La Bloga

La Bloga

Chicana, Chicano, Latina, Latino, & more. Literature, Writers,

Children's Literature, News, Views & Reviews.

http://labloga.blogspot.com/

Much broader than Texana and oriented toward California but does contain notable Tejano literature connections.

Guide to Houston Day Camps

The Summer Book, 2007:

A guide to Houston Day Camps and Classes for Kids and Teens.

Houston: Gish Creative, 2007. 154 pages, paperback, spiral bound. A few ads $12.95 ISBN 0-9728507-4-0 http://www.thesummerbook.com/ http://www.gishcreative.com/ sarah@gishcreative.com

Yes, summer is gone. All the better reasons for Houstonians packing children to get this volume now, planning is the only thing that saves you from summerkiditis. Most of the book is an alphabetically arranged, annotated directory (including costs) of about 200 institutions / organizations with programs of care and enrichment for the summer of 2007.

It is appended with two useful indexes. One is by the calendar, i.e., what camps / classes occur what week. The other index is by category: art, educational, full day, other, religious, free camps/classes (only 6), special needs, sports, and teens. Another list is “Drop-ins,” “ organizations that offer drop-in or at-home activities for kids.”

The final 7 pages constitute a chart for the organizations and for each their primary climate, area of town, age range, and length (full or half day.) In 2107, our children’s children’s children will notice the options they once had. One wonders what 2107 will hold for our children.

In Marshall of the 1950’s, we had summer school for the slow and the fast, Scout camp, church camp, Little League and Mormon softball, horse classes, and that mysterious girls’ camp near Jefferson; otherwise we ran free – in the Woods, the Vines, the Pits, up and down the Hills, at the Pond, in the Branch, at the Park – doing things not always reportable to grown ups. Get on the mailing list for next year and civilize your wild one.

Jim Bowie - Robert E. Hollmann

Jim Bowie.

By Robert E. Hollmann.

Dallas: Durban House Publishing, 2006. Frontier Legends Series. 115 pp. pbk ISBN 1-930754-81-7 $9.95 http://www.durbanhouse.com/
Odessan Hollmann, http://www.lonestarlegends.org/bio.aspx, follows up his Davy Crockett with this very readable biography of equally famous Texas adventures of Jim Bowie.

The device to introduce the young reader to Bowie is Bowie’s own dog, Gator, named so for a gator fight. Years after Bowie has died at the Alamo, Gator reminiscences for his young pups about his life with the frontiersman. The text moves right along, from a dog’s point of view. Hollmann again brings his young readers to a personal level of the subject, this time Bowie, by Gator’s inclusion of personal matters including Bowie’s first meeting with and the later loss of his wife, Ursula Veramendi, daughter of the former governor of Coahuila y Tejas. From the origin of the keen edged Bowie knife on to the fall of the Alamo, Gator and Bowie, the narrative clips along with little underbrush to slow down the young reader. There are glancing encounters with Austin, Houston, Milam, Travis, Neill, and others as.

Hollmann does introduce youngsters to Bowie’s part in the Battle of Nacogdoches in 1832, but the story line thereafter is mainly the Revolution. Bowie’s relationship with Crockett is emphasized.
OHOT: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbo45.html

Teaching Texas History - David C. DeBoe

Teaching Texas History:

An All-Level Resource Guide,

2nd Revised Edition.

By David C. De Boe.

Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996. ISBN 0-87611-091-X. 8 1/2 x 11 in., vii + 153 pp. Paper, $15.95 TSHA Member's price, $12.76 http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/books/teaching.html

This plain looking, gray, spiral bound volume plainly ought to be in about every public library system and college library of a general nature in Texas, to say nothing of the public schools, even though it is 10 years old. Now that’s a big statement, but the volume is simply packed with Texana sources for the youngsters and teaching material for the adults. TSHA in its usual fine commitment to public education has recently arranged the printing a few more copies courtesy of the Houston Chronicle, so quit piddling around and get a copy. Its official focus is on history and geography, but it really goes further.

Aside from the many formats addressed from atlases to periodicals to posters to Spanish language material to videos and more, DeBoe made sure that Barbara Immroth, editor of Texas in Children’s Books, 1986, assisted in compiling the “Juvenile Books” section (pages 87 to120) which includes fiction. All total, there may be 500 annotated titles through the volume. Yes, the 2-pager on internet resources, which is little more than a recommendation to the still good Armadillo Gopher, is in retrospect demonstrates just what has happened in the last decade. Acquiring and using this volume can invigorate yourself or your collection and provide an excellent baseline for collecting. While some of the purchase prices may be out of date, much of the free material may still be.

