Today I'll give what I'm pretty sure will be my final talk emanating from
LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair. I'll join Liz Dow, the extraordinary woman behind Leadership Philadelphia, and her leaderly contingent. We'll talk about this city we believe in.
The rest of the day will be a father-daughter day. Museums in the afternoon. Dinner. Then my father's early birthday present—tickets to "Once," which won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 2012.
I. Love. This. Story.
I. Sing. Those. Songs.
And while I gave my father many choices when we were planning out this day, I was secretly very glad when he said that "Once" was his first choice.
So off we will go.
Away, for a day, from here.
Title: Once
Author: Morris Gleitzman
Narrated by: Morris Gleitzman
Publisher: Bolinda Publishing
Publication Date: February 2, 2006
Listening copy via Sync
Once is the first in a series following Felix, a young Jewish boy, during World War II. But, of course, it's more than that.
Felix is living in a Catholic orphanage in Poland when the novel begins. His parents were booksellers and left
"This novel will leave you wanting a sequel as this love story must continue. Mian Moshin Zia writes from the heart. As the story is peppered with poetry you will find yourself returning to read them again and again." -- Reviewed by Readers Favorite
What would you do if you hurt the woman you loved beyond what is in human nature to forgive? That is the problem that Morkel has to overcome.
As the celebrated author, 'M---, No Time for Love', Morkel has vowed to never write a love story, or a story with a female protagonist. A staunch bachelor, Morkel is set in his ways; he has vowed to never fall in love. However, during a holiday in Kiev Morkel meets a 'person of interest'; someone who will change his life forever in all aspects, especially food-wise.
Food for thought is what Morkel learns from Maya. A girl with singing soul and a pure heart who values everything in her life, even the food she eats. One day Maya brings pumpkins for Morkel to show him her love. You can read for yourself what happens then…
I brought these pumpkins for you,” she removes a lunchbox from her bag. “I told you that I would find some way to thank you for your help.”
I smile back, the more open she is with me the better my novel will be. “Thanks mate,” I take the lunchbox from her and open it.
“You are welcome.” Before I can eat the pumpkins, a hand touches my wrist, stopping me. “First pray and then eat.” I am astonished, but before I can say anything, she bows her head and clasps her hands together. “Dear Lord, thank you for your love and kindness today. You give us strength and nutrition. As we sit in your presence at this bench, bless our food and bless all those gathered here.” I watch her while she prays. At the end of the prayer, she turns her head towards me, and I immediately clasp my own hands and close my eyes so that she does not realise that I was only listening to her pray and not praying myself. I am honestly not fond of pumpkin, but these are luscious and I eat them with great enthusiasm.
Morkel remembers that one moment with Maya and the pumpkins, and the prayer before starting to eat, forever. It makes him enjoy pumpkins as well, and he learns the value of prayer in his life.
ONCE Book Trailer:http://www.mianmohsinzia.com/p/o-n-c-e.htmlThank you for sharing your food for thought, Mian!
A few weeks ago, I watched "The Swell Season," the black-and-white documentary featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the musicians who brought us "Once."
("Once" remains one of my very favorite movies of all time.)
I can't get the documentary out of my head, and so I share the trailer with you today, on this cloudy Labor Day Weekend Sunday.
I am completely obsessed with this song. If you follow me on twitter you must know this already. I apologize and will do my best to start tweeting about something else. ;o)
What does this song has to do with illustrating or writing you might ask?
The answer is: nothing and everything.
It's a song, a lovely song, but from the moment I heard it I haven't been able to get it off my mind. It lead me to enter a state of mind I was unaware of and that made me very sensitive to things around me. In the last couple of days I had two wonderful ideas for children stories and they both came to me while listening to this song.
For one of them, I had to stop working on the book I was sketching, to write the idea down before it left my mind. Because we all know those sparks of an idea just fly away even faster than they appear.
We all can find insipration in different things. Try to find the little things that inspire you and surround yourselves by them. :o)
Btw, this song is from the movie "Once". A little low budget film from the Sundance Film Festival that stole my heart. If you haven't seen it, you should. You won't regret it.
