Gung Hay Fat Choi! Xin Nian Kuai Le! Happy Year of the Sheep/Ram/Goat!
So how are you celebrating? Here are some of my favourite children’s books for Chinese New Year:
The Year of … Continue reading ...
Add a Comment
new posts in all blogs
.jpg?picon=1806)
By: A Wilson,
on 4/28/2014
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: The Year of the Rat, Maggie O'Farrell, Anna Wilson, Clare Furniss, Mr B's, The Guardian, Add a tag
By: Aline Pereira,
on 2/18/2010
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Newbery Medal, Grace Lin, Eventful World, Bringing in the New Year, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Year of the Rat, Year of the Tiger, Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set, Spirit of PaperTigers Project, Add a tag
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: The Year of the Rat, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 3 of 3
By: Marjorie Coughlan,
on 2/19/2015
Blog: (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Oliver Chin, Regine Abos, Sheep Beauty, The Year of the Rat, The Year of the Dog, The Year of the Sheep, Demi, Dawn Casey, Dumpling Days, Crown Books, This Next New Year, Immedium, Li Jian, Happy New Year! Kung-Hsi Fa-Ts'ai!, He Zhihong, Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Long Long's New Year, David Bouchard, Sally Rippin, The Dragon New Year: A Chinese Legend, The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac, The Race for the Chinese Zodiac, and Lanterns, Bringing in the New Year, Family-Ship Experience blog, Grace Lin, Happy, Gabrielle Wang, Frances Foster, Knopf Books, Janet S. Wong, Happy Chinese New Year!, News, Books, Alina Chau, Barefoot Books, Yangsook Choi, Anne Wilson, Tuttle, Dragons, Zhong-Yang Huang, National Geographic Children's Books, children's books for Chinese New Year, Carolyn Otto, Catherine Gower, Crafty Moms Share blog, Add a tag
Blog: (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Oliver Chin, Regine Abos, Sheep Beauty, The Year of the Rat, The Year of the Dog, The Year of the Sheep, Demi, Dawn Casey, Dumpling Days, Crown Books, This Next New Year, Immedium, Li Jian, Happy New Year! Kung-Hsi Fa-Ts'ai!, He Zhihong, Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Long Long's New Year, David Bouchard, Sally Rippin, The Dragon New Year: A Chinese Legend, The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac, The Race for the Chinese Zodiac, and Lanterns, Bringing in the New Year, Family-Ship Experience blog, Grace Lin, Happy, Gabrielle Wang, Frances Foster, Knopf Books, Janet S. Wong, Happy Chinese New Year!, News, Books, Alina Chau, Barefoot Books, Yangsook Choi, Anne Wilson, Tuttle, Dragons, Zhong-Yang Huang, National Geographic Children's Books, children's books for Chinese New Year, Carolyn Otto, Catherine Gower, Crafty Moms Share blog, Add a tag
By: A Wilson,
on 4/28/2014
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: The Year of the Rat, Maggie O'Farrell, Anna Wilson, Clare Furniss, Mr B's, The Guardian, Add a tag
Last Thursday, a fellow Bath author, Clare Furniss, launched her first novel for teens, The Year of the Rat, at Mr B’s. The little shop was heaving with friends, family and well-wishers as Clare talked about how she had come to write the book, before reading a tantalizing extract, which now has me itching to read my copy.
There was a lot of buzz surrounding the novel as it has already received high praise, and was also announced as one of Radio 2’s Book Club choices the very day of the launch.
Almost more remarkable, some might comment, is the fact that Clare wrote this book whilst looking after two pre-school children. Almost as if to illustrate the enormity of this task, her two young sons were at Mr B’s with her, clambering over her while she spoke, evidently keen to share the limelight. Clare did a fantastic job in delivering a speech while encumbered in this way, and it led her to make a passing comment on ‘the pram in the hall’; a phrase which, more often than not, is used negatively as a metaphor for how motherhood can prevent women from reaching their full potential in their careers. However, as Clare said, for her, ‘the pram in the hall’ actively helped her to achieve her dream of writing a novel, as it meant she had to concentrate her efforts into the small amount of free time she had available.
‘I worked while the boys were sleeping, or while my parents took them off me for short periods; I wrote late into the night – I took any and every opportunity I could to sit and write,’ she said.
This resonated strongly with me, for I share Clare’s conviction that if it were not for that pram in the hall, I too would not have found the drive necessary to get on with it and become a writer.
When my son was born and my daughter was just two years old, my husband’s career took us to France. I had been working in London and had to give up my job to go with him. I found myself thinking I should use my enforced career break to finally do something about being the writer I knew, deep down, I had always wanted to be.
It was tough. I was exhausted a lot of the time and had no friends or family to call on. My husband worked long hours and often travelled, leaving me with the kids for days and nights at a time. Although my daughter went to a little garderie des enfants a couple of times a week, I still had a newborn baby to look after.
