Retell your favorite fairy tale but change one plot moment. So instead of Cinderella’s slipper being found, it’s shattered; or instead of the Big Bad Wolf blowing down the first pig’s house, he has an asthma attack…
Book Review: The Animal Dialogues
Craig Childs’ book, The Animal Dialogues (Uncommon Encounters in the Wild), is an insightful look at how a naturalist spends his free time. Liam, who is our animal-nut around these parts, is lapping up the delightful (and, at times, downright scary) encounters between human and beast.
Childs divides the book into chapters that each contains a single animal. He then details the intersection between his curiosity and the animal’s natural instincts… often to the point where you wonder: What on earth were you thinking, Craig?
What makes this book such a delightful choice for you and your kids is… you guessed it: the writing. Childs is a natural story-teller. He grabs you by the shirt-collar and holds you against the wall until your pulse finally slackens as he demonstrates his improbable escapes.
Here’s a sample of his terrific writing:
“The grizzly bear is six to eight hundred pounds of smugness. It has no need to hide. If it were a person, it would laugh loudly in quiet restaurants, boastfully wear the wrong clothes for special occasions, and probably play hockey. It would also pursue secret solitude, disappearing for weeks on end while people were expecting it at upcoming meetings. At the moment, it was bold and aloof, making sure we knew we were being watched, but keeping its distance.”
The first section includes the following animals:
Bear
Coyote
Mountain Lion
Dog
Raccoon
Cat and Mouse (A hilarious chapter! We couldn’t stop laughing.)
Jaguar
He continues with birds (raptors!), moutain animals like elk and bighorn sheep, and then runs through the gamut of unusual fellows such as rattlesnakes, rainbow trout and even mosquitoes. His final ode is to the most complex beast of all: the human.
Childs is frequently a guest on NPR so you may have heard him share his bits of naturalistic advice and wisdom there. More than anything, I find this to be a perfect read-aloud. Each chapter has suspense and closure. You can read each one over a several month period, one per week, or read them all in a row (like we are).
Enjoy!
Tuesday Teatime: Derosiers
Hey Julie,
I wanted to tell you that I only implemented Teatime this year and it is absolutely THE best thing I’ve ever done in our homeschool journey (I’ve been homeschooling for 7 years)! It is something we all look forward to each week and no matter what kind of day/week we are having we all ALWAYS feel better after teatime!
And I want to encourage others that teatime doesn’t have to be perfect. Today for treats I unwrapped commercial Nutrigrain bars and cut them up into 4’s for small “cookies”, the kids and I loved them. And I didn’t even have tea in my tea cup today (I desperately needed another cup of coffee so that’s what I put in my pot). Also today I had a horrid relapse of a cold but we didn’t even considered not having and again got so much more done than if we hadn’t done anything, which is what would of happened BT (BeforeTeatime).
It’s so funny because now as soon as that red tablecloth comes out (the only time we use it is for Teatime) and the kettle gets put on the stove, the kids run to chose their “readings” and I too enjoy chosing books from the Teatime Bookshelf (books that I never seemed to have “time” to read to the kids).
The only rule is we don’t pour or taste until everyone is “settled” at the table. We can all feel that deep sigh that comes from slowing down and taking the time for tea. Mom reads first and then we go around the table, so that everyone has a chance to sip tea and nibble treats. Even the 4 year old is anxious to “read” (he narrates his favorite books which always begin with “once upon a time.”)
Thank you for introducing me to this concept and to Brave Writer itself! It’s a philosophy I always believed in but didn’t know how to articulate it or implement it but through your Writers Jungle and now taking the Kidswrite Basic course I feel your warm gentle hand holding mine while we sit around out teatime table.
Again thank you from my entire family!
Lori Desrosiers
Homeschool Mom and a big believer in the Teatime philosophy!
Today is one of those days…
I’m at our homeschool co-op teaching writing all day. Hope to get up a more inspiring post later in the day. We do have a delightful teatime post for you tomorrow so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, check out William Safire’s article in My Delicious links in the sidebar. He write about “change” as it relates to this political season. Few do it as well as he does, if you’re a wordy kind of person, like me. See you on the flip side.
Friday Freewrite: Gold rush
What would happen if you found gold in your backyard?
