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likethebeerThere are a few things I totally forgot. One were the discussions that Q. & I had about Charlie Carter, the magician featured in "Carter beats the Bad Guy" [really, Carter Beats the Devil]. It was long on words and small on pictures, but once I got into it, I began telling her about Charlie Carter (I really like this book, and endeavor to read it again, and for reasons I'll also get to). Well, at least in terms of what a 3.5 yo can understand--all the fun stuff, in other words.
Charlie did these fantastical magic acts and had a real lion that he rescued from the circus. I told Q all about that, and we talked about the opening scene in "Carter...," when he gets onto a train while being trailed by the Secret Service (for being suspected of having something to do with Pres. Harding's death), and he disappears. Q. and I talked a lot aobut the ways that Carter could disappear. Then I thought up all the other things that I could remember about the book, to try to entertain her. And thought up a few when i couldn't remember those.
One we talked about came when we were talking about how Carter escaped from the Secret Service again. I told her that Carter had a special bookcase in his library and when he pulled a special book (you can see where this is going) it led him to a secret stairway where... his lion was! Totally freaked me out that she had a nightmare that night that involved sercret stairwells. When she told me about it, I was so sad. I said, "Oh, no!" But she said, off hand, "That's ok." End of conversation.
Oh, and our first big conversations about Carter, we had one of those transcendant moments with kids--when you're in their universe, man, and they are the most interesting things around and you're the most interesting to them, and you're just totally into each other in a way that is unlike almost any other interaction I have ever had with a human being. Not sexual, not "OMG THIS PERSON WILL BE MY BFF". Just, "Wow. This kid is so cool". That is, for the part of my brain that is still thinking about the next moment. Aunts can have so much fun.
And there are pcitures in "Carter..."--at the beginning of each section. There's a Chinese man, and a pic of Carter surrounded by spirits ("ghosts," as Q says, which she understands well and seems fine with, since she doesn't understand the implications). We talked about ghosts, therefore, not Carter's dead first wife (and how she died--rehearsal for a magic trick gone wrong); and then about Carter's trip on a ship (the Chinese guy).
So, here's my idea that I got: I want to read the book again and start writing her letters where I talk about what Carter's up to "now." Some of his adventures.... And after that (aside from the postcards), I thoguht I would embark on Jonathon Strange & Mr Norell. Although maybe I should stick w/Harry Potter, since she already knows about him--she knows he's a wizard, and goes to a special school, and has a giant friend named Hagrid, and there's a bad guy named Voldemort/He Who Must Not Be Named. Still, she knows the difference between magicians and wizards....
See? I'm not such a bad aunt.
Charlie did these fantastical magic acts and had a real lion that he rescued from the circus. I told Q all about that, and we talked about the opening scene in "Carter...," when he gets onto a train while being trailed by the Secret Service (for being suspected of having something to do with Pres. Harding's death), and he disappears. Q. and I talked a lot aobut the ways that Carter could disappear. Then I thought up all the other things that I could remember about the book, to try to entertain her. And thought up a few when i couldn't remember those.
One we talked about came when we were talking about how Carter escaped from the Secret Service again. I told her that Carter had a special bookcase in his library and when he pulled a special book (you can see where this is going) it led him to a secret stairway where... his lion was! Totally freaked me out that she had a nightmare that night that involved sercret stairwells. When she told me about it, I was so sad. I said, "Oh, no!" But she said, off hand, "That's ok." End of conversation.
Oh, and our first big conversations about Carter, we had one of those transcendant moments with kids--when you're in their universe, man, and they are the most interesting things around and you're the most interesting to them, and you're just totally into each other in a way that is unlike almost any other interaction I have ever had with a human being. Not sexual, not "OMG THIS PERSON WILL BE MY BFF". Just, "Wow. This kid is so cool". That is, for the part of my brain that is still thinking about the next moment. Aunts can have so much fun.
And there are pcitures in "Carter..."--at the beginning of each section. There's a Chinese man, and a pic of Carter surrounded by spirits ("ghosts," as Q says, which she understands well and seems fine with, since she doesn't understand the implications). We talked about ghosts, therefore, not Carter's dead first wife (and how she died--rehearsal for a magic trick gone wrong); and then about Carter's trip on a ship (the Chinese guy).
So, here's my idea that I got: I want to read the book again and start writing her letters where I talk about what Carter's up to "now." Some of his adventures.... And after that (aside from the postcards), I thoguht I would embark on Jonathon Strange & Mr Norell. Although maybe I should stick w/Harry Potter, since she already knows about him--she knows he's a wizard, and goes to a special school, and has a giant friend named Hagrid, and there's a bad guy named Voldemort/He Who Must Not Be Named. Still, she knows the difference between magicians and wizards....
See? I'm not such a bad aunt.
