Hello there!
Did you just think I am going to review some Short story collection? I bet you did! :D
And so, here we go - have you heard of Musical fountains? Of course, we all have heard of Musical fountains in theme parks and someplace else.
But I bet you haven't heard of Musical basins.
I haven't heard of Musical basins in all these years I have lived - okay, 23 only. But I saw one - now, I see it everyday, and hear it, too.
You are wondering where it possibly is. In some theme park - no. Nor is it in any famous place. It's in the ground floor bathrooms of the Ladies Hostel of GHMC, Calicut - my college hostel, that is. :D
We people were kinda puzzled when we began to hear some weird whistling sound. I thought it sounded like a kettle on the burner. Only that there was no kettle or burner here at this dingy place. (All right, it's not absolutely a Ghetto place, but it is not the most beautiful place in the world!)
I would have shared a photo of it here, but since it might offend you and insult my sanity and question the sanitation and cleanliness of the place where we have our daily baths, I am avoiding that impulse. I really wanted to take a snap of the place, but I would rather not contaminate my camera. LOL!
So there, I guess there is some glitch in the pipe lines. May be some air. No, I wouldn't use the word 'flatulent' but something is wrong. The whistling goes on and on constantly, until someone hits it. I don't know why I even care about it, let alone tell you people about, but then, it's something we are talking about here often.
By:
Michelle,
on 4/21/2010
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Thursday, April 22 marks the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day around the world, a milestone that calls for celebration! In Canada, it seems that a single day just isn’t enough—up above the 49th parallel, “Earth Day has grown into Earth Week and Earth Month to accommodate the profusion of events” held across the country. One of the biggest events is the Earth Walk, held right here in Orca’s home town, Victoria, BC, where over 5,000 people gather in costume to parade through downtown to raise awareness about the environment.
This year, the Association of Book Publishers of BC (ABPBC) has partnered with the Sierra Club and Chapters Indigo Books & Music to present a series of Earth Day events on April 22, 24 and 25 in Victoria and Vancouver. The events encourage readers to “think local” when purchasing books and magazines, just as they do when choosing food or other products.
In the Vancouver Observer, Heidi Waechtler, project coordinator for the ABPBC said, “Earth Day is a fantastic opportunity for us to raise awareness of homegrown publications and the contributors whose talent they cultivate…It’s a great opportunity to not only celebrate BC books but to also promote those titles that bring awareness to what it means to be ‘environmental’ in today’s world.”
We couldn’t agree more. As a local Canadian publisher, Orca prides itself on publishing local authors and illustrators and taking their work to a wider audience.
The Read Local, Buy Local series consists of 28 free events open to the public. In Victoria, these events include ExtraVeganZa with Laura Matthias, children’s activities hosted by the Sierra Club (with surprise visitors!), The O Mile Diet with organic gardener Carolyn Herriot and Take a Hike! hosted by British Columbia Magazine and ActNow BC to help get your family ready for outdoor adventures this spring. See the Full Event Schedule.
We think two new Orca titles are worthy of some Earth Day celebration too—check out their accompanying websites for teacher resources, games and fun, free stuff:
The Salmon Bears explores the delicate balance that exists between the grizzly, black and spirit bear of the Great Bear Rainforest and their natural environment on the central coast of British Columbia. Learn more about salmon bears and see Ian McAllister’s stunning photography from the book.
Food Fight, the latest in our Graphic Guide Adventure series, mixes action and suspense with information on the agricultural system and the intricacies of the food supply. Take a quiz, build a comic, and get in
Take a Reading Day
Standard advice: read what you want to write.
If you want to write a novel, then read mysteries or thrillers or teen or easy readers or whatever genre you want to write.
Last week, I took a reading day and had great fun. I often advise people to read 100 picture books (published within the last 5 years) in preparation for writing picture books. One way I accomplish this is to visit my local bookstore and read new books from their Picture Book Wall. However, this only gets the books that this large chain bookstore chooses to put on said wall. So, last week, I had a library day. I only read ten books, but it was interesting.
Picture Book Illustrations:
I liked 8 out of the ten illustrations. The two I disliked were watercolor that had turned muddy. They had nice details, good characterization, but the muddy watercolors made it a dark, uninviting book.
