New Month's Resolutions: February

Last month I suggested an approach to resolutions that slices your time more narrowly than a year. Did you set a ping for February 1st? Did you reset and recommit with the new month? 

My January goals could be broken down into four categories: Write, Move, Knit, Balance. 

I did fairly well in most of those areas. Knitting went well (I finished the Watson Scarf and one Watson House Slipper), but I blew my intention of mending well-loved socks. Moving (as in exercise, baby) got off to a slow start, and some Writing time was taken up by Lingering Crud among the Sonars (we just need Pink Eye and a Broken Arm to get a Common-Childhood-Illness BINGO). I was most successful in my Balance category, primarily through a return to regular knitting (it’s almost like meditation, man). 

This is how I am going to adjust and recommit for February (what’s left of it anyway). 

Write. This should really be Read and Write. Read more, as in A Book A Week (did you hear that echo?). Write more, as in Blog with some regularity (and a more clearly programmed variety) and Plug Away at my Rewrite-in-progress. 

Move. Walk to nearby destinations. Get through a few weeks of an interval running program (I heart Podrunner). Add in some strength exercises of one flavor or another (who wants to do some push ups?). 

Knit. Finish the Shizuku (With Tendrils!) Scarf. Finish and felt my Watson House Slippers. Mend one pair of well-loved socks (they’re worth it!). 

Balance. I will make some quiet space and time to contemplate and reflect, so that I can make intentional choices and give my time and effort in ways that are healthy and satisfying. I need to make sure that my volunteering doesn’t derail the writing goals!

So how about it? Did you meet or exceed a January goal? Fall short? Need to readjust? You have a bonus day this month. What will you do with the rest of your February?

Sex Ed: It's Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley

This review is part of my ongoing quest to choose great resources for helping the Sonars understand their bodies, their sexuality, and sex.

It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley. Candlewick Press (Third Paperback Edition), 2009.

This is the third book in Harris and Emberley’s Family Library series of books to help young people understand sex and sexuality. I reviewed the second, It’s So Amazing, right here.

The focus in this third book is summed up in the final chapter, “Staying Healthy: Responsible Choices,” and the book is trying to give kids honest, accurate, complete information so that they can make decisions for themselves. The book begins by providing explanations of the the biology of both sexes, addresses personal hygiene and personal care norms, then builds toward an understanding of what happens when desire and sexuality begin to influence lives. Homosexuality, masturbation, contraception, abstinence, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, and an expanded section on internet safety, are all discussed in some detail.

Harris and Emberley continue to respect young people by presenting information directly and without judgement, illustrated by Emberley’s characteristic drawing style with frank drawings of internal and external anatomy. My favorite part of all the Family Library books are the wide variety of naked bodies represented, so that most readers can find someone like themselves in the pages of the books. We see bodies young and old, and in varying hues and abilities, curious and shy, in an array of inclusive family constructions. The book does not hedge illustrations behind suggestion and innuendo.

The larger chunks of text, and the more explicit descriptions of matters from intercourse to abortion, make this book best suited for slightly older children. The suggested age range is 10 to 14, and I think that’s spot on. This book is less addressed toward young people who are actively engaged in sex, than toward young people who are beginning to have an understanding of sex and will soon face choices for themselves. This book is preparation before and during the early phases of sexual understanding and exploration. It is on target for Sonar X11, and some chapters, especially the biology and personal care chapters, would be fine for Sonar X8, though not all kids that young will want to read all of the explanatory text. That’s fine too, because the pictures teach as much as the words.

The story is guided by Bird (who is curious about sex) and Bee (who is shy and reluctant to talk about sex), who take a smaller role in this book than in the earlier installments in the series, but are still present to ease the awkwardness of some subjects. Complicated concepts are accompanied by full page, comic-book style explanations as reinforcement. The cartoonish aspects of the book do not feel condescending, and are diminished in the more serious and controversial sections.

The biological functions are heteronormative in focus, but do acknowledge variation without judgement. A key idea that is repeated throughout the book is that once the biology of puberty kicks in, once adult functioning of the sex organs begins, pregnancy is always a possible outcome of some sexual behaviors. The book does not so much focus on helping a young person who is struggling to define his or her self-identity, but to introduce and define the possibilities that people will encounter in the world.

The central message Harris and Emberley present is respect for self, respect for others, and responsibility in actions. They steer readers with questions or confusion toward trusted adults, a technique underlined by their own reliance and gratitude toward a long list of experts in many fields.

We need something one step beyond this book that begins to address social situations and personal identity more explicitly, but this book and the others in the series are great foundational books for a positive and healthy attitude toward sex that is based in complete, inclusive, and direct facts and attitudes without resorting to fear mongering and piling on anxiety.

