View allAll Photos Tagged bookstack
This would be the reason for my recent lack of photos and attention to flickr.
Each stack is for one of the modules I am studying and the stacks actually go higher than is visible in this photo. Is it any wonder my head often feels ready to explode!!
Tenuous Link: stack
Visited a small library book sale today. Great prices - mostly 25 cents each, and two for the price of one. Total of 14 books for $1.75.
My first attempt at a 'connected reading list'. I like to read factual books and often find myself jumping from one subject area to the next either through direct quotation, a reference or bibliography entry, a reviewer's comment or simply from a Google search. If you hover your mouse pointer over the photo I've added notes which are links to each title on Amazon.co.uk
Working up the stack we start with
- Joe McNally's The Moment It Clicks; Photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters. He takes an interesting approach and it reads somewhere between a heavily illustrated autobiography and a how-to manual and that, somehow, is a perfect combination! (I found this and the next two from Thom Hogan's excellent Nikon centric website)
- Light Science and Magic. So you like taking photographs? This is the book that explains all about why light itself acts the way it does.
- Out of the Blue, So you like taking photographs or you just enjoy being outside! Read this great book to get an understanding on the weather and its visual phenomenon.
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. The title says it all - A huge undertaking that Bryson pulls off with aplomb. Get some sense of scale. This should be required reading for everybody!
- Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative is my favourite book on displaying information by Tufte.
- Universal Principles of Design is a collection of 125 design concepts draw from a wide range of disciplines from graphic design to architecture to user-interface design.
- Security Engineering by Ross Anderson is THE book on the subject. Most engineers in any field spend their time trying to get things to work well, Security Engineers need to spend their time thinking about how to break things. This book looks at everything from Cash Machines to Nuclear Command and Control, Door Locks to Cryptography and reminds you that you are only as secure as the weakest link.
- A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. Despite appearances this actually has more pages than Anderson's Security tome. The title refers to a structured method of describing good design practices within Architecture, however it has been applied to numerous other fields since. If our modern era planning control adopted more of these 'patterns' we would live in far more pleasant built environs.
- Patterns of Home is a distillation of the domestic scale patterns suggested by Alexander et al in Pattern Language by two of the original collaborators, Silverstein and Jacobson, based on their experiences of applying them to houses over years of architectural practice.
- The Housebuilder's Bible by Mark Brinkley is how to Self-Build you own house in the UK.
- Designing a house to build inevitable brings you around to considering energy usage and supply. Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air looks at this challenge on an individual household, national and global level, considering energy use and how to reduce it and energy supply options.
- A Place of My Own is the story of one man's desire to build his own space, in this case a writing studio. A fascinating narrative.
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad. At first and probably second glance the odd one out in this stack. It is over simplistic, over familiar, over American and a lot of what it details is common sense or should be. However the more financial titles I read the more I find myself coming back to it and re-reading it with modified perspectives.
- The Long and The Short of It: A Guide to Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Aren't in the Industry is a perfect antidote to the financial services industry and mainstream press personal finance output. The book to read if you don't trust the banking and investment industry and suspect you could probably do a better job yourself. It suggests you probably can and tells you how.
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I was very pleased with how the first Blurb book turned out. With a Blurb incentive of a 20% discount I went into a frenzy and put together another four. Once again I'm really pleased with the quality of the printing and binding.
Link to all the books at Blurb
File name: 08_02_002733
Box label: Public buildings: Libraries
Title: Boston Athenaeum. Stacks
Alternative title: Boston Athenaeum: Beacon Street, stacks
Creator/Contributor: Marr, Thomas E. (photographer)
Date issued:
Date created: 1901 (approximate)
Physical description: 1 photographic print ; 7 3/4 x 9 1/2 in.
Genre: Photographic prints
Subjects: Boston Athenaeum; Athenaeums; Libraries; Buildings; Interiors; Bookstacks
Notes: Number on image: 5608
Provenance:
Statement of responsibility: T. E. Marr
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: Rights status not evaluated.
21st cake. Thomas is an avid reader so his mum and I came up with the idea for a stack of his favorite books. The top USA book is for his upcoming year in the USA. There is also happry potter, michael connolly, enid blyton.
The upright book is a book from his childhood. And I think makes the cake.
This was my last cake for the year.
1. research, 2. Books Purchased November 2007, 3. Pressing the Covers, 4. ok, this one is dear, 5. Book Shelves, 6. Chapel Hill Library Book Sale, 7. Atlantic Reporter, 8. My Book Shelf (design section), 9. Book Shelves: Close Up, 10. Spot the difference, 11. 28/365, 12. Untitled, 13. Untitled, 14. books, 15. kitchen book shelves - before, 16. The bike shelf, 17. Sara's Bookshelf, 18. books no longer read, 19. books, 20. Bookshelf 4, 21. Bookshelf 2, 22. Chinese dictionaries and text books, 23. Summer reading, 24. Book Rush, 25. book shelves, 26. library annex, 27. Book Shelves, 28. Book Shelf, 29. Books I want to read, 30. bookshelf, 31. Books I'm reading now., 32. book shelf project 1 ~ striatic {notes}, 33. Books, 34. Day 106 - I am a librarian, 35. fruit_box_shelf, 36. Books Read November 2007
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
It's a cliche I know but books make me happy. E or print, doesn't matter. They can also make me feel all kinds of emotions, but overall I find reading to be a happy place for me.
Reviews from Pink Me: Children's books reviewed for grownups.
The Three Cabritos by Eric Kimmel, illustrated by Stephen Gilpin.
Three Billy Goats Gruff in a Tex-Mex setting. The goats outwit the Chupacabra by playing their instruments til he dances so hard that he deflates - a witty alternative to the violent end that meets many villains. Best line: "We always have a good time when we go to Mexico!" (You gotta deliver that one like you're Cheech Marin, who also has a new book, about which probably the less said the better.) Love the art too.
Martina the beautiful cockroach: A Cuban folktale. Retold by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Michael Austin.
I kind of want to think that David Kirk scammed this story for Miss Spider's Wedding - Martina rejects a batch of suitors that are too macho, too vain, too violent, in favor of the cleverest, a little mousie. Cute.
How many seeds in a pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by G. Brian Karas.
I like G. Brian Karas's art. Cartoony colored pencils, fairly minimal, but still very expressive. It's a little bit math-y, a little bit size-can-be-deceptive-y, a little bit botany-y. Nice. Especially good for schools that need fall-themed books that are not Halloween. -y.
Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Bottle Houses, Head Body Legs).
Oh now this is cool - the thread is the Cinderella story, but it's woven from the variations from different cultures. Thus we have: (Russia) Then she reached into the hole in the birch tree. (Indonesia) Then a crocodile swam up to the surface and in its mouth was a sarong made of gold... (China) ... a cloak sewn of kingfisher feathers... (Japan) ... a kimono red as sunset. (France) And on the girl's feet appeared a pair of glass slippers... (India) ...diamond anklets... (Iraq) ...sandals of gold. Super colorful folk-inspired illustrations pack the pages. First class.
