Book of the Day: 13 Words

13 Words
Author: Lemony Snicket
Illustrator: Maira Kalman
Harper Collins, 2010

Leave it to my husband to find weird, wacky, and wonderful books!  Steve often mills around on music sites and that sometimes leads him to the discovery of interesting children's books and music which he buys without telling me.  What a delight to find something new and interesting in our mailbox (and things that I never would have discovered on my own in a gazillion years).  13 Words  was one of those books.

It says in the description on Amazon that this book is for 1st grade and up, but we've had great fun reading it with Mirette.  It's the story about a despondent bird—REALLY weird story (it is Lemony Snicket, after all), but really fun!  Here are the 13 words: 

13 Words:
1. Bird
2. Despondent
3. Cake
4. Dog
5. Busy
6. Convertible
7. Goat
8. Hat
9. Haberdashery
10. Scarlet
11. Baby
12. Panache
13. Mezzo-Soprano

The best thing about this book, though, is that I seriously have fallen in love with Maira Kalman's artwork and stories.  In fact, I can't remember when I have last been so taken with an artist.  I took out from the library EVERYTHING written by her.  I like the way she thinks about the world and that she has an existential philosophy (as do I).  She wonders a lot about why she is alive and what it means to be alive.  She also writes a blog for the New York Times which is just incredible.  Can you tell I am a big fan?

Favorite Maira kids' book: What Pete Ate: A-Z
Favorite Maira adult book: And the Pursuit of Happiness

Websites of Note (not really for kids, but great fun for adults):

Maira's fantastic website:
http://www.mairakalman.com/

Maira's NY Times blog:
http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/

A project Maira was part of that had to do with why there is such fascination with the image of Lincoln:
http://www.21stcenturyabe.org/2009/02/01/looking-for-lincoln-page-1/

The mezzo-soprano sings the book:
http://nicomuhlyarchive.bandcamp.com/

Lemony Snicket's website with some vile videos of Maira and Lemony being silly together:
http://www.lemonysnicket.com/vilevideos/index.html

Scroll down to see Maira and Lemony being interviewed.  I like their sense of humor:
http://www.amazon.com/13-Words-Lemony-Snicket/dp/0061664650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318207452&sr=8-1