Spring Break Reading: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane**

Prior to saying goodbye to my eleventh graders before our ten day Spring Beak, I suggested that they find a book or two to read during our time apart. Though more than a few groaned, a few asked for suggestions to which I replied a number of titles from high school cannon, such as I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and even a classic from middle school that most had not, surprisingly,  even heard of, The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. At this point a couple of students began reminiscing about titles they had (shock of shocks) enjoyed reading that I had not heard of. One young lady mentioned her affection for a book read in middle school entitled The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. As she began describing the book as being about a "rabbit doll that gets lost," I scribbled the title in my notebook for future reference. Maybe it was the promise of a rabbit protagonist or the recollection of my own prior devouring of the wonderful The Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe, also about rabbits.  These factors along with the student's passion for a book read years ago moved it to the front of my spring break reading list.

Right to the top of the pile.

A longtime high school teacher, I have often searched for "lighter" fiction for sharing with students, and as a reader I, too, struggle with finding meaningful books with slightly less angst. I continue wishing for lighter literary entres to consume. Given both these factors, in addition to considering myself a reasonably "well read" person, I am embarrassed to share that I had not heard of writer, and Newbery medalist, Kate DiCamillo previously. If The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is any indication, I have been missing out by having not picked up any her many titles before. My student was telling the truth, and showing a pretty good memory in giving me a short synopsis; the book is indeed about a somewhat snooty, China rabbit (not a "doll" as he reminds us at every turn, though something he'll need to come to terms with) who goes missing. During a decades long journey, Edward comes to learn the value of loving and being loved.

This 211 page book is a joy, and like most good books, defies being placed into a box. I found this book in the children's area of my local bookstore, and after reading am going to share it with my mother who, like I, is beyond the publisher's target audience. Edward's travels take him through multiple relationships and a variety of lifetimes, but never loses a sense of the timeless. DiCamillo's narrative is further enhanced through the inclusion of illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline. Beautifully rendered in black and white, Ibatoulline's illustrations avoid anchoring the story and character in a specific time period, and do nothing to mitigate the reader's ability to imagine the events as taking place right now. Perhaps it was my nostalgia but I found the drawing reminiscent of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit art (my son's nursery had a border of the characters).

As a middle-aged high school teacher, I was impressed by DiCamillo's willingness to avoid writing down to her audience. There are heavy questions posed and big themes explored throughout, such as love, death, regret a nd patience. Lines such as "How does a China rabbit die?" (page 47), seem perfectly at home in DiCamillo's world of China rabbits and hobos. Vocabulary such as "ennui" (page 3), "discerning" (65) and "contrarian" (194), suggest an excellent opportunity for readers of all ages to add valuable words to their working vocabulary.

I am grateful for the quick conversation with one of my student's for leading me to this beautiful book. I strongly recommend The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline to readers of all ages looking for a powerful complex read disguised as a children's book about a China rabbit!

**Originally posted March 13, 2018

Retro Gaming: SEGA Genesis' The Lion King (1994)

In addition to reorganizing my comic book collection this summer, I have also been trading in for credit some of the video games that I either no longer 1) play or 2) have a functional gaming console on which to play them. Despite weaker graphics (by today's standards) there are a number of games from  previous "generations" of game play that during their heyday in my system of choice were just plain "awesome."

Despite currently enjoying a XBOX360 system, and anticipating the XBOX720 or Ocho or whatever it's being teased as this month, as I packed away our old generation original XBOX, I became nostalgic about some of the games; not nostalgic like weeping, but nostalgic like "that was a cool game play experience!" or "I remember when I played this!" Perhaps not surprisingly, some games serve as reminders of yesteryear, much like songs remind one of the "old days." The bonus is that sometimes they also were well-designed or executed gaming experiences.

Similarly, as I stopped by my local video game store, and saw the ancient systems from years (and seemingly lives) gone by on display such as the Atari 2600, Sega, and Dreamcast I recalled some of the cool games I'd forgotten about. As a way of recapturing some of that magic I thought I'd briefly relive the magic of some games that though being somewhat out of favor,  were nonetheless a joy to play--great worlds to get pulled into--by retroactively reviewing and considering some older games.

Nearly 18(!) years ago, I somehow came into possession of a Sega Genesis gaming system. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure my brother bought it for my daughter (who was 3 going on 4 at the time) and I. Well, mostly me.  Honestly, despite the responsibility (wife, children, etc.) I was pretty much a kid myself, playing at being a father, so we would often play some of the games together, most notably, and memorably, Disney's The Lion King.

As you can tell from the clip above culled from the many available on Youtube, the music and graphics were very similar to those of the film and excellent by the standards of the time. The game play was old school basic (claw, jump, roll) and the experience was very much like an arcade style game except you didn't need to pump quarters into it a 'la Ms. Pac Man. At the height of Lion King-mania, what child (and doting parent) wouldn't enjoy playing this game (especially after having seen the movie on VHS about 1,000 times)?

This "wide screen" stampede level took ma-a-a-a-ny attempts before we made it through unscathed!

The game included the voices of all the film's memorable characters: Timon, Pumbaa, Lion-o Simba, and even Skar and his hyena sidekicks. This was pre-Internet (or at least pre-at-my-house Internet), so there were no easily accessible cheat codes, so when you "died" 3 times, you began all the way back at the beginning.

Come to think of it, I think we did make it to the final boards...

Getting through an entire game was a challenge, and even set on the lowest level of difficulty, I recall doing the first board or two multiple times as we made our way to the higher (and by that time infinitely more interesting) levels that followed. I can't recall if we ever really finished the game, but I do fondly remember spending lots of hours talking and laughing while playing Disney's The Lion King game together.