Children's Books

Two posts in one day! It's partially because I didn't really want to keep that nursing one up as the most recent for too long :). Also, it is a nice way to keep myself busy instead of fretting about the fact that Joe is somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean right now.

I may be weird, but I get really excited about children's books. I have so many favorites and I love it when I discover new favorites. Often, I am more excited about picking books out for the kids to read than about getting ones for me. I am definitely in "mommy mode" at this time in my life. (I hope that this also serves as a reasonable explanation for why I had a dream the other night about Sid the Science Kid speaking at General Conference, and that there are no underlying psychological issues at play here.) :)

Anyway. . . I recently discovered a new author that I love: William Steig. I'd never heard of him before until one day when Elizabeth picked up Shrek, written by him. I didn't even know the movies were based on that book. I actually didn't like that book all that much, although it had its moments. It was when we picked up Caleb & Kate that I first fell in love with his stories.

After that, I actually requested a bunch of his books from the library and we found a lot of other great ones:

These two are touching:

These are all just good fun:

The kids loved that last one and trying to figure out what all of the combinations of letters were saying.

Am I the only one who hadn't heard of this guy? He did win a lot of awards so you'd think I would have.

Does anyone else care this much about children's books? What are your favorites? I guess I should also ask--what are your kids' favorites?

War and Peace

I did it. I finally finished War and Peace. It took me a long time but I'm happy to say that I finished it. As for whether I liked it or not, that's kind of up in the air. I really liked parts of it. Other parts dragged on and on. The "war" parts were the most difficult for me to get through. My family was laughing at me for that--after all, "war" is in the title. I suppose I should have expected a lot of war-related content. I don't think I would have minded the war chapters if Tolstoy didn't spend so much time postulating on his view of history and the underlying causes behind wars and other historical events.

I really liked Anna Karenina so I thought that I would like this just as much. Nope. I still think I would give it 3 stars, though, just because I really liked the characters and felt invested in their lives. I also love the moral/spiritual themes in Tolstoy's books. For example, Prince Andrey in this book goes from almost an atheistic view of the world to a deep faith in God. Also, family life is shown as the setting for true happiness and fulfillment.

There was a section near the end that I really liked. It describes Natasha, my favorite character. She changes from being a young, naive girl, who likes to be admired for her beauty to a devoted wife and mother with real depth of character.

Here's the first part:

"Natasha did not follow the golden rule preached by so many prudent persons, especially by the French (zing!), that recommends that a girl on marrying should not neglect herself, should not give up her accomplishments, should think even more of her appearance than when a young girl, and should try to fascinate her husband as she had fascinated him before he was her husband... Natasha troubled herself little about manners or delicacy of speech; nor did she think of showing herself to her husband in the most becoming attitudes and costumes, nor strive to avoid worrying him by being over-exacting. She acted in direct contravention of all those rules. She felt that the arts of attraction that instinct had taught her to use before would now have seemed only ludicrous to her husband, to whom she had from the first moment given herself up entirely, that is with her whole soul, not keeping a single corner of it hidden from him. She felt that the tie that bound her to her husband did not rest on those romantic feelings which had attracted him to her, but rested on something else undefined, but as strong as the tie that bound her soul to her body."

Here's an interesting one:

"The subject in which Natasha was completely absorbed was her family, that is, her husband, whom she kept such a hold on so that he should belong entirely to her, to his home and her children, whom she had to carry, to bear, to nurse and to bring up.

"And the more she put, not her mind only, but her whole soul, her whole being into the subject that absorbed her, the more that subject seemed to enlarge under her eyes, and the feebler and the more inadequate her own powers seemed for coping with it, so that she concentrated them all on that one subject, and still had not time to do all that seemed to her necessary.

"There were in those days, just as now, arguments and discussions on the rights of women, on the relations of husband and wife, and on freedom and rights in a marriage, though they were not then, as now, called questions. But these questions had no interest for Natasha, in fact she had absolutely no comprehension of them.

"Those questions, then as now, existed only for those persons who see in marriage only the satisfaction the married receive from one another, that is, only the first beginnings of marriage and not all its significance, which lies in the family."

And here's another passage a little later that talks about how she saw the best in her husband and reflected that view back to him (I left out her husband's name below to avoid spoiling anything for anyone who may want to read this):

"After seven years of married life, (husband's name) had a firm and joyful consciousness that he was not a bad fellow, and he felt this because he saw himself reflected in his wife. In himself he felt all the good and bad mingled together, and obscuring one another. But in his wife he saw only what was really good; everything not quite good was left out. And this result was not reached by logical thought, but by way of a mysterious, direct reflection of himself."

Anyway, good stuff. I love reading books filled with characters that are flawed and real and yet make me want to be a better person. I love finding truth that resonates with me in a book I am reading.

Now, on to something lighter... :)

Les Miserables

I just finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and I absolutely loved it. Sure it was long and there were times when I wanted to take a break and read something else but I persevered and I'm glad I did. It really is true that because of all of the background information and detailed character description, by the end of the book you feel like you really know the characters. I love reading classics because so many of them have such moral messages. I love books that are uplifting, hopeful, powerfully written, and that also keep you interested. There were so many excellent quotes in this book and I wanted to write down some of my favorites.

