READ poster for Lucia

Hey! Remember the READ poster generator Sam Riddleburger discovered? I finally made one for myself... or rather, I made one for Lucia. I've been moping about, saying, "My baby! Where did my baby go?" and looking at old photos. Here's one I found of 6 month old Lucia:

Poetry Friday: Lobster Quadrille

[I found the photo of the snail here.]

Lucy and Carly Simon set Lewis Carroll's "The Lobster Quadrille" (from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) to music. So did I (soundfile forthcoming someday). There's a good chapter on the poem in Jacqueline Jackson's out-of-print homage to writing and reading children's books, Turn Not Pale Beloved Snail, a book that heavily inspired my childhood stories and poems.


THE LOBSTER QUADRILLE

"Will you walk a little faster?"
Said a whiting to a snail,
"There's a porpoise close behind us,
And he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters
And the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle -
Will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you,
Won't you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you,
Won't you, won't you join the dance?

"You can really have notion
How delightful it will be
When they take us up and throw us,
With the lobsters, out to sea!"
But the snail replied, "Too far, too far!"
And gave a look askance -
Said he thanked the whiting kindly,
But he would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not,
Could not, would not join the dance.
Would not, could not, would not,
Could not, could not join the dance.

"What matters it how far we go?"
His scaly friend replied,
"There is another shore, you know,
Upon the other side.
The further off from England
The nearer is to France -
Then turn not pale, beloved snail,
But come and join the dance.
Will you, won't you, will you,
Won't you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you,
Won't you, won't you join the dance?
--Lewis Carroll


Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Big A little a.

Song of the Week: Shady Grove

The only reason I hadn't made "Shady Grove" a Song of the Week before was because I thought I had already written about the song two years ago. My uncle taught this song to me in the key of E minor from the indespensible Rise Up Singing book.

"Who is Shady Grove?" people wonder. "Is it a place or is she a person?" The answer is, "Yes." Some versions of this traditional Appalachian tune refer to Harlan, which is in the state of Kentucky. Lucia knows that when I sing "Shady Grove" with my particular verses, I'm singing to her.

I've transposed the song to the key of A minor and added two chords. If you are a beginning guitarist, play the A minor and G chords. Once you're comfortable with the chord changes, you can add the other chords. The chords for the chorus are the same as for all the verses.

Basic version:
[Am] Shady Grove, [G] my little love,
[Am] Shady [G] Grove I [Am] know
[Am] Shady Grove, [G] my little love,
I’m [Am] bound for the [G] Shady [Am] Grove.

"Advanced" version:
[Am] Shady Grove, [G] my little love,
[Am] Shady [G] Grove I [Am] know
[C] Shady Grove, [G] my little love,
I’m [Em] bound for the [G] Shady [Am] Grove.

The verses:

Peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall
If I can’t have my Shady Grove, I’ll have no one at all.

Chorus: Shady Grove, my little love, Shady Grove I know,
Shady Grove, my little love, I'm bound for the Shady Grove.

Cheeks as red as a blooming rose, eyes of the deepest brown
She is the darling of my heart, prettiest girl in town.

Chorus

The first time I saw Shady Grove, she was standing at the door,
Shoes and stockings in her hand, little bare feet on the floor.

Chorus

I wish I had a glass of wine and bread and meat for two;
I'd set it all on a golden plate and give it all to you.

Chorus

If I had no horse at all I'd be found a-crawlin'
Up and down this mountain road, a-looking for my darling--

Chorus

Here's the verse I tweaked just for Lucia:

Dance around, my sunflower girl, dance around my daisy,
Dance all night, you never sleep, almost drive me crazy!

Sound files:
Laura Boosinger (track #6)
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman

Seven Tips for Satisfying Library Preschool Programs

Pictured: Chester, my storytime monkey. Every year, I'd celebrate Chester's birthday on my birthday. Every year, Chester turned 3 years old, and he baked cardamom sugar cookies for the children and their caregivers.

MotherReader would like you to submit tips related to children's books for her November 2007 Carnival of Children's Literature. I didn't have any tips specifically related to children's literature this year, so I made some new ones. Please add your own library program tips in the comments section.

Seven Tips for Satisfying Library Preschool Programs

1) Start the opening song late. Before I had a child, I was incredulous that these caregivers couldn’t get it together to bring their children to the storytime room at 10:30 am for a mere 30 minute storytime. After I had a child, I understood the reasons for the tardiness. My solution: I would pretend to start the program with a warm-up song. By the time the late-comers arrived, they thought the storytime had already begun. At 10:35, after the warm-up song, I’d make any general announcements that I needed to convey, and then start the official opening song.

