Hello Book Bums families!
March certainly seems to be coming in like a lamb rather than a lion, and we hope you are enjoying the springy weather. This week in the newsletter Dr. Christy shares a fabulous, recent, audio book experience as well as some recipes. We're also digging into laughter and grammar that makes us laugh. Enjoy!
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Word of the Week
simultaneuous (si-mull-tay-nee-us) adjective/describing word - happening at the same time
Around the world, simultaneous rallies were held to promote women's rights.
Literary Calendar
• March 4 is National Grammar Day!
• Grammar is the system and structure we use to understand our language, and different languages use different systems.
• For example in English, adjectives usually come before the noun they're describing, but in French adjectives generally follow the noun.
• Brian P.Cleary's picture book series on parts of speech and grammar is a fun way to introduce kids to some of the basics.
From our Bookshelves
If you’re on TikTok and you love books, you may want to check out @parnassusbooksnashville. Parnassus Books is an indie bookstore in Nashville, TN that is owned by author Ann Patchett. Not long ago, Patchett recommended Heartburn by the American journalist, writer, and filmmaker Nora Ephron who penned Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, and You’ve Got Mail. She also co-scripted Silkwood (1983) starring Meryl Streep.
Patchett suggested that readers consider the audio version of Heartburn because it is so masterfully read by Meryl Streep. I learned that Heartburn was inspired by Ephron’s own experience with her ex-husband, Carl Bernstein, an investigative journalist and author who is best known for reporting on the Watergate scandal. In the book, Ephron crafted a raw depiction of a failing marriage that is simultaneously sad and funny. Though not much of this description would typically draw me in, I love Meryl, Ephron’s “big three” movies are undeniably good, and I needed a book to listen to.
So. Good.
Because the central character is a food writer, Ephron shared recipes throughout Heartburn. Here’s one that made me want to stop the audio book to capture it:
“Mix 2 tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard with 2 tablespoons good red wine vinegar. Then, whisking constantly with a fork, slowly add 6 tablespoons olive oil, until the vinaigrette is thick and creamy; this makes a very strong vinaigrette that's perfect for salad greens like arugula and watercress and endive.”
"Even now, I cannot believe Mark would risk losing that vinaigrette. You just don't bump into a vinaigrette that good."
Here’s another recipe from the book. People called it, “Nora Ephron’s Recipe for Curing Infidelity.” Perhaps you will tuck this one away for a summer treat like I did.
Key Lime Pie
“First you line a 9-inch pie plate with a graham cracker crust. Then beat 6 egg yolks. Add 1 cup lime juice (even bottled lime juice will do), two 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk, and 1 tablespoon grated lime rind. Pour into the pie shell and freeze. Remove from freezer and spread whipped cream. Let sit five minutes before serving.”
If I had to do it all over again, I would have made a different pie. The pie I threw at Mark made a terrific mess, but a blueberry pie would have been even better, since it would have permanently ruined his new blazer, the one he bought with Thelma. But Betty said to bring a Key lime pie, so I did.
Simultaneously sad and funny, Heartburn hit its mark.
Tips for Families
Parky’s Farm in Winton Woods is also hosting Storytime on the Farm from 10:30-11:30 a.m. each remaining Tuesday in April. In each session, they’ll share a book and include sensory-focused activities for kids to engage in that complement the book’s theme. This program is ideal for children ages 2-5. You’ll need a vehicle permit to enter the park, but the event is free.
Tips for Readers and Writers
Laugh is a tricky word for kids to spell.
The l makes sense. Even the a. But what’s with the u? And why does the g-h say /f/? Weird.
G-h does say /f/ in the words rough, tough, enough, graph, cough, and trough, but for beginning readers and writers, this is, well . . . tough.
At Book Bums, we feature the word laugh when we teach kids about the “expected” sound for a-u and a-w—which happens to be identical to the short o sound. We need the alternative spelling for the short o sound because words that end with a short o sound simply cannot be spelled with an o.
If we wrote paw with an o (po), you can see that we’d have some trouble. Open vowels—vowels not closed in by consonants (a, we, I, go, flu), make their long sounds. You see, now, the need for this additional way to spell the short o sound, right? When words end with a short o sound, it is likely spelled with an a-w.
An a-u represents that same sound. Think: autumn, fault, and astronaut. We’d expect the word laugh to be spelled l-a-f. That’d make sense. But laugh has an unexpected spelling that needs some explicit instruction.
To help your kids learn to spell laugh, we’re including a practice page you can print and share with your beginning readers and writers. As they write the word laugh, be sure your kids are making the sounds—even though the letters don’t make the sounds we’d expect. Having kids practice naming the letters to spell words is not recommended for it does not promote the orthographic mapping, the process by which words are made instantly retrievable. We must connect the sounds with the letters as we write.
To help kids remember this lesson, we often share a piece of Laffy Taffy.
Pause for Poetry
I’m rereading a book called Change Your Paradigm, Change Your Life, by Bob Proctor; and in it he talks about the benefits of having really big goals, for it’s the big goals that inspire us to actually move beyond our stale satisfaction with status quo.
Proctor also talks about the benefits of writing those goals down. He suggests that we write our big goal (one that’s so big we couldn’t possibly accomplish it on our own) onto an index card, in the present tense, and with gratitude. After that, he states we should read it aloud throughout each day, beginning the first thing in the morning. He suggests that having our big goal before us just might enthuse us to get up out of bed with gusto. (I could work . . .)
If you did this goal writing challenge with your kids, you’d get to:
• learn what’s really important to them
• teach them what writing with gratitude looks like (I’m so grateful that . . .)
• teach them what writing in present tense means ( . . . I’m a model soccer play on my team and my coach and I are both really proud of the highly skilled player I’ve become.)
• discuss what it might take to accomplish such a big goal
• talk about them asking someone to help hold them accountable for doing what it might take to accomplish the goal
Tips for Families
You can encourage your kids to expand their vocabularies by creating some colorful word art together. Brainstorm and list as many words for laugh as you can. Then, use a dictionary and a thesaurus to find even more. Finally, using crayons or markers, your kids can list all the words on a paper in a creative way. Perhaps their art will look something like this:
These are some words for laugh that we’d include in our word art: guffaw, chuckle, chortle, cackle, howl, giggle, titter, roar, snicker, whoop, crack-up, snort, snigger, cackle, and whoop.
Wordology Workshop
• The Latin root dict means to say or speak.
• Think about how that meaning is part of words like dictator, contradict, predict, and dictionary.
Practical Grammar
Here are some grammar errors that just might make you laugh out loud. Or they might make you cry. Or they could make you laugh and cry simultaneously.
Just for Fun
Did you know that before we said, “Cheese!” to encourage a smile when taking a photo, folks said the word prunes. Evidently, Britain’s first photographer, Richard Beard, wanted his subjects to look as refined as possible. He preferred a dour look on his subjects’ faces, and he got that when they said the word prunes. Remember, too, that dental care wasn’t what it is today, so not many people were flashing dazzling smiles back then.
It is rumored that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen use the prunes trick to make their mouths look pouty.
(You just said prunes, didn’t you?)
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