Books as gifts and as art. (And kind, thoughtful teachers.)

Tonight is multi-tasking night, like whoa. Keeping an eye on the Cardinals game (already up 5-0 in the first inning! Hopefully this will bode well for the Cards and they won't fall apart. If they win tonight and the Braves lose, lo and behold, we're in the playoffs!), managed to check off some errands this evening to hopefully make this weekend less hectic, am chowing down on sour patch kids candy that I picked up while on an errand, and am trying to decide whether to listen to music or watch a Doris Day movie I have from the library. Chances are slim that I'll watch all the movies I have from the library right now, although I did finish "Miss Potter" today. Good movie. Made me like Beatrix even more. As fate would have it, her book is one that is an option to read for my children's lit class for next week. But, for some reason, my local library only has one copy of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", but one of the other smaller branches has three. What's up with that?



Sometimes you just have a moment where you are blown away by the thoughtfulness and kindness of someone else. Especially when it's a person that you haven't known for very long. I had a moment like that last night in my class. My teacher is cool and I would have liked her if she hadn't done what she did last night, but now she's probably my favorite teacher of all my grad school experiences. Last night, she GAVE me her copy of my favorite children's book, "The Jolly Postman". She had brought it in last week when we were discussing pop-up books and unusual children's books and she discussed it because it has letters that you pull out of it and read. Well, we had gone around the table discussing books that had an impact on our lives as children and I LOVED that book. I actually have the second Jolly Postman book still, I saved it from my shelves when I moved from home, but I don't know what happened to the original Jolly Postman. Anyway, I couldn't believe she had brought it in last week and I must have looked completely overjoyed or something because this week she brought it back and at the end of class last night she told me to keep it. I was all like, 'Whaaa?? You're giving me "The Jolly Postman"?! THANK YOU!!! You just became my favorite teacher EVER." I still find it hard to believe that she gave it to me. But she said that she can teach the class next year without it and that I had looked so happy to see it that she wanted me to have it. How nice is that? I can't believe how nice people are sometimes. And that she would have even remembered it and brought it back the next week to give to me. It's just amazing and sweet and I was really touched. As soon as I got home, I put the book on the shelf next to it's sequel. They look really happy to be together. I just love that book.  Sigh.

Speaking of books that I love, a few months ago, I began tearing pages out of books that I love (and own, that's an important tidbit of information to include here) and doing redactions to try to create an interesting wall art piece. I think it would be nice to have a page from my favorite books hanging on the walls where I can see it more often instead of sitting and gathering dust on a shelf. I mean, they go back on the shelf after I tear out a page, but only I know (well, now you do too) that some of the books on my shelves aren't whole any longer. I've gotten about 5 or 6 redactions that I'm prepping for framing right now. Anyhow, I was considering doing this for other people as gifts? Framing them up and giving them to people? I can make the page say nearly anything, and it will probably always be unique seeing as how there are hundreds of words per page and you can probably make it say a hundred different things to fit a hundred different occasions. I would just attempt to find out a favorite book of the person and find a cheap copy of it somewhere. One tough thing that I've discovered while doing this is that it is important to find an edition that lists the title on the top of every page or every other page, so that when you do the redaction, you'll easily be able to tell what book it is from. This is more difficult than I thought since it seems that many publishers are moving away from that sort of printing template. But if you stick with classics, you're bound to find one edition that is printed this way. Anyway, I thought I'd share one that I'm in the process of framing and putting up in my own home. It's my favorite one that I've done for myself so far. It's from "Madonnas of Leningrad", which is a sad book, but one that I recommend if you enjoy museums or Russian history. Here it is:

"She was quietly defiant and unusual. That's better than popular if you have some courage."