Belle of the Book

Elephant Ironing by Katherine Whitney

The reading party here at Belle of the Book is about to get rocking again. Things have always been a bit too static on these pages, so it’s time to make it more fun for everyone—including me—to visit.

The decorations committee is now in the capable hands of the extremely talented Katherine Whitney. The art shown here is part of a collection of handmade cards Katherine created for Mingei World Arts in Decatur, Georgia.

These whimsical creatures enlivening their everyday activities with books were exactly the kind of party animals I needed to meet. Katherine’s art inspired me to ask her to create original art for Belle of the Book and got me to focus again on why motivating kids to read is so important.

Your invitation to the new Belle of the Book is coming soon! In the meantime, please let me know what kind of reading fun, ideas, and resources for reading activities and events you’d like to find here.

Now that I’ve been a mother for nearly 13 years, I’m finally starting to identify—somewhat—with the grown-ups in children’s literature.

You are what you read, so I think that as a mom, I am in part product of all the moms I met in the books I read growing up:

• Part Max’s mother in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, I’ve yelled at my kids and sent them to their rooms.

• My own less furry version of the quiet old lady whispering hush in Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. When my youngest was adjusting to his big boy bed, he wanted me to sit with him until he fell asleep. I obliged and kept sitting there long after he fell asleep.

• Slight sprinkling of Almanzo Wilder’s mother from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farmer Boy. I’m industrious, but not nearly as industrious as Mother Wilder.

• A bit Mrs. Hatcher from Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. As the oldest sibling in my family, I had to agree with Peter that his mom let Fudge get away with too much. But now from a mother’s perspective, I totally understand her mistakes and appreciate more her willingness to admit them.

• Part Quimby. Beezus and Ramona’s parents who showed me characters more like my own parents, especially in Beverly Cleary’s Ramona and Her Father, with a full-time working mom (like my own mother) and a dad at home (though my dad was unemployed by choice—a devoted househusband).

• A little like Mama in Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind-Family. I’ve especially tried to borrow from her gentle and creative ways to motivate kids to do their chores. Though I’ve also found myself borrowing from Jennifer’s mother in The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge.

• A tad Marilla Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables adoptive mother. Something in me thinks I need to hold back my sense of humor to keep the kids in line. And my children will verify I’m not here to spoil them.

• Careful not to be the moms in Paula Danziger’s The Cat Ate My Gymsuit or The Pistachio Prescription. Even at age 11, I could see the angst these mothers generated in their daughters was something to avoid.

• Big Witch from Patricia Coombs’ Dorrie series was always off to some important witch meeting and it made an impression that Dorrie was impressed by this. Big Witch could be a witch and a mother and even if that meant leaving Dorrie alone with Gink sometimes, she always came back.

There are also so many books where the mother doesn’t have the biggest role in the story, but you can tell by the heroics of the son or daughter that she knew how to raise a brave, resourceful, creative child. Those are the moms that make up the bulk of me as a mother. My kids are in my life story, but they’ve got their own to write too. I hope I can step back and give them just the right amount of space to explore and thrive.

I’m sure that now I’ve started thinking about this, lots of other titles and characters will come to mind. Any come to mind for you?

Sharing books in the great outdoors is a simple and wonderful way to celebrate Earth Day. While you’re out with your young readers, take the opportunity to note and discuss things that need changing or improving to help protect our planet.

This conversation can be helped along by the books you read together. Some good choices to read aloud are:

• Tomie de Paola’s I Love You, Sun, I Love You, Moon will help very young readers appreciate the earth and all its wonders. Or try one of Tomie’s latest books, Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise.

• The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynn Cherry is a beautifully illustrated book that will give you lots to talk about from ecosystems to endangered species.

• Loree Griffin Burns offers some real down-to-earth science about dealing with ocean debris in Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion.

And don’t forget The Lorax. I recently wrote a new set of family reading activities for Reading Rockets centered around two classic books: Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax” and “Tell Me, Tree” by Gail Gibbons. Suggestions for this Lorax family reading adventure include journaling up-close observations of trees, creating your own tree identification book, writing or recording your own tree tale, or celebrating Earth Day (and National Poetry Month) with a community “poetree.”

Delightful Children’s Books also had some excellent suggestions for Earth Day reading with this post:  Celebrate Earth Day with These Children’s Books. This Earth Day blog meme from the Sage Butterfly should generate some interesting recommended reading as well.

Myself, I’m interested ideas for reusing and recycling books that are beyond passing on to other readers. Check out this library information desk at Delft University made from recycled books or these beautiful book purses by Rebound Designs. Let me know about other cool uses for books that you’ve seen.

Happy Earth Day!

I’m Rachael Walker and for the past twenty years, I’ve been working to get kids, families and educators excited about reading.  To me, every day is a party when you are reading.  I thought with this blog, I could be the life of my own reading party, or the belle of the book!

I’ve put on quite a few big reading parties for national literacy campaigns, like NEA’s Read Across America and National D.E.A.R. Day.  I have organized both a reading rodeo and a reading beach party. I have scrambled and served green eggs with the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.  I’ve encouraged a U.S. Supreme Court Justice to talk like a pirate.  I’ve covered an auditorium floor with bubble wrap for hundred of kids to hop on pop.

I also put together ideas for reading parties at home, like the activities you’ll find in these Family Literacy Bags at Reading Rockets.  Farms is the most recent Family Literacy Bag I authored.

And I’ve had a tremendous amount of fun with books and my own children, holding Winnie-the-Pooh breakfast picnics, driving our own Magic School Bus and making loads of oobleck.

At Belle of the Book, I’ll be sharing ideas for reading fun and good resources for parents and teachers.  I’ll also recommend children’s and young adult books and maybe even review a few.

Drop by this reading party and share your own ideas for reading fun whenever you can.  In the meantime be sure to hold plenty of reading parties of your own.  Every day is a party when you read!