The Great Backyard Bird Count!

I first heard about the bird count from Happy Homemaker UK in her post last year about the "Big Garden Birdwatch."  I so desired to do our own bird count but couldn't find information on it anywhere . . . that is . . . until . . . this year!  Those of us around here at ReadMeAStory cannot possibly wait until Friday, February 15, when the Great Backyard Bird Count begins.

So what's it all about?  
From Feb. 15 through Feb. 18, folks across the nation will be spending at least 15 min. (or longer) a day watching the birds in their own backyard.  We'll count, record, and report all the birds we see.

What's the point? Why?
(as copied exactly from http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/whycount.html):

Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic; they are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document and understand the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.

The longer these data are collected, the more meaningful they become in helping scientists investigate far-reaching questions, like these:

• How will the weather influence bird populations?

• Where are winter finches and other “irruptive” species that appear in large numbers during some years but not others?

• How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years?

• How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?

• What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?

The Great Backyard Bird Count is led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, with Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada and sponsorship from Wild Birds Unlimited.

In other words:
We're participating in a science experiment by helping provide research and statistics for the National Audubon Society's various bird studies, including bird migratory patterns.  So by participating only 15 min. a day, we're contributing to legitimate research!

Some of our favorite birdwatching books around here at ReadMeAStory include:

COUNTING is for the Birds by Frank Mazzola, Jr. (c. 1997) covers several developmental skills all at once.  While teaching your child to count to twenty, Mazzola introduces rhyme, bird facts, number recognition, bird species identification, all while weaving together a hidden plotline.

The kids' very favorite bird identification guide is The Pocket Naturalist Guide: South Carolina Birds: An Introduction to Familiar Species (State Nature Guides) [Pamphlet] by James Kavanagh (c. 2002).  Read more about this resource on my post about The Pocket Naturalist Guides

Our Yard is Full of Birds (c.1992) by the mother daughter team Anne & Lizzy Rockwell tells a boy's story of bird watching while identifying various species of birds.  Lizzy Rockwell's watercolor and pencil illustrations beautifully capture each bird's unique traits.

Snow

So are you ready for some more of P. D. Eastman's I CAN READ book titles?

In Snow (c. 1962), P. D. Eastman teamed up with Roy McKie in writing and illustrating a perfect beginner I CAN READ book for the winter season.  Thankfully, this is one of those titles that has experienced copyright renewal, so I recently found our copy at Marshalls for just a fraction of the price.

And as you know, our kids much prefer P.D. Eastman to Dr. Seuss, and I still haven't figured out why.  I don't know if it's the illustrations or if they can better picture themselves in the story or if the plot is more predictable for an early reader, but Eastman's books are the ones they keep returning to again and again.

Let me share with you a few of our favorite illustrations from Snow:

February

Find "February" in A Child's Calendar, a collection of twelve of John Updike's poems that describes a child's journey through the seasons from January through December  (c. 1965).  Caldecott award winning artist Trina Schart Hyman illustrated the collection (c. 1999).

The Mitten

Wow!  I can't believe that I'm just now encouraging you to read The Mitten.  This is another one in that building list of "must reads"!  Which edition should you check out?  Hmmmmm, well, I leave that for you to decide.  Around here we have two favorites:

The Mitten, A Ukrainian Folktale adapted and illustrated by Jan Brett (c. 1989), is arguably Brett's best work.  There's something for everyone is this edition.  The younger set will enjoy the simplicity and humor of the tale while the older set will pick up on the additional narratives "told" in Brett's right and left sidebar illustrations.

Note: The youngest's preK class enjoyed it all last week -- first through reading and then through a hands-on coloring / sequencing activity, which you can download and print too.  Have your children color, cut, then reinact the story by stuffing their own mitten full of forest animals from these pages on Jan Brett's website: http://janbrett.com/put_the_animals_in_the_mitten.htm 

You also can't go wrong with The Mitten An Old Ukrainian Folktale retold by Alvin Tresselt and illustrated by Yaroslava (c. 1964).  Yaroslava's simple yet vibrant illustrations feel "old world" and lend a sort of different sort of credibility to the tale.

