[blindkid] NBP-Announce: Kids: Hailstones and Halibut Bones

Thu Mar 11 05:14:32 UTC 2010

My family actually quite enjoyed the book. It is poetry written for
children, and like any decent poetry for children, it might inspire a child
to put together feeling with thinking, no matter whether the wind is blue or
or middle c or the number 8; the neat thing is there is no wrong answer.
Pat

On 3/10/10 6:11 PM, "Heather" <craney07 at rochester.rr.com> wrote:

> This book annoys the heck out of me.  I have many friends that are
> senesthetes, and they outright hate this book, because, although the poems
> are creative and nice, from a literary stand-point, they are very
> stereotypical.  The author mostly fills the poems with things that are the
> colors she is describing, with the occational sensory addition of sound, or
> texture or taste or scent, rarely more than two of these in each poem.  I
> vaguely disliked the book, but, not having especially strong synesthetic
> tendencies, perhaps four or five on a scale of one to ten, with ten being
> those who see numbers as spacific colors, or who taste letters or feel
> textures with sounds, and one being the average joe shmoe.  But, when I
> heard some of my friends who are more like eights or nines complaining, I
> challenged them to do better.  They generated ideas and I generated the
> literary text and we both got nice fat As for our respective parts in a
> joint English and Psychology assignment, but we have never had any success
> in publishing.  I am glad that it is being produced, as it is a nice little
> book, but it is very limited and everyone who knows anything about
> blindness, clings to it as a gold standard, and I don't think it deserves
> the gold, perhaps the bronze.  For example, even when sound is employed for
> blue, it is the wind over water, and water is sterotypically blue, and the
> wind associated with the sky which is sterotipically blue follows the
> pattern.  I asked three synesthetic friends what color the sound of the wind
> is, and they all said the same thing, with out hearing one another's
> answers, lavinder said two and lilac said the third.  One thing that
> research has uncovered is that although there is variation amung
> synesthetes, there are commanalities, that would seem to support the idea
> that synesthetism is not a mental or psychological disorder, but a tru,
> hightened perception.  I repeted my method for the purposes of the book we
> wrote, for five different questions, and got similar answers.  All three
> said that 9 is green and 7 is red or redish-orange.  All three agreed that
> spearamint smells parawinckle or light blue, that milk chocolate tastes
> yellow, that the texture of glossy magazine pages is either forest or kelly
> green, etc.  Most of the other things we put in the book were true of all
> thre or at least two of the three synesthetes that I worked with.  No group
> wants to see it's members discouraged, mislead or ignored, and that is what
> these three felt was being done, by not using less normative and blatent
> examples for the colors.  If an average child, especially one who is
> stifled, black and white thinking, and not at all synesthetic was asked to
> name something that smelled green, they would probably say grass or mint,
> because those things are green, not because they really understand the
> concept, and to fit in, and with the reenforcement of the sterotypical book,
> a truly gifted synesthetic child might repress their answer of, bananas
> smell green or leather smells green, because they don't want to be "Wrong"
> for naming something that is not actually green in color, and that no one
> else named.  I think the author played it waaaaaaaaay too safe and this from
> a free thinker and writer is very upseting.  I just wanted to put this out
> there, because one of the best things you can do for a totally blind child
> who has never seen colors, to help them experience what colors are like, is
> to ask an actual synesthete to explain to your child, using all five senses
> and multiple examples from each.  I've got to go and find my favorite
> description of yellow that a synesthetic friend wrote up for me to give a
> totally blind friend, since it is my favorite color.  I used to be able to
> see colors, BTW.  Ok, just sharing.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tony Grima (by way of David Andrews<dandrews at visi.com>)"
> <agrima at nbp.org>
> To: <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 5:29 AM
> Subject: [blindkid] NBP-Announce: Kids: Hailstones and Halibut Bones
> 
> 
>> March 2010 Book Club Selection
>> Hailstones and Halibut Bones
>> by Mary O'Neill
>> Print/braille edition, $9.95
>> In contracted braille.
>> Ages 8-13
>> 
>> "I was surprised and flattered then, and continue to be, by the large
>> audience - including the blind - who still write to me."
>> - Author Mary O'Neill
>> 
>> "Hailstones and Halibut Bones" is a unique book about colors that can be
>> heard, touched, and smelled. Originally published in 1961, it has become
>> a classic, at twice the length of most children's books.
>> 
>> O'Neill explores 12 different colors in 12 poems. Each series of poems
>> relates to a color, "What Is Green," "What Is Gold... Red... Blue," and
>> so forth.
>> 
>> Blue is a heron, a sapphire ring,
>> You can smell blue in many a thing:
>> Gentian and larkspur, Forget-me-nots, too.
>> And if you listen, you can hear blue
>> In wind over water....
>> 
>> "After more than twenty-five years, the poems, like colors, still sing.
>> Kudos to Doubleday for letting Hailstones continue to live."
>> - School Library Journal
>> 
>> To order or read more about this book online, visit
>> http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/BC1003-HAILSTONE.html
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ******
>> To order any books, send payment to:
>> NBP, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115-4302
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Nbp mailing list
>> Nbp at nbp.org
>> 
>> PLEASE DO NOT respond to this message! It is an automated message and your
>> query will not reach us. Send questions to orders at nbp.org .
>> 
>> Visit us at http://www.nbp.org
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> blindkid mailing list
>> blindkid at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> blindkid:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/craney07%40rocheste
>> r.rr.com 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindkid:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/dblair2525%40msn.com
> 