MotherReader

On Sunday my blogfriend at Big A, little a tagged me for a Five Interesting Things About You meme. Now, there is nothing I love more than talking about myself; however, I have done this meme before in the form of a biography. I’ve also written a lovely, if somewhat cryptic, list of 100 Things About Me during that trend. (Btw, I highly recommend putting together your own list of 100 Things, as it’s a great exercise in bringing out who you are with small snippets of information.) So, in response to Big A’s tag, I’m going to pull an item from my 100 Things list, relate it to a book or blog, and tag that blogger. It’s another crazy theme week here at MotherReader!

(If you’re thinking “Um, another?” I just closed out Teen Read Week, which incidentally began with this wonderful post that no one responded to because everyone was all wrapped up in that new kidlitosphere phenomenon, The Cybils. I’m way on board for The Cybils, but you missed my “Pinter tea lights” line. So sad. Oh, and I did a whole week on the National Book Festival. And most of a week on my first Mo Willems meeting. And... no, that may be it.)

From the 100 Things List:

86. I wish I appreciated poetry more than I do.
87. I have written seven poems.
88. And two haiku.

I’ve been trying to really get poetry. I generally participate in Poetry Friday, even if in odd ways. I like the idea of poetry, it just doesn’t do that much for me. But I try. Oh, Lord I try.

But one book in recent times that just floored me with its poems and illustrations was the picture book (or poetry book, if you prefer) If Not for the Cat, by Jack Prelutsky (though you’d never guess it). The poems were simple and lovely. The pictures by Ted Rand were gorgeous. My daughters and I spent a lot of time with this book, reading the poems and then taking turns saying what they meant. There were some difficult words in there, but that was some of the joy of sharing this book with a kid. I could take the opportunity to ask what they thought the word meant based on the animal pictured and the context. Like here:

Boneless, translucent,
We undulate, undulate,
Gelatinously

We could talk about why the author chose to use the word undulate with the jellyfish. Fantastic book for a variety of ages.

Which leads me to my blog connection. She’s been mentioned here before for her ability to capture the nature of a book in three lines. She should be on my blogroll, but I’ve been too lazy to update it. I love her concise and often funny reviews. Hailing from small town surburbia, Massachusetts, I tag Emily Reads.