Book Review: The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane

Is there such a thing as reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder? Because if there is, I haz it. With this cold snap, my brain and my motivation seem to be returning, finally. So let's ease back into things with a children's book review, shall we?

Out of all the books at the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference this year, The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane caught my eye with the unique style of its cover illustration (the artist uses a combination of papercutting, printing, and watercolor).

The story is one that any lover of the Middle Ages, bright colors, daydreaming, or inventiveness will assuredly delight in. Brother Theophane is an Irish monk who loves God, but gets rather bored with his work in the (monochromatic) scriptorium. He gazes out the window and doodles little verses on the edges of his work (the poems in the book are taken from actual medieval marginalia. Finally, his exasperated prior sends him to work outside.

In the woods, he again gets distracted by a particularly tempting patch of berries, which gives him a brilliant idea, and the monk's manuscripts are never the same again.

I could hardly love this book more. The Celtic details throughout the book, along with the little poems of the monks and the story itself combine to create an atmosphere that captures the not-at-all-dark exuberance and humor of the Middle Ages.

The story is fun enough to be appreciated by preschoolers, but would (along with the notes and bibliography) also be a great jumping-off point to study the art and history of period with older children. Whomever you're reading it with, I recommend having on hand one of the many Dover coloring books based upon manucript art, because you'll likely be inspired to add some color of your own. (UPDATE: Here are two pages that have some colorable versions of illuminated manuscripts.)

Seven Quick "Something Other Than" Takes

In honor of being back at Jen's for the linkup, I thought I'd go with a theme for this post. See if you can guess it (it'll be tough!):

1) Something Other Than Baby Clothes

After finishing off wave #1 of baby presents (before wave #2 of babies starts showing up, even!), I needed to shift sewing gears a bit. The Bean loooves the space jammies his grandma gave him for Christmas, to the point of asking for them even when it is definitely not fleece whether. So, when I saw this fabric on the JoAnn clearance rack, I had to pounce. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the white topstitching or not, but it all came together to look very mid-century retro, I think. Space Kiddo to the rescue!

Okay, I don't even know where he got that pose on the right. The rest? That's more like it.

Something Other Than Summer

What I'm wishing for this week. I kid, but DH found a house centipede (a creature from the ninth circle of hell if ever there was one) in the house, and I found ants inside a sealed container of graham crackers, all in one week. So... I'm glad to live somewhere that I can count on there being a hard freeze eventually.

Something Other Than Beer

While it is summer, though, we like to have plenty of refreshing adult beverages on hand. This seems to be the summer of beer for us, as we've had more around than we ever have just for the two of us (four cases, at once!). I was ready to change it up, though, and we had lots of egg whites on hand after making pistachio gelato, so it was time to break out the gin fizzes. Makes me want to reread "Love in the Ruins".

Something Other Than Bulbs

The summer perennials are finally taking the place of the remains of the daffodils, with the campanula going gangbusters. Bean loves the flowers that look like bells, but these lilies are my favorite. They always remind me of holy card pictures of St. Joseph.

Something Other Than Radishes

We actually got some peas this year. Only a couple plants germinated, but they went nuts and we've gotten some good eating out of them (sauteed with asparagus and garnished with mint, for one). There are also some cherry tomatoes coming in. Unfortunately, I didn't decipher Bean's exclamations of "The tomatoes are planting!" quickly enough, and he got several off the plant and "planted" before I stopped him. Oh well, there'll be more, right?

This isn't what I wanted for you, little tomatoes!

Something Other Than Boxes

...for my books! The other night I went on a stress-fuelled whine/rant to my husband (which he kindly listened to), including certain state-of-the-house issues. A few minutes afterwards, he hands me his phone and asks, "Was this what you were looking for?" Ethan Allen, $100. The only thing I've ever found on Craigslist are people who thing rusty (but not actually antique) tricycles are worth $40. Twenty-four hours later, we were filling it with games and all the books that were boxed up or double-layered on the other shelves. I'm sending him to do all the Craigslist searches from now on. The shelves were just exactly enough space, too (or so I thought until I found one last set of books from Christmas still in the box. C'est la vie.)

Bean's books are now next to the TV. I took a picture because they will never look this good again.

and, oh yeah, "Something Other Than God"

I wasn't planning to read this, because, well, conversion stories are okay and all but I read Surprised by Truth in high school and figured I'd pretty much heard it all at that point. After Mom handed me her copy and said she hadn't be able to put it down, though, I finally decided to give it a go, and subsequently neglected all housework for the next 36 hours while I couldn't put it down. It reads like a novel, and the fast pace makes it a great beach (or wherever summer takes you) read. So, yeah, tolle et lege, y'all.

See the rest of the quick takes at Jen's!

Book Acquisition Mode

For a while, I thought I had it under control. I'd come out of a good used book store with maybe one or two things, if even. Lately, though, the book acquisition has been picking up steam, for better or worse. I blame "The Squirrel's Birthday." (The source of this blog's title, incidentally.) It's been a great favorite of ours, and I wanted to find some of the author's other volumes. And that's how it started:

Hop on over to Half Price Books. They don't have what you're looking for, but you do come out with like-new copies of Milne's poetry for $3 each, so one could hardly call that a waste of time.

Go online to Better World Books, manage to find two of the three books in question for a good price (still AWOL: A Great and Complicated Adventure). Realize that you're going to be near their warehouse that weekend, so you click "pick up in store."

Library covers are a mom's best friend.

Arrive at the outlet with Mom to find a sign that says "Saturdays: $10 box sale!" That's right; fill a box with books for $10. Manage to keep it to splitting one box rather than each getting your own. Get a big stack of paperback classics, plus "The Enchanted Castle," which you're quite looking forward to after reading this post about E. Nesbit's books. (found via Meg's Facebook page)

Visit family for the week. Mom has a few books for Bean, of course.

Books are our love language.

Drop in to church while the homeschool co-op is meeting. One of the moms has brought boxes of books that she is purging. Peruse.

Pretty sure I grabbed more than this, but I'd already shelved them. That's Hans Brinker on the right.

Back at home, go garage saling. Find a box of $1 cookbooks. Prepare to leave with only two, but then remember that the Frugal Gourmet introduced your family to the apple omelet and pick up three more. The fact that I'm Just Here for the Food turns out to be autographed does nothing to help curb your habit.

Tom and Becky, what were you thinking?

Check your email; someone on a listserv with Mom is getting rid of a full set of '96 World Books. Claim them. Be pleased when you find out they're like new, and are the leather bound ones, not the ones that make a picture when they're on the shelf.

Physical media forever!

Speaking of shelves...