Gimme cracked corn & I will share, egg-secuted by Kevin O'Malley.
Oh man. Kevin O'Malley is one funny guy, and he just can't resist a pun or a joke. This one is packed full, and each one delivers. Plus he has never been more on his game art-wise. Good composition, judicious use of black. Our man's gonna turn into Mel Brooks one of these days, and won't his wife be surprised!
The getaway, by Ed Vere.
Ooo! Collage! Film noir quotes! Breaking the fourth wall! Taking this one home. Big Man and Mr. Four will lap it up.
Gai See: What you can see in Chinatown by Roseanne Thong, illustrated by Yangsook Choi.
What can you see in a Chinese street market throughout the year? Well, if your graceful verse book is illustrated by Yangsook Choi, you will see vibrant colors, impressionistic humans and precise drawings of irresistable goods. This book makes me miss Pearl River and the New Ao Jang in a big way. Beautiful on a gray autumn day.
That pesky dragon by Julie Sykes, illustrated by Melanie Williamson.
A fine book about not making assumptions. Dynamic illustrations, good color (love the farmer with his long sideburns). Puts me in mind of one of my all-time favorites, The Ravenous Beast by Niamh Sharkey.
Little Louie takes off by Toby Morison.
Now, tell me about these watercolor illustrations. In slightly off tones of gray and pink and red and blue, they are sophisticated like I imagine a matchbook from the Stork Club was. They feel like 1958 Playboy magazine, pre-Castro Cuba, and Esky the Esquire mascot. The story is very nice, about a late-blooming bird who learns to fly and makes a friend, but really, it's all about these marvelous illustrations.
A drive in the country by Michael J. Rosen illustrated by Marc Burckhardt.
First off, I want to check whether this Michael Rosen is the same Michael Rosen from Michael Rosen's Sad Book. No. Ok. In fact, this is the Michael Rosen who wrote May Contain Nuts. Wow, what a likeable book. The family goes for a drive and stops to pet a horse and sings songs in the car and stops at a country story and lets loose milkweed from the car windows and stops to look for buckeyes et cetera. This is right up with Douglas Wood's Nothing to do in celebrating unstructured time. I love it.
The toy farmer by Andrew T. Pelletier, pictures by Scott Nash.
Scott Nash illustrates Flat Stanley. I've always thought his cartoony style made Stanley look so likeable and friendly, and it works here too. The toys look like Stanley and the "real" world is done in colored pencils. The contrast is really neat - it's like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, except in this case it works, it doesn't look clunky, and it doesn't make you want to strangle Bob Hoskins just to put him out of his misery. And the story is cool too, one of those was-it-all-a-dream-probably-not stories, of a toy that comes to life, and a giant pumpkin, and a blue ribbon. I do like me a book that is "just" a good story.
Mind your manners, B.B. Wolf, written by Judy Sierra, illustrated by J. Otto Siebold.
Judy wrote Wild about books and Monster goose, and J. Otto did Going to the Getty and the Target Ready Sit Read program materials, so this book would probably have to vehemently suck for me to not like it. Craa-ack... yep, no sucking. One big burp and a couple little songs, a whole sack of characters familiar from both traditional stories and from J. Otto's other books, and a trip to the library! All right!
Mine! Mathilde Stein, illustrations by Mies van Hout.
Ah, Europeans. A little ghost comes to stay with Charlotte, but he doesn't know how to share. Charlotte is patient and sensible and eventually turns the ghost into a considerate, cooperative playmate. Would be dull and heavy-handed, but the friendly little declarative sentences ("I know only one ghost and he is very nice.") and the textured, Quentin-Blake-like illustrations keep it from being so.
I miss you every day by Simms Taback.
From a song by Woody Guthrie, this book is for any child who has ever missed anyone. As usual, Simms Taback delivers tactile illustrations dense with content, and as an added bonus, there's an envelope with a picture inside it on the title page.
Panda foo and the new friend by Mary Murphy.
Well it's a sweet little book about making friends. The illustrations are kind of unusual and in a good way. Instead of black outlines, plants are outlined in tomato red or turquoise blue. The more detailed spreads are breathtaking.
The all-I'll-ever-want Christmas doll, written by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
I'm not sure I've ever seen these two teamed up this way. No, they did Goin' Someplace Special, and Mirandy and Brother Wind together too. And this one is lovely too, a Christmas story set during the Depression, and a young girl learns that the best gift is family. Except it's not gross like I just made it sound.
21st cake. Thomas is an avid reader so his mum and I came up with the idea for a stack of his favorite books. The top USA book is for his upcoming year in the USA. There is also happry potter, michael connolly, enid blyton.
The upright book is a book from his childhood. And I think makes the cake.
This was my last cake for the year.
Reviews from Pink Me: Children's books reviewed for grownups.
There have been grumbles about me doing this.
Juliet says she'd rather just come into the library and have me hand her books. To Juliet I say: You are a lazy cow but I love you anyway. You have my permission to skip this entry and all future entries like this one.
Jaime says she's not interested in picture books at all. To Jaime I say: You are a bitter childless freak but I love you anyway. Have fun in VIETNAM, a place that I can't even think of visiting until my children have both developed the ability to get from the dairy aisle to the checkout without getting lost and making me think that one or both of them have been kidnapped for ransom or disgusting sexual reasons. You have my permission to skip this entry and all future entries like this one.
The incredible book-eating boy by Oliver Jeffers.
Everybody get this book. The art, done in paint and pencil on old book pages, is sophisticated and naive at the same time - reminiscent of Marcel Dzama, it is hipster-friendly, yet warmer and more cartoony, with many visual jokes; the story is simple and terrific. Buy it, give it away, buy another one. The art is too detailed for story times, but for all other uses, superb.
A kiss goodbye by Audrey Penn illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson.
Yuck. Chester the raccoon has to move because the men are going to come and cut down his family's tree. He doesn't want to, his mother talks him into it, he meets a pretty girl raccoon at the new place. Any book that includes the phrase "a tiny tear rolled down his cheek" has a lot to make up for, and this one doesn't.
Living Color by my man Steve Jenkins.
I don't know Steve Jenkins, but I have a friend named Steve Jenkins, who is a great guy, so I always feel like I know Steve Jenkins and he's my bud. This book, like all of his books, is gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous, done in paper collage; and super-informative, a book that any kid could spend hours poring over.
Leaves by David Ezra Stein.
Also I have an imagined kinship with David Ezra Stein. I grew up with a David Stein, a misunderstood genius who played the cello - and I have a close family member named Ezra. So, again, I'm going to be prejudiced toward this book. BUT. Oh, this is a winner by anyone's lights. It's a young bear and his relationship with the seasons, specifically, with the leaves. The bear is inked so expressively, you can feel yourself stretch when he stretches. And there are 9 or 10 pages of the tree under which the bear is hibernating, during which we see the seasons change. That almost always works for me.
The Witch's Child by Arthur Yorinks, illustrated by Jos. A. Smith.
