Stories that endure are those that enlarge human experience.

Joan of Arc would be 600 years old this year. I suspect that the longevity and appeal of her story is that so much of the story remains enigmatic. I speculate that part of a story’s shelf life has to do with the mysterious qualities that we will never know. But we continue to read and be enthralled by her story.  As Kathryn Harrison aptly said, "We don’t need narratives that rationalize human experience so much as those that enlarge it with the breath of mystery. For as long as we look to heroes for inspiration, to leaders whose vision lifts them above our limited perspective, who cherish their values above their earthly lives, the story of Joan of Arc will remain one we remember, and celebrate.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/opinion/joan-of-arc-enduring-power.html?

"Look, you can make a difference in your child’s life, just by reading to him for 30 minutes a day.”

Congratulations to Walter Dean Myers on being named the national ambassador for young people’s literature, a sort of poet laureate of the children’s book world.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/books/walter-dean-myers-ambassador-for-young-peoples-literature.html?pagewanted=all

His message comes from his own experiences as an African-American man who dropped out of high school but built a successful writing career largely because of his life-long devotion to books. 

I applaud his message!

“ We’ve given children this idea that reading and books are a nice option if you want that kind of thing. I hope we can get over than idea.” I think that what we need to do is say reading is going to really affect your life. Hoping to speak directly to low-income minority parents, he wants to say:  ‘Look, you can make a difference in your child’s life, just by reading to him for 30 minutes a day.” 

Bring in the New Year 2012: Take a ride on a butterfly.

Don’t be like the two caterpillars who were crawling along on the ground when a butterfly flew over them. And one caterpillar said to the other, “You’ll never catch me going up on one of those.” But I’ll ride a butterfly any day. And I hope you will too.

~Madeleine L’Engle

The Importance of free-thinking bookstores.

George Whitman, the American-born owner of Shakespeare & Company, a bookshop on the Left Bank   in Paris dies at the ripe age of 98. He opened his bookshop in 1951 because he believed the book business was the business of life. He welcomed visitors with large in-print messages on the walls- and one of my favorite was “Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise” quoting Yeats. Support your local independent neighborhood book shop—ask yourself, what your neighborhood would look like if that shop didn’t exist.

Why do children want the same book read over and over and over again?

The many rewards of rereading were recently recalled in an article in the NYT: “Read it again, Sam.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/books/review/read-it-again-sam.html
We remember our first encounter and reaction to a book, and at the same time, we are amazed to think that the book has somehow changed. The experience of rereading keeps you in the moment and also takes you back in time. But what is behind children wanting you to read them the same book over and over again? For children, rereading is not just a rewarding experience but essential for them to get ready to learn to read. The books children ask you to read over and over again—and yes, you think you can’t read that book one more time— helps them understand how narrative works and offers them comfort and familiarity with the story and the characters. They know the story, in fact they have most likely memorized the story and can “read it’ to you. This is one of the ways children get ready to learn to read. And the love affair they have for a particular book begins a lifetime of meeting books that become their lifelong companions. So yes, do read Danny and the Dinosaur once again, and again, and again.