I have accepted the "Caldecott Challenge." Actually, my niece and I have been reading the Caldecott winners and honorees for quite awhile now. "Princess Doodlebug" (my niece) and I have read approximately 168 of them already. We are greatly enjoying them and our goal is to read all of them together. The last time I asked her what her favorite so far was, she said that it was, "The Three Pigs" by Daivd Wiesner. Happy Reading!! :o)

Great Book from the Caldecott list!

Absolutely great book!

I can't remember if I have mentioned in previous posts, but I am reading all of the Caldecott books with my niece. I pretty much always "pre-read" them nowadays and such is the case with this book. I haven't read it with my niece yet but twice now I have picked it up just to read it myself. (I'm a children's book-nerd like that) Anyhoo, the quote I like from this book is this:

"Sometimes one must travel far to discover what is near."

So true.

Go check it out! Read it to a child in your life or just to yourself! :o)

Angilski or Polski? (English or Polish?)

So, my nephew is on his way to being a linguistic genius. His mother's native language is Polish and his father's (my brother) native language is English. He is 2 and 1/2 and would you believe it??! He can UNDERSTAND what his mother says to him when she speaks Polish??! I know, like I said, he's a genius. So, here he is telling us whether he likes English or Polish better... (by the way, his first response is a garbled version of "angilski" which is "English" in Polish; his second response is a garbled version of "Polski" or Polish.) Take your pick as to which one he is more emphatic about, but my vote is for Polski. ;D

Cujo

What a stupid movie! I might have been terrified by this movie when I was 5. I can't believe this is a famous horror movie! I give it a big THUMBS DOWN!

The Rothko Chapel

The Rothko Chapel... It's a very quiet place.

Random Names I Like

I don't really plan on ever having children... or getting married for that matter. (That's a whole other topic.) However, I do occasionally come across names that for whatever reason I REALLY like! I can't think of all of the odd names I have liked but a few that come to mind right at the moment are the following:

Ephraim
Howard (yes, I know, it's horrible! It was my dad's name though)
Nora (awww, my dear mother's name... I really do like it though!)
Naomi
Ruth
Isaiah


Well, honestly, I like most of the boy names that end with "el." The following are some examples:

Joel - Jehovah is Lord
Gabriel - God's able-bodied one
Michael - Who is like God? or Who resembles God?
Raphael - God has healed
Abel - "act emptily, become vain. means vapor, breath, in the negative sense of having no substance and being something very close to nothing. Whiff, one who is not even worthy of an name-explanation." (OK, so the meaning isn't so pleasant but I do like the name itself.)
Amiel - Lord of my People
Daniel - God is my judge
Samuel - God has heard
Nathaniel - Gift of God
Israel - "He has striven with God," or "He has been saved by God"

So yeah, some of those meanings were better than others but still, I like the names.

AFI's Top 100 Movies

Oh yeah, another one of my "lists" is the top 100 movies by the American Film Institute. I'm trying to watch all of them. I am watching them in reverse order, kinda like a "countdown" to number one. The one's I have seen so far are as follows:

72. Wuthering Heights (1939)
73. Gold Rush (1925)
74. Dances with Wolves (1990)
75. City Lights (1931)
76. American Graffiti (1973)
77. Rocky (1976)
78. Deer Hunter (1978)
79. Wild Bunch (1969)
80. Modern Times (1936)
81. Giant (1956)
82. Platoon (1986)
83. Fargo (1996)
84. Duck Soup (1933)
85. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
86. Frankenstein (1931)
87. Easy Rider (1969)
88. Patton (1970)
89. The Jazz Singer (1927)
90. My Fair Lady (1964)
91. A Place in the Sun (1951)
92. The Apartment (1960)
93. Goodfellas (1990)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. The Searchers (1956)
96. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
97. Unforgiven (1992)
98. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
99. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)