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category archive listing Category Archives: Books

Quotation Saturday: Censorship

Mamacita says:  If I owned the biggest and best thesaurus in the universe, I still would not be able to find a word accurate enough to fully express my disgust and loathing of censorship, nor of the mentality of those who censor.  Yesterday’s post touched on this topic – or perhaps, more accurately, [...]

Public Behavior: Ma Says To Rein It In, Kids!

Mamacita says:  Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls knew how to raise her children so that they would know how to behave themselves properly no matter where they might find themselves.
In Little Town on the Prairie, a teen-aged Laura is invited to a party. She had gone, years ago, to a little girls’ party, [...]

Limited-Vocabulary Readers are the Devil. Yes, THAT Devil.

Mamacita says:  I don’t think there are any words coined yet that would adequately describe the complete and total loathing I have for simplified, edited versions of good books.
I’ve heard quadrillions of elementary teachers argue that small children learn best when there are few challenges, but I have to disagree with that, too.  How condescending!
I [...]

The Closing of the Year

Mamacita says:  It used to worry me that the vast majority of my favorite movies are always the very ones that end up on “Ten Worst Movies of All Time” lists But it doesn’t any more, because I figure that people like what they like, and those lists might be one of the reasons [...]

Explaining about Santa Claus

Mamacita says:  My daughter was seven when she asked the question I’d been dreading for seven years:  “Mommy, is there really a Santa Claus?”
However, thanks to Caroline Quiner Ingalls, I knew exactly how to answer her.  And, this answer fully satisfied my little child, and me.
Laura and Mary’s Ma knew how to explain to her [...]

Quotation Saturday: It’s All About MEEEEEEEE! (Selfishness)

Mamacita says:  Everybody is selfish on occasion; it’s human nature to want to “feel good,” and “look out for Number One” and think things like “this is best for ME,” and “I won’t share my candy!” and “It’s all for me and about me and because of MEEEEE and for my benefit!!!!” and “I want [...]

Update: Quotation Saturday: Children’s and YA Literature Quiz

Mamacita says: By popular demand – and I really had no idea I was popular at all – here are the answers to the literature quiz of a few weeks ago.  I would have posted this sooner, but teachers asked me to wait a little while as they were using this post in their [...]

Poetry Friday: Stephen Crane

Mamacita says:  Many people do not know that Stephen Crane, author of  The Red Badge of Courage and The Open Boat – among many other works – was also a poet.
Crane referred to his poems as “lines,” but I call them poems, and I like ‘em!  Most of them are short, but hardly sweet.
In The [...]

“Slow Down” My Aunt Fanny

Mamacita says:  I hated elementary school, and by “hated” what I really mean is, well, HATED.
I learned to read when I was really little, but I have never read as most other people do.  When I read, I look at a page and immediately, that page is affixed inside my head.  I can later “bring [...]

Poetry Friday: Emily Dickinson, and Katie Rose Belford

Mamacita says:  Emily Dickinson knew me; that’s the only explanation.
How else could she have. . . . known?
This first poem helped me understand faith.  The second confirmed my belief that Dickinson rocked because Katie Rose Belford and her mother both mentioned it and loved it.  And you know something; when one of a junior-high-school [...]