Martha Seif Simpson

 

Happy November!      

 

Welcome to issue #44 of The Simpsonian Muse. I am your scribe, Martha Seif Simpson, Author and Children's Librarian. As the header says, this monthly newsletter will feature:

• News – Mine as well as other interesting tidbits
• Views – A few photos from my world travels
• Stuff to Amuse – A mish-mash of activities, crafts, recipes, videos or whatever I am excited about sharing

If you missed the previous newsletters, you can click the button on the left sidebar on my website to catch up or click here. *NOTE: If you are a subscriber to my newsletter and some of the photos don't show up, please go to my website to read it. The server is sometimes finicky.

Thanks for joining me on this adventure. I hope you will find something to inform and entertain you.

 

~ NEWS ~

 

I know this is short notice, but if you're near Norwalk, CT, come to the Norwalk Book & Author Festival on November 2. I'll be there along with 60 other authors, and I'll bring my books to sell and autograph. There will be raffles and Stewie the Duck (from Stew Leonard's) will be there to entertain the kiddies. Help support local authors and find some good books to buy for holiday gifts.

But wait, there's more!

 

I signed up to be a sponsor for Read Your World (formerly called Multicultural Children's Book Day) again. To help publicize the event, I will be interviewed live on Instagram on December 12. You'll be able to find it at @readyourworldmcbd. More details to come.

 

 

BOOK SHARE

 

With the election happening on November 5th, I looked at Travis Jonker's recommended children's books about elections, which appeared in the New York Times on October 10. Here are the titles. You can read the full annotated list at Children's Books About Elections That Might Inspire Grown-Ups, Too.

 

For young children:

Leo's First Vote! by Christina Soontornvat, illustrated by Isabel Roxas

Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Rock That Vote by Meg Fleming' illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins

The President of the Jungle by André Rodrigues, Larissa Ribeiro, Paula Desgualdo and Pedro Markun

I Voted by Mark Shulman, illustrated by Serge Bloch

The Day Mader Voted by Wade Hudson, illustrated by Don Tate

 

For older readers:

Thank You For Voting by Erin Geiger Smith

How Women Won the Vote by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illustrated by Ziyue Chen

The Next President by Kate Messner, illustrated by Adam Rex

 

School Library Journal also compiled a list of election books, which you can access here.

 

If you are 18 or over, PLEASE VOTE!

 

CALENDAR TRIVIA

 

This year, I'm featuring the birth dates of authors and illustrators who create(d) books for kids and teens. Here are some people and a sample of their books.

• November 1 –  Hilary Knight (Where's Wallace?)
• November 2 –  Janell Cannon (Stellaluna)
• November 5 –  Martha Seif Simpson (The Dreidel That Wouldn't Spin)
• November 9 –  Lois Ehlert (Planting a Rainbow)
• November 9  – Kay Thompson (Eloise)
• November 10 – Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book)   
• November 12 – Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (Nate the Great)
• November 13 – Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island)
• November 14 – Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking)
• November 14 – William Steig (Sylvester and the Magic Pebble) 
• November 16 – Robin McKinley (The Hero and the Crown)  
• November 17 – Christopher Paolini (Eragon)
• November 21 – Elizabeth George Speare (The Witch of Blackbird Pond)
• November 24 – Mordicai Gerstein (The Man Who Walked Between the Towers) 
• November 24 – Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)
• November 25 – Marc Brown (Arthur series)
• November 25 – P. D. Eastman (Go, Dog, Go!)
• November 26 – Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts)
• November 27 – Kevin Henkes (Kitten's First Full Moon)  
• November 28 – Ed Young (Lon Po Po)
• November 29 – Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)
• November 29 - Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) 
• November 29 – C. S. Lewis (Narnia series)
• November 30 – Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)
• November 30 – Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sayer)

Do you know…

• Which author won 2 Newbery Medals and 1 Newbery honor?
• Who wrote the graphic novel series called The Sandman?
• Who illustrated the best seller, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom?
• Which 3 authors won the Newbery Medal? Which 3 illustrators won the Caldecott Medal?
• Which Caldecott-winning author/illustrator wrote Shrek?
• Which author/illustrator won a Caldecott Medal and Honor, and 2 Newbery Honors?
• Kay Thompson illustrated several Eloise books. Which of the above authors wrote the stories?
• Who wrote this newsletter?

 

  ~ VIEWS ~

 

Last month, I finished my recap of our visit to Prague. During the next few days, our Gate One tour took us to several more cities for quick visits. Here are a few of them.

