Before you buy it, look for rust under the stickers.
But you're going to get one of those silver plastic Flying Spaghetti Monster icons, right?
it makes sense to jump on this
Why?
3: Yeah. Why? I thought you wanted a Ford Flex or something?
Why?
It's stationary at the moment?
Which bumper stickers are you not going to scrape off?
I thought you wanted a Ford Flex or something?
I did. I think they're super cute. But they're expensive and have terrible 3rd row access, if your 2nd row has carseats in it.
It's sort of a boring story, but a cheap minivan is what we'd hopefully be getting in the next 6 months anyway. So not terrible early.
I think you should keep "practice loving kindness" and get bumper nutz.
What do you have against loving kindness?
Which bumper stickers are you not going to scrape off?
None of them? I dunno. Her father is somewhat of a local music legend and she has a bumper sticker of his current (not at all famous) band, which is kind of charming. But mostly I don't do bumper stickers.
Why?
Also, Jammies doesn't trust used cars in general, but he knows these owners would have been fastidious about check-ups and keeping the thing well-maintained.
I want a used one that will completely conk out right about the time that the last kid is done with the bulky car seats.
But mostly I don't do bumper stickers.
So cover the existing bumper stickers with new bumper stickers that say "I don't do bumper stickers". It'll be, like, totally meta, man.
But mostly I don't do bumper stickers.
I'd scrape them all off and leave it at that.
I'd ask the seller to remove the stickers before sale.
I'd ask the seller to remove his pants from the sale, so we could grip each other's testicles to finalize the deal. Because I'm a feminist.
A friend of mine had a similar problem with a used-car purchase, but the bumper sticker in question read "TIGHT BUTTS DRIVE ME NUTS".
How did the used car feel about itty-bitty waists?
Given the importance of third row seating to a family with small children, just remember to look for "Little in the middle, but she got much back."
What do you have against loving kindness?
Heebie is expert in loving kindness.
20: Supposedly a great car, for all the right (boring) reasons - reliability, safety, load-hauling. If you know its history and the price is fair, seems like a no-brainer, esp. if the sellers throw in a "whirled peas" sticker.
A friend of mine and I saw a VW Microbus that used to belong to her parents, recognized on the street by the Jewish marriage encounters sticker the new owners tried unsuccessfully to remove. J identified herself to the people getting out of it and told them how she knew the car used to belong to her family. They informed us: "This is a Jesus bus now."
Building secretary, steps into my office: I've got bugspray and citronella candles.
Me: Oh...ok.
Her: Do you want a candle for your office?
Me: (WTF?) ...no thanks. The mosquitoes haven't gotten down here yet.
Her: Do you want me to spray your office down with bugspray?
ME: (GOOD LORD NO.) ...no thanks!
She's really nice, but a lot of times her solutions to building problems involve coating the interior of the building with chemicals. No thank you.
But seriously, I'm pretty sure you should not use Citronella candles indoors.
Does your school have dormitories? Regularly reminding us of the rules against candles was standard-issue when I was an undergrad. Perhaps you could have the relevant person talk to her, just for fun.
I'm pretty sure you should not use Citronella candles indoors.
Not Citronella specifically, but according to the EPA scented candles generally shouldn't be burned indoors. They produce excess soot and particulate matter. Now if only the EPA would recommend getting rid of throw pillows we'd be getting somewhere.
But seriously, I'm pretty sure you should not use Citronella candles indoors.
After my last two weeks of mosquito bites, I'd fucking burn the house down if it would get rid of them.
Oh, that would definitely get rid of them.
They'd come back when the smoke cleared.
If these are the same kind of mosquitos i was mauled by when i lived in texas, i doubt the smoke would drive them off. probably, you'd notice three new bites as you were standing in your yard watching it burn.
Just prior to reading this, I moved the citronella candle so it's sitting in the chair with me. This has banquished* the mosquitoes when nothing else would.
* What's that from? Is it the book about the girls telling the story about a witch on a glass mountain that turns out (within the story) to be a real little witch and so forth? Oh, I need to find a good starter chapter book for the girls. I'm dropping the ball by sticking to picture books as bedtime stories.
But presumably you are sitting outside?
Our sitting area in our back yard is so nice I've been trying to use it despite the mosquito plague.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is an excellent chapter book to read to very little kids. And from there, the Dahliverse expands almost infinitely.
