Happy Holidays to all...
And a special greeting to the therapy dog owners and therapy and service dog organizations who make this world a better place...and to everyone who believes in the importance of reading and children's literature.
Here at Barking Planet, I continue to be awed by and grateful to the dog lovers and their dogs who help so many people, of all ages, in so many ways.
Dogs have a unique quality that helps people heal, release fear, and find joy. When you think about the blessings that dogs bring to people's lives, especially therapy and service dogs, it boggles the mind.
Happy Holidays...and may 2013 be a good year for all.
Note:Thanks to Richard Bradley for the photo. Every year at this time we post a photo from Richard's Blog, A Rock in My Shoe. The dogs, Darcy and Caboose, have passed on but their holiday spirit remains. More on Richard's blog and his new puppies in January.
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“One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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The legend of Santa Claus was greatly enhanced by the poem, A Visit from St Nicholas, written for his children, by Clement Clarke Moore in 1823...here is an excerpt with a Christmas illustration by the extrordinary Arthur Rackham
"When, what to to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
with a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer, and Vixen!
"On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!
"To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew..."
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"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten"...Neil Gaiman
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If you have any doubts that there was once a time, long ago, when the unthinkable happened and there was to be no more Christmas, click this link...Interview with Santa
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Paws Giving Independence (PGI) means a better Christmas
and a better life for people and dogs in Peoria,Illinois.This heartfelt operation is helping children and adults with disabilities, including autism and cerebral palsy.They have rescued 50 dogs, have 19 in training, and received a 2013 PDF(Planet Dog Foundation)Grant.
Three Women...
PGI was started 5 years ago by Donna Kosner, a third grade teacher, her daughter, Michelle, a physical therapist, and her daughter's best friend, Brandi, an ER nurse. Donna sent me the following information about Payton, a therapy dog trained by Michelle...
Payton...
"Payton goes to work with Michelle at Easter Seals every day and works with the physical therapists, an occupational therapist, and speech therapists on a daily basis. He actually has a list of his own patients. Michelle started the animal assisted therapy program at Easter Seals. Having been diagnosed at 3 with juvenile arthritis, and having been through physical therapy for many years, Michelle felt that animals would make therapy much more fun for the kids.
Some children have taken their first steps with Payton or talked for the first time to Payton.(his photo is on the left) Michelle tells some amazing stories of what the love of a dog can do for a child. The one thing we see with all the dogs we place is that they really bridge the gap between the people with disabilities and the non disabled population. One of our recipients said people would always look at her wheelchair first and not know if they should talk to her, now they see the dog before the chair..."
Here is the heartwarming video about PGI's Payton,the dog who brings Joy from sadness. The photo above is of Michael and his PGI sevice dog, Duncan.
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Huge Holiday Movie Audiences for films derived from children's and young adult literature are breaking records...here is the link to Disney's trailer for FROZEN , inspired by, but quite different from Hans Christian Anderson's Snow Queen...88% of the reviews for Frozen have been favorable...
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire continues to draw a huge audience worldwide with over 700 million dollars ticket sales... here is a link to the exciting official trailer: Catching Fire...the majority of the reviews (75%) were favorable. However, questions are being raised about the dark side of this movie. Here is an excerpt from David Denby's review in the New Yorker:
"Yet rebellion is breaking out in the twelve districts of the country, called Panem, and President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and his new head gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman), cook up a fresh scheme: they will choose among the survivors of all the competitions, some of them now middle-aged or elderly, and throw them into a new struggle, which will somehow quell the rebellion. Distraction is supposed to work miracles. Along with this gang of heavies, Katniss and Peeta are pushed back into the woods to fight again." ...
Once again, a teenage girl and her boyfriend must kill and destroy other people in sanctioned mayhem. I'm hoping parents understand that there is an air of realism in the Hunger Games films not found in Disney or Miyazaki films. There are unanswered questions about the effects of this dark fantasy on children.
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Tolkien returns with The Desolation of Smaug...Now going into world wide release, the latest Peter Jackson movie, derived from Tolkien's classics, is expected to continue the great success of its predecessors. Here is the link to the trailer and an enthusiastic review from Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian: Smaug.
Here is an excerpt from Bradshaw's review:"This second Hobbit movie was for me not just a pleasure, but a revelation. For the first time, I "got" the JRR Tolkien/Peter Jackson experience. I tuned into the frequency. I tasted the fusion cuisine. I heard the eccentric but weirdly rousing choral harmonies. And this is despite – or more probably because of – never having been a Tolkien fan and being agnostic about the myth-making and, indeed, the prose quality. I never had any dogmatic sense of how the original should be represented or any loyalty to childhood fandom, and in fact I came to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001 with some unbelief, though as the Rings series progressed I was forced – with some churlish ill-grace – to admire those movies' mighty ambition and scope. With the Hobbit series, the penny is properly dropping: it's not about Tolkien, it's Tolkien-plus-Jackson, of course. It's morphed into something new."
My Question: At what age can a child handle the violence that Peter Jackson adds to his film versions of the Tolkien literary legacy?
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80 percent of the pre-schools and after school programs serving children in need do not have a single book for the children they serve.
- In some of the lowest-income neighborhoods in the country there is only one book available for every 300 children.
This disturbing information comes from First Book.
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To Read Sample Chapters of Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, Click here: Christmas Books
Our books are available through your favorite independent bookstore or via Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Powell's...
Librarians, teachers, bookstores...Order Planet Of The Dogs, Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, through Ingram with a full professional discount.
