A Grand Expotition to the Library...

Literature:  "Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value."

I had never heard the term "kid lit" until a couple of years ago when I was searching out info. on how to write a children's book . I had a couple of great reference books from the library but once I went on-line, down the rabbit hole I tumbled! I ended up visiting some great forums that got me connected with lots of people who shared a love of literature for kids.

I am a big reader, always have been. Enid Blyton's "Famous Five" series were the first books I remember reading on my own and they transported me into a world of adventure with 5 British kids and their dog. Now I have kids of my own and my all-time favourite place to go with them was the public library. I loved going into the children's section when they were small and perusing the shelves of colourful picture books while they graduated from pulling board books off the shelves to chew them to walking over to me with a towering pile of books asking, "can we get all these?" It was so great to be in a place where they could pick out whatever they wanted and I could say, "Yes."

We always rode our bikes to the library. The kids each started out on the baby seat on the back of mine when they were small and then moved up to the trail-a-bike. I always had the back pack to carry all of the books home, so our limit of books was dependant on how much would fit in the pack and how much it weighed! I always went in saying,"only 5 books each. Mummy has to carry these!" I can't say no to a good book or to the child who wants to take them out. Needless to say, I had very sore shoulders on library day and often ended up having a plastic bag full of books dangling from the handle bars as well.

When they could each ride on their own, I had them take their own back packs to help me out, which of course also meant that we could take out MORE books! It felt like collecting treasure. On library days we would have a "three book night" at bedtime, which more often than not, turned into a 5 or 6 book night because I'm such a sucker for reading amazing stories.

My kids are now 9 and 12 years old and we are still reading together at bedtime but the books have definitely changed. We did read a couple of Famous Five books over the years, which had us rolling around laughing at the language they used in the 40's, the freedom the children had in their summers and how outdated they were. (my kids and I still laugh about the cow tongue and boiled sweets the characters packed for their picnic lunch) They were still exciting adventures though, and we had a grand time reading them.

 I am not a scholar of children's literature or a writer of children's books but I am absolutely passionate about them, so I decided to create a blog where I would serve up a smackerel of something about our favourite authors and books and all manner of other writings.

The Runaway Dinner

The Runaway Dinner
By Allan Ahlberg, Illustrated by Bruce Ingman
Candlewick Press, 2006

I have picked up Allan Ahlberg's books over the years; "Peepo" and the "Bert" books, but I didn't really appreciate his work until we read "The Runaway Dinner." It's about a boy, Banjo Cannon, whose regular dinner of sausages decides it doesn't want to get eaten and runs away. A hilarious chase around the neighbourhood and through the park ensues, with Banjo's dinner running into all kinds of danger and fun.

I love Ahlberg's narrative style of talking to the reader as if he's sitting at the table with them, recounting a story and inviting them to participate with questions like, "Full of such fun, don't you agree?" Each turn of the page draws us further into the adventure with the mischievous sausage in the lead. The text often becomes part of the illustrations and is perfectly placed on the page. I read the book once and we recognized a winner. I immediately read it again, more slowly the second time, savouring all the details and adapted my read-aloud voice to better fit the writing style. It got funnier the more we read it!

Allan Ahlberg was adopted by a working class family in The Black Country (in the Midlands of England) and dreamt of becoming a writer. It wasn't until he married Janet, an illustrator, and she asked him to write her a story, that he actually put pen to paper and began his writing career! Janet and Allan Ahlberg worked together for 20 years until Janet passed away from breast cancer at the age of 50. One of their most popular books, "The Jolly Postman" published in 1986, sold over 6 million copies. It was filled with envelopes and "real" letters to and from various fairy tale characters, delivered by the jolly postman.

We just read "Half a Pig" which was illustrated by Allan and Janet's daughter, Jessica Ahlberg and enjoyed it very much. Another humorous chase story involving a great cast of characters, including kid heroes, bad guys, a divorcee and a pig.

I am now an official Allan Ahlberg fan and have 7 more of his books on hold at our library. Check out a Guardian interview with Ahlberg here.

Alliteration Challenge

I haven't been keeping up with my alliteration stories on a regular basis. Life got busy and I am now getting back on track to making time for writing regularly.
Here's one that I gave as a Birthday card to my musician husband:

Tony's Telecaster

Tony, the resident technophile, felt his toil was tedious, his talents wasted. "I'd rather live in a tee-pee tie-dying and tinkering with my telecaster." His apprentice, a teeny bopper technophobe, agreed and told Tony to telegraph his intentions via telepathy to his techno-geek friends. Telepathic communication proved more traumatic than Tony or his teeny bopper trainee had anticipated. A tiring game of telephone tag ensued.
Tony teethed his way through tee-pee building but was too tired to tie-dye. While his friends, Tiana and Marco Tiente, watched a re-run of their favourite telenova, Tony tried tuning his telecaster. Soon, temporal tunes tasting of rich melody floated untethered across the tee-pee.
"You have a terrific termperament," his friends told him. "Perfect for life in a tent."

