Colonel Shaw
I’ve been spying these daily writing prompts in the corner of my dashboard the last few days, wondering if they were something I would ever care to utilize. This evening as I was considering what to post for tomorrow, I saw “Have you ever performed on a stage?” and immediately had a flashback to 1995 and my performance as Colonel Shaw in the play Glory. I’m assuming it was severely abridged for fifth graders. I do know it was shortly after we had read the book Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder. I remember my costume smelled funny. I do not recall where that costume was acquired or where it went when I was done wearing it. I think it was meant to teach us an important part of history, but I was not thinking about Lincoln’s War Between the States when I was barking out my Colonel Shaw lines, I was thinking about how I was the shortest girl in the class playing a man in charge of stuff. For the record, I’m a terrible actress and I have no idea how or why I was awarded this role in whatever fifth grade extravaganza was occurring.
Fifth grade was an awkward time when the man I thought would be my favorite teacher ever got deported–to Canada–for an expired Visa, and in return we got the “new” lady. She hated me, got in arguments with my mom, and I still (in my 40s) think she was a moron. Time did not grant me more grace for her, although I do credit her for having Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Field’s Hitty, Her First Hundred Years in her classroom library. Both of which I loved. She’s also the teacher who read Bridge to Terabithia out loud every afternoon until she had her entire class bawling. So, she was either awesome for introducing us to a great book, or a little sadistic for emotionally traumatizing us all. Who knows?
My track record with teachers wasn’t great. In sixth grade I got an amazing GT language arts teacher I will adore forever and we got her again for seventh grade GT, and then she died. Once again, our class got the “new” lady. A fresh out of college gal the boys tormented by just calling her Wendy. She looked like Wendy from Peter Pan, her name was Wendy for real, I still don’t remember her last name because no one ever respected her enough to use it. She lived in my neighborhood with her parents, talked about her boyfriend (who couldn’t spell) a lot, and in hindsight I wonder how any twenty-two year olds enter their classrooms for their first year without having a panic attack. I think that was the year I played a dead girl in theatre and laughed through the entire play. My theatre teacher told me she loved me, but she didn’t want me on her stage again. We laughed. We hugged. When I was in Oklahoma! in high school, I was a chorus girl who happily sat in the barn close to the shotgun mic. I’m not a great dancer either, but I love to sing. Too bad Colonel Shaw didn’t have any singing lines. I’d definitely watch Glory as a Broadway musical, they could still use Matthew Broderick and everything.
Fairy Bell (and Fizz)
Title: Fairy Bell Sisters: Sylva and the Fairy Ball
Author: Margaret McNamara
Illustrator: Julia Denos
Kiddo is on a Peter Pan kick. We’re reading bits of Peter Pan every night before bed. She’s watching the Disney movie as I type this. A few months back she watched the ballet.
Not just Peter Pan, though. She loves ALL things Neverland. Jake & the Neverland Pirates is a huge favorite and she’s dying for the lego set. I’m making her wait until her birthday. Speaking of birthdays, the child wants a Neverland themed party. She will dress as Tinker Bell, she says, someone must be Peter Pan. Everyone else has to be a lost boy. If we could get one of the grandfathers or uncles to be Captain Hook I think the girl might die of happiness on the spot. She loves Captain Hook. Also, she has an unusual amount of adoration for crocodiles and clocks.
So, naturally, when she saw a book at the library with a fairy she squealed, “Tinka Bell.” Her “er” sounds don’t always makes it all the way out of her mouth. She’s only three. I explained that the book was about Tinker Bell’s little sisters. She was blinded by fairy wings and shoved them in the library bag.
Warning to other Moms: THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT TINKER BELL.
Or Neverland.
My daughter had to remind me of this on nearly every page. I cannot express enough how disappointed she was…
Until the TROLLS arrived.
Apparently we are a troll-loving family. Both me and my daughter loved The Three Billy Goats Gruff (my grandmother read it to me when I spent the night at her house and kiddo has her own updated version we read all the time).
She is fascinated by The Hobbit. Mostly, I think, for the troll scene. She has seen the live action movie, but she relishes the 1970’s cartoon.
And of course – we adore Fizz & Peppers. I adore Fizz & Peppers and I think she loves it a bit because I do – but it is heaven. And full of trolls.
Ultimately, she enjoyed the book, but decided she didn’t want to read the rest of the series yet. At the end of the Fairy Bell ball story there is a blueberry birthday cake – and a blueberry fairy cake recipe. So, naturally, we baked. Oddly enough, we had freshly picked blueberries in our fridge… picked by M.G. King (the author of Fizz & Peppers!) and delivered to our house!
Another odd coincidence for this reading adventure… take a look at these chapters:
The books have nothing in common. And somehow managed to have everything in common. It was one of those reading experiences where we could not sit down and read one without thinking of the other. Note: Chapter three of the Fairy Bell Sisters book ends on that page. On the next page begins chapter four.
Til the next reading adventure…
Anakalian Whims 