Bougie's Top Ten "Storytapes"

In our house, all audiobooks are called storytapes.

Book on CD? Storytape.

Book on i-pod? Storytape.

Book on tape? Well, you get the picture.

Since Bougie is now three-going-on-not-napping, storytapes are particularly important in her life. And mine. Because every day that she's not at preschool around 1 pm, I read her a couple of books, then pop in a storytape and shut the door. And we both get a break for about an hour. Sometimes she sleeps. Increasingly she doesn't. But it doesn't matter - all I need to get through the rest of the day is that hour.

Yeah, I could turn on the TV for her. Lord knows there's better programming for preschoolers now than any other time in the history of television. But I prefer to sock away that privilege for times when I really need it (say, when both kids are climbing the walls and dinner is not cooking itself). And the truth is: she LOVES her storytapes.

I'm not talking about those book-and-tape sets, by the way. I'm talking looooooong, long-winded narration of dense tales. I think she just kind of stares at the ceiling and bugs out. I'm pretty sure she follows the narrative (particularly after repeated listenings), because she'll happily discuss them with you.

At any rate, following the lead of my fellow offsprung blogger, Stefan (of Zooglobble fame), whose top-50 list of children's songs kept my toes tapping, I proudly offer Bougie's Top Ten Storytapes List. I'll count 'em down in future posts, and I'd welcome suggestions from any readers whose under-five year olds are also audiophiles.

Without Further Ado: NUMBER TEN IS....

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

(note: we have it on CD, but Amazon only seems to carry the cassette... I'm not sure if this is the same recording) This longish tale, one of the more obscure-ish works of the inimitable Roald Dahl, is about a boy who befriends a team comprised of a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey who clean windows. Together, they go to the palace, clean windows, stop a burglary and live happily ever after in ways quite specific to their characters. A lovely tale, well read (with nice incidental music, too).

Tune in here, or on my new offsprung blog, Pajamazon, for future installments.

Kid Lit Konspiracy Kapers

In my recent Pajamazon post re: Al Roker’s new Book Club for Kids, I scrupulously avoided the whole issue of the project’s underwriting.

Which is to say that the Book Club is sponsored by Scholastic and, hey, what a co-winky-dink, the first title selected is a Scholastic title! I was just going to keep my mouth shut about that and focus on Al Roker’s lack of kid book credentials and sudden Jenna-Bush-like desire to cannonball into the swimming pool of children’s literature because, like, it’s fun and, hey, look at me!

But I can keep silent in the face of conspiracy no longer.

Here’s why (see Exhibit A, above):

Yes, it’s a pair of kids’ pajamas bearing images from the children’s book ELLA THE ELEGANT ELEPHANT. They’re made by a company called Books To Bed for the catalog and online merchant cwdkids. When I saw them, doting parent and shrewd merchandiser that I am, I immediately called the company and got their buyer on the phone (no, I’m not that great at working my way up the chain of command. they seem to be an extremely small company, despite the fact that their catalog comes flying through our mailslot about every other day).

I pitched them my brilliant idea: Pajamas based on MY book, CHICKEN BEDTIME IS REALLY EARLY, which happens to have the perfect images printed on the book’s endpages… lovely little chickens, rabbits, sheep and frogs in nightcaps, all ready for bed. What child wouldn’t love these jammies? I offered to order two (heck, make it FOUR!) pairs on the spot, just to prove how successful these little numbers would be.

Politely, the buyer declined. I could send her my book, of course, and she’d take a look. But decisions about which books would be immortalized on flame-retardant cotton long johns would be based on book sales, primarily.

That’s great, I told her. CHICKEN BEDTIME is in its fifth printing now, and…

But it was clear she wasn’t listening any more. The conversation ended soon after she called me “a firecracker” (I think this was a compliment) and wished me well in my future endeavors. Come to think of it, she started to tune me out right around when I answered her question about the name of my publisher.

My publisher, which is not Scholastic.

The whole thing seemed a little fishy, so I dug a little deeper on the cwdkids website. Sure enough, three titles were chosen for pajamification: How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (OK, Jane Yolen can do no wrong, and this one seems like bonafide pajama fodder, what with the words “dinosaur” and “good night” in the title, plus Mark Teague’s illustrations are terrific), Good Boy, Fergus (what exactly does this book have to do with bedtime? and did it really sell so great?) and the aforementioned Ella (ditto my Fergus grumblings). Hmmm? What do all these books have in common?

Terrific, adorable, kid-pleasing characters? Maybe…

Impressive sales figures? Perhaps…

Or, could it be…

Yup, they’re all published by Scholastic.

