By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, Mary and I will have returned home after babysitting for a couple of days, as the oldest and spouse got a few days away to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Three-and-a-half year old grandchild kept us busy. And this one no longer takes naps! (I certainly snuck in a few.)
Needless to say, there were lots of books to read between walking the dog, meals, playing with duplos, constructing train sets, and arts and craft projects. Bedtime reading included a bunch of books, nothing like extending the day—the more books the better to avoid “Good nights!” There were 10 each night. Ha!
But not all were bedtime reading. Favorites were the Amy Wu series, especially Saturday. Both days a favorite was “Dragons Love Tacos.” A board book caught my attention—”The Quiet Book” by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Renata Liwska. It captures those special moments of quiet that each of us has encountered, right down to that special quiet as the snow begins to fall.
The Amy Wu books feature, of course, Amy Wu, a child navigating elementary school and all types of new adventures in the classroom and out. Each book includes some type of activity, either an arts and crafts activity or even a recipe to cook something with mom and dad.
In “Amy Wu and the Perfect Boa,” the Wu family makes boa, a filled dough that is steamed, sort of a dumpling, I am guessing. Grandchild and I made our own version of boa using modeling clay. (I have forgotten how much fun modeling clay is.)
My own reading, earlier in the week, was the last of the Broken Earth trilogy, and I can’t say enough about Jemisin’s accomplishment. It is in the sci-fi realm, but it is as much about what is happening in the world today as any book based on reality.
Listening included a little of this and a little of that. I did discover a series of podcasts provided by the London Review of Books. Called “Close Readings,” it features short talks about classic books. The one I listened to was on Chaucer. Click here for the main page.
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While away, The Edition’s website crashed. Typically, these episodes last maybe 15 minutes. This time, the system was down for about a day. We weren’t able to post any new stories, while our techies—two former students of mine volunteer their time—attended to the issue. In the end, we are back up and running.
Regarding memberships, we continue to grow our donor base. We are a nonprofit, so it’s difficult at times for people to understand that to be a viable business we need to be able to pay for services, and sooner rather than later, hire reporters and compensate editors. In other words, this enterprise needs a solid financial base.
If you recognize our worth to the community, we have levels of support.
There are our monthly contributions, supporter, $6; patron, $12; and benefactor, $20. There are our time donors, beginning with $60. For people who cannot afford to become a contributor, or our curious about our work, we offer a couple of free articles per week.
The bottom line is that local community news needs people like you to recognize its value and support TBE financially. We are more with high quality journalism, less without it. The more of us who contribute, the less the overall cost for individuals. It’s a community thing.
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.
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