12 Comments

Yeah! to the m-dash!

Rhyming. Brings to mind the crazy read of Zorgamazoo, an ex-student's masterpiece--a rhyming verse novel. Begs to be read aloud. Robert Weston, author.

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Sounds intriguing!

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I, too, am a big fan of the em dash. Oh, how I miss my Arnold Lobel FABLES book. I used it a lot when I used to teach second grade.

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That seems like the perfect age for it!

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I am going to look for the Provensen book at the library. Love the cover.

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I have no idea how prevalent is still is (I am pretty sure I ordered our copy off ThriftBooks), so good luck!

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Love this! I'm a sucker for fantasy and fairy tales, and I own many children's books--for the illustrations as much as the stories.

I knew Nancy Willard casually from writers' events in and near Detroit back in the day, and two of my favorite books are hers: Childhood of the Magician and Angel in The Parlor. I'm going to look for her book above. (She's a lovely person; just exactly as you would expect.)

I do love em dashes, and any other bit of punctuation that creates a stop or a start or an exclamation. It makes a piece 'talk'. So there!

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I find Nancy Willard's books to be so underrated -- or maybe it's just that she's not so well-known anymore? Anyway, the imagination in her work is just stupefying. I so admire what she has created.

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Me too. I knew her when she was a relative unknown and apparently she still is. Sadly. I have a feeling from knowing her that marketing wasn't her thing, either, and she much preferred teaching and writing.

Still, I would think her publishers would have done a better job of touting her considerable talents. But I'm glad to see she's still at it. I can't wait to buy that book.

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Ah, I see this book is from 1993 and that she passed away in 2017. Damn. But her legacy lives on. Her greatness will always be there.

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Indeed. That's one of the things I love about books (among many, many things) -- just because their author and/or illustrator is no longer here, the work lives on.

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Exactly. Books are timeless and so are their authors. It's a great system.

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