Children's Literature is Fun

Okay, not all of it is fun. Some of it is insipid. Some of it is saccharine. Some of it is just stupid. But some of it is so, so fun :-) I like it with a little twist and I think many kids do too. Not enough authors take advantage of children's odd sensibilities, although there are notable exceptions, both new and old. A couple of older dark and twisty authors are Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl. Three of the more recent ones that come to mind are Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, and Philip Ardagh.

Today I want to share with you something that just really tickled me. Here:Gyo Fukikawa's A to Z Picture Book.
Looks like a fairly typical picture book for very young children, yes? Mostly it is. The pages are full of many examples of words that start with the different letters of the alphabet. There were a couple that just made me laugh.
For example:K - Kenny is kowtowing. Of course he is! hee hee!
And:Z - zombie. I saw that and just went, "Yessss!" Now there is that zombie mayhem I was seeking.

Put me in mind of Sebastien's current alphabetical adventures. This book was published in 1974, but if parents are smart they are still reading it to their children today...at least until Sebastien's work is published.

Hope you enjoyed this twisted side of children's lit! What is your favorite children's book? Do you like different children's books as an adult or do you have old tried and true favorites? Tell me about it! I'm a professional.

When It's Time for Leavin', I Hope You Understand...

Here we are, well in to summer on this fine Choose and Defend Wednesday. We all deserve a vacation, don't you think? Let's do some traveling! Alright, that's settled. But of course there is a decision to be made... First, let's remove the distracting restrictions of time and money. Both will not bother us here. Awesome, right? All you have to do is make a choice about how you prefer to travel. Choose. Then explain your preference to the rest of us. Defend. So? What will it be?

Fly
OR

Drive

Of course you should feel free to throw in any details you wish to about your trip. Details are always welcome. But at least, I beseech you, Choose and Defend. Thanks!!!

Bored With Blogthings (forgive me!), I Tried This...

What Historical figure are you?

You are Cleopatra!

Beautiful and Charming. You are able to persuade anyone to do anything you would like, because of your hotness and charisma. You are an expert in gaining power over anyone you choose.

That's right! My hotness and charisma get me everything! Everything! Bwahahahaha! Um, yeah.


And Here is a link to a little video of the concert I was at Saturday night. It isn't my video and I'm not in the video, but you can see what I saw and where I was...you know, if you want to.

LOUDquiet Weekend

This is the lawn at the Arboretum. You can't see the stage here, but it was down there somewhere....

Last week was one of THOSE weeks. You know the ones. Just soul killing. I had Friday off though and had such a relaxing day that it really rejuvinated me for Saturday, which I knew was going to be super busy. And it was. I don't think I sat down once the whole time I was at work. I had a couple of busy hours on the desk and in the afternoon I had my Very Arty Tween Party. I know...tween is a doofusy word. We use it for the "big" kids in the reading program, ages 8-14. I had put a lot of work into the event, so it went great and was well attended. I am hoping to have a picture or two to show you. Even though it was a lot of fun, I was relieved when it was over. It is one of my biggest events each year and I am just so happy when I pull it off.

After work I had a concert to go to. I had won four tickets in an office raffle. I didn't even really know what it was going to be like. I knew it was the California Philharmonic and that the show was called Basically Beatles. I met my friends, Milly, Mel, and The Activist, we got some Subway sammiches and off we went. The Arboretum is really close to where I work so it was no trouble getting there, but parking was difficult and we had to walk quite a way. I don't mind a walk, but it was still quite hot. I hadn't been there for a concert before and I was surprised at how huge the crowd was, although it didn't feel bad as the venue was huge. We had lawn seats, so it was just like a picnic. It cooled down nicely as the sun set. I had imagined that the show would be orchestral arrangements of Beatle's songs. It did have that element, but I was surprised to see that The Fab Four, a popular tribute band was there as well. They did some songs on their own, their were some straight orchestral versions, and there were some of their later songs, many of which included orchestral arrangements. It was a lot more fun than I'd anticipated and the crowd got very into the Beatles experience, so to speak.

Saturday didn't end until about 2 am, so I felt okay about sleeping in until 10 am on Sunday. I did almost nothing all day long. Watched lots of tv, read, computered. Handsome Lad and his father went off yesterday for a little beach vacation, which is nice for Handsome Lad and also meant I wasn't running him around. It was a genuine day off. The only time I went out was to get my dinner, because I couldn't be bothered to cook. It was deeply relaxing and made me feel ready to face the new week, which I am going to believe will be better than last week. I hope you had a good weekend too...either full of fun stuff or full of the zen of nothing. You can tell me about it if you like! I'm listening.

This Musical Message is For Putting the Fun Back in Sin

Lying There Digging Through the Garbage in My Head

You will no doubt recognize this as my Saturday Scavenger Hunt post. See? It is Saturday! And here I am with my photos. This week's word, SCRAP, comes to us from the fun and fascinating Crazy4Coens over at Raising Sunny.

I'm afraid I have gone with the obvious sort of SCRAP up in here. It had to be done...I spend nine hours a day here in the library and as you will know there is always plenty of SCRAP paper lying around for your note taking and such. Here, take a look:

Here is SCRAP paper in a bin next to one of the printers. No sense in throwing it away because of a typo or worse. We recycle!

We like to turn big SCRAP paper into little bits of SCRAP paper. Goes better with the teeny golf pencils we like to strew about the building.

Big SCRAP is converted to little SCRAP with the help out our handy dandy papercutter! Scary, isn't it? Yes, of course I have cut myself on it a time or two. I'm special like that.

Thanks for being SCRAPpy enough to stop by and look at library SCRAP with me :-) Make sure you check in with Crazy4Coens to see who she is tagging for next week. Ah, ssssS-CRAP! Another week! haha!

Sometimes the Dream Becomes Reality

Yeah, I've been meaning to get out more, so yesterday evening my little bear friend Milly and I decided to go to the free concert in the park that the city sponsors. We went and picked up some Thai food and headed out.

It was crowded but we found parking. And guess what? We both got laid! Um, I mean lei'd...oh well. We hadn't brought lawn chairs or a blanket, but we did find a bench. Unfortunately, it was under a very sheddy tree. We had to keep closing the lids on our food because little tree bits were falling constantly. The music was playing when we got there. Meet...The Hodads:
Awesome, yes? They play "beach music". Lots of Beach Boys, Jan & Dean...there was Mungo Jerry and even some Elvis. And they were pretty good on their instruments, actually...although the vocals left a bit to be desired. Can't have everything at a free concert though, right?

Just in case things got out of hand with the crowd, there was security provided in the form of volunteer auxiliary officers.
Do NOT mess with these two, hear me? They were adorable. The crowd was made up of: a)People over the age 60. Mostly white...old skool Arcadians b)Families with young children. Mostly Asian, more specifically mostly Chinese...the new Arcadia
In any case, not too many obvious rabble rousers in the mix :-) It was good for people watching. I believe Milly may be creating a Facebook photo album entitled 'Gents in Hats and Dogs Wearing Clothes'

Here is Milly doing a little dance. Isn't she cute?
So. Now you know how the Librarians party on a balmy Thursday evening in July.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I have my big Tween party tomorrow at work, then another concert. This one will be the California Philharmonic playing 'Basically Beatles' at the Botanical Gardens. Nothing like orchestral versions of Beatles songs, eh? Well, I got the tickets for free from an office raffle so what the heck. Let the music play, I say :-)