Anyone getting excited about admissions? General *squee* thread!

<p>and of course that would be
perhaps you know about this
So I now have fingers crossed on both hands
but I still have toes left so if anyone needs some help
let me know…</p>

<p>^^^ G, it all comes from early childhood with biased and monitored parental picture book choices — say no to Berenstain bears, anything to do with Barney etc etc
This is one of the favorite, village folks would hide their kids because ogre would come and take them in the sack for dinner.
He did the classic “The Three robbers” and illustrated very first “Flat Stanley” but these minor works really rock.
There is also one cute mom story, “No Kiss for Mother” </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Zeraldas-Ogre-Tomi-Ungerer/dp/1570982678/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270652492&sr=1-1[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Zeraldas-Ogre-Tomi-Ungerer/dp/1570982678/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270652492&sr=1-1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That book looks great! Too bad it’s out of print. Wonderful cover.</p>

<p>I agree…like the book of the month club–much more interesting than Opra’s…</p>

<p>You know…it would be a great “leading indicator” of future of child to see what was their favorite story book as a kid and what profession they ended up doing later. My son’s favorite was Beatrix Potter’s “Tom Kitten” and absolutely loved when Tom was rolled up by the rats to be eaten in a pudding but the mom-rat objects because the filthy kitten has made the pudding all full of smuts… nevertheless, it is a close call for Tom. He also liked how Jemima Puddleduck’s eggs (and future children) are all eaten by the dogs at the end (I always found t his disturbing) and she is almost put away by the fox. Is it just coincidence that S’s art is often dark, sometimes funny and slightly twisted? </p>

<p>D even at 18 months expressed a hatred of all Beatrix Potter and preferred the dreaded bernstein bears, Barney and all things commercialized (nothing better than a book with glittery fairies and happy endings!)… now look at her… head to toe in abercrombie and concerned that her brother’s art will put him on welfare or dependent upon his little sister which would severely limit her future conspicuous consumption. Interestingly, she does not plan to shirk what she fears is her role as the inevitable financial support of her brother (loves him and greatly admires his artwork) but her childhood reading also foreshadowed a passion for the conventional and safe. What did you or your kids read in the early years and did it foreshadow current personality/interests/goals/job?</p>

<p>I remember reading somewhere years back that a poll of architects resulting in a huge number saying their favorite book had been Harold’s Purple Crayon.</p>

<p>I read “Ferdinand” about a million times to D3. And she’s a Taurus too! She’s only 14, but is definitely the type that doesn’t budge easily and is great lover of flowers and all beauty. The other two, well they’re twins and it’s all a blur at this point. What would “The very hungry caterpillar” foretell?</p>

<p>Vegan chef?</p>

<p>for start, un-picky adventurous eater in need of idea of portion control and awareness of allergen. ( he ate salami, icecream, cake, etc… became sick, then eat leaves and felt much better.)</p>

<p>^^^ Whattt? out of print?
See? that’s what those good intended book people do. They don’t want violence, child eating, sex (not exactly but the little girl on the cover marries ogre and have kids)
G, do not despair, " Moon Man" by the same author (equally creepy, if not more so) just came back in print. If you live in one of those community with nice local libraries, you’ll find true gems. I used to collect library card wherever I stayed and worked.
fammom, Fairfax VA was pretty good, so is small upstate towns. Surprisingly, Boston was disappointing other than few big ones.</p>

<p>I can go on forever
Ferdinand is THE classic. The cover design can’t be beat.
My kid always found the mother funny because " she was a good mom even she was a cow" and how Ferdinand refuses mom’s suggestion to join other bulls by raised hoof of his.
I like it when they took him away in the cart, Ferdinand’s eyes are once beady and cute.
Our biggest mystery is the cork tree he likes to sit under, It shows something look like corks in the wine bottles hanging from branches as if those are fruits ( or are they?) I thought that corks are to be skinned away from the tree trunks and not from cork tree but from something else? Anyone know more about this? </p>

<p>His other pictures had less pulls, maybe they are chapter books and there are not much “air” but more texts in the opened pages.
“Ben and Me” nor Mr. Popper’s didn’t fly for my kid.
Or he “lost” it once hit chapterbook age.</p>

<p>I love the implications of the caterpillar…and the purple crayon/architecture story explains a lot! Notice that many architects (male) have little hair too…</p>

<p>BandD you are right about real cork trees…Ferdinand’s is just a little inside joke with the hanging corks…there was a famous BBC april fool’s joke where they showed film of happy italian peasants harvesting strings of spaghetti from spaghetti trees. Half of England tried to mail-order little spaghetti trees…Ferdinand’s cork trees may be inspired by that same joke…imagine harvesting corks ready made for spanish wine bottles.</p>

