Children’s Literature – Page 2

My Conservative American Girl Doll Experience

Have you seen this photo essay on American girls and their American Girl dolls? It is a commentary on American girl’s and I think it is also one on our American consumerism. From the article:

“I’ve noticed that girls do not really care as much about the books and stories that come with the dolls,” wrote [Ilona] Szwarc [the photographer]. “They are much more interested in clothes and accessories, so the educational message functions as a marketing tool for parents rather than as an inspiration for girls to learn.”

It is also a commentary on how when parents buy”educational” toys and don’t follow through it does not really do anything for the kids, unless of course they were geeky like me.

I read all the American Girl books before I had my Molly doll. I am not really sure what got me started on the American Girls, but it probably was the library. My older sister, S, got her Samantha doll before I got my Molly doll. She asked for money for her First Communion so that she could get her doll. I got Molly for my birthday I think; it must have been my eighth birthday. My parents gathered the expected monetary gifts, I think I may have even put allowances toward it, and they made up the difference. I think it was the summer between second and third grade? I got glasses in third grade and I know I got Molly before I had glasses. I was so happy when I got glasses. I even picked out glasses to match Molly’s. But rather than spend all my money accessorizing (though I spent hours looking at the catalogs longingly which was way better than the sappy website they have now), I just read the books over and over again.

I was the kid who spent all day everyday reading books. My parents begged me to go play outside, but I was content to have my nose in a book. What I loved about the American Girl books was how they really did give a look into the history of our country in an interesting way. I loved learning history through the books. My favorite books to read were always historical fiction; they still are! It is too bad that many American girls do not care about the history of our country and just want the doll and the accessories. Maybe that is the result of the fact that the American girl books are not good literature anyway.

So instead of reading the American Girl doll books, I am going to have my girl’s read the classics about American children in history: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and so on. I guess I should check out more the children’s classic chapter books before my kids get to that age. The books that are still read that withstand the test of time are the ones that really will help our kids be better people. They teach our kids about virtue: friendship, perseverance, charity, obedience, patience, faith, etc. They teach our kids the importance of family and strong marriages. They teach our kids about those who came before us, and teach them how virtue, family, and friendship are essential for living the Good Life. The best thing about the classic books are that they were written by those who lived at the time they are describing. They don’t fantasize about the past or put it down, but depict the author’s experience of their present time which is our past. In this way we can really learn about our history.

As for the dolls, I doubt we will spend hundreds of dollars for American girl dolls for the kids. Clearly the dolls do not make the children happy, and my doll is not contributing to my happiness in anyway (except perhaps for the hours I spent with my best friend playing with our dolls as children). I will pass on my Molly doll when they are old enough to no destroy her. Or maybe I will just put her in a glass case and tell them stories about my childhood in reference to the doll.

New Mom-skill!

Today on the way home from Trader Joe’s the big girls were happily sucking on the suckers they earned by finding the bunnies hidden in the store. These suckers are great because they are all-natural with no random weird dyes in them. When G finished her sucker she asked me to throw a wipe back to her since she was sticky. I first told her I could not since she was all the way in back of the mini-van (something I really miss about not driving a sedan is that I can’t reach the kids from the front seat). Then we came to a red light and I thought, “Hey, why not?”

I pulled a wipe out of the diaper bag, scrunched it down into a ball, twisted around and did a weird sideways throw and hit G (who was directly two rows behind my seat) in the shoulder. Since wipes don’t bounce it stayed on her shoulder and when she figured out where it was she used it and then let L have a turn with it.

Anyone else mastered the art of throwing things to kids at red lights?

Seven Quicktakes Friday-Nov. 30

1. Tomorrow we will no longer have a heathen baby dripping in her original sin. Hooray! Because of this event we are having many family members coming to town and I am throwing our first “real” Baptism party where I planned it in advance. The past two babies I was taken by surprise that we are supposed to have a cake and food for people afterwards. It does not help that G was baptised on the octave of her birth and I was still in shock of what it is like to have a newborn and be post-partum.

2. Three weeks is again my point of feeling like a normal person after having a baby. And by normal person, I suppose I have put myself in the category of normal for a nursing mother of a baby.

3. St. Paul is starting to feel like “home.” You know that feeling you get when a place is familiar and comforting as you drive through it knowing where you are going? Moving is such a long transition. I expect that we will really know if it feels like home when we come back from our Christmas travels.