Just wait. By next fall, I have no doubt cwdkids will be unveiling a new pajama style. With images of yet another cuddly, kid-pleasing character brought to you by Scholastic:

Al Roker.

Seven Year (Old) Itch

Scene: Bedtime, our house

Franny: Mom? There's this kid at my school, named Phillip, I think? He had cancer and he lost all his hair? But it grew back and now it's all, like, golden and spiky?

Me: Oh?

Franny: Oh, wait. Not cancer. Lice.

Whither Thou Goes, Al Roker

When Neal Pollack (Mr. Alternadad himself) asked me to write a blog about children’s books (ones that I didn’t write) for the EXCITING NEW PARENTING WEBSITE offsprung.com, I was a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous.

I mean, yeah, I guess I know a thing or two about children’s books. They’re my lifelong passion AND my bread and butter AND the main way I coax my increasingly wriggly kids back into my lap. But still, there are sooo many other folks already putting out excellent blogs about kids’ books (shelftalker, fuse # 8, seven impossible things before breakfast, book buds, planetesme, big a little a, librarianne… to name but a few)…. It’s a big book-blogging world after all. Who needs me?

But that was before Al Roker entered the kids’ literature scene.

Now, okay, I know this is shooting fish in a barrel (or, let’s see, what’s a good analogy… like getting a weatherman, um, wet?) but where does Al Roker get off proclaiming himself King of Kid Lit? I mean, Oprah, maybe. But Al Roker? I’m not even going to go off on the whole marketing-boondoggle-for-Scholastic aspect of the whole thing. I’m just wondering if someone over there couldn’t get LeVar Burton and just figured, well, maybe Al Roker is close enough? I mean, he’s an author, right? What child hasn’t read Al Roker’s Big Bad Book of Barbeque (spoiler alert: it ends badly for the three little pigs!).

But let’s back up for a second. Maybe I’m not being fair to Al. Apparently, two of his kids are five and eight, so he’s probably familiar with giving a certain pig a certain pancake and how much Little Nut-Brown Hare’s old man can one-up him before bedtime. I suppose there’s even a chance he’s read my books (and if he wants to feature them on his book club, well, then that’s too darned… gosh, do you think he might?!!) I recently read that he even toiled in obscurity as an illustrator before making it in his fall-back field of weathermanning. That’s (To-Think-That-I Saw-It-On-Mulberry-)street cred if I ever heard it. Plus, “Al” is a really classic children’s book name. Think A Girl Called Al, Al Capone Does My Shirts, and, of course, Andrew Clements’ Big Al.

So, I’m not going to predict (get it? like a weatherman!) whether Al Roker will shine or get soggy in his new role.

I’m just going to take a deep breath and say, if Al can do it, so can I.

And just to get all nutsy-boltsy about it, you can watch me do it here OR on offsprung.com (click on my blog, titled PAJAMAZON, and bookmark it too, while you're at it!). I'll also post some stand alone stuff here about stuff that is fascinating but perhaps is a bit too off topic. So check both places, okay?

Will the real ERICA PERL please stand up?

Have you ever looked up at the sky, maybe while wearing your Mickey Mouse ears and sorcerer's apprentice hat, and wondered if somewhere else in the world, there might be another person JUST LIKE YOU?

Have you ever then gone to the computer, googled your name, and found out that, YES INDEED, there is another person with your very same name - same spelling and everything - living in the very same country as you? Okay, maybe that's not so thrilling if your name is Jane Smith, but if your name is ERICA PERL, it is pretty cool!

I wish I could say it happened to me. But it didn't. It happened to THE OTHER ERICA PERL!

That's right. Meet Erica J. Perl (we're pals now, so I can just call her "J"), age 8. She was quite surprised to learn that there was another ERICA PERL and that this other ERICA PERL (Erica S. Perl, that is: me) is a writer and author of kids' books.

Armed with this astonishing information, J summoned up her courage and sent me a charming e-mail (from her dad's e-mail account) and I rewarded this effort with an autographed copy of NINETY-THREE IN MY FAMILY. J received the book this weekend and wrote me another lovely note, thanking me and telling me that the book came to Sunday School and soccer with her (and helped her team win a 4-3 victory - nicely done!). She is looking forward to bringing it to school so her teacher, Mrs. Garn, can read it to the class. Hi, everyone in Mrs. Garn's class!

SO, if you are also a member of the highly exclusive MY NAME IS ERICA PERL club (remember, that's Erica with a "C" and Perl with no "A" or extra "E"), please send me a note and you too can join us in pen-pal-dom!

And if your name is Ericka Pearle or Eriqua Peel or Erikkuh Perool, write too because I might just make an exception and let you in anyway.

If it's okay with J, that is!