I Am Curious George Yellow

…and, as the beautiful yellow fall creeps inexorably toward white winter, I offer these poetic yellow daffodils as the reminder that spring will come again.

On Day 286 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, Kim has reported that first graders at Oakdale School will be reading all the Curious George books, as she helped stock the school library.  She also refers us to poetry by Marjorie Agosin, and she has recommended King Jesus, by Robert Graves, to my dad.

Tom is recommending Divide’s Guide to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Joe Gioia, A Presentation for Modern Readers.  You can learn more about it at Cliffhanger Press.

Meanwhile, Sarah of Babbitt’s Books posted a link to the New York Times article about Mark Twain’s autobiography “flying off the shelves” of new bookstores (which means we might not get one at Babbitt’s, a used bookstore, for some time) and connects this to the prolonged life of books in print!

I just learned yesterday morning, at the tag end of the Sweet 16 slumber party, that my daughter was only reading a portion of Huckleberry Finn for school, but that they can earn extra credit by completing the book and taking a test to prove it.  So I encouraged her to do so, and that’s what she may be reading at the Normal Public Library while babysitting/supervising Kim’s kids upstairs on the library computers during the downstairs poetry reading this afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

Tim Hunt will be reading from his new Finishing Line Press chapbook, Redneck Yoga, and poems from his other books, too, Fault Lines and the forthcoming White Levis.  You can read the two part interview with Tim here and here in this blog.

Kathryn Kerr will be reading from Turtles All the Way Down, still on the new releases page, and I will read from Broken Sonnets and Living on the Earth, on the bookstore page at Finishing Line, and at Amazon.

It’s always a bit awkward to promote one’s own work, but seems like it needs to be done.  Kelli Russell Agodon is having an interesting discussion of “branding” oneself at her blog, and not everybody is as literary-life shy as Harper Lee, nor as commerce-shy as I am. On the one hand, I can always come right out and say, “Please buy my book!” at a poetry event, and it comes out earnest and funny, which it is, and, on the other hand, I cannot.  One hand has the book in it, held up as a visual aid, and the other hand is empty!

And, by the way, if you have actually read my book, please feel free to review it at Amazon or Goodreads, as it always appears that no one has ever read my poetry chapbooks, but I know from the kind comments of readers in person or in letters, that people have! (And I am curious and a bit yellow about this!) 

And many thanks to Fiddler Crab and Comstock Review for their reviews!

And, finally (almost), I think Babbitt’s has indeed had the occasional copy of I Am Curious (Yellow), and I have actually catalogued copies of I Am Curious (Blue), books based on the two Swedish films.  We shelve these far, far away from children.  Way high up, over a doorway.

And, to circle back around, this time to Springfield Elementary School, you might recall “I Am Furious Yellow,” an episode of The Simpsons.

OK, off to the kitchen, to bake chocolate chip cookies for the poetry reading, as the pale yellow butter should be softened by now!