February: Snow Day!, The Silver Chair, Frugalwoods, and Demystifying the Manuscript
This month we explore the work of Barbara Joose, Kate Lum, C. S. Lewis, Elizabeth Willard Thames, and Susan Rich / Kelli Russell Agodon.
For the Littles:
Snow Day! by Barbara Joose
This simple story of a boy and his family having a snow day home from school is one of our favorite winter picture books. What makes it special are the small unexpected turns of phrase (“Robby watched his breath freeze into lace”) and the everyday relatable moments that bring the story to life. I never see it listed on to-read lists or in curriculum—I think it is truly a hidden gem!
Princesses are NOT Quitters! by Kate Lum
Another hidden gem—one my daughters picked this up at a used book store. I like the pastel colors, kind of sketched out style of illustration, and the dynamic writing (the princesses CHURN the butter, and BAKE the bread, and FOLD the clothes and WASH the floors). These princesses are bored so they change places with their servants for the day, to accomplish enormous amounts of chores (the rhythm in the writing is wonderful too).
Family Readaloud:
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
We are actually going to end our journey through the Narnia books here and skip the last battle (we’ve read it before and don’t care for it). This book is ok—I love Puddleglum, the despondent but faithful Marshwiggle—but there are some problems.
The Silver Chair was written before The Magician’s Nephew, which explains that the White Witch came from another world, entering Narnia at Narnia’s creation. So this green witch? Who is she? She can’t have come from the other world. What is hinted, is that there are witches like Jadis (the White Witch) and this green witch that come from “The North” but surely that can not be so if you read the Magician’s Nephew later.
Yes, perhaps that is a small issue; but in general, I’m just not as fond of Jill as a character, but I was happy to see a return of Eustace. I suppose Lucy would have been too good and remembered all the signs, so Lewis needed a new girl character!
Escape Across the Wide Sea by Katherine Kirkpatrick
This historical fiction was recommended by our curriculum. I liked it for the interesting historical perspective of a Huguenot boy and his family escaping France to eventually make their way to settle in America for religious freedom, and the realistic and sensitive depiction of slavery in that time. However, I didn’t love this book. I thought it was too heavy handed at times, trying to drive the moral home, and there were quite a few gross out moments about draining wounds (maybe this is because I have mostly girls—but we skipped those parts!). I think this book is better as an assignment to read on their own, but only for an older kid who can handle the difficult subject matter.
For Myself:
Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames
A few years ago, I picked this up off the library bookshelf because I thought “is that their real name?” (it isn’t) and loved it, and I’ve reread it and joined in their “Uber Frugal Month” (except I’m extending it to 90 days) this year.
I thought their personal story of going from a two-income couple with all the normal student loans and debts to becoming debt-free homesteaders, at home with their kids, was inspiring; when I first read this book, we had just transitioned to one income and her tips were really valuable (the one I still use—I write down things I think I need instead of immediately hopping on Amazon and buying it. Then I set aside a time once a week and determine if we need it, if we can make do without, if we can borrow it, or if we can buy it second hand.)
I will warn you—these people are fairly EXTREME when it comes to being frugal, more extreme than I would care to be! And I have read their starting combined salary was definitively upper class. Still, I would highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you aren’t saving up for a new-to-you car; the antimaterialism and common sense financial advice is worth it.
Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems by Susan Rich and Kelli Russell Agodon
POETS take note! This is simply a must-read. If I taught in an MFA program, I would require this book. The essays and interviews give you a wide variety of opinions and methods of compiling, organizing, and editing a poetry manuscript—there are poets in this collection who have just completed their first book of poems along with poets who have completed sixteen books of poems. I found myself taking notes, creating a checklist of what to look at in my manuscript before sending it out to another contest or open reading. Even as an author of three collections, I found this tremendously helpful.
Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow by Jamie Erickson
Should I be completely honest? This book was recommended to me by several people for my Family and Friends Reading Challenge… I could not get into it. You know how stuff is more beige and expensive when you put Joanna Gaines name on it? That was this book for me. It felt very much the same information that is in Rosaria Butterfield’s The Gospel Comes with a Housekey (though more cozy) and even more similar to an older book, Edith Schaeffer’s The Hidden Art of Homemaking (incredibly charming; I adore Edith!). I think I would have perhaps liked this book if it didn’t have the Hygge angle and if I had read it before those other two books.
Writing News:
Lit Mag News included my essay on How a Mom of Five Submits Her Poems.
Belle Point Press (publisher of my chapbook The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants) posted an interview with me on their Substack.
and I posted about my 2024 Writing Goals over on my website, renee-emerson.com.