There’s a forecast of snow and ice for my weekend and I’m beginning to feel like a kid again…I don’t have anywhere to go and I’m just waiting for a white world.
Around the Web
On Poetry, Programming, Chaos, and Cosmos
My friend Micah Hawkinson is a man who builds worlds of pure thought-stuff…both in poetry and programming.
- Afew years ago at Hutchmoot, Pete Peterson said something that has been enriching the leaf-mould of my mind ever since. Quoting Walt Wangerin, Jr., Pete talked about how the Sanskrit word cinoti “makes of the poet ‘a heaper into heaps, and a piler into piles.’”
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Nonfiction about Nature
Megan at Redeemed Reader has nature books to recommend for these days of winter.
- Reptiles Everywhere, Bruno the Beekeeper, A World of Plants, and Fungarium offer plenty of fascinating information about the natural world.
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A Time to Mourn
Jessica Roan reminds us that we all mourn—even the small losses of our lives.
- She really was extraordinary—funny, loving, and firm when she needed to be. If a perfect teacher exists, she would be at the top of the list, in our house anyway. Thankfully for us, our younger son was in her class, not once, but twice. When we found out he would have his kindergarten teacher again for 5th grade, we were elated. The unpredictability of 2020 was especially difficult for him. While we couldn’t be sure which activities, even school itself, would go on, we could be sure about one thing: Mrs. W. And she delivered—suddenly breaking into song, encouraging dance-offs, dressing up in wild costumes. If there was anything an 11-year-old would love, she did it.
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Encanto and the Miracle of Empathy
Shigé Clark explores empathy in the new Disney favorite.
- One of the reasons I love fantasy as a genre is because of the inclusion of magic. In fantasy stories—the good ones anyway—magic can reveal the spiritual realities that we all sense in life but can’t see, and have no material frame to express.
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Around the Warren
Here There Be Dragons
A classic from Glenn McCarty out of the archives.
- At the bottom of the map in the front of the splendid new edition of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, with illustrations by Jemima Catlin, the area devoted to Mirkwood Forest is labeled with the simple inscription, “There are spiders.”
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Liz Cottrill examines a lovely middle-grade novel.
- Children believe in the impossible. Stories with heroes who face hardship, setbacks, and even defeat win their instant sympathy and when those heroes overcome, succeed and rise to fame and fortune, the child, who has been the hero’s fan from the start, is strengthened in the conviction that anything can happen if you try.
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Something to Do with Your Kids
Need some wintering crafts? Have we got a list for you!
Something to Watch
Last week, tea, this week potatoes. I hope you’re enjoying these food history videos I keep finding.
Thanks for reading. We’re on your side.
–The Story Warren Team
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
- The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 40 - December 2, 2023
- The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 39 - November 25, 2023
- The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 38 - November 18, 2023
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