Heroes

Last night, after hastily unpacking and loving the dogs and grabbing a quick dinner in town, we high tailed it to the Michigan for yet another fantastic event. Strangely, after years of not setting foot inside the historic theater we've been there three times already this year, each time for a truly unique and unforgettable experience. In May it was Fitzgerald meets Luhrmann for The Great Gatsby—favorite book by a favorite author made into a movie by a respected director culminating in a grand experience. Two weeks ago it was Shakespeare meets Whedon for Much Ado About Nothing—an enjoyable story by a respected author made into a movie by a favorite director culminating in a brilliant movie (think stunning black and white with surprisingly skillful acting for a modern take with the traditional language).

Then last night's event went something like this: star struck literary fans meet extremely talented author for a delightful signing event. Neil Gaiman came to town. We're old fans of his. Jon and I were introduced to his work many years ago through Neverwhere, then moved through all the rest of his existing adult stuff and pounced on new titles as they arrived. Later, when Calvin was reading chapter books, we introduced him to Odd and the Frost Giants, and, my personal favorite of them all, The Graveyard Book. He has a new book out that reads like a dream, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and he planned just four U.S. stops for a signing tour; Ann Arbor happened to be one of them.

But, after rushing to the theater and taking our seats with just minutes to spare, the announcement was made that due to major airport delays Mr. Gaiman was, in fact, not yet landed in Detroit. Remarkably, and I think this says a lot about his fandom in general, the two hours that we ended up waiting for his arrival passed smoothly, and the theater was still packed when he finally arrived. I think it also helps that he is active on twitter and posted constantly for waiting fans during much of that time. Social media is fun that way. We knew the moment he landed, and that he was very, very sorry, and that he was hurrying as fast as he could, and that, regardless of what the directors said about cutting things short at the event, he would honor the original signing agreement because we were such great fans to wait (a concession that kept him at the theater wielding a pen until 3am, but which makes him that much more awesome in our eyes).

We passed the time reading the books we'd brought for signing and munching on popcorn with beer and lemonade. Then Calvin decided at last to fill out a question card and drop it in the jar just before we were finally summoned to our seats. Fortuitous, because during the short question answering portion of the event, Mr. Gaiman selected and answered that very question.

"Are you going to write a sequel to Stardust? P.S. I love your books. -Calvin, age 7," he read on stage, "Really? Age 7? Or is that a 1? No, it must be a 7."

Calvin, Jon, and I looked on with a giddy delight and a sense of incredulity that actually matched Mr. Gaiman's own surprise later when he recognized Calvin in the signing line due to the name (for personalization) and his obvious youthfulness. I got the impression that he thought the age on the notecard had either been a joke or a sloppy misprint. Calvin was the youngest fan there, by at least a few years, and I don't think he actually expected him to be 7. He signed his copy of Graveyard with a little extra—a sketch of a tombstone personalized just for Calvin. As the usher standing there said to me, "from anyone else that would be creepy, but from him that's really awesome."

And that 3am finishing time? Well, when they started the call for the signing line, being in a balcony section we were slated to be one of the last. But they called for the usual exceptions first—people with mobility issues, pregnant women, and people with young children. So we took advantage of their offer, which got us out of there slightly after nine.

In Chicago time that's only slightly after eight, and well within bedtime limits.

Science at the park

The scary part

We were out a lot today, and came home tired and hungry. Nothing a good snack of tea and gingerbread couldn't conquer.

Calvin had his first theater class at our homeschool gathering today. It is a several week long class and is the first he is taking via the group. Actually, other than swimming, I think it's his first class period. He has been talking about it non-stop all week, so I was as almost as glad as he was when the day finally arrived. He seemed to have a great time, although there was some disappointment that they are going to be doing a Percy Jackson play when he had been hoping for a Jack and Annie play. Still, he is thrilled, and I think we might try the first Percy Jackson book to see what it's all about.

Speaking of books, Calvin is still on his Magic Tree House kick. He was hell-bent on having all the books in the series, and we'd been slowly buying them (for .25 each) from our library as they came into the sale room, but one of his favorite Christmas gifts was the last five he was missing. He can spend hours reading and play-acting the series all on his own. He loves the magic theme in them—the references to magic spells and Morgan le Fey and Merlin, and will happily march around chanting incantations. He is now asking me to find a copy of the Puffin Classics King Arthur for him to read, since  he saw it listed in the back of his copy of The Wizard of Oz (which we recently replaced with this one that he likes much better, but that's neither here nor there). It is incredibly hard not to cave and give in to every single book desire he has.

As for what we're reading out loud lately, we just finished The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, also by L. Frank Baum, which he loved. You can read all about that below, including the "sort of scary part" (which he wasn't even going to mention until I suggested that he might want to warn other kids).

11 days: Christmas stories

We collect Christmas books. Every year for St. Nicholas Day we give a book to Calvin for us to share together year after year. We write in them each year, inscribing the opening pages with a message of love and a date. We're only up to six books at this point, but we also have a few favorites from our own childhoods that transport us to those early days of Christmas joy.

2006: The Snow Tree, by Caroline Repchuk

2007: The Night Before Christmas, by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Bruce Whatley

2008: Amazing Peach, A Christmas Poem, by Maya Angelou

2009: Good King Wenceslas, by John M. Neale and Tim Ladwig

2010: The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg

2011: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by Charles Santore and the full version, too.

Summer reading, and more

Today Calvin signed himself up for the summer reading program at our library. The idea is to get (keep?) kids reading over the summer, so they get prizes each time they meet their own weekly goals and are entered in an end of the summer drawing as well. Even though there is a "read to me" component we've never participated before. I don't go in for goal or reward oriented reading (says the girl with the goal of reading a book a week over the course of the year); reading is a natural part of our day, and Calvin reads plenty without enticement, outside of the pure enjoyment he gains from doing so. But this year Calvin is reading to himself and after reading the brochure he asked me about the program. I explained to him why we'd never participated before and gave him the choice of doing so now, as long as, if he chose to join in, he met his own goals all summer.

He signed up for the big kids program, the "read to myself" program. He filled the form out by himself and chose to set a goal of four completely new books each week, which, as he explained to me almost word for word, "is not very many, but will leave me time to read my old favorites and maybe a "long long chapter book, like the next Oz." I will make him a book log to keep at home, and each week he will fill out the log the library has for him under his name. And maybe I'm mistaken, or maybe it's just the right time, because I can see this being a decent thing. Having to keep the list might get him thinking more about the books and their authors, and about comparing them, too. And since he is a natural reader now, I doubt the introduction of rewards will ruin our natural flow.

And so we were at the library today, and before that this morning was the start of Calvin's two week long summer swim class, which means lessons at nine in the morning, every morning, all week, for two weeks. We're always up well before then, but we're not usually out of the house by the then, or presentable (because I often get up and go running, which is out of the house, but I'm not exactly presentable afterwards). The bright side? Just think of all the things we can accomplish this way. And today was a math day, and a checking on the bacteria we're growing petri dishes day, and a bird watching, reading, and piano day. Pretty much a run-of-the-mill day you could say.

Swan family in our neighborhood! I would have liked better pictures of these guys but it was just before bedtime that they came wandering through so it was dark, and we respectfully kept our distance. I'm hoping we'll see them again, though.