January Book - Chasing Vermeer

The Louise Riley Parent Child Book Club is starting 2013 with Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett. .



A reminder that as the first Tuesday of January is New Years Day, the first meeting of the book club will be on Tuesday, January 8.

I hope you all have a great holiday season and a happy new year!

Savvy: Ingrid Law's Webpage

Ingrid Law's website: www.ingridlaw.com has some very interesting questions and answers on it. You can find out some of the ideas she had that shaped the book and you might be inspired to write a story yourself.

Savvy - Discussion Questions

I was having a tough time thinking up discussion questions for Savvy - the I got to the end of the book and, snizzle-snazzle!, there are some discussion question right there!

• Describe Mibs and her unique family. Would you want to be part of the Beaumont clan or not? Why?
• Describe Mibs's relationship with her parents and siblings. How is it complicated by their savvies? Do you think the inheritance of a savvy is a curse or a blessing?
• Savvy is told in the first person; how would the story be different if someone besides Mibs were telling it? Do you think changing the point of view would make the story better or worse? Why?
• Why is Lill Kiteley's arrival such an important one for Lester? In what ways was she able to help him change and grow as a person? Predict what the future will be like for the couple.
•  How does Mibs's relationship with Will and Bobbi change over the course of the adventure? Who do you think changes the most in the story? Why?
• Momma warned Mibs that "you can't get rid of part of what makes you you and be happy." What can we infer from this statement? Do you agree with her? Provide some examples from the story to validate her point.
• Using the phrase "This is a story about..." supply five words to describe Savvy. Explain your choices.
• When Bobbi talks to Mibs about Will's obvious feelings for her, Mibs realizes that it "made me feel too young and too old at the same time." Why does she feel this way? Have you ever felt this way? How does Mibs deal with these feelings? How do you?
• Mibs considers, "Maybe it's like that for everyone, I thought. Maybe we all have other people's voices running higgledy-piggledy through our heads all the time....I began to realize how hard it was to separate out all the voices to hear the single, strong one that came from just me." What can readers infer about her statement?
• Mibs thinks, "Then I remembered what Lill had said just before falling asleep in the motel the night before. You can never tell when a bad thing might make a good thing happen. I realized that good and bad were always there and always mixed up in a tangle." In what ways is this statement an indicator of Mibs's growth?

To these questions I would add a couple of my own:

• Do you know someone who seems to have a savvy?
• Do you have a savvy? Can you share it? Do you know someone with a powerful savvy?
• What is the deal about "growing moss in pickle jars"?
• How "real" did the story feel to you? More or less real than "Treasure Island" or "The Brixton Brothers"?

December Book - Savvy by Ingrid Law

The December book club meeting will discuss Savvy by Ingrid Law.

Copies have been set aside for those who couldn't attend the November meeting. Just ask at the Information desk at the Louise Riley Library and a staff member will fetch a copy for you.

Happy Reading!

The Pirate Puzzle!

As we all know, math can be applied to real life situations. Even if you are a pirate.

The puzzle: Five smart, greedy and mean pirates find themselves on a boat with 100 gold coins. The pirates are ranked according to seniority, from 1 to 5, the most senior being ranked 1. Here is the deal: the most senior pirate must make a proposal for splitting the coins among the pirates, including herself (no fractional coins!). If her proposal has at least 50 percent acceptance (she votes, too), she is fine; otherwise, the other four pirates throw her into the shark-infested sea. The remaining pirates play the same game, starting with a proposal from the next most senior pirate, that is, the pirate ranked 2.

What should pirate No. 1 propose?

The original solution: she should propose giving one coin to the last and third pirate, and keeping the remaining 98 coins for herself.

The way to solve this puzzle is to start from 2 pirates and add one pirate at a time until there are 5 pirates.

Before moving on, let us clarify what we mean by smart, greedy and mean. Smart means that all pirates are able to deduce the logical consequences of any proposal. Greedy means that they want to maximize their earnings. Mean means that they will throw someone off the boat if means more gold for them.

Let us also change the seniority ranking, meaning that, from 1 to 5, 5 is the most senior and 1 the junior pirate.

Back to our two pirates, P1 and P2. In this case, P2 proposes 100 coins for herself and zero for P2, gets 1 vote (her own) and is safe. 

With 3 pirates we get to the core of this puzzle. P3 needs 2 votes, her own plus one. She can accomplish this by giving P1 a single coin and keeping the rest for herself. Why would P1 accept a single coin? Because the alternative is worse. If P1 votes against the plan (and P3 is tossed to the sharks) then there are only two pirates, and P1 gets nothing. So P3 proposes 99/0/1.

Moving to 4 pirates, we see the emerging pattern: by looking at the previous proposal, P4 can propose 99/0/1/0 and get two votes (her own plus the pirate getting the single coin).

