A Letter to Miggery Sow

Dear Mig,

Have you ever been able to forgive your father for what he did to you? Did it ever occur to anyone else that what you wanted actually mattered? You were only a child, Mig. First he insulted you by naming you after his prize-winning pig, and then he sold you for a handful of cigs, a red tablecloth, and a hen?! That must have been devastating to you. To top things off, the man who bought you insisted that you call him, Uncle. Then he had the gall to give you a good clout to the ear. Not once. Not twice, but several times. Your poor ears became so deformed that they became like cauliflowers. You have been neglected, abused, and taken for granted. All you ever wanted was to be loved. Your fascination with becoming a princess became an obsession to you. All it took was for some measly little rat to persuade you into doing his dirty work for him. You didn't know any better. He took interest in what you wanted, and you just ran with it.

I want you to know that forgiving the people who wronged you is not only difficult to do, it is necessary. Trust me. I have been made fun of as a child. I was never abused and neglected like you, but I have been deeply hurt by others. Forgiveness is the only option you have if you want to know what real freedom is. You have been a servant girl all of your life. You have dreamed of being in Princess Pea’s shoes. I am telling you that forgiveness is the way to live happily ever after. No more shame. No more hate bundled up inside of you. The light will shine on you, Mig. You will feel and be like the true princess you’ve always deserved to be treated.

Sincerely,
Courtney

The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Poem: Ode to the Automaton Man

What's your secret automaton?

You're a magnificant, complex and rusty old bot. Your inner chambers reveal the intricate workings of a clock.

Every gear, every piece, every notch, every groove, is set in place for it to move.
But now you are useless and sit in a corner all day, nobody to fix nobody to play. 

Left behind from a father now gone, a notebook of drawings, a gift to a son.

The boy named Hugo, reminisced of the conversations he had,

He asked his father, "don't you want to know what it can write? Then we'll wind it up and see what the message says.(117)"

Shattered dreams now lost in the fire, could he fix you automaton? What does it require?

His father was taken too soon, automaton.  He was hoping for a personalized message, hand delivered by you.

He looked in books and found one that caught his eye,  Practical Manual of Card Magic and Illusions.

Nothing was in there about you, automaton.

But soon thereafter he was proud of himself when he fixed your arm without any help from the notebook.

Now what else was he missing? The key to wind you up?

How convenient, a girl, named Isabelle so sweet,

Watch out, beware, or she'll shred you up like meat. 

Her heart-shaped key around her neck was sure to fit the hole in your back. 

He used those tricks from the book he got, to steal the key, to set you up so he could see 

Every gear, every piece, every notch, every groove, is set in place for it to move.

At first Hugo is angry that you aren't writing words, you make these random lines that make no sense at all

Scratching lines, you kept dipping your pen in ink, before he knew it, a picture was drawn by you!

You revealed to him something more than you knew, the drawings were there to point him elsewhere.

A gift you are and were to him, this was only the beginning of his life as a magician.







   









   

History of Children's Literature: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan lived from 1628-1688. He was a Puritan author from England, who became famous for writing the allegorical work of Pilgrim's Progress (published in 1678). He became a lay preacher, while earning his living as a tinker (a mender of pots and pans). He was arrested while preaching illegally without a license and was sent to jail. It has been known that Bunyan served around a total of 12 years. While he was in prison, he was still able to preach and write Pilgrim's Progress. He was literally making progress while he was paying time in jail! For more than a century, most English-speaking Christians identified with only two books. The Bible and Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrim's Progress was written in two volumes. The first volume was written in 1675 during a brief imprisonment. The second volume was written six years later.
Pilgrim's Progress became an essential read in the university classroom as well as the nursery. Louisa May Alcott's, Jo March, from Little Women, even took great pleasure in the Bunyan's allegories. Mark Twain was another person who had some basic knowledge of the Bunyan's writings. Pilgrim's Progress was not originally meant for children, but it appealed to them because of the fairy-tale like allegory of giants and bravery. It was a moral and adventurous book that enraptured children's hearts and minds.



John wrote many other books, sermons, and poems over the course of his life. He even wrote a book entitled, A Book for Boys and Girls. It contained 50 poems.

"The Pilgrim’s Progress was instantly popular with all social classes upon its publication, though it was perhaps the last great expression of the folk tradition of the common people before the divisive effects of modern enlightened education began to be felt."--Roger Sharrock

http://www.pilgrimsprogress.org/bunyan.html
http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol9780521515269_CCOL9780521515269A012