childrens – Kristin Houlihan, Writer

A poetry prompt (and some kids books) for you!

My husband took our kids to Yosemite National Park and some nearby outdoor sites a couple of weeks ago. I sent them with some “homework” for a project: take a photo of something outdoors you see that you love.

When they came home, we printed their photos, and then they painted (one elected to use pastels instead) based on the photo and wrote a poem with the following prompt:

“If I were (outdoors thing), I would…” — repeated five times.

So, we got four poems: “If I were an alpine lake;” “If I were a volcano crater;” “If I were a snake;” and “If I were a snowy mountain.” I know it’s kind of a tease to tell you all this and not share the writing and art, but… it’s not mine to share. Instead, I can share the inspiration for the project:

I slightly adapted the “If I were a tree” project from the list of outdoor art projects you can find here: OUTDOOR ART FOR ALL AGES: A YOSEMITE MARIPOSA GUIDE. (They didn’t actually go to the Mariposa grove). I can easily see us doing some of the other projects after excursions to other places too!

SO – I promised books! We realized the younger kids didn’t have any idea who John Muir is, even though his name is all over everything here (“Hey! That’s my doctor!”). So, I got some library books:

Camping with the President by Ginger Wadsworth, illustrated by Karen Dugan – This is a text-heavy picture book about John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt camping in Yosemite. I read it aloud to the younger two; I had used it years ago for homeschooling fourth grade CA history. We all enjoyed it. It’s good for learning about Muir, Roosevelt, conservation in general, and Yosemite in particular. At one point the back matter talks about how many acres of protected land Roosevelt added during his presidency; one of the kids said, “Isn’t Trump doing the exact opposite?” Yes.
Wildheart: the daring adventures of John Muir by Julie Bertagna, illustrated by William Goldsmith – This one is a graphic novel biography of John Muir. I haven’t read it but I’m told it’s funny, and two of the kids were fighting over it today so it must be good. I love the increase in graphical nonfiction because it has really encouraged my kids to WILLINGLY read more nonfiction.
Camp Time in California by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by A.G. Ford – Magic Treehouse series #35. We haven’t read it yet but it looks like Jack and Annie travel to California, meet John Muir, and help save the wilderness? My youngest has recently enjoyed another book in the series so I thought we’d give this a try too.

I’ve been meaning to pick up some of John Muir’s writing myself but there’s a lot and I’m not sure where to start. Anyone have a suggestion?

The Quick Queen of Quincy and her Quacking Quackeroo: Board Books I Still Love After 8 Years

My son is 18 months old and just now starting to let us read him an entire board book in one sitting. Up until a week or two ago we got…maybe a page? And he’s known to tear apart paper books (there’s one waiting on the counter to be fixed right now)… So today while I was reading him the same books over and over, I started thinking about how we’ve had most of them since my oldest (now eight) was a baby, and how I definitely have my favorites. There are some I just don’t get tired of reading, and others…I’m not sure why we still have. So I thought I’d share my favorite board books that we have at our home, in no particular order:

Dr. Seuss's ABC (Beginner Books(R)) by [Dr. Seuss]

Dr. Seuss’s ABC – Some of you may recognize this one from the title of this post. I have loved this book for eight years now, and could probably recite it to you. We now have two copies, which is good because the first has been well-chewed (ew). And yes, I know the board book is not the full text of the original book. I’m offended by other shortened versions, but this one I like.

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (Child's Play Library)

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood – I LOVE this book. I fondly remember my now three-year-old saying, “BOOM BOOM BOOM” when we got that page. So fun!

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown – A good friend sent this to us when my oldest was a baby, saying, “It’s way better than Goodnight Moon.” While Goodnight Moon will always be one of my childhood favorites, I have to agree. and I love that it’s illustrated by Felicia Bond (think If You Give a Mouse a Cookie). My oldest always had to count the bantam hen’s eggs. It does tell you to, after all… “Count them. There are ten.”

Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea – Friends gifted this to us, and it’s lots of fun. Dinosaur can defeat all challenges (even talking grownups!), but he loses to bedtime. Oh, and be prepared to say, “Roar.” A LOT.

Crankenstein by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Dan Santat – We all know kids can go from perfectly fine to MEEHHHHRRR in an instant, about seemingly nothing. Meet “Crankenstein,” the monster those kids turn into. We’ve been affectionately calling our kids Crankenstein since we got this book.

