the visual presenter as it opens doors to so many paths for classroom discussion from the tradition of oral storytelling, to analysis of story arcs, to the value of divergent thinking – just to name a very few. Then ask students to create their own comic of a nursery rhyme, folk story, fable or historical event. Fun for all ages of readers!
Lynn: “It was a quiet morning at preschool until Adelaide annoyed Bailey.” An escalating alphabetic chain reaction follows right up to the drenching moment when Zelda zaps Adelaide. Miss Mabel asks Adelaide to apologize and soon calm returns to the school as everyone settles in for story time. 
Cindy: As I write this, Lynn is winging her way to The American Library Association Midwinter Meetings in Dallas…propelled as much by excitement and nerves as she is by Delta Airlines. Her 2012 Newbery Award deliberations start tomorrow and I am left behind to work for two more days before I can leave town and be ready to cheer for all of the 
Lynn also worked with another group, 5th graders at Waukazoo Elementary with their librarian, Lori Marco. They read from a slightly different short list of books with some overlap and they don’t want the book club to end with next week’s announcement. They selected a winner and four honor books. Their top choice was 
Cindy: I love when I find a nonfiction book that does something new. Music informational books are few and far between considering how much music means to teens. Of course, by the time you purchase and process a Justin Bieber biography, it seems there’s a new kid on the block so it’s hard to keep up. The names may change, but many of the instruments stay the same, and school bands are here to stay, budget cut worries aside. So, I was jazzed when I got my hands on 
Lynn: Stiefvater kicks off 
Cindy: Paper or plastic? We are all familiar with that question, but I wasn’t familiar with the female inventor who gave us the machine to make a paper grocery bag. 
For more 
Cindy: Do you mind if I gush? I’ve fallen in love with the Wren family. I don’t get to read as many children’s books as I do middle school and teen books so I missed 
Lynn: I’m reading for Newbery this year so I’ve gifted myself with only an occasional upper YA book and most of them have been on audio. Few have shaken me as much as Mal Peet’s newest, 
Cindy: I’m still digesting carbs from all the cookies I’ve consumed in the past week, but I am also chewing on the 
Lynn: Our family celebration just ended. There were 12 of us here for 4 days ranging in age from 91 to 18 months and it was wonderful even if my grandsons and I were sharing pink eye. Anyway Cindy’s question came as I was starting to restore order to a much-too-quiet house and I immediately thought of a very special book – or actually a SET of books. (Cindy will tell you I can never stick to a number limit) My grandfather purchased a set of books called My Book House edited by Olive Beaupre’ Miller for my father when he was born. He gave them to me when I was old enough to treat them carefully. There are six volumes and I adored them. The set is a collection of classic fairy tales, legends, myths, poems and songs and I read them over and over again. The set was published in 1920 so it was pretty fragile when I shared them with my sons and now, 91 years old and going strong, the books are loved also by my grandsons. We are working our way together through the stories and sometimes while we sit together with the books, I get such a lump of emotion I can hardly read! The pages are a little yellowed and have to be turned with care but the stories are still enchanting. Just the sight of that green binding and gold lettering is enough to bring back a feeling of a hot summer day, the slightly scratchy fabric of my reading chair and the blissful certainty that I held magic in my hands. Sigh! It’s a treasure I’m hoping to hand on.
Lynn: “Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock,” is a rhyme most of us know from childhood. Even in today’s too-busy-to-read-world at least some nursery rhymes are passed along to children. Nursery rhymes have never been as much fun though as in