Ann Arbor Book History: “Hold my beer,” 1875.
The Michigan Argus revealed tricks of the trade for preserving books,
one of which involved beer.
Books and brews have always made a great combination .
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(note: the closest i’ve come to this is when spilling a beer on a book
and unsure if it actually helped to preserve it)
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“books and beer are the best and worst defense.”
-sherman alexie
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credits: ann arbor district library, ann arbor book society, the michigan argus
in 1852 Roget published his thesaurus, a word that means ‘treasure house’ in greek.
JANUARY 18: NATIONAL THESAURUS DAY
British lexicographer Peter Mark Roget—who is most famous for publishing The Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (a.k.a. Roget’s Thesaurus) in 1852—was born on January 18, 1779. As such, this is a day to honor, celebrate, extol, laud, praise, revere, salute, etc. his contributions.
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“the man is not wholly evil, he has a thesaurus in his cabin.”
– j.m. barrie, author of Peter Pan, describing the character Captain Hook.
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Personal note:
I am a huge fan of alphabets, words, and more words, in all languages
the thesaurus is one of my favorite books
and it is indeed a treasure house.
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image credit: the right word, Roget and his thesaurus by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet
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credits: Rebecca Rupp, author – the dragon of lonely island , candlewick press
A collection of fairy tales written by child refugees in Greece has gone on sale to help those like the book’s authors.
Travelling Tales features a rugby-playing dog, a king who grew to love animals and chickens fighting an alien invasion among its eight stories.
The book is the brainchild of Brazilian journalist Debora de Pina Castiglione and her sister Beatriz. The two combined their love of words and illustrations to create the book but the ideas came directly from the children.
Debora ran workshops with Syrian and Kurdish children aged between four and 14 years old, at three refugee camps close to Thessaloniki in Vasilika, Lagadikia and Oreokastro.
It gave the children something to do without focusing on their own lives.“The idea was not to have the children talk about their journeys or experiences fleeing war, at least not directly,” Debora said. “It was to let them tell the stories they wanted to, in ways they chose themselves.
“I think it’s important for young people to engage with one another. Children all over the world are watching the refugee situation, or hearing it on news programmes their parents watch and listen to, and as well as hoping it would be an interesting project for the children at the camps, I wanted to do something so the children outside of the crisis could see the children caught up in it on their own terms, as children with fun and interesting stories, just like they are.”
And there is something entirely captivating about the stories. In The Travelling Princess, Amira shuns her royal title to live as a poor person who goes around giving away gold she found as she explored the world.
In Aliens vs Chicken, Earth is under attack from extraterrestrials who want to steal all the chicken eggs in the world. While humans are relieved about the aliens’ demands, the chickens are not happy and fight back, reclaiming the eggs.
The story was written by nine-year-old Shahd who lives in the military camp of Lagadikia. Debora describes her stories as “full of adventure. Her creativity reminds us that there are heroes even where we least expect to find them.”
“We spent four months with the children,” Debora added. “In some cases, the children spoke English very well, and had quite clear ideas of their stories. In others, we worked with a translator, and also spent time with them to help them develop their ideas, to make the stories hold together better.
“But the point was that these are the stories of the children, so we didn’t change their words, or add anything they did not include themselves.”
Five professional illustrators helped to bring the stories to life, including Beatriz.
The book was published last month and is available in English as well as Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Dutch. It is for sale via Amazon priced at £10.
Money collected from the sale of the book will be used to help support projects that look for alternative housing solutions to the military camps.
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“hope is a waking dream.”
-aristotle
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credits: the irish news, Debora and Beatriz de Pina Castiglione, child refugees in greece
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#teachers for refugees
when at the main detroit public library
climb up the stairs and step out of the doors
to the loggia outside
look up to the ceiling arches to see
the 7 beautiful mosiacs
inspired by william shakespeare’s
“as you like it”
the 7 stages of man
with thousands of tiny glazed tiles
created by tiny hands at pewabic pottery
after reading the chart below
i believe that i find myself in the 5th stage – justice,
working my way toward the 7th stage – decrepitude.