Just in time for Halloween... oh, what's that you say? Halloween was last week? Huh. Tell that to the people who process new books in my library system, will you? This morning we got numerous new books on monsters, a haunted house pop-up, and this really wonderful spooky witch story. This artist is terrific - that witch is terrifying looking, but cool too, with her striped tights and Balenciaga-esque high heels, and when she can't make her straw doll come to life, you can even feel bad for her. Wonderful new version of this old story.
Big Bug Surprise by Julia Gran
Another winner! Prunella is a bug aficionado - she collects insects and knows a lot about them. But other people aren't that interested. Until bees swarm her classroom and she knows just what to do. Would be terrific for the facts alone (did you know that bees can't see white? I didn't), but the energetic, stylized illustrations more than hold their own.
Why war is never a good idea by Alice Walker, illustrations by Stefano Vitale.
You know, you wonder about some books. Anyone who thinks war is (ever) a good idea is not going to crack this book, and everyone who agrees that war is never a good idea basically doesn't need to. On the other hand, Lady Alice does come up with some new perspectives: "Picture frogs beside a pond holding their annual pre-rainy-season convention. They do not see War, huge tires of a camouflaged vehicle about to squash them flat." You could see this as a read-aloud to older elementary school children. The concepts and language are quite vivid and could provoke good discussion.
Ruthie and the (not so) teeny tiny lie by Laura Rankin.
A little girl tells a lie and then feels terrible about it and tells the truth. If this ever ever happened in real life, this would be a fine book, but in my experience, it does not.
Ridin' Dinos with Buck Bronco as told to George McClements.
Cute, cute cute! Lively collage and colored pencil art illustrates this dinosaur fact book with a fanciful premise. A fun read-aloud, especially if you bust out yer funny cowpoke voice.
Small Sister by Jessica Meserve.
Two sisters, Small and Big, and how unfair it can be when you are Small. The very clear language serves the simple story well, and contrasts with the extremely rich, pictorial art. Lovely.
Millie waits for the mail by Alexander Steffensmeier.
Europeans again! What IS it about Europeans? European illustrations always seem to deliver 35-50% more visual information than the illustrations for English-language books: is it because their same-language market is proportionately smaller? Millie - a COW - waits for the mail in order to SCARE the mail carrier. This is a pretty funny premise in the first place, but Herr Steffensmeier fills each page with so many sunbathing chickens, incongruous miniature elephants, etc, that the story is almost secondary, no matter how satisfyingly it is plotted and resolved.
The Lemonade Club by Patricia Polacco
Get out your hankies. This is the true story of Patricia Polacco's daughter Traci, her best friend, Marilyn, who won a battle with leukemia as a child, and their teacher, who survived breast cancer. It's a real roller-coaster: kid gets leukemia and undergoes chemo. When she comes back to school she is very self-conscious about her bald head, but she finds that all the kids in class shaved their heads too! Then we discover that the beloved teacher has breast cancer. Cut to 5 years later and the whole class is in church. "The music was playing softly. It was one of Miss Wichelman's favorite hymns. The flowers were so beautiful. Everyone there was thinking about Miss Wichelman." And then you turn the page and there's Miss Wichelman coming down the aisle in a wedding gown - it's not her funeral, it's her wedding! Hooray! Oh my god, but I'm emotionally spent. I've said it before and I'm saying it again... SPINE LABEL. DIFFICULT THEMES. If I picked this up at random I would have been completely blindsided.
"Perfect Moment"
Arcade credits:
-Glam Affair - Aria skin ( Asia tone ) Combination 01 A
.aisling. Bric-a-Brac Desk -Phone- RARE
.aisling. Bric-a-Brac Desk -News-
O.M.E.N - Dear John - Old Radio
O.M.E.N - Dear John - Mirror & Brush
O.M.E.N - Dear John - Locked Bottles
O.M.E.N - Dear John - Letters from John
O.M.E.N - Dear John - Diaries & Love Letters
-tb- Spring Living - Daisies
The Secret Store - Wild Flowers - Purple Foxglove
The Secret Store - Wild Flowers - Bouquet/Mixed Flowers
Apple Fall Hat Box
{vespertine - bookstacks}
floorplan. wireless blow dryer / pink
floorplan. nail polish
Noodles - Books to Wonderland
Noodles - Books to Nightmares
Noodles - Books to Imagination
Noodles - Books to Dreaming
More from past arcades and other sources
Reviews from Pink Me: Children's books reviewed for grownups.
:
No English, by Jacqueline Jules, illustrations by Amy Huntington
Blanca speaks no English when she arrives in Diane's 2nd-grade class. But instead of hammering on the old "it's ok to be different" nail, this book makes a number of small, good points - about intention, about sensitivity, and about the importance of bilingual books in a library's collection. Unfortunately, this particular books is not bilingual at all - might have been nice to have presented it in both English and Spanish.
Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
There's a lady with a beehive hairdo and a beauty spot on the cover of this book - a sure-fire signifier of "quirky," perhaps even "offbeat". And let me tell you, it ain't just the illustrations! (although now I'm craving Iggy's mom's Pucci-esque caftans and Twiggy A-lines) The story is fun and the wordplay is quirky in this book about a second-grade engineering prodigy.
"Young Iggy Peck is an architect
and has been since he was two,
when he built a great tower - in only an hour -
with nothing but diapers and glue.
'Good Gracious, Ignacious!' his mother exclaimed.
'That's the coolest
thing I've ever seen!'
But her smile faded fast as a light wind blew past
and she realized those diapers weren't clean!
Oh and PS of COURSE - David Roberts is the superstar who illustrated one of my all-time super-faves, Janet Wong's Dumpster Diver. I remember the Missoni jumpsuit in that one - the guy likes fashion, I think, and that ain't bad.
Engelbert Sneem and his dream vacuum machine, written and illustrated by Mr. Daniel Postgate
Oh, awesome! It's a fun, good-looking book that, very sneakily, is also for helping with nightmares! Mr. Sneem is like a reverse Santa Claus who shows up and suctions away the dreams of children, keeps them corked up in brown bottles for his own consumption. Then one night a mom reads her kid a bedtime story - a book about Engelbert Sneem (ooo! meta!) - and the kid has a nightmare about him. Sneem sucks up the kid's dream and then views it at home. He is so upset to find out that he himself is a nightmare that he vows to change his ways.
And now...
if a child has frightening dreams
Of ghosties and ghoulies
and terrible things,
The good Mr. Sneem
is right there in a tick,
And he sucks up the nightmare
and plugs it up quick.
Junk Man's Daughter by Sonia Levitin with illustrations by Guy Porfirio
This is from the Tales of Young Americans series, which I think is not part of the American Girl empire. Just the same, it is a straightforward little historical fiction picture book of a family coming to America, facing poverty, and becoming successful through ingenuity and hard work. I am sure there are kids for this book. Not really any that I know though.
When the Shadbush blooms, by Carla Messinger, with Susan Katz, illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden
"My grandparents' grandparents walked beside the same stream where I walk with
my brother, and we can see what they saw."
