ONE noisy book, ONE spotted book, TWO counting books

My 7 month old niece is visiting from Virginia this weekend, and of course I have to bring her a book when I see her. Also of course, I left the shopping till last minute, so I've been doing a bit of my own browsing in between helping customers. There are so many wonderful books, but today, I'm leaning toward counting books.

A few days ago, we got in a fantastic little board book called Ten Black Dots. In the context of counting dots, the book explores the multitude of things you might create or imagine from those simple black circles.  One black dot could be a sun or it could be a moon. Four dots could become seeds or radio dials. With seven dots, you could have a spotted snake or some stones. The illustrations are simple but colorful and I love the playfulness of the dots being rearranged into different scenarios.

The Noisy Counting Book is just as playful and a lot more raucous--this is a great read-aloud. One boy, fishing in a pond, finds his nice quiet day becoming less so as a frog and some ducks and fish and, finally, six buzzing mosquitoes each add their noises to the chorus. I think that readers and listeners will have a lot of fun repeating the animal sounds, ending each time with the big frog's "GA-DUNK!"

There are...well, I was going to say "countless," but that seems inappropriate to the subject, so instead I'll say...numerous books about counting, some better than others. These two absolutely fall on the "better" side and are worthy additions to any beginning counter's library.

Elementary reading

The Onion's AV Club is one of my favorite pop culture blogs, for it's well-balanced mix of high- and low-brow pursuits and snark and sincerity. One of their many entertaining columns is "Gateways to Geekery," which presents a subject with high geek cult status that may seem intimidating to outsiders (for example, noir films), then offers suggestions on the best way for a beginner to test the waters. This week's Gateway to Geekery introduces Sherlock Holmes, an old favorite of mine. Not having read much beyond the original stories, I enjoyed the discussion of Holmesian "fan-fic" and was reminded that I still have to read A Study in Emerald, by another favorite author, Neil Gaiman.

As with any mention of Sherlock Holmes,  this column made me think of my grandmother. I owe a lot of my literary tastes to her--it was her gift of a collection of O. Henry's short stories and another of Oscar Wilde's that introduced me to both of those wonderful writers. We shared a love of the Bronte sisters' writing; she even gave me a copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by the oft-forgotten Anne. And one Christmas, I received a thick hardcover copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. While I'll never share her fondness for whodunits, I am so very glad that Grandma shared Sir Conan Doyle with me. I devoured the stories, from "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" to "The Hound of the Baskervilles." I was astounded and thrilled and terrified and amazed along with Dr. Watson as Sherlock Holmes investigated and cracked each case.

Unlike some unworn sweaters and outgrown toys that are long gone, I have kept every one of the books my grandmother gave me over the years. I treasure them for the stories written inside and for the memories they hold for me of my Grandma.

Are there books that you associate with people or events in your life? If you have a story you'd like to share, please do in the comments.

Bill McKibben Wrap-up

First of all, many thanks to everyone (somewhere around 100 of you!) who turned out for Bill McKibben's talk last Thursday night. Also, a very special thanks to Bill for taking the time to visit us here in Hardwick. His message in person as well as in his book Eaarth, though full of hard--even difficult to face--truths, also offered a great deal of inspiration. Much of this inspiration comes from Bill's own passion and energy for the cause of saving our planet and ourselves from our own excesses. It is too late, he says, to imagine that we might stop global warming, as it's already well begun. What we can do is work, very hard, as hard as we can, to keep the trend from going beyond a point "any worse than it has to." Bill's realistic optimism gives an additional strength to his words, and in his realistic view of the situation, the most important work to be done is political. To that end, he encouraged all of us to talk to our politicians about the importance of making large, lasting changes to our environmental policies.

One way to do this is by getting involved with Bill's own brainchild, 350.org. Last year, the group organized what CNN called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," which included more than 5200 gatherings in 181 countries. This year, the non-profit group is planning a Global Work Party on October 10 (10-10-10, easy to remember!), with an open invitation for any and every community to join them by pledging to engage in  a clean energy project that day.  It's a small thing to ask, and an event that will have far-reaching consequences. Let's hope that world leaders will take notice and then take action to pass the legislation needed to curb our carbon emissions and begin healing our planet.

One further note on this event: Linda and I, as we often do, got too caught up in setting up for the event to remember to take out a camera and take pictures. If there is anyone who would be interested in volunteering to be a photographer for our events, even a few of them, please let us know! You don't need to be a professional, and you don't even have to bring your own camera--all we're looking for is someone willing to take a few snapshots to record the memories.