2) I used to have a number of guidelines for the caregivers before I began my programs. Now, I have just one: turn cell phones and pagers off. Everything else (the rowdiness of the children, the nannies chatting away in the back, the toddler grabbing the cardboard and construction displays off the walls) is gravy. In the end, no one can truly control a child, but for thirty minutes, a grownup can control electronic noises.

3) You really don’t need a specific theme. If a unifying theme helps you prepare a storytime, that’s great, but don’t choose mediocre books just so you can read 5 books about frogs or fingernails. Choose books for their pacing, their ability to convey plot in a short amount of time, and how much you yourself enjoy the books. If you need something to unify them, there’s always “And now, for something completely different!”

4) Read your picture-books ahead of time. I cannot stress this enough. The one time you think, “Oh, I’m sure this book will be just fine” will be the one time you realize midway that the book is tedious, too long, or simply too weird for you at that juncture.

5) While some people are not comfortable with their singing voices, I prefer the storytime leader’s own natural voice, no matter how weak it may be, over playing recorded music. Whether you play an instrument or rely on your voice alone, when you lead the audience in a song, you are the one in charge. Besides, if you’re playing prerecorded music, there will always be the young toddler who persists in crawling behind you to unplug the player.

6) “Eensy Weensy Spider” often calms a fussy room. For slightly older kids, suddenly bursting into “Simon Says” will compel the room to order. I don’t know what it is about “Simon Says,” except that children don't want to be caught putting their hands on their heads if Simon didn’t Say for them to do it. The mortification is too much to bear.

7) Have a good ending song or rhyme. All flaws are forgiven with an ending that helps everyone walk out feeling good. I'm a fan of "Roly Poly" for the wee ones, and a song or poem in 3/4 time for the older ones.

A few of my favorite picture books for preschool storytimes:

Zzzing, Zzzng, Zzzng! --Phyllis Gershator
Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County--Janice N. Harrington (long)
Mama Don’t Allow—Thatcher Hurd
Round Trip—Ann Jonas
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle—Margaret Read MacDonald (long)
Flossie and the Fox-- Patricia McKissack
Guys From Space—Daniel Pinkwater
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World—Marjorie Priceman
Saving Sweetness---Diane Stanley (long)
Twenty Four Robbers—Audrey Wood

Related post: Seven Tips for Successful Storytelling at Parties

When surprise is not so much fun

Devon T, an early childhood teacher in Japan and blogger for Head, Shoulders, Knees and all that, says Remember the automatic flush toilets when it comes to introducing children to something new. There's much more, including a neat little anecdote about a teacher introducing a variant of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" to children who might otherwise be resistant to a game that involves a blindfold. Go read!

Guitar Hero vs. Guitar Dilettante

Last night, we went over to some friends' house for dinner. The friends had a Wii set up, and when I found out that they had Guitar Hero, I admitted I'd been curious about the game. Bede is the gamer, not I, so I wasn't surprised that he did a lot better at the game than I did. After 10 minutes of hitting colored buttons to play "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Smoke on the Water," a little nagging thought nudged me and said, "You know, this game isn't making you a better guitar player."

"I know," I replied to the little thought. "What I'd really like is an electric guitar, but there's no way I could ever justify the expense or find room in my house."

"But Blogapotamus Rex's husband, the Rock Star, managed to fit 15 guitars on a houseboat," the little thought reminded me.

"Yeah," I said, "but the Rock Star was in a band that played actual concerts, plus he's actually pretty good. Professional guitarists need lots of guitars!"

The little thought had no answer for that. After all, the little thought had no money to offer to fund my hobbies.

Sheet music for Lantern Song

For those of you who wanted the music for yesterday's Lantern Song, I couldn't find a sound file for you, but I did scan the sheet music we're using in school. If you don't read music, I hope you can find someone who does and who would be willing to sing or play it for you. I've got a link to a virtual keyboard here. If you're willing to make a go of it yourself without reading music, here are the notes as you see them on the virtual keyboard:

First part: C/ F F A F A/ C1 A F/G G G A G/ F
Second part: A/ C1 A F A/C1 A F F/G G G GA G/ F

St. Martin and the Lantern Walk

November 5, 2008 update: You can find videos with lantern songs right here on A Storytelling of Crows.


