2016 Hub Challenge Check-In #9

Yesterday, I reached the magic number of 25. I read my 25th book for the 2016 HUB reading Challenge. Yay me! I reached this magic number by reading Rad American Women A-Z written by Katie Schatz and illustrated by Miriam Klein Stahl.

The book is exactly what the title implies: an alphabet  book of notable American women, beginning with

and ending with

In between we encounter many familiar names , and some new ones:

Billie Jean King, Carol Burnett, Dolores Huerta, Ella Baker, Florence Griffith-Joyner, the Grimke Sisters, Hazel Scott, Isadora Cuncan, Jovita Idar, Kate Bornstein, Lucy Parsons, Maya Lin, Nellie Bly, Odetta, Patti Smith, Queen Bessie Coleman, Rachel Carson, Sonia Sotomayor, Temple Grandin, Ursula K. LeGuin, Virginia Apgar, Wilma Mankiller, X,  and Yuri Kochiyama.

Each Rad Woman gets a one page biography, just enough to get a reader interested enough to learn more. The back matter includes suggestions about what readers can do as well as book and online resources for further research.

An excellent nonfiction book to add to classroom libraries across multiple grades.

Saturday Night circa 1980

Growing up, we had a visitor every Saturday Night. He was a jolly fellow who arrived after dinner and brought his friends along. His name was Elwy Yost and he hosted a local program on TVOntario called Saturday Night at the Movies. The show, which  featured two classic movies, opened with a surprisingly interesting and enthusiastic intro.

The two films were separated by an intermission that, over time, grew to include interviews with actors and directors as the show became more popular.

My mom would curl up in her La-Z-Boy. Dad and I would sit on the sofa. There would often be peanuts; my dad had a passion for Spanish peanuts from Picard’s Peanuts.  It was from Elwy Yost that I learned about all sorts of classic films, actors and directors, and to love black and white movies. I became a particular fan of Powell & Pressburger films, my two favorites being A Matter of Life & Death (known in the US as Stairway to Heaven) and I Know Where I’m Going. 

As I got older, and found myself babysitting in a Saturday Night, I often found myself watching movies with Elwy on my own. I remember one night, during a David Lean marathon, the parents came home  20 minutes before the end of  Lawrence of Arabia,  It was a few years before I got to see the end.

In these days of DVD, Blu-Ray and on demand, we can watch whatever we want, whenever we want. I sort of miss the day when Elwy Yost came to visit.