I live in a town with a prairie dog reservation. While I am opposed to reservations, I am grateful that someone thought we might actually succeed in wiping these animals out–like we have done other species. Last month I saw a prairie dog in the neighbor’s yard. My friend asked if I was sure it…
While learning Bahasa Malaysia, I have discovered that some birds are metaphors in their language. The children’s dictionary says “owl” in English, for example, but the Malaysian translation is two words: XX bird. Owl is “ghost bird” literally. What would it mean to be a ghost bird? What does a ghost bird do that other…
Language Learning I am in the process of learning Bahasa Malaysia. I don’t live in Malaysia. I have only visited once, for two weeks. I don’t know if I will ever be able to return. Despite that, even before my trip, I was determined to learn the language. I visited the state of Penang. The…
I went looking for African Mythical animals and I found several. Mostly I wanted to find ones which, like Bernard Most’s creatures, were combinations. However, I did not find a lot of those. The ones listed below are the ones I thought were the most interesting or credible. I did skip a few legendary creatures…
My reading list is getting longer. It feels like the more I read, the more I have to read. Books I need to purchase to read, all winners of the Caldecott: 2019: Hello Lighthouse illustrated and written by Sophie Blackall (Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.) 2018: Wolf in the Snow by Matthew…
I purchased an “uncorrected partial proof/cover not final” of Emily Arnold McCully’s book She Did It! 21 Women Who Changed the Way We Think. It said Caldecott Medal Winner on the cover. So a book that hadn’t yet come out or even finished proofing won the Caldecott? (See update at the end of this post.) I…
One of my character’s is a Third Culture Kid (TCK). Merriam-Webster has a good (and long) definition. While I do not agree that Obama is a TCK (having a foreign parent only makes a difference if they raise you), I think they are very accurate in other ways. When I was teaching I had a…
