Stones into School

The saga continues. Mortenson recounts the efforts of the Central Asia Institute in Pakistan and Asia during earthquake relief and military initiatives.

Three Cups of Tea

I'm interning with the Children's and Family ministry here. My supervisor passed along Greg Mortenson's book, as we had left-overs from our recent VBS. This year's theme was Going Global with God: Pakistan, so the planning team read Mortenson's books to get a feel for the current state of affairs.

While attempting to climb  the Karakoram mountains in 1993, Mortenson found himself the recipient of robust Pakistani hospitality. He committed to building a school for the villagers who helped; the relationship blossomed and Mortenson continued to build over fifty schools over the ensuing years.

Apparently his memoir's are controversial. Some dispute the veracity of his claims to have built so many schools. Read more about that here. I have not read either of his books, but will eventually.

e. e. cummings: complete poems 1904-1962 & i thank you God for most this amazing...

He doesn't punctuate his sentences. I was aghast by this celebrated author's poor of mechanics until mom explained that "he did that on purpose".  Really??? The next logical question was whether or not I could throw out upper case too...i attempted as much when she wasn't looking.

e.e. cummings was my mother's favorite. I love the fact that my meat and potatoes, future-home-maker-of-America thoroughly appreciated cummings' modern style. His work is dear to my spirit as well -- particularly this piece (hear the author's own reading). Eric Whitacer's composition for SATB is beautiful (of course), but Gwyneth Walker's SSA captivates me every time I hear it. Incidentally, cummings' burial site is located in the region where I will soon dwell. This move is a major uprooting, a cause for reflection and thanks.

i thank you God for most this amazing... (65)

e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

Garage Sale 2.0: #2 Paper Clip Jewelry

Here's another art instructional...because everyone needs a pair of paper clip earrings : ) My students will be exercising their creativity to recycle classroom materials. Conservation, grade-school style!  I'll be looking for more ideas at the Decatur Arts Fest today. 

Gone with the Wind

I shouldn't find it surprising that Mom was a devoted fan of this great American classic. Many women from her generation were infatuated with Mitchell's tragic characters. It all seemed a little to dramatic for my mother, the even-keeled, Midwestern Future Homemaker of America. Whatever it was that endeared her to Tara must have been the same agent which attracted her to my rebel-blooded father. Our Old-South lineage is studded with prominent historical figures. As a "Davis," my paternal grandmother is a descendant of both Robert E. Lee and the Davis -- Jefferson. I just learned from Dad that one of our great uncles makes a cameo appearance in the book as the doctor forced by Union soldiers to treat the wounded in Atlanta.

I still have not read the book, though Mom introduced me to the movie at 8 or 9 years old... I've been smitten with Clark Gable ever since. However, I have it on good authority that the book is a much greater epic than the movie. I picked up this copy nearly 2 years ago at a quaint thrift store in Siloam Springs, AR. This summer I plan to spend quality time with Ms. Mitchell and her legendary commentary on the Old South.

Someday You'll Write

Elizabeth Yeats began her writing career as an illiterate girl who cherished stories. She went on to become a distinguished 21st. century author, winning the Newbery Medal for Amos Fortune, Free Man. I remember reading that novel for school...I think Mom may have read it aloud.

Mom championed writing from day one. I recall her challenging me to write in my diary every day, "even if it is just a few sentences." That was at 8 or 9 years, when journaling every day was a still a novel idea. She passed this self-starter book along sometime during my elementary years. Oddly enough, I've never actually read it. A page here and there, yes -- but never a whole chapter. It has remained on my shelf, throughout six moves, college, and grad school.

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "It's the thought that counts." Cliché though it may be, I'm inclined to agree.  She thought I should write. She believed that I would write. She invested her life into cultivating my love for narrative and print...among other things :)  I'm giving the book another go tonight; perhaps someday I will write.

Happy Mothers Day 

Penny Lee Leonhard

June 1, 1951 - February 2, 2010

Fallen Angels

Rotting feet. Sticky forehead, arms, legs, and back. Haunting screams. Devastating visions. Walter Dean Meyers brings the Vietnam war into the present in the this tale about a young Black man's service. I tasted, felt, heard, and smelled the battle when I first read Fallen Angels. Well chosen words convey the bitterness of war more profoundly than any movie ever could.


Reading Level from Lexile: 650L

The Road To Mephis

It's 1941 and prejudice is alive in well in Mississippi. The racial tension has not changed, but the Logan children have grown into men and women. This final novel in Roll of Thunder trilogy is a thrilling man-against-society narrative. Cassie is nearly grown up, and finishing school. Stacey is a working man with his own car. When a lazy afternoon goes terribly wrong, Cassie and Stacey find themselves whisking away a dear friend on a whirlwind journey to Memphis, desperately attempting to save his life. The long journey only takes a matter of hours, but the travelers find themselves altered forever once they reach their destination. In this Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel, World War II, unplanned pregnancy, and substance abuse collide against to backdrop of deeply divided South.

Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Times are hard for everyone during the Great Depression, but Black share-croppers suffer uniquely under economic oppression. The Logans face more pressure than ever before to sell their land. But Papa will never let the family land change hands, no matter what the cost. As Mama and Papa labor to keep the family afloat, Cassie and her brothers struggle to navigate the world as young adults. Being a young woman means that Cassie doesn't get to do everything with the guys as she's always done. Becoming a young man puts Cassie's older brother at odds with his parents – to the point of running away from home. The Logans fight to keep hold their family together as internal division and external pressure threaten to rip their fragile relationships apart. Cassie learns that it is worth the effort, because family is all that matters in the end.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry is the Newbery Medal-winning first installment. Readers become acquainted with the main characters: protagonist Cassie, her three brothers and their mischievous friends, Mama – a school teacher, and Papa – an itenerant worker who is often away from home. Taylor paints a picture of segregation's inequalities from the first chapter. Readers feel the humiliation of the Logans as a bus full of white children splatters Cassie and siblings with mud the first day of school. The intensity of race relations culminates in a family friend – a Black youth's trial for murder of a white man.  

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

As provocative as this title sounds today, James Weldon Johnson's raw memoir must have sparked even more controversy when first published in 1912.  This is a commentary on race-relations in turn of the century New York. Johnson was the first black executive secretary o f the NAACP; his conversational voice invites the reader into his experience as comrades do over coffee in the corner of a city cafe.