The Book Bully

The Book Bully. You've met him. That all-looming, impossible book to wrap your head around.

For whatever reason, the content, characters, voice, or story just aren't getting through. Diligent reader that you are, you push forward anyway, but not without incurring a few book-borne bruises along the way.

Will you ever escape its pages? Will you ever reach the back cover, or will you be sucked into the vortex of its gutter forever?

Of course, I'm talking about any picture books you may have picked up lately, nothing like Finnegans Wake, or anything.

Who are your book bullies?

Band Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Reed

It's that time of year again. Fall has begun and the scent of band books is in the air. Tomorrow kicks off the 27th Annual Band Books Week, "Celebrating the Freedom to Reed."

All across the country, events will be held to remind the citizens of this great nation not to take the freedom to enjoy woodwind music for granted.

From the American Library Association's website, "BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular..."

So whether you're a Kenny G fan, or you're waiting for the latest download of Turkish folk music on the low G clarinet, all woodwind music is a thing to be cherished; and one's right to select it must be diligently protected.

Oops....one moment.....

Sudo Nimm has just advised me of an error in our newsfeed. It's supposed to be Banned Books Week. Gosh, who would want to ban band books? Probably someone who can't reed.

Litereat, Literate

My son and I were reading Hop on Pop when he came up with the idea for a Hop on Pop picnic with Mr. Brown and Mr. Black. I suppose this wasn't too much of a stretch since we were reading the book at lunch time.

"Get this blanket. Orange," my son said. "And cheese, and green apples, and bananas, and milk, and these," he said.

By the way, "these" refers to the mystery food item above the bananas on page 50. I know what they look like to me, but I sure wouldn't want to eat them. Any more appetizing guesses out there?

My son put his budding editorial skills to use when he substituted plain cheese for the sandwiches on page 51.

We'd love to hear of other litereat picnic experiences (How many of you have done Green Eggs and Ham?). Try and think of what book you could dine with next. Don't forget, you can always "snack, snack, eat a snack. Eat a snack with Brown and Black."

Book Appetit!

Parallel Reading

Here's my son at "Feria del Libro" engaged in an activity I call "parallel reading," which is probably just another form of "parallel play." While the L.A. librarian read Peggy Rathmann's Officer Buckle and Gloria, my son opened up Where the Wild Things Are.

The scene made me imagine what the two stories, or any two stories, would sound like if read aloud at the same time. Would a third story emerge from the seeming gibberish, in the spaces in between the two stories? Uh-oh, it sounds like I may have another experiment on my hands.

Back to "parallel reading." Sometimes my son selects a bedtime book for me to read. Read that sentence again. That's right. He will choose a book for me to read aloud to myself, and then he selects a book for himself. Can anyone else speak to this interesting reading behavior?

Fun stuff: Note the "sizzling storytime" poster in the background of the above photo. In one of my many literary laboratories, I am working on a helio-biblio index that charts the temperatures for book festivals in the L.A. area. My research has revealed the following so far: books are hot! (based on data collected at the L.A. Times Festival of Books, the West Hollywood Book Fair, and Feria del Libro).

Stay tuned...