Sitting on Tolkien's Desk

We took a family field trip on Saturday to the Wade Center at Wheaton College. Look at that blue sky! Look at it!

The Wade Center is home to a tiny yet incredible display of the artifacts of some very cool authors, like C. S. Lewis. That's his wardrobe. That's Edmund standing in front of it. You may recall that we just listened to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on audio. We also just watched the Disney movie version.

On the way to the Wade Center, Edmund peppered us with endless questions about the Navy SEALS, of which the Chef and I know next to nothing. Not sure what this had to do with our field trip. But I cannot disassociate C.S. Lewis and Navy SEALS now.

Without any signs telling us not to touch the wardrobe...we touched it. It's full of coats! We touched those too. This warning is on the inside of the wardrobe door.

C. S. Lewis's grandfather MADE that wardrobe. He adzed it himself. I don't know what that means, but it's very cool and I want the Chef to make me one. But I won't hold my breath.

This is C.S. Lewis's desk and chair. They have the chair tied to the desk, so we didn't sit there, but of course we looked in the drawers to see the ink and paint stains. You can see his pen, his tea mug, tea pot, and pewter mug, but you can't touch them. They are behind glass. They also have nearly 2,500 of the books of his personal library complete with his handwritten notes in the margins, which you can touch if you need to, in the Reading Room.

In an alternate universe, I am working on a fantasy novel with Lewis and Tolkien as the main characters and I spend most of my time in the Wade Center Reading Room doing research. That's re-SEARCH, the British pronunciation, not RE-search. And I get to use Lewis's tea mug. And I get to wear Dorothy Sayers' eyeglasses, which are also on display. Have you read Dorothy Sayers? I have a major crush on Lord Peter Wimsey. You should read all about him. Start with Whose Body.

That's the High King Peter, who, after toting his 22 lb. baby sister around, decided to give it a rest right on J.R.R. Tolkien's desk. That's my baby on Tolkien's desk.

That's Susan fixing her French braid, behind him. She's very tall, and she's very proud of the fact that she can now French braid her own hair, cause the Lord gave me many gifts, but French braiding was not among them.

Peter pointed out that it's not a very big desk. It is the desk that Tolkien wrote, typed, and illustrated The Hobbit on though. He said so himself in a hand-written letter that's under the glass, under my baby's bum.

Every corner has a lovely display like this one. You can also see some of the props from the Disney movies The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Prince Caspian, including Nik-a-brik's sword, sheath, and dagger, which Edmund really liked, but couldn't touch.

When The Chef signed our names in the guest book, he noticed that we were two names below this guy.
He's Mark Coleridge, Archbishop of Canberra, Australia. He probably left when he saw us come in.

Did you know that Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham (son of Joy Gresham, and featured in the Lewis biographical movie, Shadowlands) has a cameo in each of the Disney movies? And that his kids' have cameos in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Very cool.


There are other authors represented in the Wade Center, including George Macdonald, who wrote The Princess and Curdie. Never read it, must change that. Also, Narnia and Hobbit illustrator, Pauline Baynes has a nice display as well.


That painting is not by Pauline Baynes. I followed all of the posted rules and did not use flash photography or take pictures of copyrighted material. If there was a rule about touching things or sitting on things, I didn't see it posted, and I'm sorry.

What We're Reading Now

After wracking my brain to come up with cute pseudonyms for my people, C. S. Lewis came through. Henceforth, I will be referring to Mr. 15 as Peter, Ms. 14 as Susan, Ms. 12 as Lucy (yes, I know Lucy was the youngest), Mr. 8 soon to be 9 as Edmund. Baby J will remain Baby J until she is old enough to assume Jill's role.