"Have no fear of robbers or murderers. Such dangers are without, and are but petty. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murderers. The great dangers are within us. What matters it what threatens our heads or our purses? Let us think only of what threatens our souls." (Fantine, Book 1, Ch. 7)

"Mothers' arms are made of tenderness, and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therein." (Fantine, Book 4, Ch. 1)

"The child opened its large blue eyes, like its mother's, and saw--what? Nothing, everything, with that serious and sometimes severe air of little children, which is one of the mysteries of their shining innocence before our shadowy virtues. One would say that they felt themselves to be angels, and knew us to be humans." (Fantine, Book 4, Ch. 1)

"Love partakes of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like it, it is a divine spark; like it, it is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable. It is a point of fire which is within us, which is immortal and infinite, which nothing can limit and which nothing can extinguish. We feel it burn even in the marrow of our bones, and we see it radiate even to the depths of the sky." (Saint-Denis, Book 5, Ch. 4)

I loved this next one, due to my own incredibly short courtship with Joe (*Cough*...six weeks).

"There is a God for these drunkards who are called lovers. Blind, Marius had followed the route which he would have chosen had he seen clearly. Love had bandaged his eyes, to lead him where? To Paradise." (Jean Valjean, Book 7, Ch. 2)

"We are never done with conscience...It is bottomless, being God. We cast into this pit the labour of our whole life, we cast in our fortune, we cast in our riches, we cast in our success, we cast in our liberty or our country, we cast in our well-being, we cast in our peace of mind, we cast in our happiness. More! more! more! Empty the vase! turn out the urn! We must at last cast in our heart." (Jean Valjean, Book 6, Ch. 4)

"The book which the reader has now before his eyes is, from one end to the other, in its whole and in its details, whatever may be the intermissions, the exceptions, or the defaults, the march from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from the false to the true, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from brutality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from nothingness to God. Starting point: matter; goal: the soul. Hydra at the beginning, angel at the end." (Jean Valjean, Book 1, Ch. 20)

Read this book if you haven't already! Now, I really want to see the show again. Someday...

Random Post

I don't really have anything specific to post so I may just ramble. Beware...

Natalie is in a really cute stage lately. Anytime you ask her anything in the form of a question she says this cute little "Dah" which means yeah. The other night I asked Elizabeth if she wanted to say the prayer and Natalie kept saying "Dah" so I decided to let her try. She actually did pretty well repeating the words one at a time that I told her and we kept it very simple. It was so cute and Elizabeth loved it.

When we were eating dinner yesterday, Elizabeth says out of the blue, "when I'm older, I'm going to listen to strange music." This comes from a pretty famous children's book. Does anyone know it? I'll give you a prize. Well, probably not :). I told her I probably would think her music was strange. She did promise me, though, that she would still like the Temptations.

Speaking of books, I made a trip to Barnes and Noble to use a gift card (Thanks Katie!) and got these books:





I can't decide what I think of The Host yet although I am definitely into it. As you can see, I got a little carried away in the children's section. I just kept finding books from my childhood that I couldn't resist. I had forgotten all about Big Dog...Little Dog but that was one of my favorites as a child. I also love The Paper Bag Princess. Berenstain Bears books are just classics. Can you tell from the ones I picked what issues I wanted to address with Elizabeth? That's the great thing about those books. She is still saying "I want to go home" or "I want to go back to Utah" a few times a day, hence Moving Day. She's definitely improving, though. Also, I'm learning that the talking to strangers, safety, etc., issue is tricky to teach a young child. The book handles it well and we have talked about it a few times before, too. Anyway, one day after we had the read the book we were walking to the park. I said hi to a landscaper at our apartment complex and he said hi back. After we walked by, Elizabeth said "We shouldn't talk to strangers". Then I tried to explain that saying hi to strangers as long as Mommy is right by you is OK. It's kind of a subtle distinction and I think it went over her head. Any ideas about teaching this?

Well, I think I'll ignore the dishes and go read my book some more... :)

Uncle Tom's Cabin

I just finished this book last night and wanted to post some thoughts. I loved the book and would recommend it to everyone. I love finding good, uplifting, moral books that keep my attention while inspiring me and this is one of them. I think I can understand the viewpoint of those who find fault with the book, yet it is still an important piece of American literature. Some may find fault with Stowe's sentimentality and moralizing but in my opinion, these are some of the strengths of the book. She forces you to put yourself in the place of a slave and to feel, in some small part, the horrors of slave life. Not only this, she encourages these feelings to produce action--good works toward our fellow men.

One thought that occurred to me while reading the book was the degree to which slavery destroyed families. As a member of a church whose principal goal is to build and strengthen families, this struck me as so tragic and shameful that Americans, even some of my ancestors, allowed this to take place. Also, as a mother myself, it was very difficult for me to read about incidents of children being ripped from their mothers' arms to be sold at auction while their mothers stood powerless to do anything about it. It reminded me of a verse from the Bible:

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:6)

Slavery was and is a curse and part of the reason for that is that it decimated families and stripped human beings of the right to have families and protect them. America is still trying to heal from this immense crime. Joe and I were watching something on PBS the other night that pointed out that our country has still not spent as much time free from slavery as it did enforcing the practice of slavery.

Well, sorry for rambling. I love reading more than ever now because it's kind of like mental exercise for me. When a day is spent with little to no adult conversation, I'm in great need of this kind of exercise. Thanks for humoring me.