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4. M is complaining about my quicktakes being too short these days; these will be again. I wrote the first three on Friday and am finishing them Sunday, but backdating them to Friday because I discovered how to schedule posts this week.

5. I labeled all my posts this week and then added the gadget of a label cloud. My blog is all grown up now. Maybe some of the posts I wrote years ago before I shared it with people publicly might actually be read. 🙂 And you really should check out why Beatrix Potter is awesome if you haven’t yet. My children’s book reviews are my favorite…

6. I am about to do this workout video. And I know you are saying, workout video at 3 weeks post-partum? I am just going to say it is the best thing one can do for a post-partum body. It stretches everything and helps one’s core get back into being normal. Plus you do the whole thing laying on the floor…

7. We have ordered all of the Christmas gifts now and I just have to finish making the ones the girls are making for everyone… (I know, they did some fun artwork for them and I am laboring to make their artwork a gift…)

Why Beatrix Potter is Awesome (Good Picture Books Series)

One of the weirdest but most wonderful authors of children’s stories was Beatrix Potter. We have been slowly collecting the entire 23 book set with every chance to give birthday or Christmas presents, and reading all the stories as we find them at the library. The most recent book we read is “The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes.” This apparently was her book written for her American audience, featuring the gray squirrel, the chipmunk, and the black bear, though the scenery is still taken from her native English countryside. It also features birds whose natural songs are: “Whose-bin-diggin-up-my-nuts” and “A-little-bit-o-bread-and-no-cheese.” It makes me wonder what the birds around St. Paul are really saying.

Photo of Potter’s Hill Top Farm by Chris Brown

All of Potter’s books are full of insights about animals, nature, and relationships, which she expresses in the personified animals of her stories. Accompanying her witty texts are beautiful watercolors. (I would love to share some here, but according to Wikipedia the images are not in the public domain in the UK or Europe and I don’t want to violate any copyright laws since I don’t really know anything about them.)

A great feature of her stories is that she often includes rhymes in the dialogue, which expand on the nursery rhymes that I have already been reading to my children. She even has two books of her own rhymes “Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes” and “Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes.”

She gives great life lessons in her stories: We learn in “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” the negative affects of gluttony and disobeying parents. In “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck” to not talk to predatory-like strangers even if they have sandy whiskers and that once again foxes are always bad. Another great tale is that of Ginger and Pickles in which we learn that giving credit, while it sells a lot of goods, does not always bode well for paying one’s own bills. The tale about a tail, “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin” teaches us to not pester our benefactors. From capitalism to parents to strangers, Potter presented helpful advice on living in the world.

The point is that Potter wrote some pretty great stories that kids and parents find entertaining and wonderful with every reading of the story. This I think is the essential element of good children’s stories. I will say it again and again; if it is going to be great for the child it has to be great for the parent. And that is why Beatrix Potter is awesome. Go and read her to your kid now. 🙂

Good Picture Books: Russell Hoban’s “Frances”

I read the Frances books as a kid and was reintroduced to them visiting M’s grandparents over Thanksgiving last year. They had Bread and Jam for Frances (by Russell Hoban) which tells the story of a girl who only wants to eat bread and jam. Her amazing parents decide to only give her bread and jam to eat after that is what she chooses to eat for several meals anyway. Eventually Frances decided she would like to eat other foods and declares that it is wonderful to have so many options of foods to eat.

The other books by Hoban about Frances include: Bedtime for Frances, A Baby Sister for Frances, A Birthday for Frances, Best Friends for Frances, and A Bargain for Frances. Two of those books I have not even read in at least 20 years since I am waiting to find them at the library. But I am pretty sure that they are as amazing as the others.

The parts that make them so good for kids and parents are that they are so relatable for both parents and kids and that Frances makes up random silly rhymes to express what she is feeling. This goes along with my ideas about nursery rhymes being really good for kids. If a kids is used to rhymes and then sees that one can use rhymes to work out one’s problems or think things over, then this child has learned a lot about language and how to use it just from simple stories and books. I think this concept has been grasped by my three year old G. Most days I hear her narrating the actions of her play: “She dashed across the room and went under the table.” Other times I hear her making up rhymes or songs that may or may not make any sense. A large part of this might have to do with her extroverted personality, but I think it also has to do with her exposure to stories and rhymes.