I've been deep in the depths of revision for the past few weeks -- polishing up a picture book and a middle grade mystery. They are both done (*pause for cheering & confetti here*) and on submission now, and I have big plans for a post-revision reading binge. But before I do that, I want to talk about a handful of books I've read lately that you might like, too. Ready?
Amy Ignatow's THE POPULARITY PAPERS: RESEARCH FOR THE SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT AND GENERAL BETTERMENT OF LYDIA GOLDBLATT AND JULIE GRAHAM CHANG is the book to hand to your girls who are fans of the Wimpy Kid series. It's that same diary/graphic novel blend that keeps even reluctant readers turning pages and laughing like crazy. Interestingly enough, the main characters in this are in fifth grade, but it's going over really well with some of my 7th grade girls, even though they're a bit older. (Due out from Amulet April 1st)
I can't keep Lisa Schroeder's CHASING BROOKLYN on my classroom library shelf - it's one of those books that gets handed from kid to kid in the cafeteria and never makes it all the way back to my classroom, and that's just fine. I understand why the kids love it, too. Set at the same high school as Lisa's I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, her latest YA novel-in-verse is about love and loss, remembering and moving forward. It left me in tears, but they were good ones - the kind you cry when you've just read an amazing book that's full of sorrow and beauty and hope all at once. It's a a beautiful, beautiful book. (Available now from Simon & Schuster)
Fans of Jerry Spinelli's MILKWEED and Lois Lowry's NUMBER THE STARS will love ONCE by Morris Gleitzman. One of my 7th grade students absolutely devours historical fiction set during the Holocaust, and she was waiting for this ARC, standing at my desk, tapping her foot as I turned the last page.
The main character, Felix, begins the story as a unique (and heartbreaking) unreliable narrator. He's a Jewish boy, hidden in a Catholic orphanage, and utterly unaware of the danger he's facing. When he sets out to find his parents, he sees evidence of the Nazis destruction but misinterprets much of it, placing himself squarely in harm's way. Ultimately, though, he's faced with too much reality to go on believing the stories he's told himself, and from there, the book chronicles his loss of innocence and his coming of age in the worst of times. It's beautifully written and though like many books set during the Holocaust, it's tough to read at times, it's certainly not without hope. Highly recommended, it comes out from Henry Holt March 30th.
Two days after turning the last page of NOTHING by Janne Teller, I'm still struggling over what to write about it. I can't really say that I liked it, since I read most of it with a pained expression on my face. But is it brilliantly well-written? And smart? And incredibly thought-provoking? Yes, yes, and yes.
The premise is simple and kind of horrifying: A 7th grader climbs up into a tree and says he's not coming down because there's really no meaning in life anyway. His classmates, u
Yesterday the leaves here gave up for good, streaming down, hailing down; at times I thought that I was seeing snow. It was the end of the autumnal show. I felt deep melancholy.
Late in the day, Bill and I watched "Lars and the Real Girl," a story about a lonesome man who is pained by touch and who nonetheless longs for a woman. And so he brings a beautiful, contemplative-seeming sex doll into his life and (consequently) into his community—all of them treating this silent creature with such care and making room, always, for the man (Ryan Gosling) to step forward, out of delusion and sadness and into life.
I was so deeply moved by this movie—by its oddness, its kindness, its determined, quiet vision. Moved by the artists who would make such a film and the producers who would let them. It brought the film "Waitress" to mind, and also "Once," a movie about a busker and an immigrant who make music during one Dublin week. I can hardly think of "Once" without welling up with tears. Without knowing, for sure, that this is the sort of legacy I'd like to leave—one story, one single story that gets every note right.
Why is it so hard to capture human kindness—on the page, on the screen? To do it as well as Lars and Once and Waitress? These movies stand out because they are the rare exception, because they dare to be compassionate and odd at the same time, compassionate, perhaps, because they are odd.
As an artist, I know what I would like to achieve. As a person, I know how far I must travel still to get there.
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It is interesting as I was just thinking about this novel the other day and recommending it to friends. I love the passage about the pumpkins. In the story, it's the little things that count.
I love how Morkel not only finds love but becomes enlightened from this very special woman .
I am waiting for this to become a movie! We truly need a great love story such as this!
Well done, Mian.