For 5 pirates P5 will need 3 votes — her own plus 2. She therefore proposes 98/0/1/0/1.

Treasure Island: Soundtrack

There really is only one song in the book - Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest (Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum)

Original (?) Version
Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Lewis Stevenson was born on November 13th, 1850, in Edinburgh Scotland. He was a very sickly child and spent much time in bed where his devoted nurse told him stories from the bible and Scottish history. Stevenson used to lie awake in his bed thinking of these stories and very early on decided he wanted to write stories of his own.

At the age of six he wrote and illustrated his own story of how Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt:



A drawing by the six-year-old Stevenson



This pleased his family so much that he was presented with a bible picture book as a reward. His mother wrote in her diary that "from that time forward it was the desire of his heart to be an author." 



Stevenson as a child


As he grew up Stevenson developed a reputation for idleness and rebelliousness. His frequent sickness prevented him from entering the families civil engineering business, but he never gave up on his dream of becoming a writer.

Stevenson as a young man



For health reason he was sent to the warmer climates of the European continent, which suited him just fine because he loved to travel, and it was in France that he met his future wife, Fanny Osbourne. She was an American, and when she went home Stevenson decided to go to America. He made the journey without telling his parents and against the advice of his friends. Once in America he travelled from one end of the country to the other. All the time he travelled he wrote about his journeys and these writing were what first established his reputation as a writer.

Robert Louis Stevenson



He married Fanny and became step father to the three children of her first marriage. The family moved back to Europe, but only stayed in Scotland during the warm summer months. It was there, in the summer of 1881, that Stevenson created the story of Treasure Island as an amusement for his stepson. When it was serialized two years later, Treasure Island became very popular. He followed up with many very successful books including Kidnapped!, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and A Child's Garden of Verse.

In 1887 the Stevensons returned briefly to America, but set sail the following year for the South Pacific. They settled on the island of Upolu in Samoa, and there they lived until Stevenson died suddenly of a brain hemmorage at the age of forty four.

On his tombstone are words he had written:

 

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

 

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

Sources:

Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (1850-1894).Something about the Author. Ed. Alan Hedblad. Vol. 100. Detroit: Gale, 1999. p225-230

http://digital.nls.uk/rlstevenson/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson

Treasure Island Discussion Questions

Some things to think about and talk about:

- Do you think Jim Hawkins changes through the novel, and if so, how?

- How do you think Jim Hawkins compares to modern characters such as Alex Rider, Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl?

- What do you think of Long John Silver?

- What would have happened to Silver if he had not escaped? How do you think he would have done if he had to stand trial?

- Why do you think Robert Louis Stevenson switches the narrator from Jim to Dr Livesey in chapters 16-18?

-With the exception of Jim's mother, who doesn't even get a name, there are no women at all in this novel. Why not? How might Treasure Island be different if Jim Hawkins were Jane Hawkins?

-How does Long John Silver compare to latter-day popular pirates like Captain Jack Sparrow? How might Treasure Island have influenced Pirates of the Caribbean and its ideas of pirate life and character?      

Real Pirates

Five real-life pirates mentioned are William Kidd (active 1696-1699), Blackbeard (1716–1718), Edward England (1717–1720), Howell Davis (1718–1719), and Bartholomew Roberts (1718–1722).

ARRRGH Maties! Treasure Island be the November Book!

That's right. Treasure Island. Pirates. Buried tresure. Adventure. Talking parrots. What more could you want? Well for starters you might want some help figuring out what those characters are saying, so here is a glossary that might help. You may want to print this and keep it handy

a-blowing like a garding blooming like a garden.

aboveboard in nautical terms, above deck; here used figuratively to mean still alive.

ague shakes trembling from a fever.

alow and aloft nautical terms for "below and above" meaning thoroughly, in every possible place.

already ambushed already waiting in ambush.

ankecher handkerchief.

apoplexy a stroke.

assizes court sessions held periodically in each county of England to try civil and criminal cases.

astern behind a ship.

back to back facing away from each other, with backs touching, as in holding off attackers or opponents.

backstay a stay (heavy rope or cable used for support) extending aft (toward the rear) from a masthead to the side or stern of a vessel.

batten down your hatches to fasten canvas over a ship's hatchways (covered openings in the deck) as in preparing for a storm; here Silver simply means "shut your mouth."

