What Would You Wish For?

Have you read Sylvester and the Magic Pebble?

It's a Caldecott winner from 1969. My copy is quite worn. It has been a family favorite.

The Caldecott award is named for Randolph Caldecott a nineteenth century English illustrator. Each year a book is chosen for its illustrations. Of course the stories are usually wonderful too. I study Caldecotts to see what makes them special and I love using Caldecotts for my elementary school presentations.

We talk about what makes the illustrations unique, and what kind of medium the artist used. William Steig is both the author and illustrator of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.

Animals are the characters in the story, and they wear clothes and live in houses. Sylvester and his family are donkeys. The neighbors are chickens, pigs, and horses. The charming illustrations are a combination of ink and water color.

In the story, Sylvester finds a magic pebble. When he is holding it, his wishes come true. I read the first part of the story to the children and then, I ask them to pretend that they have just found a magic pebble. What will they wish for?

It's fun to hear what they come up with. I ask them to write about it and I take their papers home with me. Some draw pictures.

I tell the children that the best way to make their wishes come true is planning and hard work. Anyone can make their wishes come true if they work hard.

Still, a magic pebble sounds wonderful, doesn't it.

What would you wish for?

Linda Garner

Where Will My Words Take Me Today?

What is there about words that pulls me from bed before daylight and draws me to my computer? Before the sun paints the sky, I am awake with thoughts and ideas tickling my brain. I can hardly wait to try them out.

This is magic time, because the phone doesn’t ring, and no one knocks. The world is asleep and I can spin words to my hearts content. We are alone, my words and I.

For those who love to play with words, it doesn’t matter what we’re writing. It can be a poem or story. It can be a letter to a friend. It can be an article or essay. We love to write the truth and we love to write the imaginary.

We dabble in the rules. We learn a few. We break more. We study structure. We create our own. We try things out. We take our words apart and look at them inside out and backwards. We wonder. We wish. We question. We figure out what works.

We love our words. We bond with them. We rearrange them. We nurture them. Sometimes we have to give up some of our favorites, and it hurts a little, but there are always more. There are always more words to love.

Words can comfort, soothe, inspire, motivate, teach, inform. Words can make us angry. They can help us love, trust, remember. Words can excite us, or calm us. Words can change us. They change us as we read them. They change us as we write them.

Words can take us someplace we’ve never been. They can take us to distant lands. They can take us to other worlds. They can take us to another climate, another season, another time. They can take us into another’s heart. They let us see through other eyes. They can take us inside ourselves.

Where will my words take me today? Perhaps I’ll see you there, my friend.

Linda Garner

Share the Magic

"The Magic Closet" is a true story I read many years ago which changed my life in a wonderful way. Karen A. Perry, who wrote the story, told about the financial challenges of her family. When Karen was 14 her father died, leaving her mother with eight children (age 5 months to 15) to care for. How did they manage?

Karen’s mother had a secret weapon, a magic closet full of fabric which kept the family clothed. When anyone needed clothing they selected fabric from the magic closet and then with mom’s help they sewed the clothing.

The magic of the closet was that it never ran out, even though Karen’s mom was often generous with the fabric, giving much of it away to others in need. Karen worried about her mom’s generosity and felt that they couldn’t afford to give fabric away. Karen’s mom felt that they couldn’t afford not to.

Eventually Karen learned that sharing the fabric was what created its magic. As a grown woman with her own fabric to share, she discovered that the more she gave the more the more she had available to her. It seemed that whenever she gave fabric away, her fabric was magically replenished by others.

Now I’m not crazy about sewing, and I don’t have a magic closet full of fabric, but I have other gifts to share. If the magic is real then I can share anything I have, and never run out. I can share food. I can share money. I can share talents. I can share time. Whatever we give returns back to us, multiplied.

I have experienced in my own life the magic of giving. I’ve never regretted giving a gift. I’ve never missed the things I have shared with others. I have never failed to have my own needs met. The magic is so powerful, that I wonder why I haven’t given more. I think I’ll start today. Today is a great day for giving.

Need some magic in your life today? What will you give?

Linda Garner

P.S.

