Palmistry

First readers looked like this

Is this shape a little Kindle-like?

This is a Horn Book.  The kind before we had today’s The Horn Book .

Horn Books were available to learners, especially children (usually boys) who were able to  sit with a teacher,  in the Colonies, especially Massachusetts, New York, Connectitcut, Rhode Island, New Jersey & Pennsylvania, of Great Britain (later the U.S.A)

This Horn Book is for a wealthy family, crafted of silver and ivory & it most likely was made in England.

It is one of many treasures in the Children’s Literature Center of the Library of Congress, where the Chief, Dr. Sybille A.  Jagusch, is herself another treasure for you to discover there.

www.loc.gov/rr/child

Follow the Library of Congress on twitter http://twitter.com/libraryccongress

c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino at the Library of Congress

In the Library of Congress

To visit the Children’s Literature Center online, in the Library of Congress :

www.loc.gov/rr/child

For an online visit to the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections

www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook

Cozy in the Children's Literature Center

Eye Candy

c. Jan Godown

Havana (Florida) 2009. The sweet view inside Little River General Store.

Every child should have visits to places like this in their experience, eh? Mine were in Cherryville, N.J. and also in a town in Connecticut where I would stay-over to visit a childhood pal. Until I moved to North Florida, I spent all my South Florida childhood years without a visit to such a fantabulous place. Support your regional general store!

You’ve landed at the pages & blog for Florida children’s writer Jan Godown “JG”Annino . HELLO

is my home page. Thanks for visiting.

c. Jan Godown 2009

The r in April is for?

REMEMBER  the Sweet Children

http://www.holocaustresources.org/html

May 17 is the awards ceremony set up by the Holocaust Education Resource Council, with details at the above site, along with amazing stories of survival.

Every day is the time to read the very special “Angel on my shoulder” story of sweet Miriam, who

lives in Florida & shares the many kindnesses that brought her through Nazi brutality.

Remember the Children  HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

this is the blog of writer Jan Annino Godown in Florida

5 million minutes

Until JUNE 30 you & your family can read together for travel prizes including a FLORIDA trip.

http://www.rif.org/

You’re going to read with them anyway!  See how quickly you can reach the 5 million words read goal.

For more fun this summer,  join a Read With the Kids team.

(we  suggest Al Roker’s team  because we’ve enjoyed watching him on TV since a chance meeting in the Yorktown Heights health food shop …)

~you’ve landed at the 2X monthly or so blog of writer jan godown annino

more info is at Hello.

There is a p in April for?

P is for Poetry in April!

http://www.poets.org/

Read a poem ….

Pick purple or perfect or plump words & present a poem to princesses & princes you know…

~you’ve landed at the 2X a month or so,  blog of jan godown annino. more info is at Hello.

for your school bookshelves

Do you know the work of these  writers?  Take a peek.

Laura Purdie Salas     She has a new poetry book for kids with the word stampede! in the title.

http://www.laurasalas.com

Fiona Bayrock           She has a new science book with the phrase “bubble homes” in the title.

http://www.fionabayrock.com

Check them out at your library soon.

You have landed @ the blog of  Jan Godown Annino, a children’s writer tapping away

in her own Bookseedstudio in Florida. Please look around.

~ jga 4.4.2009

Outside

this past weekend, in the woods of Florida…

c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino

… For all things wild turkey, please look for the modern classic Illumination in the Flatwoods, by Joe Hutto.

Hope you are finding time to get outside this spring if spring is already where you are, or

that you can manage time outdoors when spring arrives….

photo c. 2009 Jan Godown Annino

One of Charlotte’s Daughters

The well-fed spider

is a constant reader

when she’s not

browsing the Web

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Lichgate labyrinth

Lichgate Labyrinth

As The Wizard

didn’t give to The Tin Man

anything

“that he didn’t didn’t already have”

a labyrinth arriving at a site

such as Lichgate on High Road

becomes a natural tapestry

illuminating the precious pathways

Laura Pauline Jepsen found

when she first

climbed over the barbed wire fence

into her precious world

A Lichgate labyrinth

will beckon travelers

to discover

the peace of mind

already here

It will beckon travelers

to explore

the spirit

deep within

the one who travels

And as our area glows with

more and more labyrinths

we can become known

as a “city of turns”

much as holy cities have

long been called, for their

spiritual spiral walking paths

image for illustration idea only

source  www.jhu.edu/~chaplain/labyrinth.gif

For information on labyrinths worldwide begin with

Veriditas  http://veriditas.org  or  The Labyrinth Society http://labyrinthsociety.org

Florida garnet and gold

Found in the neighborhood, earlier this week, some Florida garnet & gold.

