A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Annapolis Boat Show. The weather was breezy, but not cold, the air simmered with excitement as many people considered a new purchase, an upgrade, or curiosity seekers who wanted to get a feel for the lifestyle. I was among the curious ones.
The boating lifestyle is common to the area, and I was surprised how many people actually live year round on their boats, especially in the DC area-the water doesn’t freeze, and if it gets too cold, the boat can be shrink wrapped for warmth.
I visited a few boats that would fit the-live-on-board lifestyle, anywhere between 44 to 48ft seemed to be a good fit. They included 2 cabins, 2 baths, a galley, and actual living space. The new boat prices were not for the faint of heart.
However, if one is serious about that lifestyle, there are options-a well loved used boat. There were quite a few vendors publicizing used boats for sale, at a fraction of the cost of a new one. As always,s buyer beware-the used boat should be inspected, the condition of engines well evaluated, just like buying a house.
The idea appeals to me, there is of course a onetime flat fee to belong to a marina, or yacht club, and then monthly fees to live there-but they’re not outrageous. Taking all the fees into account, the price is quite reasonable, and less that most house or condo living.
Am I considering another change? Yes, I’m seriously thinking about it. I have not actually visited a used boat broker, but have started to look online, and the more I look the more it gains in appeal.
At a certain age, life-let me narrow that down a bit-every day becomes an adventure.
Cheers,
Margot Justes
Blood Art
A Fire Within
A Hotel in Paris
A Hotel in Bath
A Hotel in Venice
www.mjustes.com
About five years ago, I was at a Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) conference in Maryland and attended a breakout session on blogging, presented by local children's authors Wendie Old and Mary Bowman-Kruhm. I went into the session with a vague curiosity about blogging -- but definitely no desire to start doing it myself -- and left with the confidence to try it out, plus the specific idea of blogging about picture books and dance. So in many ways, Wendie Old and Mary Bowman-Kruhm were the impetus for the creation of Picture Books & Pirouettes!
When Jodie from Growing Book by Book asked me to join the
third annual Booking Across the USA project this year -- with the theme of celebrating authors or illustrators from each state -- I knew exactly what I had to do...feature Wendie Old and Mary Bowman-Kruhm! They actually collaborated to co-write a couple picture books for very young readers, which I'll feature a little later. But first, here's a bit more about Wendie and Mary as individual authors...
About the AuthorsWendie Old has been a storyteller and children's librarian in Maryland for more than 30 years, during which time she has published numerous short stories and magazine articles, four picture books, and seven middle-grade biographies. Among her picture books are
To Fly, which is a biography of the Wright brothers for elementary readers, and
Stacy Had a Little Sister, which deals with the serious subject of the death of a sibling. You can read more about Wendie and her books
here on her website.
Mary Bowman-Kruhm has written more than 30 books for children and teens, including many educational texts. Her latest book is
The Leakeys: A Biography, which explores the lives and scientific discoveries of the famous paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey. In addition to writing, Mary works part-time at the Center for Technology in Education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. You can read more about
Mary here on her website.
Picture Book Collaborations
Remember how I mentioned that Wendy and Mary collaborated on a couple picture books for very young readers? The first, called Busy Toes, has quite an interesting story behind it. It was actually a collaboration among three writers -- Wendy, Mary, and a freelance writer named Claudine C. Wirth. Rather than having all three of their names on the cover of the book, they decided to write under the pen name C.W. Bowie, and they wrote and polished much of the manuscript over email rather than in person!
The simple text, with illustrations by Fred Willingham, portrays young girls and boys using their toes in many creative ways. "Tippy toes and dancing toes" is my favorite line in the book, but there are many others, such as "BIG TOES, little toes. / Open toes and closed toes / Waving toes / Tickling toes / Doggy tummy rubbing toes."
The creative team of C.W. Bowie and Fred Willingham also went on to write a sequel -- Busy Fingers. Similar to its predecessor, the book is about all the many things that little fingers can do: "Fingers high / Fingers low. / Fingers reach to touch a toe. / Fingers say, 'I love you.' / Fingers wave good-bye, too."
Movement Activity
Part of the Booking Across the USA project is to share an activity to go with a featured book. Not surprisingly, I chose a movement activity -- and I created it to go with Busy Fingers. The book actually contains 23 different movements that can be done by little fingers, but I picked out the eight ones that seemed easiest to incorporate into an activity.
After reading the book out loud one time, I would go through the following phrases from the book and do the accompanying movements together with your little ones:
- High: Stretch your arms and fingers up high in the air. This can be done either standing up or sitting down.
- Low: Stretch your arms and fingers low to the ground. This can also be done in any position.
- Reach to touch a toe: If you are standing up, bend over and try to touch your feet with your fingertips. If you are sitting down, stretch your legs out in front of you and try to reach your toes.
- Say 'I love you': Practice saying "I love you" in sign language (see photo below).
- Wave good-bye: Ask the children to think of different ways you can wave hello or goodbye. You can wave your fingers so that they open and close, or wave them so all the fingers move together from side to side. You can also try using big movements and small movements to wave. Feel free to explore this concept even more and get creative with how you can wave!
