So What's Everyone Doing?

Well, I'm reading and probably should be writing but I found a good book and I can't stop reading.

This is Roald Dahl on steroids for adults. Honestly, I had no idea the book existed. And did you know he's Norwegian? Really....now that I should have known. I'm half Norwegian after all.

But seriously, the guy really knows how to write. I discovered 'Going Solo' in a Roald Dahl children's collection I had purchased to divide up among my grandchildren.

I'm embarrassed to admit I have never read the children's books he's most known for. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, to name some.

But if you like memoirs with a sense of humor that focus on the WWII period, flying airplanes, and living in Africa, Going Solo is for you!

Well, I have been typing too.... Not my own work, but my mother's memoir. I love the little miner sitting on the keyboard. He's 'panning for gold' and that's exactly what writing about a life history feels like. Mother is 93 so you can imagine there's quite a bit of life to glean from there.

But I'm back to thinking about writing for myself too, and will use this miner for inspiration. Just 500 words a day someone on Instagram posted today. Now that feels doable. My current novel is around 22k, so I have a ways to go if I'm going to reach 60k.

How about you. What have you been up to?

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

The Classics - Opening Lines: "The Marry Month of May" by O. Henry

"Prithee, smite the poet in the eye when he would sing to you praises of the month of May. It is a month presided over by the spirits of mischief and madness. Pixies and flibbertigibbets haunt the budding woods; Puck and his train of midgets are busy in town and country."    (Published 1905)



I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

A is for Alphabet Blocks: Inventions by Women A-Z

Parents have long understood the educational value of alphabet blocks in teaching their children how to read, in addition to inspiring the imagination and encouraging coordination skills as a building toy. 

Alphabet blocks are just plain fun.  

In the 19th century, alphabet blocks were found in school rooms everywhere in the educated world. Historically, some form of alphabet blocks existed as far back as 1693. The English philosopher John Locke wrote that “dice and play-things, with the letters . . . teach children the alphabet by playing,” and make learning how to read enjoyable. 

Does anyone reading this not remember playing with alphabet blocks as a child?

"Baby at Play" (Thomas Eakins, 1876)

Similar references to alphabet blocks appeared in 1798 in a book called Practical Education (Maria and R.L. Edgeworth) as "building bricks," in 1820 (U.S.) as "multi-colored blocks," again in 1837 (Germany), and in 1850 (England) as "terracotta toy blocks." 

Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (1824-1906)

But the alphabet blocks that most of us identify with today were invented by a Massachusetts woman named Adeline Dutton Train Whitney. 

Adeline was well educated and came from a well-to-do family. Her father owned a successful shipping business. After marrying at nineteen and raising four children, Adeline pursued her dream of writing. She wrote poetry and over twenty books, stories mostly for young girls. 

Adeline held to traditional values typical of her time, opposing women's suffrage and promoting the domestic role of women in the home. At age 42 (1882) Adeline patented a set of alphabet blocks constructed of wood, and officially became the toy's inventor. Her model is still used today, although they are often made with non-wood materials.

 

Sources:
http://www.aauw.org/2010/09/16/alphabet-blocks/
http://famousamericans.net/adelineduttontrainwhitney/
http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/alphabet-blocks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_block

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence and his schoolmasters called him Scrubb."    
(Published 1952)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

(Note: The Classics - Opening Lines returns in May. 

Breaking for the April A-Z)

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

The Classics - Opening Lines: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

"He lay flat on the brown, pine-needled floor of the forest, his chin on his folded arms, and high overhead the wind blew in the tops of the pine trees. The mountainside sloped gently where he lay; but below it was steep and he could see the dark of the oiled road winding through the pass." 
(Published 1940)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'" (Published 1865)

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." 
(Published 1937) 

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

The Classics - Opening Lines: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing in particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." (Published 1851)



  I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

"MY UNCLE MAKES A GREAT DISCOVERY"

"Looking back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day, I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures. They were truly so wonderful that even now I am bewildered when I think of them." (Published 1871)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

"On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York. 
Though there was already talk of the erection, in remote metropolitan distances "above the Forties," of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great European capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy."
(Published 1920) 

I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

"As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den, and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back." 
(First Published 1678)


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

National Book Awards: Young People's Literature 2014

(WINNER) 

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Publisher, Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014. Ages: 10 up

  (FINALISTS)

--Threatened by Eliot Schrefer. Publisher, Scholastic Press, 2014. Ages: 12 up

  

--The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin. Publisher, Roaring Brook Press, 2014. Ages: 10-14

--Noggin by John Corey Whaley. Publisher, Atheneum Books for 

Young Readers, 2014. 
Ages: 14-17

 

 

--Revolution by Deborah Wiles. Publisher, Scholastic Press, 2014. 

The Sixties Trilogy. Ages: 8-12

The Classics - Opening Lines: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."     Published 1859


I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?
 

