Just a quick reminder that I am blogging reviews from the 2015 Diversity Reading Challenge. Today’s picture book falls into category #2. I am sure to post more in this category as the year progresses. Title: The King Cake Baby Written … Continue reading
Add a CommentViewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Epiphany, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 6 of 6
Blog: Miss Marple's Musings (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: picture book, New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Book recommendation, Vernon Smith, folktale, Epiphany, Diversity Reading Challenge 2015, gingerbread baby, Keila Dawson, The King Cake Baby, Add a tag
Blog: The World Crafter's Inkspot (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Christmas, Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Epiphany, Three Wise Men, Christian Kane, Flashpoint, 2015, Midnight Mass, Add a tag
First off, Merry Christmas to all! I do hope you all had a beautiful and wonderful Christmas Day.
Source |
Merry Christmas!!!! |
Mine was just the best. I feel like my family celebrates the best Christmas. (No, I'm not prejudiced. Not at all! ;-)
We had Midnight Mass at our house, and we (the girls) sang all the Propers of Mass XVI, which is the Iesu Redemptor Mass. It was really quite lovely and I think we did a pretty good job, though ONE sister (I shan't mention any names) sang a part of the Sanctus quite incorrectly and quite in my ear, so there was a faltering moment where the Sanctus was WRONG until we managed to get back on track. Other than that, all went well and we sang some lovely Christmas carols as well, like In The Bleak Midwinter and Angels We Have Heard on High.
Source |
Once Mass was over and all the parishioners that had come to it had gone home, we put the wee ones to bed. Then, the grownups - or grownuppish ones - put out all the pressies under the tree and laid out stockings for Santa to fill (which he did AFTER the grownups went to bed!) and left a little plate of cookies and a glass of milk out for him to snack on once he'd finished all his heavy lifting.
We went to bed around 3 a.m.
Around about 5:15 a.m. I was woken by the sounds of wee voices in the living room. I was determined to get more than 2.25 hours of sleep so I shut my eyes, but unfortunately I'm that Christmas kind of person that cannot get back to sleep once waking on Christmas Morning. So after a struggle of fifteen minutes I got up and joined the merry throng on the couches and we watched the Christmas tree flicker with its lights and commented on how many pressies Santa had left!
Once everyone in the house had wakened - about 6 a.m., I think it was - my dad and brother started cooking the Italian sausages, both hot and mild, and warming up sweet buns in the oven. We made coffee and drank bucketloads of coffee while waiting for the first sausages to become available, and made up orange juice so we could have orange juice for the littlies and mimosa for the adults. (I'd bought champagne a few days earlier.) We munched on our sausage rolls, went and lit the Christ Candle and sang Joy to the World and put the Baby in the Manger, then we opened stockings. THAT was fun. But then all the little ones got down and dirty with the pressies, and that was even MORE fun! (We made sure to pull out the ones to save for Epiphany first, before we got TOO crazy with the presents.)
Christ Candle |
For a couple hours it was mayhem, watching people open boxes, opening your own boxes, throwing out wrapping paper, etc. All was madness and merriment, while we ate sausage rolls and drank mimosa and coffee and ooooohed and aaaaaahhhed over everyone's gifties. It was jolly! Then, of course, we had a nice long day where we could read, catch up on sleep, get pretty, and then we had dinner of gnocchi and ham with a to-die-for meat sauce and all the trimmings of vegetables and salad. (Food is a BIG DEAL in our house!) It was really a lovely, lovely day.
Source |
Now, of course, it is New Year's Day. Last night we all stayed up - or at least, the grownuppish ones of us stayed up - and we watched Flashpoint to keep ourselves awake til midnight. At midnight, Amanda and Maria both opened their bottles of whiskey that they had gotten for Christmas and we toasted in the New Year with shots all 'round. (That's how we celebrate. We don't exactly go "hog wild" when we party.)
Now we have the Epiphany to look forward to. That is the official Twelfth Day of Christmas. Most people do it backwards, counting from the 13th of December to Christmas. Actually, the twelve days of Christmas START on Christmas Day and ends on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, the day the Wise Men brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Child Jesus. I love that we celebrate the Epiphany in our family. It extends Christmas and makes the entire season that much better.
