Thoughts on Okay for Now and The Wednesday Wars

Like many children's literature enthusiasts, I read and loved Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, and my review says as much. Okay for Now is a companion novel to The Wednesday Wars, which I also liked. So after reading Okay for Now for a second time, I went back and reread The Wednesday Wars as well.

I quickly fell back into Holling Hoodhood's story, but numerous times I found myself thinking "Doug Swieteck" instead of "Holling Hoodhood" as I read. I thought the books shared the same tone and pacing. Both books feature a smart, somewhat sarcastic main character who often holds back what he really wants to say. Why the similarities? I wondered. Is it just the author's style? Was Doug so memorable that I'm transplanting him into someone else's story? [Spoilers Ahead]

But when Holling said, "Do you know how it feels...?", a phrase used repeatedly by Doug Swieteck, I started paying more attention to the similarities. Here's what I jotted down as I read:

• Holling shares a "brand-new bottle of Coke" with Meryl Lee and Doug shares "a really cold Coke" with Lil.
• Both refer to people as "chumps."
• Running is important to both characters. Holling runs on the cross country team and Doug runs when he skips gym class.
• Holling and Doug both might lose their girlfriends. Meryl Lee might move away because of her father's job, and Lil fights a sickness.
• Both speak to the reader using the phrase "You probably remember..." or a similar phrase to recall significant events.
• Doug's father is physically abusive. Holling's father is emotionally abusive, ignoring his children or quickly dismissing their feelings and opinions. 
• Both Doug and Holling fear they will be forced down their father's path, whether it's as an abusive drunk or a career-obsessed architect.
• Both families have stressful silent dinners.
• Both Holling and Doug have antagonistic older siblings who show their true feelings in the end.
• Both stories feature soldiers who return home.

Reader Mike left a comment on my original review of Okay for Now and asks an interesting question. He said that while Okay for Now is like The Wednesday Wars, he describes it to his students as sadder. He comments, "The Really Bad Things happen around Holling, but not necessarily to Holling. In Okay For Now, The Really Bad Things happen to Doug. Is it because Holling's life is almost a charmed life? And Doug is just charming?"

That's an interesting question that seems to fit my comparison. No, Holling and Doug are not exactly alike, and Doug's life is certainly more difficult, but there are similarities. Could it be as Mike suggests, that Holling lives a charmed life where things just seem to work out and Doug is simply a charming character?

Finally, on a completely different note. Whose hat did Doug get? In Okay for Now he insists it belonged to Joe Pepitone, but in The Wednesday Wars it's not so clear. After Horace Clark and Joe Pepitone play catch with Doug, Danny, and Holling, it says on page 98

"Afterward, they signed our baseballs and signed our mitts. They gave us each two tickets for Opening Day next April. And they gave Doug and Danny their caps."

It could go either way. However, two days after Opening Day, Mrs. Baker, Doug, Danny, and Holling have their picture in the Home Town Chronicle surrounded by Yankees players. Then on page 198 Holling tells readers

"I wore Joe Pepitone's jacket to school, and Danny wore his hat, and Doug wore Horace Clark's hat."

That seems pretty clear, unless Danny and Doug decided to trade hats for the day. I'm curious why Horace Clark was switched for Joe Pepitone, especially when it's Pepitone's jacket, not the hat, that plays a role in Okay for Now.

Give This Christmas Away - More Information

Thanks to everyone visiting the site for more information about Give This Christmas Away by Matthew West and Amy Grant.  Here are a couple videos, a couple links, and to prove it really took me a year to hear the song's message, a bonus video featuring Matthew West's 2010 Christmas song.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for taking the time to learn more about the song.

Here is the original video.  Give This Christmas Away was written for the children's video VeggieTales: Saint Nicholas - A Story of Joyful Giving, which, for those of you new to VeggieTales, will explain the tomato with a stocking cap and the cucumber wearing a wool jacket.

This next video features interviews with both Matthew West and Amy Grant.  They tell the story behind the song including how Matthew West was initially approached about writing it, how Amy Grant came to involved with the performance, and what the song means to them.  Near the end of the video, Matthew West says, "If somebody is out there asking that question, how can I make December look different this year, you don't have to look very far to find somebody who's in need."

To go with the song, Matthew West also wrote a book entitled Give This Christmas Away: 101 Simple and Thoughtful Ways to Give This Christmas Away.

As I searched online for more information on Give This Christmas Away, I discovered that I really was a year behind.  Matthew West has written a new Christmas song called One Last Christmas.  At first glance it may seem very different from the first, but both songs show how simple, thoughtful actions can make a gigantic impact on the lives of those around us.

For more information about Matthew West and his music, including the incredible true story of his latest Christmas song, you can click here to visit his website.