Let it not be said that The Sunshine State is without an autumn.

Thanksgiving 2008 & American Buffalo in Florida

Native Tribal People &

their heritage

receive the short

stick from our tasty national

holiday in the U.S. , Thanksgiving.

A few days before the 2008

Thanksgiving I took a detour with my

sister & we found this roadside

surprise  in Alachua County,

Florida.

It was late in the afternoon, with a cool breeze

tickling the palm fronds.

As I watched this creature clip the field

for dinner,

near U.S. Highway 27,

I thought of archival reports from

the Old West, of

the thundering herds of bison that

could stampede for days,

which sustained the First Peoples

of North America.

This ranch buffalo of 2008 represents legit Florida

heritage, although the Florida bison were scant

compared to the way their cousins once blanketed the mid-West

& The West.

(Buffalo are featured in the book

SCENIC DRIVING FLORIDA, 2nd ed.

the “Crossing Creeks and Prairie” chapter,

by my own self,  Jan Godown.  The chapter guides

you to the lucky chance for your own encounter to see

(c.) Jan G. Annino 2008

buffalo in a natural setting at

Paynes Prairie State Preserve)

http://www.floridastateparks.org/paynesprairie

For a fine picture book about the adoption & care of a buffalo calf by a father and son and the restoration of the Pablo-Allard herd, please see Joseph Bruchac’s BUFFALO SONG. The author consulted oral history recorded in part in the 1920s & 1930s in Montana. A 1926 Salish tribal story is woven into this lyrical book.  I like the information on it at Oyate.org and at the blog by Debbie Reese American Indians in Children’s Literature

americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com

To begin to understand the interesting work of Carol and Joseph Bruhac, please see

www.josephbruhac.com/

For another picture book about the woman who helped save American Buffalo, please see the story of Mary Ann Goodnight,  BUFFALO MUSIC, by

Tracey E. Fern. I like the review of it by children’s book maven Esme Raji Codell, posted  at her blogspot blog, Planet Esme.

(Look for the Oct. 14.200 blog, it’s after her review of a fine picture book bio on one of my picture book heroines, Wanda Gag, who lived for some time in the region where I grew up.)

http://planetesme.blogspot.com/2008/10/wanda-gag-girl-who-lived-to-draw.html

To fully immerse in the topic, Steven Rinella’s new book, AMERICAN BUFFALO, recently reviewed on NPR (I’m pretty sure it was an interview with the very fine Terri Gross) follows the herds in history & also one particular buffalo that the author brings down on foot in Alaska, after winning a spot in a hunt lottery,  butchers by himself & then packs out for eating later. Not for everyone who reads nature nonfiction,  but if you fish ( I have) or hunt (haven’t, wouldn’t, unless for survival) or if you enjoy the buffalo steak in the cafeteria of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.   this book may be for you.

Florida Christmas

A tree in CEDAR KEY

photo, Jan G. Annino  2008

A pole.

A fishing net cast over a pole.

Seashells in the net.

(Let’s hope they are castaways &

weren’t taken live.)

Colored lights.

Cheers at Christmas.

The necklace of Cedar Key islands tip-toeing into the Gulf of Mexico are where cedar forests were lumbered-out for the world’s pencils (think Faber pencils, etc.)

So I like it that the village of Cedar Key’s marina tree

isn’t using up a living one.

Muir fans know the Cedar Keys as  the region where John

Muir regained his strength after his 1,000 mile walk to

the Gulf of Mexico.  I wonder if in his knapsack on that trip he

kept his journal with the assist of a Faber cedar pencil.

Greetings from Florida &  from  Jan G. Annino, a book-published writer of  creative-nonfiction,   new writer of children’s literature, at work on an  mfa in children’s literature from Hollins University.

City

from our Amtrak window  by Anna Annino (c.)

the city, appreciated in this silver light

if you haven’t ridden a long-distance train lately, be prepared for the romance of the clackety-clack

the convenience of no seat belts & movement at will & seats that include pop-up feet rests

& a community of strangers who are the cause of the lonesome whistle sounding

our conductors were friendly & we loved seeing them carry babies down the aisle to their seats

for travel at such a crunch time – the holidays – the clackety-clack tracks were the best

Obama’s poet

A Poet and a Secretary

THE book I just devoured in celebration of Obama’s elevation to the Presidency of the United States is for children.

And it’s not one of the several handy bios of him for young readers.