36: The Magic Treehouse books were consistently successful as starter chapter books with Rory and her cousin around that age. I think Rory did much of the Lemony Snicker series with her dad around that age, too, but maybe a year or so older.
I'm under the impression that Thorn is going to be the reader of record, in which case The Magic Treehouse books are perhaps somewhat less desirable (because they suck something awful).
Sorry, I should have added an imho and a ymmv.
Von Wafer, that's a great idea! I'd normally go with My Father's Dragon. There's no way Mara could handle Lemony Snicket and Nia would be really upset by the missing parents and contantly changing guardians. Their not being keen on orphans and abuse rules out a lot of stories.
42 is right. I kept rooting for Jack and Annie to get killed or knife Teddy or something less dull.
44: the Dahliverse features a lot of very mean grown-ups (Sponge and Spiker; Boggis, Bunce, and Bean; nearly every adult in the Willy Wonka stories outside of Charlie's immediate family), and sometimes there are dead parents scattered around the scene, not to mention the occasional episode of child abuse (James and the Giant Peach), so it may not be such a good idea after all. Still, Fantastic Mr. Fox is overwhelmingly silly, paced very well, and has the occasional illustration, which can be helpful.
The Warton and Morton books have no mean adults, no episodes of abuse (in fact, there are no child-in-peril themes at all, because there are no human children), and are well illustrated and reasonably entertaining for an adult reader.
Or you could just cut to the chase and go with Hunger Games followed by a steady diet of copycat dystopian tween fiction. That's where we are now, and it's not a happy place.
46: Mr. Fox also serves booze to minors.
Actually, that's not really true. I'm reading our five-year-old The Fellowship of the Ring, and other than what I'm interpreting this time as Tolkein's yearning for a bygone feudal order*, it's good fun.
* I'm sure I'm wrong, so don't bother.
50 is a continuation of 48. I won't comment on the veracity of 49, as I don't want to offer up any spoilers.
VW, I'd written off Dahl for that reason but forgotten the foxes. I'm pretty well-versed in dystopian YA, but hope to put it off for at least a little while.
Tonight's bedtime story is getting sort of preempted because Lee foun Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids on tv and wanted the girls to watch with her. Then we're reading a simplified summary of the Book of Esther. After that, I'm taking a Bible break. Nia can have a few pages from the Bible story collection i bought her once a week or something like that.
. I'm reading our five-year-old The Fellowship of the Ring,
Say what.
I know I got Tolkien at age 3, but I just don't see the girls getting excited about it. I thought maybe Narnia, which I certainly loved at 6. I've just been feeling uninspired. I don't want to get to Laura Ingalls Wilder until I have a policy on how to deal with the racist stuff, plus those are good once you have a reader for getting called away and then letting her finish the chapter herself.
I don't really remember anything I got to know at age 3.
Thorn, are they too young for Le Guin's Earthsea books?
the Dahliverse
I was going to comment that the Dalíverse is probably a lot more disturbing for children, but I'm not really sure that's true.
Earthsea has some potentially scary stuff, as I recall, and I think the stuff about true identity wouldn't mean much for younger kids. I could be wrong, though. Maybe I should just go directly for Moomintrolls, because everyone loves Moomins.
When I read The Hobbit I felt compelled to remind the audience that dwarves are different than humans and humans can't survive sealed in barrels floating down rivers.
Do I remember correctly that one of the later Earthsea books had a lot of sexual content? At least I vaguely recall reading it at a fairly young age and thinking that my parents would be upset if they knew what I was reading.
60: It's The Tombs of Atuan, right? And it's not exactly a lot, just significantly more than the absolutely nothin up to then. That was actually what I was thinking of in saying they're too mature for the girls.
And I'll violate the sanctity of off-blog communication to say that I think the answer is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, which I know has played well in other foster/adoptive families that focus in a playful approach to behavior modification. The Wayside School books were also recommended and I actually tried to get them as a book on tape for Nia on the drive to Canada, but the narrator (the author?) had a lisp that kept making my brother giggle, so we gave up.
I'm sure I'm wrong
I doubt it.
Say what.
