July 26 2012

1. My kids really, really like the anime and manga property, Sgt. Frog. As far as I can tell, this is a slightly surreal comedy about aliens trying to take over the world. Think Invader Zim crossed with Pinky and the Brain.

This does mean that M walks around the house nigh-constantly saying, “Ke-ke-ke-ke-ke!” Which, he assures me, is how Kululu laughs.

2. We finished The Graveyard Book as our read-aloud book, and are on the third Noel Streatfeild title, Traveling Shoes. (We’ve already read Ballet Shoes and White Boots.)

When we pick the read-aloud books, we try to meet a few goals. We try to read a book to the kids that is a bit beyond where they are currently at in their reading. This doesn’t always mean books with complicated sentence structure. Sometimes it means books with complicated themes or references which will require explanation. But we also try to pick a variety of books that cover different kinds of protagonists. The kids have distinct preferences in their own reading, which is all very well and good. But the read-aloud book provides a bit a of diversity.

J and I are discussing what we will read next. We’ve decided that the kids are old enough for Arrows of the Queen. This is … mildly distressing for me. We have certainly read books to the kids that are beloved childhood classic of my youth. That wasn’t a problem. I remember being a kid reading and loving those books. But Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffery, Stephen King, and Robert Heinlein were the books of my adolescence. My memory of reading them is not of a child’s comprehension, but the mind and personality I have now.

Ulp.

Okay, that’s not quite accurate. I can look back and remember reading the Lackey books and I see differences in how I thought and felt then, and how I think and feel now. But I recall, at the time, being an adult and responding to the books as an adult. A very, very young adult, to be sure. But. Nonetheless.

My kids are still youngish. The haven’t hit puberty yet, though its out there, right around the corner. Their response to Arrows of the Queen won’t be the same as the response I had when I was fourteen. But it’s still odd for me, distinctly odd, to be getting into the books that had such dramatic impact on my worldview for so long.

Honestly, I expect they will love Arrows.

3. I have to do a bunch of cooking today. The weather is cool enough to turn the a/c off, which is good, but not so cool that cooking will be pleasant. Hmph.

4. I have been the seriously most grumpy grumposaurus for days and days. I’m trying to mostly not talk to people on the internet as a consequence. This decision is born out by the fact that I seem to be getting into conflicts with folks when I do talk to them on Twitter. If I don’t respond to you, it’s me, not you, is what I’m saying. And if I do respond to you, it’s still me, not you.

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