Clever. This books takes us through the natural cycles of the year as defined by the Lenni Lenape people, Native people who originally lived along the eastern seaboard. Each page spread shows the sights and activities of the season - on the left, as experienced by "my grandparents' grandparents" and on the right as experienced by a modern-day Native girl and her family. There's more information about the Lenni Lenape in the back. "American Girl," indeed!
Snail's Birthday Wish by Fiona Rempt and Noelle Smit
Snail wishes he could be as fast as his friends Beaver, Ant, Frog etc. They give him all these odd birthday gifts: nails, a round thing, a chair, wheels. Then they build him a car out of all the parts. Cute. Like Pssst! by Adam Rex, but for littler kids.
Night Shift by Jessie Hartland
Don't load the sardines next to the ocelots! I love the detail that Jessie Hartland jams into her saturated, messy paintings. The late-night DJ plays Monk and Brubeck; the newspaper printing plant is a union shop; and there's a Rothko on the wall at the Modern Art Museum. More than just a cool occupations book (though it totally fills a niche there), this one should be fun for everyone up to 9 or 10.
Ballet Kitty by Bernette Ford and Sam Williams
Ok. Last time we had the ballet kangaroo, and I already knew about the ballet javelina, the ballet mouse, the ballet boy and the other ballet boy. This better be good. Aaaand... ok, I'm just going to say it: It's not. It's a pure celebration of girly-girliness, and I just can't get behind it.
Oh, Brother! by Nikki Grimes, illustrations by Mike Benny
The ambivalence of being in a brand-new blended family, plus a happy ending, all in Nikki Grimes' accessible poetry.
The Pen that Pa built by David Edwards, illustrations by Ashley Wolff
Man, it always seems that these cumulative stories (The Apple Pie that Papa Baked, The Van that Dad Cleaned, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain) have the best illustrations. Such a shame I find them so daggone tedious. This one at least has an interesting point - it shows how a colonial family would have processed wool from sheep to blanket: washing it, spinning it, dying it, and weaving it on a loom. Makes me think of Ox-Cart Man, and the illustrations, reminiscent of woodcuts but dense with color, are spectacular. Ashley Wolff also illustrated Philemon Sturges's She'll be comin' 'round the mountain, one of my favorite librarian-as-hero books.
Chowder by Peter Brown
Who is my man Peter Brown? Is he the scholar who wrote so incisively about the early Christian church? Is he the boy who broke my friend Bill's heart back in high school? I don't think so, but I think I can find room in my life for another Peter Brown - this one, the one who can convey expression in a character at a great distance, or from behind. The one who created a bulldog who sits on the toilet to poop and who excavates bones instead of digging them up. I like this Peter Brown.
And he has another book: The Fabulous Bouncing Chowder
The man who owns Chowder has Eugene Levy's hair. Chowder wears inflatable swimmies on his front legs in the pool. This book is about Chowder finding something he's good at - bouncing on a trampoline. There is something so precise and vivid about this Peter Brown's use of space, and light. The velvety colors, the large-scale, formal compositions - it all really showcases the wit of the story and the visual detail. A page showing Chowder's trampoline, spotlit on a darkened stage, has a few little drops falling from above - the hush before Chowder's triumphant bounce broken only by the miniscule splash of drool. Is that explicit in the story? No. You get it from the art. That, kids, is illustration.
Achieving our goal of $300,000 by the end of 2013 for the new Point Roberts library building fund justified adding three new books to the stack in this fundraising "thermometer". Many thanks to Tor, Judson, Kristen, and Jack for building and painting this.
More information at foprl.org.
We are now (March 2015) up to $437,000 and a total of ten books in the stack.
Dad is half the age of the son whose adopted daughter reminds him of his mom and his alternate-timeline sister and then the disaffected brother...oh great, now my nose is bleeding.
Reviews from Pink Me: Children's books reviewed for grownups.
There come a soldier by Peggy Mercer, illustrated by Ron Mazellan
Not a book glorifying war, not a book excoriating war, but a book paying tribute to the author's father, a soldier who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Told from his point of view, it enumerates the ways that his rural childhood taught him bravery, compassion, fortitude, and other qualities he draws upon during hardship. And beautiful. With lovely vernacular language.
Delicious! a pumpkin soup story by Helen Cooper
Picky eater Duck won't even try the fish soup, mushroom soup, and beet soup concocted by his friends Squirrel and Cat - he will only eat pumpkin soup, which is orange. (Dances With Chickens, are you reading this?) So his friends make squash-and-carrot soup, which is orange, and basically trick him into eating it, which he does, and loves it.
The fine and fanciful illustrations in this book conquer my uneasiness about the age-old ploy of disguising food as something palatable to a child so that he or she will try it. I tried that once with Big Man, telling him an orange piece of canteloupe was cheese, and I felt pretty bad about eroding my child's trust in me that way. And he didn't like it, and he still doesn't like canteloupe. Plus my friend Sarah, who has (professional) experience with eating disorders, told me that it's common to find that habitual overeaters were conned like this as children. Still! Cute illustrations!
Sojourner Truth: Preacher for freedom and equality, by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Natascha Alex Blanks
Wow! Color! This picture book biography is well worth adding to any library's collection. This picture makes it look ugly, and it's not.
A Poet's Bird Garden by Laura Nyman Montenegro
Cutie. I love that when Natalie's bird Chirpie gets out, she and her friend call upon the poets to come to the rescue. Full of the mythical Boho spirit of the Lower East Side.
A Fishing Surprise by Rae A. McDonald, illustrated by Kathleen Kemly
BEAUTIFUL, lush chalk and colored pencil illustrations surround the simple text. Lots of fun onomatopoeia for little kids.
Jon Scieszka's Truck town: Smash! Crash! written by Jon Scieszka, characters and environments developed by David Shannon, Loren Long, David Gordon
Not sure what that's all about, but Jon Scieszka is the new Library of Congress Ambassador for Children's Literature or something, and he can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes. What strikes me about this truck book is that it's totally a Beginning Reader. Word count, number of words per line, etc... if it can hold a first grader's attention, that first grader can read this book. Hmm. Large-format Beginning Readers - why don't we see more of those?
Josephine wants to dance by Jackie French, illustrated by Bruce Whatley
Ah. Fish out of water story. Kangaroo on the ballet stage. Not unlike the dancing hippo story, the dancing polar bear story, or the dancing javelina story. But I love Bruce Whatley's style - cartoony but not flat, with lovely, expressive faces and gestures. And the text is lovely too. Josephine bounces with the brolgas and leaps with the lyrebirds.
oooh! Matisse by Mil Niepold / Jeanyves Verdu
Big blam-blam closeups of Matisse cutouts prompt the question "What is this?" and as the pages turn, the perspective pulls out, different answers are proffered, until you see... a leaf, a dove, a star, a flower. Simple, brilliant.
