She's Got It!

Picture books 

     One of the most captivating, enchanting picture books of all time has to be Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day.  Peter, a Black boy, explores all the delightful possibilities of a day when a snowfall transforms his neighborhood in the ways we and our kids who grew up in colder climates did.  When the book was published in 1962 a Black child simply being a child was quite a radical concept in the almost totally white populated realm of children's literature.

     The lively heroine of two books written by Connie Schofield-Morrison and illustrated by Morrison would be a worthy granddaughter to a grown up Peter.  A perfect combination of minimalist text and dynamic illustrations shows her exuberant energy as she interacts with her surroundings.

     In I Got the Rhythm she's walking with her Mom.  She thinks of a rhythm and begins to perceive it with all her senses.  Eventually she's voicing, clapping, snapping, and shaking it, joined by a rainbow of children and finally even adults.  You've gotta love the final line: I got the rhythm and you can too.  

     In I Got the Christmas Spirit she experiences all the lead up to the big day, singing carols, tasting treats, and ice skating.  Outside a store she sees a family in need.  Instead of walking by she rallies shoppers and Santa to make a difference.  This book also ends with a perfect last line: an invitation to readers to live the spirit every day year round.

     We need so many more books like these because sadly over half a century after Peter made his appearance we still don't have enough books featuring Black kids just being kids.

On a purrrsonal note yesterday we transitioned back to standard time, setting the clocks back an hour.  Now the sun is down at freaking 5:00 and for over another month blackness will keep nibbling away at our too short days.  It's easier on people who can drive.  But I have to get off the bus at the right stop and walk home.  Right now my route is mostly through an unlit woods path.  But when that gets snowed in I'll be walking a mile down sidewalk less Route 2 in crap visibility.  My life would be so much easier (and safer) if we had daylight savings all year round.  (Jules)

It does get dark much too early.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to the people who are working to make daylight savings year round.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway