So there is a theory many of us have about mom’s illness. It was because she was so healthy that they didn’t find the cancer soon enough. It was because she was so healthy that she lived for a week without food or water while asleep in hospice.
My mom loved to eat vegetables. She hated ice cream and most sweets. She had an amazing garden that produced enough food for her to can and freeze much of it to sustain her through the winter. She loved spending time in the garden too.
My mom loved children’s books. She loved the pictures the most. She can remember her favorite book as a kid, not for the story but for the illustrations. She loved diverse books and reading about people, places and perspectives. A deeply visual person.
I encourage you to do two things this week in her honor:
1. Eat more veggies. We recently signed up for Misfit Market. We get a box of organic veggies delivered to our door step every other week. It is cheap and SO easy. Sign up here: https://www.misfitsmarket.com/
2. Read diverse books. Here is a diverse book challenge for kids and grown ups alike. If you are in Philly you can even get a free coffee for each book you read from a category. The 2020 Diverse Reading Challenge from Big Blue Marble Books:
Indigenous Author
There are many great chapter books, YA novels, fiction, poetry and nonfiction by Native/Indigenous authors. I just finished There, There by Tommy Orange.
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through a Black lens and cultures, myths, and traditions from across the African continent. I am reading Tomi Adeyemi’s Legend of Orisha books.
Poetry
Any poetry will do but I enjoy reading Shel Silverstein and Nikki Giovanni books with my kids.
Comics/Graphic
Comics/graphic novels add the emotional power of visual art to story telling. Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, humor – authors and artists are constantly pushing the boundaries of how comics format can be adapted to make beautiful and complicated stories. Check out Hilda graphic novels for kids.
How an Object is Made
Both my parents loved these kinds of books. They inspired all sorts of projects in our home growing up. Take a deep dive into the how-to of something you care about – food, furniture, fiber, buildings, toys, books – who makes these, and how, and how have they shaped us?
LGBTQ Author
Celebrate LGBTQ lives! Recommendations: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/lgbtq-books
#OwnVoices
#OwnVoices is a movement to create books about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group. While authors have worked hard to responsibly write the “other,” it’s also important to seek out books written from personal experience and books that value accurate representation of race, disability, cultures, gender, and sexuality.
Final Book of a Series
Finish a series and celebrate!
Immigrant Author
Every part of our daily lives – food, architecture, music, clothes – has been shaped by immigrants to the U.S. We need new voices and new visions in order to see our world more clearly, and to fight back against the current political culture that attacks immigrants.
Something Just for Fun
2020 is going to be a rough year – take time to read something just for pleasure. As pleasure is an important human emotion, we won’t judge or consider a pleasure “guilty.’ Sometimes one just needs to read a happy-ending love story, spend time with a favorite childhood character, or delight in a high-body count thriller.
Upcoming entries….why everyone needs art and the power of siblings. Stay tuned.
Be Like Barb 