Either way, readers, I'd love to hear your preference!  Which story do your kids like best?

January

Find "January" in A Child's Calendar, a collection of twelve of John Updike's poems that describes a child's journey through the seasons from January through December  (c. 1965).  Caldecott award winning artist Trina Schart Hyman illustrated the collection (c. 1999).

Charles Dickens rescues Christmas with A Christmas Carol

During this week in 1843, Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being A Ghost Story of Christmas. Let me tell you a little known fact (although, quite well known to the literary world): we can thank Charles Dickens for saving our modern day celebration of Christmas!  Yep, Charles Dickens, the Victorian author, saved the celebration of Christmas when he published the instantly popular A Christmas Carol!

An authorial context: Dickens authentically represented a broad range of British population through his true depictions of life among various socio-economic backgrounds. Essentially, through his writing, he became a voice for the abused, ill-treated lower classes and raised awareness to better working conditions, living conditions, child labor reform, etc.  His vivid characters unforgettably imprint themselves to memory and everyday conversation, point-in-case: "Scrooge" has become a vocabulary word, a noun meaning miser or the like.  Consequently, Dickens' characters and authenticity endeared him to the vast reading public and made him equivalent to a modern day rock-star.  Seriously, he is recognized as one of the very first "celebrities" in history.

Christmas needed rescuing? Due to Oliver Cromwell's influence in the mid 1600s (a.k.a. the English Civil War), the British slowly neglected the Medieval traditions of caroling and feasting during the Christmas season until Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's husband, mid 1800s) gallantly reintroduced the Germanic traditions of caroling and cards and, most significantly, introduced the Christmas tree.

What was Dickens's part in this rescue?  Well, even though Prince Albert did his part to reintroduce English and Germanic Christmas traditions, he worked against the routines and national mindset established by the Industrial Revolution. You see, British businessmen, manufacturing employers, and mill owners had grown quite stingy -- think Scrooge -- by treating Christmas as just another 10-12 hour workday.  So the impoverished, working class toiled through Christmas Day without any additional compensation.

So, in late 1843, Dickens published A Christmas Carol, creating some of the most memorable characters in literature.  And in contrasting a stingy Scrooge with a poor suffering Tiny Tim Crachit and jolly Christmas celebrators Nephew Fred and Fizziwig against the backdrop of ghosts past-present-and-future, Dickens lured the public into a benevolent celebration of Christmas.  Consider: wouldn't you rather be identified with Fizziwig than with Scrooge?!!

The rest is, as they say, history: Christmas once again became a season of giving and charitable behavior on both sides of the Atlantic.  Dickens, through his story, helped reestablish our present day mind-set of Christmas as a season of renewal in goodwill, "peace on earth to all men," and familial bonds.

"And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!" (Dickens 158).

The featured edition: In discovering P. J. Lynch's illustrated version of A Christmas Carol (c. 2006), I have found the quintessential copy of Dickens' enduring tale.  What amazes me is how well Lynch captures Dickens' characters!  This is an illustrator who not only knows his author's works, but must have researched those illustrators who worked so closely with Dickens -- think ocd authorial input on each illustration.  I'd like to think that if Dickens were alive today, he wouldn't be more pleased with Lynch's representation of his classic Christmas tale. Take time this holiday season to read Dickens A Christmas Carol, and if you get the opportunity, read P. J. Lynch's beautifully illustrated edition.  I guarantee you, if the story doesn't haunt you, the illustrations will.

Disclaimer: it's very difficult for me to give credit where credit is due because I'm working from memory on this post.  I'm writing from decades of reading and admiring Charles Dickens and his many works.  I'm also writing from memory of various college lectures, in particular from a Dickens Seminar course.

