My mother, books, and hanging out
17 March 2008 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
3rdragonMom is heading out today. Things have been considerably easier now that she's no longer sharing my room with me and we aren't together almost all the time. We went to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art yesterday. I liked the first gallery a lot; there were several originals for works that I'm quite fond of (a bunch from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and the dragon, griffin, and hipogryph from Dragons, Dragons. There was also some cool stuff by Quentin Blake (who illustrates Roald Dahl), and William Steig, and some very nice watercolors by someone who ilustrated something called the something something something of the Two Maries (my somethings, not theirs), which looked like I ought to investigate it - does that ring any bells for people?
Quite frankly, I had very little appreciation for the second gallery. It was entirely devoted to the art and designs for a book about a tugboat (Little Toot) which I hadn't read, and which I still didn't have a huge amount of appreciation for even after I sat down and read it. The style of drawing was . . . fine, I just didn't really like most of it. And anthropomorphized tugboats just don't really grab me all that much. Steam shovels, yes; tugboats, not so much.
There was a little display on how the Spiderwick Chronicles went from page to screen which I probably would have gotten a lot more out of if I'd read the Spiderwick Chronicles. The bit about the griffin (I think it was a griffin - something with a raptor head, anyway) was pretty cool, though.
There was also a library, a large room full of picture books alphabetized by illustrator. This was mildly annoying, because I remember authors much better than illustrators, but also really cool because it meant that I got to see a whole bunch of stuff that Ruth Sanderson illustrated (she did Jane Yolen's Where have the Unicorns Gone?, and her other stuff is even better). I spent a thoroughly enjoyable 45 minutes browsing and reading and looking at pictures. We wandered the museum a bit more, and found a wall of self-portraits, some of which we recognized and most of which we didn't (the consensus was that neither mom or I are really up on current illustrators), and then we browsed through the shop, which was almost as good as the library. I think I want a print of an Alan Lee Tolkien-something; I'm sure they sell them online somewhere.
Mom's analysis was that is was an excellent museum because our feet didn't hurt and because there weren't billions more galleries than we had any interest in looking at (I wouldn't have objected if the third gallery were open, though). I want to take my Aunt Ruth there. She would love it. I don't think she could leave the kids for that long, though.
Yesterday we also went to church, hung out in Northampton, went to India House (yum!), and then hung out in my room. Lillie came by, and we both read The Speed of Dark while mom worked on the Pi Sudoku some more. That was fun. I'm quite enjoying The Speed of Dark. It's a good book, and it has fencing in it. SCA-type fencing rather than sport fencing, but the manner in which it is described makes it feel very similar to what I do (if I ignore the fact that they're using two weapons, anyway).
Quite frankly, I had very little appreciation for the second gallery. It was entirely devoted to the art and designs for a book about a tugboat (Little Toot) which I hadn't read, and which I still didn't have a huge amount of appreciation for even after I sat down and read it. The style of drawing was . . . fine, I just didn't really like most of it. And anthropomorphized tugboats just don't really grab me all that much. Steam shovels, yes; tugboats, not so much.
There was a little display on how the Spiderwick Chronicles went from page to screen which I probably would have gotten a lot more out of if I'd read the Spiderwick Chronicles. The bit about the griffin (I think it was a griffin - something with a raptor head, anyway) was pretty cool, though.
There was also a library, a large room full of picture books alphabetized by illustrator. This was mildly annoying, because I remember authors much better than illustrators, but also really cool because it meant that I got to see a whole bunch of stuff that Ruth Sanderson illustrated (she did Jane Yolen's Where have the Unicorns Gone?, and her other stuff is even better). I spent a thoroughly enjoyable 45 minutes browsing and reading and looking at pictures. We wandered the museum a bit more, and found a wall of self-portraits, some of which we recognized and most of which we didn't (the consensus was that neither mom or I are really up on current illustrators), and then we browsed through the shop, which was almost as good as the library. I think I want a print of an Alan Lee Tolkien-something; I'm sure they sell them online somewhere.
Mom's analysis was that is was an excellent museum because our feet didn't hurt and because there weren't billions more galleries than we had any interest in looking at (I wouldn't have objected if the third gallery were open, though). I want to take my Aunt Ruth there. She would love it. I don't think she could leave the kids for that long, though.
Yesterday we also went to church, hung out in Northampton, went to India House (yum!), and then hung out in my room. Lillie came by, and we both read The Speed of Dark while mom worked on the Pi Sudoku some more. That was fun. I'm quite enjoying The Speed of Dark. It's a good book, and it has fencing in it. SCA-type fencing rather than sport fencing, but the manner in which it is described makes it feel very similar to what I do (if I ignore the fact that they're using two weapons, anyway).