Ben Gunn is fly Fly is thieves' slang, originally, meaning "alert and knowing; sharp, quick."

biscuit ship biscuit or hardtack, unleavened bread made in very hard, large wafers.

blocks pulleys or systems of pulleys (in this case, for manipulating the sails).

a blue mug a blue face; apparently Flint's habitual heavy drinking of rum had resulted in broken capillaries in his face, making his skin in those areas appear to be purplish or blue.

boatswain a ship's warrant officer or petty officer in charge of the deck crew, anchors, boats, etc. (pronounced and often spelled bosun).

booms spars extending from the masts to hold the bottoms of the sails outstretched.

broom any of a group of flowering shrubs of the pea family.

buccaneer a pirate, a sea robber.

bulkhead any of the upright partitions separating parts of a ship.

by the stone A stone is a British unit of weight equal to fourteen pounds; hence, Jim is saying Ben Gunn may have all the cheese he wants.

calker a variant spelling of caulker: a substance, as a puttylike sealant or oakum, used to stop up cracks in a boat. Silver calls his drink of cognac a calker, because he is using it to prepare for trouble from his crew, figuratively rough weather.

cannikin a small can; a metal drinking cup.

capstan an apparatus around which cables or hawsers are wound for hoisting anchors. The devise resembles a tuning peg on a stringed instrument, so the captain's voice sounds as if it had been tuned too tightly and broken.

careen to cause a ship to lean or lie on one side, as on a beach, for cleaning.

carpet bowls a game played by rolling a weighted ball at a target ball or jack, as in lawn bowling but played indoors on a carpet.

catechism a handbook of questions and answers for teaching the principles of a religion.

cession ceding; giving over.

chuck farthen on the blessed gravestones Chuck-farthing is a game, usually called "penny-pitch" in the United States, in which small coins are tossed or chucked to bank off a wall or obstacle of some kind, with the player whose coin lands closest to the obstacle winning and taking the others. Ben Gunn is saying his career in vice began with this mild form of gambling, apparently using gravestones in a churchyard as backboards. (Later, in a conversation with Livesey, Silver will use "playing chuck-farthing with my life" to mean gambling with his life.)

clove hitch a kind of knot used to fasten a rope around a pole, spar, or another rope; used figuratively here, it means a tight spot, a very difficult situation from which there seems to be no escape.

the cocks of his hat Sailors of the period wore hats whose brims they rolled on three sides to form a stiff triangle; the Captain's hat has come unrolled on one side.

conned the ship . . . To conn a ship is to direct its movements, specifically by giving directions to the helmsman, who operates the tiller and actually steers the ship.

contrariety the condition of being contrary (in opposition); here, the wind and current are in the same direction.

coracle a short, roundish boat of skins or waterproofed canvas stretched over a wood or wicker frame.

cordage cords and ropes collectively, especially the ropes in a ship's rigging.

cove a small bay or inlet.

coxswain a person in charge of a ship's boat and usually acting as its helmsman.

crosstrees two short bars across a ship's masthead to spread the rigging that supports the mast.

cutlas an old spelling of cutlass; a short, thick, curving sword with a single cutting edge, used especially by sailors.

dared not beach her Because Jim has cut away the anchor, they must beach the ship (ground it on a beach) in order to keep it stationary, but they must wait to do this until the tide has come in enough so that they can steer close to shore where the ebbing tide will not wash the ship back out to sea.

Davy Jones in folklore, the spirit of the sea, or the sea personified; used by sailors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

dead-eye a round, flat block of wood with three holes in it for a lanyard (short rope or cord), used in pairs on a sailing ship to hold the shrouds and stays (ropes for moving the sails) taut.

deadlights windows of heavy glass set in the side of a ship; nautical slang for "eyes."

depytation deputation, a group of persons or a person appointed to represent others.

die a gentleman a gentleman of fortune, a pirate.

dingle a deep, wooded valley.

dirk a long, straight dagger.

dogwatch nautical term for either of the two duty periods (from 4 to 6 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m.) that are half the length of a normal duty period.

doldrums equatorial ocean regions noted for dead calms; a sailing ship in the doldrums may be becalmed indefinitely for lack of wind.

don't hang so long in stays "In stays" or "in irons" is said of a sailing vessel that is headed into the wind with no way on, one that has failed to come about (to change course so that the sails shift); the captain is using the phrase figuratively to urge Gray to change his loyalty from Silver to his rightful captain; he uses "in irons" in much the same way during his later parlay with Silver.

don't vally bullying a marlinespike don't value [appreciate] bullying at all; a marlinespike is a pointed metal tool for separating the strands of a rope in splicing.

the downhaul a rope for hauling down a sail; the sail Jim wants to bring in is in the water, so that Jim is not strong enough to move it.

Dry Tortugas a group of small islands of Florida, west of Key West.

England In Silver's conversation with Dick and Hands, England is the name of a pirate captain he has sailed with. (Edward England was a historical pirate; he died in the early 1720s, and one of his companions, a one-legged man, is said to have been the model on whom Stevenson based the character Long John Silver.)

environed surrounded.

Execution Dock a wharf on the north bank of the river Thames at Wapping, in London, the traditional place for execution by hanging of pirates.

the fable of the mountain and the mouse This is in reference to a saying ("a mountain labored and gave birth to a mouse") and means, roughly, "you seemed to be going to say a lot more than you finally did say."

figurehead a carved figure on the bow of a ship.

