Menotti's The Unicorn and two other creatures

The kids and I saw the Bowen McCauley Dance performance of Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Unicorn, The Gorgon and the Manticore" this afternoon. Some of the dancers, notably the Mystery Man and the Unicorn, visited Milly's preschool a few weeks ago, and she insisted that we buy tickets to the performance. It was fantastic! I wasn't familiar with the libretto (the only Menotti I know is "Amahl and the Night Visitors"), but it's a fable about art and envy that, on at least some levels, children can understand. And they loved the animals.

Afterwards, Lucy Bowen McCauley, the artistic director, invited the children in the audience to come onstage, and she and the dancers taught them the characteristic movements of each animal and how they corresponded to the music. Nothing against the Gorgon and the Manticore, but the Unicorn was Milly's favorite. Highly recommended for young dancers.

[Aside: Milly is interested in unicorns, and I've been looking for books about them to share with her, with limited success. Can you recommend any unicorn books for younger readers and listeners? Team Unicorn people, I'm looking at you.]

The Book Thing of Baltimore

Mr. X and I were in Baltimore this weekend (the Walters, romance) and checked out The Book Thing, where all the books are free.  Really!  There's no suggested donation, no limit on the number of books you can take (well, not a binding limit; it's 150,000), nothing but books.  Most of them are categorized and shelved--all but the children's books, which are piled haphazardly in a dozen or so bins.  Twice while we were there someone wheeled over a shopping cart full of children's books and flung more into the bins.  The selection in that department wasn't great, but I managed to come home with about 20 books, including a copy of what is probably my favorite Frances book (and that's saying a lot, because I love them all):  A Bargain for Frances by Russell and Lillian Hoban.  For (ahem) Milly.  Other highlights included a lovely hardcover edition of The Bronze Bow for Leo and a handful of L.M. Montgomery paperbacks for me.  I was quite pleased.  Free books!

Greetings from Martha at the National Book Festival

You would be forgiven if you wandered into the National Book Festival and wondered, "Where are the books?" Leo asked me that the first time we went, and I think it's a valid question. There are authors, tents, people (more than 120,000 this year), and lines (sometimes very long lines, like the line through security to get into the children's tent while Laura and Jenna Bush were reading), but not very many actual books. I think there may have been some for sale near the Capitol (where the book signings happen), but other than that: no.

The kids had a great time at the Let's Read America Pavilion, though. They got their picture taken with Martha of Martha Speaks! (the PBS KIDS program) and listened to author and illustrator Susan Meddaugh talk about the real Martha, and about how she got the idea for the Martha books (from her son, who was in second grade at the time). Meddaugh also read (an actual book!) Perfectly Martha. We love the Martha books (Martha Blah Blah is my favorite), so Meddaugh's session was a highlight of the festival. As was the performance from the cast of the all-new Electric Company. Hey you guuuys!

I admit: I think it's a little problematic that PBS KIDS promotes its television programs so heavily at an event that's all about reading. Granted, PBS KIDS Raising Readers does a lot to help children improve the skills they need to learn to read. And other PBS KIDS programs are based on children's books, too. Maybe it's just me. My kids (who don't even watch TV) didn't seem to mind: they were more than happy to meet Clifford the Big Red Dog (online at Scholastic and PBS KIDS). The line for him was pretty long, too!