Over in the Meadow - Part 2

I spent some time today experimenting with styles for the Counting Book (see yesterday's post). I've discovered that I can photograph the origami "babies," and, using Photoshop Elements, paste them onto my background as many times as necessary. That means I won't have to make TEN frogs.

Here's a rough draft of pages one and two. By the way -- those are the toads, not the frogs. The toad isn't that difficult, but the frog is a bear! (How can a frog be a bear?)

You can click on the picture, to see it a little larger.

Over in the Meadow

Sweetpea's Book of Colors finally shipped from the printer. I'm not as thrilled with it as I was with Sweetpea's ABC Book, which I did first. But, it's done, and now I'm thinking of a counting book.

A few days ago I pulled all of my origami books out of the closet, so I could do some origami for my 366 Photos in 2008 blog, since "origami" is one of the themes. Most of these books were gifts from our Japanese exchange students, so they are not in English. For the most part, though, the diagrams are understandable without the text. I ended up folding some blossoms on a branch, and had a lot of fun with it. And that's when the idea came to me to try something different for Sweetpea's Counting Book. Instead of using photography, I thought I might do origami animals, to illustrate the traditional "Over in the Meadow" song.

Yesterday afternoon I started trying to fold the frog. What a disaster! I understood the directions, but my folds just didn't come out neat and clean like in the diagram. I must have tried six or seven times to fold a perfect frog, each time without success. I might, eventually, be able to fold one handsome frog, but, according to the song, I'll need "a green mother frog and her little froggies nine." That's TEN frogs! I probably should rethink this idea, but it's still intriguing to me, and I think I'll give it a little more time and effort before I abandon it. Wish me luck. I'll need it. After the frogs come "a gray mother spider and her little spiders ten."

Mockingbird - A Book Report

I just finished reading Mockingbird, A Portrait of Harper Lee, by Charles J. Shields. If you take a look at my "Favorite Books" list, at the left side-bar of my blog, you will see that one of them is To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I'm far from alone in my love of the book, since it was a Pulitzer Prize winner, has sold more than thirty million copies, and, even now, 47 years after it's first publication, continues to sell a million new copies a year. But, until the publication of the book I am reviewing, little could be found about the author, Nelle Harper Lee (pen name, Harper Lee). She wrote this one outstanding novel, lived in the limelight for awhile, never wrote another novel, and seemingly slipped into anonymity. I've always wondered about Lee, so eagerly read this book, hoping to learn more about her.

It is common knowledge that the Finch family, portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, was modeled after Lee's own family, and that the little tomboy, known as Scout, in the book, was based upon Nelle Harper Lee, herself. The drama that unfolds, namely the trial of a black man who was accused of raping a white woman, was also based, loosely, upon one or more events from her childhood.

Shields, in writing Mockingbird, interviewed 600 people to learn the real story of Nelle Harper Lee. Lee was born (1926) and raised in Monroeville, Alabama, where she still lives with her older sister, Alice. Her childhood friend and neighbor was Truman Capote. The child character, Dill, in To Kill a Mockingbird, is based on Capote.

Mockingbird, the biography, gives insight into Lee's early years, when she lived with a father she adored and a mother who was, most likely, mentally ill. She later went to college, where she was a maverick, and made few friends; and then to law school. She did not complete law school, disappointing her father, who wanted her to follow in his, and her sister's, footsteps by becoming an attorney. But by this time in life, Lee knew she wanted to write. She moved to New York City, where she began writing what would be her only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. A large section of the biography details Lee's friendship and collaboration with Truman Capote, particularly her role in doing research for his book, In Cold Blood.

There was, for me, a personal sense of disappointment that developed as I read Lee's biography. Based upon her novel, I naively dove into this book, certain that I would be reading about a kindred spirit (so to speak) - someone I would have befriended, had the opportunity arisen. But the farther I read, the clearer it became that I would have found it difficult to have been friends with Nelle Harper Lee. Her relationships were complicated and limited, and, to many, she was seen as reclusive.

Learning about Lee has renewed my interest in To Kill a Mockingbird, and in no way diminished my respect for her talents, nor my love of her novel. I intend to re-read it soon, and to watch, again, the movie that was based on the book.

Old Men at Midnight - A Book Report

Years ago I became interested in the writings of Chaim Potok, a rabbi and author who wrote novels about modern-day Orthodox Jews, trying to find their identity, their way and their place in today's society. Three of his books that I read were The Chosen, My Name is Asher Lev, and Davita's Harp. I just finished reading Potok's final book, Old Men at Midnight - his final book because it was published not long before he died, at age 73, in 2002.

Old Men at Midnight is different from his other books, in that it is actually three distinct novellas, connected by one recurring character, Ilana Davita Dinn (known as Davita), and several recurring themes. Of his books that I have read, I found Old Men at Midnight the most challenging.

The stories themselves are not so much about Davita as they are about three Jewish men she meets at different times in her life. In each case, Davita becomes the catalyst who helps these men remember and tell their stories. To one of the men, Davita says, "Without stories there is nothing. Stories are the world's memory. The past is erased without stories."

The first encounter is with a young boy, named Noah, who is a holocaust survivor living in America with his aunt and uncle. The second is a Russian Jew who is a defected KGB officer, haunted by his involvement in the purge of Russian Jews during Stalin's regime. And the third is an aging American-born Jewish professor and expert in war history, who struggles with repressed memories as he tries to write his memoirs. War, connections, the human conscience, memories, and the importance of telling one's story are among the themes that are woven throughout the three novellas.