Fo'c's'le council forecastle council; the man is citing rules that allow the crew to take council among themselves.

foc's'le forecastle; the area of a ship ahead of the foremast.

forefoot the meeting point of the keel and the stem of a ship.

forehold storage space below the front part of a ship's deck.

French leave an unauthorized, unnoticed, or unceremonious departure.

fried junk a casual or slang term for fried salt pork.

gallipot a small pot or jar of glazed earthenware, especially one used by druggists as a container for medicine; Dr. Livesey uses this figuratively of the jolly-boat because of its small size.

gamekeeper a person employed to breed and care for game birds and animals on private estates, releasing them for hunts.

gaskin a legging or gaiter (a cloth or leather covering for the instep and ankle).

a gay lot to look at Silver means something like "a nice lot," spoken ironically; "gay" had not in Stevenson's time taken on a widely known sexual meaning.

gig a long, light ship's boat.

gill a unit of liquid measure equal to ¼ pint or 4 fluid ounces.

good divinity sound religious doctrine.

grog diluted alcoholic liquor, especially rum.

guinea an English gold coin (last minted in 1813) equal to 21 shillings (a little over a pound).

gully a large knife.

the gunwale was lipping astern The gunwale (pronounced GUN-ulh) is the upper edge of the side of a boat; water was touching the edge of the jolly-boat's gunwale at the rear (stern).

the Hall . . . the squire The squire is the principal landowner of a district; the Hall is his place of residence, usually a large, old house.

halyards ropes for raising or lowering flags, sails, and so on.

hamlet a small village.

handspike a heavy bar used as a lever, as in turning a capstan.

hawser a large rope used for towing or mooring a ship.

hazing in nautical terminology, punishment or harassment, often by forcing to do unnecessary work.

head sea an ocean current moving in a direction opposite that of the ship's motion; sailing would be rough here.

his old negress Silver's wife, as Squire Trelawney reported early in the book, is a woman of color. Negress was in Stevenson's day an acceptable, polite term to designate a woman of African descent, whereas Trelawney's phrase, correct in the early twenty-first century, was condescending in earlier times.

his powder white as snow Fashionable upper- and middle-class men in the 1700s wore various styles of wig; these were often bleached white and treated regularly with white talc.

his tarry pigtail . . . Sailors of the period commonly treated their braided hair with the same tar they used to waterproof ropes and sails.

holus-bolus all at once; in one lump.

I have drawn blood enough A common medical practice was to draw blood from a patient; this was standard treatment for a variety of ailments and was supposed to be effective.

I leave it to fancy where your mothers was . . . I leave it to imagination . . .; Silver is insulting their mothers without actually saying anything specific.

I never seen a pack of fools look fishier . . . gaping and goggle-eyed (like fish) in surprise.

I'll gammon that doctor . . . In nautical terms, to gammon is to lash up, make secure; Silver is using this figuratively, meaning something like "I'll make sure that doctor is acting in our interests."

I'll have to strike I'll have to strike my colors or take down my flag; Hands means he will have to give up and acknowledge that Jim has won.

J. F. and a score below . . . Flint's characteristic signature: his initials with a line drawn below them and a knot (clove hitch) drawn on the line.

jib a triangular sail secured to a stay forward of the foremast.

jib-boom the boom of the jib; the spar extending from its mast or stay to hold the bottom of the jib outstretched.

Jolly Roger a black flag of pirates, with a white skull and crossbones.

jolly-boat a sailing vessel's small boat, usually carried on the stern.

keel-haul to haul a person down through the water on one side of a ship, under the keel, and up on the other side as punishment or torture.

keelson a longitudinal beam or set of timbers fastened inside the hull of a ship along the keel to add structural strength.

keg of pork a barrel of pork cured in salt for preservation.

a kind of a chapling a kind of a chaplain; Hands implies that Silver is known for not carousing like the other pirates.

lanyard a short rope or cord used on board ship; a cord hung round the neck (by sailors) used to hang something.

lay to . . . keep a bright lookout to lie more or less stationary (as a ship, with the bow into the wind) and keep an alert watch.

link a torch made of tow and pitch; here, Silver uses the word simply to mean "a light" (for his pipe).

the long nine a large artillery piece mounted on the ship; this is primed with powder and wadding; loaded with nine-pound, round lead shot; aimed; and fired by a gunner by touching the powder with a lit match. Thus, in Chapter 17, the captain asks Trelawney, who is watching the gunner, to tell the others in the jolly-boat when he sees the match so that they can hold or back the boat, because the gunner will have aimed ahead of it.

Long Tom the "long nine," the ship's gun.

look out for squalls watch out for sudden storms; that is, for sudden trouble.

