Search Results for: winedale

Summer Reading List: Middle School Daughter

Jun4

Brown Bear Daughter is twelve years old. Her favorite books are Harry Potter, Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller, Rules by Cynthia Lord, and Julia’s Kitchen by Brenda Ferber. Here’s the reading list I made for her for this summer. To be accurate, she made the list in consultation with me.

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. Brown Bear likes quirky, and I think this year’s Newbery winner is quirky.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. This one was a Newbery Honor book this year. I just read it a couple of weeks ago and found it quite good.

Criss-Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. Brown Bear chose this one from the Newbery award list.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Brown Bear also likes sad, and I’m thinking this story set in Germany during WW II will be sad enough.

Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. I put this book and Dicey’s Song on Dancer Daughter’s list, too because they’re two of my favorites.

Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt.

Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson.

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. Several of Brown Bear’s friends read this book for a class at homeschool co-op last year, so BB thought it would be good to read it. too.

The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood. Shakespeare is on our agenda this summer in preparation for our annual trek to Shakespeare at Winedale. As I’ve bragged several times, Eldest Daughter is one of the students at Shakespeare at Winedale this year and will be studying and performing in three plays: A Comedy of Errors, Richard II, and Measure for Measure.

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. Brown Bear has already started this book, another of my favorites.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. “Am I old enough to read To Kill a Mockingbird” asked Brown Bear Daughter. I think she’s old enough.

The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson.

Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay.

The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle. She’s already read the first of L’Engle’s Austin familly series, Meet the Austins.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare at Winedale reading.


Loving Will Shakespeare by Carolyn Meyer. More background for Shakespeare at Winedale and also a favorite author with Brown Bear.

Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer. About Anne Boleyn.

Marie Dancing by Carolyn Meyer. About one of Degas’ models. Brown Bear is a dancer, too, so this book ought to interest her.

Revelation from the Bible. I told her to choose a book from the Bible for reading this summer, and she chose Revelation. I’m not sure exactly what she’ll get out of it, but “all Scripture . . . is profitable.”

How To Be Your Own Selfish Pig by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. Excellent worldview reading for middle school age young people.

Summer Reading List: Summer After High School

Jun3

I spent Saturday making summer reading lists for several of my children, and even for Engineer Husband. Here’s the list I made for Dancer Daughter, age 17, who’s planning a “gap year” between high school and college for this next year so that she can earn some money, take a few dual credit classes, and enjoy learning on her own schedule before she tries to fit into a college framework. She’s technically completed all the credits she needs for high school graduation, but we’ve postponed the celebration until May, 2008.

1984 by George Orwell.

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Van Auken. This one is a true love story that not only tells the story of the human love of a man and a woman who were determined to have the ideal romantic relationship, but it also tells what happened when God unexpectedly entered the relationship and changed the lives and the marriage of Mr. van Auken and of his wife, Davey, forever.

Christy by Catherine Marshall. Christy is an eighteen year old innocent idealist when she goes to the mountains of Appalachia to teach school in a one-room schoolhouse. By the end of the story she’s a grown-up woman who’s experienced friendship, grief, and love.

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. We’ll be seeing Eldest Daughter in a production of this play at Winedale this summer. So I thought it might be appropriate to read it before we see it.

Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I love this book about sin and forgiveness and racial reconciliation in South Africa during the apartheid era. I’m looking forward to discussing it with Dancer Daughter.

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. I haven’t read this book, but DD requested some fantasy and this one sounded like the kind of thing she might enjoy.

Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie.

Exodus by Leon Uris. Semicolon thoughts on the novels of Leon Uris.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. More fantasy/fairy tale. Shannon Hale and THe Goose Girl. I’m reading the sequel to this book, Enna Burning now.

Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson. This one is a little known classic romance set in the Amazon jungles about Rima, the bird girl, and Abel the European explorer who falls in love with her.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

Homecoming and Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt.

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I thought Wharton’s story of Lily Bart would serve as a nice cautionary tale for a seventeen year old about misplaced priorities. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” Ecclesiastes 7:4.

