Amelie

Remember in the movie Amelie when the narrator is introducing the characters, how every character is defined by an idiosyncratic list of things they like or dislike? The narrator would tell you what the thing was and you would see a slightly humorous depiction of the character's reaction to that thing.

If I were in that movies, the things I like would have been:

--standing outside on a windy day
--snuggling into warm sheets from the dryer
--organizing a closet

My dislikes would be:

--being around people wearing strong perfume or cologne.
--any kind of unidentified rattle or noise in a moving vehicle (not from the vehicle, although that is alarming, but rather something in the car making noise).
--when people (coworkers) won't stop talking to me when I am clearly feeling non-conversational.


Amelie's mother disliked, among other things, the pillow-creases that you get on your face while you are sleeping (unless you're a no-good back sleeper (sorry, I'm just bitter because I can't sleep on my back, a fact which creates pain in my life)).

Point of the story:

Last night was the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which meant I didn't really get to sleep until after three. I woke up swearing at 7:52 (I work at eight) with the mother of all pillow creases stretching vertically across my face.

That damn crease stayed on my face until 11 am.

Now is the part where I bring everything together and end with a pithy or clever comment, but between my red eyes and constant yawning, this is all I've got until after that pillow gets a second chance at my face.

Why I hate Roman Numerals

or, "Roman Numerals Do Not Automatically Make You Seem Smarter."

Dear publishers of newsletters, magazines, journals, and newspapers (I'm looking at YOU, newsletters),

I realize that publishing a periodical can be difficult. It's hard to keep track of all those numbers, and to remember what volume you last sent out. It's perfectly fine to say that you publish twelve times per year when in fact you publish 7, or 2 or whenever you feel like publishing. I can deal with that.

I understand that sometimes you may decide to change the title of your publication without warning, so that I don't recognize it when it comes. I understand that. I even understand it when, after some indeterminate amount of time, you inexplicably change the title again-- revert to the original or perhaps to something else entirely. I don't mind. Really, I don't.

I understand when you get behind, and your fall 2005 issue isn't published until June 2007. I mean, I personally think it would make more sense to just give up on 2006 entirely and get back on schedule. But hey, it's your prerogative.

It would be nice if you would try and be consistent with things. When you switch back and forth between seasons and months it just makes things so messy. I am a perfectionist though, so maybe that's just me.

There is one thing I don't understand, however, and it is this:

Why, oh WHY do you insist on using Roman Numerals when you have NO CONCEPT of how they work?

This may come as a surprise, but it doesn't make you seem smarter when you're using them incorrectly. Let's look at you for example, CN News. You are on your 93rd volume. Clearly, you are an important organization that has been around for a long time--Good for you! Do you think that your publication is made more, or less respectable when you write the number 93 as LXXXVVIII?

(that's 50+10+10+10+5+5+1+1+1. It's the two fives that really get me).

I know, I know. It does look impressive to see all those numbers stretched out across the page. But if you know anything about roman numerals? Not so impressive. 93 is XCIII (That's 100-10+1+1+1). I'll let you in on a little secret, "When you make up your own roman numerals, people laugh at you."

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but please please go to Google and type "roman numeral converter." It is SO EASY.

Pleadingly yours,

The Chocolate Milk Girl.

We Shall Overcome

Ha ha! I have finally conquered Blogger whilst managing to keep all my secret identities separate!

I'm rather embarrassed at how long it's taken me, but I blame grad school mostly. That and getting a real job in which I do not spend the entire day entertaining myself on the internet to stave off utter boredom. That and not feeling like blogging anymore. That and not having internet at my little* apartment.

I warn you, my return may only be temporary, as none of the conditions mentioned above have really changed.

Also, I discovered a post I wrote back in October, but for some reason never made public. It's a rather passionate essy I wrote entitled, "Why I Hate Dreaming." I've added it below, for your reading pleasure.

*Little, in this case, is not merely an adjective used as a term of endearment. My apartment, while not a studio, would cause claustrophobia in many people. I do love it though. And did I mention I live alone? Bliss, utter bliss.