"looped for musketry" with small ports for firing weapons.

lubber an inexperienced, clumsy sailor.

luff to turn the bow of a ship toward the wind.

lugger a small vessel equipped with a lugsail (a four-sided sail supported by a spar — a slender wooden rod — that is fastened to the mast).

made sure was sure; Jim uses the phrase in this sense, rather than in the more modern sense of "took action to ensure."

magistrate a civil officer empowered to administer the law.

mail a vehicle by which mail is delivered (in this case, a stage coach).

malaria an infectious disease transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito; while malaria and yellow fever are two different diseases, their symptoms at the outset are similar, and the sailors would likely call either or both Yellow Jack.

the man in the chains . . . the crewman using fathoming lines to measure the depth of the water on either side of the ship's bow.

a man who sailed before the mast . . . a common sailor, not an officer; from the quarters of the crew ahead of the foremast.

manufactory factory; manufacturing plant. (The sort of factory Jim may have had in mind, in the eighteenth century, would have been something like a fabric mill, whose heavy looms operated with much noise and shaking.)

marish an archaic term for marshy, swamp-like.

Master Pew's dead . . . if make it out they can The revenue officer (tax collector) is unpopular and knows it; he wants to report Pew's accidental death (which he caused) to the magistrate (Livesey) before someone else misreports it as deliberate.

mizzen shrouds the ropes stretched from the ship's side to the head of the mizzenmast to offset lateral strain on the mast.

mizzentop the top of the mizzenmast, which is the mast third from the bow of a ship with three or more masts.

musket a smoothbore, long-barreled firearm, used before the invention of the rifle.

my cock my fine young man; the cock is the male of the chicken (in modern American usage, the rooster) and certain other birds, and in another sense the word can mean leader or chief, especially one with some boldness or arrogance. Silver is addressing Jim with a semi-affectionate, semi-ironical pet name, probably in reference to Jim's having just admitted that he hid the ship and did away with Silver's old shipmate Hands.

my davy Silver means "my affidavit" or statement made under oath; later he will say "my affy-davy."

my long home the grave; a euphemism for death.

my officer my first mate; next in rank to the captain.

my score my take; the man did not pay for his rum.

narrow and shoal narrow and shallow.

a noo boarder . . . a new boarder; throughout, in the speech of Silver and others, the vowel sound in such words as duty and new is often rendered as oo, apparently to denote a difference in dialect between that of these uneducated men and that of the "gentlemen," Trelawney and Livesey. (While in American speech today this distinction is seldom made, in Stevenson's time the difference between the vowel sounds of "noo" and "new" would have been approximately the same as the difference made today in such pairs of words as "coot" and "cute.")

painter a rope attached to the bow of a boat for tying it to a dock (or to a ship) or for towing it.

paling a fence made of pales (narrow, upright pointed stakes; pickets).

pieces of eight obsolete Spanish and Spanish-American dollars.

pig-nut any of several bitter, astringent hickory nuts.

pikes weapons, formerly used by soldiers, each consisting of a metal spearhead on a long wooden shaft.

play duck and drake with waste, squander (from a game, "ducks and drakes," of skipping flat stones across water).

plum-duff plum pudding, a rich dessert made of raisins, currants, flour, spices, suet, and then boiled or steamed.

a pretty rum go . . . a shame, a bad thing.

priming used here in the sense of the primer, the powder used to set off the pistol's shot.

quadrant an instrument (later replaced by the sextant) used in navigating.

quartermaster nautical term for petty officer or mate trained to steer a ship, perform navigational duties, and so on; on pirate ships, the next in line to the captain, elected by the crew as their representative.

quid a piece, as of tobacco, to be chewed.

a rank Irelander a low Irishman; "rank" may be used as an adjective in several senses, including "offensive-smelling" and "complete; utter;" Hands may be using it in either or both of these senses, to express his dislike of the Irish.

a red ensign a red flag or banner.

rolling scuppers under . . . Scuppers are openings in the sides of the ship that allow water to run off the deck; the Hispaniola's position and motion of the sea are causing it to roll back and forth sideways until the scuppers are under water.

the rules Throughout this part, Silver and the others are referring to a set of rules or code of honor by which gentlemen of fortune have agreed to be bound; this was slightly different from ship to ship and from pirate captain to captain, but was essentially a democratic code specifying rights and responsibilities.

a rum puncheon a wooden cask or barrel for holding rum.

saber a heavy cavalry sword with a slightly curved blade.

sailing master an officer in charge of navigation.

salts slang term for seasoned sailors.

schooner a sailing vessel with two or more masts.

a score twenty.

sealed . . . thimble Letters and documents were sometimes stuck shut with wax, which was then impressed with a seal, a device to ensure they had not been opened; the captain has sealed his packet using a thimble, a metal cap used to protect a finger when sewing.

