Justin is coming back!

JUSTIN CASE 2 is coming in a week.

May 8.

Can you believe it's May already? It looks very March out my window, honestly.

But no -- seriously, it is MAY.

As in, when my kids were little and making an effort at being polite, they used to say May you please STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!?!?!?!?!!!!!

May is such a polite, or perhaps just tentative, sounding month-name. Like it should be followed by Should. Or Must. Or even Shall.

But no. It's followed by the lovely June, which sounds as just as oooo as it always feels.

May. Full of possibilities. May rain, may not. May hold surprises in store. May.

In celebration of May Day, here is a link that (in the middle of the page) includes an excerpt from JUSTIN CASE: Shells, Smells, and the Horrible Flip-Flops of Doom.

JUST CLICK HERE! and you will go to the MacKids page about the book.

When I get my copies, maybe we should do a contest? A give-away? Send suggestions for fun ways to give away some free copies! May be you'll win?!!!

Writing Advice from an Unlikely Source

My little tortoise, Lightning, has been working on getting through the space between the chair and the speaker for the past ten minutes.

No whining, no cursing. Just working on a problem he came up with for himself, utterly unnecessary in the larger scheme of things to solve, but clearly vital to him in the moment.

I relate.

That's how the writing is going these days for me. That's the stage of book I'm at: stuck, in a tight space of my own creation, plodding away with no discernible progress.


But then, as I was writing this, thinking well, this is kind of a depressing little note, isn't it? Lightning turned himself around and went the other direction. No self-criticism at least as far as I can tell, just a decision to try a different route.

For somebody with a brain the size of a pignoli nut and no published work to his name, he has some pretty sharp insights to share about the writing process. Okay, Lightning. I get it. Fine. I'll try that.

OTOH, if he is so brilliant, why is he now trying to get through the wall behind my desk?

learning lessons

Feeling stuck yesterday, I tried doing the lessons I taught other writers, this past weekend in Seattle.

Happily, THEY WORKED. So now I am not only flying (or at least plodding) forward in my current book -- I also don't feel like a fraudulent jerk, trying to pass off loser time-waters on unsuspecting innocents.

Phew.

Catching Up

I've hardly been home at all these past few weeks -- some book travels, some college visits, and just returned from SCBWI in Seattle (I adore the SCBWI Western Washington crew!!!)

Got to travel a bit with each of my sons, which was honestly really fun. They are such great guys, and they keep me laughing way too much. I keep expecting to freak out a bit about Baby Z looking at colleges, moving on, moving away... but I keep not, so far anyway. Maybe I am just having too much fun with him, or maybe he has been so independent and yet connected for so long that I'm not worried about whether our bonds will fray when he spreads his wings and takes to the sky? Or maybe it's denial? I know I will miss him terribly when I don't see him every day. I do like hanging with that guy.

Tomorrow is my first full day back at the desk, and I am looking forward to the writing. Hope I remember how to do it.

Quick! Easter is coming!

love this new review

Piggy Bunny By Rachel Vail April 4, 2012

Filed under: Picture Books — sommerreading @ 12:28 pm
Tags: Piggy Bunny by Rachel Vail

Not too late for the Easter Basket on Sunday….Piggy Bunny by Rachel Vail is sweet and funny and really cute. This story has been told before, but don’t let that stop you from adding it to your Easter read-aloud list. Liam, who is a piglet, wants to be an Easter Bunny. He tries to get all of the Easter Bunny-like characteristics down. “He tried to practice hopping. He tried to enjoy salad. And he tried to deliver eggs.” Liam is an all-round awesome little guy – piglet or bunny!

After some well-meaning, but discouraging, words from his family and friends, Liam is sad. In the book’s most heart-wrenching scene, Liam says “This is the the kind of problem that is called heartbreaking.”  But…Liam gets some help from his grandma who, like any good 21st century grandparent, knows how to find an Easter bunny suit online. You can guess how the books ends – happily of course.

I love Piggy Bunny. The message of being true to yourself is always a good one to hear and this book takes a fresh and fun approach. It would be even sweeter if you read it while enjoying a chocolate bunny!

and this one!

Get Ready for Easter Fun with Piggy Bunny by Rachel Vail!

Vail, Rachel. Piggy Bunny. Illustrations by Jeremy Tankard. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2012. Ages 2 and up.

Just in time for Easter comes Rachel Vail's funny and whimsical Piggy Bunny!

I have to admit it: In my pre-reading, I found the premise of this book a little silly. Liam the piglet didn't want to be a pig when he grew up. Instead, he wanted to be the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny?! But what an adult will find silly and hard to believe, a preschooler will find raucously funny, as evidenced in my five year-old, who started to bounce and laugh uncontrollably. Liam is one of those characters that we readers of picture books adore: he's a little out-of-sorts. He wants to do his own thing in a world where everybody pressures him to conform. He's the one who marches to the tune of his own music. And that is something with which some children not only resonate, but need to hear more about. 
Liam wants to be the Easter Bunny so bad that he practices hopping, enjoying salad (not easy for a pig!), and delivering eggs. He falls down, finds salad unappealing, and drops his eggs. To their credit,Liam's parents say the right things: "You are perfect just exactly the way you are," but their actions tell him: be just like everybody else. Pigs can't be Easter Bunnies. When Liam, heartbroken, wonders: what if they were right?" and begins to lose faith, his parents step in and order a bunny suit off the internet. (That last detail was rather shocking. Sure, we live in a world where we order costumes ready-made, but I suppose in the world of picture books, one still expects a kindly granny to sew one up in a jiffy.) Once the costume arrives, Liam puts it on, and looks in the mirror: "looking back at him, was Liam, the Easter Bunny."

