Bad poetry & Cheap Wine š¦āļøā®ļøššpunctuation junkie ~ Words in Las Positas Literary Anthologies/Havik, Heron Clan 8, Longleaf Review; Best of the Net Nom ā21
For children to flourish, they need to grow up reading and being read to.
The following is a list of essential books for any beloved children in your life. And theyāre brilliant enough that they can be enjoyed equally well by adults.
THE ARABIAN NIGHTS, preferably in a kid-friendly version. These shockingly strange stories of magic and adventure fired the minds of authors like Lovecraft, Dickens, George Eliot and the Brontƫ sisters.
FIVE CHILDREN AND IT and THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET, by Edith Nesbit. A series of books about four children who have misadventures with a Psammead and a phoenix. The way Edith portrays kids was a major influence on Narnia and Harry Potter.
A WRINKLE IN TIME, by Madeleine LāEngle. Awkward, brainy Meg Murry must travel to the ends of the universe to rescue her father, in a visionary fusion of science, mysticism and cosmic horror leavened by LāEngleās gentle Episcopalianism.
LITTLE WOMEN, by Louisa May Alcott. Not just for girls. Alcott is second to none as a writer of characters, and in telling the story of the March sisters and Laurie, she becomes the closest thing we have to an American Dickens.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. Harold Bloom called them the greatest childrenās fantasies ever written, and they are my personal favorites. Every child needs to know the Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.
THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN, by George MacDonald. A girl named Irene must battle a race of sinister goblins with soft feet who are threatening to abduct her and force her into marriage. The influence of MacDonaldās Goblins can be seen in The Hobbit.
THE WESTING GAME, by Ellen Raskin. A childās first introduction to the mystery genre. Turtle Wexler is one of the all-time great childrenās book heroines, and reading the end of this book as an adult still brings me to tears.
A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH and TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, by Jules Verne. Some of the most thrilling adventure stories ever written, satisfying a childās fascination with things that live in the sea or beneath the earth.
A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, by Lemony Snicket. A masterpiece of contemporary fantasy, Snicketās unique blend of whimsy, Gothic horror and clever wordplay birthed a generation of darkly funny, verbally precocious readers.
Read to your kids. Teach them that reading is for pleasure, not to pass a test. Let them read what they love. Let them see you reading books with joy and enthusiasm. Thatās how you get a child to fall in love with reading. Thatās how you make a lifelong reader.
I think itās a crisis that kids are growing up with no knowledge of Robin Hood & Merlin, Charlotte and Babar, Ratty and Badger and Long John Silver. In the words of Katherine Rundell, āWe need to be infinitely more furious that there are children without books.ā
I need someone to explain to me why it is always āif you canāt pay rent, stop buying fast food, avocado toast, and lattesā and not āif you canāt pay your employees a living wage, buy fewer private jets, yachts, and mansions.ā Explain it to me like I am in kindergarten.
there was something beautiful about library checkout cards because you could literally see the history of human curiosity attached to a book. like a tiny ghost trail of strangers connected by the same story.
Google founder Sergey Brin's wealth has DOUBLED to $311 billion since Trump's election.
Now heās spending $57M to oppose a 5% billionaires' wealth tax in California.
Heād rather millions lose healthcare than pay his fair share in taxes. This kind of arrogance is unacceptable.
Republicans have just added $1 billion for Trump's ballroom in their latest bill.
Do you support $1 billion in taxpayer money paying for Trumpās ballroom?
YES or NO? ā
Republicans have just added $1 billion for Trump's ballroom in their latest bill.
Do you support $1 billion in taxpayer money paying for Trumpās ballroom?
YES or NO? ā
Republicans have just added $1 billion for Trump's ballroom in their latest bill.
Do you support $1 billion in taxpayer money paying for Trumpās ballroom?
YES or NO? ā
I need someone to explain why itās always "If you canāt pay rent, just skip eating out and budget better" and not "If you canāt pay your employees a living wage, buy fewer yachts and private jets?"
I once read somewhere that after an especially exhausting life,some souls choose to reincarnate as a tree spending a century just resting. I haven't looked at trees the same since then
In the end, the world belongs not to the hedge-fund managers and vulture capitalists and tech moguls but to the lovers & scholars, the preservers of lost things, the stewards of the natural world, the human artists, the poets and mystics, the child just learning to read.
My favorite James Baldwin line: "There is a reason, after all, that some people wish to colonize the moon, and others dance before it as an ancient friend."