We've been through each of the 26 Harry Potter books (at least twice, and three or four times in a couple of cases), the 2.5 Narnia books that are even remotely worth the time to read, The Hobbit, Mrs. Frisby (we'll tackle Z for Zachariah at a later date, thanks), From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. What's-her-face, and pretty much all of Dahl, so there aren't that many other books left, really. Anyway, he's loving FotR -- so much so that he REALLY doesn't want to stop reading in the morning, even though I have to go to work and he has to go to school.* That he also wants to keep reading at night, rather than go to sleep, doesn't reveal much of anything about the quality of the book or the reader.
* Why are my children back to school so long before Labor Day? WTF?
Well, that's even worse. Looks like Cal State Dominguez Hills for my kid.
the 2.5 Narnia books that are even remotely worth the time to read
Telmarine.
Anti-pseudo-semite (not Jewish division)
66: if it makes you feel any better, we won't be able to afford the tuition at CSDH.
Why are my children back to school so long before Labor Day? WTF?
Lucky bastard. My son doesn't start until the 11th.
64: Have you heard the GOOD NEWS about Daniel Pinkwater?
73: yes, I know that you're an apostle of the Jew, Pinkwater, but I'm still willing to listen to your testimony. Which ones should we read?
For little kids, I'm fond of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency.
Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars, I reckon, although if you go with The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death you will get to read the sentence "It's fun to watch her panic when she realizes that she's facing another all-Jewish class."
76: ah, we read Alan Mendelsohn, yes. And I'm willing to try Snarkout boys in your honor.
Lizard Music is also good, although I would say that, I guess.
(When addressing a mixed group, I sometimes have to restrain myself from borrowing the opening of the hipster from Snarkout Boys: "Cats and kitties, be hip to my lick...")
61: I don't remember any real sexual content in Tombs of Atuan, though I was ~12 when I read it, so I might I have missed something. I remember being shocked at Ged and Tenar getting it on in Tehanu, though. ("Useful with a pitchfork"!)
I was wondering about that as well. I missed a whole lot of sex in books I read before fourteen or so, but I can't think of where it would have fit into Tombs of Atuan. The other girl eating apples and talking about not wanting to be a priestess? Or something with the eunuch?
Somehow I really liked "Lizard Music" as a kid but no other D.M.P.W. books. It has this air of engima and mystery about it, as opposed to the air of clever-wordplay-comedy type stuff.
Don't forget Wing Man as a potential Pinkwater choice.
Yeah, now that Cosma mentions it, Tehanu is the one I'm remembering.
And yeah, I think the existence of eunuchs was something that disturbed me.
I guess I wasn't distributed by the existence of eunuchs, but I still don't think our guidance counselor should have suggested it as a career path to consider.
Speaking of testicles, Lance Armstrong is apparently no longer fighting charges of doping.
I didn't find the eunuchs disturbing, but I suspect that had something to do with being introduced to the concept through Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe, aged 7. ("But honey, even a spayed cat likes to be scratched behind the ears!")
Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe
I loved those as a kid.
88: Those, and his Cartoon Guides, are the source of a really ridiculous share of my basic knowledge...
the 2.5 Narnia books that are even remotely worth the time to read
TLTW&TW, the first half of PC and TVOTD? I mean, I love them all, and you're a dirty commie who hates Jesus if you don't like The Magician's Nephew, but I guess parts of TH&HB and TLB are tough to neutralize for today's conscientious parents. Thank God for my early years of neglect.
TLTW&TW, the first half of PC and TVOTD?
You complete me, Flip.
The Narnia books suck ass and Tolkien was 100 percent right to wonder what the fuck Lewis was playing at. And good on Armstrong for giving the finger to USADA (this is the type of sentiment that makes me think the DEA is not for me).
Parents and prospective parents may wish to know that Young Flippanter and the Young Flip-Frère were read the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books early, often and over again, and neither of us is what a reasonable person might call an enthusiast for sharing, picking up after himself or whatnot. I guess we do scrape off the dirt before the radishes sprout, though.
Not much precocious early childhood reading here.
But: humblebragging about my 11-year old son: I have really tried to resist (at least consciously) that whole yuppie, UMC childrearing thing: no learning Mandarin at the age of 6; and he could watch commercial TV and drink apple juice from a straw and paint happy faces on a paper plate to his heart's content, and such.
