Birds of the Air (Yesterday's Classics) (Eyes and No Eyes Book 4). Arabella B. Buckley. out of 5 stars 4. Kindle Edition. $ · Plant Life in Field and Garden .
Table of contents
- (Sung in honour of Rikki-tikki-tavi)
- By Pond and River
- The Internet Classics Archive | The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam
A white woman living in England around like E. Nesbit had much less chance of not being racist than she would have had a century later. It would be a great shame to ditch all her books completely. After all, many of the greatest Renaissance paintings are anti-Semitic in their depictions of, for example, Judas Iscariot. I concur with this thought: I feel anger at the accusation of racism.
Perhaps stereotyping would be the better word, as it seems that this truly is what is happening. Racism suggests that one tries to deprive others of services based upon appearance. Now if we start to see it and are repulsed and horrified, we have the chance to respond and grow past that. Letting our children witness our responded might be one of the best bonuses. This post is a pretty safe one in that it looks at racism in books of old.
That we stop reading the obviously racist Seuss altogether? Or just this one book or two by a clearly racist author? Enjoyed your recent post Forgive Me My Bluntness: Believe I linked to it recently. My call to action? No, alas, this is just a think piece about a situation we all grapple with, whether as parents or librarians or teachers. What I like is that in the course of the comments here the people have jointly agreed that this is a situation that demands understanding and, ultimately, some guidelines.
What we do need to do is find solutions, and a couple interesting ones are mentioned in the comments. Everything from discussion with our children, giving context to the insult, to adding text that Michael Dorris selection was fascinating, was it not? It would deserve its own place in the sun. Yes, Elizabeth, and a worthwhile piece that would be. Please, if you can, get that piece written. And thanks for the link up. Some years ago I read Around the World in 80 Days to my son, and was horrified. Verne pretty much stereotyped every culture around the world.
It made a good teaching moment, though, as we were able to have a good discussion about stereotypes and racism. I am in love with this discussion.
It felt too complicit, you know? Allah depicted as the anti-christ. And while I knew as a child how problematic the depiction of Native Americans were in the Little House on the Prairie books, I really was shocked while listening to my son read that book out loud. I kept wanting to interrupt him and provide context and counter-examples. I felt that the Narnia series was too important not to read.
I have found these discussions fascinating. But what able the popular time travel type books or books that are simply set back in time? How they gloss over the attitudes towards minorities because their main characters would have shared those attitudes and viewed through modern sensibilities it would make them look horrendous.
Reminds me of some of the scenes in Titanic. Where you get a glimpse of the ethnic immigrants bit it really is all about the injustice of class. Such is the power of the story I watched it properly for the first time many years ago, feeling really uneasy. We are grasping at straws here, I think. Racism, in the typical sense of the word does not fit in your demonizing of these books.
Presumptuous, maybe, generalizing, possibly. To draw or say Chinese people have eyes full of slant is an observation.
(Sung in honour of Rikki-tikki-tavi)
Are there some Chinese without much slant at all in their eyes? Do an overwhelming majority of them have slanted eyes?
He made an observation based on a common physical trait. You could take anything there into the realm of racist if you try hard enough. Just someone over-analyzing, projecting their own insecurities or secret skeletons onto someone or something else. Check out Robert Louis Stevenson. The end line is just total xenophobic: Most of what people are referring to as racist are only outdated stereotypes that kids are not going to reverse-engineer into their own attitudes and beliefs, anyway.
This is better than being intellectually sheltered. Once they are reading independently, kids notice when their books are being censored or withheld. That is a poor lesson.
Not to mention that they will resent it. Let them read freely and develop their own minds. September 25, by Elizabeth Bird. There are the little African guys, grass skirts and all: Comments Monica Edinger says: September 25, at 5: September 25, at 7: September 25, at 8: September 25, at September 25, at 3: September 27, at 7: September 27, at 8: Anne Marie Pace says: September 25, at 9: October 2, at September 25, at 2: And in schools and libraries.
And on reading lists and curricula. Now curious about Scrambled Eggs Super. September 25, at 1: September 28, at And I did read Kipling as a kid and loved his language dearly. September 26, at 7: September 29, at 1: September 26, at This might be the three sentences I steal and use for the rest of my life: Thank you, Phillip Nel.