© 2011, Sonya Wilson, all rights reserved

Farley Follows His Nose

When I saw the book, "Farley Follows His Nose" by Lynn Johnston and Beth Cruikshank, the illustrations brought back memories of  reading the For Better Or For Worse comics that appeared in the weekly  paper.  The Patterson family is back in a full colour picture book with Farley stealing the show! Farley loves eating and his nose leads him on an adventure around the neighbourhood that had my kids and I laughing out loud. Lynn Johnston gives us a gem of a book that is filled with warm humour and is a great family read.

Look for the second Farley adventure available on June 21, 2011!

A portion of the royalties received from the sale of the books benefit the the Farley Foundation, helping pets in need.

Farley Follows His Nose
The Bowen Press, An Imprint of Harper-Collins Publishers
2009

Weekly Poetry Stretch

I am trying my pen at poetry these days and the blog, The Miss. Rumphius Effect, hosts a Poetry Stretch every week. This week the topic is poems about your favourite month. I have posted my poem below as well as on the host site, where you'll find some other fine musings on the months of the year. (seems that autumn is a popular time of year!)

Fall back
into leafy fire. 
Amber leaves against perfect saphire skies,
the patchwork forests
keep the darkening warm.
Bubbling over
joy
with just a dash of melancholy.

Kicking up the colours
floating 
to the earth
makes grieving summer easy.
Giving thanks
for cozy back to school sweaters.
A love affair with wool begins.
The giddy anticiaption
of fear
on the dark, laughing streets.

Earthy scents give way to 
visceral remembering
of rich soil
and harvests
not collected in a cart.

Crisp and content
is the fall
into 
October.


©2011, Sonya Wilson, all rights reserved

Alliteration Challenge

This week's Alliteration Challenge is being brought to you by the letter "P". If you want to join in, please leave your poem/story in the Comments box.

Pond Pearls

The bells pealed peaceably in the pueblo. Paul dipped his palm into the pond, lazily drifting in the pedalo. It was a perfect day for pearling. Pietra persisted in pestering Paul, pompously insisting that there were no pearls to be procured from the pond. Paul watched the peacocks peck at the dried up pease-pudding and peelings that had fallen to the ground from Peasant Pancho's market table. It was Peasant Pancho, a peddler, with a peculiar peaky look about him, who had pronounced that he had seen pearls in the pond.

Paul parked the pedalo and peeled off his peacoat. It was time to find the pearly pearls that lay hidden at the bottom of the pond. Paul peeked under rocks and peeled back the peaty bottom of the pond, finding only a peach pit and a few peanuts. As he clambered back upon the shore, feeling a little put out, Paul perceived a small polished pebble, looking remarkably pearl-like. He picked it up and after pondering it's pureness, proclaimed it to be the finest pearl-pebble in the province. Paul felt a glowing pride in his new position as a pioneer of pearl-pebbles and asked Peasant Pancho to join him in his newfound pursuit. As for Pietra? She partnered with Paul and Peasant Pancho and became a professional peddler of pearl-pebbles.

©2011 Sonya Wilson, all rights reserved

Alliteration Challenge

I do like the dictionary. Considering this, my vocabulary is not very extensive and I seem to have lost words since I've had kids. When my kids and I are sitting at the table at mealtime, and one of them asks me what a word means, I can usually use it in a sentence and I understand it's meaning but can't give them a definition. I reach for the dictionary, conveniently situated on a bookshelf beside the table, and announce, "it's dictionary time!" My daughter now asks, "what time is it mommy?" to which I usually respond with the actual time. She laughs and tells me that it's dictionary time!


Over the years, I have had fun with words by making up poems/stories of alliteration for cards, usually for my husband. A couple of great kids books we've read that use alliteration are "Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda" and "Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes" by Margaret Atwood.

Here is my first story using alliteration, inspired by the pages that opened in the dictionary for me this morning (p.708 & 709, The Oxford Paperback Dictionary)

The Search and Salvage

Sarah, from the Salvation Army, wearing her Sam Browne belt, set off on a quest to secure a supply of samphire to savour in salads. She avoided the salvia, with its spikes of red flowers, which made her feel faint. She had run out of sal volatile, which she kept as a salve, for saving her from these spells.

The sandstone cliffs were daunting but Sarah, with her usual sang-froid, approached them in sandals. She had marvelled at the sandpipers scampering amongst the waves as she steered her sampan onto the sandy surface of the beach. Satisfied after a lunch of sandwiches and sangria, she proceeded to scale the sandstone wall that spread before her.

As she scrambled up the hill, sanguine about her quest, she stumbled upon a saluki. After raising a paw in salutation, the saluki supervised Sarah in sussing out the samphire she so desired. With samson-like strength, Sarah and the saluki, whose name was Sam, scrambled up the scarp and scree. In the last rays of sunlight, they saw it. A staggeringly salubrious sampling of samphire. Stupefied by its scent, Sarah opened an empty sandbag, and started securing a stockpile of the coveted plant.

She smiled at Sam and signaled her departure with a song of solidarity. The saluki joined in and their symmetry of sound stretched across the sea.

by Sonya ; )
©2011 Sonya Wilson, all rights reserved