If you’d like to read The Magic Closet, you can find it at www.lds.org in the New Era, March 1988, p. 20. (Or you can email me and I will send you a copy.) LindaGarner@somesecretshurt.com

The Magic of Reading

This week I had the privilege of sitting down and talking to the teacher of one of my children. During the process, she handed me a book to take home for my toddler to read. Ha, ha, I thought, like my toddler is going to read a book. After he read the book without my help, I threw open my front door and burst into joyful singing. Okay, well, not quite that dramatic, but I did laugh myself silly. My toddler can read. He just blew me away again tonight by reading his second book without my help. (Without help! Yikes)

But there are kids I do help. Once a week, I have the opportunity of helping elementary school children read. I am always surprised at the wide range of abilities the children have. Some are struggling with the first lists of words, while others are flying though the lists as though they have been reading for years.

I was not so lucky to be one of those speedy readers. When I was a teenager, I would sit at my desk in school, praying for the bell to ring so I wouldn’t have to read out loud to my class. I can not tell you how terrifying that was for me, waiting, as one by one, my peers read out loud inching closer to me.

No, I did not have dyslexia nor did I stutter. My head just wouldn’t get on track with my mouth. Long story.

Then I stumbled across a book, by accident mind you. My brother’s were always quoting, The Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll. That’s when I found Alice in Wonderland. A magical world was opened up to me. A world that was so bizarre, I gobbled it up. This lead to other worlds with each new book I picked up.

Now I am writing the worlds, making up the characters. * dramatic pause * And it all started with the magic of reading (please read with a sigh).

I cannot tell you how pleased I am to see my child start out at such a young age with the magic of reading that took me years to appreciate.

It makes me want to explode in chorus (yes, sing along with me):

“Twinkle, twinkle little bat,
How I wonder what you’re at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky,
Twinkle twinkle—”
Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll – sung by the Dormouse at the Mad Hatter’s tea-party.

Oh, Lewis Carroll, if you could see me now! Next week I will be performing a tap dance. Bring your cameras.

I will be posting on Friday next week, since Thursday is Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! Hohoho.

Share the Magic

Recently *Friend-Husband and I spent an afternoon in the Springville Art Museum enjoying Unbound; their display of original picture book art by Utah Illustrators. What a delightful event. I think you should go.

Picture books are my first love. They are such a magical blend of words and art. It’s fun to share this magic with someone you love, especially if that someone is a child. I have spent many a pleasant afternoon cuddling on a couch with a grandchild and a delightful picture book.

Twenty seven artists are represented in the display. Their original framed art is displayed with a bio about each artist. It was great fun to read about each of these talented artists whose picture voice brings a special kind of magic to the words. Each page in a picture book is a work of heart; a special blend of love, hard work, and art. It is also a treat to see the diversity in the art, from water colors and oils to computer designs, and every combination between. Some illustrations are in vibrant brilliant colors, others are soft pastels. Each picture has a personality as real as my own.

After soaking in each of the fabulous illustrations on the wall, Friend-Husband and I found a cozy spot on a comfy couch in the same room and read from the same picture books which were also provided.

Some of our favorites were: Mrs. McBloom, Clean Up Your Classroom, written by Kelly S. Dipucchio and illustrated by Guy Francis; Martha Moth Makes Socks written and illustrated by Cambria Evans, Fanny’s Dream written by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner, Armadilly Chili written by Helen Ketteman and illustraded by Will Terry, The Frog with the Big Mouth written by Teresa Bateman and illustrated by Will Terry, The Alphabet from Z to A (With Much Confusion on the Way) written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Richard Hull.

The display is at the Springville Museum of Art, 126 E. 400 S., Springville, Utah, and runs through December 28. Admission is free. Every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. through Dec 27 there is a Story Hour featuring one of the artists. The picture books are also available for sale in the Museum Gift Shop. The museum hours are different each day so check the web site http://www.sma.nebo.edu/. You will also enjoy looking at the Unbound blog; unboundsma.blogspot.com.

This is great day for magic. Share some picture book magic with someone you love today.

Linda Garner

* Friend-Husband is a term my Mother used in her writing, when speaking about my Father. I was a little jealous that she thought of it first. Mother has been gone for 6 years and isn’t using it any more. I thought maybe she wouldn’t mind if I picked it up now.