Caturday ~ a poem from the cat

I thank you lots 'cause I love you.

(signed)

Your fur baby

Beginning ~ with language and laughter

I heard Donald Davis tell his famous story about "The Crack of Dawn" more than twenty years ago, and I can still hear his voice.  When I saw this book written by him, I couldn't resist getting it.  This is how he gets into his subject.

It all started on a very hot day in September.  School had been in session for less than two weeks, and, as visiting author and storyteller, I was already making my third visit of the year.  The school was in Georgia, and the temperature inside the building, one of those dinosaurs from the days when no one could imagine air conditioning in schools, was at least in the high 80s, with ample humidity to hold the heat firmly in place.

I checked in at the main office and had my preliminary meeting with the school principal.  We reviewed the schedule for the day, the principal apologized for the heat, and we left the office together to walk to the library where I would be turned over the librarian, my host and guide for Visiting Author's Day.

Because of the heat, every window and door of the school was propped open, and every available fan had been pressed into service.  As the principal and I walked down the long hall, we could overhear everything that was happening in the classrooms along the way.

As we approached one particular fifth-grade room, more than the usual amount of talking seemed to be coming through the open door.  Suddenly, from inside the classroom, we heard the teacher take charge.

"Stop talking!"  Her voice rolled out from the door.  "Stop talking...you're supposed to be working on language!"

The principal and I both stopped in our tracks and laughed.

Writing as a Second Language: From Experience to Story to Prose ~ by Donald Davis, 2000, writing

From the moment they are born, we encourage children to talk  — that is, untilthey enter school, where the focus is on the written product as the sole measurement of language development.  Many children fail to measure up to established standards.  Why?

Because, Davis observes, for most of us writing functions as a "foreign language," and individuals are not capable of creating or thinking within a foreign language.  We must step back into our familiar first language — the spoken word — as our creative medium and learn to "translate" into that new foreign language called writing.  With enough success, writing will eventually become a second langauge, instead of a foreign language.

When we talk about language arts in our schools, we focus on reading and writing instead of nourishing the whole oral and kinesthetic package which is our spoken language.  David argues that talking and writing need not be mutually exclusive in language development.  In this book, he lays out the method he has used in countless residencies in schools across the United States, working with adults, teens, children, and teachers.

That discription is from the back cover.  It's a little book, relatively speaking — only 139 pages.  Yet it isn't small, since Donald Davis looms large within its pages.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Narnia and nachos

I'm not the only "bookie" in my family.  This is my nephew's daughter, whose idea of a perfect Saturday is Narnia and nachos!

Cinco de Mayo ~ Olé!

Yesterday, it was "May the Fourth be with you."  Today is Cinco de Mayo, and I couldn't resist when I saw this picture of the Sinko de Mayo.  Okay, I'm weird.  You know it, and I know it.  Moving on.  How does this have anything to do with Monday Mindfulness, you ask?  I'll try to make a connection.

Mayo and Monday and Mindfulness all start with an M.  Mindfulness is all about paying attention to what's around me.  Should I notice tacos?  Or Mondays?  Or mayo, otherwise known as mayonnaise?  If this were a foodie blog, I'd go with the mayo and talk about sandwiches.

I like my BLT sandwiches with mayo.  Sometimes toasted, sometimes not.  I also like mayo when I make most of my cheese and tomato sandwiches.  On the other hand, I prefer dijon mustard when I have swiss cheese and tomato on pumpernickel.  Do you like mayonnaise on your sandwiches?  With or without mustard?  Give examples, please.

Sunday Salon ~ elephants and books

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.


Just finished reading:

Sisterland ~ by Curtis Sittenfeld, 2013, fiction (Missouri), 9.5/10

Reading now:

The Last Policeman ~ by Ben H. Winters, 2012, mystery (New Hampshire)

Next up:

And Man Created God: A History of the World at the Time of Jesus ~ by Selina O'Grady, 2012

ELEPHANTS

The Elephant Scientist ~ by Caitlin O’Connell, 2011, children's (Namibia)

D. Fowler, a Top-50 reviewer on Amazon, rated this book 5-stars and wrote:  "One day as she watched 'the huge mammals stopping in their tracks and leaning forward on their front feet,' she had a thought.  Could they actually listen and talk through their feet and how could she prove it?"

In the sprawling African scrub desert of Etosha National Park, they call her "the mother of all elephants." Camouflaged and peering through binoculars, Caitlin O'Connell — the American scientist who traveled to Namibia to study African elephants in their natural habitat — could not believe what she was seeing. As the mighty matriarch scanned the horizon, the other elephants followed suit, stopping midstride and standing as still as statues. The observation would be one of many to guide O'Connell to a groundbreaking discovery.  This book has gotten several awards:

2012 Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book, 2012 Boston Globe-Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book, ALA Notable Children's Book, and NSTA-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book 2012.

Learn more about elephant behavior and acoustics by clicking here.

GOINGS-ON

From the coincidence after coincidence department:  Writing an email, I typed that my cat "was sitting in the window, watching the early morning goings-on outside."  It's a word I rarely use, and it's probably one I've never written in a post or a letter or an article.  After typing it, I wondered if there's a hyphen in that word, looked it up (there is), went to my blog, and wrote a story about the word for yesterday's Caturday post.  And today, someone else used "goings-on" in a Sunday Salon post.

It's the 4th of May, so let me be (probably the last) to say to you today, "May the Fourth be with you!"

Caturday goings-on

goings-on

I ran across this word, not in a book or a magazine, but in a sentence I myself was writing.  The word "goings-on" is an informal way of talking about happenings, events, and actions, especially when suspicious, open to criticism, or somehow mysterious.  And especially when the person disapproves of those things.

"The cat was sitting in the window,

watching the early morning

goings-on outside."

Though I've used the word in speaking, I don't think I've ever used it in anything (else) that I've written.

Beginning ~ in the womb

Icy Sparks ~ by Gwyn Hyman Rubio, 1998, fiction (Kentucky)

Matanni, my grandmother, said it began deep inside my mama's womb when she was pregnant with me.  Mama ate those little green crab apples that grow beside the toolshed.  She ate oodles of them, popped them into her mouth like rock candy, crunched, and swallowed one right after another until not one was left to ripen on the tree.  "Green apples ain't no baby's nourishment," she said, "but in the beginning they was all your mama could hold down."

Thirteen years ago, I bought this 308-page novel about a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950’s.  By the next day, I had finished reading it.  Maybe it was my day off, but that's a lot of reading even for me.  The book held my attention and I zipped through it, even while underlining and making notes in the margins.  I came across the book while sorting boxes of books and papers in anticipation of moving to another state, and here's all this evidence that the book really grabbed me in 2001.  Here are some teasers from what I underlined:

• "I was Icy Sparks, trapped in reality, a time which would last forever" (p. 87).
• "And so on and so on, my logic unfolded until my supply room was in perfect order, until it resembled the root cellar back home, where the canned red beets sat next to the strawberry jam and the green beans rested beside the collard greens, where every jar was color coordinated and the room was a palette of harmonious color.  Stepping back and admiring my handiwork, I knew that I had hit upon the answer.  I could organize my surroundings and also organize my mind" (p. 93).
• "Where I was born people know me, and their knowing makes me real" (p. 132).

I don't remember details of this story, and I'm not really inclined to re-read it even though I was gripped by this story a long time ago. Have you read this book?

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.