The reign of successful juvenile Texana can rise from this volume’s paper planes.

Davy Crockett - Robert Hollmann

Davy Crockett. By Robert Hollmann.

Dallas: Durban House, 2005. paperback 143 pages
http://durbanhouse.com/
http://www.lonestarlegends.org/
whiskeyblue@sbcglobal.net

Robert Hollman is a West Texan, now an Odesaa barrister who teaches now and then at UT-PB; he has had seven novels published and written a play, “The Last Ball,” and was selected Best West Texas Author for 2005 in a poll conducted by The Odessa American and Hastings Book Store. Hollman uses an interesting device to present his fictionalized, but factual, biography of the Texas icon. Three youngsters, with a school lesson to be accomplished, visit the Alamo, find themselves locked in a closet where the “ghost” of Crockett appears through a magic time tunnel. The kids agree to go back with him where they’ll witness his life from an invisible status to all but the frontiersman who carries on a conversation.

The story continues in the Tennessee woods at Crockett’s homestead where his wife Polly soon dies. The children sense not just the death as a fact but also as empathetic companions, and points to where Hollmann finds some of the success of the book - the children become emotional partners of the character. Crockett acknowledges to them that he has become captured by his public legend that is different from his own real life. The author then proceeds episodically to take Crockett, and the kids, on to Washington and elsewhere, and finally to Texas and the Alamo.
As the Mexican assault troops are breaking down the doors literally, Crockett sends the children home – certainly a good thing to do, leaving the readers to wonder “how did Davy die.”

Journey to San Jacinto by Melody Cuate

Journey to San Jacinto.

By Melodie A. Cuate. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2007. 04/2007. 160 pages. 1 photo, 21 b/w illustrations, 1 map ISBN 0896726029 $17.95 cloth (Mr. Barrington's Mysterious Trunk Series). http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/

For those who’ve already opened the trunk on Cuate’s Alamo, you’re in for another treat on San Jacinto. Mr. Barrington can’t come to teach so his substitute is his niece. It doesn’t take long before Miss Barrington and the youngsters Hannah, Nick, and Jackie find themselves time transported again back to 1836. Cuate employs a good plot twist as the girls land in hands of Sam Houston’s supporter Juan Seguin and Nick falls into the Mexican Army and is impressed into their forces. Their parallel stories along the roads to San Jacinto lure the readers onward to the final battle where Nick is almost killed by Deaf Smith before the boy can explain his Mexican uniform. Thereafter, it’s a hunt for the magical truck and pocket watch.

After a tricky re-entry to modern times, the crew finds that Miss Barrington’s 1836 Uncle David was pulled back with them. What’ll they do with Uncle David!

Cotton Candy Catastrophe by Dotti Enderle

The Cotton Candy Catastrophe at the Texas State Fair.

By Dotti Enderle. Illustrated by Chuck Galey. 32 pp. 8 ½ x 11 31 color illus. Ages 5-8 ISBN 9781589801899 $15.95 http://www.pelicanpub.com/

Dotti Enderle, Houston children’s author found print first in Babybug, Ladybug, Turtle, etc. Now she’s under hard cover with large, colorful pages. It’s about Jake. We’re all just lucky Jake was there to correct the problem! You see Jake loves cotton candy. He got some there at Dallas’ Texas State Fair, but as he turned away with his pink fluff, the cotton candy machine would not turn off so his pink pile had a tail that he pulled (unknowingly, of course) all over place. Problems of major proportions ensued. But he solved it in the Cotton Bowl with water hoses. Big Tex, the longhorns, chickens, pigs, sheep all survive.

Enderle’s may be the pinkest and sweetest book of the season.

Journey to the Alamo - Melodie Cuate

Journey to the Alamo.

By Melodie A. Cuate. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2007. 144 pages, 5 x 7, 18 illustrations, ISBN 0896725928 $17.95 cloth. First in the new “Mr. Barrington's Mysterious Trunk Series.” http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/

Seventh-grader Hannah, her pesky brother Nick, and her best friend Jackie Montalvo are mysteriously transported from modern Austin, Texas to the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 for an “excellent adventure,” something Hannah needs. Melodie A. Cuate, a McAllen teacher of several years, tinkers with the tale telling device of Texas history teacher Mr. Barrington’s mysterious teaching trunk of artifacts and a clapping thunder storm to trip the trio through time to San Antonio. Hannah quickly finds herself under Susannah Dickinson’s care and fixing a ham sandwich for Colonel Travis, consoling the ailing Jim Bowie, and finding fascination with David Crockett (who looks like Mr. Barrington).

