book scout

Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween, dear folks! Or just happy last day of October, if Halloween isn't your thing. Regardless, I hope you have marvelous plans for tonight. I promised you a million photos of my baby in costume in exactly the same setting with only slightly different poses and you guys, I AIM TO DELIVER. 

Seeing Ewan toddle around this year as Max from Where the Wild Things Are is a dream of mine come true. Maurice Sendak's death last year hit me hard; my love for his work runs very, very deep. Watching my little boy make mischief in the wolf suit, and reading him the story every night before bed are very small ways to pay tribute to an artist whose books I will never outgrow.
 

We will be visiting Daddy at the restaurant in costume this afternoon, and there will even be an attempt at one block of Trick-Or-Treating later tonight. (Which is maaaaybe the most foolish/ambitious thing I have ever attempted with a toddler, so WISH  ME LUCK.)

I knew it would be nearly impossible to take photos of him in costume on Halloween night, so one foggy morning this past weekend, we took a little walk down to the farm stand in our neighborhood and I let him run wild around the pumpkins. Nearly everyone who passed by stopped to talk to us about their love of the book, and he had a blast, and it was all around heart-warming. 

And then we treated ourselves to a dozen mini Nutella-covered donuts , so, you know. Best morning ever.

 

Have a fun and safe Halloween, everyone! What are your plans?

 

Things I Grew Up With

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We took a very quick trip to Seattle this past weekend to visit friends and eat excellent food and walk on the beach, and while watching you and their little girl pour sand onto each other's jeans and pick up tiny shells and wave to passing coastal trains and seem completely impervious to the fog and cold, I was struck once again, as I am so often these days, that this is your life. Your childhood. These are your memories. Maple trees. Restaurant kitchens. A house full of animals. Eggs for breakfast. Or at least, I try to guess what your memories will be one day. I don't know. I hope you will remember the good things. Not the way that I am sometimes very tired, or that we work long hours, or that I have failed to help you sleep any better than you did an entire year ago, or the fact that we are having Chipotle again for dinner, or that the animals were always in need of a bath. Yesterday we were driving home from the library and the trees were so beautiful that I actually exclaimed out loud, 'HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?!' and nearly bawled on the spot. I guess I have reached the age at which one cries at the beauty of trees. Don't worry, I wanted to make fun of myself too. I don't know what you will remember when you are grown but do I hope you will remember that things were beautiful, even when they were very hard. I have been making a mental list of things I grew up with, ever since reading this post a few weeks back, and thinking about what your list might look like one day. Our childhoods could not be more different, but I wonder if there isn't a common thread in there somewhere, underneath it all. When I was a child, I felt loved. I hope you do too.

Things I Grew Up With

Hot air balloons in the sky

Richard Scarry books

Heat

Decorative soaps

White keds

Mountains all around

A tidy house

Dolly Parton

Angel food cake

The Baby Sitter's Club

Matching, hand-sewn dresses

Sunday dinners

Locking diaries

Remington Steele

Dates stuck on the pavement, shoes, tires

Our home phone number

Sand storms

The oldies station

Yucca trees

...

and so on.

 

52: A Portrait A Week  

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Care to share what's on your list, friends?

 

A Book-Scout Halloween Costume Round-Up!

My little strongman. (Ewan, last year.)

Can you believe Halloween is only a few short weeks away? And that I have been sitting on these literary Halloween costumes since September and have yet to post them? Gah. Where is my time machine? I don't know about you guys, but we have been laid LOW by sickness these past few weeks. I thought I'd lost the will to blog, but then it miraculously came back once I could breathe through at least one nostril. Nothing serious of course, just one cold on top of another as it happens when your toddler must touch ALL OF THE THINGS in the germ infested world. Not to mention the fact that we are all terrible sick people. Not one stoic, take-it-like-a-man person in the whole bunch. Nope. There has been a lot of sniffling and complaining and throwing ourselves onto furniture in melodramatic ways. So yes, FUN. It has made for a much mellow-er fall than years past, with only one trip to a pumpkin patch (with terribly-lit, cliched photos to come, I promise), but no apple picking or raking of leaves or  any other twee, face-book clogging activities of which to speak. Instead,  I am looking forward to Halloween, and dreaming about dressing my sweet little boy up in his first real trick-or-treating costume. 



Completely precious Olivia the Pig costume, by OneLittleMinute

I am a firm believer in ridiculous, literary Halloween costumes (I was everything from Raggedy Anne to Alice in Wonderland as a child), and Ewan will be carrying on the tradition this year. I gave a little sneak peak on Instagram awhile back, but I promise to take BILLIONS of photos once I can actually wrangle him into it. I've got one, maybe two years left before this kid wants to be a Transformer or Ninjago or Diego or something, so I am going to go ALL OUT while I still have the chance. In the meantime, can you believe these amazing get-ups? 



I mean, this Family Peter Pan costume WINS Halloween.  (By A Beautiful Mess)

I am filing this adorable James and the Giant Peach costume away for next year. It would be perfect for a ginger-headed, balloon-loving toddler. Or just MY ginger-headed, balloon loving toddler. Also, check out the equally darling Flloyd from Stuck costume. Both over at SmallFry blog. Oliver Jeffers forever, amirite?

These Madeline and Miss Clavel costumes by Erica Holland are basically the reason to keep having babies until you have twin girls, right? (JUST KIDDING. sort of.) 

Cutest, tiniest, Mary Poppins costume by Emphasis Added.

And in case you weren't dead yet:



Baby Charlie Brown costume. (Originally posted by NichThomas.)