Kiddo now calls himself a feminist without apology, and supports gay marriage quite vehemently, and also does a mean Rush Limbaugh impersonation (he despises Limbaugh, but truly loves the stupidity of Bane/Bain, and knows how to run with it to comic effect, and he's really quite funny). At sleepaway camp this summer, at the tender age of 10, he had his first experience of being dismissed as a "hippie" in a political argument (for not wanting to nuke North Korea, btw). It's still early days, admittedly, but I guess he'll do.
humblebragging about my 11-year old son
Watch out, his teen rebellion may involve running off to join the marines. That, or anarchist underground.
I love minivans. I miss my old one - Honda Odyssey 2003. It had a "do what you wanna do" bumpersticker that my wife was really pissed about.
79 is totally right and I was probably thinking about Tehanu, which is my favorite. Flip is totally right about worthwhile Narnia, as is VW of course. I need to make sure Mara internalizes the Bulgy Bear bits since I've been periodically calling her one for years. I'm not expecting the girls to learn to live like a perfect Piggle-Wiggle neighbor, but having the stories or similar ones you make up yourself as shorthand you can use for behavior correction makes it easier on kids who otherwise have a hard time with that.
I was in a school play version of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency but haven't revisited it since. I'm clearly behind everyone else here on the reading-to-kids scale, but we'll get there.
I endorse every word of 92, and I don't usually endorse Tolkein.
And good on Armstrong for giving the finger to USADA
Why's that??
I'll never not be able to love The Magician's Nephew because I was so utterly captivated by it as a kid. I had a similar fascination with Lewis' Space Trilogy, but I don't remember very much about it any longer.
Has anybody read Lewis's Till We have Faces?
Yes, BG, but I was 13 or so. I enjoyed it, though I was already sort of a Lewis skeptic. It was very melodramatic, I think, which appealed to little teen me.
CSL's space trilogy is funnier after one learns to read Professor Ransom as J.R.R. "Flash" Tolkien, Action Hero in Space ("Must ... provide ... religious instruction ... to ... space otters!").
Speaking of you and "Flash," what's the first Flashman book (or the best one to start with). I'm getting tired of mysteries.
I'm glad you ask! Some people will tell you to start with Flashman, the first volume, but those people are wrong. I recommend starting with the following in roughly this order:
Flashman and the Mountain of Light
Flashman's Lady
Flashman at the Charge
Flashman in the Great Game
That covers quite a span of his career with few lulls and the best character-development-to-historical-adventure-to-page ratio, but leaves you some African, American and Asian adventures to delve deeper into.
I was thinking more about "Lizard Music" last night. That is a book I used to read over and over because the plot is just so bizarre that I never remembered what was going to happen next. Even in Roald Dahl books the characters were basically archetypes and the plots were standard journeys.
Let's see if I can summarize the plot of "Lizard Music", having not read it since about 1994.
There's a kid, who's about 12, and he really likes going to the zoo. He cooks his own food in the microwave. On one of his trips to the zoo he notices this impala or some other type of antelope that has really beautiful eyes. Also he keeps running into this man, who keeps talking about how pre-packaged food is dangerous, and who always refers to himself by the name of a different Renaissance painter. Also, the kid sometimes sees lizards playing rock music on the TV.
Then he ends up in an airplane, with some sort of tycoon, and goes to the remote desert location where the lizards live. And the lizards turn out to be very intelligent and they tell him that "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is actually not a movie, it's real life, and the lizards are trying to save humanity from the aliens. Then there's a few action sequences.
105: Somebody stole the first one from the Library.
But thanks. I'll try one of those.
Stealing library books isn't cool, kids. You know what's cool? Homework and comfortable shoes.
105 is criminally wrong. You must start with the first one in order to understand the setup - it's also one of the best. You should then proceed to "Flashman at the Charge", "Flashman in the Great Game" and then "Flashman and the Mountain of Light".
Having completed the Indian ones, you are then cleared for takeoff for the American ones: "Flash for Freedom", "Flashman and the Redskins" and "Flashman and the Angel of the Lord".
The Far Eastern ones aren't generally as good: Flashman's Lady, Flashman and the Dragon. But if you're still reading at this point, go for it.
Professor Ransom as J.R.R. "Flash" Tolkien, Action Hero in Space ("Must ... provide ... religious instruction ... to ... space otters!"
Professor Ransom always thinks of otters before himself.
"Must ... provide ... religious instruction ... to ... space otters!"