Katherine Paterson on Censorship

I've spent a bunch of time recently talking, thinking, reading, and writing about It's a Book by Lane Smith over on the main site, Help Readers Love Reading.  Should the book be read in classrooms?  Should teachers edit the book when reading?  What could happen if a teacher uses a book and a parent or principal or concerned citizen disagrees with the teacher's decision?

I had additional thoughts, but I can't say it nearly as well as Katherine Paterson did in Places I Never Meant To Be: Original Stories by Censored Authors edited by Judy Blume.

Lite-Brite, Love, and DC*B: An Explanation

So, yeah.  Lite-Brite.  Anyone who ran across the previous post on my minuscule piece of the blogosphere are probably muttering one of several, simple questions or phrases:

1. What?
2. Why?
3. How?
4. Are you serious?
5. There's no way they actually plugged all those pegs into a Lite-Brite to make six frames per second for over three minutes of music just because they thought it would make a good video.  These people are certifiably insane.

Most of the above is answered in David Crowder's blog ... located here.  After posting a video like that, I thought an explanation was only fair.  (And I'm thankful Mr. Crowder posted one.)

Lite-Brite, Love, and DC*B

I was thinking that I generally don't post stuff not book related, but then I remembered that Help Readers Too is for miscellaneous posts at infrequent intervals.  Posts certainly have been infrequent, and the combination of Lite-Brite, Love, and David Crowder*Band is nearly the very definition of miscellaneous.  So here's another post.

David Crowder*Band is one of my personal favorites.  In addition to making music, they apparently are skilled music video directors, as evidenced below.  Watch closely for a couple of my favorite parts like the band and the rice at the wedding, the water flowing out of the Lite-Brite, and the piano mysteriously playing itself.

Will Earth Be Conquered by ... the Boov?

We may or may not be facing a good, swift conquering at the hands of the Boov in 2013.  Just in case, it'd be good for you to read this review of The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex and watch Human Training Video #42, kindly created for us by the generous and mighty Boov.

What I Learned This Summer - Wrigley Field Edition

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New newspaper column today all about the education my kids got at Wrigley Field this summer.  We've been to numerous Brewers games at Miller Park, and when the Cubs are in town, we (eh-hem) generously welcome our (cough) friendly guests from the south.

This summer we decided to be the ones cheering the visitors, so we planned a trip to Wrigley Field when the Brewers were in town.  And let me add, for the record and for all the Cubs fans who may read this, it wasn't our fault the Brewers won 18-1 the night we were there.

So what did our kids learn?  Read here.

Thanks for visiting.

The Flower Garden Wiffle Ball Field

Welcome to readers visiting Help Readers Too from the EXCURSIONS Journey To Health Wiffle Ball Newsletter.  I hope you enjoyed reading Two Boys at the Bat.

Here’s a quick tour of The Flower Garden, the backyard field where the story took place, as well as a challenge for careful readers later in the post.

Here's the view of home plate from the pitcher's mound followed by a close up of the batter's box.  There used to be a fire pit where home plate is, but we replaced it with landscaping bricks for the batter's box.  (You know ... priorities.)  Now we have a portable fire pit, so the bricks serve as both batter's box and a campfire location.  The backstop is a bit off center since pretty much everyone who plays here is right handed.

Here's the view from the batter's box down the right field line.  Off the back wall of the house or in the landscaping is a triple.  On the patio or roof is a home run, but woe to anyone who messes up the DirecTV dish.  Too bad we don't have more lefties.  It's a short porch wasted.

Now here's the left field line.  The home run line is at the bottom of the ditch.  The swing set is foul, but the slide is in fair territory and just behind the doubles line which runs behind both trees.  Any hit ball that touches either tree is playable, but if it drops it's only a single. The telephone pole, wires, and cables are also in play.  Every once in a while a ball will reach the road.

The pitcher's mound is just an eight foot piece of leftover particle board, and I'm open to suggestions for a more aesthetic solution.  We don't want anything permanent in the middle of the yard so the landscaping bricks aren't an option ... yet.

Here are three pictures from the patio in right center field.  The second and third images show the triples line which runs from the patio around the telephone pole and the home run line in the ditch.  The home run line is very deep in dead center field, then runs down the lowest part of the ditch.  It's been raining a lot lately, so most of it is under water.  Not good for seeing the line, but great fun for outfielders on deep fly balls, sort of like a squishy warning track.

So that's the field, but here are a couple other parts that make it unique.  We named the field The Flower Garden in honor of Mom.  It originally was going to be called The Brickyard because years ago there used to be a brick factory across the road.  We decided on The Flower Garden instead since Mom has some awesome flowers around the house and to honor of moms everywhere who tell their kids, "Stay out of the flower garden!"  At least we won't have to.