Newbery Award Reader

Ok, because I'm not in school for the next two months, I have decided to begin my newest reading plan. Actually, it's my first reading plan because I've never read anything from a list before. I mean, I may have read a book from a list but I've never set out to read an entire list. Mostly when it comes to reading lists I just use them as a satisfying source of crossing things off and feeling superior. I read a lot peeps, I'm telling you.

Well imagine my horror when I looked at the Newbery Award list, and I've only read about 20% of the books! Me! Who wants to get a job recommending books to kids! Inexcusable. And not that great of a turnout for someone who claims to love YA books most of all.

So the Newbery Award has been around since 1922. That's um...*mental math*....um, still mental mathing...86 books. Give or take one. I also plan on reading all the Newbery Honor books, but I think I'll start with just the winners. And then there's the Printz Award, which is specifically for YA. The Printz has only been around since 2000 though, so I should be able to knock all those off pretty easily.

In theory, I will be commenting on these briefly as I read them. I think it will be really interesting to look at the winners through time.

(The books in pinky red are ones I have read. The ones in blue are ones that I suspect I have read, but won't know for sure until I start to read them again). I think I'll begin way back when, in 1922.

Read on. (My comments on the books as I read them are here).

Association for Library Service to Children
Newbery Medal Winners, 1922 – Present:
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan
(Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow
Books/HarperCollins)
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young
Readers/Simon & Schuster)
2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a
Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate
DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park(Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry(Houghton)
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and
Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard(Harcourt)
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832
by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L.
Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
(Houghton)
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson (Harcourt)
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by
Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Lippincott)
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

Strawberry, blackberry, schnozzberry, Newbery

1922: The Story of Mankind
Well, this is getting off to a slow start. The reason? The first book on the list is called "The Story of Mankind." When I ordered it from the library I noticed that it was shelved in the Adult non-fiction section. That seemed ominous. It's very outdated. I imagine that in its day it was quite controversial; 1922 seems early for a kids book teaching evolution to win a prestigious award like the Newbery. I'm slogging through it, but so far I'd say this book is no longer relevant. Way to go, Newbs.

8/15/07
I've read the first four books now, and just finally finished "The Story of Mankind." That was a chore. I can see how it was well-written and very well organized for its time, but it is pretty irrelevant now. Also: pretty boring at any time. The main thing that bothered me was how much the author assumed. He would say, "And the rest of this story is common knowledge," and then he would go on. That's just not ok for a book aimed towards young readers. Blah.

1923: The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle
I was wrong; I hadn't read this book before. I must have read one of the others in the series though (there are about 12). It was pretty good. I didn't love or loathe it. The edition I had was 'edited' in terms of the language and treatment of native peoples, but even so I raised my eyebrows a time or two. I can see the appeal of these books, it was a great adventure and wildly imaginative. The chapters read more as individual stories in sequence than one long story, but that's a good thing for emerging readers. It is very very English though, in terms of language, lifestyle and sensibilities. I think it would be a fun read-aloud story.

1924: The Dark Frigate
Pirates! This is the most piratey pirate tale I've read. There's nothing romanticized about the pirates life here and to be honest, it's a solid PG13 in terms of violence. This book is a really good example of the influence of the Victorian belief that children were merely small adults. There are no themes of childhood, or even young adulthood in this book. It is exciting, action packed, and completely rooted in the adult psyche. I quite enjoyed it.

1925: Tales from Silver Lands
This is an excellent collection of folk/fairy tales. I'm not sure if these are actual folk tales, or if they are literary tales, but either way they are great. As someone who has read loads and loads of fairy tale anthologies (middle school age) it was really refreshing to read these. The stories are set in some Spanish speaking land, (but not Spain) so they are unique to the European tales. As I said, that's very refreshing. As much as I love fairy tales, it gets redundant with the European tales, because every country has variations of the same tales. It was great to read some really new stories.