Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    
    One hour's driving will get you to Cambridge or Boston.  Make a list,
    if you can, pick a store, and drive in on a Saturday.  If you don't 
    have specific titles, perhaps some readers here know of places where 
    you can browse (unfortunately, I don't).  Maybe someone (Jody?) knows 
    of a place in the Worcester area.

    New Words in Inman Square (actually Hampshire at Prospect, just barely
    south of Inman), Cambridge.  Great bookstore.

    
    
    What's wrong with Dr. Suess? 
    
    bonnie

    Native Spirit on Rte 20 one mile east of Wayside Inn is a 
    feminist/healing/Native American book store.  They have some 
    children's books.  It's in a group of shops on the south side
    of Rte 20, your right if you are driving from Marlborough.

    Pat

    I'd suggest "New Words", too....
    
    other pertinent topics may include:
    
    womannotes-V2
    67 - children's books and female role models
    291 - raising feminist children
    
    -Jody
    

Anyone know the name of the women's bookstore in Northampton?

Kathy

    There is also a bookstore in Greenfield that is run by a group of
    women.
    
    Bonnie

    re .6 The Springfield Phone Book lists "Lunaria Feminist Book-
    store" at 90 King, Northampton, 413-586-7851

    
    The Wmn's bookstore in Northampton is named: 
    
                 Lunaria
                 King Street
                 Northampton, MA
    Phone (413) 586-7851
    
    I've called a minute ago to find out if they have children's books,
    but, no one answers.  They may not open until 10am.  I will try
    again later and let you know....
    
    Nancy
    

Thanks for the info on Lunaria! Think I'll check it out soon.

Kathy

    I don't know if you are interested in mail-order or not, but I do
    have a source.  It lists feminist and humanist books, pamphlets, 
    periodicals, etc., as well as some good children's literature.
    
    Some of the titles are:  "Healing The Wounds: The Promise of 
    Ecofeminism",  "The Friendly Clasroom for a Small Planet: A Handbook
    on Creative Approaches to Living and Problem Solving for Children's 
    Creative Response to Conflict", "Bridges of Respect: Creating Support
    for Lesbian and Gay Youth", "An Outbreak of Peace", and "Peaceful
    Heroes I and II".
    
    All of the books and pamphlets are quite reasonably priced.  The only
    problem you may have with this is that it is the Quakers Uniting in
    Publications (QUIP) catalog, and I don't know if that would bother you.
    Obviously, there are many items specifically relating to the Quaker
    faith, but there are also many secular items.
    
    If you are interested, the address is:
    
    	QUIP
    	Quakers Uniting in Publications
    	338 Plush Mill Road
    	Wallingford PA 19086  USA
    
    
    
    There is also another catalog that Friends General Conference names
    in their "list of catalogs that list books we wish we could carry.
    
    	Everyone's Kids Books
    	71 Elliot Street
    	Brattleboro, VT 05301
    
    The FGC blurb under the address reads: "Best non-sexist, multi-racial
    children's books."
    
    It mentions nothing about the company having anything to do with 
    Quakers, so I assume it is a secular store.
    
    E Grace

    I stopped in at Native Spirit last night.  They have only a
    small number of children's books, mostly for young children.
    A couple that were Native American legends looked interesting.
    
    You didn't mention the ages of your children.  If you are looking 
    for non-sexist books for junior high and high school age, the best 
    place I know is New Words. I have driven from New Words to MR03 in 
    under an hour via Mass Pike.  Going the other way, you need to allow 
    time to find parking in Inman Square.

    Pat

By the way, New Words does have a large children's and young adults
section which I have purchased some books from.  My favorite is
Goodnight Moon.

john

    oh john! I knew there was a reason why I like you! can you find the
    mouse on all the pages?
    
    Bonnie

RE:     <<< Note 369.15 by WMOIS::B_REINKE "We won't play your silly game" >>>
>    oh john! I knew there was a reason why I like you! can you find the
>    mouse on all the pages?
    
Bonnie, I didn't know there was a mouse on every page!  I'll check it
out later.  Even the Goodnight Nobody page?

