Anna to the Infinite Power: 5 Reasons to Read This Book(Or Not)

Anna Zimmerman Hart is a little different. She’s brilliant at science; she can do math faster than computers; she’s also a pathological thief and liar. Her brother Rowan, a musician, cannot understand her; he sees her as self-absorbed and detached. Anna and Rowan have grown up in a dystopian world where food is scarce, families usually have one child, and they have to check in with a special computer everywhere they go.

But one day the siblings don’t check in. By chance, they meet another girl who looks identical to Anna, and whose first two names are also Anna Zimmerman. When Rowan asks his mother about it, she spills the big secret: Anna is actually a clone of a great scientist who died. And so is this other girl. And there’s a big experiment going on here, but Rowan and Anna had better not tell anyone.

While Anna deals with confusion (who is she, anyway?), she is also getting sicker. Is it from cancer? Or something else?

Anna to the Infinite Power builds to a climax which I shall not ruin. But I’ll give you five reasons to pick it up.

1. Super great title. I heard this title and it kept coming back until I finally got the book—it’s just so intriguing!
2. Dystopia! Nothing like a little immersion into a twisted world to make you appreciate how good your life really is.
3. Technology Humor. I enjoyed the passages that explained the computer in great detail. The book was written in 1981, long before Internet, and I had to smile at the painstaking description of the “information-gathering machine.” It’s something we take for granted today (i.e., a computer and a Google search), but it’s fun to see how people thought before they had that technology.
4. Identity Themes. I was actually a little surprised by this one. Mildred Ames takes the opportunity to explore how it would feel to discover you’re a clone. (It feels not good.) I was impressed by this book’s depth in this area, for a young adult book, and this alone makes it worth the read, I think.
5. Intensity. I was thinking about this book long after I’d finished it. That’s always a good sign.

Or Not: My critique of Anna to the Infinite Power is that its writing style is a little inconsistent in places, and some parts of the story never feel entirely explained. I didn’t think it was highly significant, though, and I liked the book in spite of this.

It was actually also made into a movie, which I have not seen, but from the clips on YouTube, it looks like a bizarre children’s horror movie. I can’t decide whether to avoid the movie or laugh at it. Haha.

Have you read this book? Will you consider it now? The book (well, eight copies of it) can be found on Amazon here, but it’s out of print now, so you could also check the library…

Imagination: It’s not for the faint of heart.

I love this. Hover over the image get the mouseover caption, too.

There’s really nothing like an imagination. Nobody can teach it to you; nobody can force you to have one. People can help you along, I suppose—but it has to be yours, and yours alone.

Maybe this is why kids with “big imaginations” can sometimes feel like outsiders. I know I did. I remember being overwhelmed with the feeling of being stuck in my own skin; I stared into mirrors, pondering the mystery that I was ME and not somebody else. And really, nobody else can know what it’s like, to be me, just like I can’t know what it’s like to be you.

It can be a very lonely feeling. Words are an approximation, we can’t really understand each other, why do we bother: I could go on a long postmodern-leaning spiral here until I work myself into a depressed funk. I don’t think I’ll do that.

Because the great thing about being ME, and not somebody else, is that I see things nobody else will, and I can share them. I’m a sharer from way back. If I had a kaleidoscope, I’d want a camera attached so I could show you a picture of every cool thing I saw. When I find something I love, I have a burning need to show it to someone. I actually get really agitated about this. This happened the other day: the roommates were gone, internet went down, and I had just read a REALLY COOL AMAZING ARTICLE! (You know it’s amazing when it’s in all caps.) A person gets desperate. She takes drastic measures. She starts a Twitter account. (It’s also this kind of desperation that leads people to start blogs…cough…just sayin’…)

I love reading because I can see what other people are thinking. I can’t quite get inside their skin—but I can get awfully close. The beauty of words is the bridge they string between people: you describe, and sometimes I can see it! I feel like I should break out into song right about now.

The hills are alive!

With the sound of music!

Okay, I’m done.

Of course, half the time I love something, people don’t get it, or love it for entirely different reasons. This is also the beauty of imagination—you see an apple, I see an apple pie. (Haha! I’m so cute! I couldn’t think of a better example.)

This whole blog is a product of my massive sharing impulse, so here we go. I’ll share some stuff.  I’m restraining myself. Here’s a few articles  that I have really enjoyed—for your perusal. Let your imagination run like a banshee.*

The Rabbit Room–a group of artists and writers in the vein of the Inklings (C.S.Lewis, Tolkien and others). I like them because they’re more interested in making good art and being good human beings than in marketing themselves. It’s a breath of fresh air.