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. An excellent story about the lives of women within a closed community of nuns. Not only does the reader get to satisfy his curiosity about how nuns live in a convent, but there’s also a a great plot related to contemporary issues such as abortion, the efficacy of prayer, and the morality of absolute obedience.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding. “Folks down on the beach might have been doctors and accountants a month ago, but it’s Lord of the Flies time, now.” —-Sawyer on LOST, the TV show.

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare. Another Shakespeare at Winedale play, a rather disturbing one in my opinion.

Richard II by William Shakespeare. Yet another Shakespeare at Windale production.

Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Semicolon review here.

Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy.

Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

Something by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, or Cordelia Funke. I haven’t read these authors yet, but they come highly recommended in the fantasy genre.

I tried for a balance of fun and educational. I feel honored that Dancer Daughter asked me for the list to jump start her summer reading.

Shakespearean News

May7

winedaleCelia: Here comes Monsieur Le Beau.
Rosalind: With his mouth full of news.
Celia: Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young.
Rosalind: Then shall we be news-crammed.
From As You Like It.

Kenneth Branagh has a new Shakespeare film coming out. It looks as if Branagh is directing, but not acting, in this movie version of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. And as you can see in the trailer, the Forest of Arden has been moved to Japan?

Encyclopedia Kevinannica on Shakespeare for kids: “I believe that those readers eighteen years and younger would be betters served by reading Shakespeare in a modern language version. Go ahead and pick up your stones to throw at me.”

In The Guardian: “Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare was first published 200 years ago and has never been out of print. Marina Warner applauds a children’s classic created out of madness and matricide.”

Finally, Eldest Daughter will be spending her summer in Winedale/RoundTop, Texas. She’ll be an actor/student in this program, sponsored by UT-Austin, and at the end of the summer they all get to go to England! The plays for this year are A Comedy of Errors, Richard II, and Measure for Measure. You’re invited out to the barn theater at Winedale at the end of July/beginning of August to see this year’s production of all three plays.

Saturday Review of Books

Aug7

The links for the Saturday Review of Books are all up now. Scroll down to link to some great book reviews. If you didn’t make it over here on Saturday, you can still add a link to your book review from last week.

I’m sorry the Mr. Linky wasn’t working on Saturday. We were on our annual pilgrimage to Winedale for a taste of Shakespeare. (More about that tomorrow.) So I didn’t know it wasn’t working until yesterday. Mr. Linky said it had something to do with an apostrophe? Oh, those troublesome punctuation marks!

Anyway, it’s all there now. Take a look and read some reviews. I found at least three books to add to my list.

Four Meme

Jan19

I know some of you out there don’t like memes, and I can understand the feeling. However, I must admit, even if it makes me seem juvenile and unsophisticated, I like being “tagged.” I feel complimented that Phil at Brandywine Books asked me to participate in this meme. It’s sort of like being picked to be on the team.

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. The Princess Bride
2. Henry V
3. Lord of the Rings
4. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Semicolon’s 105 Best Movies of All Time

4 Places You Have Lived: I’m a Texas girl. I’ve never really lived anywhere else, aside from one summer spent in Oklahoma City, and I doubt that really counts. I once told Engineer Husband that I’d live anywhere in Texas he wanted to live–except Houston. We both laughed and agreed, “Why would anyone want to go to Houston?” So that’s where I’ve been living for the last twenty years. Lesson: Be careful what you laugh about.
1. San Angelo,TX
2. Abilene, TX
3. Austin, TX
4. Houston, TX

4 TV Shows You Love To Watch
1. LOST
2. Monk (on DVD)
That’s it. The urchins watch PBS.

4 Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. Houston. Our first family vacation when I was a young teenager was to come to Houston and go to Astroworld.
2. Colorado. Our second family vacation was a trip to Colorado to see Pike’s Peak and Royal Gorge. Are they both still there?
3. Monterrey, Mexico.
4. Shakespeare at Winedale

4 Websites You Visit Daily
1. Mental Multivitamin
2. Brandywine Books
3. LibraryThing
4. Bloglines

4 Of Your Favorite Foods: I could pretend to be healthy and wise, or I could be honest.
1. Sugar
2. Chocolate
3. Lime coke
4. Thin mint Girl Scout cookies

4 Places You Would Rather Be Right Now
1. London
2. Paris
3. Rome
4. Madrid

4 Bloggers You are Tagging: I usually tag my urchins to see if they’re reading my blog (probably not) and to see what’s going on in their heads. Sometimes one, of the four who have a blog, responds.
1. Eldest Daughter
2. Dancer Daughter
3. Organizer Daughter
4. Computer Guru Son

In Late Summer Our Thoughts Turn To . . .

