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Happy Beltane!
May. 1st, 2016 09:10 amRecently, I was looking for something or other on Amazon (basically: I was awake and breathing and not out on a walk) and stumbled across Kyrja's _Rupert's Tales_. How cool are these! The bunny is adorable. The art is simple but appealing and not overly sentimental. The rhymes could become a bit much, but these aren't exactly the sort of book that one sits down looking for sophisticated verse.
I think what I like best about these books is how tactile the language is. Trees have "long, knobby knees". Rupert's bunny-eye view of ritual is really appealing, because the explanation always comes _after_ watching without knowledge. Never mind children: isn't this how it is with anyone, of any age, when first encountering an unfamiliar sacred act?
Rupert's heart speeds up and slows down, a realistic and tangible way of communicating his intense reactions to events like the arrival of an owl. "the twitching in his long legs began to relax". While the owl's explanation contrasts animal perceptions with human, it doesn't actually come down solidly on any particular conception of divinity, which I really appreciate. I was particularly pleased that Kyrja devoted some lines to acknowledging love of all kinds.
I read the Beltane section to T., and he liked the pictures and the story. We've been reading Wendy Pfeffer's books on the Solstices (most consistently in winter): _The Shortest Day_ and _A New Beginning_, and also her harvest book, _We Gather Together_. But I really like Rupert's Tales for being solidly grounded in a particular tradition that it isn't all that easy to find kids books about.
Happy Beltane! Give someone a hug and a kiss today, and remember that it doesn't just feel good. It is Good.
I think what I like best about these books is how tactile the language is. Trees have "long, knobby knees". Rupert's bunny-eye view of ritual is really appealing, because the explanation always comes _after_ watching without knowledge. Never mind children: isn't this how it is with anyone, of any age, when first encountering an unfamiliar sacred act?
Rupert's heart speeds up and slows down, a realistic and tangible way of communicating his intense reactions to events like the arrival of an owl. "the twitching in his long legs began to relax". While the owl's explanation contrasts animal perceptions with human, it doesn't actually come down solidly on any particular conception of divinity, which I really appreciate. I was particularly pleased that Kyrja devoted some lines to acknowledging love of all kinds.
I read the Beltane section to T., and he liked the pictures and the story. We've been reading Wendy Pfeffer's books on the Solstices (most consistently in winter): _The Shortest Day_ and _A New Beginning_, and also her harvest book, _We Gather Together_. But I really like Rupert's Tales for being solidly grounded in a particular tradition that it isn't all that easy to find kids books about.
Happy Beltane! Give someone a hug and a kiss today, and remember that it doesn't just feel good. It is Good.