The ball bucket was decorated by neighborhood kids.  We hang it on a shepherd's hook simply because there are flowers like that around the house and we thought it would be funny.  The scoreboard is home made.  In this picture it shows no outs in the bottom of the seventh with the score 15 to 8.  The green clothes pin used to mark the inning is kind of hard to see.

We keep all the bats in a plastic tub along with all the ropes used to line the field.  We always used regular bats before this summer.  We knew Wiffle Ball bats would be light, but when they arrived we were surprised just how light they really were.  We knew that taping them up makes them heavier and more durable, so we decided it we might as well have fun with the taping.

All the kids in the neighborhood have their own bat, and when people from outside the neighborhood come over to play, the kids take great pride when their bat is chosen by someone else.  Here's a close-up of a couple bats.

Most of the bats have a color pattern or design of some sort, basically whatever the owner felt like at the time.  This Fourth of July bat is the only one intentionally designed around a specific theme.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by after reading Two Boys at the Bat in the EXCURSIONS Journey To Health Wiffle Ball Newsletter.  If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them.  Leave a comment below or send me an email.

And here's the challenge.  Did anyone notice the inconsistency between the poem and the pictures?  Leave a comment or send me an email if you think you know, and I'll post what it is - along with picture evidence - sometime in the near future.

Where's the Continuity?

Last month I wrote a newspaper column about going outside. Getting the kids from the neighborhood together, running around, making up the rules as you go, faking injuries to trick Dad. You know, playing.

I just realized that the topic of this month's column might be the exact opposite of last month's. How can a writer focus on the joys of playing outside one month and follow that up with video games the next?

Let's just blame winter in Wisconsin. I did shovel snow three times the other day. Does that count?

Let me know. In the meantime, here's the column and here's the printable version.

Dream Life

I'm not complaining, so don't get any misconceptions about me being some malcontent coasting through life. Not at all. I just find it funny that the cartoons my kids watch strike me as hilarious. I've liked SpongeBob since I first learned he lived in a pineapple under the sea. I even thought Dora was sort of cool with her type-A personality forcing my children to think everything through in three simple steps. Over the bridge, through the forest, up the mountain! (I wish they'd extend those preschool lessons to elementary school. Unload the backpack, do the homework, repack for tomorrow!)

But now it's been Phineas and Ferb, and it has been at least since summer. This morning was my favorite episode, the one where Phineas and Ferb get Love Handel back together for their parents' anniversary. My favorite scene is the song I Ain't Go Rhythm when Phineas and Ferb go to the library to convince Swampy to rejoin the band. He swears he has no rhythm, despite the sound being made as he checks in book.

Sherman, as Swampy is now known, declares "Look, I got a sweet deal going on here, I got all the books that I can read, all these sweet old ladies and this carpet from the 80's, what more could a librarian need?" What more, indeed?

A song breaks out, very rhythmic of course, and Sherman decides to rejoin the band. As a bonus, it ends with a scene reminiscent of the Blues Brothers as they wheel Swampy and his drum set out the door.

Sherman/Swampy. Lived the life of a rockstar. Now lives the life of a librarian. That's a sweet gig if you can get it.

Thank You for Favorite Things

The auction has been completed, and I'd like to offer a big THANK YOU to the person who found it in their heart this Christmas season to purchase the copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe featuring an autographed letter from C. S. Lewis.

I know, I know, $9,200 is a substantial sum of money for a book, but compared to the $115,000 for the original Alice's copy of Through the Looking Glass and What She Found There or the $92,000 for Beatrix Potter's personal copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit it's a steal.

So again, to the kind-hearted soul who purchased that special copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in the recent auction, thank you. After my recent post about the auction, I just know you did it for me. But don't worry, mum's the word - wink, wink - your secret's safe with me.

I'll act all surprised when I pull that wonderful package out from under my tree on Christmas morning.

More Favorite Things!

A couple weeks ago I posted on the unlikely combination of two of my favorite things - children's books and NFL football. Not long after I read of this upcoming auction.

Pat McInally played in the NFL for 10 years, from 1976 - 1985. He scored the only verified perfect score on the Wonderlic Test, which football geeks like me recognize as an intelligence test taken by prospective NFL players and discussed at length leading up to the NFL draft in April.

McInally has also collected children's books for over 20 years. And now, he's decided, it's time to sell. So check the couch cushions, take the hammer to the piggy bank, and someone, somewhere, please, get me that copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Take a look at this collection and tell me if you don't start drooling. (I'm assuming card-carrying children's book enthusiasts are reading this.) The copy of Through the Looking Glass owned by the real Alice. A first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a signed copy of The House at Pooh Corner, numerous copies of inscribed Harry Potter books, and the guest register from Boston's The Old Corner Book Store with signatures upon doodles upon signatures upon sketches of some of the most famous names in children's literature.

Really, what are going to do with that extra $100,000 you got lying around, anyway?