It that why South Park had talking otters in the show where Cartman froze himself into the Buck Roger's future?
I'm with Ajay -- you need to start with the first to really get it clear that Flashman is truly a terrible, terrible person. The fact that he's generally saner and more realistic than everyone else around him can make that point confusing in the later books if you don't already know him. Flashman first, then Flashman At The Charge, and then I have a soft spot for Royal Flash (but maybe that doesn't work if you haven't already read The Prisoner of Zenda). And at that point, whichever you like.
They're mass-market paperbacks -- I'd bet any of them is available for three bucks off abebooks.
I find the first one disjointed and awkward, but it's a fast read, I guess.
106 leaves out the critical factors of the Chicken Man's dancing chicken, Claudia, as well as the narrator's obsession with Walter Cronkite. (Also, it's an invisible island where the lizards live, not a desert.
The fact that he's generally saner and more realistic than everyone else around him can make that point confusing in the later books if you don't already know him.
Or if you write for NRO.
I loved, loved, loved The Horse and His Boy as a child; it was my favorite of the Narnia books, even more than The Silver Chair (you crazy people! SC is better than TLtWatW and PC, although VotDT is a close second). I can still remember the feeling I got when I reread it when I was about 13 and realized how incredibly fucking racist it was. And yet I still love kind of love the orientalism. Sorry, Edward Said!
118: A talking horse makes any book much better than otherwise, but I never liked that Calormene girl very much.
The Narnia books totally left me cold when I read them (somewhere before age 12), and yet they were there, so I read them all. They will definitely not make any top-1000 lists of books to read for my child.
You just don't understand her cruel but sexy ways, Flippanter. They're inscrutable, I think.
And the male horse wasn't bad either.
121: Mysteriously ... fascinating....
118: VoDT is by far my favorite, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to get to it without the first two. I don't like Caspian or Caspian, but I want the Bulgy Bears because I am so fucking sick of saying "fingers out!" every 20 seconds. SC has lots of good parts and is probably the best option if you want one book as a standalone.
The girl in THaHB didn't seem like Orientalizing at all to me -- the racism in that one is all in the villains and the backdrop. She's just one of his English-girl characters dressed up in a darker skin-tone and chainmail.
I loved them all when I read them, except TLB, which was weird and unsatisfying. I accept that there are many ways in which they suck, but I still loved them.
She's just one of his English-girl characters dressed up in a darker skin-tone and chainmail.
Bow chicka chicka chicka bow wow chicka.
I accept that there are many ways in which they suck, but I still loved them.
There is probably a sincere argument to be made that assessing the Chronic-what?-cles according to the standards of latter-day young adult works (defying prejudice, overcoming adversity, fulfilling one's individual destiny, sullen petulance is a virtue if The Hunger Games is anything to go by girl power) is unfair to both.
Well at least that slut Susan got her just reward.
I loved the South Park Buck Rogers episodes. Mainly because they were so pointless -- not a political lesson in sight.
I'm only going to let my daughter read The Last Battle, so that she learns the important point that if she ever gets interested in make-up and boys, she doesn't get to go to heaven.
I loved the South Park Buck Rogers episodes. Mainly because they were so pointless -- not a political lesson in sight.
Weren't they the ones about Richard Dawkins?
But any episode with Cartman being both absurdly successful and ultimately failing is great.
126 - TLB was published the same year as Half Magic and only ten years prior to The Book of Three; the whole series is basically colored by Lewis trying and failing to overcome his own snobbishness (Eustace goes to a school without corporal punishment; of course he's a dreary child who rejects God! See also those contemptible trade unionist dwarves).
Another vote here for The Silver Chair.
131: Agreed that they were great, just not sure why they were supposed to be non-political.
Shit, I forgot about the Dawkins bit. The carefully edited version in my head is devoid of political lesson. It's much better.
I still think the one where they send the whale to the moon is the best.
136: I had to think quite hard to remember the Dawkins bit. My edited version is very similar to yours: just Cartman in the future with otters.
I had to think quite hard to remember the Dawkins bit.
Because the animated sex scene with Ms. Garrison wasn't memorable?
36: Oh, I need to find a good starter chapter book for the girls
I suppose the humor in Bunnicula might be a little too complicated?
I also liked A Toad For Tuesday.