September 25, at 6: September 26, at 5: September 26, at 8: September 26, at 9: Jo Beth Dempsey says: September 26, at 2: Allie Jane Bruce says: September 26, at 4: September 27, at 3: September 29, at September 27, at October 2, at 4: The Great Gilly Hopkins threw me off when I read it to my daughter recently. October 1, at October 2, at 2: Trackbacks In the Classroom: The Daily Telegraph reported on the award: He has no telephone and never leaves his home.
As the cult of Baker has spread and strengthened, much more has been discovered in terms of biography.
By Pond and River
By the s his illness was so severe that it was first stiffening and then fusing the joints in his spine, fingers and legs. Suffering as he did from curtailed vision and a stiffened body, the peregrine stood as both his dream totem and his prosthesis — perfected in precisely the ways that Baker was lessened. What Baker could not see unaided, he saw with the aid of technology: Faces, in The Peregrine , usually have something held up to them: Imagery recurs of visors, masks, helmets and lenses.
This is one reason why reading Baker is such hard, unsteadying work. He causes us to lose our usual footings in the world. Landscape becomes surface, unfolding around us as we go. The brain is strained by the dynamic dissonances of his prose, and the eyes by its uncanny geometries. Focal range ramps and flattens unpredictably. Horizons lure and retreat. One ends a reading of Baker — lifts the visor — exhausted and exhilarated.
Science saved them — and so did literature. In part because of the research of Ratcliffe and others into the link between pesticide use and eggshell thinning in British raptor populations, and in part because of the global impact of Silent Spring , the use of DDT and other organochlorines was restricted. The impact on raptors was massive.
Writing in , Ratcliffe noted:. The present state of the British peregrine population represents a most heartening turnaround in fortunes from the dark days and gloomy predictions of the early s …It is not often that we are able to celebrate a conservation success, but this one is better than probably any of us had dared to hope. Less secure, because raptor persecution in the UK is presently at atrocious levels, in large part as a result of the game-shooting industry. Numerous birds of prey — peregrines among them — are illegally killed each year on and near shooting estates.
Most upland populations of peregrines are presently in decline. The Forest of Bowland population has fallen from 18 pairs to zero in eight years. More secure, because peregrines have now moved into our cities and on to our infrastructure in increasing numbers.
The Internet Classics Archive | The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam
Before the s there were few records of peregrine falcons nesting on humanmade structures in Britain, with Chichester Cathedral the oldest known nest site. In , eight pairs nested on humanmade structures; in , 62 pairs. In there were nesting peregrines on an estimated artificial structures, including churches, radio masts — and the cooling towers of the nuclear power station at Bradwell. Increases have happened in cities worldwide. New York alone now has more than 16 nesting pairs, on bridge girders and apartment block window ledges.
Brick, steel and glass, it turns out, provide prime peregrine real estate. The conditions in cities are advantageous for falcon life. High buildings give good vantage points for hunting, and secure locations for nesting. Cities tend to be warmer than open country, and more protected from the elements, thus reducing the likelihood of death by cold among fledglings and adults.
Most importantly, cities offer an abundance of prey, chiefly in the form of pigeons another massively successful Kulturfolger. Falcons even seem to be evolving new hunting and killing techniques among the skyscraper canyons of high-rise cities. The result of these accumulated benefits is that peregrines can breed earlier, more often, and more successfully in cities.
Peregrines have come to my city, Cambridge. For years a pair nested in a steep-sided chalk pit at Fulbourn — the closest thing to a sea cliff you can get in the Fens. Then, in , a new pair came to the Cambridge University Library, a modernist masterpiece of brown brick. They nested on a sixth-floor ledge: After two years there, the pair moved to a 19th-century Gothic revival building in the heart of Cambridge, nesting 20ft or so above pavement level.
Somehow they fledged a single chick there, amid the ruckus of the street. The falcons are there still, and have become part of the life of the city in wonderful ways. Each weekday morning for eight months of the year, I pass under the church spires that the falcons like to use as plucking posts. Most mornings I glimpse one of them up there, perched on a curlicue of stone: Fourth volume in the "Eyes and No Eyes" series, introduces the youthful reader to bird life, beginning with birds of home and garden and ending with water birds and birds of prey. Children learn how to identify birds, why birds sing songs, how they build nests, lay eggs, and raise their young, where they sleep, and how they feed in summer, migrate in autumn, and survive the winter.
Eight color illustrations and numerous black and white drawings complement the text. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Paperback , 84 pages. Published on July 18, by Yesterday's Classics.