Picture Book Texts I Didn’t Like
I didn’t like four of the texts. A couple of these were from author/illustrators and the illustrations carried the book; of these, the poetry had ineffective rhyme just there to rhyme and the meaning was lost; another had text that would have been rejected if from an author as “too slight.” (It’s that maddening double-standard applied to texts from picture book authors and picture book author/illustrators.)
One text had a typo on the second page – it was a popular author, good company, someone just slipped up. Another had text WAY too long, lots of purple prose and lapses in the storyline. One nonfiction surprised me because the author’s note explained that she had created some of the dialogue; from another publisher, I might not have noticed, but I was shocked to see this from this author/publisher.
Picture Book Texts I Liked
Simple, yet effective was one of my notes on a text. Some texts were generally good, but some of the double-page spreads were less effective because of long-winded text on a particular page. The best texts were funny, age appropriate, simple-yet-effective.
These were just books that were in my library that day, set upright to entice readers. No attempt to be random or scientific, just “found” books. Here’s a different breakdown.
- 1 rhymed text
- 3 historical fiction
- 2 broken or twisted fairy tale
- 3 celebrations of art from author/illustrator
- 1 contemporary/multicultural set in Asia
Lessons from a Reading Day
What did I learn? I was reminded what I love and what I dislike about picture books. I still like short, but effective texts. I like bright, clear illustrations. I still like reading and writing picture book texts.
Plan for the week: Write a new picture book.
If you go to the library or bookstore for a reading day, give us a report!
By:
Darcy Pattison,
on 11/20/2009
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Yo-Yos v. Author
When I first started doing school visits, I was uncertain, trying to figure out what to do and why. That’s when I had a near encounter with a yo-yo.
I went to a rural elementary school a week after a yo-yo company had performed at the school. The yo-yo people had charged the school $1000 to perform, and then got to sell yo-yos, too. The school paid me nothing as an author to visit the school and present my children’s picture book. Author v. yo-yos and the Yo-yos won. Heck, I even had to pay for my lunch that day.
I thought about that many times since then.
Yo-yos educational value: entertainment.
The educational value of my presentation: literature, literacy, writing, reading.
Yesterday, I did a school visit and I’ll be doing another next week. When I go to schools, I’m aware that I must be entertaining, but I’ve also refined some of my goals
Goals for School Visits
Foster reading and writing by making it fun, easy, accessible. I often do small group writing sessions with students. My favorite is when the students are some of the most discouraged about writing.
This month, I got to teach a class of mostly discouraged writers. We drew a map, wrote specific name places, and imagined the setting. Then, students put a finger on the map and moved around the map while telling a partner a story. Then they put their finger on a different place on the map and told the story a different way (revision in the oral stage!). Finally, they wrote their story. At the last, I asked for a volunteer to read and one girl immediately responded and read a great story. Yes, there were misspellings and a few grammar mistakes she needed to correct later; but the story was great. Teachers later told me they were astounded that this particular girl volunteered to read, because she was so shy. Confidence and joy in her writing, that’s what the girl gained that day.
Yes, it’s easy for me to come in and do a one-shot boost for a kid like that. It’s harder to do the day-to-day grind of preparing her for testing. But maybe, that one day of confidence and joy will carry her through the testing.
Help teachers enjoy reading and writing with kids even more. Teachers enjoy the enthusiasm that students have for books in the preparation for my visit, during my visit and in the aftermath. It’s a time to break the mold and have fun.
Help school community celebrate literature, something too seldom done! Several years ago, I was asked to speak at a fall reading kick-off at an elementary school. The theme for the school’s fall reading was travel and my book, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman was perfect way to start the excitement. The librarian was amazing! When I walked into the school auditorium, every kid was waving a tiny American flag. They sang patriotic songs and were already studying large US map displayed in the library.
Now, I’ve been to sports pep rallies and they are fun. But a pep rally for reading? This was fantastic. The entire school – led by a librarian, par excellence, supported by enthusiastic staff and administration – was building a culture around a celebration of literature, reading, writing, literacy. Amazing. And still too seldom seen.
I’m no longer bashful about charging for school visits. Yo-yos are fun for a day and quite entertaining, no doubt. But as a writing teacher and author, I remind myself that I also have something of value to bring to a school. I take it seriously and work harder during a school visit than I do any other time. Why? Because one shy girl volunteered
If you would like a larger version of this to print out yourself, leave me a comment and an email address. I will email you a bigger version. Pass it on to anyone you think might be receptive. Yes, this is a ploy to bring eyeballs and the people wearing them, to might blog!
Adios for now!
Barney
By: Rebecca,
on 7/20/2009
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What are you doing during lunch tomorrow? If it involves sitting at your desk eating a sandwich consider joining us in Bryant Park. Oxford University Press has teamed up with the Bryant Park Reading Room to host a FREE discussion of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer led by John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author, most recently, of You Can’t be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America. In the blog post after the break MacArthur introduces us to the relationship between Harper’s and Mark Twain.
So be sure to come to the Bryant Park Reading Room (northern edge of the park), Tuesday, July 21st from 12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. The rain venue (don’t worry we are doing our best no-rain dances) is The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Building, 20 West 44th Street. Sign up in advance and receive a FREE copy of the Oxford World’s Classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (offer is limited while supply lasts).
The histories of Mark Twain, William Dean Howells and Harper’s Magazine are so intimately linked, so important to the fabric of the magazine, that I talk about Twain and Howells around the office as if they were still alive. The other day I told a staff meeting that as long as I was running Harper’s, it would remain a literary magazine that also publishes journalism — not the other way around — because of Howells’s and Twain’s ever-present legacy.
Howells met Twain in 1869, three years after Twain had published his first long narrative in Harper’s, “43 Days in an Open Boat.” As the future literary editor of Harper’s recalled, “At the time of our first meeting…Clemens (as I must call him instead of Mark Twain, which seemed always somehow to mask him from my personal sense) was wearing a sealskin coat, with the fur out, in the satisfaction of a caprice, or the love of strong effect which he was apt to indulge through life.” It’s no coincidence that for our special 150th anniversary issue in 2000, we constructed a cover photo of Twain in his dandy suit facing Tom Wolfe in his dandy suit.
Clemens and Howells became good friends and in 1875 the genius from Hannibal asked Howells to read the manuscript of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. “I am glad to remember that I thoroughly liked The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” Howells wrote, “and said so with every possible amplification. Very likely, I also made my suggestions for its improvement; I could not have been a real critic without that; and I have no doubt they were gratefully accepted and, I hope, never acted upon.” Howells was underrating his influence on Twain, who penned over 80 pieces for Harper’s. As a critic and a fine novelist in his own right, Howells was correct — Tom Sawyer is a great American novel. Indeed, not everyone agrees that it’s any less of an achievement than the more widely acclaimed (at least in serious literary circles) Huckleberry Finn. I’m looking forward to talking about the book next week and finding out the answer to a number of questions: for example, precisely how old is Tom Sawyer? I assume the Twain scholars in the audience will enlighten me on this and other matters.
Posted on 7/20/2009
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1. Go for a run.
2. Rent a movie.
3. Build a card tower.
4. Write stuff down backwards and then read it in a mirror.
5. Buy a trampoline.
6. Jump on it.
7. Crank up some tunes.
8. Try to lick your elbow.
9. Read a good book.
10. Clean up your room.
11. Start a blog.
12. Watch people’s fails on YouTube,
13. Prank call a friend.
14. Find a wall and see how high you can get your hand by jumping.
15. Wet your hair and style it.
16. Start a new instrument.
17. Find a job.
18. Put iodine on any open cuts. Being bored will seem pretty good after this.
19. Go for a walk and comment on people to your self.
20. Learn how to cook something tasty.
21. Write a story.
22. Take a hot shower.
23. See how far you can get a paper airplane to fly.
24. Wikipedia Race (google it).
25. Think of something else to do when bored and comment it for others to read.
Posted on 7/20/2009
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1. Go for a run.
