When I decided to take a week off, I didn’t realize it was Book Week 2015. So while I didn’t wind up watching the much-recommended Veep or making my clam chowder, I did manage to cram in lots of bookish goodness, most of which was fairly kid-centric. Exhibit A: my eldest as Skulduggery Pleasant for his school book parade. This is a child who used to run screaming from playgrounds at the sight of an unsuspecting toddler in a Batman costume, so to see him voluntarily dressing up—to impersonate a book character no less—was pretty exciting. He even won a prize!
I also paid a visit to son #4’s preschool to introduce his classmates to poetry (haiku and Shel Silverstein, in this instance). Whenever I read poems to young children, I feel like everything is right in the world. Little kids instinctively “get” poetry. They don’t worry about whether or not they’re appreciating a poem the way they’re “supposed” to, or finding the “right” meaning; they just enjoy it. We all had so much fun together, it looks like I’ll be visiting them next term, too!
Yesterday I talked to the after-care program at the school my second and third son attend, and it made such an interesting contrast to speaking at preschool. The older children were a lot more reserved as an audience (I was reading A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky and had to tell them it was OK to laugh!) but they asked thoughtful questions and loved coming up with lines for a group poem about a T Rex. I also spotted a couple kids in the crowd who were really captivated and it made me nostalgic for when I was little and used to regard writers with an awe other children reserved for clowns and magicians. And now I have these lovely flowers to remind me what a nice time we had together, and my bedroom smells like lilies on the first official day of Spring here in Australia.
Lastly, I want to share a site my sons have just launched. They are all voracious bookworms and very curious about what goes on in the blogosphere, so they started their very own children’s book blog! They designed the whole thing themselves and generated all the content, which I think is pretty amazing. It just goes to show how much kids can achieve when you give them the opportunity. Anyway, if you want to pay them a visit, they’re at Five Brothers Book Reviews. And if you have or know a child who loves to read and share book recommendations, feel free to subscribe them!
Tomorrow it’s back to business as usual, kicking off our indie stretch with the lovely Kim Cleary. Stay tuned!
x Nicole
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