The topics of the books are also so everyday, but ones that many parent-child relationships experience. Bedtime, baby sisters, birthdays, friends, picky eating. We currently have Best Friends for Frances out from the library, and my favorite part is when Frances decides that sisters can be best friends and starts to realize how much fun she can have with her sister Gloria. The story also shows Frances working through a friendship with a boy who excludes her from more “boy-like” activities. The stories are so realistic about childhood, and provide clever, smart solutions to problems.

I forgot to mention that the stories take place in a world populated by badgers. The philosophical explanation of how this is possible is below:

G: Why are there only badgers in this book?

M: Because this book takes place in a possible world in which only badgers and not primates attained personhood.

What can be wrong with books that teach our children about possible worlds? Even philosophy can be learned by reading about Frances!

***I also want to warn that when looking for these books at the library or at the store watch out for the “I Can Read” versions which cut the significant parts of the text from the story and thus eliminate many of the best lines and rhymes. I personally do not understand why they feel the need to dumb down awesome children’s stories. Let the kids read the good stuff!

The First Best Literature for Children: Nursery Rhymes

I love nursery rhymes. My children love nursery rhymes. I am not entirely sure why. Tradition loves nursery rhymes. For the record I have no background in education so this is all just my opinion supplemented with my belief that the traditions that have been preserved by society over time, the test of time, are good. My children speak English, or are at least learning to. I speak English, and no matter how many ancestries me or my children descend from by being Americans we are in the tradition of the English speaking world. So when it it comes to literary education, English nursery rhymes are the place where I start.

Little Miss Muffet,
Sat on a tuffet,
eating some curds and whey.
Along came a spider
who sat down beside her,
and frightened Miss Muffet away.

Things I have noticed/learned about children: they memorize things quickly and efficiently, what they memorize effects how they think and how they speak, rhymes and stories that are quirky are their favorites. The quirky ones are also my favorites. On a side note, I think that the best children’s literature is that which intrigues the adult as well as the child. Nursery rhymes are so strange, often practical, and so wonderful.

Often the nursery rhymes are just plain fun.

Round about, round about, Gooseberry pie,
My father loves good ale, and so do I.

Pat a cake, pat a cake, bakers man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can,
Pat it and roll it and mark it with a “B”
Put it in the oven for baby and me.

Another element of good children’s literature is that which teaches a child about life, but in a way that makes them remember. A child may learn these rhymes as a child, and remember it is important to be responsible when they are older.

Elsie Marley’s grown so fine, she won’t get up to feed the swine,
but lays in bed ’till eight or nine,
Lazy Elsie Marley.

A dillar, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar,
What makes you come so soon,
You used to come at ten o’clock, but now you come at noon.

They also relate to children’s lives, and explain the world to them. For example, some about going to market to buy things, a child who goes to the store to buy things can relate to.

To market to market to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again jiggity jig.

Go to bed Tom, go to bed,
Tired or not, go to bed.

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs, downstairs in his nightgown,
Peering in the windows, Peaking through the lock,
Are all the children in their beds?
For now it is eight o’clock.

Nursery rhymes are also very educational. My children have learned to count from them and also, the alphabet! Songs and rhymes are a very popular and effective way to teach.

One, two, three, four, five,
I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
I let him go again,
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did he bite?
The little finger on the right.

How many days has my baby to play,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Riddles are another way nursery rhymes teach, giving a child a chance to think critically and understand that words have multiple meanings.

Hickamore hackamore
on the king’s kitchen door,
All the kings horse and all the kings men
couldn’t drive Hickamore Hackamore
off the kings kitchen door.
(can you guess?)

Nursery rhymes are also used for soothing, and the familiar rhythms and rhymes are something that help a child feel comfortable and happy.

Twinkle, Twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle, Twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

These are just a few reasons that nursery rhymes are great for children. Educationally, they also help a child develop the skills of memorizing and expand vocabulary greatly. Children love repetition, and often I will hear my three year old reciting nursery rhymes to herself over and over again. She is processing the rhymes and applying them to her life. She also asks me to explain them, but mostly just memorizes them and applies them herself.

Rock a bye baby,
Your cradle is green,
Father’s a nobleman,
Mother’s a queen,
Betty’s a lady who wears a gold ring,
And Johnny’s a drummer who drums for the king.
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If you are interested in a collection of rhymes, Nursery Rhymes by Douglas Gorsline is well illustrated and has a lot of good rhymes.

