We were doing a service project.  Someone had found boxes of unwanted tee shirts in the Union attic and Lisa was tasked with doing something with them.  We all taught attendees an easy way to convert them into dog toys.  

Here are your first pictures of UMaine family and friends weekend.  This is my best friend Lisa Morin with her precious Annie.  I was helping her out.

Let It Snow

     There's very little time in Northern states like Maine between putting the lawnmowers away and hauling out the snow shovels.  For adults the expected precipitation can conjure up not so pleasant thoughts of shoveling snow from cars, paths, and steps in frigid temps, dealing with treacherous driving conditions, and sharing the roads with people who have forgotten that these driving conditions require caution.  But for our littlest kids the white stuff heralds a time of wonder, enchantment, and adventure.  I got my hands on a few wonderful winter volumes that will come in handy pretty darn soon.  They'll engage our kids and maybe, if we're truly fortunate, rekindle in our hearts a little of the magic.

     Caralyn and Mark Buehner's snowmen books give kids fascinating glimpses into the secret lives of those loveable creations.  Snowmen At Work is no exception.  The book's bundled up narrator comes out of the house first thing in the morning to shovel the walk only to see it's clear.  The only one outside is their proud looking snowman.  Is it possible?  Readers and listeners are shown other jobs the Frosties of this world can handle. Maybe your child can think of a few more occupations.

     When you were a kid did you stick to you stick to the safe sledding hills or seek out something more challenging?  As you probably can guess, I was and continue to be of the latter persuasion.  At one point I tried to find Bangor's most formidable hill.  I even ventured down the hill in Cascade Park which is quite steep with lots of stuff to crash into.  Luckily the park lies between the hill and Route 2 so I didn't spin out into traffic.  Then I had to make sure my kids, rather than my parents, didn't find out.

     James Yang's Go, Sled! Go! Gives kids a breathtaking literary adventure.  Our everychild narrator makes their way down a mountain, picking up various critters--even a moose and a penguin--on the way down.  Some of their maneuvers look like something accomplished by a roller coaster.  This is a perfect read aloud.  Even the most timid adults will deliver with expression.  And the text is sparse enough for little kids to "read" it themselves after hearing it a few times.  Talk about a confidence builder!

     Of course winter and holidays go hand in hand.  Finally there's an alternative to that moldy oldie Twelve Days Of Christmas with its allusions going back to a time when the rich lived in castles and everyone else made do with hovels.  Lords a leaping?  Seriously.

     Twelve Dinging Doorbells brings the Christmas song into the 21st century.  A family reunion is afoot.  Members arrive bearing their culinary specialties.  No pallid Better Homes and Gardens fare.  We're talking chitlins, baked macaroni and cheese, and the narrator's favorite sweet potato pie.  Children of color will enjoy this fine book's lively representation.

     A fun project for family or older kid would be making a novel version around interests or experiences.  Football season?  Vacation?  Surviving a challenge?  Building a tree house?

     When COVID was just settling in my 12 days of pandemic consisted of

One stay at home mandate

Two hamsters fussing

Three kids to homeschool

Four dogs to walk

Five stir crazy cats

Six politicians ranting 

Seven scammers calling 

Eight scary statistics 

Nine people testing positive

Ten surfaces to sanitize 

Eleven times to wash hands

Twelve mom I'm boreds.

Surely you can do better.

     Anyway these fine books would be great holiday gifts sure to be treasured by lucky recipients.  

On a purrrsonal note, I'm not yet all out grinchy on winter yet.  Just ambivalent.  I still get the enchantment of the first flakes dancing through the air.  I enjoy activities like sledding, snowball fights, and sculpting snow critters, especially cats.  But on days when to get to school I have to walk a mile down sidewalk less  Route 2 in the middle  of a blizzard with crap visibility and cars and trucks speeding all around and then stand in slush that soaks through my boots while waiting for a bus that might not show up I'm so not feeling the magic.  (Jules)

I don't like winter.  It gets too cold.  And the birds are away down south.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who enjoy the magic of the season at least part of the time.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School

YA fiction 

     "So you're running away to Catholic school now?  Are you that desperate to avoid me?

     Yes.  Desperate enough to quit my job, too.  Anything to keep from seeing her.  Anything."

     If there's an adage to describe Yamilet, protagonist of Sonora Reyes' The Lesbiana's Guide To Catholic School, it's once burned, twice shy.  Her sophomore year in public school ended badly.  Her long time best friend and crush, Bianca, outed her.  Now she and her academically gifted  brother,  Cesar, are starting out at an expensive Catholic school.  Nobody knows of her shaming there.  Determined never to go through that again she's going to fake being straight whether or not she makes it.  Only that's going to be really challenging because...

     ...she's majorly attracted to Bo, a classmate who is openly gay and politically outspoken, everything Yamilet wishes she could be.  And school isn't the only place coming out could be dangerous.  Her mother seems to share her church's condemnation of gays and lesbians.  She's trying to save enough to rent an apartment if she and Cesar (who is bi) are kicked out of their home.

     Cesar creates his own challenges.  In fact the real reason the siblings transferred schools was that he kept getting into fights.  Their mother hopes a new school will give him a fresh start.  But she also expects Yamilet to keep an eye on him and keep him out of trouble.

     Readers learning to feel at ease with their own changing, intersectional selves will find Yamilet's coming out and coming of age narrative to be engaging, compelling, and thought provoking...plus a damn good read.  It will fly off the shelves of library YA sections.

On a purrrsonal note, this weekend was UMaine's family and friends weekend.  I'd promised Lisa Morin that I'd help her with a service project: teaching attendees to make dog toys out of unwanted tee shirts.  With no buses on Saturdays I had to thumb a ride.  But it was well worth while.  Lots of people who made dog toys put them in the bin for shelter dogs.  They all had fun.  And there were lots of other fun stuff on the mall.  You'll see some in the pictures.  There was steel drum band music and lots of free food.  And the weather was purrrfect.  (Jules)

It sounds more like nightmare on College Avenue.  There were dogs all over the place.  I'm very glad I stayed home. I got to meet Jules' friend Katherine whom I totally approve of.  You can't let your people hang out with the wrong crowd.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who attended and hopefully didn't share COVID germs.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone