This issue's special: 50% off all holiday books and hats!

December 28, 2004

In this issue:
Endings and Beginnings.
E. B. White/The Trumpet of the Swan.
Teacher Featured Books & Hats!
Happy New Year!

Something about Christmas' passing makes me a little sad. Maybe it's that I have a New Year's birthday, and I used to associate it with taking down the Christmas tree and going back to school the next day!  As I think of the drying needles falling from my Christmas tree, wondering whether to take it down before or after New Year's, a few other thoughts enter my mind.  Rather than focus on endings, I think maybe I'd like to shift to beginnings for a bit.

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E. B. White wrote one of my all time favorite books, "Charlotte's Web."  I'll
never forget my 3rd grade teacher reading to us each day, and how I loved the
story, how I enjoyed the animal characters.  I recently learned when I asked my oldest daughter about a favorite book from when she was younger, she did not hesitate, naming The Trumpet of the Swan also by E.B. White, illustrated by Fred Marcellino, (HarperCollins, ISBN 0060289368, $17.89.) So I decided it was time that I read this book.  I ordered a copy for her for Christmas and read it yesterday.  E. B. White's language is so rich and his animal characters are so
endearing.  The human boy, Sam, who becomes a friend of the swans, describes beginnings in a lovely way.  (As a child, gathering eggs was my daily chore, and I'm not sure I always looked at eggs with the same fondness that Sam does in the following paragraph, but he says it so well.)

"I don't know of anything in the entire world more wonderful to look at than a
nest with eggs in it. An egg, because it contains life, is the most perfect
thing there is. It is beautiful and mysterious. An egg is a far finer thing than
a tennis ball or a cake of soap. A tennis ball will always be just a tennis
ball. A cake of soap will always be just a cake of soap--until it gets so small
nobody wants it and they throw it away. But an egg will someday be a living
creature. A swan's egg will open and out will come a little swan...."

And in this way, Louis, our main character, enters the world, though he is
discovered to have an infirmity that is quite distressing to his parents,
because he has no voice.  For a trumpeter swan to be silent is a serious
problem.  His father, who is quite verbose at times states, "Do you wish me to
believe that I have a son who is defective in any way?  Such a revelation would distress me greatly. I want everything to go smoothly in my family life so that I can glide gracefully and serenely, now in the prime of my life, without being haunted by worry or disappointment.  Fatherhood is quite a burden, at best. I do not want the added strain of having a defective child, a child that has something the matter with him."  In spite of this rather harsh, but honest
soliloquoy, Louis' father does give some very good advice in the process of
helping Louis cope with his lack of voice. "Some people..go through life
chattering and making a lot of noise with their mouth; they never really listen
to anything--they are too busy experessing their opinions, which are often
unsound or based on bad information. Therefore, my son, be of good cheer!  Enjoy life; learn to fly!  Eat well; drink well! Use your ears; use your eyes! And I promise that someday I will make it possible for you to use your voice."

Louis's father risks all to gain his son a voice, by flying through the glass of
a window of a music store and resorting to theft, stealing a trumpet so Louis
can trumpet and eventually woo a mate when he falls in love. This sacrifice
makes quite an impression on Louis, and he works for the next two years playing his trumpet first at a boy's camp, on a lake in Boston, and in Philadelphia at the zoo, to try to find a way to pay his father's debt. Also, he must find a way to communicate with Serena, the young beautiful swan he spies on the lake and whom he loves. In Louis' case, music is the answer, and his trumpet becomes his tool for achieving his goal. Serena's love is won, and his father's debt is paid. This story has a happy ending, and it is well expressed by Louis...

"On the pond where the swans were, Louis put his trumpet away. The cygnets crept under their mother's wings. Darkness settled on woods and fields and marsh. A loon called its wild night cry. As Louis relaxed and prepared for sleep, all his thoughts were of how lucky he was to inhabit such a beautiful earth, how lucky he had been to solve his problems with music, and how pleasant it was to look forward to another night of sleep and another day tomorrow, and the fresh morning, and the light that returns with the day."  May we all be a lucky as Louis!

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I know many of you will not receive this until you are back at school, and
though the holidays are past, next year they will roll around again. What a
great time to get your holiday books at a wonderful discount!  We have many
great books for you to review, and next year, you'll be glad you thought ahead.
All holiday books are 50 percent off as well as Christmas hats!

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This is the last issue of Teacher Feature I will be writing.  I am going
part-time because of a teaching position I couldn't refuse.  Beginning Thursday, look for Teacher Feature to be incorporated into our popular weekly e-mail, "Watermark News & Notes."  And for all of your book or event needs, contact Shaunna Balman (shaunna.balman@watermarkbooks.com.)  If you are in the store on Monday nights, I will enjoy seeing you!  I wish you all "many fresh mornings and the light that returns with the day!"

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Happy New Year!

Gaylene
 

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