Aug7

Shakespeare, of course. A couple of weeks ago we made our annual trek to Shakespeare at Winedale where the plays are presented by college students in an old country barn converted to theater. We saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew.. We learned that Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play, but the time is worth the use on’t, that the younger generation is seriously annoyed by The Taming of the Shrew, but I think they enjoyed being annoyed, and that Bottom is a funny name for a funny character.

So now a week and a half later we haven’t had our fill of Shakespeare, so we’re hosting our own Shakespeare festival. Since none of us is an actor that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, we’ll be taking advantage of the miracle of DVD. Here’s the invitation I gave out to a few families this evening:

You�re invited to:

The First Annual Semicolon Shakespeare Festival
Presenting at 7 p.m. each evening:
Tuesday, August 9th Much Ado About Nothing

Wednesday, August 10th Romeo and Juliet

Thursday, August 11th Henry V

You and any or all of your family are invited to attend any or all three of the plays. Much Ado and Henry V are the movie versions directed by Kenneth Branagh. Romeo and Juliet is the 1968 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

I’d be happy to invite all my blog buddies, but the trip to Houston might be a little too long for some of you, and my living room might be a tad too small. So if you want to rent the movies and watch them in the comfort of your own home, you’re hereby invited to host your own Shakespeare festival.

Which of the three plays we are planning to watch contains which quotation and who said it?

1. “In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.”
2. “O, swear not by the moon, the fickle moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.”
3. “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn.”
4. “The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry! England and Saint George!'”
5. “If we are marked to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.”
6. “O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you!
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep.”
7. “Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
8.”See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!”
9. “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.”
10. “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.”

Shakespearean Questions, or Nobody Asked My Opinion, but Here It Is Anyway

May12

Someone with the initials K.B. challenged Mental Multivitamin to answer these Shakespeare questions. I thought it would be fun to borrow the meme/quiz and answer them myself. You can play, too, if you’d like.

1. Name the first five lines of Shakespeare that come into your head. (No fair looking them up or thinking too hard.)
To be or not to be; that is the question. —Hamlet

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time. —Macbeth

Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them,
But not for love.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. —As You Like It

Out, out damned spot! –Macbeth

2. The last Shakespeare play you went to see on stage.

At Shakespeare at Winedale last summer we saw The Merry Wives of WIndsor and The Tempest

3. The last Shakespeare film homage or adaptation you watched at home or at the movies.

It seems to me that we watched Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado about Nothing a couple of months ago.
.
4. What Shakespeare homage/adaptation/plays are on your to be read/seen list?

We’ll go to Winedale again this summer (God willing), and we’ll see Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A group of home-schooled drama students are presenting A Comedy of Errors (set in the 1920’s?) in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to that bit of fluff and fun.

5. Name a favorite Shakespeare-inspired work.

West Side Story

6. Why do you think Shakespeare’s plays are still popular?

MMV quotes Harold Bloom. I’ll just say that Shakespeare’s plays are still popular because Shakespeare knew about people and knew how to write plays about people and knew how to use words that people would remember and quote and use to define their own thoughts and feelings and situations.

Shakespeare Weekend

Jul23

We’ll be heading to the Texas heartland for Shakespeare at Winedale, a University Of Texas at Austin program that uses the summer to prepare and present three Shakespeare plays in an old convered barn out in the middle of nowhere. UT owns the property, and the students spend the summer studying the plays and getting them ready for presentation on a series of weekends in late July/early August. We’ll be seeing Macbeth, Merry Wives of Windsor, and The Tempest. All the urchins are excited about going, and I am looking forward to the weekend with much anticipation myself. So,
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
‘Til the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death:
Out, out brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is seen no more. It is a tale told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I don’t really feel that way. I just wanted to see if I could still remember the passage. I memorized it about 25 years ago. I haven’t checked it, but it sounds about right. See y’all on Sunday or Monday.