I decided that the only way to get anything done was to use the children’s rest times to my advantage. Luckily my son was a good sleeper, so while his sister was out, I would feed him, put him in his car seat and rock it gently with my foot while I sat at my computer. He would eventually drop off to sleep while I tapped away at the keyboard.
Recently Maggie O’Farrellwrote an article in the Guardian on how she combines motherhood with her working day:
‘How to write looking after a very young baby: get a sling . . . Walk to your desk, averting your eyes from the heaps of laundry on the stairs, the drifts of cat hair on the carpets, the flotsam of toys in every doorway . . . Do not check your email, do not click on your favourites . . . do not be tempted to see how your eBay auctions are faring: go to work, go directly to work . . . Write. The clickety-clackety of the keyboard will soothe [the baby] and you. Write without looking back, write without rereading . . . Write until you feel her twisting her head from side to side, until you lift her out and into your arms. You might be in the middle of a sentence, but no matter. Type “HERE” in capitals and then push yourself away from the desk, carrying her out of the room, shutting the door until next time.’
I am sure many mothers will recognize this description of making the most of the free time they can grab for themselves. O’Farrell’s experience mirrors my own: this is pretty much how I wrote my first picture book, my first short stories and it is how I began to see myself as a writer rather than a mother taking a break from work. The added bonus of motherhood was that it actively contributed to my writing life: I was seeing the world through my children’s eyes on a daily basis, and realizing that was how I wanted to write it.
The kids are teens now, so I have a lot more time to myself than I did when they were babies. The demands are different and sometimes writing time is still broken up, particularly in the school holidays when I am asked to drive them here and there and everywhere. And of course I still have to walk past the laundry, the drifts of cat hair, the piles of washing up . . .
It hasn’t always been an easy ride, mixing writing with motherhood, and I am certain I would not want to go back to those sleep-deprived days, those snatched half hours of writing time interspersed with breast-feeding, nappy-changing and Lego-building. Yet there is no doubt that having only tiny amounts of time to write did focus the mind and keep me keen, not to mention giving me valuable material. I agree with Clare Furniss: in the end, it was the pram in the hall that set me on the road to being the writer I had always wanted to be.
So if you want to write, but think, ‘I haven't got the time’, draw strength from the fact that it can be done, how ever little time you have. I have learnt that one concentrated hour (or even thirty minutes) is a golden opportunity, not to be wasted; and all thanks to the pram in the hall.
So if you want to write, but think, ‘I haven't got the time’, draw strength from the fact that it can be done, how ever little time you have. I have learnt that one concentrated hour (or even thirty minutes) is a golden opportunity, not to be wasted; and all thanks to the pram in the hall.
Anna Wilson
0 Comments on In Praise of the Pram in the Hall – Anna Wilson as of 4/29/2014 2:59:00 AM
Add a Comment
By: Aline Pereira,
on 2/18/2010
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Newbery Medal, Grace Lin, Eventful World, Bringing in the New Year, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Year of the Rat, Year of the Tiger, Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set, Spirit of PaperTigers Project, Add a tag
We have blogged quite a bit about Grace Lin lately as her book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was chosen as one of seven books in our Spirit of Paper Tigers Book Set and was also named a 2010 Newbery Honor Book, one of the most prestigious awards for children’s literature in the United States. Be sure to check out Grace’s blog to read about and see photos from “the Newbery call” .
One thing that I really admire about Grace is that she is so accessible to her fans via her regularly updated blog and her full schedule of book signings and school visits. This Saturday, February 20th, she will be at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, USA hosting Learn How Books Are Made with Grace Lin where she will show the many steps of publishing, read one of her books, answers questions, draw some of her book characters and sign books. After a lunch break, she will talk about Lunar New Year customs, referencing her books Bringing in the New Year and The Year of the Rat. Perhaps she will share some of the special lunar crafts that she has been making to help celebrate the Year of the Tiger (and have you made our Paper Tiger yet?). Of course, all of us at PaperTigers have a special affinity for the Year of the Tiger and so does Grace:
In my book, The Year of the Rat there is the story of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, which tells of the great race of the animals to win the the honor of a year named after them. The winning animals had their own characteristics as you can tell by how they they competed
The Tiger won his place by sheer strength, courage and nerve. That is why they say people who are born in the Year of the Tiger are risk-takers and brave. So, this year, the Year of the Tiger, is the year where we all have to be strong, brave and ready to take risks. It might be a bit unpredictable and surprising.
Now, I was born in the Year of the Tiger so this is MY year. But, it doesn’t mean it will be a lucky one. When it is YOUR year, it means it will be a year of important and possibly life-changing decisions. It’s the year where big things happen that change the course of your life.
0 Comments on Celebrate the Year of the Tiger with Grace Lin as of 1/1/1900
Add a Comment