Heads I win, Tails....I was Never Here.

I’m fifty years old. Big deal, right? A lot of people are, or have been, or will be fifty years old. But recently, I realized that if one little event 107 years ago had gone just a little bit differently, I would never have seen fifty, or forty, or 10, or anything.
This little event that had such a great bearing on my life had the same bearing on my father’s life, my grandfather’s life, and my kids’ lives. So what was this little event? A coin toss. And the implications of that coin toss will go through my mind every time I am called on to make a decision by choosing between heads and tails while a coin goes flipping through the air.
As the story goes, My great Grandfather and his younger brother were middle-aged bachelors who lived next door to each other on family land in Saybrook Connecticut. Because they were confirmed bachelors, and thrifty New Englanders, they shared a cleaning woman. One day, the cleaning woman, whose name I should probably know but don’t, died unexpectedly. Now, she left behind the typical cleaning lady stuff, a feather duster, a bucket of soapy water, and an 18 year old daughter. My great grandfather and his brother, being concerned gentlemen, decided that the right thing to do would be to honor the memory of their cleaning woman by marrying her daughter, thereby caring for her. The question of who would actually marry her was best settled, they decided, by the flip of a coin. Now I don’t know if it was a single flip or best two out of three, but the result was that my great grandfather married the young woman who, one would hope, had some sort of say in the matter. The reason I say that I should probably know the name of the dead cleaning woman is because she was my great-great grandmother.

So, in 1890 at the age of fifty, my great grand father was well on his way to being the last of his line, the last of my line. If that coin had taken one half spin more or less, my grandfather, father, me, and my kids, along with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., would never have existed. Any effect or influence that we have had, good or bad, would have been lost. There is something a bit humbling about knowing that your very existence was dependent on the way a man called a coin toss 107 years ago… I’m sure glad he lost!

With a name like Grimm...

There have been many revisions of the old fairy tales, and most people today are probably more familiar with the Disney versions than any other. For the true fairy tale experience, however, nothing is quite as enjoyable as the real thing- The Brothers Grimm. Sure, their tales reflect a harsher world than the one we would like our children to know. Maybe they are a bit gruesome, gory, and ghastly, but they generally end with the good being rewarded and the bad being punished (usually in some violently satisfying way.) They may be the cause of a few nightmares, but they will also paint some visuals that Disney wouldn't dare to bring to the screen. For example, I remember reading the Grimm's version of Cinderella in which one of the vile, ugly step-sisters is so determined to marry the prince that she cuts off her toes in order to make the glass slipper fit. Boy did that paint a picture in my young mind that was hard to shake. For years after that I was even afraid to tell my mother when my shoes got too small. That's good stuff!

Harry Potter

High Fantasy
Just when the obituary was being written for reading, JK Rowling came along and applied CPR. With attention spans contracting and everything going multimedia, a lot of people were ready to relegate the book to the dusty shelves of museums. But last Summer bookstores across the country and around the world hosted events for the sixth Harry Potter book that bore a striking resmblence to a rock concert. Mugles everywhere were lining up to buy the book. They even did an initial printing of 10 million copies. The series has even bucked the odds by gaining readers despite the fact that the books seem to be getting longer. Although, at around 700 pages it is the perfect length for nursing a quiditch injury.

The big cover-up

Maurice Sendak has always been one of my favorite illustrators. I remember spending what seemed like hours studying the intricate details of his drawings in the Little Bear books. As a new father I was excited when Sendak came out with In the Night Kitchen in the early 1980's. Much to my delight, the book became the focus of controversy. The controversy did not center on the very obvious references to the holocaust scattered throughout the book. No, the controversy was over the fact that the hero of the story, a little boy named Mickey, falls out of his pajamas and exposes his private parts. Many blushing librarians across the country solved the problem by fashioning little diapers for the exhibitionist Mickey. Silly librarians!

Punny foetry

When the warped mind of Shel Silverstein is joined with the verbal acuity of Reverend Spooner, the result is a larrel of baughs. This last book of Silverstein's poetry is a lot of fun. Don't take my word though. I put up a link to his web site so that you can see for yourself. It's a fery vun site. You can even listen to Dr. Hook (ask your parents) read " Runny and the Sea Poup." I do have to say though, I first heard this book read by my niece whose North Carolina accent gave it a quality that even Dr. Hook (did you ask your parents?) can't approach. The only problem with reading this book is that you spend the dest of the ray falking tunny. Oh yeah, for more offbeat poetry check out the Ogden Nash link. He was the Shel Silverstein of my youth.

Creating a monster with a purple crayon.

Sometimes you can judge how good a book is by how much trouble it gets you into. Harold and the Purple Crayon is a very imaginative book about a boy who goes on an adventure through the drawings of his purple crayon. He creates a moon, an ocean, and even a monster. As a child, I thought this was great. I even got my own purple crayon out of my medium sized box of crayolas (my parents never got me the big box) and tried to draw my own adventure. I wasn't able to create a moon or an ocean, but my mother did become quite a monster when she saw that I had drawn all over her walls.
This is definitely the best book of the series. Some of the earlier sequels aren't bad, but the idea has really become too drawn out.

My first solo read.

Although the cover of my copy was a sort of greenish brown color and the author was given as Theo Lesieg (Seuss's real name spelled backwards) this was the first book that I read by myself. I read it to my first grade class. The story, about three animal characters who compete with each other by stacking as many apples on their heads while carrying on acrobatic feats, provides enough action to keep the interest of a six year old. The rhyme scheme, the pictures, and the fact that each episode progresses one apple at a time made it an easy book to read under the scrutiny of twenty-five nose picking peers. Forty-two years later I am still reading this book in front of my class, but now it is to high school students who are old enough to know that nose-picking should only be done in the privacy of your own automobile.

A marriage of words and pictures.

One of the most important aspects of children's literature is how well the pictures are combined with the words. Have you ever seen a new version of an old favorite that just doesn't seem to have the appeal of the original? That is most often because the illustrations, fine as they may be artistically, just don't fit the text. Edward Gorey is a very talented artist, but if he had done the illustrations for Goodnight Moon that poor bunny would have been too terrified to fall asleep. And Here's to You is a great example of when it does work. The entertaining wordplay is beautifully matched with fun, colorful illustrations. This marriage creates a reading experience that is every bit as much fun for the reader as it is for the listener.

The importance of reading to your kids.

I am a firm believer that kids who are read to are more apt to become readers themselves. I also think that kids who are readers grow up to get better jobs. I know that even if they don't get better jobs, they at least have something to do while standing in the unemployment line. We read to our kids and they have both grown up to be readers. When my daughter was little she loved The Cat in the Hat. She even went through a period where it was the only book she would let me read to her at night. As a result of the repetition, I soon had the entire book memorized and would recite it as I showed her the pictures. She also must have had it memorized because she would stop me if I turned the pages in the wrong place. Her love of books continued throughout her childhood and she is now in law school. Interestingly enough she is specializing in laws involving property damage sustained by six-foot tall felines wearing funny hats.