The Three Wise Men |
We are going to be having a delicious roast and baked potatoes for dinner today. It's going to be epic! Then we are hopefully going to watch the second Librarian movie tonight. We watched the first one yesterday, and it was a bit cheesy, but quite good. (FYI, it's now a TV show, and the main character in the actual Librarian movies is the main character in the TV show, and Christian Kane [Eliot Spencer from Leverage, for the initiated] is in it as well!! I have not seen the TV show, but I wanna! :-)
So, that's all I have for now. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Epiphany!! Hope 2015 is an incredible year for all of you. God bless! Add a Comment
Blog: Blue Rose Girls (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: drawing lines between work and life, ALA, alvina ling, resolutions, organization, workload, work/life balance, epiphany, Add a tag
At the end of 2012, I talked about burn out. Well, I started this year feeling re-energized (although very busy, still!), and part of the reason for my reinvigoration was that I had a small epiphany. (I may actually have had this epiphany on epiphany...)
What I realized is that during my busiest work times, when I'm feeling overwhelmed by everything I have to do, what I always wish for is the ability to stop time. (You know, like Evie from Out of This World!) What I don't wish is to be able to just sweep the work off my desk. This served as a reminder to me of how much I love my work, every part of it. (well, almost.) I actually want to do all the work. Of course, this hasn't taken away the fact that I don't always have time to do it all as quickly as I would like, but it did help me put things in perspective.
As with many (most?) of us, work-life balance is an on-going issue, and probably will be for most of my life. I don't have the solution, but in addition to some of my new year's resolutions (which are more about making boundaries between work and life, not how to handle workload), I do have some strategies to tackle workload issues this year.
I recently attended a management training that evaluated my personality in terms of leadership. One of the many insights I gained was into how I deal with high-pressure situations. During busy, high-stress times, there is one part of my personality that tends to gets disorganized, and another side of my personality that tries to do even more, take more onto my plate. Not a great combination, and I have to say, very true to my nature.
I've already known this about myself, but it was a good reminder. So I need to get back into the habit of saying "no" more, or at the very least, not volunteering up my time so easily. And I need to stay more organized--I have a few newish tools that I'm trying out, including workflowy.com, which was introduced to me by an agent.
We'll see how it goes!
Regardless, I know it's going to be a great year.
***
I'm heading to Seattle for ALA Midwinter on Friday. If you'll be there, come by the Little, Brown booth to say hi! I'll also be speaking on a CBC Diversity panel on Sunday, January 27, from 3-4. Hope you can make it!
Blog: Books of Wonder and Wisdom (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Holidays, compassion, Picture Books, Christmas, World War I, multicultural literature, Nativity, Epiphany, Peace stories, Add a tag
McCutcheon, John Christmas in the Trenches. Illus. by Henri Sorensen. Peachtree, 2006.
If you’ve ever heard the song “Christmas in the Trenches” by folksinger John McCutcheon, you will remember it. It’s became part of my Christmas tradition after hearing it on a local college radio station in ’84. McCutcheon has adapted his touching song about the Christmas Truce of 1914 for this picture book and CD for older children. The story’s narrator is an elderly man named Francis, who tells his grandchildren of the unique Christmas he experienced as a young soldier in WWI. The soldiers in the trenches were bored and homesick on Christmas Eve. Suddenly, they heard German voices singing Christmas carols. The English soldiers decided to join in on “Silent Night,” an act that inspired a German soldier to cross No Man’s Land with a white flag and a Christmas tree. The two sides called a temporary, informal truce. Sorensen’s atmospheric oil paintings highlight the unexpected night of peace with a double-page spread showing the soldiers and the battlefield. Included are an author’s note, music notation, and a CD with the title song and “Silent Night/Stille Nacht,” along with a reading of the story. This sensitive picture book won a 2007 Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. For older children who want to learn more about the event, show them Jim Murphy’s Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting (Scholastic, 2009). Murphy gives an accessible overview of WWI and focuses on how peace was briefly restored when troops defied orders and met their enemies in the barren land between the trenches. There the soldiers ignored their differences and sang carols, exchanged small gifts, and regained a sense of humanity. Archival photographs, maps, and artwork help children understand the events.
More Beauties of the Season … and Share Your Favorites by Leaving a Comment!
Climo, Shirley. Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel. Illus. by Jane Manning. HarperCollins, 2001. Ages 6-9. Charming story of a kind old lady who gets to experience a little Christmas magic, thanks to some spiders. Manning’s bright illustrations provide interesting perspectives and a warm spirit.
Cunningham, Julia. The Stable Rat and Other Christmas Poems. Illus. by Anita Lobel. Greenwillow, 2001. Cunningham’s original poems explore the Nativity from the perspective of the animals that gathered there. Lobel’s lovely paintings capture the mystery of the season.
