Today I'm celebrating early literacy with my favorite laptop.
We've had almost an entire year now of loving Leah, and oh how our lives have been enriched by this little learner. Every day is a new adventure with her; what a special bond Grandparents get to have with their GrandJOYs. I love practicing adjacency with her while I engage in early-literacy practices through read alouds with expression, with sounds, with curiosity, with joy.
Lately, I've also been thinking about obituaries. I know, I know, talk about your dichotomy, but hear me out. I've written six of them in just 3 1/2 years, and the process of encapsulating one's life into just a column or two in a newspaper or online intrigues me. It also gives me pause, because each of us probably has two obits within us: The one we'd prefer gets written, and the one that's less flattering.
Because, according to this legend, each of us has two wolves living inside of us and vying for our attention and energy. We are each writing our obituary every day. With every choice we make.
So Michael Josephson of Character Counts! fame suggests that we think about what we want people to say after we're gone (or in our obituaries!), then live life backward.
That really speaks to me.
I'm also really drawn to the obituaries that are written in first person,
by the person who has died. Our cousin Ronnie wrote his that way.
Whom do you think will write your obituary?
More importantly, what will it say was important to you?
Now, on to today's YA book recommendation.
Meet Thunder and Sage.
This magnificent wagnificent duo LOVES each other
and are best buds who do everything together.
They are a pack ... with a pact.
Until one day, when a wolf
thunders his way into
Thunder's thoughts and
confuses the poor canine.
The raging battle between good and evil ensues.
But which one will win?
The obvious answer is the one that you feed;
it makes a lot of sense to this food-motivated pup.
But there is SO much more depth to this tail, I mean tale.
My favorite line: Hope is so fragile.
Find out if your readers agree or disagree.
I also love the Pack Manners pages
at the end of each of the chapters.
Oh, and the brilliant illustrations
and the creatively-clever plays on words.
of a combo of these two grand-pups, Baker,
who brings me a toy and watches me lovingly,
just begging me to play with him, and
Sam, who's content just to love and be loved.
Check out this delightfully-hilarious and thought-provoking graphic novel; I suspect that you know just the six-to-ten-year-old puppy-lover who's waiting to see what's so Wagnificent about Thunder and Sage.
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