Posted on 09/13/2005 3:49:17 PM PDT by Libloather
Stocking stuffer bump. (Oh, boy. This will open up some conversation before carving the Christmas turducken - eh?)
A Carvile autobiography? (He has evolved from the New Orleans swampland - no?)
Lu and the Swamp Ghost
By James Carville with Patricia C. McKissack
Illustrated by David Catrow
Atheneum, $17.95
40 pages, ISBN 0689865600
Ages 4-8
A friend in the swamp
REVIEW BY SAM HOBBS
There's something about Louisiana that just breeds stories, from its swampy terrain to its storied history, from the Old World feel of New Orleans to the plantations and cotton fields. And there's always the Mississippi River for atmosphere. It should come as no surprise then, that a man like James Carville would have a few stories to tell. The Louisiana-born-and-raised Democratic political consultant, best known as Bill Clinton's campaign advisor, television commentator and one-half of a mixed political marriage with Republican consultant Mary Matalin, recounts a childhood tale in Lu and the Swamp Ghost, his first children's book.
The best stories are those handed down, and in the case of Lu, it's a story with origins in something that happened to Carville's mother Lucille during her Depression-era childhood. Lu is a poor girl who doesn't know she's poor; like all children with a loving family, she's rich in all the things that matter. All except oneshe has no friends her own age. One day, while helping her Papa check turkey traps, she meets what may or may not be the dreaded swamp ghost she's heard about. Ghost or not, he's definitely hungry, and Lu finds that in feeding him, she may have found the friend she's been looking for.
Carville's charming story is brought to life with the help of Newbery and Caldecott winner Patricia McKissack, and accompanied by the delightful drawings of political cartoonist and children's illustrator David Catrow. Southern in its origins, but universal in its appeal, Lu and the Swamp Ghost is a funand spookybook about the value of friendship in hard times. Youngsters should love it, whatever the political affiliations of their parents may be.
Who can ever forget Kofi Annan appearing on taxpayer-funded Sesame Street to settle an argument between a bunch of muppets? At the conclusion of the scene, the muppets are all pleased with the resolution of the problem, and say: "Let's solve our problems the UN way!!"
Seems anything not favoring liberalism is called controversial. That is because it's controversial when you don't agree with it.
Actually, I am nice saying that some people don't have the ability to work and those are the people we need to help out. I never give them money. Bottled water and food.
Stocking stuffers, pediatrician and dentist waiting rooms, playrooms at car dealerships, barbershops...the possibilities are endless.
Everyone should go out and request it from their local public libraries and school libraries. Write letters and memos explaining how "it is important to represent alternate viewpoints from a diversity perspective and how you just want the children to learn how to end poverty in our time".. Make the PC police sweat and squirm!
When I was a kid they were in my closet.
Aaaahhhhh! The troll from Billy Goats Gruff!
"My 8 year old wants to know why homeless people don't just get a job?"
LOL! So does my 7 yr old! she sees perfectly healthy men and women on the street corners with signs and she says "ewwww hippies!"
I ordered this for my Grandson's 4th Birthday. His other grandparents are going to stroke out when they see it. Die-hard Libs!
My kids now ages 21,18 and 17 also asked the same thing.....maybe because they grew up listening to Rush and not sesame street
Now I have. :)
Liberals can dish it out, but they can't take it.
My kids all learned their letters and numbers by sight before they were two from Sesame Street. AFTER that, we move on to Rush. : )
Bwaahaaahaaa!
ping
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