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There's one I want on the top shelf...
Showing posts with label Jane O'Connor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane O'Connor. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Fact Finder

When Connor was little he used his diaper like pants pockets. He would tuck all sorts of things in the top and sides of his diaper, and when we changed him, they would all tumble out. The stash was varied from day to day, but by far what we would find most often were folded up pieces of paper with print on them. Pages out of magazines, ads from the Sunday paper, notes with telephone messages, and even an occasional mini-book. The kid loved paper, and his favorite piece of paper was a picture he had torn out of the newspaper featuring Sacramento Zoo’s new red panda (which I never even knew existed until I had pulled the picture out of my son’s nappy a dozen times). And from that time on, Connor has always gravitated toward non-fiction offerings that tell him stuff he didn’t know. Even at the public library or the school library when all the other kids were choosing story books and fairytales, he would flip over a book about planets or mythology or dogs. Or rocks. Lord, the child renewed one book about rocks and minerals about ten times. Teachers would often remark how thoroughly entrenched in non-fiction he was, refusing anything shelved by author’s last name. But I did learn a lot from his choices. In Chris Arvetis and Carole Palmer’s What Is An Iceberg?, we get just the facts, ma’am. Like did you know all icebergs are chipped-off pieces of glaciers? Connor probably does.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/What-Iceberg-Ask-Series/book/0026890097/

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Chris-Arvetix/author/

http://www.librarything.com/author/palmerchrisarvetisan

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Bon Anniversaire, Ma Petite Scarlett!

My least favorite having a baby phrase is “We’re pregnant” (yeah, right!) and my most favorite is “expectant mother.” Everything good about pregnancy is wrapped up in that term. While waiting for the small person whose room and board you are literally supplying with body and soul, you spend most waking and many sleeping moments anticipating, expecting. What they will look, feel, sound like. What the big day will entail and how you’ll deal with it. What dad’s performance and reaction will be. What the family will think and feel (and hopefully not say). You project what motherhood will be and what this child will become. Great expectations. One thing we don’t seem to realize until later is that people don’t have to be earthside for very long before they start to have their own expectations. Since being pregnant at forty takes ten eternities, I had a lot of time for contemplation and expectation while waiting to meet Scarlett. And I got most of it wrong. Two years ago today, Scarlett Aurora arrived and has been nothing but her authentic self since. She’s tall, won’t wear hairbows and can already recite the alphabet--all things I didn’t expect. She also craves the outdoors but didn’t expect to be born to indoor parents. It’s never quite how you see it in your head. In Jane O’Connor’s Fancy Nancy, our glamour girl can’t understand her plain family. Then something happens she doesn’t expect…

P.S. Happy Birthday, Scarletta!

http://www.amazon.com/Fancy-Nancy-Jane-Oconnor/dp/0060542098

http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/12552/Jane_OConnor/index.aspx