“we know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
-william shakespeare
100 Years Later,
Beatrix Potter’s Tale Of A Fanciful Feline To Be Published
At long-lost Beatrix Potter book, The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, is set to be released this fall, 150 years after the beloved author’s birth.
The tale about a sharply dressed feline has “all the hallmarks of Potter’s best works,” editor Jo Hanks, who stumbled upon the story, says in an interview with Penguin U.K., which will publish the book.
At the time Potter was writing Kitty-in-Boots in 1914, she told her publisher that the story was centered on “a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat, who leads rather a double life.”
Hanks says she “stumbled on an out-of-print collection of her writings” and saw that reference to the story in a letter from Potter to her publisher.
This led her to the publisher’s archive, where she says she found “three manuscripts, two handwritten in children’s school notebooks and one typeset and laid out in a dummy book; one rough colour sketch of Kitty-in-Boots and
a pencil rough of our favourite arch-villain, Mr Tod.”
The original Kitty in Boots,
which Beatrix Potter illustrated herself.
The tale features a favorite Potter character — Peter Rabbit — “albeit older, slower and portlier,” Hanks says. Potter told her publisher in letters that the story went unfinished because of “interruptions” — including the start of World War I and her marriage.
And because Potter finished only one drawing for the book, it will be illustrated by Quentin Blake, who is best-known for his art in many of Roald Dahl’s books.
Quentin Blake’s Kitty in Boots.
“Quentin revels in rebellious characters and humorous stories with spiky edge to them; he’s brought anarchic energy to the character of Kitty and embellished her already endearingly flawed character with his trademark wit and charm,” Hanks says. The news about Blake’s illustration has delighted many Potter fans. Others are more skeptical about the pairing.
Here’s an excerpt from the story released by Penguin, with a cliffhanger ending:
“Once upon a time there was a serious, well-behaved young black cat.
“It belonged to a kind old lady who assured me that no other cat could compare with Kitty.“She lived in constant fear that Kitty might be stolen — ‘I hear there is a shocking fashion for black cat-skin muffs; wherever is Kitty gone to? Kitty! Kitty!’
“She called it ‘Kitty’, but Kitty called herself ‘Miss Catherine St. Quintin’
“Cheesebox called her ‘Q’, and Winkiepeeps called her ‘Squintums’. They were very common cats. The old lady would have been shocked had she known of the acquaintance.
“And she would have been painfully surprised had she ever seen Miss Kitty in a gentleman’s Norfolk jacket, and little fur-lined boots. “Now most cats love the moonlight and staying out at nights; it was curious how willingly Miss Kitty went to bed. And although the wash-house where she slept — locked in — was always very clean, upon some mornings Kitty was let out with a black chin. And on other mornings her tail seemed thicker, and she scratched.
“It puzzled me. It was a long time before I guessed there were in fact two black cats!”
You’ll have to wait until the book is published in September to find out what happens next.
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credits: quentin blake, beatrix potter, penguin press, express newspapers, getty images, npr
“i understand what you’re saying, and your comments are valuable, but I’m gonna ignore your advice.”
― roald dahl – fantastic mr. fox
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults and became one of the world’s best-selling authors. He has been referred to as “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century”. Among his awards for contribution to literature, he received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1983, and Children’s Author of the Year from the British Book Awards in 1990. In 2008 The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.”
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“a little magic can take you a long way.”
― roald dahl
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credits: roalddahl.com, npr.com, fantastic mr. fox, charlie and the chocolate factory
MATILDA WORMWOOD
from roald dahl’s ‘matilda’. not that matilda is only interested in children’s books – before she even gets to school, she’s onto adult classics such as ernest hemingway’s ‘the old man and the sea’ and ‘nicholas nickleby’ by charles dickens. an avid reader who manages to outsmart the horrible miss trunchbull? well, of course we love matilda.
‘I’ve always said to myself that if
a little pocket calculator
can do it why shouldn’t I?’
– matilda wormwood
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credits: roald dahl
reading my way into spring.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 