Young Reader's Choice Awards: 2014

The YRCA is the oldest children's choice award in the U.S. and Canada. Sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Library Association (rep. Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington; Alberta and British Columbia), the award was first established in 1940 by Harry Hartman, a book seller in Seattle. He believed that every child deserved the opportunity to read a book that gave them pleasure. Award nominations come from children, teachers, parents and librarians. 

(WINNERS)


--Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney, series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." (Harry N. Abrams, 2011) 

--The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, series "Heroes of Olympus." (Disney-Hyperion, reprint, 2013) 



 

--Divergent by Veronica Roth, Book 1.
(Katherine Tegen Books, 2011)

 
(NOMINEES)

Junior Division (12 under)

--Cabin Fever - Jeff Kinney (Harry N. Abrams, 2011) 

--Wonderstruck - Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, 2011)

--13 Gifts - Wendy Mass (Scholastic Inc., 2013) 

--Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life - James Patterson (Little, Brown and Company; Reprint, 2012)

--Darth Paper Strikes Back - Tom Angleberger (Harry N. Abrams, 2011)

--The Last Council - Kazu Kibuishi ("Amulet" series, GRAPHIX, 2011)

--Big Nate Out Loud - Lincoln Peirce (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011)

--The Medusa Plot - Gordon Korman ("The 39 Clues" series, Scholastic Incl, 2011)

 
Middle Division (mostly 12 up) 

--The Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan ("Heroes of Olympus" series, (Disney-Hyperion, reprint, 2013)
  
--Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys (Speak, 2012)

--Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press, 2011)

--Okay for Now - Gary D. Schmidt (HMH Books for Young Readers; Reprint, 2013)

--The Outcasts - John Flanagan ("Brotherband Chronicles." Puffin; Reprint, 2012)

--Legend - Marie Lu (Speak; reprint, 2013)

--Michael Vey: the Prisoner of Cell 25 - Richard Paul Evans (Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink; Reprint, 2012)

--This Dark Endeavor - Kenneth Oppel (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint, 2012)

Senior Division (teen)

--Divergent - Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books, 2011)
  
--Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books; Reprint, 2013)

--Angel: a Maximum Ride Novel - James Patterson (Little, Brown and Company, 2012)

--Tiger's Curse - Colleen Houck (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014)

--What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen (Speak (April 9, 2013)

--Ruby Red - Kerstin Gier (Trilogy-Book 1; Square Fish, Reprint,  2012)

--Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (Broadway Books, 2012)

--Karma - Cathy Ostlere (Razorbill; Reprint, 2012)

The Classics - Opening Lines: The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane

"The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors."      Published 1895 



I love the classics and plan to share some "opening lines" over the coming months. Comment if you like, or read for inspiration. Writing styles were different then, but were they really?

Book Buddies: A Good Thing to Celebrate

Reading is a gift we give our children.

 

 Berks County animal shelter’s ‘Book Buddies’ program is the cutest thing

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillypets/Berks-County-animal-shelters-Book-Buddies-program-is-the-cutest-thing.html#QjWLh4ZuZ3axlHET.99

This cat reminds me of an old cat adopted my family one year. She was promptly named "Tina" by my sweet daughter Rachel, who had a "Tina the Ballerina" doll at the time and was taking dance lessons. Cuter than cute as I recall, except Tina our new cat was hardly a pink-slippered ballerina!

Our orange tabby was a feisty old gal, as big as a small dog with a tough barnyard personality. She would sit on her haunches in the road in front of our home and challenge any car that tried to pass. She often won. The drivers would shake their heads and simply drive around her. She wasn't a lap-sitter either, but I remember the one time she made an exception to the rule. I was suffering from a root canal and in terrible pain. She slept next to me on the couch for most of the day, purring the way cats do. They know, they really do. Animals know when we need love the most.  

I have never heard of a "Book Buddies" program in an animal shelter before. Have you? What a terrific idea. It satisfies three of my loves - Reading, Children, and Animals. The program not only teaches kindness and epitomizes the love that people and animals sometimes share, it promotes reading and the joy of following the words out loud.

How I cherished sitting down and reading to my own children. For a time, we even had a 'Story Time' in our home after school. My husband and I sometimes read books to each other, or as a family. There is something to be said for 'hearing' the words of a good book read out loud. Soul nurturing, comforting, safely tucked in, cherished . . . words like that come to mind, and when I saw this article, my heart just warmed. Haven't done this kind of activity before? Do . . . DO. Before it's too late! Reading is a gift we give to our children . . . and to each other.


Animals love the sound of our voice, too, and I doubt if the little boy above will ever forget his experience. For all we know, no one reads to him at home and his reading level is poor, although he appears to be off to a good start. Thought this was a pretty good thing to celebrate this week. Such a simple idea, such a huge benefit!! 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

'Celebrate the small things' was started by Viklit at Scribblings of An Aspiring Author. Sign up below and meet some terrific writers and bloggers!   

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing