A sampler of old and new favorites:
Robert McCloskey, author and illustrator of such classics as Make Way For Duckings, Blueberries For Sal, One Morning In Maine, Lentil, Time of Wonder (Sam recently listed this as his favorite book ever)
Robert McCloskey who featured himself as the Dad in The Maine books
Look him up. He's an understated, devoted family man. One who was capable of almost any type of artwork, but chose children's literature as his medium. If you don't have a personal collection of his work--go haunt the DI or half.com and get one. There is so much that is implicit in his work.
Cynthia Rylant, another children's book author has a way of grabbing her readers from the 1st paragraph --in a thoughtful way. Every time I begin her books, I want to copy the first couple of paragraphs and keep them in my pocket for the day.
Cynthia Rylant in the Appalachia Mountains
Try When the Relatives Came, or Night in the Country. She has series books for beginning readers (like Poppleton, and Henry and Mudge, or Mr. Putter), but her picture books like A Country Christmas, and When I was Young in the Mountains are my favorite.
My brothers were always good to introduce me to the right kind of music in my awkward, private-school-tween-days. And Jed has continued to keep me musically educated in my hermit/awkward-mothering-days, but I discovered Steve on my own. And I think he's fantastic. His lyrics are clever, he doesn't patronize the children that he sings to. And empathy is carefully woven into the music he creates. Check him out on PBS (everyone who's anyone is hip on the PBS happenings).
Steve Roslonek
The self-taught composer Eric Whitacre
This man has an extraordinary gift for composing music. His harmonies come in and out of dissonance --at times resembling Gregorian chants, but with modern lyrics. They sweep over me and cause me to have the same physical reaction I do when I'm supposed to testify strongly about something. My heart beats quickly, my head becomes buzzy and numb, and I feel like I'm going to explode. The beauty of it all swirls around inside me.
Look him up. Eric Whitacre (Jed heard his music performed live).
Listen to his music. Then get on your knees and thank you Father in Heaven that you can hear.
Ahhh- a lucky girl am I to have such friends.
4 comments:
You are such a thinker. It is wonderful that you get so much from the things you do as a parent. I forgot to tell you that I heard the U of U has a giving tree in their library. where you can donate books and take the ones you want for free. Doesn't that sound like fun?
No wonder I like you so much. You and I pick some of the same stuff. You introduced me to Cynthia Rylant though, and I have been grateful ever since. We adore Mr. Putter and Tabby and the picture books are fantastic too. Have you read her YA novels? I haven't yet!
I checked out some Steve from the library too! I love him on PBS.
Eric Whitakre is just amazing. Ron Staheli+Eric Whitakre=heaven.
Oh, and Blueberries for Sal is my favorite I think. Hard to beat Make Way for Ducklings though.
i visited the boston commons in homage to mr. mclosky and his ducks. i was going to post the photo, but i can't figure it out.
and listening to eric whitakre on the ipod is great. live it's just sublime.
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