Entry two in the Spring 2010 Gardening Book Binge
A Child’s Garden by Molly DannenmaierThis is another child-oriented landscaping book, one that I would put more on the inspirational than the practical side. They talk about different features that children like, but the sample gardens are mostly not ones I’d consider possible to replicate at home. The first garden, for example, was in a very modest sized back yard. But the back yard (side and front landscaped equally beautifully but differently) included a tree house, a man-made waterfall and pool, filled in with over 80 species of plants. Both parents were professional master gardeners, it turned out, and this level of expertise was typical in the book. Gardens were either home gardens of professionals or public children’s gardens. On the up side, gardens from all over the country were featured, so there were ideas for more climate zones than many other books. Near the end were some more practical themed garden ideas including plant lists for gardens including a dinosaur garden and Chinese and African gardens. I found it entertaining, but definitely more on the eye-candy versus the practical end of the spectrum.
Great Gardens for Kids by Clare Matthews. Photographs by Clive Nichols This is a book of distinct projects for child-friendly landscaping features, arranged in chapters by type with four or so examples for each type. Topics include active play, water features, furniture, hideaways, and parties. Some of our favorites included the giant spider-web for climbing, the houses of perennial vines (rather than annuals) with version both more and less floral, all of the water features (some even appropriate for very young children), the beautiful daffodil labyrinth. Though instructions are given, they don’t include specific dimensions or sizes of pots called. Projects can cost much more than you’d think just looking at them. The horizontal climbing wall, which looks relatively simple to install, calls for four sheets of marine plywood ($80 each), plus climbing holds ($40/ 12 at REI), bolts and paint ($20 a gallon) – that’s $500 assuming bolts are free. And if one wanted to attempt more than one project from the book, costs could add up quickly. One other drawback is that it’s a British book, and climate and plant availability could vary (I haven’t checked.) Still, the projects are attractive enough for adults (I remember vividly reading it when it first came out several years ago) and look like they would inspire years of fun outdoor play for children.
And What Comes After a Thousand? by Annette Bley This book opens by setting up young Lisa’s friendship with the elderly Otto. They have special ways of counting together, deep conversations, a victory dance to do if Lisa manages to hit the copper buffalo in the garden with her slingshot. Then, Otto gets sick and dies. Lisa is confused by the strangers at his funeral who don’t understand the victory dance and who all talk quietly, which Otto hated. Where has Otto gone? She finds the answer in their discussion on numbers – where do they live and how high do they go? This is translated from German, which I mention because the art looked German to me the first time I picked it up. It is a gentle and moving approach to a thorny subject. 
Always and Forever by Alan Durant. Illustrated by Debi Gliori A family of woodland animals lives happily together, until Fox gets sick and dies. Then for a long time, no one in the family can laugh or enjoy life anymore. It takes help from a friend and considerable effort on their part to go on with life and find happy ways to remember Fox. Here, the gentle animal pictures help to remove the story enough to make the raw and real pain bearable. The story feels honest both about the pain and the possibility of recovery. 
The Other Side of Sadness by George A. Bonanno So it turns out that both Freud and Kuebler-Ross were wrong about grief. People don’t need to sever their emotional connection to the deceased as Freud thought, nor do they need to express and work through grief in defined stages as Kuebler-Ross thought. Really studying bereavement is quite recent – within the past 20 years – and Bonanno shares what he’s learned in a career focused on it. He talks about the evolutionary uses for sadness (making you slow down enough to figure out how your life is going to worked without your loved one); when grief counseling hurts more than it helps (if you were already recovering on your own); the ranges of normal recovery, experiences with talking to or feeling the presence of the deceased after death (common for some, but nearly always kept secret in our science-loving society); how to tell and what to do if grieving is going to far (if you’re still not able to function after six months). He talks about the experience of grieving in other cultures, particularly those which are more community than individual focused. This means that the society pays more attention to whether people follow the proscribed rituals than to what they are feeling – which turns out, as often as it’s been studied, to make recovery much easier for people. I especially liked the story of the African tribe which traditionally tells lascivious tales about the deceased at the funeral, saying that applying the morals of the living to the dead is extremely inappropriate. Most of all, he says that bereavement is part of the natural order of things. Humans are made to be resilient and recover. I found this very helpful, and recommend it highly to anyone dealing with grief or helping the bereaved.
