Sparrows

When I was somewhat younger and I found ways to feed birds, I always hoped to feed the pretty birds.  Today I appreciate sparrows more than I used to.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

I Know Where the Sidewalk Ends

Last spring, a water main broke over by the high school.  It took the work crew all summer to fix it.  Since then they have spent the better part of a year tearing up several streets starting from the high school and heading - as near as I can tell - entirely across town.

I live 5 blocks away from where I work.  I live 5 blocks from the post office.  There have been times this season when I could not drive that far and other times when I had to walk several blocks out of the way to get where I was going.  The post office was almost totally blocked off for two weeks before Christmas.  That's nuts!!!

Here are photos - not of what it was like at the height of construction (destruction?)  - but what it's like partially useful.  Anyone want to drop off a letter?  This is today.

That's for the driving part.

And now, here's where the sidewalk ends.

The worst of this is the loss of a historic item.  There was one house that had a backwards set of steps next to the street.  They were for mounting a horse or getting into a carriage in a lady-like manner.  This is what's left of this steps.

I hope they finish and repair everything soon. It's like driving on the moon with all the craters and ridges.  The sad part is that those horse mounting steps will likely never be put back in place.  I'll miss seeing them.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Getting Ideas

I've had the second lesson in my Writing for Children class. If I count correctly, there are about 30 people in the class.  We're sharing our favorite picture books at the moment.  The assignment is to read various picture books.

I found one which was a perfect rewrite of "Little Black Sambo".  The only things changed were that the black boy was turned into a white girl and the tigers were changed into rattlesnakes.  That book made me really angry.  "Little Black Sambo" is on the banned book list.  I've always wondered what was so wrong with the story.  As it turns out, nothing was wrong with the STORY. The problem was the name of the boy and the illustrations.  The story is perfectly fine.  Maybe I should revisit some other banned books and rewrite them!

Also, I sort of knew about wordless books, but I never really looked at them.  I never had my own babies or taught a young enough crowd of children for those books to be important to me.  When I was in college, I wrote a children's picture book and made up the illustrations.  The story came very near to being accepted, but the editor told me the story was too short.  What if I can get the illustrations published as a wordless book?

I keep getting ideas and I know enough to write them down on scraps of paper, if nothing better.  I'm keeping my ideas in a file folder while I immerse myself in more children's books.  Soon - I hope - I will start organizing my thoughts and write up several stories.  I remember one summer when I wrote 5 children's books in 10 weeks.  Here we go again.

I'm planning to get published again and again - God willing.  At least I will make a valiant attempt.

If I should vanish from this blog for a while, at least you'll know what I'm up to. 

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi Linz

Writing for Children - Assignment 1

Today I started a new class - Writing for Children.  I aced the pre-test and the first quiz.  I guess I'm already familiar with quite a bit of the subject matter, but one can always glean something new, especially from a different teacher.  (This teacher spent time in Madison, WI, and was/is an editor at Scholastic)  The teacher asked us to remember books that we enjoyed from our childhood.  Here's what I posted:

My first memory is being tucked under my mother’s arm listening to her read to me.  The book I most remember from those years is The Magic Bus (apparently renamed Jenny: The Bus That Nobody Loved) by Maurice Dolbier.  I still own a copy of that book.  As my mother had been a teacher, we learned all of the nursery rhymes and heard many fairy tales. 

Our town (Marengo, IL - just south of Madison) had a small Carnegie library staffed by the stereotypical old lady librarian.  I quickly worked my way through the children’s books.  Even though the librarian didn’t help me with my selections, we always had excellent choices on the shelves.  I read Kate Seredy, the Little House books, many in the Oz series, and 1001 Arabian Nights.  I had to borrow Nancy Drew from one of my classmates.  I started writing stories in 3^rd grade.

During the summer after 5^th grade, I switched sides of the library and started reading grown-up books beginning with Julius Caesar by Shakespeare (I needed every footnote, but I got through it) and The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas.  The librarian tried to steer me back to the children’s side, but it didn’t work.  I read so much that my mother eventually set a kitchen timer on 60 minutes and said, “You will go outside and play until this rings.” 

Although I was mainly reading adult books, I never completely left children’s books behind.  Once in fifth grade, I asked permission to go to the third grade room and borrow a Dr. Seuss book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.  My senior high school term paper had to be about an author.  I chose Dr. Seuss.  I was allowed to do that since everyone knew I was headed to teacher’s college. 

I took Children’s Literature in college.  My final project was to write a children’s book.  The professor told me I should get it published.  At the time, I was too timid to submit the story.  Since then, Houghton Mifflin published my nonfiction book Chickens May Not Cross the Road and Other Crazy But True Laws.  Scholastic had the paperback version for a brief time.  I’ve had some articles and stories accepted by magazines, but I hope to start submitting children’s books again. 

After two decades of teaching, I am currently working in Information Services at our local library.  (I can’t get away from books.)  I still read children’s books and love them.  I’m currently in the middle of the Lady Grace Mysteries and I pick up Newbury books with some regularity.  My favorite of those so far is A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park.

Kathi Linz

Thanks for visiting with me.

This Makes Me Weepy

(I borrowed this picture from my niece's Facebook page.)

This is my great-niece and her new baby brother.  I love this picture from the bottom of my heart.  I see the newest generation of my family, but I also see me kissing my own baby brother, lo, these many years past.  Both the past and the present give me great pleasure.  I hope they love each other as much as this as they grow up.

This is where I have to admit that my baby brother and I went through a stage where we couldn't pass each other in the hall without a fist fight.  It lasted about three years (those pre-teen, hormonally-challenged years) before we came out the other side as friends.  Even though "iron sharpens iron" and the sandpaper years help hone children into more excellent adults, I pray that these two may be spared the friction.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Still Here

My generation was the first generation to grow up under the shadow of the atomic bomb.  We were all persuaded that we would be dead before we turned thirty.  Well, the world didn't blow up - although there were a couple of close calls (see Bay of Pigs).   

Then we were sure the world would come to an end in 2000.  Either Nostradamus would be correct and there was nothing after 2000, or Y2K would crash all of the computers.  That was supposed to include all government computers, satellites, car engines, personal computers, etc.  Banks would crash, trucks wouldn't be able to deliver food supplies, and probably the electric grid would collapse.

Neither of those things happened.  In fact, my generation has begun to retire after a long and full life.  Who'd a thunk it? 

My baby sister became a grandmother yesterday for the second time.  She now has one of each.  Here is one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen in my life.

Not only did the world not come to an end, not only have we - for the most part - survived, we still see wonderful things, miracles even, on a daily basis.  

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Dancing

I wasn't raised to be demonstrative in church. In fact, I was once scolded for singing so happily that I was "almost dancing".  Nowdays, I try to leave no doubt about whether or not I'm dancing.

When we lived in Woodstock, IL, (I was in my early 50's) we used to sit behind one of the godliest and most fun women it has ever been my privilege to know.  She sang with all her heart even if her voice wasn't perfect.  She moved to the music and amen-ed during the sermon.  I told her more than once, "Bessy, when I grow up, I want to be just like you."  She still keeps her feet on the ground and her heart in heaven.  I love that woman.

The point of putting these two memories together is this - David danced before God and God was pleased.  Miriam and the women danced before God after crossing the Red Sea and God was pleased. 

And God dances over us.  In Zeph. 3:17 it says, "The Lord Thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing."  My understanding of the literal meaning of the word translated as "joy" is "to dance, spinning around".  If God dances with joy over us, how can we keep from dancing with joy over Him?

Someone once told me, "If Christians worshipped properly, they wouldn't have to work out in a gym."

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi