Sometimes I enjoy the slow life afforded to me as I watch through my lens what other people are doing. I’m a people watcher. Guilty. Since it’s not ever me that’s going along sluggishly, I blissfully watch others in the slow motion of life, and that’s a good thing because it reminds me to be a little more downtempo. This past week I’ve been doing that but there is a huge amount of guilt that comes with it.

Shouldn’t I be doing something?

Who gets to be this decadent?

Something that I love to do is go to the Farmer’s Market and take pictures. Like this one, which is my such a slow-moving shot that he almost seemed to pose for me.

Then there are all the vibrant colors and luscious fruits and vegetables that I savor them through my camera before buying them, taking them home, and pretending like I had grown them myself. Of course, I can’t grow anything and it has nothing to do with the fact that there are over 30 trees in the backyard that provide too much shade. It’s that I simply don’t know how (the when of planting, the tending, the everything) but someday when this frenzied life has slowed a bit I might take it up.

These are the things I would grow.

And, of course, this:

If I keep taking pictures of them maybe I’ll actually do that someday.

The only thing currently stopping me is the fact that I’m taking this really interesting children’s literature class that I need for the Reading degree. How is it possible that I have an English Lit. degree and never took children’s literature? I suppose it’s because I was a snobby undergrad who thought I’d be a professor of lit-tra-chure and only needed to study Keats and Joyce. This class, however, has afforded me another luxury: buying children’s books.

Since I promised a reading list and am still working on it (it’s like another project. Jeebus. What was I thinking? I am gonna publish that bad boy once it’s finished) I thought I’d offer the titles of the books I’m reading for the class. All of them are fabulous, fun, touching and I would recommend you take a lazy weekend morning and spend it at the bookstore reading the following:

Not A Box by Antoinette Portis. Especially if you have a very young child who likes to play with cardboard boxes. We all did it, but this book is cute and gives rise to imagination.

Koala Lou by Mem Fox. Fox is quite the trailblazer in children’s book and these are adorably illustrated.

Flotsam by David Wiesner. This is the current winner of the Caldecott Medal and received the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award. It’s a wordless picture book that is phenomenal. Truly a good one for the coffee table.

Since I already love Patricia Polacco (Chicken Sunday was one of Mallory’s favorites as a child and I just read Pink and Say for a read-aloud in a history classroom last year - not recommended for a first time reading. I broke down and cried. It was that powerful.) I’ve picked up My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother. Mason thinks I got it because of his red hair. Alas, I did not but Morgan sure appreciated the title.

When I was doing an internship last year a kindergarten boy and his class were walking down the hallway and he stopped me, “Are you Patricia Polacco?” he asked. I smiled because I knew who she was and I don’t think I look like her at all. “No,” I said. I was genuinely disappointed that I was NOT Polacco. “Oh.” The next day they were taking their bathroom break and he stopped me again, “Hey! Are you Patricia Polacco?” I couldn’t resist and God will forgive me for this: “Yes, I am. Do you have one of my books in your classroom?” He got really excited and whispered, “We have Chicken Sunday!” Later that afternoon I went to his classroom and let him sit on my lap while I, the author, read to him from my book.

That’s a forgivable sin, right?

The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari. I chose this one since it won the Mildred Batchelder award which is given out to a book originally published in another language (Italian) and then translated to English. I haven’t started it yet, but it looks fantastic.

Quest For The Tree Kangaroo by Sy Montgomery won the Orbis Pictus award for nonfiction for children. Every science teacher needs this in the classroom.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford. This is a Caldecott Honor book and a winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Non-Violent Social Change. If you read this aloud to a child you must be on the dramatic side. Must.

Finally, I’m reading The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron. I bought it last school year because, and only because, I read somewhere that it was a newly challenged book that people wanted to ban because of the word “scrotum” on the first page. First, it pertains to a dog and second, for crying out loud… I just don’t put up with book banning. It was awarded the Newberry Medal as well, so if you don’t take my Question Authority! attitude, at least listen to the ALA.

Tomorrow I’m off for California and business and pleasure and beaches and diary readings and taking lots of pictures. Read all that stuff while I’m gone and tell me what you think, ok? And visit your local Farmer’s Market. Eating a fresh peach while reading a book is as close to heaven as you might get.