Some Books to Look Forward To This Spring

The Crows of Pearblossom
by Aldous Huxley
illustrated by Sophie Blackall

(of Big Red Lollipop fame)
Were you just thinking: Aldous Huxley wrote children's books.  
Because I know I did.  This is so great!

  

That's How

by Christoph Niemann

(I recently discovered his work: playful and energetic 

and imaginative, and while it would be favored by anyone, 

I think his books are especially suited to boys.)

    

  

Bring on the Birds

by Susan Stockdale

(review)

  Brilliantly illustrated and truly delightful

The Illustrated Acts of the Apostles

by Jean-Francois Kieffer and Christine Ponsard

Another in the innovative graphic-novel style retellings of the Bible, from Ignatius Press.  

Read about their first release, The Illustrated Gospel, here.

And I know I am a total cheeseball to admit it, but I am really excited about Just Being Audrey by Margaret Cardillo.  It seems pretty harmless, if a little too idolizing, and I don't know any little girl who hasn't fallen in love with Audrey Hepburn when she first came across her (for me, probably for most, it was My Fair Lady that did me in).  So, I will relish this, and that's that.

Taming the Savages: Kids and Music

Red Priest at the National Gallery of Art

If you follow 10KP, then you know that I spent February considering some great pieces of music with my friends Rebecca & Jack.  We've been blogging about our musical adventures on their new years resolution blog, 12.  For our last musical piece we took their 4 year old, Spoon (who, by the way, was a major inspiration for this blog!) to a Vivaldi concert at the National Gallery.  The performers, Red Priest, played several pre-Vivaldi Baroque pieces, as well as the famous, engaging, lovely and familiar Four Seasons.  (They have a Youtube channel.  Check them out.  They're amazing.)  This was Spoon's first concert, and she knows The Four Seasons really well (its a great way to introduce kids to Classical music because there is such clear imagery in it), so she was just thrilled.  They put on a wild and fun show--and she was enthralled.

I still haven't posted my thoughts on the Vivaldi concert, but I wanted to share with you some of Rebecca's thoughts, because they will prove interesting to all you parents out there, I think.  Rebecca is a stay at home mom, and, besides Spoon, has 15-month old twins.  Here are her thoughts on music and child-rearing (or, perhaps, cultivating is a better word):

I was reminded though, sitting in the midst of the dimly lit potted green palms and smooth marble columns, with others surrounding me who were not micturating in their own pants, that the whole aim of my business with the children is precisely not just scraping up filth and responding to constant need. It is in fact to lead these savages to not only engage in order and loveliness, but to seek it out. To rule their intensely real emotions, whims, and needs by self-control--being convinced of what it true, beautiful, and good. And because of this to revel even more fully in the wild tumults of creation, creativity, and passion.

...The delight though, for me, was something beyond just hearing afresh the overplayed, under-attended music of Vivaldi. The Baroque seems to easily signify the heights of civilization that I am striving for in raising our children. In all it's force and beauty--the struggle of bombast and storm against the exquisite limitations of an instrument played by a man. Encapsulated by the sheer delight of the musicians with each other (community), their shared endeavor (politics), they produced music that delighted their audience (articulate communication)--producing both wild flights of imagination, the exultation in the sheer capacities of man, and the pathos of the storm, the struggle with nature, drunkenness, and the hunt.

The tensions between fancy and storm were not merely competing experientially, but rather made coherent a whole experience of life, and this only made possible by the devoted study of music and practiced skill of the players.

What could be a better view of our lively engagement with the world as God has given it to us to pursue?

There's more: read it all here. For more posts on music: click here.  For Red Priest's music: click here.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I always forget about Dr. Seuss.  I know that seems ridiculous, but he is totally ubiquitous, and there isn't really anything new to discover of his works, and everyone already has their favorites, so I never think to write about him.  But today's his birthday, so I thought I'd share with you a few of my favorites.  Perhaps you will discover something you don't know:

My all time favorite Dr. Seuss Books were: Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (above).

I didn't know If I Ran the Zoo when I was a kid, but it is one of my favorites now! (Is anyone surprised by this?  I love zoos.)

And my friend Ava gave me Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book, which is very very silly and delightful.

 
 

This is a really fun board book about colors. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher have made new paintings to accompany the text by Dr. Seuss.  I know Seuss was more of an artist than a writer, and it is impossible to imagine the Llorax any different from how he drew him, but I won't why more people don't do this.  It would be a great project (if only an exercise) for an aspiring illustrator.

But the very very best of Dr. Seuss isn't a book at all: it's a movie.  We grew up on his one film, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, and it is now out on DVD for a whole new generation to enjoy.  Staring Tommy Rettig (one of the boys in Lassie) and Hans Conreid (a great and underrated character actor), it is about a little boy who falls asleep while practicing his piano, and has the strangest dream. His piano teacher, Dr. T, has created a school for boys, with a 500 person piano, become engaged to Bart's mother, and hired the local plumber to do all his handy work.  It is funny, strange, at times quite chilling, at other times very heartwarming. It bends the imagination, and engages on almost every level.  And it actually teaches an awful lot about music in the meantime.  I'll warn you: it is strange, it's thoroughly Dr. Seuss.  And it's grand.  Here's the trailer (oh, what a funny little time capsule), and my two favorite scenes from the film (Buy it here!):