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell Young Hiccup, about 11, is about to undergo his initiation rights. In his Viking tribe, the Hairy Hooligans, all potential members must prove that they are heroes by capturing and training and adolescent dragon – the bigger and fiercer the better. Hiccup’s father is the chief, so there’s extra pressure on him. Hiccup, however, is too timid to pick out the fiercest dragon from the cave, and also not good at yelling, the preferred and only known method of training dragons. This felt to me like a story that was almost really good. Hiccup can communicate with his dragon, Toothless, even though it’s only a Common or Garden, by speaking to it in Dragonese. But though he eventually saves the day, he never actually manages to train his dragon or convince him that cooperating could be beneficial to both of them. If he was developing a new and improved dragon training method, that he should end up with a trained dragon. Also, the combination of a lot of 9-year-old level potty humor and a high level of bullying and social aggression left rather a bad taste in my mouth. Lightening Bolt thought that both of these were fine – Hiccup was nice to his friends, after all.
Rex Libris: I, Librarian by James Turner Some libraries have gone soft, allowing talking, hanging out, even tolerating overdue books. Not at Middleton Public Library, where Rex Libris and Circe are in charge. Middleton may sound average, but it has rare books from all over the universe, and is situated on a convergence of ley lines that allows fictional characters to wander around the library from time to time. Hard-hitting sesquipedalian librarian Rex Libris is on the job, preventing evil samurai from destroying the library and journeying to outer space (assisted by his gun-happy chickadee) to retrieve overdue books from space emperors. I have read more than once that comic books use higher vocabulary than regular fiction, but this uses the highest proportion of erudite words I have ever seen in a non-scholarly text. It’s also highly self-aware, with editor’s notes from a fake editor at the beginning of each issue (several bound together in the book) and the occasional nonsensical intrusion from the editor, which Rex must take a break from the story to protest before the story can continue. The one downside is that the book has such dense and tiny text (was it shrunk down to fit the paperback?) that it took focus and holding the book up close to read. Still, this is good adventuring for book-lovers with a sense of humor.
The Entymological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene LowThis one I picked up just based on the title. It’s funny and light, set just after the turn of the last century. Petronella, a plucky British lass, is just about to have her coming out party, having just turned sixteen. However, two unfortunate events occur. First, her uncle Augustus accidentally swallows a beetle and develops an insatiable and most improper appetite for bugs. Secondly, two foreign dignitaries who showed up at her coming-out party uninvited are kidnapped from it. Despite rival factions of eccentric relatives trying to prevent her from doing so, Petronella sets out to solve both of these mysteries. She is aided by her best friend Jane and Jane’s brother James, a beautiful specimen of manhood. (If only James would notice Petronella as anything but a younger sister! Alas!) Petronella and her Uncle Augustus are both charming characters whom I would love to see more of. This is a romp for middle school and up both as historical fiction and for the mystery, at an age level where mysteries are in short supply.
Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock I know that I wrote about 
Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. Read by Robert Sevra This is a sweet old-fashioned story of young Elmer Elevator and his adventures rescuing first a baby dragon and then the baby dragon’s family. The most startling thing is how little trouble Elmer gets into at home when he goes missing for days at a time. I was highly amused at Gannet’s proclivity towards counting what Elmer eats – fourteen tangerines or five Fig Newtons. Lightening Bolt and I enjoyed listening to this in the car. I don’t think he’ll want it over and over again, because it just doesn’t have the adrenaline he’s looking for these days. Still, if you are looking for a not-too-scary tale of dragons for your child, this is a solid choice.
NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman Our “common sense” about children reflects a lot of thinking that hasn’t held up to testing, usually along the lines that children react like adults. This book by award-wining science journalists tells what newer research shows about various aspects of child development. A few areas were already familiar to me, but most of them were new. They are all discrete and entertaining articles, to make for good dipping into. Topics include the negative effects of praise (by now familiar to me), the importance of sleep, the impossibility of kindergarten iq testing, teaching self-control, why children lie and what it means, infant speech development and why educational videos don’t work, why watching typical preschool tv shows makes kids more aggressive, how to keep siblings from fighting, and why teens feel that arguing is showing respect. Many of the articles would seem to require systemic change to actually implement – things like starting high school an hour later or delaying gifted program testing until third grade. Some are hopefully possible, like being conscious of your own lying behaviors in front of your children or being more conscientious about putting them to bed early. But mostly, this is just a fascinating look into the way children and teens work. Someone else please read it so I can talk about it with you!
alibrarymama 