Next book in my Daily Book Excerpt:
I have written about this book before – and my long search to locate the book of my childhood that I thought was called “On a Bimulous Night” – which is why I couldn’t find it for years. The book is called When the Sky is Like Lace
The book has some of the most beautiful illustrations I have ever seen (by the spectacular Barbara Cooney). Truly transportive. And the language! For example: “it feels like the velvet inside a very old violin case.” This is a line from a CHILDREN’S book. Isn’t it marvelous? Children’s books do not need to be educational or edifying or preachy … they can also be literature. This book is literature.
Here’s a little excerpt:
EXCERPT FROM When the Sky is Like Lace
Because on bimulous nights when the sky is like lace, the trees eucalyptus back and forth, forth and back, swishing and swaying, swaying and swishing — in the fern-deep grove at the midnight end of the garden.
You will also find that, on bimulous nights when the sky is like lace, the grass is like gooseberry jam. It’s not really squooshy like jam, because then the otters’ feet would slurp around and snails might drown. It only smells like gooseberry jam. But if you walk barefoot, it feels like the velvet inside a very old violin case.
If you plan to go out on a bimulous night when the sky is like lace, here are some rules you must remember:
Never talk to a rabbit or a kissing gourami.
If your nose itches, don’t scratch it.
Wear nothing that is orange, not even underneath.
And — if you have a lucky penny, put it in your pocket. Because, on bimulous nights when the sky is like lace and the otters are singing and the snails are sulking and the trees are dancing and the grass is like gooseberry jam, it’s a good idea to be prepared.
Because — you never know.
My favourite is “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams with incredible illustrations by William Nicholson, except I always choke up at the end:
“…He thought of those long sunlit hours in the gardenhow happy they wereand a great sadness came over him. He seemed to see them all pass before him, each more beautiful than the other, the fairy huts in the flower-bed, the quiet evenings in the wood when he lay in the bracken and the little ants ran over his paws; the wonderful day when he first knew that he was Real. He thought of the Skin Horse, so wise and gentle, and all that he had told him. Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become Real if it all ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.
And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a flower grew out of the ground, a mysterious flower, not at all like any that grew in the garden. It had slender green leaves the colour of emeralds, and in the centre of the leaves a blossom like a golden cup. It was so beautiful that the little Rabbit forgot to cry, and just lay there watching it. And presently the blossom opened, and out of it there stepped a fairy…”
Mind you, I cry every year when Frosty melts, even though I know Santa will come & save him, so maybe I’m just a wuss.
Candace:
Oh, I’m a TOTAL wuss! I must be, because I cried reading that part from The Velvetten Rabbit in your comment. Fuggedaboutit!! Beautiful book. And you’re so right about the illustrations – I remember them vividly.
It’s hard to explain to a 4-yr-old why Mommy’s crying… over a book… that 4-yr-old’s, who are just beginning to get “compassion” if even yet, my experience is more like 7 or 8 or maybe even 9…
She’s now 11 and we’ve been watching what I consider to be “important” movies – long story, but her 5th grade class was covering the underground railroad, slavery etc. (w/Canadian perspective), so we watched ‘Mississippi Burning’ (which is a hell of a lot more violent than I remembered, dammit, should have pre-viewed, oh well).
A few weeks ago it was time for Schindler’s List (timing is an interesting thing – combination of topical, availability, etc. Very random). We can only do these every 6-8 weeks or so, as it takes a while for her to digest – not a bad thing, and not something to rush, either. She re-watches, as kids will do, bits & pieces. Does arts/crafts/homework while watching & gets very focused on said arts/crafts etc initially during the tougher parts. Then can get to the point where she can watch the whole thing. All through this process comes the questions…”how can people do that?” “why did so-and-so say this?” (amazing how kids can quote dialogue from a movie & expect you to immediately remember the exact scene & sequence involved, since they do) etc.
I probably pushed the envelope a bit far on Schindler’s List. She only re-watched pieces of it once or twice, and has informed me she can’t watch it anymore because it’s too ugly. Mind you, it’s not like I’m keen to plug it in myself. It IS ugly.
Hmmmm… maybe we’ll stick to “The Incredibles” for a while.
I think that’s a beautiful thing to do with your daughter. I have to say: when I was a kid, there were some movies that I saw “too soon”. Movies that were so upsetting that I lay in bed with my heart hurting. You know, the kinds of movies – like Schindler’s List – when you become aware of evil. And how unfair life can be. But I don’t regret those experiences AT ALL. It hurt to see such movies – but I grew enormously in watching them.
My friend David did a similar thing with his daughter Emma – she was 8 or 9 – and she asked him if she could see Dances with Wolves. He owns it – so she was curious about it. He told her that it was a grown-up movie – she had never seen one before – so she should be prepard. They watched it together, and she got SO MUCH out of it. She loves animals, and so the scene when the wolf is killed – just broke her heart. Broke her big heart into a million pieces. But David and Emma had a great talk about it after the movie … and all in all, it was a wonderful experience for her and for him. I think it’s a great thing.