Great book for 2-4 year olds.  It has very simple and rhymes and has
great pictures and also repeats a bit.  So you can a 2 -3 year old
filling in for you (by saying the start and pointing to the pictures).
For example, you can say "Goodnight mittens, goodnight [point to the
kittens] ... (hopefully the little tyke chimes in Kittens if he or she
cares too!).

Once I was at Children's on my regular volunteer shift and a nurse
came into the activity room rather distraught and asked me if I could
take a look at 3 year old kid who was just bawling like crazy.  He had
just come in that day with a broken arm.  So I get out my secret
"weapon" for bawling 1->3 years:  bubbles!  So I blow some bubbles for
him and he gradually slows down the crying.  Still he wasn't quite
sure he could trust me (He had that "you have to be careful with
adults, you know" look ;-).  So I let him blow some bubbles and he
started talking to me telling me how he busted his arm.  So I read
Goodnight Moon to him and he wants to read it again and he starts
chiming in the words when I point to the pictures. So we had a great
time reading Goodnight Moon and blowing bubbles. His parents came back
later (they had just gone to dinner) and saw us reading together and
were pretty happy.

My good friend Rachael (2 years old daughter of my juggling friend
Barry) also loves Goodnight Moon and we read it together sometimes.
Rachael is GREAT and she knows the whole thing by heart at two years
old!  Barry told me that Rachael is into Rafi (who I guess is a kid's
singer that all the kids like).  Now Barry is a really good juggler
and has a show at Faneuil Hall and juggles 7 balls and 5 clubs and
stuff.  So Rachael tells Barry,  "Daddy, Rafi's show is better than
Daddy's show."  I thought it was really funny (so did Barry by the
way).

;-)

john

I have another good friend Jessica (age six).  She is also GREAT! I
was hanging out with her and her parents and brother Cody (age 4) at
the Vermont Reggae Festival this year.  Anyways, he was asking me
about my jester's hat and she has an active imagination so we started
making up a story about the jester.  I think she asked what jesters do
and I said they amuse people and then she said who amuses the jester
and that's how this story got started (I rewrote it later but much of
it stems from out original story).

Maybe I'll try to improve it some day and find someone to draw the
pictures.  Anyways, I find the creativity in children vary inspiring!

One time I say Cody mixing up some Cherrios and water in a pan (on a
chair not a stove) and I was really thought it was funny that Cody was
making Cheerios soup! He was as happy as he could be.  ;-)

		And Who Amuses The Jester?

The Court Jester and his friend Jessica were doing some headstands in
the sand near the lake.  The Court Jester keep losing his toes in the
sand.  So he would say, "JESSICA, HELP!  HELP!  I lost my toes in the
sand.  OH WHERE OH WHERE DID THEY GO?  How am I supposed to amuse the
King without my toes?  The King said my toes were very amusing."

"Oh, Court Jester, of course you didn't lose your toes!  What a big,
silly goose.  They are right there under the sand."

"Jessica, what would I do without you?  I can always count on you to
find my toes for me.  Thank you VERY MUCH."

Jessica asked, "So how do you amuse the King?"

And the Jester said, "Well, I juggle and tell jokes and try the keep
the King amused.  It can be a hard job you know.  The King can be kind
of cranky.  His kingly duties do get to be a bit of strain you know. 
But a good Queen joke will always cheer the old boy right up."

"Well, then who amuses the Court Jester", Jessica asked.

"Oh, the Queen amuses me.  She makes fun of the King and pulls his
ponytail when he is taking a nap on his throne.  Boy, the King makes
quite a fuss when he is woken up! So Jessica, who amuses the Queen do
you think?"

"Well, the Prince amuses the Queen.  He rides his horse over the rose
bushes and sometimes they jump right into the moat."

"Well, I must say, that sounds very funny.  I heard the Princess
amuses the Prince.  Yup, she does silly things.  One time when she was
swimming with the Prince, she did a headstand under water.  She got
water right up her nose!  I wonder who amuses the Princess,  Jessica?"