sealed orders orders that are to be accepted before the person being ordered knows their substance or contents (such as Smollett was given when he signed on as captain of the Hispaniola without knowing the destination of the voyage); here, Silver means that he has taken Livesey's warning without understanding what kind of trouble the doctor has in mind.

sea-walk a kind of rolling, swaggering gait; sailors, walking on the rolling decks of relatively small ships at sea for months on end, did not regain their land legs until they'd been back on shore for some time.

separate peace a treaty or agreement that affects only one individual or group within a larger group.

the ship [had to be] warped . . . To warp a ship is to move it by hauling on a line fastened to a pile, dock, anchor, and so on; in this case, the lines were fastened to the ship's boats and the ship hauled by its oarsmen.

some by the board Silver means that some who challenged him had been made to walk the plank; that is, they had been forced to walk blindfolded along a board extended over the water from the ship's gunwale until they ran out of board and fell to their deaths. Contemporary pirate scholarship says there is no evidence that this was ever actually done.

something of a butt the object of jokes and teasing.

the sort of man that made England terrible at sea England was the strongest sea power among European nations of the period, both in its royal navy and its privateers; the man uses "terrible" in the sense of "terrifying, justifiably feared."

Spanish Main the Caribbean Sea, or that part of it adjacent to the northern coast of South America.

split him to the chine cut him through to the backbone.

stanch an old spelling of staunch: firm; steadfast; loyal. Silver is using the term in a figurative sense of the nautical meaning watertight and seaworthy.

starboard. . . larboard to the right . . . to the left.

a stiff man . . . a stern man, strict, unbending (Smollett will later be called the ship's captain, a higher rank than sailing master, so perhaps Trelawney is belittling him here).

a strong scour with the ebb . . . To scour is to wash or clear as by a swift current of water; here the ebb (outgoing) tide is very strong and has cleared away a channel deeper than it was when the chart was drawn.

subaltern a subordinate officer.

supercargo an officer on a merchant ship who has charge of the cargo and business dealings.

swabs enlisted men or common sailors; a derisive term as the captain uses it.

their glim their light, in this case their candle, whose wax or tallow is still warm.

thwart a rower's seat extending across a boat.

tiller a bar or handle for turning the rudder of a boat or ship.

tip us a stave start up a song for us; sailors sang to establish a rhythm for their work.

to lose that much blunt, and be hanged into the bargain Blunt is old slang for money, cash; Silver is saying he thought he had lost the treasure and on top of that would be brought to trial and executed.

trades trade winds; one of the winds that blows steadily toward the equator from the northeast in the tropics north of the equator and from the southeast in the tropics south of the equator.

trim the boat to balance the boat by ballasting, shifting cargo, and so on.

a trump a good fellow.

two brace two pair.

two fathoms and a half fifteen feet; a fathom is a unit of length used to measure the depth of water or the length of a nautical rope or cable, equal to six feet (1.8288 meters).

Union Jack the national flag of the United Kingdom.

wain-ropes wagon-ropes; the ties by which a wagon is secured and drawn; Jim is saying he couldn't be dragged by oxen to another such voyage.

water-breaker a small water keg.

we'll fight the ship . . . we'll fight from the ship, using its weaponry.

we've split upon Jim Hawkins Silver is opposing Tom Morgan's argument that Jim should be killed.

What fool's cut a Bible? To cut or tear a page out of a Bible is apparently considered very bad luck.

yard-arm either side of a yard, a slender rod fastened at right angles across a mast to support a sail.

yaw to swing back and forth across its course, as a ship pushed by waves.

Yellow Jack yellow fever, an acute, infectious tropical disease caused by a virus and spread by mosquitoes.

you ain't dumb you are not silent; you can speak.

you want to play booty . . . Booty is used in the sense of any gain, prize, or gift; the man apparently accuses Silver of acting for his own gain rather than the common good of his crew.

younker a youngster.

your sauce your impertinence, impudence.

You're on a lee shore A lee shore is a sheltered shore, out of the wind; thus Smollett means that Silver and his pirates are in a bad position with no good way out.

Brixton Bros. #1 - Discussion Questions

When a novel pokes fun of a certain style or genre of writing, we often say it is a satire. A satire will often use exaggeration to make jokes and to make a supposed serious work look silly. Is “The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity” a satire?

When you read a book and believe that what happens in it could really happen in real life, then that book could be said to have verisimilitude. Verisimilitude is a fancy word people use to mean “believable”. Did anything happen in this book you found too unlikely - or even downright impossible? Is verisimilitude even important in a book like this?

“Cliffhangers” are plot devices that make a reader want to keep going to find out what happens next. A thriller or detective story will often have a cliffhanger at the end of one chapter so that the reader will not stop but read the next chapter right away. Can you give an example of a cliffhanger in “The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity”?

Even in a satire, it is necessary that the reader cares about the main character. Did you care about Steve? What did the author do to make you care about Steve?