We have SO MANY board books that I have to be forgetting some that I love, but these are the ones that came to mind today while I was reading on the floor. On the rare occasions that I get to choose what we’re reading, these top the list!

What board books do you or your kids love?

Who am I?

Isn’t that the eternal question? Who am I? What makes me ME? Is it my history? My ancestry? The sum of my actions? My thoughts? Fears? Aspirations? I think this is a fundamental human question, something people the world over ask themselves, regardless of their life circumstances.

For me, it’s less a question of who I am than of where I belong. Thanks be to God, I know where that is: right where I am. If there’s one thing this pandemic has made abundantly clear, it’s that I am one blessed woman. My husband and my children are MY LIFE. Last year, we packed up and moved across the country. I was scared, but I knew that as long as the six of us were doing this together, I’d be fine. I can adjust to a new location, make new friends. But the core of my life is here with me. Even more so, now that we’re staying-at-home-all-together-all-the-time. Is it easy? No. Do we get on each other’s nerves sometimes? Yes. But do I doubt that we will come through it together? Not at all. My husband, my children, and the Grace of God will carry me; we will carry each other.

I haven’t always felt this at home. I had a profound identity crisis after becoming a mother – who was I if I wasn’t the smart woman who walked into work every day and did “important” stuff? If I couldn’t engage in my regular hobbies with my husband anymore (um, no rock climbing or backpacking with a newborn baby)? If I wasn’t the perfect student and had to give up grad school? I wrestled. For years. I suffered from PPD – multiple times. I reached incredible low points that I don’t wish on anyone. But I found me, I found home.

Perhaps it’s because I endured that journey that I am so interested in others’ stories as they search for what makes them them. I’ve had a chance to read a lot of books over the past bunch of days (self-isolating from your family does that, dratted pandemic), and there’s been a common theme across many of them: search for self.

A Drop of Midnight: A Memoir by [Diakité, Jason] Jason “Timbuktu” Diakite, a biracial Swedish rapper born of American parents, recounts his search for his identity in his memoir, A Drop of Midnight. I picked it up for free as part of Amazon Prime’s “First Reads” in February. I’d never heard of him before, I don’t like rap music, and I certainly don’t know what it’s like to experience a racial identity crisis. I’m a white girl from NJ. Very simple. So in many ways this was not a typical read for me, but I found it fascinating – which was certainly helped by the incredibly beautiful writing (hats off to the author and the translator!). It was moving, and while I can’t identify with his particular experiences, I can identify with Jason’s search for himself. I rooted for him as I read, praying he’d find that comfort in his own skin, that home he was clearly searching for. (I also learned a whole lot along the way, which is always nice.)

The War I Finally Won by [Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker] Ada Smith is a fictional 11-year-old girl with a club foot in WWII England. Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s The War I Finally Won, a sequel to the Newberry Honor recipient The War That Saved My Life, takes us along on Ada’s journey as she finds her place in the world, a world that is constantly changing around her and full of heartache. She perseveres. She finds people who love her, she learns to love, and in doing so she finds home. It’s beautiful.

Austenland: A Novel by [Hale, Shannon]

On a more lighthearted note, Shannon Hale’s Jane “Erstwhile” Hayes (Austenland) takes a vacation to nineteenth century England to figure out who she is. It’s easy to call it a romance and move on, but it’s really one woman’s effort to figure out and accept herself so that she is capable of loving and being loved in return.

Rightfully Ours by [Astfalk, Carolyn] Finally, I just finished Carolyn Astfalk’s Rightfully Ours, a young adult, Catholic love story. It is beautiful in so many ways. In it we see Paul struggle through the hard work of adolescence, with the added burden of great personal loss. He grows from rotely following along with his childhood faith to true personal conviction. He finds who he wants to be, the courage to try to live his ideals, and the family to support him in that effort. For many, many reasons, this is a book I hope my children will read when they are old enough.

So, there you have four very different books that all speak beautifully to the human question who am I? There’s a fifth, too, but it’s an ARC and I can’t share it yet — wait ’til May/June. Who knows? We might even be able to go out in public by then….

Thank you for reading along with my musings. I am grateful that, for now, I have that question answered. I have no doubt that I will face many more trials and life changes that will challenge this notion – but right now, it is such a pleasure to read these stories, and learn from them, but not to feel that yearning, that seeking.

I am home, and it is beautiful.