Friday, November 14, 2014

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.

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