Although they are compelling stories, written in simple language, and with occasional glimpses of hope; they are also rich in symbolism - some of it enigmatic - and deal with disturbing topics. I found that a single reading of the book left me with as many questions as it did answers; it deserves a second reading. This book won't be everyone's "cup of tea." It is not for those who prefer a book with a beginning, a middle, and a neatly-wrapped-up conclusion. But for those who enjoy thought-provoking reading about the complexities of the human psyche, I would recommend it.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter : A book report

[I just finished reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter, a novel by Kim Edwards, published in 2005, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on this book . I haven't done a book report since I was in college (but I still remember the basics, taught to me so well by my third grade and sixth grade teachers ). As a side note, since I don't normally read a book twice, I'd be happy to pass this book along to anyone who thinks they might like to read it. Just let me know, with a comment or an email.]

The book opens in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1964, when David, a physician (a bone specialist), and his wife, Norah, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child. When Norah's labor begins, it is in the middle of the night and in the middle of a freak Kentucky snow storm. Although David tries to get Norah to the hospital in time, the weather defeats him. Since Norah's labor is progressing rapidly, he stops at the clinic where he practices, which is closed for the night, and calls both his partner physician and the clinic nurse, asking them to come in and help deliver the baby. But when a car accident delays his partner, and the baby won't wait, David, who has not delivered a baby since med school, has no choice but to deliver the baby himself, with the assistance of his capable nurse.

What happens that night, in the middle of a snow storm, in the small clinic, is a dark secret shared only by David and his nurse - the secret around which the rest of the story revolves. Norah, who is anesthetized, is unaware that she delivers not only her son, whom she names Paul, but his twin, a baby girl. When David sees his baby daughter, he recognizes in her the unmistakable signs of Down's syndrome. Immediately, two specters rise to haunt him: first, his own precious sister, also a Down's syndrome child, who died at a young age because of a heart condition commonly associated with Down's; and secondly, his mother, whose life was destroyed by grief at the loss of her daughter. So, determined to spare his wife that kind of pain, he makes a hasty decision. He hands the baby girl to the nurse, Caroline, and tells her to take the baby to an institution he knows of, that will accept and care for such children. When Norah regains consciousness, David hands her their healthy baby boy, and tells her that she also delivered a baby girl who died at birth. Meanwhile, the nurse, Caroline, who cannot bring herself to leave the baby at the institution, slips out of town and begins a new life in Pittsburgh, as the mother of baby Phoebe.

The deception and the secrets conceived that night create, over the next three decades, a tangled web of emotional rifts between David and Norah, and their son, Paul. The author also develops the story of Caroline, Phoebe and the man, Al, who marries Caroline and raises Phoebe as his own daughter. Each character deals in his or her own way with confusion, regrets, reactions and emotional wounds that are, in one way or another, spawned by the secret decisions made by David and Caroline the night the two babies were born.

Why do we do what we do? How can good intentions lead to bad choices? How have attitudes changed since 1964, when this story began? How can secret knowledge affect your life and, in the end, those dearest to you? Who is the true beneficiary of forgiveness? Is redemption always attainable? These are some of the questions that you will grapple with in reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

My rating: 4 stars out of 5. Readable - a page turner. Thought-provoking.

Colors for Sweetpea

Some of you are probably wondering where I've been today. I usually post in the mornings, but today I've been preoccupied. I'm working on a "Color" book for Sweetpea. Not a book she can color in, but one to help her learn her colors. I completed an ABC book earlier this year for her, using my own photos and text. It was so much fun that I couldn't resist doing a sequel. (By the way, if any of you are interested in doing something like this, I highly recommend http://www.viovio.com/ for the printing and binding. They're reasonably priced, they have great customer service, and I was really pleased with their quality.)

So, today, I was mostly working on a layout that could be repeated for each color. The 2-page spread below is what I came up with (click on it to see a larger version). As you see, I haven't dropped the photos into all of the picture spots yet - in fact the one that is there might not even be used in the final product. I'm going to be very busy for awhile taking pictures to fit each page's color theme.

(Edit: I re-posted the sample pages, since resizing for the web faded out the colors. This is a little better, but still not as vibrant and true as the full-size file. But you get the idea.)

I'm open to suggestions for improving the layout. Just leave a comment, and I'll take any and all suggestions under consideration. When I get it completely finished, I'll put a link to the pages, so you can all see them. And if any of you haven't seen the ABC book, let me know and I'll give you that link, as well.

On another note, last evening we went to some friends' home (Sam and Kathy's) for dinner. Sam and Kathy have an eight-year-old girl, named Sarah. Sarah is tall and lanky, blonde-headed, and cute - not to mention, quite precocious! I think maybe Sarah has given me a glimpse of what's to come for Sweetpea.

For the Love of Books

My sweet daughter-in-law, Kelsey, has her own blog. And that's where I get to read on a regular basis about Sweetpea. She even posts photos frequently, so I can see how Sweetpea is growing up. (I'm trying very hard to keep Sweetpea's identity private, because of the dark side of the internet, so I'm not going to add a link to Kelsey's blog.)

In a recent blog, Kelsey told about Sweetpea's weekly trip to the library for story hour. It tickles my heart to hear about her love of books. Kelsey says that Sweetpea especially looks forward to singing with the librarian during storytime, and that "If You're Happy and You Know It" is her favorite song. She says that every time they sing it, the librarian looks around and says, "I don't see very many happy faces," until she spots Sweetpea, and then shouts, "There's a happy face! You can be happy for everybody."

Sweetpea turned in her summer reading log last week (well, of course, that means books she's had read to her) and for that she got to pick out a book of her very own to take home with her. I'm posting the picture that Kelsey posted, showing Sweetpea, immediately after storytime, looking at her new book. (Kelsey, I hope you don't mind me pirating your photos.) Keep up the good work, Sweetpea and Sweetpea's mama! Grandma's proud of both of you.