The Ennobling Fantasy of J.R.R.Tolkien–First in a fantastic four-part blog on why Lord of the Rings is not just another sloppy fantasy, and it can’t be blown off as “religious fiction”. It’s much better than that. (This was the all caps article.)

Kaleidoscope Heart is the first song on Sara Bareilles’ latest album, and I think she’s outdone herself. (If that’s possible–she’s harmonizing with herself, so…) Stop by her site to listen to the rest of the album.

“Confessions”–I first read James Calvin Schaap in writing classes, but it wasn’t till I read his essay “Confessions” that I realized we should be friends. At least on paper–I’ll read what he writes. 🙂 He talks about the difficulties of writing, or making art, and also living in community with others. For those of you who’ve tried this, you know it’s tough. If not–it’s harder than it looks. Either way, it’s worth a thoughtful read.

I know I’m a compulsive sharer because just writing this post has made me ridiculously happy. One more for good measure: The hilarious Stephan Pastis writes the comic Pearls Before Swine, and it brings joy to my life.

I’d love to hear what you think!

*Note: I just looked this up. Banshee is perhaps not the correct metaphor. Laugh away, but I always thought it was a crazy monkey. Whoops. Correction: Let your imagination run like a wild monkey.

When We Were Very Young: Timeless Poetry

Today I’d like to talk about two of my favorite books of children’s poetry. The books are When We Were Very Young and And Now We Are Six, by author A. A. Milne, better known as the creator of Winnie the Pooh. Pooh makes some appearances in their pages—so does Christopher Robin, his nanny, King John, and a whole host of other wonderful characters. Milne’s poetry is believable and sweet, the kind of thing that can only be written by somebody who actually knows kids. His rhymes are deliciously clever. The illustrations, by E. H. Shepard, are charming, funny, and distinctly characterize each of the lovely characters. One of my favorites is of a little boy skipping around a table, here with some of the words in the book Now We Are Six.

This picture, in fact, may have inspired my childhood enthusiasm for skipping. Why walk when you can skip?

These two books were given to my sister and I as Christmas presents from a thoughtful aunt, and I treasure it more now than I did at the time. I would gladly buy a copy for kids I know, in hopes that someday they might enjoy it as much as I do. Here are the beginnings of two of my favorite poems:

King John’s Christmas

King John was not a good man –
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days.
And men who came across him,
When walking in the town,
Gave him a supercilious stare,
Or passed with noses in the air –
And bad King John stood dumbly there,
Blushing beneath his crown.

More than anything in the world, for Christmas King John wants a “big, red, india-rubber ball!” You can read the rest of the poem here; to see the poem with its original pictures, click here.

Another of my favorites, from When We Were Very Young, has a conclusion that feels strangely ideological and profound:

The Dormouse And The Doctor

There once was a Dormouse who lived in a bed
Of delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red)
And all the day long he’d a wonderful view
Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue)

A Doctor came hurrying round, and he said:
“Tut-tut, I am sorry to find you in bed.
Just say ‘Ninety-nine’, while I look at your chest…
Don’t you find that chrysanthemums answer the best?”

The full poem, with pictures, can be found here.

Finally, I don’t think this post would be complete without a mention of the later works that made A. A. Milne famous. Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner brought the world of Pooh, Piglet, Christopher Robin, and all their other animal friends to life. Christopher Milne was the author’s son, and the animals were all based on real stuffed animals, now immortalized and preserved for us literary geeks who like this kind of thing. Here they are in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Library Building in New York: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear (Winnie the Pooh), Eeyore, and Piglet.

As an adult, Christopher Milne talked about the animals, known by thousands of children through the books, being in an American library:

I am asked “Aren’t you sad that the animals are not in their glass case with you today?” I must answer “Not really” and hope that this doesn’t seem too unkind. I like to have around me the things I like today, not the things I once liked many years ago. I don’t want a house to be a museum.…Every child has his Pooh, but one would think it odd if every man still kept his Pooh to remind him of his childhood. But my Pooh is different, you say: he is the Pooh. No, this only makes him different to you, not different to me. My toys were and are to me no more than yours were and are are to you. I do not love them more because they are known to children in Australia or Japan. Fame has nothing to do with love. I wouldn’t like a glass case that said: “Here is fame”, and I don’t need a glass case to remind me: “Here was love”.

