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The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature (Part 1)
Alright, I confess – I get a lot of my information (okay, to be really honest, trivia) from the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series (Portable Press, San Diego). Over the years I’ve read many editions (now up to 37, which is what I’d call a really successful publishing run), and I never tire of the… Read more
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Comics
I’ve already said I enjoyed comic books. Were they not a staple of every child’s growing-up in the 50’s and 60’s? Comics were not just for an individual’s reading pleasure, they were also a communal event, where one would meet up with friends, catch up on the latest gossip while exchanging new titles or reading… Read more
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Maps
I’ve always loved maps. When very young, as a Christmas present, I was given a very sturdy jigsaw puzzle of North America. I spent a lot of time playing with it, the result being I knew (and still know) the names and location of every U.S. state and Canadian province. Somewhat later, my Scottish godparents… Read more
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History II – A Life’s Passion
It probably doesn’t need to be said to anyone who’s looked at The Ravenstones website or read my previous blogs, but I am an avid reader of books on history, both modern and ancient. The list of authors and their works that I value is far too long to include in a brief post. But… Read more
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My Brush with Death
We interrupt these regular scheduled blog posts to bring you a brief update. On Friday, September 18, I was scheduled to have a hernia operation at a nearby surgical clinic. I keep a daily journal (Moleskine large-size, if you must know), and the last paragraph of my entry for the day before — after a… Read more
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Writing About Animals
Regular readers of these posts will find that I make regular recourse to the works of Bruce Handy, the author of a wonderful book about children’s literature called Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2017). Bruce Handy is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and… Read more