"The Queen's niece amuses the Princess.  She draws her pictures of
mountains, trees, great big clouds, and a castle in the sky.
Court Jester, who amuses the Queen's niece?"

"Well, I heard that the King's dog amuses the Queen's niece.  All day
long, he chases his tail around and around.  Not once has he caught
it!  One would think he would have caught it by now!  And who do you
think amuses the dog?"

"Oh, the cat amuses the dog.  All day long, the cat stalks an
imaginary mouse.  Only the cat see can see this mouse, no one else
can."

"Well, Jessica, I heard that the imaginary mouse is amused by the
Moon.  All the night long, the Moon sings to the mouse.  The moonlight
serenade is the song the she sings.  And who amuses the Moon?"

"The Sun amuses the Moon.  Even though they don't see each other much.
But when the Moon and Sun pass at dawn and dusk the Sun sings the Moon
the Sunlight Serenade.  So, Court Jester, who amuses the Sun, I
wonder?"

"Well, my little friend, I heard that the Sun looks down at the Court
Jester and Jessica with his warm rays and that the Sun is very
amused."

"Well, Court Jester, who amuses the Court Jester and Jessica?"

"I heard that the amuse each other making up silly stories!"

    John
    
    There is a mouse on every page that shows the whole room! Not on the
    pages that show the individual items (like the mittens). My daughter
    now 13 loved that book. She gave her copy to her cousin when he
    was born and then later asked me to buy her another one (she hadn't
    out grown it as much as she had tought!)
    
    Bonnie
    
    p.s. I think if we want to continue this discussion we should politely
    move to the rathole :-).

    	Oh!  More Goodnight Moon fans!!  That was my absolute 
    *favorite* book as a kid!!  Every time I see it in a bookstore, I
    just *have* to pick it up and thumb through it!!  Mom used to ask
    me if I was sick of it yet, and the answer was always "no"!

    	amy

    I love Goodnight Moon!  And for slightly (but only slightly) more
    grown-up people - Eloise in Moscow - you have to find the spy on every
    page!
    
    -Jody
    

    Another vote for New Words - they're likely to have the biggest
    selection.
    
    However, there used to be a bookstore called "Anonymous" in Worcester.
    (As in "Anonymous was a woman." I suspect) It was in a little mall
    near the Galeria - between the Galeria and the main drag. The selection
    of books, however, was not nearly what you'd find at New Words.
    
    --DE
    

    I've just read off the net that there's a good book of feminist fairy
    tales called "Don't Bet on the Prince", edited by Jack Zipes....
    
    I look forward to reading it soon!
    
    -Jody
    

    I read  bits  of  "Don't Bet on the Prince" a couple of years ago.
    It's  a good idea, and some of the stories are very well done, but
    it  takes itself too seriously for a book of fairy tales, and some
    of  the  stories  read more like feminist essays than fairy tales.
    There was also an infinitely long analysis of fairy tales.

    Interesting reading,  with  a  couple  of  stories I would read to
    kids, but otherwise fairly standard essays. I wish there were more
    fairy  tales and that they had slightly higher literary standards.
    Some of the fairy tales were PC, but horribly written.

--David

    
    Re -1
    David - I agree that the essays were pretty long but I did enjoy them.
    Maybe because I was weaned on the "Blue Fairy Book" that the essays
    were criticising. 
    
    I do agree that some of the stories were better written than others,
    but for me the novelty of finding an alternative to the usual
    tales (and one with some humour, I felt) carried me through the rougher 
    patches. Some of the stories are pretty serious, but then so are some
    of the regular ones, as I remember....
    Interesting to hear you view though - when I re-read them I'll bear
    your comments in mind.
    
    'gail
     

    You might try looking for the Clever Gretchen stories that were
    collected by the Brothers Grimm.  Very few of them were translated
    into English.  In the Victorian era, anyhow.
    
    Then, there's _Red_As_Blood:_Tales_of_the_Sisters_Grimmer_ by
    Tanith Lee.  They're not *strictly* feminist, but they do put a
    different twist on things.  (Mostly vampiric twists, but that's
    Tanith Lee for you.)
    
    						Ann B.