Friday Quicktakes-Sept 7

1. These will probably not post until Saturday. Today was get the kids ready alone, quick pre-school activity, Mass for First Friday, playdate, naptime (workout video and shower), get ready for sitter, new faculty dinner at M’s school, talking to my sister about labor, finishing Miss Marple episode. Now I am attempting to do a few quicktakes.

2. Speaking of First Friday Mass we went to a church near our home but not St. Agnes. After communion, G asked me “Why did they not use the kneeler?” pointing to the communion rail. Exactly. I love St. Agnes liturgies. They know how it is done.

3. I went to a women’s Bible study at St. Agnes given by our pastor. I went to Mass alone without children, had a dinner with other ladies that I did not cook, and listened to a lecture on scripture. It is a monthly event, and I am really excited to participate in it. Plus, the other ladies in my small group seem very nice.

4. L is obsessed with bathtime because of the toy ducks and fish she plays with in the tub. So much so that she calls bathtime, “Duckfish”. We have been imagining a creature that is a combination of a duck and fish. Today on Motherhood on a Dime’s 20 Freebies list was this kindle book: DUCKFISH. This caused a fit of giggles for my husband and I at the end of the day, and we downloaded the book to a kindle app and discovered it was not even to be considered a work of literature. I will show L the picture of the duckfish at least.

5. Speaking of children’s literature I plan to start a series on here reviewing worthwhile children’s literature and why individual books/authors are awesome. I am tired of bad children’s literature.

6. I need to tell you all that Cajetan and Garrigou-Lagrange are not evil, contrary to what I was taught in college. Further DeLubac demonized them unnecessarily or he was a bad scholar. If you want the evidence talk to my husband. I am still getting over the negative aversions instilled in me when I hear those names.

7. On a lighter note I have embarked this week on my goal to learn easy, pretty updos for long hair now that my hair has gotten long again. I am branching out from the ponytail. This blog seems to have some good tutorials.

Friday Quick Takes-Aug 31

1. L’s favorite book these days is Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. If you have read children’s books at any point in the last 50 years, you have read this one. Though her method of “participating” in the book is to search aggressively for the “young mouse” on each page. As M or I read her the book, she shouts “MOUSE!” and points all over the page. When I put her to bed at nap or nighttime if I don’t say “Goodnight Bears and Goodnight Chairs” to her bears and then “Goodnight Mouse” she throws a fit. Yesterday she started pointing to the words in the book and saying “Letters.” I am certain that the mouse-hunt and letter recognition are signs of genius.

2. I encouraged G to look at her Bible during quiet time yesterday showing her all the pictures of the stories about Jesus which she is familiar with. I told her after her quiet time we could talk about the stories. The one she zeroed in on was the story of the beheading of St. John the Baptist. Maybe it is because we talked about how it had been the Gospel at Mass on Wednesday so she had heard the story there. But she asked for it in particular for her naptime story today. The priest at Mass on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist spoke about how he died because he defended marriage. It seems that he would be a great saint to pray to for the preservation of traditional marriage in our society.

3. If you want a recommendation on a Bible for children and don’t mind a blue eyed, blonde Jesus, the Golden Children’s Bible is a really good one for being true to Biblical texts and not oversimplifying the content. G who is three seems to understand the stories in it as long as I explain some of the details to her, and she really enjoys the illustrations.

4. I know I said this on Facebook already, but we went to the Minnesota State Fair this week which was just about what one would expect from a state fair. There were farm animals, greasy foods, and rides! Though my favorite part was the draft root beer. Apparently I am making up for not being allowed to drink by drinking excessive (for me) amounts of root beer whenever I get the chance. Also, G stopped her princess play after the fair and decided to pretend she was a pig who won first prize at the fair. 🙂

5. I come to accept that going places with children takes time and it no longer bothers me. Maybe it is pregnancy fatigue, but maybe it is me finally getting used to being a mother.

6. Saw this linked the other day and it looks pretty cool. Toddler leggings made from knee high socks. Now I just need to find some cool looking socks for cheaper than the on-sale, clearanced leggings I usually purchase for G.

7. Earlier this week M and I were talking about why a sitz bath is called a “sitz” bath. M joked that it comes from German and means sitting in the bath. It turns out he was right. From dictionary.com:

Origin:
1840–50; half adoption, half translation of German Sitzbad, equivalent to sitz ( en ) to sit¹ + Bad bath¹

That’s all folks!