The Crocodile Blues by Coleman Polhemus
What is WITH all the crocodile books this year? Love 'em! This one, nearly wordless and done in 3 colors, is a graphic illustration dream - a bit surreal and yet perfectly understandable.
The art book for children Book Two, text by Amanda Renshaw
Oh to have the assignment from Phaidon to make this book. Take a beautiful repro of a work of art, and ask some questions about it. Use as many detail photos as you want. "How fast do you think these boys are running?" "What kind of school could this be?". Discuss.
123 I can Paint! by Irene Luxbacher
Basic color theory, materials and painting technique. Completely fun and accessible for young elementary school kids.
123 I can Sculpt! by Irene Luxbacher
Just as good, but more project-based... how do you not, when it's sculpture? A good range of simple sculpture techniques are illustrated in the creation of a whole batch of animals.
Knock, Knock! Jokes by fourteen wacky and talented artists inside!
Hells yeah. My boys love knock-knock jokes, so much that I might cheerfully detach my head and hold it outside of the car sometimes, if I didn't think it would seriously impair my driving. Here are old ones, repeaters, sight gags, and a tribute to Maurice Sendak:
Knock knock!
Who's there?
Verdi!
Verdi who?
Verdi vild tings are!
That might also be a Simms Taback tribute, I don't know. Brought to you by the same lovable gang of idiots (actually, mostly a whole lovable new gang of idiots) who gave us last year's Why Did The Chicken Cross the Road?
Maya Angelou: Poetry for young people
I might have to do something with a few of these stanzas for Black History Month.
There ain't no pay beneath the sun
As sweet as rest when a job's well done.
I was born to work up to my grave
But I was not born
To be a slave.
Go, Miss Maya!
One Million Men and Me by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by Peter Ambush
The author attended the Million Man March as a journalist in October of 1995. Recently she spoke to a group of young people who had never heard of that important event. If for no other reason than that, it is good that we have this book. However, it's also well written, with that journalistic eye for detail and texture, and very nicely illustrated in realistic watercolors.
When Randolph Turned Rotten, a story by Charise Mericle Harper
Love Charise Mericle Harper. Love Flush, love Fashion Kitty, love love love The Monster Show. Her sense of humor and faux-naive illustration style are to love. And When Randolph Turned Rotten is the best yet! Every panel, every page will make my kids helpless with laughter. The moment when Randolph turns, he goes from Best Friend Randolph, with 'rainbow-filled-with-love-insides' (there's an arrow pointing to where his insides are), to Nasty Randolph, with 'stinky rotten insides' (and also, 'mad hands'). Spoiler: he turns back.
Sam Tells Stories by Thierry Robberecht, illustrated by Philippe Goossens
This is the same story as The Show-and-Tell Lion. Kid is a big liar, gets caught, is forgiven, decides that his lying is a big TALENT and embraces his storyteller-ness. Hrm.
Jenny found a penny by Trudy Harris, illustrations by John Hovell
It's a sweet one, with addition, coins, earning, and a child's first purchase. And computer illustrations that are somehow not lacking in warmth.
Kim Klassen's new video demonstrated the Gradient Map. This is my first experiment with it. I love the softness.
The Somniloquist’s Manifesto, and other stories.
It was sort of a rule of thumb — over the years she had known him — that whenever Worth Manner was speaking to her about anything other than the weather, he was probably asleep. Yet this was why she loved him.
In his waking life this was a man whose conversation put nearly everyone he talked to to sleep. Whose thoughts would be a suitable alternative to anesthesia. Whose words rustled in uneasiness, stammered across spans of time like Neanderthals chasing mammoths across snowy tundras, and gave out before they were just quite getting comfortable in the cold, dusky environs of their awkward silence. Anyone with any sense of humor, or intelligence, or even hearing for that matter would, knowing him, be hard-pressed to cite any proof of intellect or personality or humanity in the otherwise vacant shell of man that was Worth Manner — who was once described by his own mother as “extraordinarily mediocre, with unfortunately beautiful eyes.”
Yet as beauty is skin deep, personality is not too far removed from the surface either, and when Worth succumbed to a deep sleep after a long day’s desperate banality, little did he know that in the moment he blinked into restfulness, he became a poet. And at once the keen wit of his mind was let loose upon the dormant night, with all the luminaries and busy shades of sky stunned into silence by the unfettered flood of words and thoughts and ponderings and poignant philosophies of life and love and everything that, with the ebb of his circadian rhythm, would be relinquished into that vast bank of knowledge and wisdom that simply never gets to do anybody any bit of good ever — if it weren’t for his wife, who loved him dearly, if only nocturnally, and wrote down every word of it. But we’ll get to that.
A man who stood as if stretched by hand after the fact of creation (as in more than tall, but immeasurably so) Worth Manner had likely become a historian because he could tower above the book stacks at the town library, and growing up would often be found assisting the pint-sized, dowdy, and nearly deaf librarian in the retrieval and replacement of the dusty tomes that kept those long dead men of great historical note immortalized in the farthest reaches of the out-of-circulation bookshelves.
Yet as clearly as he would see history, and come to know its sequence, Worth never had the time to imagine his own place in it. An anachronism in his very own life, it took a skilled, attentive and (most importantly) compassionate eye to even catch sight of him.
And it was, in fact, through the book stacks that a pair of these compassionate, green-colored eyes — as well as the pretty young woman they were attached to — had caught sight of him, and his own deep, blue, and unforgivably oceanic eyes. This is where our story begins.
The Shelf-Life of the Desperate Heart.
Worth Manner walked listlessly through the aisles of giant books, his arms and legs dangling behind as if ashamed to accompany a body dressed like that for a place like this, and his nose peaked as he traced that stale smell of dust and mold again and again to every yellowed and worn out title - The Perfume of Volumes, bottled and shelved. In the cold of the room he felt his circulation fighting for circulation. He felt his thoughts fight for thoughts, and his eyes drew up and down all the faded gold lettering, half expecting to see his own name, half not knowing why.
“Maybe if I wrote something.” He said out loud, entirely on accident. Occasionally he would think out loud, with things he would never think, and of unthinkable things he would never do, which he tried to conceal in the farthest reaches of his out-of-circulation heart.
Embarrassed, he glanced around, but only enough to keep believing he was the only one in the room. It was the mind’s empty gesture, the type of action akin to doffing one’s cap to a lady of ill repute. It was outright self-deception, and in the worst way, because at least two aisles down an actual young lady was turning with her rosy little finger the crisp page of an old book, likely something recommended by her teacher, but even she couldn’t tell why. Notwithstanding her reservations, her eyes had continued following each word, though not intently. Down to her shoes their was an air of pretension, but only enough to make a girl that specific kind of intriguing. If it wasn’t for the weighty book taking up what little space and time her hands possessed, they would likely be at work separating her interminable strains of auburn hair, in search of those split ends that shampoo commercials always warn about. At the moment, however, she was not concerned about them, or even about her book, as interesting as it was supposed to be, but about the awkward boy two aisles over who seemed to be talking to himself.
“You gotta stop doing that.” He said, in reference to talking to himself, and, as if his voice was an authority over his mouth, he did. But not before peering at, and as if straight through, an enormous novel titled The Brief History of Zachariah Grey, which he would have taken the time to read had it not been for the set of viciously pretty eyes that had the audacity of looking directly at him — as if cast like stones over towards some pitiful sinner, even as he had clearly been the only one in the room not a second ago.
“Crap,” was the last word his mouth was allowed before going radio silent. It would now obey orders without compromise, like any good soldier. As the eyes darted away in embarrassment his knees bent slightly, just enough for his head to disappear under the shelves. Whosever eyes he had met up with would probably go back to their book, and not give the boy a second thought. Because he was not a second thought boy. But expectations are often amiss, and the eyes looked back, and to see the head gone without any footsteps leading it away was odd, or at least didn’t match up with the girl’s own expectations. So she herself ducked down, and saw, from a lower vantage point, the contorted body of a boy hiding from the eyes it had just seen. And so she giggled, very much out loud, and entirely on accident.
Unbeknownst to the giggling set of green eyes in pink, or the awkward shape of boy in their sight, a third and most noble character was also in the room, and, with all kinds of grace, had taken to whistling a tune similar to Taps, but without the urgency. As only a playful song of reveille can, the eyes and ears had pulled away from their interests, and followed the sound around the bookstacks, like a blip on a radar rippling out.
Boy, annoyed that someone would whistle in a library, stood up in a defiantly straight manner (dangerous, considering his height) and extended his neck in disgust (ibid).
Girl, ambivalent to the impropriety of whistling in a public library, tried to imagine what the newcomer would look like. Surely tall and handsome and not at all awkward, like the boy, or uninteresting, like the book, which she had since put down.
Newcomer, however, was unaware of his own whistling, even in a place where all sorts of SHHH signs were on display, including the dowdy woman aged much like wine that should have been poured down the drain years ago, who found a pleasant indulgence in the opportunity to give a patron a good and hearty SHHH from across the room. Opportunities to relish in this indulgence would have been much more frequent had she not lost all but the least of her hearing. Hence, the newcomer was free to whistle away, even if it was rather inconsiderate of him.
The eyes considered themselves good ones — as all good ones do — and even in the dim fluorescence of public library light they reflected that small and unmistakable glint of everything that turns perfectly good boys into awkward shapes of themselves. And as these green eyes longed after a whistling that was a specific kind of intriguing, the boy not more than two shelves over turned into himself, and grew very desperate.
Because at the moment the whistling neared her he realized he loved her. Her two eyes that could very well be the most beautiful peas in the ugliest pod in the world, for all he knew, had he not fully known they were not. So that Worth Manner had never been so sure about anything in his life. And in the catalogue of memories of loneliness, with its moldy and dusty smell, the boy suddenly knew he had only moments to act before he would lose his chance to find out. Because that good-looking whistling was suave and confident, it was tall and lean and went to the gym four, sometimes five times a week. By only bringing its lips together like so, that muscle-bound whistling could make free-throws from anywhere on the court, or catch a football that it itself had thrown from the other end of the field, because it could play quarterback and wide-receiver, since it was also on the track-team, and captain of everything. Lettered and extraordinary, and a genuine all-around good whistler if there ever was one. And eyes like hers dreamt of being whisked away by whistling like that, from a place like this.
(The question of whether a boy can fall desperately in love with a pair of eyes should be addressed. Although a boy is a very curious being, he is decidedly less curious about certain parts of his body than others. It follows that he should be even less curious about these parts when they are attached to another body. Conversely, if he is allowed his least favorite parts, surely this should be complimented by his most favorite parts. And if he can have a most favorite part, what attention should he even pay to its other parts, beyond a certain recognition of attachment? For that matter, he had also thought he had caught a glimpse of some very blonde, very curly hair, as well as a pair of light thin eyebrows that went with the eyes as certain handbags go with certain dresses. If the eyes had caused him to fall in love, it was the accessories to the crime that made him desperate.)
Love is an inanimate object. Desperately in love is an action. And as the good-looking rat-faced whistling drew both of her green eyes close, so that they were looking around the corner before they could, the boy who had no time for a second thought brought his hands to the shelf holding all those books without his name, and pushed. In very short strokes all the love fell over itself, and the arms and legs and thoughts and eyes and books and smells and whistling all stopped as one, as loud as it could. And from across the room the old sign looked up, and indulged in the opportunity to SHHH with all her breath.
It is, of course, very possible that had this young woman ever known that the very same boy who had driven her to the hospital, and waited by her side for to come to, and had met her first waking sight with his set of beautiful eyes that peered at her — as if right through her — was also the boy who in thoughtless desperation had caused shelf upon shelf of old and useless literature to literally befall her, she probably would have never spoke to him again, much less married him. On second thought, however, though without ever knowing it, it was also likely that this was what Eleanor loved about Worth the most.
Photography by Cajsa Lilliehook
Store info at Blogging Second Life
****SHOPPING LIST******
Poses: Adorkable,
Skin: -Glam Affair - Aria skin - Asia - Combination 08 F @ The Arcade
Tattoos: -Glam Affair - Aria - Lipstick Vinta - 02 @ The Arcade
Eyes: [UMEBOSHI] Eon eyes Duo Green (med)
Lashes: Lelutka
Mani/Pedi: SLink Mesh Hands & Feet with FLAIR mani applier
Hair: **Dura-Girl**16(Sienna)
Clothing: GizzA - Belted Dress [Snake Soil] Size M
Shoes: Slink Siren Stilettos Nude Pink
Jewelry: (Kunglers Extra) Monolito bracelet - Copper
(Kunglers Extra) Phoenix Earrings
***********************
All furnishings @ The Arcade unless noted
Scarlet Creative Mountain Lodge Mesh House
Seven Emporium 7 - Vacancy Sign -
[LeeZu!] Owls Poster (December Arcade)
Apple Fall Reading Pile
Scarlet Creative Mountain Lodge Bed
Apple Fall Fleur Sideboard (Grey)
Apple Fall New Arrival Painting
Apple Fall Hat Box
Zaara [home] : Ikat dhurrie rug *kohl*
ISPACHI - The Arrival - Frolicking Foxes
ISPACHI - The Arrival - March of the Mallards
ISPACHI - The Arrival - The Wisest Owl
ISPACHI - The Arrival - Between Two Squirrels
ISPACHI - The Arrival - The Bear and The Fox RARE
{vespertine - book of dreamer.}RARE copy
*bbqq*-The Ming dynasty-China scroll painting B
*bbqq*-The Ming dynasty-China scroll painting C
Zaara [home] : Ikat dhurrie rug *beige*
junk. morrison leather chair.
junk. morrison cushion pile.
{vespertine - bookstacks}xopy
{vespertine - book of scientist.}xopy
Going back through Russell Square in London. This time heading to the Cartoon Museum.
We were a bit early so spent around 20 minutes sitting on a bench in the square, looking at the fountain with all the pigeons!
I saw this building and thought that it was Broadcasting House or something BBC related (it isn't).
It is in fact the Grade II* listed Senate House and Institute of Education (University of London)
CAMDEN
TQ2981NE MALET STREET
798-1/99/1101 (East side)
28/03/69 Senate House & Institute of
Education (University of London) &
att'd railings
GV II*
Senate House and Institute of Education. 1932-1938. By Charles
Holden, built with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Brick load-bearing construction with Portland stone facing.
Symmetrical design, not completed, comprising central tower
flanked by two courtyard ranges to either side.
The southern, completed half, houses the ceremonial and
administrative functions of the University of London. The
northern half houses the Institute of Historical Research and
School of Slavonic Studies in more functional surrounding:
north-east wing not completed. The initial concept of a
single, spinal building extending the length of Torrington
Square was abandoned as building began, but survives in model
form displayed on the first floor balcony of Senate House.
EXTERIOR: central, higher fourth floor is the University
library, with above it offices and bookstack housed in the
formal 18-storey tower built in recessed stages with broad
central buttresses on the east and west sides. 6 windows at
1st floor level. 4 and 5 storey wings with 10-window forward
return and 14 windows width each. Under enriched, flat
canopies, 2 square-headed entrances each side of the central
buttress, all with 2-leaf glass doors with vertically
patterned metal grills. Above the canopies small rectangular
windows with patterned grills and keystones. Square-headed,
recessed windows with metal frames, those at 1st floor level
on the tower being elongated with enriched spandrel panels and
flanked by medium sized windows at the angles, with balconies,
culminating in lunettes at 6th floor level. From the 2nd floor
to the 18th, small vertically set windows, in groups of 3
until the penultimate stage when they are continuous. Flanking
wings with metal balconies to windows at angles. Flat roofs
with plain bands at parapet levels. East facade similar. Inner
courtyards similarly treated, with hopper heads dated 1936.
INTERIOR: imposing Egyptianate entrance hall at base of tower
with travertine floor and walls with broad fluted pilasters a
semi-open space giving through access, with doors to south
leading to Senate House and to north to Institute of
Historical Research and School of Slavonic Studies.
Senate House. Principal spaces all with travertine cladding to
walls and floors, ceilings of moulded plaster with flat panel
patterns and embellishments based on a London plane tree
motif. Staircases floored in travertine, with bronzed
balustrades treated as stylised Ionic columns. Principal
entrance hall on two levels with first floor balcony having
elaborate bronzed balustrade: Holden's original model
exhibited here.
On ground floor there is to east the MacMillan Hall, named
after Lord MacMillan first Chairman of the University Court,
with square panelled ceiling, travertine walls decorated as
fluted pilasters at end and to sides set with acoustic panels
to Holden's design and coloured glass, teak floor, and
original light fittings. Memorials to HRH Queen Mother,
Chancellor 1955-80, and to Princess Royal, Chancellor 1981- .
William Beveridge Hall, named after the University's Vice
Chancellor 1926-8, retains dado panelling set with brass
filets in Greek key pattern under acoustic quilting, with
semi-permanent seating and stage.
On first floor processional stair leads to Chancellor's Hall,
with square panelled timber to window recesses, travertine
cladding, and square panelled plaster ceilings. Inlay pattern
floors, original doors and fittings. To east a suite of rooms
set round courtyard includes Court Room and Senate Room.
Senate Room and ante rooms fully panelled in English walnut,
the former of double height with trabeated ceilings, original
fixed seating in stepped rows arranged like a council chamber
with dias. Bronze uplighters. Ante rooms with heraldic glass
by E Bossanyi dated 1937. On north side committee room and
processional suite of corridors with dado panelling and
moulded cornices, original furnishings and fittings. On south
side the Vice Chancellor's offices not inspected.
Second floor staff common rooms and third floor common rooms
and refectories originally with painted mural ceilings. Those
in refectory not seen under later acoustic tiles; war memorial
tablet in corridor.
Fourth floor libraries of double height. Two general reading
rooms, the Middlesex Libraries, finished in oak with original
bookshelves and fittings of English walnut. Goldsmith's
Library to south with glazed bookcases, and ceiling of cypress
wood and stained glass by E Bossanyi. Above these the
bookstacks supported by steel frame on concrete raft. The
offices retain original doors, lettering and fittings. The
whole is a remarkably unaltered ensemble of 1930s design, with
a high proportion of highly decorated ceremonial spaces over
functional offices.
The Institute of Historical Research and School of Slavonic
Studies with ground-floor entrance hall of single-storey
height, travertine floors and finishings similar in style but
simpler than those found in Senate House.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings on stone
sleeper wall and gates of radial pattern with central bosses
containing coats of arms. Pillars with pilasters and geometric
enrichment, those at the gates surmounted by rectangular
down-lighter lamps with small defused panes and topped by
stepped features.
HISTORICAL NOTE: built as a landmark, in 1937 this was the
tallest building in London apart from St Paul's Cathedral.
(University of London: The Senate House and Library: London:
-1938).
Listing NGR: TQ2992381896
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
Going back through Russell Square in London. This time heading to the Cartoon Museum.
We were a bit early so spent around 20 minutes sitting on a bench in the square, looking at the fountain with all the pigeons!
I saw this building and thought that it was Broadcasting House or something BBC related (it isn't).
It is in fact the Grade II* listed Senate House and Institute of Education (University of London)
CAMDEN
TQ2981NE MALET STREET
798-1/99/1101 (East side)
28/03/69 Senate House & Institute of
Education (University of London) &
att'd railings
GV II*
Senate House and Institute of Education. 1932-1938. By Charles
Holden, built with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Brick load-bearing construction with Portland stone facing.
Symmetrical design, not completed, comprising central tower
flanked by two courtyard ranges to either side.
The southern, completed half, houses the ceremonial and
administrative functions of the University of London. The
northern half houses the Institute of Historical Research and
School of Slavonic Studies in more functional surrounding:
north-east wing not completed. The initial concept of a
single, spinal building extending the length of Torrington
Square was abandoned as building began, but survives in model
form displayed on the first floor balcony of Senate House.
EXTERIOR: central, higher fourth floor is the University
library, with above it offices and bookstack housed in the
formal 18-storey tower built in recessed stages with broad
central buttresses on the east and west sides. 6 windows at
1st floor level. 4 and 5 storey wings with 10-window forward
return and 14 windows width each. Under enriched, flat
canopies, 2 square-headed entrances each side of the central
buttress, all with 2-leaf glass doors with vertically
patterned metal grills. Above the canopies small rectangular
windows with patterned grills and keystones. Square-headed,
recessed windows with metal frames, those at 1st floor level
on the tower being elongated with enriched spandrel panels and
flanked by medium sized windows at the angles, with balconies,
culminating in lunettes at 6th floor level. From the 2nd floor
to the 18th, small vertically set windows, in groups of 3
until the penultimate stage when they are continuous. Flanking
wings with metal balconies to windows at angles. Flat roofs
with plain bands at parapet levels. East facade similar. Inner
courtyards similarly treated, with hopper heads dated 1936.