What about the D'Aulaire's myth books? Sort of a crossover from picture to chapter books? I don't know if that would undermine the Bible stuff though. Probably a little bit.
140: I have a responsibility to raise Nia in her family's religious tradition while she's in foster care, but that's totally compatible with teaching other myths, which I definitely support.
I think of Bunnicula and the like as being about third-grade level, but that could work too. I never read A Toad for Tuesday. Neither really understands how vampires work, which isn't
This one's probably only of interest to Flippanter, if that, but Mara and I are currently having conflict because she's started playing Spider-Man rather than just Iron Man like she used to, presumably because one of the boys who took that role in her classroom just moved on to kindergarten. She apparently punched Lee in the stomach the other day and said she did it because she was being Spider-Man. Apparently Spider-Man refuses to adhere to the no-hitting rules in the house because it's his JOB to hit people. I tried to explain the webs and the wimpiness, but she just looked at me scornfully. Kids these days!
Do Frog and Toad count as early chapter books? They seem like good 'just starting to read independently' possibilitIes.
Apparently Spider-Man refuses to adhere to the no-hitting rules in the house because it's his JOB to hit people.
Batman is even better. He really doesn't have as many non-hitting options as Spiderman.
I definitely remember The Tombs of Atuan as a sexual awakening story. Arwa looks at Ged and thinks he is hott, so she spies on him from the darkness and (SPOILER ALERT) eventually runs away with him, abandoning everything she was raised to believe (which, conveniently, was totes evil). That right there is a sexy story. As a repressed Mormon girl, I loved that book.
Sometimes Batman doesn't use his fists.
144: "Hoeg! Hoeg! Hey, girl. Do you want to come with me?"
TLTW&TW, the first half of PC and TVOTD? I mean, I love them all, and you're a dirty commie who hates Jesus if you don't like The Magician's Nephew, but I guess parts of TH&HB and TLB are tough to neutralize for today's conscientious parents.
I was raised with such thoroughgoing atheism that TLB had pretty much no effect on me. Maybe it would have been different if the books were read to me at an earlier age, rather than me (mostly) reading them myself.
eventually runs away with him, abandoning everything she was raised to believe (which, conveniently, was totes evil).
I remember the fourth book as being a really clunky job at fixing the sexism and ethnocentricity, and then the fifth book as pulling all five together and making me really happy, but it's while since I read them.
Hey look a wealth of information about hobos!
but Mara and I are currently having conflict because she's started playing Spider-Man rather than just Iron Man like she used to ... She apparently punched Lee in the stomach the other day and said she did it because she was being Spider-Man
But at least this means she's stopped binge-drinking and womanizing in her role as Tony Stark, right?
141: "In this house we do NOT say it's OK to hit someone because we're Spider-Man. We say we hit someone because we're Iron Man."
When she was Iron Man, she'd just raise her fist in his signature pose and yell ARRA MAN! and then run around. I was fine with that.
She has not seen any superhero movies and I see no reason to change that, nor do I feel a deep need to unearth the boxes of floppies I have to see if there's some Young Justice or something I could read to her. Just not worth it as far as I'm concerned. Nia seems to have no interest in superhero stuff, but at least also manages to dislike the princess phenomenon too, though she indulges Mara.
There are indeed "novelizations" of Young Justice cartoons.
Not to mention tons of $4 superhero comic books at the Barnes and Noble.
Sure, but I don't want to have to read that to them. I have nothing against superhero comics except sometimes (Brad Meltzer and whatnot) but I'm not interested in giving her the direct source material yet and I'm sure not interested in whatever Hollywoodization has made all the boys in her class so excited.
It was more of a complaint that a suggestion.
Are the Amelia Bedelia too simplistic? Or introducing weird stereotypes about people? If Nia's grandmother is a cleaner it might be weird to introduce personal household maids.
There is a early chapter book series about a farmer who lives on really rich soil (so rich that if you plant a nickle, it'll grow into a quarter by lunchtime) and yells for all his kids to come in a charming rhythmic call that are great and silly. In one book, a giant ear of corn pops in a barn because it's so hot. I wish I could remember the name. Something like Farmer McGregor, I think. Old fashioned but funny.
I don't know how he learned it, but our son knew what McDonald's was before he'd even seen commercial television.
158 to the general idea of what sorts of things kids pick-up from the aether.
