Hello Book Bums families!
This week in the newsletter we're thinking about learning from our mistakes, a good mindset as the school year approaches. Enjoy all our regular features, some end-of-summer inspiration, and book Dr. Christy calls bananas.
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Word of the Week
munificent (myu-ni-fe-sint) adjective/describing word -characterized by great generosity
The munificent donation enabled the theater to buy new lights and sound equipment.
Literary Calendar
• August 15 is the birthday of chef and author Julia Child.
• Her opus Mastering the Art of French Cooking was first published in 1961.
• She also taught America to cook on television. You find Julia Child's telivision show here .
From our Bookshelves
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, was published in 2022 and was nominated for best fiction and best debut novel. I’m late to the game on this one—because I had my doubts about a book with an octopus as a character—but it came to mind as I was deciding what to read next, and I’m so happy it did.
Van Pelt stated in an interview that the associate who’d first read her submission for publication noted in the margin, “This is either bananas or brilliant.”
It’s both.
Note: In her research, Van Pelt learned that octopuses* do not have a concentrated central brain. Their neurons are spread among their eight arms. So that poster in your school library with an octopus reading eight different books at the same time is closer to the truth than we realized.
*Octopi is also an acceptable plural of octopus.
Wordology Workshop
• The root oct means eight.
• This root comes to English from both Greek and Latin.
• It is found in many common words like octopus, octagon, and octave.
• What other words using the idea of eight and the root oct can you think of?
Tips for Families
I found this list a while back and thought I might like to try tackling/deliberately acknowledging each idea, one per day. With just over 20 days remaining in the month of August, I invite you and your family to join me. I wrote the sentences on my weekly calendar. You can simply copy and paste the list and post it somewhere you’ll notice it. Wouldn’t it be great to decide, as a family, to give each sentence some consideration as you begin your day? Talk about how it might play out in your daily interactions and then, at dinnertime, talk about how it went.
Tips for Readers and Writers
I’ve shared that it happens to me, and it happened again this week.
I have been enjoying a book on Audible. I’ve got two physical books going—one fiction and one nonfiction—but I wanted one to listen to while completing some time-consuming, manual tasks. While listening, I finally heard the pronunciation of a word that I’ve read incorrectly in my mind for years.
The word is askance.
I’ve been saying /ask/-/ance/, but that’s not how it’s pronounced.
Askance is an adverb that means with an attitude or look of suspicion or disapproval.
From context clues I surmised the meaning had something to do with questioning, and the word ask is right there at the beginning of the word for heaven’s sake.
• They looked askance at the grease-stained McDonalds bag he carried into the swanky restaurant.
• A waiter looked askance at the card the young fellow used to pay the bill.
• My teacher looked askance when I said I didn’t do my homework.
The word, I finally realized, is askance--/uh-skans/.
I love learning, even when I feel a little silly admitting my ignorance. Don’t you?
Just for Fun
Tempting . . .
Practical Grammar
Earlier in the newsletter you saw the word pronunciation. A common error is the pronunciation of the word pronunciation.
Some say /pro-noun-see-a-tion/.
I get it, don’t you?
The word pronounce is a verb meaning to make the sounds.
The word pronunciation is a noun meaning the way we make those sounds.
Isn’t it funny that the word noun is in the one that’s a verb but not the one that’s a noun?
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1 thoughts on “Newsletter – Learning from our mistakes – August 9, 2024”
I never thought about the root of octagon before. Thank you!
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