Daly, Niki. What’s Cooking, Jamala? Farrar, 2001. You can’t eat friends! That’s why Jamala decides to save
Blog: Head in the Clouds (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: book #3, epiphany, Add a tag
Just when I was getting my writing groove on and making significant progress in book #2, WHAM! Something new and beautiful, an epiphany perhaps, took precedence over my WIP and shifted me in a direction like never before. I assure you, this unique and poignant project will consume most of my spare time in order to make it a success for everyone involved. So as my blogging days become sparse, if not absent in the coming weeks, please understand that something amazing is in the works.
Until next time, goodnight everyone! Love, Tory
Blog: Tara Lazar (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Children's Books, KidLit, Fiction, Publishing, Middle Grade Fiction, YA Fiction, Children's Writing, Writing for Children, Richard Peck, Writing for Teens, Writing Conference, NJ-SCBWI, Epiphany, Add a tag
Thirty-eight agents, editors, art directors and acclaimed authors. Two days. Twenty workshop sessions. The NJ-SCBWI is one little conference that packs a writing wallop.
Over the next few days, I’ll share notes from the event, from my own journal and that of writer Natisha LaPierre. So even if you weren’t there, it will feel like you were. (Just surround yourself with friendly folks passionate about children’s books while you read.)
The first keynote presentation by Richard Peck, Newbery award-winning author of The Year Down Yonder, set a serious yet exciting tone for the conference. His unique voice extends beyond his books–when he speaks, he feels as big as a Shakesperean actor, filling the room, enunciating, using his entire body. (It was no surprise to learn that he belongs to a group of authors known as the “Authors Readers Theatre“ who travel the country performing each other’s works.) Charming, witty, it is impossible not to be drawn in by Mr. Peck’s dynamic presence.
“I am a writer because of two boys on a raft,” he began, noting his love of Mark Twain. ”Writers are readers first. Nobody but a reader ever became a writer. Read 1,000 books before you can write one.”
Mr. Peck encouraged attendees to look at other voices in order to find their own. And what does he think about “write what you know?” Rubbish. ”A story is something that never happened to the author,” he said. ”I assure you that J.K. Rowling never attended Hogwarts. Beatrix Potter was never a rabbit.”
A writer’s job is to add hope to reality. A story is always about change, and change is animated by epiphany. In his master class on Saturday, Mr. Peck explained epiphany further. When he asked middle school students to define ephiphany, an 8th grade boy said, “Epiphany is when everything changes and you can’t go back.” Mr. Peck thought that was the finest definition he had ever heard. The teacher informed Mr. Peck that the boy had lost his father, and his mother before that. That boy has been overdosed on reality. Now he needs hope.
“A lot of fiction is about remembering better days.” The elder characters in Mr. Peck’s books are often patterned after the old men who frequented his father’s filling station in the 1930’s and 40’s. He recalls their conversations and makes “rough music out of real speech.” You can write in the voice of a young character, but have that young person know old people. Children want adults to be strong, but they often can’t find them.
Years ago, the books in his school library were kept under glass and you had to find the teacher for a key. “Consider that metaphor,” he said. “The teacher has the key.” Book are still as precious, but it is up to the writer to make them so. “You can teach children or fear the parent, but you can’t do both. We are the last literature teachers left because we can’t be fired. We’re unemployed!”
Every week Mr. Peck visits the book store and spends an hour perusing first lines. “We live in the age of the sound byte, so you have to ‘byte’ them out front.” He recited the first line of Charlotte’s Web to remind us of its power: “Where’s Papa going with that axe?” Six words on one line ignite the imagination. And then he gave a fine example of voice with M.T. Anderson’s Feed: “We went to the moon to have fun but the moon turned out to completely suck.”
He always travels with a book from the past and a new book. The book from the past reminds him that we’re all links in a chain, while the new title keeps him tuned to what’s coming next. “If we don’t know what publishers are releasing this year, how will we get on next year’s list?” He’s reading Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls, “the greatest argument for writing in first person. It skates too near to the truth.”
Mr. Peck concluded by reminding us that “a story is always a question, never an answer. We can ask the questions that no one else will ask.” Story is the most important gift we can give our youth. Think about that 8th grade boy. “Story might be the companion that a child needs.”
Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier, and thank you for sharing your list I recently gave my mother, who is Italian, “The Legend of Old Befana” as a birthday gift. I can remember her telling me stories about Old Befana when I was a child, and I was so happy to find an edition available in the US. By Tomie DePaola no less!
Thanks for your message, Kara. I’m glad you found The Legend of Old Befana; I wish bookstores would keep more of the older treasures on hand, especially during this season. Hope you’ll stop by again.l