- Count: Practice counting to ten using one finger at a time. If this is too easy, you can practice counting by twos with your fingers, or adding numbers with sums of 10 or less.
- Shadows on the wall: Experiment with making shadow puppets with your fingers. If you need some ideas, this YouTube video by professional puppeteer Corina Bona explains how to make some simple shapes like a rabbit, a dog, and a face.
- Blow a kiss goodnight: You and the little ones can blow kisses to each other and practice catching them different ways with your fingers or whole hand. This is a good way to end the main activity.
And finally, if you want to incorporate art into your exploration of this book, there is a perfect stanza that you can re-read to set the children up for some finger painting and cleanup...
Fingers red, fingers green
You can put red paint on one hand and green paint on the other and explore how different finger movements -- pressing, smearing, drawing -- can create different designs. Throughout the activity, be creative, have fun, and discover all the amazing things that your fingers can do!
Click here to access all the posts from the third annual Booking across the USA project.
Today I'm participating in the second annual Booking Across the USA blog tour, which has been organized so well by our fearless leader Jodie at
Growing Book by Book. Each blogger on the tour is creating an activity for young children that is related to one of the 50 U.S. states and is inspired by a new series of books --
Travels with Charlie -- by Miles Backer with illustrations by Chuck Nitzberg. I signed up for Maryland!
Some of you might remember that my family and I moved from Maryland to California late last summer, so we've been in our new home for almost an entire school year now. Wow! I must say that I am truly enjoying the beauty, sunshine, and way of life out here on the West Coast, but I do miss many things about Maryland, so this blog tour gave me a chance to reminisce.
The four books in the
Travels with Charlie series tackle the West, Midwest, South, and Northeast regions of the United States. Maryland is one of 12 states included in the
Travelin' the Northeast book, which publisher
Blue Apple Books so graciously sent me to help write this post.
Maryland, like each of the states in the book, is devoted a full-page spread that includes the state capital, a picture of the state flag, a bulleted list of interesting facts about the state, and a poem. The poem ends with the line "Where's Charlie?" to get children not only looking for Charlie (the cute dog you see on the cover of the book) but also perusing all the fun, bright, and educational illustrations in which Charlie is hiding on each spread.
Given my blog's theme, I wanted to come up with a book-related activity that involved movement. So why not create a simple dance to the book's poem about Maryland? But first, here are a few definitions that are important to know in order to execute the movements in the dance...
Skipjack: Maryland's official state boat, which looks like a sailboat and is used to fish for oysters in the Chesapeake Bay
Fort McHenry: A star-shaped fort in Baltimore, Maryland, where part of the War of 1812 was fought
And here is the book's poem about Maryland, along with movements to go with each line or group of lines. As you'll see, the first few movements are wavy and circular and the last few are sharp and straight, to give children the opportunity to explore both types…
Maryland: The Old Line State
on Chesapeake Bay?
[Put you hands in a triangle shape just above your head (like a sail) and sway from side to side like you are going over waves.]
Where's Assateague Island,
where wild ponies play?
[Gallop (like a pony) in a circular pattern on the floor.]
wrote the "Star Spangled Banner" --
[March in a star shape (like the shape of Fort McHenry). Put an outline of a star on the floor or use stickers for the points of the star if needed. Rather than making circular patterns as they march, the children should make straight lines, in more of a military fashion.]
"Oh, say can you see?"
[Stop marching and put your hand on your heart as if you are listening to the Star Spangled Banner, also known as our national anthem!]
The star spangled banner was actually a flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem. (The flag was raised at Fort McHenry after a crucial battle in 1814.) What makes this banner so special is that it is the only version of the American flag that has 15 stars and 15 stripes. You can read more about the banner at
this website of the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, where the original flag is on display.
For an art activity, each child can color his or her own star spangled banner, either freehand our using a coloring page. Here is a sample
coloring page from the TPS-Barat Educational Foundation. TPS-Barat also has a whole
star spangled banner lesson plan for students in kindergarten through second grade, which could probably be adapted for younger students as well. It's aligned with some of the common core language arts standards and includes illustrations, recordings, lyrics, and more related to the national anthem. (When you color the flag, don't forget that the first stripe is a red one.)
You might consider playing the national anthem in the background as the children color their flags, or turning their coloring pages into "real" flags using some glue and popsicle sticks or straws. If time allows, it might also be nice to do a little marching dance to the national anthem when the flags are finished. First have the kids stand still and wave their flags to the beat. Then have them march, holding their flags still over their heads. Finally, see if they can march and wave their flags at the same time while still keeping the beat!
Don't forget to stop by
Growing Book by Book to find the rest of posts in this year's Booking Across the USA tour…plus a giveaway. You can also explore picture books by authors and illustrator from the 50 states through last year's tour
here.
The thing that I like about First Book is that kids can have their own books in their own houses that their parents can read to them, and, later, that they can read themselves.
– Jane Greene, First Book supporter
Jane Greene is a longtime supporter of First Book. She isn’t a wealthy philanthropist, but she is the kind of person that all good causes look for – a dedicated, constant cultivator of people and projects she believes in. She’s also someone who understands the importance of helping kids in need have new books to read.
