No Mush Today

No Mush Today by Sally Derby, illustrated Nicole Tadgell, Lee & Low, 2008

I have to say, in the intrest of full disclosure, that I love cornmeal mush. It was always a treat as a child to have fried mush on a Saturday morning. Yumm...dipped in honey...

With a new baby crying in her mother's arms, a little girls announces "Not gonna eat my mush, Not gonna eat it." She runs next door to her Grandma's and announces she is going to live with her.

Her patient grandma takes her to church and then to the church family picnic where she lets her daddy take her on a boat ride and push her in the swings. They watch a family of ducks and he reminds her that "Ducklings stay with their families."

Every child imagines running away from home. This little girl only has to run next door to her grandmother's and the illustration shows her daddy leaning out of the window, watching her the whole time.

The adults wisely, give her some room and time to vent her feelings, always reinforcing their love for her. In the end they even let her have the last word, as she asks her mother to promise that there will be no mush for breakfast the next day.

Illustrator Nicole Tadgell lets the love glow on their faces and adds an extra element to the pictures as the little girl keeps a toy duckling with her at all times.

What a loving and reassuring message to parents and children in this little book.

Further ponders about the illustrations:

The family is always pictured with the little girl. She is never alone in a picture even though she is trying to put herself apart from family. What a reassuring visual message, your family is always with you.

I also loved the toy duck that she always has with her in every picture, "ducklings stick with their families."
Tadgell brought the story to life from the detail of the child's cable knit sweater to the joy on her face as she sails high in the swing.

May 2008

Accomplishments for May:

• Entlings have been graduated and confirmed.
  
  
• I got to share my "raspy throat/hacking cough" thing with visiting relatives.
  "Gee, thanks for that, Camille."
  
  
• Everyone is on antibiotics now and doing better.
  
  
• The entniece and entnephew have arrived on foreign shores with large stacks of books from Aunt Camille's stash. Aunt Camille came home an found the "other" books she was supposed to tuck into their suitcases.
  Oh well. Books can be mailed.
  
  
• Another entnephew commented on the Percy Jackson books I sent him at Christmas and realized he really had read them and really did enjoy them. He said he had learned more about Greek mythology from those books than he had in his school unit. That is entirely gratifying.
  
  
• Had a "personal best" day of cataloging at local elementary, over 120 items.
  
  
• Still more to do but the end of May is in sight.
  
  

Dialed up the internets today to discover this trailer for The City of Ember.

Busy, busy busy

Just returned from a quick trip to see Entling no. 2 receive lovely recognition at her college. Entling no. 1 comes in for weekend visit tomorrow and have not fully checked in with Entling no. 3 to see what projects, tests, assignments, horrors await next week's high school hijinks.

Everybody's doing it...must have my own daemon.


Everybody's doing it: Visual DNA

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Birth Order: Middle Child

Folks in this part of the world are half excited and half terrified as we peer at the Weather Channel and watch the freezing sleet and temperatures creeping towards us. No one can say we haven't been warned. Two of my entlings are in a region of Texas that is already in the grip of black ice and frozen overpasses and as a parent I just pray they are holed up and not needing to venture out onto the roads.

Tucked in by the fire today, with the MOST WONDERFUL BOOK, I was musing about the children, as parents are wont to do.

First Born, making her way in her chosen profession is still helping us understand what it means to be a parent. Her motto: The pioneers take the arrows.

Youngest Child, hacking and slashing and zapping her way though the new Zelda game, at the moment, is author of the "never a dull moment" syndrome in our lives.

Middle Child is the one we used to call "Stealth Child" because of her ability to move about the homestead undetected. She is the get-it-done kid. Returning home for the holidays she found me in the midst of Christmas decoration, tinsel hanging from one ear and hands full of un-deployed Sinterklasses. Before I knew it wreaths were on doors, empty boxes were being stowed and snowmen were displayed. How did she do that? Middle children are often the quiet force that keeps all the parts of the family working together.

All this reflection led me to ponder about the middle child in children's literature. Are there any characters in children's literature that are famously or infamously the middle child?
Are they so low key that they don't get noticed there either?

I can think of Indigo in Indigo's Star by Hilary McKay, Jo and Beth March were in the middle in Little Women. Any others?

Weird things heard over Christmas in Hobbiton

Helpful advice from Entling no. 1: "You should really organize your light bulbs, Mom."
Helpful advice from Entling no. 2: "If you would just start a list of everyone's gifts on the first of December, you would be more organized."
Helpful advice (imperative) from the Entlings: "Mom, do not talk about dust mites on Christmas Day!!!"
Helpful advice from Entling no. 2: "You need more bookcases."
Helpful advice (imperative) from Treebeard: "Do not tape a bow to your mother's head!"
Wishful thinking from Entwife: "These are South Beach Diet cookies."
Query from Entling no. 1: "Who has been eating the fudge?"
Query from Entling no. 2: "Who has been eating the fudge?"
Query from Entling no. 3: "Who has been eating the fudge?"
Query from Treebeard: "Who has been eating the fudge?"
Query from Entwife: "Who has been eating the fudge?"
Statement from Entling no. 1: "I'm taking part of the fudge," while packing her car to leave.
Cry for help from Entling no. 3: "Yo!" said at the communion rail after being by-passed twice by the chalice bearer.
Wishful thinking (myself): "Now I remember why we had a van with individual seats for the kids when they were younger," muttered sotto voce while listening to a raucous game of "Zzzzt" from the backseat which will just hold three entlings side by side.
Can't help myself: "Have you read this book?"