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Holiday Wishes and a Narnian Christmas!

By on December 23, 2016   /   Book Lists, Fiction, For Kids, For Parents, For Writers  

Warmest Holiday Wishes from all of us here at the Mixed-Up Files! It’s time to celebrate the joys of the season with family and friends, but what do you do when the partying ends? Here are some fun, book-themed things to make while you’re on holiday break.

And since no book says “Christmas!” to me quite like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, here are activities based on it and other books in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Snowflakes Okay, I know this one isn’t Narnia-themed, but there are lots of sites for themed templates–we always do the new Star Wars flakes found here every year, and this site has an entire menagerie of simple animal flakes if you’d like to stay in keeping with the book.

 

Turkish Delight When I directed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a few years ago, one of the actor’s moms made Turkish Delight for the cast party. I can see why Edmund lost his head over the stuff–yum! Here’s an easy, microwavable recipe .

Mrs. Beaver’s Sticky Marmalade Roll It’s a testimony to Mrs. Beaver’s culinary talent that she was able to whip this comfort food up with such speed. Here’s a simple recipe from Astrid Tuttle Winegar that will help you give it a go, deary.

Many Coloured Sugar

Sweeter still is this “Many Coloured Sugar” craft based on the treat in Prince Caspian’s feast.

And if your taste turns more toward adventure, try your luck at making your own Dawn Treader! But before you cross into the wonderful world of Narnia, you’ll need to convert one of your leftover gift boxes into a Magical Wardrobe.

Once there, you’ll meet Aslan, the Great Lion. Here’s a video of how you can build him using origami. Or you could become Aslan yourself with this face paint tutorial. It wouldn’t be Narnia without Cair Paravel; here are some ideas for building your castle!

Remember: Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia!

What’s your favorite holiday read ?

 

Louise’s daughters as a wolf and Mrs. Beaver in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Louise Galveston is the author of By the Grace of Todd and In Todd We Trust (Penguin/Razorbill.)

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Let There Be…

By on December 21, 2016   /   For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers  

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”   Plato

This shortest day of a too-dark year seems  a good time to share a story I sometimes tell on school visits. I can’t remember where I first heard or read it, and I change it a bit every time.

Once there was a king who was growing old. Soon it would be time to leave his kingdom to one of his three daughters, so he called them all to him. Which of them could fill the throne room, wall to wall and ceiling to floor with something precious? She would inherit the crown.

The first daughter ran to the royal coffers and had the servants drag in bag upon bag of gold coins and spill them out. Yet they did not fill the room.

The second daughter ran to the royal wardrobe and had the maids carry in piles of gowns and jewels and dancing shoes. They did not fill the room either.

The third daughter stood before her father and quietly smiled. She reached into her pocket, making her big sisters laugh and sneer. As if a person could fill this grand room with something small enough to fit into her hand!

But they stopped laughing when their sister drew out …a candle. For when she lit it, its yellow glow grew and grew till it reached every corner of the room, spreading its golden warmth everywhere.

Books, I tell the kids, are a lot like that candle. Stories and poems glow and spark and warm the world with their shining light. They show us the way. They make us less afraid. They fit in our pockets, yet their light fills hearts. A book, some  poet once said, “should be a ball of light in one’s hands.”

So on this longest night of the year, let’s light candles, let’s build fires, let’s write and read and share stories. Let’s remember again some of the wisest words ever written. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that,” wrote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

 

 

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A(nother) Love Letter to Libraries

By on December 19, 2016   /   For Librarians, For Teachers, Op-Ed  

I’ve long had a love affair with libraries. I grew up as a middle grade student wandering rows of dusty stacks and checking out piles of books. I did research in my high school and college libraries. I went to library school and  learned how to make my own library the center of our learning community. Now, I download new books from my local library. I go to write there, and dig into archives and bookstacks galore for nuggets and facts to add to my historical novels and articles.

Those are all great things and I’m so grateful for all of them. This is a different kind of love letter to libraries. I’m thinking of middle grade students today, getting ready to leave school for a long break, to spend their time sipping hot chocolate or sledding, or maybe reading all the books they got as gifts.

But what about those students whose families lack resources? What does their winter break look like? It’s cold here this week. We’ve been sick at our house. What if we had no way to deal with those issues? Worse still, what if one of your students doesn’t? I can’t get this thought out of my head. My imagination begins to run wild and I start to worry about kids like the ones in the first school where I taught, the kids who shared one coat between siblings through the winter. Who depended on a meal –  free or reduced lunch during the school year, or the sandwiches that were served in the cafeteria during the summer on the same day the book mobile came to school.

Libraries help – without regard to socio-economic status or religion or race or just about anything. Libraries help.

Here’s what my local libraries do about this problem that won’t leave my mind.

Some libraries provide cold weather shelter for homeless people. The Everett Public Library provides resources on its home page .

The Sno-Isle Regional Library system also posts resources on its site. In addition, every branch library’s home page lists the cold weather shelter in their neighborhood alongside the library contact information at the top of the page. Why is this important?

In our area, this past January’s One Night Count in Seattle showed that over 4500 people slept outside, and around 30 of those were children. Where I live and work, that is a whole classroom full of kids – or two. 

In my own county to the north, this was the most striking paragraph for me from the countywide Point in Time Survey:

“Precariously Housed Independent Children (17 & Under) Twenty-two children between the ages of 12 and 17 were found to be living on their own, in a precariously housed situation. The average age of this group was 16.3 years old. Three additional children were found living together as one household, one of them the dependent child of a teenage couple. This household stated they spent the previous night temporarily living with family or friends.”

Thinking about kids – the ones we teach and reach each week (or the ones we can’t) being outside in the cold makes me crazy. But there is hope:  alongside city and county agencies, libraries are joining the work and the conversation about homelessness. I will leave you with this document created by the American Library Association: Extending Our Reach: Reducing Homelessness Through Library Engagement 

What services does your library provide?

 

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