Parent/Teacher Resources

This handy book brilliantly explains how to make costumes mostly using things you already have at home. Its goal is to get people to be environmentally friendly, recycling objects instead of throwing them away. However, they are also economically friendly ideas and are especially helpful to parents who don’t have money for expensive, fancy-schmancy, store-bought costumes that your children will grow out of after one use.

There’s a “Getting Started” section at the beginning so there aren’t any surprises as to what basic tools you will need, for example, a ruler, scissors, paintbrush, paint, glue, thread, sewing needle, and elastic. It even shows readers how to make types of stitches.

The book presents eleven costume ideas and provides detailed instructions on how to make each one. They are a mermaid, fairy-tale fairy, princess, witch, cat, wizard, Frankenstein monster, skeleton, dragon, and pirate. The instructions are clear and as simple as they get, so even a kid could follow them. In fact, these would be great projects for a parent and child to do together.

You may not be able to figure out how to program your VCR, but you’ll be able to make your child a costume for Halloween.

Marie Soriano

Even for literature enthusiasts, life is short. Do you devote your time to the literature of India, Argentina, or France? Do you limit yourself to the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, or the Nineteenth Century? Even if you have set aside, say, epic poetry and Kabuki and headed off for children’s literature, you still might have to choose between picture books or adolescent novels or something else. In a realm where choices for spending reading time are manifold (think of The Mahabaharata, Borges’ Ficciones, as well as all of Proust), if you decided to find out a little bit about contemporary Irish children’s literature, you would ideally encounter a guide written by experts on this particular microcosm and critics with impeccable taste. Irish Children’s Writers and Illustrators 1986-2006 would be that book.

Valerie Coghlan and Siobhán Parkinson were editors of Inis, the journal of Children’s Books of Ireland, from 2001 to 2004. For the journal, they commissioned the thirteen profiles of Irish authors and illustrators that now appear here in this book in expanded and updated versions. In an intelligent Introduction, the two editors provide an overview of children’s publishing in Ireland during the last few years. They also suggest why (in an era of memoirs of childhood like Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes) postcolonial countries like Ireland are drawn especially to children’s books.

After reading these thirteen profiles, the question for a literary tourist like myself is: “Who do I now want read?” More specifically, since many of these artists are responsible for a dozen or more books, the question is: “Which of these books do I want read?” Here, we can be grateful for experts–like A.J. Piesse on the work of Siobhán Parkinson. From Piesse we get a sense of Parkinson’s temperament: her “occasional acerbic outbursts,” “laconic wit,” and “uncompromising” nature. We also learn which of Parkinson’s sixteen books is generally regarded her best: Four Kids, Three Cats, Two Cows, One Witch (Maybe). We can also learn which Piesse prefers: The Moon King.

So, after reading this collection, who are the authors or illustrators I am sure to look up? P.J. Lynch: thanks to the liberal use of illustrations in this book and Valerie Coghlan’s essay, I am looking forward to musing on this gifted artist’s accomplished pictures which accompany stories by Dickens, Stockton, Andersen, and others. Eoin Coifer: Celia Keenan makes the case in her essay for my moving Artemis Fowl from the category of “books I have heard a lot about” to “books I have read.” Niamh Sharkey: again the numerous samples from this artist’s picture books are convincing, but I also like John Short’s friendly essay because he was once Sharkey’s teacher and can’t help giving her a tip here and there.

There are other authors I would put on the “second team.” In others words, I would very much like to turn to the work of Martin Waddell (written about by Lucy O’Dea) and Gerard Whelan (profiled by Carole Redford), but I fear they must be reserved for my next incarnation or at least until I have read The Mahabaharata as well as all of Borges and Proust. Then there are other authors or illustrators who, while intelligently profiled by their essayists, will be of interest to the specialist but not to the casual tourist like myself and mindful of the ticking clock: Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (essay by Lucinda Jacob), Maeve Friel (Celia Keenan), Sam McBratney (Liz Morris), Elizabeth O’Hara (Ciara Ní Bhroin), and Mark O’Sullivan (A.J. Piesse).

Ultimately, we must trust the experts. And that’s fine. But doing so, there’s always the possibility that someone is overlooked or that the author or illustrator was not served well by their essayist or that the artist is better than their critic was able to suggest. It is, however, fairly rare to run into the opposite. But that is just what happened when I read Robert Dunbar’s profiles of Matthew Sweeney and Kate Thompson. Rather than wanting to turn to Sweeney or Thompson, I would now like to read more by Dunbar. These are just some of the happy discoveries occasioned by this book.

A. Allison

Bloom’s How to Write about Mark Twain by Kent Rasmussen is one of a series of books edited by Harold Bloom that offers guidelines “to inspire students to write fine essays on great writers and their works” (v). Bloom’s series focuses on those major writers who are “must-knows” for all students of literature. To accomplish its goal, How to Write about Mark Twain is organized structurally like a composition class. Rasmussen presents a “building blocks” approach to writing the critical essay in general and to writing the critical essay in specific about the author and many of his texts. Rasmussen approaches writing about literature by using many of the writing strategies, exercises and steps of the critical thinking and writing process used in most composition classes. He goes into great detail on such necessary steps to writing a good essay as outlining, body paragraphs, introductions, and conclusions and using and documenting sources.

The first chapter goes through how to write an essay and the remaining chapters provide a prototype for analyzing and writing about Twain and any of his texts and the possible issues and approaches to take. Each of these subsequent chapters is organized around the most relevant subjects to consider, including “Reading to Write,” “Topics and Strategies” (each including sample topics): “Theme,” “Character,” “History and Context,” “Philosophy and Ideas,” “Form and Genre,” and “Language, Symbols, and Imagery.” Bloom’s How to Write about Mark Twain is intended for all of these audiences: the novice and the scholar; the student and the teacher. Through his myriad topics and suggestions, Kent Rasmussen gives us all fresh ways to approach our authentic American author, Mark Twain.

Carolyn Leutzinger Richey

Get this book if you have young children, are a teacher, a librarian, a caretaker, or a babysitter. Ross has put together an easy-to-do array of crafts needing little material while encouraging a lot of creativity. Mittens, neckties, pipe cleaners, glue, and pom poms are combined via very clear, enjoyable illustrations into Little Red Riding Hood, Mary and her Little Lambs, Bingo the dog, and Jacks-in the Box. Besides simplicity and number (a lot of activities), the spiral bound book offers tactile and artistic experience, low key communal entertainment, and hand-made creations. There’s satisfaction for the children in their completion of their own toys. Ross also gives many ideas for using the crafts the children have made for games they play together afterward. Well done.

A. Allison