I have to say that the illustrations where Liam imagines himself to be the Easter Bunny are the funniest. Not only that, they show us the power of a young person's imagination to believe fully that they can be anything. By the end of the book, Liam is a happy Easter Bunny, and "everybody believed in him." It's a great message to send to parents and children about just being yourself. When children have parents and adults to believe, they really can do anything. 

Today

Just found this:

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: March 31, 2012

Piggy Bunny

By Rachel Vail; Illustrated by Jeremy Tankard

Ever had aspirations to be someone or something other than who or what you are? The piggy in this book, Liam, wants to be a bunny—the Easter bunny, to be exact. He’s willing to put in the hard work, even if it means eating salad. Nobody in his family, except for his grandma, believes he can become the Easter bunny, but Liam remains focused and with his can-do-attitude and support from grandma he makes his dream come true. Jeremy Tankard’s ink and digital media artwork are the icing on the cake (or the foil wrapper on the Easter egg, if I may) adding emotion to the story through little piggy faces and bodies. Liam is adorable and so is this story. (Ages 4-6. Publisher: Feiwel and Friends)

And this:

my tortoise, Lightning, admiring himself in the mirror

And also the three pounds I'd managed to lose. I am NOT blaming my friend Lauren and the ridiculously delicious bread, muffins, and blondies she foisted upon me this weekend. Well, maybe a little. Or maybe my scale is broken.

Also I brought in my car to be fixed. It has almost $300 worth of a broken wire, which is why there's no heat or AC. Oh, well. At least it's fixable. Too bad Mr. Mandarano didn't let me take auto mechanics as an elective in high school. Why didn't he? "Because you are a GIRL," he said.

Times have changed, though, right? RIGHT? 

Well, I hope so. Now, on to writing. How's your Monday going?

I do love Irish slang

came upon this just now: an Irish slang translator.

One of the best things about being a writer (aside from the whole you don't have to wear shoes at work thing, plus making stuff up all day long, and you spend your life playing with sentences) is that looking up things like what does fair play to you (which I heard in the lovely play ONCE last week) mean counts as WORK. It's research.

In case you are a writer/need to do some research of your own/need a procrastination moment/just love words, well, fair play to you. Here you go:

Some Irish slang

Word or phrase	Example	Meaning
Acting the maggot	He was just acting the maggot as usual	Behaving foolishly, annoyingly
Bags	He made a bags of doing it	Messy inadequate job (see hames)
Banjaxed	It was banjaxed beyond all help	Broken, can also mean tired
Bold	You are a very bold boy	Naughty
Crack, craic	We had great craic that night	Hard to translate, roughly meaning fun
Culchies	The culchies were all over the place	Rural people, usually used disparagingly by city people
Cute hoor	I always knew he was a cute hoor	Untrustworthy male person, often a politician
Desperate	The place is in a desperate state	Bad, needing attention
Drawers	Her drawers were the size of Cork	Knickers, panties
Eat the head off	I'll eat the head off her	Attack verbally
Eejit	You're a right eejit	Idiot, fool
Fair play	Fair play to you	Indicates approval of someone's actions or opinions
Feck	Feck off, fecking thing, feck-all	Polite(-ish) version of other F word
Fella	Come here young fella	Male person, also used for boyfriend
Flitters	The dog left the shirt in flitters	Tatters
Fluthered	He was fluthered again	Drunk
Foostering	Just foostering about	Not getting much done, fussing
Full shilling	He's not the full shilling	Mentally competent
Gas	We had a bit of gas that day	Fun, enjoyment
Giving out	The teacher was always giving out to the class	Scolding.
Gob	He never shuts his gob	Mouth
Gobdaw	That fella's a right gobdaw	Fool, idiot
Gom	You're just acting the gom	Fool, idiot
Guff	Don't give me any of your guff	Idle talk or excuses
Gur	He's been on gur since Saturday	Staying away from home, usually a child
Hames	You made a terrible hames of that	Messy inadequate job (see bags)
Header	Keep away from that header	Mentally unstable person
Holliers	Two weeks holliers for me	Holidays, vacation time
Holy show	You made a holy show of yourself	Spectacle
Hop	He's been on the hop since Tuesday	Playing truant from school
Horse's hoof	That's a bit of a horse's hoof I think	Spoof, exaggerated story
Hump off	Would you ever hump off?	Go away, leave me alone
Jackeens	The jackeens think they're smart	Dublin person, usually used disparagingly by culchies
Jacks	I'm just off to the jacks	Toilet, restroom
Jaded	We're all jaded after it	Tired, exhausted
Kibosh	He put the kibosh on it	Added the last straw, completely banjaxed something
Langered/Langers	We were all langers	Drunk
Letting on	I was just letting on	Pretending
Mary Hick	That dress is really Mary Hick	Unfashionable, drab
Messages	I have to get the messages	Groceries
Mooching	He's mooching again for money	Sponging, almost begging
Mot	Have you got a mot?	Girlfriend
One	Some oul' one told her	Female person
Pictures	Want to come to the pictures?	Movies, Cinema
Puck	He got a puck in the gob	Sharp blow
Puss	She'd a right puss on her	Face, usually sulky
Reddener	She took a reddener when she saw him	Blush (see Scarlet)
Reef	I'll reef him when I see him	Attack, non-verbal
Scarlet	I'm scarlet for you	Blushing, often in sympathy with a friend's reddener
Scratcher	He's always in the scratcher	Bed
Scrawbed	Her face was all scrawbed	Scratched by fingernails
Shook	He was very shook looking	Pale, ill, scared
Slagging	I'm only slagging you	Making fun of someone, generally good-naturedly
Sleeveen	She's a bit of a sleeveen	Sly person, calculating
Stocious	He was stocious this evening	Drunk

Trish Loughman, Dublin, Ireland © 1997-2006