THE BROTHERS TOUGH!

I finally figured out how to post pictures. Here are the "Brothers Tough" during the Fall 2007 Football Season. Isaiah is 13, Kadeem is 12. Football players never smile, or at least not when they have their helmets on!

THREE CUPS OF TEA BY GREG MORTENSON AND DAVID OLIVER RELIN

Greg Mortenson is a mountain climber, who ended up in a remote and impoverished village in Pakistan, after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Over the past fifteen years, he has built more than 55 schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A few "book gems"

"When the porcelain bowls of scalding butter tea steamed in their hands, Haji Ali spoke. "If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Dr. Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time."

Mortenson continues,  "That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I have learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills…Haji Ali taught me to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them" (p. 150).

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'Tell us, if there was one thing we could do for your village, what would it be?'

'With all respect, Sahib, you have little to teach us in strength and toughness. And we don't envy you your restless spirits. Perhaps we are happier than you? But we would like our children to go to school. Of all the things you have, learning is the one we most desire for our children.'

Conversation between Sir Edmund Hilary and Urkien Sherpa, from Schoolhouse in the Clouds,  as quoted in 3C of T, p. 27

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"When your heart speaks, take good notes."  Judith Campbell, as quoted in 3C of T. (p.33)

Professionals please!

Eight year old Adrianna shares TEN APPLES UP ON TOP with Mr. George, our art teacher. She is particularly impressed by the page where the tiger (or an animal that looks like a tiger) is balancing ten apples on top of his head.

Gene, up to his elbows in model magic and tempera paint, is never too busy to honor a child, “Wow, Adriana, that’s amazing! I think I could maybe do one apple, but I don’t think I could do that many.”

Adriana is more than a little annoyed, “Mr. George, these guys are professionals!”

POETRY FRIDAY

Confessions of a Reader

Almost Spring,
A spider
Stakes a claim
On a corner
Of the eight-foot window
In our living room.

Each morning
I admire
Taut guidelines
Tightly placed spokes.
Dancing gown threads,
Architecture unrivalled.

My mother
Would not tolerate
Such slovenly housekeeping.
She would get a broom
And knock down
This errant squatter’s palace.

I do not.

I am waiting for Charlotte
To leave a message.

Carol Wilcox
published in All That Matters: What We Value in School and Beyond.
edited by Linda Rief and Maureen Barbieri
Heinemann, 1995

THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB by Kate Jacobs

This is an adult book I picked up while at the grocery store. My book club, which met for about ten years, was tremendously important to me. We had great conversations about books, but more importantly, we had great conversations about life. We celebrated- Val's grandbaby, Karen's wedding, Terri's wedding- and we also sustained each other through hard stuff. We stopped meeting about four years ago- I had adopted the boys, Terri and Karen had gotten married, Val moved to Iowa, Brenna has a crazy busy job, and Laura was travelling a lot. We still get together occasionally, but I really, really miss those regular monthly meetings.

The FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB is about a group of women who come together at a knitting shop. The main character, Georgia Walker, is the owner of the the store and the single mom to a young teenage daughter. It's a typical grocery store book- not outstanding writing, but definitely readable, what I would have called, in a previous life, a beach book (that was when I still had money to go to beaches and time to read once I got there!) There's a romance (predictable) and also a health twist. If anyone wants to read it, they are welcome to borrow my copy!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Arnold Spirit is a fourteen-year-old Indian who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Welpinit Washington. Arnold was born with water on the brain, and had seizures, and multiple other health problems as young child. His health problems, speech problems, and general geekiness have made him the target of much cruelty on the reservation, and his best friend, Rowdy, easily one of the toughest kids on the reservation, has often assumed the role of protector.

Arnold, despite his multiple physical problems, is also very smart. When he is presented with a thirty-year-old textbook the first day of high school, he decides he must leave the reservation, and go to school at Reardon, an all white school, twenty-five miles up the road. Arnold asks Rowdy to accompany him, but Rowdy refuses, and the friendship seems irreparably damaged. Arnold faces the loneliness of being the first Native American in an all-white school without his best friend's support. It is a sad and lonely time.

Surprisingly, Arnold is also very good at basketball. He makes the varsity team as a freshman, and his team must face Rowdy and his old teammates, not once, but twice during the season.

This is an amazing coming of age story- of poverty, of difference, of friendship. Very powerful text, then parts of the story are told in comic strips drawn by Arnold. As I read the text, I wonder if I could get my boys to read it. I imagine chains or ladders of increasingly more complex books, e.g. Ricky Ricotta, Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Roderick Rules, then this one. There are probably lots of other books that would fit into this ladder.... Hmmmm.

NEW PICTURE BOOKS FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH

I’m always on the lookout for picture books that teach intermediate grade kids about history and life. Here are a couple I found this weekend:
NIGHT BOAT TO FREEDOM
BY MARGOT THIES RAVEN
PICTURES BY E.B. LEWIS
Granny Judith asks twelve-year-old Christmas John to row Molly, the cook’s daughter, across the river from Kentucky to Ohio. Although John is terrified he will be caught, he complies with his grandmother’s wishes, and rows Molly across the river. This trip is followed by many more dangerous journeys throughout the course of the next year. Each time John returns, Granny asks what color his passengers wore. She uses that information to create a quilt, made from squares of “freedom colors.” Finally, there are only two squares left, and it is time for Christmas John and Granny to journey across the river themselves. The original story, taken from true accounts in the WPA’s Slave Narrative Collection, is riveting, and the illustrations, done by EB Lewis are absolutely beautiful.


LET THEM PLAY
BY MARGOT THIES RAVEN
PICTURES BY CHRIS ELLISON

South Carolina, 1955. The Cannon Street YMCA All-Stars want to play in the state Little League Tournament. All of the white teams in the state, however, refuse to play the all-black All Stars and pull out of the tournament. This boycott earns the All Stars a spot at the Little League World Series. The Cannon Street Team is invited to attend the World Series as guests, but is not allowed to play. The title of the book, “Let Them Play,” comes from the chant shouted by the spectators who attended the World Series. Pair this book with TEAMMATES, BASEBALL SAVED US, or SISTER ANNE’S HANDS.