It’s a picture book of  poems in several voices, by his poet, Elizabeth Alexander, of Yale, and her equally distinguished colleague, Marilyn Nelson, a much-honored creator of children’s literature.

www.wordsongpoetry.com or

http://www.wordsongpoetry.com/another_starred_review_for_mis.html

Elizabeth Alexander’s presence on the platform at this historic event shouts out that this president lauds the arts & art creators.

Already sensing that, Quincy Jones asks for support to imbed the arts in the White House with a Cabinet level secretary post. See

http://www.petitionsonline.com/esnyc/petition.html

and reach it by typing in US Secretary of Arts

Meanwhile, Poet Elizabeth Alexander will receive a wider audience because of her Jan. 20th role on the world stage.

I want you to know she is already beloved by librarians, teachers, students & many others for  MISS CRANDALL’s SCHOOL for YOUNG LADIES & LITTLE MISSES of COLOR.

This book, with illustrations by Floyd Cooper (winner of three Coretta Scott King Honor Awards) is an unforgettable visit to the true story of a Quaker woman’s dedication to her black students in New England in the 1830s.

Her determination to stand tall against local terrorists affiliated with churches, the town council & local business community makes me, “ache with caring,” to borrow a phrase of Mem Fox, about seeing this history presented to a wider audience.

If you are more interested in the present day than in history,  notes in the book mention more recent updates, including how the 1984 dedication of the Prudence Crandall Museum, was also marked in an undistinguished way by the  Connecticut KKK.

Enjoy. Weep. Share. Rejoice in the presidency of Barack Obama.

(And a palette of color to Janeen Mason

http://www.janeenmason.com,   for the petition tip.

Paint a heart for February

Make a squiggly heart, a loop de loop or pizza at

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

(A box of colored pencils to author M.R. Street of Blue Rock Rescue fame.)

The Pulitzer-winner on Mount Soledad

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1znhk_the-wubbulous-world-of-dr-seuss_creation

Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite children’s literature icons to smile about.

This genius, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984,  knew children are intelligent folks who deserved lively literature.

His advertising work called for  short, often rhyming blurbs that were also action packed &  provided a fine catalyst for his real avocation ahead. His doodles from an early age proved his hands were hot-wired to an artist’s heart.

A cool part of the Theodor Geisel book world is his very own flag. His publishing house (where  he also worked as an editor, RANDOM HOUSE) flew the Dr. Seuss flag at its Westminister, Md. warehouse, while his books were being shipped out.

For more on this national treasure, please see “Dr. Seuss from Then to Now,” A Catalogue of the Retrospective Exhibition, (organized by the San Diego Museum of Art, 1986. This catalogue/hardback book is the  source of these tantalizing facts & many more…)

www.seussville.com

March is for mammas & maidens & the Ms., Miss & Mrs. ga-zillions

It’s Women’s History Month!

http://www.redroom.event/brown-bag-lunch-talk-O

If you can’t attend this March 24 event, find a great biography of a wonderful woman to enjoy at your library.

Consider PUSH COMES to SHOVE the autobiography of Twyla Tharpe

In children’s picturebooks, have you looked at:

PLANTING the TREES of KENYA : the story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola

(Wangari Maathai is a Nobel Peace Prize winner)

KATE SHELLEY: Bound for Legend byRobert D. San Souce with paintings by Max Ginsburg

Kate Shelley was a child who made a difference

Or check out these online ways to be immersed in women’s history:

National Women’s History Project  http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/whistoryday.php

Jewish Women’s Archive  http://jwa.org

National Organization for Women  http://www.now.org

Womens’ Studies  http://userpages.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/index.html

the fine print: this blog & site are a work in progress, evolving monthly, thanks for your patience…

Irish imps

wee visitors for the st. pat's holiday

4-leaf clovers might be here...

StoryTubes 2009

Children reading books.

Children reading books & taped on video.

You, voting soon,  for the video that tugs your heart. The most.

I especially am drawn to the reading of  BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE, by Kate Dicamillo, &

the interpretation of Laura Numeroff’s IF YOU GIVE A CAT A CUPCAKE and the presentation on

KATE KLISE and … there are too, too many to highlight. Go see!

www.storytubes.info/

for information on this Bookseedstudio site, the online office of writer Jan Godown Annino,

please see Hello…or Books …Home returns you to this blog … THANKS!

Recite poetry in the dark

For just one hour

many people will tell stories in the dark, recite poetry or do something else creative (!)

Learn about it & perhaps join in!  If the day has gone by, put it on your 2010 calendar.  It’s fun.

http://www.voteearth209.org/home/