<p>I had bought “Ferdinando” abroad and never checked and noticed it was translated but it was definitely one of S’s favorite spanish language books. I should have realized it was too good to be originally in Spanish…most spanish language kids books are full of “magical realism” and sickly maudlin stories of magical redemption…horrible and despised heartily by all of us. Think Garcia Marquez meets Disney. We did go through an odd stage of “goosebumps” also translated into Spanish in 1st grade … we didn’t let him know he could get them in English so he became more proficient in Spanish than English–at least for vocabulary related to haunted houses, monsters and bogs.</p>

<p>Have you ever seen the disney animated version of Ferdinand? …quite faithful to the original and was on a tape along with Lambert the sheepish Lion (top notch!) and another short.</p>

<p>I work in a library and just came across a copy of “The Pied Piper of Hamlin” written by Robert Browning and illustrated by Kate Greenaway. It’s full of wonderful verse like:</p>

<p>At last the people in a body
To the Town Hall came flocking
Tis clear, cried they, our Mayor’s a noddy;
And as for our Corporation – shocking
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine
For dolts that can’t or won’t determing
What’s best to rid us of our vermin!
You hope, because you’re old and obese,
To find in the furry civic robe, ease?
Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking
To find the remedy we’re lacking,
Or, sure as fate, we’ll send you packing!</p>

<p>If only I had found that book decades ago…I could have had kids that would grow up and cause trouble at city council meetings!</p>

<p>Does anybody have any word on MICA scholarship competition? The wait is killing us.
Enough already. I am so DONE with college stress.
Oops…two more kids to go after this one.
Ack.
whatever was I thinking.</p>

<p>Glutenmom - We are STILL waiting to hear from Pratt on Financial Aid. No one seems to be able to answer any questions over there. And worst of all…they gave my son two different figures for his Merit Scholarship, one in an email and one in a letter. When I called I was told the lower of the two figures was the right one! I was so flabbergasted that I did not even press the issue. I do not want to spend close to 100,000 on a school that is that disorganized.</p>

<p>Oh and my son’s favorite childhood books… anything written by George Selden and illustrated by Garth Williams…The Cricket in Times Square, Harry Cat’s Pet Puppy, Tucker’s Countryside. Just beautiful and so funny. Those and the Richard Scarry books (though I never liked them much).
I just found a set of miniature Golden Books illustrated by Garth Williams on ebay. A real treasure. He also illustrated Charlotte’s Web but we prefer the Selden books.</p>

<p>We all loved Tomi Ungerer too! Of course the Moon Man but even better for us was The Three Robbers.
Nice and dark but with a positive ending.
I found a video on youtube: [YouTube</a> - Tomi Ungerer - Les trois brigands The Three Robbers 1972](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqdcvAkjWk]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBqdcvAkjWk)
Enjoy!</p>

<p>and Garth Williams
I am Scuppers the sailor dog I’m Scuppers the sailor dog, I can sail in gale right over a whale… under full sail in a fog ( yes I am singing, can’t help) but then I always heard that part as “wonderful sailor dog”</p>

<p>awww Richard Scarry… pickle car banana mobile daddy cat willingly does dishes…</p>

<p>Saggy baggy elephant… Tawny scrawny lion…Tootles…Little Red caboose always came last</p>

<p>Color kittens… Poky little puppy </p>

<p>books of golden age with gold foils that gone broke… awwwww</p>

<p>back to the topic
Good luck all!!
Drae, Pratt is known for the mess, ask taxguy, though no news could be a good news, some dirt poor kids w/merit 13K still wait for FA, could be higher the award, longer the wait. Out dear Tomi arrived US with 20bucks in his pocket. Little draemon is way better off. no?</p>

<p>OK…called MICA and asked point blank when we would get the good news. Next week the awards will be sent out April 16-19, snail mail…sigh…more waiting. SAIC requires an answer by April 19 so I called and confirmed that this was was just “encouraging language” and he had May 1 or even later if he needed more time. I can appreciate their point of view. the sooner kids send acceptances/regrets the sooner they can finalize their list. S should send some regrets this weekend for the clear nos but he still has several bouncing around spot number 2 and number 1 could quickly be replaced by a very happy MICA outcome. He says he doesn’t want to think about it. Tomorrow is the IB art exam and today they had all their art up…it was neat to see how they had grown up through their art over the past two years.</p>

<p>drae: I hear you about Pratt. We wrote daughter’s assigned financial aid rep, last week, have gotten NO response. We were asking about reevaluation.</p>

<p>fineartsmajormom: Yeah, SAIC has said they will look over daughter’s records again after we expressed disappointment – I get the impression they’re waiting to see what money gets accepted by other admitted students. I’m rooting for you to get MICA money, so you can pass up SAIC. <em>grin</em></p>