Lost and Found

Every time I give myself over to this practice of blogging for Books Around the Table, things interesting and wonderful happen. Mystery and serendipity are likely to come along, too. It goes like this:  I gather books, willy-nilly at first, and always more than I have the time or space to write about. I keep an eye and an ear out for commonality, a hook I might hang my selections on. I sort, shuffle, and stack, trying on themes and motifs that might offer structure to my post. More visits to the library for more books with elements that overlap or provide a counterpoint to those piles that shrink or grow as I rearrange and reconsider. Variations on themes circle around, and so do I. If I waver too long before settling on one, I get dizzy. If I lean into one and its inevitable limitations, it feels like a dance. There is no right or wrong, no perfect fit of theme to list, but rather a tango with the ideas and imaginings of writers and illustrators whose work I admire. Let’s dance.

How to Write a Poem

Alexander, Kwame & Nikaido, Deanna.  Illus. by Melissa Sweet.  2023

To the dynamic duo that created How to Read a Book, add poet Deanna Nikaido’s voice and settle into the warmth and wisdom of this gem. How to start a poem? Begin with a question. Something deep perhaps, like an acorn waiting for spring. Follow the prompts that activate the senses, respond to the seasons, encounter the cosmos, and even explore the depth of one’s emotions. You may go alone–or with a friend or two–on this quest for the words, thoughts, and feelings that may—or may not—answer your question. But what a ride you will have taken to the place where the words have been waiting to slide down your pencil into your small precious hand and become a voice…

Melissa Sweet hand lettered the text and created her collage art using vintage and handmade papers, paint, pencils, printed letterforms, and beach pebbles. She explains that her very first reading of the text inspired the use of circles and spheres in the illustrations. They suggest the spinning wheels of imagination, circling around the natural world, coming full circle from question to poem. The abundance of cogs and cycles and cyclists is a nod to poet Nikki Giovanni. As she’s written, We are all either wheels or connectors. Whichever we are, we must find truth and balance, which is a bicycle.

The Other Way to Listen

Baylor, Byrd.  Illus. by Peter Parnall.   1978

Everybody Needs a Rock (1974) is my all-time favorite Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall collaboration. I was hoping to find it still available in Seattle libraries. Alas, it is not. (It is still in print, though.) This beautiful story, set in the desert Southwest where Baylor lived, wrote, and was an activist for 97 years, is about finding a rock—the perfect rock–for oneself. The size of it, its shape, how it sounds in your pocket when you run, how it feels when you touch it a thousand times a day.

Instead, I offer you The Other Way to Listen. This may not look like a story for our times, although I might suggest it is the very story we need in our times. It is quiet and stunning in its reverence for the Sonoran environment. It features a child in conversation with an old man, an uncle or grandfather perhaps, who is so attuned to their desert backyard he can hear wildflower seeds burst open, rocks murmur, and hills sing. The child wants to know how to hear these things, too. It takes time and practice, the old man replies, and you cannot be in a hurry. Most importantly, the landscape and desert dwellers will be your true teachers. Then he shares his tips for soulful listening. Start small. Show respect. Do not be ashamed to learn from any living thing, even a bug. When you are alone, that is when you can listen best.

Parnall’s pen and ink drawings are spare and require the viewer’s attention the same way listening to a rock might. They capture the desert landscape and interactions between the child and old man with splashes of color that on one page illuminate the inside of a cave, then become the child’s hair, the old man’s coat, or a setting sun on others. If you pay close attention, you can almost hear them.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/86798-obituary-byrd-baylor.html

A Day with No Words

Hammond, Tiffany.  Illus. by Kate Cosgrove.  2023

Aidan is a young Black boy who introduces himself to us the same way he greets the world every day–through his tablet with an app that displays pictures and words that speak for him. As he tells us, I was born like this. No voice from my lips. I am Autistic. He hears but does not speak. His powers of description are keen, though. Big voices feel like storms that thrash and scream. Soft ones are smooth like fresh whipped cream. Mama’s voice bobs and dances like water, and Daddy’s is like air–soft as a summer breeze.

Mama suggests a visit to the park by tapping on her tablet park…now…no…crowd? Aidan quickly taps yes because he loves the park, especially when there are few people there. He spins barefoot on the warm, damp grass. He hugs the trees to comfort them when the sun disappears behind a cloud. He jumps and flaps his arms in delight just because. They encounter another mother whose son points at Aidan as he moves to his own rhythm. She says Aidan’s doing that because he’s handicapped. They appear to back away from him in fear or scorn. After two deep breaths in and out to calm herself, Mama is ready to set the woman straight about Aidan. She furiously types on her tablet, then turns it around so they can read her words. No, he doesn’t speak, but his ears work fine. The words that you say go straight to his mind. From her teal fingernails to the teal curls on her head, this Mama has her son’s back. She also knows a quick stop for fast food on the way home, ordered by each of them on their tablets, is the best way to end a day with no words.

Cosgrove’s illustrations are hand rendered in pencil and ProCreate. Her use of pastels on the colored pages is very effective. The darker backgrounds allow the people and places to stand out in a muted way that seems congruent with Aidan’s relationship to his surroundings. It is her drawings of Aidan, however, that really add to this reader’s appreciation for his neurodiversity in ways both subtle and respectful. Careful attention is paid to where his eyes focus, whether they are open or closed, and even how he hears what goes on within and around him. When there are no words, it takes a skillful illustrator to bring a character to life. Cosgrove does this beautifully.

The Lost Words:  A Spell Book  

 Macfarlane, Robert.  Illus. by Jackie Morris.   2017 (UK) 2018 (US & Canada)

If you haven’t seen this masterpiece in poetry and paintings or listened to the audiobook performed by British actors and musicians, prepare to be spellbound. This is the book that inspires my musing about things lost and found, wild and tame, noisy and quiet. When keen Oxford Junior Dictionary viewers began noticing years ago that many words related to the natural world and the British landscape were being deleted while others dealing with technology and the virtual world were being included, it was cause for concern. Writers, environmentalists, poets, naturalists, teachers, and families across Britain sounded the alarm. Children who are not offered the opportunity and encouragement to see and smell and hear and talk about the natural world around them are being denied something essential to childhood, their argument went. Without the words to name their wild experiences, can they really know and love them? Can they tell stories and pass on their knowledge about them? Will they develop a passion to preserve and protect them as they grow?

Macfarlane and Morris offer this sumptuous, large format coffee table book as a corrective. It features 20 acrostic poems by Macfarlane of words removed from the dictionary including dandelion, wren, bramble, and otter. His intention, as he notes in the preface, is to conjure spells of many kinds that might just, by the old, strong magic of being spoken aloud…summon lost words back into the mouth and mind’s eye.

Here’s a taste from Magpie. Magpie Manifesto: Argue Every Toss! Gossip, Bicker, Yak and Snicker…Pick a Fight in an Empty Room!

Morris’s breathtaking art defies description by me. It is pure magic in gold and watercolor.