The Real Jane Austen

I am currently enjoying a series of videos on YouTube called The Real Jane Austen. This television documentary originally aired in 2002.This show reminds me of some dramatizations that I have watched about Shakespeare.

What author documentaries have you enjoyed?

Peter Watts Won!!

Peter Watts one of my all time favorite writers just won the Hugo! Yay!

The Creative Family by Amanda Soule

One of my all-time favorite activities is creating with my niece and nephew. The miraculous color combinations they come up with, squeals of laughter, and the innovative ways they use supplies makes the process a joy.

While hunting for more activities, I discovered Amanda Soule's wildly popular blog about her adventures as a DIY homeschooling mother of four. Her book The Creative Family is more than just a craft book it is a philosophy. When I first read it I immediately started thinking about all of the people for whom I wanted to buy this book. Reading The Creative Family gives me a very deep warm, happy feeling inside. An emphasis is put on quality time and reusing art materials. Amanda advocates for families to set aside time each evening to draw as a family. The Creative Family is a great resource for anyone wanting to foster creativity in their own life and the lives of their children.

All of the projects are designed to foster a connection among the children, between the mother and children, and with the family as a whole, but no importance is given to being creative with one's partner exclusively. When I was in art therapy this connection was neglected, as well. Lowenfeld did posit a stage theory of children's drawing development, but how a person develops artistically in adulthood was likewise ignored. There is a branch of art therapy interested in family therapy, but again in all of the research I looked at none of it focused specifically on the romantic couple. There seems to be a paucity of research and interest in this area.

Is being creative with your partner important to you? Why or why not?

Please, Jane, Don't Be Shy

"The person, be it gentleman or lady,

who has not pleasure in a good novel,

must be intolerably stupid."

Several of my friends did't enjoy Northanger Abbey, so I wasn't expecting much when I began it. Abbey was actually the first novel Jane ever completed, but was published only after the author had died. I am loving it. Mr Tilney cracks me up!

Penguin Love

In honor of Wednesday's momentous decision, I am going to tell you about on of my all-time favorite picture books, And Tango Make Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. When I first heard of the book I thought it would be too simplistic and rhetorical. Instead, And Tango Makes Three is a very sensitive and sweet story about Roy and Silo, two male penguins, who adopt a baby chick named Tango. The illustrations are adorable and the story is delightful. It made me tear up at the end. Who can resist adorable little chubby flightless birds? The story behind And Tango Makes Three can be found here.

Alan's War

I was all prepared to love Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope by Guibert. A new friend I met recently while volunteering recommended this book to me after sending this extraordinary link to me. The video shows how the author/artist uses ink washes to create his designs.

I was really captivated by the artistry, but quickly lost interest after reading several chapters. In my defense, I am not much of a memoir reader. Cope excelled in the army becoming an instructor and saw very little (if any) of the actual war. According to some reviews I have read on Amazon, the book does become more philosophical later on, but I never encountered that having quit earlier on.

While the art in Alan's war is fantastically rendered, I found the story flat.

Happy Birthday, Harry Potter!!!

My Harry Potter lunchbox

Today is both Harry Potter's and J. K. Rowling's birthday! Harry should be 30 and J.K. is 45. In 1991, according to the books, Harry was eleven and entering Hogwarts. Therefore he was born in 1980. In Deathly Hallows, the epilogue occurred 19 years after the main action of the book. In the epilogue, Harry and Ginny's son Albus is eleven years old. So, this year Albus should be 4 years old.