INTERIOR: imposing Egyptianate entrance hall at base of tower
with travertine floor and walls with broad fluted pilasters a
semi-open space giving through access, with doors to south
leading to Senate House and to north to Institute of
Historical Research and School of Slavonic Studies.
Senate House. Principal spaces all with travertine cladding to
walls and floors, ceilings of moulded plaster with flat panel
patterns and embellishments based on a London plane tree
motif. Staircases floored in travertine, with bronzed
balustrades treated as stylised Ionic columns. Principal
entrance hall on two levels with first floor balcony having
elaborate bronzed balustrade: Holden's original model
exhibited here.
On ground floor there is to east the MacMillan Hall, named
after Lord MacMillan first Chairman of the University Court,
with square panelled ceiling, travertine walls decorated as
fluted pilasters at end and to sides set with acoustic panels
to Holden's design and coloured glass, teak floor, and
original light fittings. Memorials to HRH Queen Mother,
Chancellor 1955-80, and to Princess Royal, Chancellor 1981- .
William Beveridge Hall, named after the University's Vice
Chancellor 1926-8, retains dado panelling set with brass
filets in Greek key pattern under acoustic quilting, with
semi-permanent seating and stage.
On first floor processional stair leads to Chancellor's Hall,
with square panelled timber to window recesses, travertine
cladding, and square panelled plaster ceilings. Inlay pattern
floors, original doors and fittings. To east a suite of rooms
set round courtyard includes Court Room and Senate Room.
Senate Room and ante rooms fully panelled in English walnut,
the former of double height with trabeated ceilings, original
fixed seating in stepped rows arranged like a council chamber
with dias. Bronze uplighters. Ante rooms with heraldic glass
by E Bossanyi dated 1937. On north side committee room and
processional suite of corridors with dado panelling and
moulded cornices, original furnishings and fittings. On south
side the Vice Chancellor's offices not inspected.
Second floor staff common rooms and third floor common rooms
and refectories originally with painted mural ceilings. Those
in refectory not seen under later acoustic tiles; war memorial
tablet in corridor.
Fourth floor libraries of double height. Two general reading
rooms, the Middlesex Libraries, finished in oak with original
bookshelves and fittings of English walnut. Goldsmith's
Library to south with glazed bookcases, and ceiling of cypress
wood and stained glass by E Bossanyi. Above these the
bookstacks supported by steel frame on concrete raft. The
offices retain original doors, lettering and fittings. The
whole is a remarkably unaltered ensemble of 1930s design, with
a high proportion of highly decorated ceremonial spaces over
functional offices.
The Institute of Historical Research and School of Slavonic
Studies with ground-floor entrance hall of single-storey
height, travertine floors and finishings similar in style but
simpler than those found in Senate House.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings on stone
sleeper wall and gates of radial pattern with central bosses
containing coats of arms. Pillars with pilasters and geometric
enrichment, those at the gates surmounted by rectangular
down-lighter lamps with small defused panes and topped by
stepped features.
HISTORICAL NOTE: built as a landmark, in 1937 this was the
tallest building in London apart from St Paul's Cathedral.
(University of London: The Senate House and Library: London:
-1938).
Listing NGR: TQ2992381896
This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.
Source: English Heritage
Listed building text is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under licence.
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After clicking the link you may have to click on the photo to see the original size.
Reviews from Pink Me: Children's books reviewed for grownups.
Skippyjon Jones and the big bones by Judy Schachner
Last year, Big Man's kindergarten teacher said of the Skippyjon Jones books, "I feel like I'm sort of being manipulated to like these books, and I really just don't." She couldn't put her finger on what she didn't care for, and it's a tough call - LOVE the chalky, colorful, detailed illustrations that are both quirky and technically accomplished; I like the title character, who is both independent and imaginative, and his tattletale little sisters and no-nonsense mom, with their fun names; and I adore Schachner's use of Spanglish ("Hola, dudes!") throughout. Hell, there's even a song or two. I think what always bugs me about these books is the plot, weirdly enough. Accompanied by his crowd of Chihuahua friends, Skippyjon Jones assumes his alter ego, Skippito Friskito the great sword fighter, and goes on an imaginary adventure in his closet. And I swear, it's the adventure story that always falls apart. Even my kids get confused looks on their faces during the part where Skippito battles the giant bee / dances with the dinosaurs / whatever. I keep reading these books though, because Skippyjon and his family are great characters and I love saying their names. You guys want to start calling me Mama Junebug Jones, you go right ahead.
A closer look, by Mary McCarthy
A neato book about observation and scale for the youngest pairs of eyes. VERRY reminiscent of Steve Jenkins, with strong colors and paper collage art.
Water Boy by David McPhail
A nice, weird book about a boy's relationship with water - the water in his body, the water in his bath, the water in the environment. Like a caring teacher, David McPhail's characteristically quiet, rich watercolors get right down in front of the boy to observe his reactions to the ordinary and extraordinary manifestations of water in his world.
Calendar by Myra Cohn Livingston, illustrated by Will Hillenbrand
The sparse text here was a little abstract for my four year old, but the energetic, slightly minimalist illustrations almost made up for that.
Meet the meerkat by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia Wynne
Patricia Wynne keeps showing up as the illustrator of books produced by employees and alums of the American Museum of Natural History, and while her somewhat clumsy mice and hominids in books such as Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle's Bones, Brains and DNA make you feel like maybe she's overworked, the keenly observed drawings of meerkats in this book by mammalogist Darrin Lunde show you what she can do given a single subject. This is a great little book about a popular little beast, a rare item in the Easy nonfiction area.
Bean Thirteen by Matthew McElligott
The faux-woodcut illustrations in this buggy book about division are just fantastic. Chunky, hip, and expressive, with a sophisticated, punchy palette. The story? Meh.
Phooey! by Marc Rosenthal
Where Once Upon a Banana does cause-and-effect with road signs, Phooey! does it with onomatopoeia. A bored kid kicks a can, which disturbs a cat, who jumps on an elephant, etc. All the while the kid, complaining that nothing every happens around here, walks right past all the exciting action. Rosenthal, who calls Celesteville "my utopia" in his dedication, displays a love of clean line and clear color worthy of Babar.
Tap dancing on the roof by Linda Sue Park, pictures by Istvan Banyai
Linda Sue Park here does for sijo what Andrew Clements recently did for haiku - her clear, funny examples of this short poetic form in effect show kids how it's done. After reading poems like
Pockets
What's in your pockets right now? I hope they're not empty:
Empty pockets, unread books, lunches left on the bus - all a waste
In mine: One horse chestnut. One gum wrapper. One dime. One hamster.
...it's almost impossible to not want to try it yourself. And Istvan Banyai? Do I really have to say it? The Goran Visnjic of illustrators.
For our anniversary, my husband surprised me with a trip to Barter Books, a used bookstore in a converted train station in Alnwick, England.
This was what I bought to keep for myself.