Therapy reading dog owners, librarians and teachers with therapy reading dog programs -- you can write us at [email protected] and we will send you free reader copies from the Planet of the Dogs Series...Read Dog Books to Dogs....Ask any therapy reading dog: "Do you like it when the kids read dog books to you?"
And for the First Time -- ebooks of the Planet Of The Dogs, Castle In The Mist, and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale are now available on KDP select....
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" Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home"... Charles Dickens
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PAL
See the people, see the dogs, see the human-canine connection....see this documentary from People Animals Love (PAL)... over 320 volunteers and their dogs go out into the community in Washington, DC, and the surrounding area visiting nursing homes, mental health facilities, hospitals, libraries and schools...wagging tails bring good cheer.
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Good Books for Kids is an outstanding resource for kid's book reviews
and information --- including reading levels. The following is from their site:
"The books mentioned on this site are handpicked by the staff which consists of Don, a teacher and grandparent, Shan, mom and children's librarian, and Pam, book lover, education nerd, and mom of two. Unlike other sites which only review new books, we spend a great deal of our time finding older books that are worthy of your consideration."
This is an unsolicited recommendation.
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CA Wulff, author and animal rights advocate sent us this information about shelter reform... #NoKillMondays
AnimalsVote.org asks that you support #NoKillMondays and help keep tails wagging. Please follow their campaign on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
Print Books Preferred by YA in the UK
The majority (62 percent) of 16-to-24 year-olds in the UK prefer print books to eBooks, according to a new report report from Voxburner. The report included responses from 1,420 participants who were surveyed between September 25th and October 18th 2013.
"The main reasons that the respondents prefer print are that print books are a good value, and that readers have an emotional connection to books..."
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New Reviews of Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale by Ann Staub for Pawsitively Pets and Caren Gittleman for Dakota's Den Here are excerpts...
"Snow Valley Heroes would be perfect to read aloud to younger children during the holiday season. Grade school and middle school aged children will enjoy reading this fantasy chapter book alone. It has a lot of action and will leave your kids on the edge of their seat, ready to read more. Of course, the book is also a good read for adults. I really enjoyed it and it put me in the holiday spirit." reviewed by Ann Staub.
"Looking for a great bedtime story for your elementary school child (that you can stretch out to include ALL TWELVE days of Christmas?), or are you looking for a Christmas tale with a lesson for your Middle School child to read on his or her own? Look no more! Your nieces, nephews, sons, daughters, grandchildren, will all enjoy Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, Planet of the Dogs Volume 3." reviewed by Caren Gittleman
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The Hunger Games,Catching Fire is breaking box office records...but have you seen the Sesame Street Parody?
Here is the link to The Hungry Games, Catching Fur.
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Moving light patterns on darkened Scottish hills as border collies move sheep through amazing patterns...LED lights create a lovely surreal world that would stop a traveler in their tracks.
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It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
Dr Seuss -- How The Grinch Stole Christmas
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Losing Lassie - A Pet's End of Life Care
When your pet is reaching the end of her life, it is much like losing a close family member. A pet’s end of life care is mixed with terrible grief and hardship. You want to make sure that you and your pet both make it through the process with as much dignity and love as... Read more: Losing Lassie
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Bringing literacy to the world...
LitWorld has initiated Innovation Hubs in Harlem, NYC, USA, Kibera*, Kenya, Manila, the Philippines, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Here is an excerpt from their website...
"LitWorld Innovation Hubs center our resources in local communities where we engage in deep and strong partnerships, working together to improve outcomes in literacy, personal empowerment, and inter-generational leadership and civic engagement around reading and writing.
The Hubs provide versatile learning spaces for children and young adults as well as their families, support LitWorld’s educational programming, and offer lending libraries, providing community members with comprehensive access to high quality texts that inspire them to read more regularly. Our hubs offer community members of all ages extensive leadership training, and real opportunities to practice and refine their these capabilities."
*I looked up Kibera on the Internet. I had not heard of it. Here is what I read:
There are approx 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population, occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses almost 1 million of these people. Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world.
One more reason to salute and support Lit World!
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"Snow Valley Heroes has the potential of becoming a favorite holiday story for both children and adults." -- Wayne Walker, Stories fof Children Magazine, Home School Buzz, Home School Book Review
Read sample chapters: Snow Valley Heroes
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New York Public Library...The Children's Literary Salon is pleased to announce our January program on Saturday, January 4th at 2:00 p.m.
Do the words "Common Core" cause you to shiver to the marrow of your bones? Excise your demons with this charming panel of CCSS experts as they pick apart nonfiction, picture books, apps, and everything in between. A talk with Marcie Colleen, Picture Book Month's Education Consultant, Daryl Grabarek, editor of SLJ's Curriculum Connections, and Amie Wright, the Joint Library School Pilot Selection Program Supervisor of BookOps.
Sunbear Squad Reminder for the Month of December:
"When attending holiday gatherings that include pets, be observant and proactive. Remember that parties can become very stressful for resident and visiting pets, especially when active, curious, pet-loving children are present. Take on the responsibility of watching over pets and children and be prepared to intervene when you see pets under stress, to help prevent bites or scratches."
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“One of the greatest gifts we receive from dogs is the tenderness they evoke in us... By their delight in being with us, the reliable sunniness of their disposition, the joy they bring to playtime, the curiosity with which they embrace each new experience, dogs can melt cynicism, and sweeten the bitter heart.”
― Dean Koontz, A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog
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