1. I like books. Lots of books.
2. I prefer non-fiction to fiction because there is so much stuff to learn about. But I liked the short stories in Good Housekeeping magazine.
3. My favorite book is The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Raskin wrote cool books. My dad once overheard my sixth grade teacher speaking to another teacher about me. Teacher said, "I have two students reading Ellen Raskin books right now, but only Heidi is weird enough to appreciate it." She didn't know that the man standing there was my dad. We took pride in her comment.
4. My next favorite book is How to Become King by Jan Terlouw. It is a Dutch book, translated to English. It is out of print and used copies cost around $40. I see know it is similar to the labors of Hercules.
5. The first word I could read was FREE. It was on a sign we passed often while traveling through downtown. "FREE car wash with tank of gasoline." My dad said that if the only other word I learned to read was Restroom, then I would do okay.
6. In college, I took a photography class the same quarter that I took Intro to Children's Literature (Kiddie Lit). I also took Russian History and Differential Equations that term. I was able to combine Photography and Kiddie Lit by photographing how to bind a small book (Step-by-step assignment) and then gluing the photos into the blank book and writing the explanation (write a book assignment).
7. I also wrote one Russian class paper on American Kiddie Lit concerning Russia over the years, the idea being that how children perceived Russia/the USSR would be determined by what they read as much as what they heard from adults around them.
8. Pre-homework for the class was to read the huge, real (non-textbook) Nicholas and Alexandria by Robert K. Massie, which I read all during our college band bus tour to NYC.
9. I never read Goodnight Moon until I was a mom.
10. Since both of my kids now have a library card of their own, we can check out a total of 180 books combined at any one time. CHG's card is his own.
11. In second grade, if the teacher liked your story, she would have it typed onto sheets of onion paper and you were allowed to illustrate the pages and then she had a book made. Kids could have the book put into the school library. It was returned to me when I went up to seventh grade. A few kids other than me had also checked it out. It was called "My Trip to Marsasip." (MAR-suh-sip) It was going to be My Trip to Mars, then My Trip to the Sun, but I changed it. The planets surface kept changing colors. It was a feature, not a bug, so I didn't have to remember what to draw from page to page. (See photos below.)
12. My answer to many situations are to go read a book. Got engaged? Go to the library, get some books. Expecting a baby? Go to the library, read some books. All those research papers rubbed off on me. And juvenile non-fiction is the best. Lots of pictures, clear text, basic examples. If you want to know about the Civil War or Origami or John Muir, go to kid nonfiction.
13. My dad has nearly every National Geographic Magazine ever published, starting with his dad's collection. I don't know what we will do with it when he no longer needs it. I think all of it is now available on CD-ROM. But I had a great time writing about John Muir in sixth grade and have a cite in my bibliography from a 1888 magazine.
14. I wanted to write that bio paper on Jacques Cousteau, but we couldn't find any books about him. In 1979? How weird was that? My teacher said that one article in TV Guide wasn't enough and I switched to John Muir.
15. I am currently reading The Decorated Journal by Gwen Diehr.
I'll tag Todd & Sage. I don't know if Sage does memes. I know she likes books.
Cover. A fabric from home that articulated the terrain of Marsasip.
My bedroom really did have 10" wide red/white/blue stripes on one wall.
Black oranges just sounded cool.
These were not all from just me and my brother.
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