All characters, both good guys and bad guys, need motivation - a reason to act they way they do. A motivation can be something simple (greed) or something complex (the need to be taken seriously) What is Steve’s motivation? What is the bad guys motivation? What is Rick’s motivation?

“The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity” is the first book in a series. What did the author do to set up the idea that more adventures would come?

Do the illustrations make the story better? Do they match the comic tone of novel? Do you ever flip ahead to an illustration and then find yourself wanting to know what is going on?

Brixton Bros. #1 Soundtrack

There is not a lot of music mentioned in The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity, but Steve is forced to listen to smooth jazz while being held in the librarian's limousine. What is "smooth jazz?", well  it's the kind of easy listening music you might have heard while waiting in the dentist's office. Here are a couple of examples:

Larry Carlton Plays Smooth Jazz
The King of Smooth Jazz - Kenny G!

Do you think Steve is right to not like smooth jazz? Do you like smooth jazz? It's okay if you do. We won't judge you.

Brixton Bros.#1: The Book, The Author

The Brixton Brothers books are written by Mac Burnett and illustrated by Adam Rex.

You can link to stuff related to the Brixton Brothers at brixtonbrothers.com.

The following interview was copied from http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Mac-Barnett/45720819/author_revealed

Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?

A. I spend all day looking for my keys

Q. What is your motto or maxim?

A. "Where are my keys?"

Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?

A. Walking my little brother's poodle

Q. What’s your fantasy profession?

A. Walking my little brother's golden retriever

Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?

A. Cadbury Mini Eggs. (VERY IMPORTANT: I'm not talking about the larger eggs, sometimes called Cadbury Maxi Eggs, with the gross fake yolk and too-sweet-cream egg white.) Why are these available only at Easter time? I have to stock up every spring with enough tiny chocolate eggs to last me the whole year, and then I end up eating that year's supply in three days. It's insane

Q. Who are your favorite authors?

A. James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Jon Scieszka, David Foster Wallace, Judith Viorst, Arnold Lobel, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Tomi Ungerer, James Marshall, Ellen Raskin, Nicholas Mosley, Ernest Hemingway, Flann O'Brien, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, Edward Lear, Mother Goose, Chris Ware, and on and on and on

Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?

A. The Stinky Cheese Man, Infinite Jest, The Stupids Step Out, Ulysses, A Moveable Feast

Q. How did you come to write Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity?

A. After it became clear I was never going to make it as an actual private detective (I am allergic to fingerprint powder), writing this book seemed like the next best thing.

Brixton Bros, #1: Influences

The Bailey Brothers - those fictional crime solving brothers that Steve Brixton emulates - are based upon The Hardy Boys series of books. Originally written in the Twenties and Thirties, they were revised and republished starting in 1959. Although Franklin W. Dixon is the name attributed to the author on the books, they were originally written by Leslie McFarlane who was a Canadian journalist. There have been 190 Hardy boys books written from 1929 to 2005, but many people feel only the first 58 books are really the "true" hardy boys books. There really is a Hardy Boys Detective Handbook - I had one when I was ten!

Steve Brixton solves the case of the blackbird robber while eating dinner just from the clues rick tells him. This scene calls to mind the Encyclopedia Brown stories by Donald J. Sobol. In these stories Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown often solves the mysteries his Chief of Police father tells him about while the family is having dinner. 

Welcome!

Welcome to the Louise Riley Parent Child Book Club Blog (Whew! What a mouthful!). The purpose of this blog is to explore some of the issues and themes in the books we read and also to just be a place where information about the book club can be found.

The club will meet in the Louise Riley Program Centre on the first Tuesday of the month. The exact dates and times are

September 4th, 7:00 to 8:30
October 2nd, 7:00 to 8:30
November 6th, 7:00 to 8:30
December 4th, 7:00 to 8:30

Books:

The book to be discussed at the September meeting is Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick. Copies are available to be signed out at the Louise Riley Library. Ask at the information desk.

The book to be discussed at the October meeting is  The Case of the Case of the Mistaken Identity, by Mac Barnett. Copies can be signed out at the September meeting.

Books for the November and the December meetings have yet to be picked. If you have a book you would like to suggest, let me know. You can always email me at:

tyler.jones@calgarypubliclibrary.com.

What do we read for November?

I need YOU to help decide what our November book club book will be! E-mail me your suggestions, be it either specific titles or general types of books and I will see what books I can get enough copies of! Check back here to see what books we are thinking about!

Suggestions have started coming in! Among the books suggested so far:

Treasure Island
Mrs. Piggly Wiggly
The Wind in the Willows
Pippi Longstocking
Rick Riordan books
Septimus Heap books
Stone Heart series
The Book Thief
Michael Morpogo books (War Horse)
Charlie Bone Books
American Girl series

What do you think?