This past weekend, I went to Barnes & Noble with one of those coupons that might be 50% off, but is probably 15% off and you don't know until you check out. I went with one goal in mind. The time had come for me to purchase the complete Chronicles of Narnia on audio. I was prepared to spend up to $100 on this goal. The pathetic collection of audio books for children, the crowds, the table advertising "Series Teens Should Read" that included the Pretty Little Liars books(gag. drugs, drinking and driving, affairs with teachers. That's three illegal things. That's all I have to say.); I finally discovered that the only Narnia audio book in the store is The Magician's Nephew. I'm a purist and I believe that Clive, or Jack as he preferred to be called, meant The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to be read first. So we went to the library.

And Miss Amy's collection came through. We started listening yesterday on a half hour drive to the dentist. Yes, I know it's the fourth week of Advent. Yes, I have ten thousand better things to do than haul my people to Oak Park to get cleanings and fillings. Hangs head in shame. BUT the time has come to get braces for my teens and they have to have cleanings and fillings first.

Back to books, on the way home, after 90 minutes of dental doldrums, Edmund asked if we could listen to that story some more. :)


Peter is off school all week, and since I keep hiding his technology (I learned from the best, my mom.), he has begun From Slave to Priest: A Biography of the Reverend Augustine Tolson, First Black American Priest of the United States by Sr. Caroline Hemsath.
Like most boys and men, Peter enjoys non-fiction more than I do. My husband read this and enjoyed it as well.

Susan, as far as I know, is currently bookless. I am forcing her to read the Anne of Green Gables series. She reads one of those, then she reads a book of her choosing, then she reads the next Lucy Maud Montgomery, then another of her choosing, and so on. I am doing this, because she is in a deep sci-fi, dystopian rut. I want her to eat some romance with her steampunk. I'm mean that way. She's in the midst of finals right now, and doesn't have time to read anything.

Lucy is working her way through The Goose Girl books, which are officially known as The Books of Bayern. She is currently on Enna Burning. We are huge Shannon Hale fans. I recently read on her Facebook page that she is working on a sequel to The Princess Academy, and that her novel for grown-ups, Austenland, is being produced as a movie, right now.






Edmund, in addition to the audio book, is also on a "one for me, one for you" plan. His addiction is Franny K. Stein books. He is a unique reader in that he reads extremely s l o w l y. In order for him to pass his mandatory three Reading Counts quizzes each quarter, at his grade level, I have to find shorter books with lots of pictures, but with a high reading level. Franny K. Stein books, Lunch Walks Among Us, Attack of the 50 Ft. Cupid, and so on by Jim Benton fit the bill. They are ok. Ugly pictures, simple plots, HUGE vocabulary words. Franny is a mad-scientist girl in a normal world, sort of the opposite of the Munsters, and their normal niece. She tries to change to fit in, but learns to be herself to save the school from mutant lunches, etc.


Now, the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel also fit the bill. Beautiful. Classic. I love these books dearly. However, there is a certain stigma to reading "baby" books in third grade. Plus, he's taken those quizzes already. So on the "one for me" turns, he can choose from Ready, Freddy! by Abby Klein, Arthur Chapter Books by Marc Brown, or A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy.





And what am I reading? My to-do list! Ha!
I recently finished Black Radishes by Susan Lynn Meyer and loved, loved, loved it! I adore WWII books. It's taken me over thirty years to realize it. My dad loves Civil War books, but me, I am amazed by the period in world history when the forces of darkness were so powerful, and there seemed to be very little hope or light, but the light gathered and strengthened and won! I don't know if it's because I know people who were there, or because those decades were epic in every sense of the word. I've read dozens of novels set in these times, in many different places, and from all points of view, and I feel I've only scratched the surface of what it must have been like.
Black Radishes is about a Jewish family in France. It is the story of their flight from Paris into Vichy France or Free France just before the Occupation, and their adventure retrieving some loved ones from the Occupied zone. I didn't know much about the French occupation or the Maginot Line, but now I know a little bit more. This book is great for elementary school children on up. This book also made me want to re-read one of my all time favorite books, Came a Cavalier by Frances Parkinson Keyes. I highly recommend this one for teens and moms. You know, to read in your "spare" time.

Merry Christmas!