Roald Dahl For Breakfast

All Dahl books were illustrated by the brilliant Quentin Blake: http://www.quentinblake.com

Puffin Books will soon be bringing books to the breakfast table, at least for children in the U.K. The Telegraph reports that this month Puffin will be releasing a set of cereal boxes with quotes on them from well-loved British author Roald Dahl. The extracts, from books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG, will be short, exciting, and hopefully encourage kids to read. My favorite quote was from Francesca Dow, managing director of children’s books at Penguin (which owns Puffin Books):

The great thing about a cereal box, is that it potentially is reaching millions of households that just don’t read any literature outside of school. There could be an enormous number of children discovering Roald Dahl for the first time, bleary eyed over the breakfast table.

Ms. Dow made me laugh. I was trying to picture bleary-eyed victims viewing anything besides the milk jug as a thrilling discovery. Clearly, Ms. Dow has not had the pleasure of breakfasting with my family.

Nevertheless, there might be some definite advantages to a sort of “book-teaser” on the back of a cereal box. I find this appealing precisely because it’s not ad space for the latest in publishing (to which I would cry–Is no space sacred? Shall even my breakfasting be defiled by shameless promotional clamoring?? IS THERE NOTHING GOOD LEFT IN THE WORLD?!?)  But I digress.

It seems to be a genuine effort to introduce a classic children’s author to new kids. Which is cool. I hope that it goes beyond mere “quotables” and actually encourages reading. If anyone can do that, Roald Dahl probably can.

Any other options not included? Let us know in the comments!

Hey Look! A New Book! of Dr. Seuss Tales

American author and illustrator Dr Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904 - 1991) sits at his drafting table in his home office with a copy of his book, 'The Cat in the Hat', La Jolla, California, April 25, 1957. (Photo by Gene Lester/Getty Images, courtesy of newsfeed.time.com)

Random House has uncovered seven Seuss stories that were published in magazines in the 1950s but have never appeared as books. Acceptable reactions include “Happy as a clam, I am!” and “Oh, the fun words I’ll get to say!”

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/11/hey-look-its-a-new-book-lost-dr-seuss-stories-to-be-published/#ixzz1JMvHBn7Q

I found this article, crawling the web. I thought about how at some point, every author was an unknown and un-famous person who had to scrub their own dishes and drive a fairly boring car to the grocery store to eat normal food… and then a few do become famous, and they still have to scrub their own dishes and drive boring cars to normal food places! Presumably. Famous people are still people, which is refreshing.

Every famous writer has a beginning. Dr. Seuss’s happened to be with prose stories, before he developed his unique rhyming style. I’m really interested to see what these stories are like, and how Dr. Seuss might have changed. My introduction to Dr. Seuss was through an actual doctor, my family’s real-life children’s doctor, who would quote The Cat in the Hat in its entirety (say Aah!) while poking things down your throat. It was great.

Here’s my question for the day: Do you ever meet people who quote pieces of literature to you in completely irrelevant situations?

Shel Silverstein: “…I am writing these poems from inside a lion…”

(Click on the picture to read the poem, too.)

Because 1) April is National Poetry Month, and 2) I’m apparently not grown-up enough to move on to more serious books, and 3) I’m dying to showcase one of my favorite children’s poets ever:

We now proudly present… Shel Silverstein!

Chances are he’s not new to people. Shel Silverstein was famous even before his death in 1999. He was best known for his quirky, hilarious, sometimes macabre, fantastical writing for children. Many kids know him for titles like “Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back” and “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” while many parents know him because they cried their way through “The Giving Tree.”

But did you also know these bits of trivia?

• Shel Silverstein wrote the song “A Boy Named Sue,”  made popular by Johnny Cash

• Apparently, it’s the thing to get Shel Silverstein tattoos–that is, tattoos of Silverstein cartoons–printed on oneself. The most unique one I found was here (it’s the picture from the poem “The Mehoo with an Exactlywatt”).

• He was a talented cartoonist who was best known for the comic below. It makes me laugh every time.

May this be your inspiration to go out and read a Shel Silverstein poem to yourself and the stranger sitting next to you. Do so with gusto. Or at least enjoy these pen-and-ink treasures.

Happy weekend!

An App for Librarians?

Have you ever lost a library book inside the library? I don’t recommend it; it makes the librarians crabby. But now, technology might prevent all that–check this out!