Pop Culture Knitting: A Dr. Watson Scarf, I presume

Knitting is full of whims. For the modern knitter, just choosing to knit must be whimsical on some level. So I have no good explanation beyond whim for why I made this scarf. I haven’t even seen the movie in which it appears, only a trailer and a few still shots. But I will. Eventually. I would not have chosen this color combination (brown, blue, and cream). But I love it. I love that combo enough that I am now knitting matching slippers and planning to repaint my living room.

Jude Law’s movie version of the scarf comes down to his knees. I may have overshot that a bit. Mr. Law is surely taller than I am, but not enough to make a nine-foot scarf come down to his knees. Correct me if I’m wrong.  

Please click pictures to embiggen. 

Our grapefruit tree, sporting a Watson Scarf

Eglentyne wearing a Watson scarf in a balmy South Texas winter

A Book A Week: The Neddiad by Daniel Pinkwater

The Neddiad: How Neddie Took The Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization by Daniel Pinkwater (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)

A shoelace tycoon with a parakeet fetish moves his family from Chicago to L.A. on a whim. On a train. His son, Neddie Wentworthstein, has some interesting adventures that begin when he misses the train in Santa Fe and meets an oddball shaman. Melvin the Shaman (as he is sometimes called) gives Neddie a small carved turtle. Neddie later discovers that the turtle is essential to the preservation of civilization. With enemies like Sandor Eucalyptus and Sholmos Bunyip, and allies like Seamus Finn (and his dad, a famous, swashbuckling movie actor), a ghost named Billie, and Yggdrasil Birnbaum, Neddie completes an Oedipean adventure that prevents rapid, sudden devolution and the return of the ice age. 

The Sonars and I read this one out loud, and with prose as fun and lyrical as the memorable names, it’s a great story to read out loud. Even with the fate of civilization threatened, Pinkwater doesn’t let the story get too intense. The wise characters keep the story real, and assure Neddie that when the time comes, not only will he know exactly the right thing to do, but he’ll be successful doing it. Our only vaguely critical comment about the story is the abruptness of the ending. We wander for dozens of chapters through whimsically detailed encounters, but the sudden turn into dreamlike resolution left us hanging in mid-wonder. Sonar X11 said it was like the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. We sat there for several moments, mouths open, wondering “Wha-aat?”

This mid-twentieth-century setting is a kinder, gentler world in which kids have freer and further reign and navigation in their worlds. Which, all by itself is a great fantasy for kids that often find their lives circumscribed by the minivan route. Plus Neddie and his friends find a mastodon. Who doesn’t love a mastodon in L.A.? 

ABAW: Janet Evanovich's First Four Plums

Or Four.

One For the Money (Harper Paperback edition, 1994)

Two For the Dough (Pocket Books edition, 1996)

Three to Get Deadly (St. Martin’s Paperback edition, 1997)

Four to Score (St. Martin’s Paperback edition, 1998)

Janet Evanovich got her chops writing romance novels. Now she’s one of the four highest paid authors in the U.S. (According to Forbes), trailing James Patterson, Danielle Steele, and Stephen King. Kapow.

I discovered her series about a New Jersey lingerie buyer turned badass bounty hunter around the time that the eighth or ninth book debuted. She’s up to eighteen now, plus novellas and spinoffs. A movie version of One for the Money starring Katherine Heigl as the inimitable Stephanie Plum premieres this week. 

A couple of weeks ago, when the germy funk descended (yet again this winter) over myself and the spawn, I binged on the first four Plums. I loved it. Evanovich calls her books birthday cake, exhorting us all to indulge from time to time. But she doesn’t owe anyone apologies for her writing or her success. Evanovich found a niche, collected a set of reliable tropes, populated it with rich characters and tapped an audience that eagerly waits for her every publication. She is commercially successful and sharp at what she does. 

No other books motivate me quite the same way as an Evanovich Plum. I find them easily rereadable. As a writer, I’m inspired by Evanovich’s gumption, perseverance, and success. As a person, Stephanie always makes me want to get up and kick butt at whatever I’m doing. The world does not keep that woman down. Even when her cars keep blowing up. 

There is a lot of slapstick silliness in the stories, especially as the series progresses. The cartoon rhetoric of the marketing gives a shallow vibe to the series. While some complain that by the eighteenth iteration those tropes have been beaten to death, I was surprised in this rereading by how much more gritty (and occasionally quite scary) the first book is. There is style and structural technique to be found under the goofy veneer, as well as some fun.