“I always send books as baby gifts,” Greene said. “The value of reading and owning books has been in my life always.”
Greene works at a nonprofit as well, the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County in Maryland. (Two of the agency’s programs – Kensington Wheaton Youth Services and Bridges to Pals – actually work with First Book to get new books for their kids, although Greene actually found out about First Book during a promotional campaign with Borders bookstore.)
“The thing that I like about First Book is that kids can have their own books in their own houses that their parents can read to them, and, later, that they can read themselves,” Greene said.
“No gift is too small,” Green added. “I just decided to commemorate special occasions, acts of kindness and holidays by sending a little something to First Book.”
Not only have Greene’s contributions put brand-new books into the hands of kids from low-income families, she typically makes donations in the name of others, many of whom, when they find out about the gift and the work First Book does, go on to become supporters themselves. (It wasn’t easy to get Greene to agree to be profiled. “I was always the one behind the scenes,” she said. “That’s the way I like to influence and educate others.”)
First Book couldn’t do the work that we do without the open-hearted generosity of people like Jane Greene. Thanks, Jane! We’re glad you’re in our corner.
Click here to help get books to kids in need in your community by supporting First Book.
You may have never heard of Ursula Oaks, but she’s a pioneer. She and her family are one of only a handful of East-Coast bibliophiles who have become stewards of a Little Free Library.
What’s a Little Free Library? Just as it sounds, it’s a small structure—a little bigger than a breadbox—that houses books which are free to borrow. Take a book, return a book, leave a book. Visit as often as you wish!
The brainchild of Todd Bol and Rick Brooks, the Little Free Library enterprise began in 2009 and flourished in the Wisconsin and Minnesota region. Intended to support literacy, social empowerment, youth and community development, the libraries sit on front lawns and places of business, encouraging neighbors and patrons to read…and share great literature.
A map on the LittleFreeLibrary.org website displays registered LFLs around the country. I was hoping to find one in New Jersey, but alas, none exist. (Don’t worry, my neighbor and I plan to change that soon.)
But I did find Ursula Oaks in Silver Spring, MD, living just three miles from my brother’s home. Originally I planned to visit her and the little library-on-stilts in her side yard, but since that didn’t work out, we chatted via email about her experience with being a Little Free Library “home librarian”.
TL: When and why did you decide to open a Little Free Library?
UO: I first heard about the LFL movement on an NPR program out of Wisconsin Public Radio called “Here On Earth: Radio Without Borders”, which is hosted by the amazing journalist Jean Feraca. She interviewed the founders, and the whole thing sounded so fun and meaningful that I went home that night and told my husband and son about it. They were both interested, too, so we started making plans. We thought the idea was a perfect melding of our shared love for building things, for libraries, and for books. Our son Liam loved the idea that we could select books from our own collection to share, and that we could host something in our yard that the whole community could take part in. My husband Craig was excited to have a new building project. And we all loved the creative aspect of designing and painting something totally unique. That was September of last year. It took us five months to actually get it completely finished, due to schedules, weather, travel, etc. The finished library finally went up in the yard on January 25 of this year.
TL: How did it get built and why did you choose the Madeline theme?
Craig is great with woodworking, so he built the structure, complete with copper run-off pipes, tin roof, and clear plexiglass front door. I sketched out the design based on the original Bemelmans drawings in one of our Madeline books, and everyone pitched in to paint, including 7-year-old Liam. Frankly we were surprised at how well it turned out, because none of us is particularly gifted with a paintbrush.
The story of how we ended up with the Madeline theme is a bit convoluted. We knew we wanted to do some kind of stylized approach to the house, so we thought about a barn or a farm house or bird house, and then at some point I suggested we try to come up with an idea that had some connection with a book we love—something that people would recognize and understand. Liam has always loved the Madeline stories, and we had recently returned from a visit to Paris for Thanksgiving, so the idea came to us pretty quickly once we went down that path, especially because while we w
Kanye's new kicks for Nike ( the Hip Hop personality's 'Air Yeezys' debuted in stores this past weekend sparking a feeding frenzy among sneakerheads and Kanye fans alike. Also, both the actual DS1 commercial featuring Beyonce as well as a... Read the rest of this post
According to the creators, this chocolate is inspired by Carroll's Alice, Ms. Toklas, Ms. Waters and all the other "spunky Alices that inspired the name because they are people who “enrich the day through their imagination, refinement and enchantment.”
I can think of a few they may have left out. Alice Cooper. Alice in Chains . . .
Thanks to BB-Blog for the link.
Wolves are a very popular animal in my space. This sounds like a great book to add to our list for animal books where we actually learn about the animal and it's habitat.
I'm glad this book will work in your environment. There's a lot of information in the back about the way wolves communicate, their life cycle, and some other interesting things. We don't have wolves here in Maryland, but I just found out we have coyotes!
I love that you were able to find a book related to your state AND tie it in to dance and movement! The illustrations look beautiful. Thank you for participating in the Booking Across the USA project!
Thanks, Jodie. This has been a wonderful project to be a part of. Thanks again for including me!