Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.
Nonfiction
1998 Ballantine Books
Read in December 2000
Rating: 3/5 (Good)
Publisher's Blurb:
As a kid, I put more into getting ready for my turn to present than I put into the rest of my homework. Show-and-Tell was real in a way that much of what I learned in school was not. It was education that came out of my life experience.
As a teacher, I was always surprised by what I learned from these amateur hours. A kid I was sure I knew well would reach down into a paper bag he carried and fish out some odd-shaped treasure and attach meaning to it beyond my most extravagant expectation.
Again and again I learned that what I thought was only true for me . . . only valued by me . . . only cared about by me . . . was common property. The principles guiding this book are not far from the spirit of Show-and-Tell. It is stuff from home--that place in my mind and heart where I most truly live.
P.S. This volume picks up where I left off in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, when I promised to tell about the time it was on fire when I lay down on it.
My Original Thoughts (2000):
Pretty good, but not as good as All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I enjoyed the story about the box of "Good Stuff." Also, his list of recommendations (p. 90) and motherly thoughts (p. 101)
My Current Thoughts:
I wish I had been more specific about what I enjoyed about those particular essays in this book. They are long forgotten after 20 years.
I have read neither book, but books of essays can really hit the spot sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHelen, collections of essays are one of my favorite types of nonfiction.
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