Back to School

Another first day of school-- and I can't believe I'm the mommy of a fourth grader! The youngest is in first grade-- how did THAT happen?! (She picked out that outfit herself, and directed me in fixing her hair. I'm so glad ONE of us has some sense of style!)


I'm in school, too-- taking Children's Literature this semester through Sam Houston. This one is almost entirely online, and it's an amazing amount of reading! Not only do we have more than a dozen books on the class list, we have to pick a book for each of about twenty awards! It's a good thing I like children's literature!

This has been a terrific class, not only because I'm enjoying the reading, but also because I'm discovering great books for my girls!

In class, the professor had us choose a children's picture book to analyze the art. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, is the "perfect" picture book: as the boy goes deeper into his imaginings, the pictures take up more and more of the "white space" on the pages. As he sails towards home, the pictures (and his imagination) get smaller.







The book I chose was Zen Shorts, by Jon J. Muth. A panda, named Stillwater, appears in the backyard of two children. He shares three stories, each of which offers the children a new perspective on the world and on each other. Muth uses soft, gentle watercolors to tell the main body of the story; the three "zen" stories Stillwater shares are illustrated in playful ink drawings.









Meg's favorite stories in my collection for class are the Mr. Putter and Tabby stories, by Cythia Rylant. Both Mr. Putter and Tabby are old, but they share adventures and learn something new in each story! These stories are illustrated by Arthur Howard in pencil, watercolors, and pastels; the illustrations are cartoonlike and playful-- I enjoy these almost as much as Meg does!