On the back of this card there is copper
this will intrigue the eye of a shopper.
on the front of this card there is silver
this will definitely bewilder.
however these things are as common as mold
for to me you are as precious as gold.
{Poem by Maggie and flower pot by Bjørn. Yes, I did cry}
Bjørn takes such pride in the fact that his father is an author and illustrator & positively oozes with it when he tells you about Tomas' books; so it's no surprise, really, that he's taken to writing and illustrating his own.
It's fun to see the planning he puts into them, the thought he puts into his story lines and character development (or lack of thought, depending on his frame of mind!). It's also a treat to pick out the influences on his work: the disco floor is lifted directly from his Club Penguin house.
I made a simple word template for Bjørn to use so he doesn't have to draw in the cells each and every time, and so that I'd have a clean margin to bind his books, but Tomas informed me this is unnecessary since the cells should be different heights & widths. You can tell who the real artists are in the family, eh? :-)
Can I really have been so out of my blog groove that I failed to share this most wonderful thing? Tomas has completed his second children's book, and it is really lovely.
When Bjørn was younger he had the funniest kidisms (like liking to wear his Bathing Soup instead of a suit) -- Tomas has captured some of them here and will get you smiling with his silly interpretations of Bjørn's world.
The books are available for purchase on Lulu.com where they are self-published for now (know of an amazing agent?). We've also posted a full preview of the book online which you are welcome to click through and share as much as you'd like.
Here's the link to preview & buy Tomas' books: http://surfeit.com/hairplanes
We are slowly settling into the slower pace of summer, and I am doing my best to keep it from getting frenzied. A tough balancing act, I tell you.
Our local library has a great reading program for kids where they each sign up and commit to reading a certain number of books, and at the end of the summer they'll win prizes. Miss M signed on for fifty books, and B is up for thirty. It's just a week into it and they are both well on their way to their goals. She with mostly Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Norse myths. He with Franklin, Dr Seuss, and anything Pokemon. We've been visiting at least twice a week, and I've also been letting them pick out movies which is a Big Treat for these guys.
Right next to our main library are the community gardens -- they are stunning this summer! Full to bursting with color and wonderful smells. One plot-keeps has even created an outdoor room complete with green and growing "walls" -- it's incredible, though we haven't dared to enter for fear or trespassing. We're hopeful to show up one day when they are at "home". Just outside the gardens is a lovely apricot tree that is dripping with fruit this year. Sometimes I have to question myself... am I taking the kids to get books, or am I secretly hoping the apricots will finally be ready for my greedy fingers to pluck?
I sometimes often regret having let our plot go when I was pregnant with the Little Guy, but I know it was that one thing too many that makes everything else suffer.
In addition to our little Library Camp, we've been getting to the pool pretty much daily, and I'm organizing weekly get-togethers at local parks and events for everyone and anyone who'd like to join us. I think in my fear of over-scheduling our summer, and my worries about this stupid job hunt, I've been over-cautious with my scheduling, but for now it's working (and I'm afraid to jinx it).
How's your summer coming along?
Last week when she was all bummed with me for handing her crafts to do on her own, Miss M made this book for her baby brother. I'd given her a Klutz book-making kit.
Petit Musée
by Alain Le Saux, Gregoire Solotareff
[The edition I've linked to here is in Spanish and English]
Little T is sixteen (!) months old now and is just starting to explore books. In a big way. My very favorite book to read to him is one I picked up at a museum near Nice last winter. It is a word book where the images are taken from the great artists of Europe and America: Van Gogh, Goya, Picasso, Manet, etc.
On the opposite page from the image you find the words along with the artist's name, and what museum the piece is displayed in. The picture on the cover is "un petit garçon" -- a little boy.
I had grand plans of *doing things right* with him, and teaching him French from the start. I hadn't done this with my older two, and it causes me just a little bit of guilt. As will happen with Grand Plans, real life happened and I found that I did a terrible job of following through. When we read this book together, I tend to tell him the English words for what we are looking at.
Our copy is something I know I will treasure for a long time, and enjoy thumbing through even without a babe on my lap.
Growing up, we were definitely a Bédé family. "What on earth is a Bédé?!" you ask? In French, BD is short for Bande Dessiné -- Comic Books. I've tried several times over the years to introduce the Olders to the worlds of Asterix and Obelix, and Tintin. Finally, this week they have totally glommed on to Tintin. Being holed up with colds and no TV in the house might have helped since they had plenty of time to really dig in.
Over the past two weeks I've borrowed just about every Tintin book from the library because Tomas and my (extensive) comic collection is all in French, Danish, and Swedish -- very few English editions in the lot -- it feels weird to buy the same books just to have 'em in English. I'll probably have to work that one out at some point...
I'm thrilled that our local library also has a good collection of Asterix comics, because they'll be next on the list. I wonder if I can convince them to purchase Lucky Luke, The Smurfs (I way prefer the French name: Schtroumpfs), Spirou, Gaston la Gaffe...?
{You can click on the images above to preview the books on Amazon.com, you'll also find many, many more in the collection!}
What's that noise?
by Tomas Christensen
First Melissa posted a sweet, sweet comment here about Tomas' book, AND THEN (!) she posted a great review on her blog! (!!)
Aside from this rotten cold I've been battling, Life Is Good :-)