Good King Wenceslas

Do you know what I love about this season?  I love:

• packing our Operation Christmas Child boxes
• selecting gifts in the Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog with the kids
• hearing the Salvation Army bells ring, 
• reading all the charity benefit concerts, dinners, raffles, etc. being held, 
• hearing of opportunities to take dry goods or meals to shut-ins, and 
• discovering different opportunities to donate time and/or funds to help the less fortunate.  

Seriously, if you're not giving something of yourself during this season, it's certainly not from lack of opportunity!

So during this season of "Peace on earth, goodwill to men," King Wenceslas stands out as a model.  You're familiar with the traditional carol, but do you know its origin?  Well, the story of Good King Wenceslas shows us the purpose and the motive behind such benevolent, seasonal giving.  John Mason Neale, an English Anglican priest, wrote the words to the carol "Good King Wenceslas" in 1853, for the feast following Christmas Day called Saint Stephen.  Tradition holds that Neale derived his inspiration from actual events influenced by the just-minded and kindhearted King Wenceslas, ruler of tenth century Bohemia or the present day Czech Republic.  In fact, a statue of King Wenceslas, or now Saint Wenceslas, stands in Wenceslas Square in Prague.  (For photos of that statue, look at http://wemsha.blogspot.com/2010/06/wenceslas-square-prague.html).

Check out this fascinating book Good King Wenceslas (c. 2005), which looks at the story behind the inspiration of the carol.  Tim Ladwig's remarkable illustrations give us a modern peak into the past.  And be sure to take longer than a passing glance at that last illustration.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

This is such a FUN book!  The kids and I are consistently mesmerized by Hilary Knight's illustrations, and his version of The Twelve Days of Christmas (c. 1981, 2001) proves no exception!  In fact, this copy has proven quite a friend to the bed-ridden, flu-stricken children this week.

Talk about green living, look at the use of space and  furnishings in this cottage!

Each time the kids pick it up, they find another hidden delight.  Knight's detailed illustrations do not cease to entertain while revealing yet another surprise.

Knight gives us a page by page tour of this darling house; if only it were a REAL dollhouse!

Needless to say, Hilary Knight weaves several tales in his ingenius, watercolor and colored penciled pictures.  Unearth them for yourself and be newly delighted by a familiar carol.

The MUST-read Christmas Book List

Here's our family's top 32 recommendations for the MUST-read Christmas Book List.
Click on the link to check out more book images and discover a brief synopsis of each story.  If the title doesn't have a link yet, check back, for I'll have a posting by the end of December.

The Classics:

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens illus. P.J. Lynch
• The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter
• Take Joy! The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book
• Peter Spier’s CHRISTMAS!
• The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! By Dr. Seuss
• Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
• My Favorite Things illustrated by Renee Graef

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

• illustratedby Holly Hobbie
• illustratedby Tasha Tudor
• illustratedby Niroot Puttapipat
• illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

The Very First Christmas:

• Christmas is Here illus. by Lauren Castillo
• The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats
• The Christmas Story by Jane Werner & Eloise Wilkin
• This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotton & Delana Bettoli

The Twelve Days of Christmas:

• illustrated by Gennady Spirin
• illustrated by Laurel Long
• illustrated by Hilary Knight

The Nutcracker:

• illustrated by Susan Jeffers
• illustrated by Diane Goode
• A Step into Reading Level 3

The stories that will warm your heart:

• The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston& Barbara Cooney
• Good King Wenceslas by John M. Neale illustrated by Tim Ladwig
• Christmas in the Country by Cynthia Rylant & Diane Goode
• An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco
• Dream Snow by Eric Carle
• The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco
• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Lloyd & KarmelNewell
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by  Robert Frost illus. by Susan Jeffers
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah

Our Eight Nights of Hanukkah by Michael J. Rosen and illustrated by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan a boy explains the history of Hanukkah while narrating his experiences over the eight day holiday with his family and friends.