Poetry Friday: Saint Thomas

The Christmas shelves at our branch library have been picked over by now.  This book was (not surprisingly, sorry to say) one of the ones that was left:  Christmas Folk by Natalia Belting; illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).  Barbara Cooney illustrated some of our favorite Christmas books (The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston [Dial, 1988] and The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden).  I had never heard of Natalia Belting, though.

Christmas Folk is blank verse about the Christmas folklore of the Elizabethan period (mumming, wassailing, etc.); if it were published today, it would probably include some interesting background information.  For the record, last night was Saint Thomas Eve.  Girls would put a peeled onion under their pillow and pray:

Good St. Thomas, do me right,
Send me my true love tonight;
In his clothes and his array,
Which he weareth every day,
That I may see him in the face. 

hoping to dream of their future husband.  Sorry if this comes too late for some of you, but maybe you could try it next year!

Today, then, is Saint Thomas Day, when girls and women would go from house to house, collecting flour for their Christmas baking ("thomassing").  Maybe it would be a good day to deliver your gifts of baked goods, instead?

Saint Thomas Day is also the winter solstice:

St. Thomas gray, St. Thomas gray,
The longest night and the shortest day.

Happy Solstice!  We will be taking our recycled aluminum can lanterns on a long walk this evening.  I'll be back in this space after Christmas (with a list of books given and received).  Merry happy holidays!

The Newbery Project

I just joined The Newbery Project (thank you, Alicia).  Participants are reading books that have won the Newbery Medal, awarded by the ALA since 1922 for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.  The goal is to read all of the Newbery winners; there is no time limit (thanks again!).  Reviews and responses are posted on the project website, indexed by book.  It's interesting to see which of the older winners are being (re-)read first.

This is actually my second Newbery Project; the first was in elementary school.  Our library kept the Newbery Medal winners on a special shelf under the windows, lined up by publication date.  There was also a poster where our librarian, Miss Herwig, kept track of who read and reported on which book(s) with little gold stars.  By the end of the sixth grade, I had earned a star for every single Newbery winner to date.  Granted, there were significantly fewer then (it was 1983; Dicey's Song won that year).  I still have the dictionary I was awarded at the end-of-the year assembly (a red clothbound edition of Webster's Ninth New Collegiate; I keep it on my desk).  And the certificate, too.

Carnival: Alterna-Princess

The theme for December's Carnival of Children's Literature, hosted by Kelly Herold at Big A little a, is gift books.  If you have a little princess on your list (Disney or otherwise, but probably Disney; I hear those princesses are pretty popular), these suggestions are for you--but also for anyone, big or little, who loves fairy tales.

Consider giving a beautifully retold and illustrated edition of a favorite fairy tale.

One of our favorites is Cinderella, retold and illustrated by Barbara McClintock from the Charles Perrault version (Scholastic, 2005).  McClintock's illustrations (in pen, india ink, and watercolor with gold endpapers) were inspired by a trip to Paris; the prince's palace is based on Versailles and the Paris Opera, and the clothes and hair are from the Louis XIV period.  Cinderella's dresses are gorgeous, dripping with flowers or covered in tiny pink ruffles ("The ladies studied her so that they could copy her hair and dress the next day").  McClintock's retelling is as lovely as the illustrations.  And there is a little gray cat on almost every page.

Look for retellings of the familiar princess stories from other cultures, too.

Cinderella again.  I think there are more Cinderella stories than any other fairy tale.  This year's Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal:  A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman; illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Henry Holt, 2007) proves my point.  Fleischman's text weaves strands of many (17, by SLJ's count) multicultural Cinderellas into one story; Paschkis's illustrations keep them (or rather you) from getting tangled up.  I haven't seen this book yet and am curious about how, exactly, it works.  The reviews say it does, splendidly.  I hope it also includes good source notes, in case I'm compelled to seek out one of the Cinderellas for myself (n.b., I love source notes).

Or introduce a new princess (one who doesn't have a movie contract. Yet).

The Princess and the Pea is my favorite of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.  This retelling by Lauren Child, captured (photographed) by Polly Borland (Hyperion, 2006) is wonderful: literally full of dollhouse (1/12) scale wonders.  A note at the back of the book explains how Child created the sets (out of cornflake boxes!) and drew, cut out, and dressed the characters: it might inspire some small set designers and photographers at your house, too.  Child's text, which stays close to Andersen's original, is charming and clever; best of all, it points out that "any real princess has such impeccable manners that it would be impossible for her to tell her host...that it was the most uncomfortable night that she had ever had, in all her life."

Finally, a good collection of fairy tales, including those familiar and new, is always welcome.

SurLaLunefairytales.com is an excellent resource for all things fairy tale (and some folklore, too).  The work of Heidi Anne Heiner, SurLaLune features 47 (and counting) annotated fairy tales.  Especially helpful in the context of this post (what was that again?  oh yes, gift books for princesses and people who love fairy tales!) are the picture book galleries for each fairy tale (here's Cinderella's).  Which are your favorites?

Lucia and the Light

Happy Santa Lucia Day!  My own little Lucia (and her big brother Starboy) served us dinner by candlelight this evening instead of the traditional breakfast in bed, which can be a little harder to manage on a schoolday.  Later we read this lovely book, a favorite from last year:  Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root; illustrated by Mary GrandPre (Candlewick, 2006).  Note:  The Lucia of Root's original folktale is not the same as the Italian saint or the Swedish legend.  We know; and we don't care!  This is still an appropriate book to read on Santa Lucia Day and around the time of the winter solstice (after all, in the Julian calendar December 13 was the winter solstice).

Lucia and the Light was inspired by Scandinavian mythology (and Minnesota winters).  It's about a brave girl who climbs a snowy mountain in search of the sun and, with the help of her milk-white cat, rescues it from the trolls so it can resume its rightful place in the sky.  I love the opening lines:

"Lucia and her mother and baby brother lived with a velvet brown cow and a milk-white cat in a little house at the foot of a mountain in the Far North.  The cow gave milk, the cat slept by the fire, and the baby cooed and grew fat by the hearth.  They were happy together, even when winter piled snow outside their door."

Who could resist that scene?  Not I.  I adore Phyllis Root's work, its rich and rhythmic language.  And Mary GrandPre's (yes, that Mary Grandpre's) illustrations, done in pastels, manage to be luminous even when there is no light.  Brava Lucia!