St. Martin and the Beggar by El Greco

On the evening of Monday, November 12, Lucia's class will take part in her school's annual Lantern Walk. The children and their parents will gather outside to walk through the woods holding homemade lanterns and singing songs. Afterward, we'll gather around a bonfire, drink warm cider, and listen to a story. The Lantern Walk coincides with the feast of St. Martin of Tours on November 11. According to the most famous story of the saint, Martin was a Roman soldier who was traveling one cold winter night when he saw a begger in the streets. Even though Martin felt frozen to his toes, he was compelled to cut his cloak in two and give one of the halves to the beggar. That night, in a dream, he saw Christ clothed in the piece of the cloak he'd given the beggar. Afterward, Martin was less interested in the business of battle. When Martin finally left the service with an honorable discharge, he founded a number of monastaries and was elected Bishop of Tours in 371. According to the legend, Martin did not want to be elected, and tried to escape by hiding in a barn full of geese. However, the geese gave him away with their honking! Ergo, it's tradition to eat roast goose on St. Martin's feast day. Here's a more in-depth blog entry about St. Martin and his feast day (called Martinmas) from Mama Lisa's World Blog.

Sketch by Tony Dowler

One of the traditional songs to sing on the Lantern Walk is Ich geh mit meiner Lanterner. An English translation:

I go outside with my lantern,
my lantern goes with me.
Above us shine the stars so bright,
down here on earth shine we.
So shine my light in the still dark night,
Labimmel, Labammel, Laboom.
'Neath heaven's dome till we go home,
Labimmel, Labammel, Laboom.

We walk with our little lanterns,
our lanterns so shiny bright.
We wander through the darkness,
with winking, twinkling lights.
Like stars that swing are the lanterns we bring,
Labimmel, Labammel, Laboom.
'Neath heaven's dome till we go home,
Labimmel, Labammel, Laboom.

READ poster generator

Sam Riddleburger has found the READ poster generator for which we've all been waiting. Sam of course recommends holding The Quikpick Adventure Society. I recommend holding up Alkelda the Gleeful's Guide to Turning People from Silly to Serious. Really, it's up to you.

Song of the Week: I'm a Lonely Little Petunia (in an Onion Patch)

I was addicted to the television program Six Feet Under. It was one of my guilty pleasures. I never watched it while it actually played on cable. We didn't have cable tv to begin with, and after Brad the Gorilla threw out our television, we had to rely on our computers to provide our visual opiates. So, I'd wait until each season of "Six Feet Under" was on DVD, and then I'd wait some more until my library copy arrived. After Bede and I put Lucia to bed, I'd curl up and watch 3-4 episodes a night until I was done so that I could quickly send the DVD on to the next person.

Season four (my least favorite season) features an episode in which the character Ruth Fischer sings a perky little "cheer up" song to her granddaughter called I'm a Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch, written by Maurie Hartmann, Billy Faber and Johnny Kamono. The verses to the song are forgettable, but the chorus is catchy:

I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,
an onion patch, an onion patch
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch
and all I do is cry all day
Boo hoo, boo hoo, the air ís so strong it takes my breath away
feee---you!
I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,
oh won't you come and play with me?

Later, as the credits roll, Imogen Heap sings a haunting, spare version of "Lonely Little Petunia." Heap's version is what sticks with me. You can listen to it as the soundtrack to someone's homemade video here.

Spinning Wheel VI: Robert Resnik, Librarian Musician

Once upon a time, I used to work in a library. One day, my supervisor brought in a compact disc called A Little Bit Jumbled and Jivey. She said, "There are a lot of good songs on here that I think will be good to play for our storytimes." I listened to the songs, and loved how simple and lively the arrangements were. When I read the liner-notes, I found out that the performers, Robert Resnik, Gigi Weisman and Carol Scrimgeour, were three children's librarians who had put together the cd to raise money for the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, Vermont. (Later, they would produce two other cds: Like the Birdies Sing and Sweet Potatoes and Homegrown Tomatoes, all sold through the library store).

"This is what I want to do," I thought to myself as I listened to "A You're Adorable," "Ladybug Picnic" and "Sodeo" on A Little Bit Jumbled and Jivey. "I don't want to put on cds and have people sing along to recordings. I want to be a librarian who plays guitar and bring live music to my storytimes." Immediately following that thought, a patron came up to the information desk, and then I got distracted by Life In General. Four years later, I took my first guitar lesson. By then, I wasn't working in the library on a regular basis anymore, but I didn't forget that initial spark. It only seemed right that when I started the Spinning Wheel series, I would contact the people who created the cd that made me think incorporating live music in storytimes was a good idea. This week's interview is with Robert Resnik, and the next interview will be with Gigi Weisman.

INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT RESNIK

Saints and Spinners: What exactly do you do for a living?

Robert Resnik: I am a director at the Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, Vermont’s public library, and I host a weekly folk and world music show on Vermont Public Radio.

S&S: How long have you been working in your chosen profession?

RR: I have worked at the library from 17 years, and at the radio station for 10.

S&S: What prompted you to work with and perform for children?

RR: When I began to perform music for kids I was the outreach librarian, and started incorporating music into joint programs which I was presenting with the children’s librarian. I have always loved children’s music, and am just a big kid myself!

S&S: Why do you continue to do it?

RR: I continue because it’s very gratifying, and also because my live performances have helped the Library sell over $25,000 worth of recordings. Proceeds from these sales have funded special programming for youth and outreach for many years here at our Library.

S&S: Which performers are your inspirations for your work?

RR: There are many wonderful musicians who play great material for children. Ella Jenkins, Raffi, Anne Dodson, Priscilla Herdman, and Pete Seeger are all major inspirations for me, as is Dave Van Ronk, who, although he wasn’t known primarily as a children’s performer, has recorded what I believe is the all-time greatest recording of “Swingin’ On A Star!”

S&S: What are some of the things you enjoy doing outside of your profession?

RR: I love playing music, and know how to play more than 30 different stringed, wind, free reed, and percussion instruments. I am an avid wild mushroom collector, and also love to cook.

S&S: What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?

RR: I like to crochet brightly colored afghans.

S&S: Was there ever a time when your audience surprised you? What happened?

RR: I was performing a set of Vermont songs for small local historical society, and sitting in the front row were two young boys, about 7 and 9 years old. It took me only a few minutes to realize that they knew every single word to every single song that we sang, including the ones that I had written myself. I was surprised to find that it made me very nervous as well as very happy, because it seemed that they knew my songs much better than I did, and I was afraid of making a mistake!!

S&S: What’s in heavy rotation on your stereo/iPod lately?

RR: Hurdy-gurdy music, and a new album by an English dance band named Blowzabella.

S&S: If you could headline a festival with three other performers, who would they be?

RR: Tom Waits, Dave Van Ronk (back from the dead), and Cliff Edwards (Ukelele Ike, also back from the dead), and if these guys showed up, I would just never be a headliner, just a reverent side musician!

S&S: What’s the song or story that never gets old for you?

RR: The Erie Canal.

The Pivot Questionnaire is a set of questions popularized on “The Actor’s Studio" and introduced to me through Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. If you please, answer the same set of questions:

What is your favorite word?
Lugubrious

What is your least favorite word?
No

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Playing music with people I love

What turns you off?
Not having enough time

What is your favorite curse word? (optional)
psia krew (pronounced “shakreft”)

What sound or noise do you love?
The sound of the wrapper coming off of a marvelous chocolate bar.

What sound or noise do you hate?
A broken string in the middle of a performance.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
A bread baker.

What profession would you not like to do?
Mining in a tunnel for anything.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Welcome to heaven – you made lots of people happy during your life!

Open Tuning

Image obtained from Folk of the Wood

At the moment, Lucia is strumming a lovely G chord on her guitar. "How can this be?" you ask. "Lucia is only 4 1/2 years old, and there is no way that her left hand can span the fretboard to play a G chord." You are right. With the standard guitar string tuning of E-B-G-D-A-E (going from thinnest to thickest strings), a simple strum sounds like noise if you're not pressing down any strings. However, if you retune your guitar strings to what is called an "open tuning," you can strum all of the strings without pressing down on the fretboard at all, and the chord sounds good. Lucia is currently strumming "G-B-D-G-B-G" and singing a song of her own composition: "There's a rainbow pie! In a rainbow sky!" Rather coincidentally, the sun has just emerged.

In the event that it's of use to you, here is an Online MIDI guitar tuner. However, I'm a fan of the electronic chromatic tuners that you can clip onto the headstock of your guitar:


You can tune other things with a chromatic tuner, too. I periodically open-tune my door harp (bought years ago, after I read Davita's Harp by Chiam Potok):

NaNoWriMo: I'm not a Fan

I have a confession to make: I do not like National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo. While I want to be supportive of my friends who find it useful for their writing exercises, the mere concept of making myself write 50 thousand words in one month gives me a headache. I want to simplify my life, not clutter it. I appreciate Cloudscome's haiku and Tricia's poetry exercises for their focus on brevity and precision. Prose allows for more words, but I want it to be just as focused.