 
Last Halloween, Ewan was just a wee, half-bald little thing of two months. I remember it had been an extremely difficult, fussy day, full of intermittent rain. It was around that time the not-sleeping started for both of us and postpartum stuff was hitting me hard, and the thought of taking a tiny baby out of the house to join in the holiday festivities felt so completely overwhelming. But I forced myself to try, and I put his little lion hat on, and tucked him into the Ergo and left the house for a long walk at sunset. And I will never forget that walk, and the odd surge of hope I felt in seeing all our neighbors and their families. It was a little spark of light in an otherwise dark time,  all the glowing pumpkins and happy children, and I remember thinking that next year Ewan would be one of those children and it would all be okay and we were going to make it through and it would be good. And oh has it ever. Oh my, has it ever been good. 



So what do you guys have planned? Any other cute, bookish costume ideas? Feel free to share in the comments!

Friday Feature: Secret Garden Coloring Book

So I'm not sure if a coloring book actually counts as a Friday Feature, but I am procrastinating cleaning the bathroom and it is also the most beautiful coloring book I have ever seen, so let's just go with it. I just discovered The Secret Garden Coloring Book, by Johanna Basford recently, but I believe it was originally published in Europe and released in the States earlier this year. (You can get it at most of the big bookstores now.)  I mean, can you believe this thing? AMAZE. It would make a fantastic gift for any small person who loves the story, or any grown up really. Grown ups like to color too! Or  I do. Coloring is straight-up therapeutic. The interior is equally stunning with lots of puzzles and drawing exercises and lovely things that make me want to be eight years old again. It's going on the book-scout wishlist, even though it will likely not enter my life for a loooong while. Or maybe ever. Unless baby boy has a penchant for coloring flowers down the road. (You never know, I guess.) For now, Ewan and I will be sticking with our $1 Target bin Halloween coloring book for our early morning crayon time. It pretty much kills me to watch him scribble for a few seconds and then look at the page in absolute shock like, 'WHOOOAAAAA. Marks are appearing and I AM A WIZARD! ' And then he eats all the crayons. The end.

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Please don't grow up.

(Just kidding. Kind of.)

52: A Portrait A Week  

Tiny Things

So are you guys familiar with Maggie Rudy? I'm sure you are, but in the off chance that you haven't seen her work, then wait, what are you doing here? To the library with you! Or go read this lovely little article. I'll be here when you get back. Her book, The House that Mouse Built, is astonishing, really. The mice she makes and the worlds she creates for them are so intricate and full of emotion. This one is a particuular favorite of mine. As is this one. (Don't I know it, Mama Mouse. Don't. I. Know it.) Not to mention her tributes to Maurice Sendak and Brian Jacques, which are achingly sweet. If you enjoy tiny things (I do), dioramas, miniatures, mice, The Borrowers or Beatrix Potter stories, fairy houses, chairs made of seashells, or boats made out of leaves, then her work is for you. Or your child. I won't tell. She happens to live in Portland, and I count myself very lucky that she and my boss are pals. Because, people, SHE HAS MADE A MINIATURE REPLICA OF OUR BOOKSTORE. WITH MICE. IN  HALLOWEEN COSTUMES. And now I am dead. My photo up there does not do it justice. It will be installed in the store until Halloween in one of the diorama boxes nestled in the picture book section, so you can check them out in person if you happen to be local. If not, you can take a peek at the characters here. That is all.

Book-Scout over and out.

P.S. 

Two words: mouse. bikini.

 

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Ewan and Ribsy.

(Beverly Cleary fountain at Grant Park)

 

52: A Portrait A Week    

I does what I likes and I likes what I do.

Mary Poppins Remix by Pogo

So this has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that it is completely DELIGHTFUL and I couldn't resist sharing it with you. Because 1.) I am a die hard Mary Poppins fan. Folks who have known me since way back when will confirm it to be my number one favorite Disney movie, with Peter Pan a close second. and 2.) I have to offer you something while I am busy putting together a little first birthday shindig for my sweet boy. His actual birthday is not until the 9th, which is fantastic, because I will be treating the party as a practice run. You know. Emotionally speaking. (Just kidding, I will probably cry all week.)

Hilarity.

Have a Sexy Little Halloween, by illustrator Jillian Tamaki. Get updates on her (truly gorgeous) illustrations and subscribe to her blog feed here. 

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While I am partial to Sexy Virginia Woolf, Sexy First Edition of 'Old Man and the Sea' is probably worth a fortune. And yet! Sexy Inflammatory Email is SO 2011.

I, myself, will be going as Katniss (but not 'Sexy' Katniss) this year, along with every other 13 year old girl in America. Years ago, I made a promise to the kids at the bookstore that I would always dress up as a literary character or an author, and so far I've made good on that promise, even if it meant itchy wigs or uncomfortable footwear.

Who am I kidding? I am a total sucker for this holiday and all the nerdy choices it offers. Do you run with a Halloween loving crowd? If so, who are you (or your kids) going to be this year? I need future costume ideas, people! I can only go as (not sexy) Alice in Wonderland and (only inadvertantly sexy) Margot Tenenbaum so many times!

 

A Conversation With Maurice Sendak.

If there's anything I'm proud of in my work--it's not that I draw better; there's so many better graphic artists than me--or that I write better, no. It's--and I'm not saying I know the truth, because what the hell is that? But what I got from Ruth and Dave, a kind of fierce honesty, to not let the kid down, to not let the kid get punished, to not suffer the child to be dealt with in a boring, simpering, crushing-of-the-spirit kind of way.

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An excerpt from Tuesday night's conversation with Maurice Sendak, on NPR. It was just as illuminating, unexpected, genuine, and slightly sinister, as a conversation with Sendak should be. In other words, you might just want to drop everything and listen to it here.