A golden age for picture books in this house, as Arlo begins to recognise words and ‘word-shapes’.

As he gears up, keen to start reading, Arlo is discovering picture books we have not looked at for over a year. I’m pleased, they are like old friends after the 1000th read.

The pile of unfinished books by the bed grows ever larger.

Ted will not permit cheating.

Catty has come along to bless my Roman blind now I am in the home straits. I am never, ever going to do this ever again.

claraduparc:

Very proud of my husband, who, despite lacking any confidence whatsoever, is very capable at achieving something special whatever he has thrown at him - Behind the Scenes at the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology 

Just looking back at this great little project Rory put together for and with my sister.

“They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?

By forgetting. We cannot keep in mind too many things.
There is only the present and nothing to remember.”
― Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

I cannot seem to get through to this child on the subject of cheating.

austinkleon:

1946 LIFE magazine profile of Margaret Wise Brown

My kid really loves Little Fur Family and Goodnight, Moon, both of which are actually really strange books, so I wanted to learn a little bit more about the author. Turns out she was pretty wild herself:

She was a lovely green-eyed blonde, extravagant and a little eccentric; with her first royalty check, she bought a street vendor’s entire cart full of flowers, and then threw a party at her Upper East Side apartment to show off her purchase. She was a prolific author, writing nearly a hundred picture books under several pen names and sometimes keeping six different publishers busy at once with her projects. She was known to produce a book just so she could buy a plane ticket to Europe.

She was also a real student of children and their responses to literature:

Brown wanted to become a writer as a young woman, and she once took a creative writing class from Gertrude Stein. But she had a hard time coming up with story ideas, so she went into education. She got a job at an organization called the Bureau of Educational Experiments, researching the way that children learn to use language. What she found was that children in the earliest stage of linguistic development relish language with patterns of sound and fixed rhythms. She also found that young children have a special attachment to words for objects they can see and touch, like shoes and socks and bowls and bathtubs.

Goodnight, Moon, btw, was not an instant bestseller:

The influential New York Public Library gave it a terrible review, and it didn’t sell as well as some of Brown’s other books in its first year. But parents were amazed at the book’s almost hypnotic effect on children, its ability to calm them down before bed. Brown thought the book was successful because it helped children let go of the world around them piece by piece, just before turning out the light and falling asleep.

Parents recommended the book to each other, and it slowly became a word-of-mouth best-seller. It sold about 1,500 copies in 1953, 4,000 in 1955, 8,000 in 1960, 20,000 in 1970; and by 1990 the total number of copies sold had reached more than four million.

Aimee Bender recently wrote a piece on what writers can learn from Goodnight, Moon:

"Goodnight Moon" does two things right away: It sets up a world and then it subverts its own rules even as it follows them. It works like a sonata of sorts, but, like a good version of the form, it does not follow a wholly predictable structure. Many children’s books do, particularly for this age, as kids love repetition and the books supply it. They often end as we expect, with a circling back to the start, and a fun twist. This is satisfying but it can be forgettable. Kids - people - also love depth and surprise, and "Goodnight Moon" offers both.

Though she was so prolific, the story of her death at 42 is extremely sad: a nurse asked her how she was feeling post-surgery — to show her how good she felt, Brown kicked her leg up like a can-can dancer, dislodged a blood clot in her brain, and died.

'Catty spent her days trying to ignore Ted. Ted spent his days trying to annoy Catty.' From 'Us', my story which explores how a family can change and adapt.

Sewing, cat, blankie, Daily Politics, Friday off heaven.

Cats have mentalled. Must be #eclipse2015

…but I f@&king wish I was, just for a couple of hours so that I could do some printing, tidy up the hellhole that is our house or start sewing that blind or some other not very necessary shit. Talking the other week to the divinely wise Helen Watts about the need for periods of solitude in order to be good company and the need to be creative regularly in order to be able to deal day-to-day work/life monotony. Putting our wisdom into action is an ongoing project, but I am thinking about it…

He’d never wish to be a member of any clean plate club that might have him.

New picturebooks for Arlo and one for me. Well actually, they are all for me.

Jon Ronson was great tonight, I kept quiet and didn’t embarrass myself in any way: all was well with the world. I can definitely sign up for another 25 years of fandom.

…for me anyway. I have submitted my manuscript for a children’s picture book to the publisher today. I now have the terrible borderline white fear and can barely breathe. I do believe it is good though.

Ted got soaked in the rain shower and came in demanding to be towel dried, Arlo took his first picture.

Ted’s evil knew no bounds.

Oldie but a goodie. #cats #picturebook #inspiration #Us

theverge:

We’re getting a new Dr. Seuss story for the first time in years! The never-before-seen What Pet Should I Get? is being published on July 28th, more than 20 year’s after the author’s death.

Monday: a day for shouting and talking about hotwheels mostly.

#linocut #linoprint #printmaking 4 successes via suicide method. Jawbone: wrapped up for Dan’s most belated birthday gift ever.

A Retirement Home Exists For Aging Cats, And It Looks Purrfectly Cozy