2. Rent a movie.
3. Build a card tower.
4. Write stuff down backwards and then read it in a mirror.
5. Buy a trampoline.
6. Jump on it.
7. Crank up some tunes.
8. Try to lick your elbow.
9. Read a good book.
10. Clean up your room.
11. Start a blog.
12. Watch people’s fails on YouTube,
13. Prank call a friend.
14. Find a wall and see how high you can get your hand by jumping.
15. Wet your hair and style it.
16. Start a new instrument.
17. Find a job.
18. Put iodine on any open cuts. Being bored will seem pretty good after this.
19. Go for a walk and comment on people to your self.
20. Learn how to cook something tasty.
21. Write a story.
22. Take a hot shower.
23. See how far you can get a paper airplane to fly.
24. Wikipedia Race (google it).
25. Think of something else to do when bored and comment it for others to read.
A native Indian girl reading about the old west.
I blog at mydailyartwork
By: Rebecca,
on 1/5/2009
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Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The 
Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at Obama’s stimulus package. Read his previous OUPblogs here.
President-elect Obama’s big stimulus package is getting bulkier and more complex by the day. No longer confident that the Congress would be able to move quickly to deliver legislation for the newly sworn in president to sign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has tampered expectations by rejecting a “false deadline” for such a delivery.
As is always the case in Washington, we are scheduled for a clash of ideologies even as we seek a solution to our current economic woes. The Republicans want deliberation (or delay) and fiscal restraint and the Democrats want, well, big government. Cognizant of this, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already registered his wariness of “very big systemic changes” proposed in the stimulus package. Republican leaders have taken to calling the proposed $800 billion stimulus package a “trillion dollar” package even though about 40% of it will pay for tax cuts all sides agree on.
But Democrats are likely to prevail in this battle not only because of their store of electoral goodwill locked into congressional majorities, but also because economic history is presently on their side. Traditional monetary policy becomes increasingly ineffective as interest rates fall (because rates cannot fall below zero). The fact is that the banks are still not lending enough. Just in the last three months, cash holdings in banks have tripled to over 1 trillion dollars, according to the Federal Reserve. Other drivers of growth are also unavailable to us this time round. Inventory rebuilding was a powerful engine of growth in 1976, as was residential construction 1992, while consumer spending helped in 2002 (recall President Bush’s invitation for Americans to go out and shop after Sep. 11). The private sector in 2009 is moribund.
This is why Fed officials and economists have come out in support of a fiscal stimulus package. “If ever, in my professional career, there was a time for active, discretionary fiscal stimulus, it is now,” said Janet Yellen, San Francisco Fed president. According to Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics in New York, “When we do recover, the engine will be government spending, not home building or the consumer.” John Maynard Keynes, not Milton Friedman, is the dead economist du jour.
Since the September 2008 Wall Street crash, the S.& P. has moved more than 5 percent in either direction on 18 days. There were only 17 such days in the previous 53 years, according to calculations by Howard Silverblatt, an index analyst at S.& P. If the invisible hand of the market cannot calm its own nerves, then government must.
By:
Aline Pereira,
on 11/2/2008
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The October Carnival of Children’s Literature is in full swing with the theme of Snuggle Up with a Children’s Book (great advice for any month of the year!) at The Well-Read Child, where Amy from Kids Love Learning tells How to Create a “Book Addict”, Heather at Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books reports on her Mom and Son Book Club, and Megan reviews Hip Hop Speaks to Children by Nikki Giovanni at Read, Read, Read. Our PaperTigers blog has joined in the fun with Marjorie’s Books at Bedtime discussion of Fiesta Femenina.
Be sure to go to the Carnival, which next month will feature The Gift of Reading and will be hosted by Mommy’s Favorite Children’s Books.
Be sure to read the blog tomorrow because we are going to have a bonanza of language posts! I’m so excited I’m going to pull an Ammon Shea and stay up all night reading my Shorter OED.
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Donna,
Barefoot and surrounded by kids. It doesn’t get much better than this. Congratulations on a great Dr. Seuss Day. Thanks for sharing.
yeah, I liked that barefoot picture too! I know those kids had at least as much fun as you did!
Whoo-hoo! I can tell you had a blast. I’m so happy for Frank’s success and yours.
Jean