Awesome Augmented Reality App Could Save Librarians Hours
By Audrey Watters / March 27, 2011 6:30 PM / 14 Comments

If you’ve ever worked in a library, you’re familiar with the drudgery of shelf reading. That’s the process of verifying that all the books on a shelf are in the right order, based on their call numbers. Books get out of order fairly easily, when they’re taken off the shelf and examined, for example, or when they’re just stuck in the wrong place.

Miami University’s Augmented Reality Research Group (MU ARRG! – that exclamation point, I confess, is my addition), led by Professor Bo Brinkman, has developed an Android app that could save librarians a lot of time and hassle. Using the Android’s camera, the app “reads” a bookshelf, and with an AR overlay, quickly flags those books that are misplaced. It will also point to the correct place on the bookshelf so the book can easily be re-shelved correctly.

→Click here to read the rest of the short article:  Awesome Augmented Reality App Could Save Librarians Hours. (There’s also a brief video, because showing is better than telling.)

I found this fascinating. An app that reads the book spines for you?  Nothing technological should surprise me anymore, because clearly computers are about to become conscious and take over the world, but I’m still amazed by the beautiful, useful things people create.

The Black Hole: Where lost library books go.

Now the next step is to put a tracking device on all the books in the library. I’ve always thought that librarians should be able to track books with a GPS-like button. They could look on their little screen and trace the blinking dot right to Mrs. Pemble’s house, who stole that library book 37 years ago and never gave it back, the scum. Wouldn’t that be useful?

For that matter, I think these homing devices should be readily available to the average homeowner, billpayer, and otherwise contributing citizen, inasmuch as I voted last semester. I would promptly catalog and locate all the lost things in my life (such as textbooks, my wallet, and ALL the spoons). Of course, then I’d lose the device, or the app would self-destruct, or it’d get stuck in a blender for a YouTube video…(“Don’t try this at home.” Oh, but people do. They really do.)

If you’ve worked in a library (or ever lost anything whatsoever) do you see any usefulness in this app?

April Tomfoolery

My brother and I do not have a great deal in common. He, for example, knows how to weld and use heavy machinery and tinker with small engines; I, on the other hand, should not be given anything more complex than table knife without CLEARLY STATED instructions in triplicate, Form M3, unless filing jointly. (See?) My brother also shares an inexplicable love for a certain music artist (*cough, Billy Joel, cough*) This music, while it may have its moments, has been called, quote, “the kind of moments that make you want to run your car right through the garage wall.” Note: This after a listening period of approximately 30 hours in which participants endured testing to discover the limits of human resistance to said music. (Apparently, it ends at Hour 12.)

The TV on the head is pretty fabulous. (Image courtesy of librarything.com)

So, having these sibling differences in my past, I hold fond memories of those times we shared and appreciated the value of a true piece of art.  Tomfoolery is one of those memories. Today in the spirit of April Fool’s Day, we present Tomfoolery: Trickery and Foolery with Words compiled by Alvin Schwartz.

In sixth grade I saw this book on my teacher’s personal bookshelf and had the audacity to ask to read it.  I brought it home and inflicted its pages on my younger siblings– who were fast to figure things out–but I was still the one with the book.

However, my brother, in addition to other talents, has the amazing ability to remember everything he hears with a rhyme or a punch line. Everything in this book has a rhyme or punch line.

Our level of maturity was outstanding. “What did you have for breakfast?” one of us would ask. “Pea green soup…” the other would volunteer cheerfully.

I’m not going to finish that rhyme for you, on the off-chance that you don’t know it, and there’s still a chance to salvage my reputation as a sophisticated and mature individual capable of microwaving my own popcorn and NOT confusing the bleach with the laundry detergent.

(Confession: I have laughed until snot appeared at “pea green soup”.  It was late and we were young. Or something.)

(Confession: I may or may not STILL think this is funny.)

This little-known book, published in 1994, has all kinds of fun, silly, ridiculous jokes and nonsense rhymes in it, many of them older (one review says as old as the 19th century), so most of today’s generation has never heard them.  It includes verse like “One bright day in the middle of the night”, tricks like “Owah Tagu Siam.” (It’s a magic phrase, try it. No, really.) And many, many more.

If you’re thinking this book isn’t for you…well, then, it probably isn’t.

Don’t you judge me.

But if you know a ten-year-old boy who isn’t allowed to speak during dinner because everything he says makes the rest of the family lose their appetites…

This book is probably for him.

Happy April Fool’s Day!