Sometimes, I find Sean Lindsay of 101 Reasons to Stop Writing refreshing in his humorous cynicism about the glut of bad writing. I am appreciative of HipWriterMama for her encouragement of aspiring writers, but I'm also ever hopeful that the writers' products are stories that waste no words.

To counteract the effects of NaNoWriMo, I'm going to offer six word stories again. Guess the literary allusions of these offerings:

1) Heading home. Twenty years later... home.
2) "Marry me." "Never!" Later: "Nice mansion!"
3) My better half stole my girlfriend.
4) "Magic does not exist." "Oh yeah?"


Answers (highlight to view) :
1) The Odyssey
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Anansi Boys
4) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

All Saints' Day 2007

Happy All Saints' Day! Two of my favorite resources for stories of the saints for children are Once Upon a Time Saints and More Once Upon a Time Saints, both by Ethel Pochocki. Tomie DePaola and Demi have been quite prolific in the saints picture-books department, too. A quick search online lead me to Caedmon's Song by Ruth Asby, illustrated by Bill Slavin, and published in 2006. I don't know yet if it's good, but I'll let you know when I get my hands on a copy.

November 2 is the Feast of All Souls. I really appreciate the Mexican Dia de los Muertos, and would like to participate in a festival someday.

Song of the Week: American Tune

Thanks go to my college Humanities: Arts and Music class professors for introducing me to the history leading up to Paul Simon's "American Tune."

Hem, hem. (Taps at microphone by the podium, adjusts notecards, and commences...)

In the early 17th century, Hans Leo Hassler wrote a secular love song called "Mein Gmüt ist mir verwirret," which, according to my research thus far, roughly translates to "Confused Are All My Feelings." Paul Gerhardt, a Lutheran hymnist, took the tune and created the Christian hymn "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden," based on a medieval poem addressing the various parts of Christ's body on the Cross. The Anglican vicar John Gambold translated the poem as "O Head So Full of Bruises." Meanwhile, Johann Sebastian Bach took the melody and used it in St. Matthew's Passion. In 1899, the Presbytarian minister James Waddel Alexander wrote a new translation of the song as "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," as did Sir Henry Baker. Here is the first verse of the version I know best:

O Sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown!
O Sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine,
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.

I grew up singing this hymn in my urban Mennonite church, or rather, standing and humming while everyone else who seemed to be well-trained in a capella four-part harmony belted it out with somber dignity. It wasn't my favorite hymn, as it focused on pain and suffering instead of the beauty of the earth and Beethoven. I might have appreciated it more had I associated it with St. Matthew's Passion, though.

In the early 1970's, the Jewish American songwriter Paul Simon created new words for the melody, called "American Tune." While it appeared on his first solo album, "There Goes Rhymin' Simon," it is more beautiful when Art Garfunkel sings as well. You can see and hear them sing it here during their 1981 concert in Central Park, New York. The words speak of weariness, disappointment and resignation mixed with longing. Here is the second verse:

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered,
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's alright, it's alright, for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong,
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong.

The last verse, with its mention of the Mayflower and the observation that "you can't be forever blessed" makes me think of the ships of people sailing to what they told themselves was a New World but was actually an old world already inhabited by other people. It's a big part of "what's gone wrong." Still, as Simon sings, "Tomorrow's going to be another working day," and perhaps there is yet hope for grace.

I'm working on chords for the song, and so far the ones that seem the most accurate are here. I'm ignoring the fancier chords, though (B and G and E flat diminutive chords, take heed). I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a Paul Simon songbook, so I'll update this post if I find a better chord arrangement.


A few side notes for those who hate trying to form the F chord and refuse to barre:

1)A new guitar friend of mine said that the word for capo (the guitar-widget you can clip onto the fretboard so that you can play in a different key using the chord shapes of your choice) in Spanish is cejilla, which means "little eyebrow." Hence, the finger that's doing the barring can be a bit curved and not clamped so tightly and stiffly against the strings... which is the way I've been attempting to barre chords.

2)If you still don't want to barre chords, remember that Lucinda Williams doesn't barre chords either. So there.

3) For those who hate the F chord, here is a relatively easy formation that Nancy Stewart taught me. The trick is to avoid playing both E strings. I couldn't find the chord chart on the web, so I made one just for you. Yes, I care about you that much.