On November 5, 2023, we boarded a bus and went to Pilsen (Plzeň), Czech Republic.

There was a craft and food fair going on that day.

We walked around the town square and passed the Great Synagogue, which is the second largest synagogue in Europe. Unfortunately, it wasn't open for tours that day.

Across the street is the Grand Theater. The people of Pilsen have rather unimaginative names for their major buildings!

Before we left Pilsen, I stopped by one of the booths to buy the world's biggest potato pancake. It was so huge, it took up my entire lap! John and I couldn't eat it all, so we gave the rest to a flock of pigeons, who were quick to snap up the pieces.

We didn't have much time in Pilsen because we had to get back on the bus and get to our next stop, Regensburg, Germany, where we boarded our river cruise ship, the Monarch Queen. November 5 happens to be my birthday, and at dinner, the wait staff surprised me with a cake! John and I each had a slice of chocolate cake, which was delicious. I was looking forward to having another slice back in our cabin, but I never saw the cake again. Maybe the staff ate the rest of it themselves? How disappointing!

We had a short tour of Regensburg on the next day. Regensberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site because it's the only large medieval city in Germany that still functions today. It's famous for the Old Stone Bridge which crosses over the Danube, built at a time when other bridges were made of wood.

There are many quaint shops surrounding this biergarten, where presumably, people sit and drink beer when the weather is warm.

Our guide told us that der Hutmacher is a very famous hat shop. They made Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter hat for Alice in Wonderland.

John and I stopped at the Bischofshof Hotel Restaurant for lunch.

I had wiener schnitzel, and John and sausages that came with sweet mustard. He liked it so much, he bought some mustard to take back home.

On November 7, we visited Passau, Germany. Passau is a peninsula where the Danube, Inn, and Ils Rivers come together. I borrowed this photo from Trip Savvy that shows an aerial view of the city.

Because of its location, Passau has historically been a popular trading post, but it's also very susceptible to flooding. Several buildings have lines drawn on them with dates of when the water rose that high. The worst flood was in 1301. You can see the flood lines on the Town Hall tower. Some are above the door!

There was another big flood this past June. The tower with the red triangular top in the CNN photo below is the Town Hall tower in my photo above. The water didn't rise above the door this time, but it's still a lot of water!

Many buildings are color-coded, depending on their purpose. Pharmacies are green and beer halls are yellow.

Interestingly, churches are also yellow, although you can't tell in this photo. This is St. Stephen's Church Plaza (Dom Platz).

The Old Fortress on the hill is across the Inn River in Austria. 

November 8 was a busy day! We started off by touring Melk Abbey in Austria. This Benedictine Abbey is a huge castle on a high hill which offers spectacular views of the city and the Danube.

We entered the castle grounds here.

There's a huge courtyard with a fountain.

All the rooms are grand, but I liked the library best.

The abbey is enormous, and we got to see just a portion of it.

We went back to the ship for a scenic cruise along the Danube, passing several castles in Austria. This is the Schönbühel Castle.

Note the ruins of Dürnstein Castle on the hill overlooking the Hotel Schloss (which means "castle" in German) by the shore.

We also saw terraced fields where wine grapes and apricots are grown.

The ship stopped in Dürnstein, Austria, which is famous for its apricots. We bought some jam and went into the little restaurant on the left and ate waffles with apricot syrup. Yummy!

It was getting dark by the time we headed back to the ship. Along the way, we saw an old man walking his dog. This is one of my favorite photos from our vacation.

We covered a lot of area in 4 days! There's more to come next month.

 

~ STUFF TO AMUSE ~

 

This site has information about Pilsen, Czech Republic

Here's more about the Great Synagogue and the Grand Theater.

 

The Old Town of Regensberg is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Crazy Tourist made a list of the 15 Best Things to Do in Regensburg.

 

This site by TripSavvy lists several tourist spots in Passau.

Here's a CNN article about the Danube flood I mentioned.

And if you really want to delve into the science and history of floods in Passau, read this.

 

TripSavvy also has some lovely pictures of the Melk Abbey, including ones when the Danube flooded the town. One of the photos is the same shot I took of the bridge.

And Visit World Heritage has a terrific photo of the entire Melk Abbey so you can see how enormous it is.

 

GrownUp Travels has photos of Durnstein which include better shots of the castles and some interesting historical facts.

Well, armchair travelers, that'll do it for this month.

Until next time, remember to enthuse your muse!

 

~ Martha