Hannah almost jumps the gun after she hears Travis famous speech before the legendary line in the dirt. The threesome do their part in maintaining the Defenders’ siege posture, dodging cannonballs, bickering a little among themselves, protecting one another, worrying about getting home, and finding their way back with Esparza’s and Bowie’s assistance. The kids’ souvenirs include a wooden cross for Hannah and a light bayonet scar for Nick. The youngsters are engaging, and the history is blessedly light but balanced and worthwhile. The brief Spanish glossary is a nice touch. Melodie Cuate’s story is readable and suspenseful.

The next in the series will be “Journey to San Jacinto.”

One Christmas in Old Tascosa - Casandra Firman

One Christmas in Old Tascosa.

By Casandra Firman as told by Quintille Speck-Firman Garmany. Foreword by Red Steagall and illustrated by Judy Wise. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006. xi, 90 pages. 2 photos, 12 illustrations ISBN 089672588X $21.95 cloth
http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/ ttup@ttu.edu

Tascosa now includes Cal Farley’s Boy’s Town. Before that it was the wild and wooly West with Indians, buffaloes, gunfights, cowboys, and dancehalls. Between the two, the town virtually went to the ghosts. But here is a sweet story from the interregnum.

Garmany was a seven-year-old in 1931. The Depression Dust Bowl was on, but few would have realized it given how simple life was in Tascosa. Having more than one pencil was a student’s wealth.

At the time Tascosa’s lone resident was Frenchie McCormick, an elderly woman with a dancing history and an honored wedding vow to remain in Tascosa. Nearby in a one-room school house Christmas was approaching and the children’s Pageant was finally ready. And it was nearly, completely, absolutely wrecked. It wasn’t the children, the building, the costumes, or even a too-playful dog. It snowed on the day before the evening’s performance, so heavily that the audience could not come. Parents knew their children were okay with the teacher in the schoolhouse, but they could not get through the snow. And without an audience to love and smile over the Pageant’s young performers, it would be a failure. Then through the blizzard, Frenchie McCormick was spotted coming through the deep snow. The children warmed Mrs. McCormick. She took her place among the chairs out front. And she loved the youngsters’ presentation. And the children loved her for being there – just to see them.

Red Steagall, a Texas poet laureate, and Richard O’Brien append a song “Frenchie McCormick.” Merry Christmas!

Tales with a Twist - Donna Ingham

Tales With a Texas Twist: Original Stories and Everlasting Folklore from the Lone Star State.

By Donna Ingham and Illus by Paul G. Hoffman. Guilford, Cn.: GlobePequot/Insiders Guide, 2005.

http://www.globepequot.com/globepequot/index.cfm Pbk,, 160 pages, b&w ills., bib., 5.25 x 8 inches, ISBN: 0-7627-3899-5 Price: $12.95

The tall tale returns. Anecdotes, folklore, humor, social life, and customs wrapped in the skillful creation or re-telling by this college English professor. Ingham is a proven, delightful liar in the popular and academic Austin communities. Here she re-casts Texas traditional facts, folktales, and legends into sharp new molds. And to some outrageous success, the story-teller takes old Greek mythology (Persephone, Cupid, Psyche, etc) and reveals their Texan backgrounds.

Ingham draws some of her tales from J. Frank Dobie’s Texas Folklore Society’s publications, Southern traditions including Br’er Rabbit, and old historical stories of Cindy Ann Parker, Big Foot Wallace, Mollie Bailey, Goodnight & Loving, and Sam Bass.

The first lines of “The Coming of the Bluebonnet” reveals the spinner’s skill as she neatly combines rhythm and rhyme, followed by other combinations of number, sound, and repetition. The tone is Andy Griffith folksy, by her preference.

These 28 stories refresh the old reader’s response to these old stories. She’s a welcome voice who should follow-up with other volumes. For instance, why not take Pecos Bill’s family and give this 20th century tall tale a full-fleshed family of fantastic foibles and futures.

Recommended for readers, junior high to senior citizens, who enjoy a good laugh and even a cry as the short stories unfold.