Category Archives: Reading

The big trade

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I have a rather reading-obsessed eight-year-old daughter. She reads so much, with such intensity, that Min keeps suggesting we limit her books. I have to reassure him that it is, in fact, possible to read that much and still grow up to be a socially appropriate member of society. (Oh, shush. It happens.)

At the Surrey International Writers Conference last month, I got talking to Christine Dalzell, reading buddy to a nine-year-old bookworm. Christine suggested the girls might enjoy trading recommendations. We just sent off our list this week. Then it occurred to me that others with young readers in their lives might be interested, too. Here it is, in all it’s glory…

Favourite Series
The Familiars, Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobsen
The Borrowers, Mary Norton
The Kane Chronicles, Rick Riorden
Beacon Street Girls
Guests of War, Kit Pearson
Dork Diaries, Rachel Renee Russell
Dear Dumb Diary
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney
Dolphin Diaries, Ben M. Baglio
Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls, Meg Cabot
The Roman Mysteries, Caroline Lawrence
The Penderwicks, Jeanne Birdsall
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket
Warriors, Eric Hunter

Other Favourite Books
The Trouble with Dilly, Rachna Gilmore
A Mango Shaped Space, and every other Wendy Mass book
Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Lisa Yee
Smile and Drama, Raina Telgemeier
Ruby Holler, and all other Sharon Creech books
I am Taxi, among other Deborah Ellis books

This list wasn’t written in an actual line; it was more of a brainstorming arrangement. (What can I say? I didn’t have many linear-thinking genes to pass along.) So, books aren’t necessarily in order of preference.

Now we await our return recommendations!

Save the writer

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I have just bought a book called Save the Cat. Why? Well…

  • It was recommended at a SiWC workshop.
  • It’s called Save the Cat, and I have no idea why, and that’s a pretty interesting title and I’m a pretty curious sort. Although, now that I think of it, there’s that whole cat/curiosity thing.
  • It’s supposed to solve all my problems with plot. This would be good.

But the best thing of all about reading Save the Cat? It will distract me from the fact that there was a massive EARTHQUAKE off the coast last night, and aftershocks today, and I’m dropping my kids off this morning at a 100-year-old DEATH TRAP of a school.

Ahem… yes. Of to read Save the Cat now. Seismic Upgrading Committee meeting on Thursday. Maybe yet one more letter to the premier before that.

The “other” small town

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I’m reading Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing. Partly because someone recommended the book to me, but also because the author happens to have written my all-time favourite poem (“Places and Ways to Live”).

Anyhoo…

Richard Hugo has some interesting things to say about inhabiting a place that is your home and yet isn’t. He says you have to write in a town you’ve never seen before, but a town where you’ve lived all your life. In this mid-space: “it is easy to turn the gas station attendant into a drunk. Back home it would have been difficult because he had a drinking problem.”

I suppose this is a variation on the idea of ex-pat writers, on a smaller scale. It struck me because of it’s “town” focus. I am, after all, a small-town girl at heart.

A cautionary tale

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Min went to Costco a while ago, and arrived home with a copy of 50 Shades of Grey.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Min’s in Chapters with the kids to buy me an anniversary present. While he’s there, our five-year-old son stops in front of a large display of 50 Shades Darker and says, “I think we should get Mommy one of these.”

Min tries to lead him away.

“Daddy, we should get one of these.”

“How about a cookbook?”

“This is a series. She read the first one.”

By this time, other shoppers are smirking.

“Daddy! She’ll want this one!”

Min manages to get the boy away from the erotica table, but only by taking 50 Shades Darker along. And my son decides that if Daddy’s not going to buy it, he’s going to buy it. With his own money.

So then Min has to stand at the register as his five-year-old buys soft porn.

To top the story off, when I receive the book on the morning of my anniversary, it comes with this inscription on the title page:

How disturbing is that?

Beach reads… sort of

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Did I mention I woke up ridiculously early, all through last week’s vacation? Well, nothing like early mornings to catch up on some reading.

I LOVED Tzeporah Berman’s This Crazy Time. With the exception of a couple despair-inducing climate change chapters in the middle, the book is a fairly hopeful look at the potential for environmental change. Tzeporah’s stories of her Clayoquot days and Greenpeace exploits are highly entertaining. You may have to donate to Greenpeace and/or chain yourself to a log boom after reading it, but those aren’t necessarily bad things, right? I’ll tell you what… let me know when you’re going, and I’ll meet you in the harbour.

I also read three children’s books which didn’t seem like children’s books AT ALL: Firegirl, Coraline, and The Whispering Road. All excellent, but yeesh… I have to pay closer attention to what my daughter’s reading.

The final book of the holiday was Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland, brought for bedtime read-alongs. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Although I have to say, the duchess shakes that pig/baby an awful lot. Hopefully my children are impressed by my parenting skills in comparison.

Librarian savants

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Have you ever noticed that when former librarians or teacher-librarians turn to writing, they produce amazing books? Here are just a few examples that librarian Shannon Ozirny and I came up with last week:

Sarah Ellis
Glen Huser
Kit Pearson
Norma Charles
Lois Peterson

See what I mean? Instant writing geniuses.

I have two theories on why this is:

1. Having worked in the vicinity of so many children’s books, they’ve absorbed the requirements of great writing through osmosis;

or,

2. Have read so many wonderful books, librarians become harsh self-editors, and — though secretly writing mountains of materials — they refuse to release manuscripts into the world until they are absolutely perfect.

What do you think? A bit of both? And should we all sign up for library science courses, asap?

Brain shrink

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I’ve been reading this book about the evolution of the brain, in hopes that it will prompt my own brain to evolve more quickly.

It’s not working. (Too many big words. Head. Hurts. Must. Sleep.)

Not only that — human brains are shrinking! Apparently, my brain is smaller than my Cro-Magnon grandmother’s brain. But scientists disagree on whether this is because our neural connections are getting more efficient, or because we don’t need to be as smart to survive the modern world.

Personally, I think I could have used that extra three percent.

Summer readers

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I had a wonderful visit yesterday afternoon with the Summer Reading Club at the West Vancouver Memorial Library. And wow! I always enjoy speaking to kids, but kids who choose to spend a sunny summer afternoon at a book talk instead of at the beach, two blocks away? Well, they’re a whole other level of awesome.

I also got to visit with librarian extraordinaire and fellow bhangra dancer Shannon Ozirny, who said that when she heard this year’s reading club theme of “strange but true,” she immediately thought of me.

A compliment? I choose to think so.

Thanks for having me, Shannon, and thanks to the West Van summer reading club kids!

(Incidentally, my own kids picked up their medals at the Kits library branch yesterday, after reading for at least 15 minutes a day for 50 days. But would you believe that in West Van they have a medal ceremony in September? And the MAYOR attends? I wish we could do as they do in Katroo!)

Library love

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During last week’s period of blog-amnesia, I forgot to post about my visit to the Whistler Public Library. This wasn’t a work-related visit. This was a “day four of vacation and we’ve already read all our books” visit.

But thank goodness we went. Look at how beautiful this place is:

And I don’t know if it’s because the library is less used than our local branch, or if ski resorts have more money to buy books, of if the book fairies were simply smiling on us that day, but the shelves were STOCKED! My kids had armloads of books they couldn’t wait to read.

We were able to use our Vancouver library cards to check them out. We took most of the books back before we left town, but the few that were still unread? Well, we could take those home and return them in Vancouver. How great is that?

You gotta love the library.