Email me at: tyler.jones@calgarypubliclibrary.com

Wonderstruck - Soundtracks

The David Bowie song Space Oddity got it's name from 2001: A Space Odyssesy, a science fiction movie that was popular in 1968, has special meaning for Ben.

It was a favourite song of his mother's and it also made him imagine that Major Tom was his dad. Click on this link to see the original video for this song from 1969. The song was the first big hit for Bowie in North America.

In 1983 German singer Peter Schilling released the song Major Tom (Coming Home) which is another version of the story.

There is not much mention of music in the part of the story that takes place in 1927, which is not surprising since Rose can not hear music. Still, if you are interested in what music sounded like back then, you can click on some these popular songs from that year:

My Blue Heaven, by Gene Austin

Stardust, by Hoagy Carmichael

Blue Skies, by Ben Selvin and his Orchestra

And here are some songs from 1977, when Ben's part of the story takes place.

Lonely Boy, by Andrew Gold
Star Wars - Main Title, by London Symphony Orchestra

Wonderstruck - Websites

A website has been created for Wonderstck with lots of interesting information and art. You can even learn to sign your own name in sign language:

Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick is published by Scholastic Press. This link will connect to the publisher's website where more information about the author, including interviews, can be found:

Brian Seznick's Biography

And another:

Video interview


In the selected bibliography, Brian Selznick lists the following websites for you to visit if you want more information:

American Museum of Natural History
Betsy Bowen
Deidre Scherer
Gunflint Lodge
James Perry Wilson
Learn Sign Language
Minnesota Geological Survey
Museum of Jurassic Technology
National Association of the Deaf
Queens Museum of Art

Here are a few more cool things I found:

How Lightning Works

NYC Panorama

Cabinet of Curiosities

Wonderstruck - Quotations

In Wonderstruck, Ben's mom has quotations taped up all over the house. Here are some quotations with links to the person who said them.

What do you think these quotations mean? You can email me your comments and I will post them here! tyler.jones@calgarypubliclibrary.com

1. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde
2. None so deaf as those who will not hear. - Mathew Henry
3. I believe it to be true that dreams are the true interpreters of our inclinations; but there is an art required to sort and understand them. - Michel de Montaigne
4. Calamity is the test of integrity. -Samuel Richardson
5. A star is beautiful; it affords pleasure, not from what it is to do, or to give, but simply by being what it is. - Thomas Carlyle
6. A book may be as great a thing as a battle. - Benjamin Desreali 
7. Love is the greatest of educators. - Frances Sargent Osgood
8. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul. - Dr. Johnson
9. Contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he decends to human affairs. - Cicero
10. An undevout astronomer is mad. - Edward Young
11. Brave deeds are most esteemable when hidden. - Blaise Pascal
12. Out of difficulties grow miracles. -Jean de la Bruyere
13. Books - lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. - Edwin Percy Whipple
14. Promptly improve your accidents. - Napoleon

Wonderstruck: Discussion Questions

1. How does Ben feel about living with his aunt and uncle and sharing a room with his cousin? Describe his feelings when he finds Janet in his mother’s house at night. Why is he so affected by the locket and the book he finds in his mother’s room?
2. What are the early connections between Ben’s story and Rose’s story? Discuss how those connections—the places where they feel trapped, their loneliness, the storms and lightning—help to illuminate and expand on the individual stories.
3. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” How many ways does star imagery come into Ben’s story and Rose’s story?
    
4. When do we first learn that Rose is deaf? How does that revelation intersect with Ben’s story? Discuss the events that compel each of them to run away. How are their experiences similar and how are they different?
5. Compare Rose’s encounter with her mother to Ben’s first experiences in New York. Why does Rose run away from her mother? Why does Ben run away from the boy who tries to help him? What draws both Ben and Rose to the museum?
6. Compare the powerful experiences Ben and Rose have with the meteorite Ahnighito and the wishes they make.
7. Why does Jamie lead Ben to the wolf exhibit? Why does Ben decide to trust Jamie, and later, why does he become angry with Jamie?
8. How does the storytelling structure in the book change when Ben finally finds Kincaid’s Bookstore? Describe Rose’s feelings when she sees Ben and realizes who he might be. Describe Ben’s feelings when he realizes his connection to Rose.
9. Discuss Ben’s thought that “maybe we are all cabinets of wonders” [p. 574]. What does he mean? What does the Cabinet of Wonders in his father’s book and in the storage room at AMNH represent to Ben? Why is he so drawn to the idea of those early museums?
10. Why is it important for Rose to take Ben to the Queens Museum to tell him the story of his father? What does the Panorama mean to her and how does it relate to her childhood? Why does Jamie follow them?
11. Compare Ben’s experience during the blackout in Minnesota when he is home alone with the blackout in New York when he is with Rose. What do you think Ben’s next chapter will be—staying in New York or returning to Minnesota?