157: McBroom! On his magically fertile 17 acre farm (it's so fertile because all 17 acres are stacked on top of each other -- it only covers one acre of ground! WillJillHesterChesterPeterPollyTimTomMaryLarryandlittleClarinda!
Seriously, no one gets 146? Damn.
Thorn, consider (i) Spidey's classic "With great power..." (e.g., to punch people) lesson (not to punch people) or (ii) some other child-appropriate heroic introductions (e.g., DC's Tiny Titans)?
144: I totally missed that when I read the book at age 11, but now that you say it, it seems completely obvious.
Also, of the original three, isn't Tombs the only good one? I remember the first and third ones not at all.
162: The first one rules so hard! The third one's just OK.
Pace the Wafer, I recommend the Magic Tree House books. They have a pretty repetitive structure, but the content is fairly unobjectionable, and it fills the kids heads with all kinds of useful historical trivia. The Wafer probably hates them because they lack sufficient "nuance".
161: I got it, just had no suitable response to make to its awesomeness.
Now contemplating what a Sparrowhawk tumblr would be like.
166: "They say Gontish wizards often keep familiars, baby, but I just want to become familiar with your thoughts on single-sex wizarding institutions."
"Hey girl, he who would be Seamaster must know the true name of every drop of water in the sea, but I just want to know your commenter handle."
"Hey girl, Gontish fishermen fear nothing, not even commitment."
We just took it for a test drive. Holy shit that is the most tricked out vehicle I've ever been inside. Besides the TV for kids with special wireless headphones, special 2nd wideview review pointed at kids in the backseat, hidden floor storage with a freaking lazy susan inside it, automatic things that I never knew could be automated, and on and on. Every bell and whistle in the book. That sure does take the sting out of buying a minivan.
The storage access is between the driver's row and middle row, and the space extends under the driver's row, and the lazy susan spins around and around, revealing half of your lovely possessions at any given moment.
I'm having a hard time picturing how all this stuff fits in the interior of a minivan.
swiss army van
I can imagine this would have a roomy interior.
I vote for an 'A-Team' reboot with the black van replaced by this Odyssey and Heebie as Mr-T.
I pity the small vehicle fools.
Ph.D. Baracus ain't gettin' on no plane.
Early chapter books with female protagonists
I just ate a pound and a half a mussels. It turns out that they are really tiny inside great big shells, but it was still a fair bit of food.
We just took it for a test drive. Holy shit that is the most tricked out vehicle I've ever been inside.
Word. I think a lot of people who scoff at minivans don't realize how amazing the designs have gotten in the last ten years.
Besides the TV for kids
I hate those as a person driving behind them. SO DISTRACTING NNGgggh!
182: Awesome.
The thing that impressed me most about the Subaru I got is that the seat buckle receptor clips, whatever you call them, click back into a little pocket so they'll never get lost in the seat. Brilliant! But it's no tricked-out minivan, which I guess is a plus and a minus.
185: I have seen porn on them. I am sure this was done for the benefit of other drivers.
160: Thank you! The list of children's names was exactly what I was thinking of but I couldn't remember any of the names.
The result of googling, so I can't personally vouch for any of the titles, but still potentially useful:
http://thebrownbookshelf.com/2009/09/29/the-color-of-us-chapter-books/
After a big-box shopping expedition yesterday, with the baby in the back seat and the stroller in the trunk, I am sadly starting to have some sympathy for the woman who sold it to us. I remember being agog at her claim that a Honda Civic wasn't big enough for two kids.
This just in: "In a venture that all involved agree is unusual, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Simon & Schuster have joined forces to reissue Ursula K. Le Guin's seminal six-book fantasy series set in the realm of Earthsea. Encompassing books first published between 1968 and 2001, the series has an atypical publishing history, confounded by several company mergers and acquisitions over the decades. Currently, three of the books - A Wizard of Earthsea, Tales from Earthsea, and The Other Wind - are published by HMH and three - The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu - are published by S&S. On September 12, both houses will reissue their respective titles in hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, and e-book, featuring a new, uniform cover design and new afterwords by Le Guin."
Those covers scream "generic Harry Potter clone". Ugh.
I have seen porn on them.
Seen, or watched?
The class of 2016 has always known Earthsea as a Harry Potter clone.
194: The Roke Island class of 2016 would kick the Hogwarts class of 2016's collective asses.
