Elusive books and elusive kicks

“And the people laughed and clapped to see them wherever they went.” 

 Angelo, by Quentin Blake

The people are happy again. Quentin Blake (see below*) did not let us down. Well, to a certain extent. He promised a book entitled The Five of Us, with a full cast of children with disabilities and he has completed and launched it. I've been awaiting it since I first learned and posted about it - see Kudos for Quentin!

He even tweeted about it this week, sharing the party’s “Blake Cake” (below)

The trouble is that despite this well-publicized event, it seems the book won't actually ship until March 2015, according to Amazon.

The video clip (it's below) from the BBC article offers a taste of the book and of Blake's delightful personality. It's clear that he was determined for this work to be as entertaining as his others and to soft-pedal the disabilities message. Which is a rarity and a relief with the unabashedly preachy children’s books that abound today.

I hope our copy of this book - whenever we do succeed in acquiring one - grows as dog-eared as Blake's other masterpiece, Angelo. That's a photo of it on the right.

And if anybody can explain the purpose of a "book launch" when the book will not be available for another four months, I'd be greatly obliged.

Update: And here in C.'s world, we’re still on the cannabis roller coaster. We had a couple of days where she’d be calm for hours with a clear, bright expression on her face. Until I’d walk her, that is. And then she'd deliver a whopping seizure only minutes after I began. Other days, she walked well but seized when just sitting or lying down.

At least she’s blossoming in the pool. Yesterday I snapped her “kicking away”, as the hydrotherapist described her. See below.

And if it’s not obvious that’s what she’s doing, you’ve forgotten the name of the game: Hunt-For-Progress-With-a-Magnifying-Glass. Tip: in the first photo she has her legs spread apart. In the second, she brings them a bit closer together. Then she repeats this routine.

* Quentin Blake is one of the UK’s most beloved illustrators. In 1999, he was named the first Children’s Laureate and later, in 2013, he received a knighthood for ‘services to illustration’. He has won numerous awards, including the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration and the Whitbread Award.