Whole Days Outdoors: An Autobiographical Album

Whole Days Outdoors: An Autobiographical Album
Author: Jim Arnosky
Photographer: Deanna Arnosky
Publisher: Richard C. Owen Publishers
ISBN-10: 1572748591
ISBN-13: 978-1572748590

Whole Days Outdoors is the story of Jim Arnosky, prolific nature writer of titles such as All Night Near the Water, Armadillo's Orange, Big Jim and the White legged Moose among many others. His sketches of animals and nature are some of the most detailed and lifelike illustrations.

In this autobiography in the Meet the Author Series, Mr. Arnosky tells of growing up in Philadelphia, living on a farm in Vermont and being out in nature. He learned drawing from his father. This book, like the others in the series is insightful and fascinating.

The photographs that compliment the text are wonderful and give added depth. I found it both interesting and highly entertaining to find he sometimes writes a paragraph for a manuscript while sitting on his lawnmower.

I love how these books really make writing so accessible to children. The authors who do these books are really contributing something of value to children. I can see whole generations of children inspired to write because of these books. It will give a deep appreciation for the process and of the work that goes into writing a book.

Meet the Authors Series: Before It Wriggles Away - Janet S. Wong

Meet the Author Series
Before it Wriggles Away
Author: Janet S. Wong
Photographer: Anne Lindsay
Publisher: Richard C. Owens Publishers
ISBN-10: 1572748613
ISBN-13: 978-1572748613
Autobiographies for grades 2-5

Last week I read George Ancona’s story in the Meet the Author series by Richard C. Owen Publishers and I loved it. Today I read Janet Wong’s story. I find myself hooked. Completely. I love this series!

Before It Wriggles Away is a completely engaging story written by children’s book author Janet S. Wong. In it she tells of how growing up she never thought she’d write books. She tells how she fell into writing and of how happy it has made her, how much she loves it. In the book Ms. Wong tells how she went back to school and had a great teacher which turned her dislike of poetry to a love of it, made her into a poet.

The story is a simple one but it’s a great one. The whole writing process of this amazing author is told in words and photographs. Janet Wong tells of writing poetry, how she gets ideas and wandering thoughts that eventually become a story or poem. It’s completely fascinating.

Before It Wriggles Away is written for children in grades 2-5 but I feel that adults, especially those interested in writing are going to find this and others in the Meet the Author series completely necessary to their library. I certainly do.

What a great project this is! How fascinating and wondrous it is to peek into the lives of these authors and what makes them tick. How inspiring to young children. The authors I’ve read (so far only two) make writing not just an impossible dream, but something completely doable and accessible. That’s inspiring. These books aren’t preachy or textbookish, they are interesting and fun and very, very likeable. Highly recommended.

The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell by Joe Loya

Joe Loya is an ex-convict, ex-bank robber turned writer whose correspondence with essayist Richard Rodriguez provides him with an anchor while he is imprisoned.

His story is appalling, violent and absolutely riveting. At times, I had to put it down because some of the things that happened to him or that he did were just so disturbing. Mr. Loya writes so well, however that I kept picking this book back up again to find out what happened.

It's an amazing look into the psyche of this precocious little boy who, through the abuse he suffers from his father slowly evolves into this manipulative criminal. This book shows us so clearly how violence and abuse affect society as a whole. The boy’s father is dealing with his own pain and demons, the loss of his wife.

Mr. Loya’s transition from bible verse spouting boy to manipulative, lying young man, to bank robber, to prisoner and finally, to writer is a journey into a life we rarely, if ever see or want to see. It is a beautifully written and detailed account of his life.

Burro Genius by Victor Villasenor

Victor Villasenor is an incredible, wonderful writer. He is all the more so when you read this biography and learn of the immense challenges he faced from the educational system, his extreme dyslexia and from bigotry.

Mr. Villasenor writes with pathos about growing up during a time when Mexicans were thought of as dirty, lazy and sub-standard. Forced to not speak Spanish in school, he was taught to be ashamed of his parents, ashamed of being Mexican. The teachers were horrible and abusive. I can’t believe the child that was so abused and mistreated grew up to be such an astounding writer.

As I read this book, I became more and more aware of how important it is as a Mexican-American or, as I refer to myself as a Mexica, to keep our culture, to speak our Spanish, to teach our children who they are and where they come from. So much was taken from us in ways such as you will read in this book that we can’t let any more be taken. We have to make a stand and start taking back what belongs to us, starting with our culture.

This astounding book will make you laugh, cry and incredibly angry. It should be required reading in any school and certainly for anyone with Mexican heritage