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The Nixie's Song
'The Nixie's Song' is Book One of a three volume series of Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles created by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. 'The Nixie's Song' is the story of how Nick Vargas learns all about the magical world that no one else can see. Nick has a few issues that he needs to figure out family wise. His father meets someone and things change. He meets his new stepsister Laurie and a few other things begin to happen that can be somewhat unexplainable. This is a fast paced read and basically for the youth readers out there, but I found them interesting for adults could learn from them too. The illustrations that Holly created were well detailed and I thought they would make good coloring pages.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Gregg Shorthand
Here is a snippet from McGuffey's Eclectic Readers as this one is from the Primer. Quite a while ago I was going to start offering readings and maybe lessons in the subject, but other projects and ideas came first. Please comment on this and let me know if you or anyone would be interested in learning and reading more in Gregg shorthand. I have all the textbooks dealing with Diamond Jubilee Series. Also, I am planning on writing more from the McGuffey's and other textbooks that I have collected from my other studies. I know that Gregg shorthand is an obsolete course, but to me it's like figuring out secret code.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Teacher & Child
Dr. Haim G. Ginott wrote an academic book entitled 'Teacher & Child' which is a book that I had read for a teacher education course in the late eighties or the early nineties. The course was believe it or not 'Teaching Reading in the Elementary Classroom. This is a book that covers various ideas that a teacher should do and not do in their various classrooms. There are various vignettes throughout the book explaining proper procedures and policies that all teachers must follow liking them or not. After re-reading this book again and seeing it from the angle of a writer it brought back a few memories of my early education. There was a vignette about a social studies teacher Mr. R (I also had a teacher Mr. R) that seemed to compare his class to another easier class if you did not like his way of teaching, which was lecture and discussion versus drawing maps and completing study guides in that other class. In the end I am glad I had his class and learned a lot. 'Teacher & Child' is really all about communication in how and how not to communicate with other teachers, parents, students and administrators. This book may be old but I believe it can still hold up in today's classrooms.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Lizard
Who likes lizards? Lizards are usually greens or browns, but I made this one light blue, yellow, purple and yes for realistic sense brown and green. There this lizard sits on a log seemingly watching a dragonfly hovering over summer flowers of yellow, orange and red. I kind of pictured this lizard swishing his tail in hopes of bringing the dragonfly closer that is why I used light blue for most of the tail for a sense of flow.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Horse
This is a picture of a horse that I pictured as a unicorn minus one horn. With the use of vivid colors of yellow, blue, green, and red I think I pulled off the unicorn idea. I could see a unicorn even though it is a horse walking through the flowers of red, pink, blue and purple picking up more colors on an autumn day with the wind blowing for how I colored the sky to show movement of the sun and clouds. Please comment.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Giraffe
Here is a giraffe that I pictured as one of jungle royalty for how some of the shapes reminded me of jewels so I used oranges, yellow, light blue, purple and greens in both the mother and the child. I used kind of a light green for the leaves that the mother was pulling down to eat and share under the pink flowers of Spring and orange flowers on the ground.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Frog and Butterfly
Hope you like my psychedelic frog and butterfly. The butterfly flying just out of reach of the frog on his lily pad of two shades of green. While the flowers rising in background are in a soft pink. The frog shows that he wonders why the butterfly looks like him for it has the same coloring as he does of blues, pinks, yellows and greens. I did not color the white space and to show the water I just outlined the water lines in a dark blue. Please comment.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Elephant
Here is a colorful elephant surrounded by jungle flowers of red and autumn red leaves blowing in the wind. I decided to color this elephant as an animal of royalty for the colors of blue, pink, red, gray, purple, etc. I colored the trunk of the elephant the traditional gray for a touch of realism. Since this is a jungle picture I made the elephant where it seems he is walking down a well worn path.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Dolphins
'Dolphins' the drawing is from an adult coloring book that I colored using colors from light blue, yellows, greens, gray, etc. I tried to lightly smudge some of the colors together trying to give a sense of being underwater. To be honest I think this is actually a picture that was of a huge aquarium for the small pyramid at the bottom. In coloring the blues for the sense of water I made the waves and bubbles darker than the rest of the water. I am also hoping that I colored the bottom for the dirt the right shade of brown. I am hoping for comments and sharing of ideas.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
The House at Pooh Corner
The last book that I received in my Winnie the Pooh collection is entitled 'The House at Pooh Corner' written by A.A. Milne. This is the book when their new friend Tigger bounces into the story. It is also the book where things begin to change, and it seems that they are all growing up in so many ways. Pooh and everyone try to change Tigger, become a little more organized for various projects, learning new things about each other and finding out what learning can do for you and others and just plain helping each other in what they do whether work or play. 'The House at Pooh Corner' can really be anywhere where one needs to figure things out whether you are an adult or child for all you have to do is close your eyes and you are there in your own special Pooh corner.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
Winnie the Pooh
The other day I wrote a short critique on Winnie the Pooh that mainly gave the idea how this book could help children and their mental health. But the story of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne is actually the story of friendships in all their various forms from Pooh and Piglet, Pooh and Eeyore, and even Pooh and all the others. The most important friendship is Pooh and Christopher Robin. Pooh and Piglet and their various adventures, Pooh making new friends with Kanga and Roo, Pooh and Rabbit when Pooh would like a snack, Pooh and Eeyore who needs to feel friendship. All of these are shown when hunting for Woozles and Heffalumps, to throwing a party when a flood is over to just sharing a favorite snack or two and as a gang going on expedition. Winnie the Pooh is a children's novel that makes a good read for adults as well as kids even though the illustrations are pencil sketches, they give the story a homey feel.
By Mark Graham2 years ago in Critique
