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BOOKLOUSE ( Psocid):

Psocids or Booklice have long, filamentous antennae and a characteristic bulging clypeus (the area just above the mouthparts). They have chewing mouthparts and the wings of domestic species are usually absent. They range in size from 1/25 to 1/13 of an inch (1 to 2 mm) in length. Coloration is from almost colorless to gray or light brown.
PsocidFood: Psocids feed upon microscopic molds. Thus, any manufactured material of plant origin that would support the growth of these molds is susceptible to their attack. They are found in nature on the bark of trees and shrubs, preferring damp, warm, undisturbed environments. They can commonly be found in books and book bindings, storage boxes, paper and goods

Life Cycle: Psocids undergo simple metamorphosis to develop to maturity. Eggs will hatch 21 days after being laid. This nymph will reach sexual maturity in 24 to 65 days. Females lay anywhere from 20 - 50 eggs depending on the time of year. Their total life span is from 24 to 110 days.

Booklice
What do Booklice look like?

Booklice Description

* Booklice are grey to yellowish brown in colour and very small, only about 1mm long.

Where do Booklice live?

* Booklice normally in birds nests, under the bark of trees or on leaves.
* Booklice may however move indoors where they like moist, warm, dark conditions.
* Booklice may sometimes be found in the folds of food packets or in cracks and crevices in cupboards.

What are the signs of Booklice infestation?

* Booklice may be spotted in the folds of food packets and in books and magazines.

What do Booklice eat?

* Booklice eat moulds and mildews and are attracted to dried foods.

Why must Booklice be controlled?

* Whilst book lice are not directly harmful to human health, booklice thrive in moist, damp conditions.
* Booklice spoil food and the bugs and maggots are unpleasant.

How can I get rid of Booklice?

* If you find booklice, any infested food should be thrown away; food in cans and bottles will be unaffected but check under labels for booklice as you don't want to re-infest your food store.
* Clean out the cupboards, allow to dry and then treat with an insecticide.
* Booklice Insecticides may be bought from garden centres and chemists. Choose one which says on the label it is suitable for crawling insects including booklice and is suitable for use near food.
* Follow the instructions on the container carefully.
* Booklice are associated with moist conditions so it is important to find out the cause of the moisture (this may well be condensation) and cure it.
* Remember pesticides can be poisonous to children and pets. After use store container and contents away from children, or dispose of empty containers safely.

How can I prevent Booklice from returning?

* Good hygiene.
* Booklice are associated with moist conditions so it is important to find out the cause of the moisture (this may well be condensation) and cure it.

Booklice Poisons and Booklice Pesticides

* Suitable products can be purchased from hardware shops and garden centres to extermine booklice.
* It is essential to purchase the correct product as treatment for book lice is likely to take place in areas where food is stored.
* Remember pesticides can be poisonous to children and pets. After use store container and contents away from children, or dispose of empty containers safely.

The "Green Option" - Environmentally friendly control of Booklice

* Prevention will be the best method.
* Prevent damp conditions especially where there is food, cardboard or paper. Booklice are attracted to moist areas.

It's great to have a personal library. And it's even better if you can keep it for life. Something to pass on to future generations.

Proper book care starts the moment you strip the shrink wrap off of it.

* Turn pages with care

Books are meant to be read. But the least you can do is to take extra care flipping the pages. Here's a tip on "priming" your book for page turning:
o Lay the book on its back
o Open it a few pages.
o Press lightly along the bound edge to reduce the stiffness.
o Do it with the back cover side.

* Spine wrinkles

Some book collectors are particularly keen on spine wrinkles. I've met book collectors who painstakingly peek into a little opening between pages just to make sure the book doesn't get spine wrinkles. Use a bookmark too, instead of putting the book face down or using dog-ears.

But if you really want a book in mint condition, buy two copies and keep one in its shrink wrap. The other, read and enjoy.

* Repair torn pages

Torn pages do happen and the best way to deal with them is to repair them as soon as possible. Leaving a small tear alone can worsen in the long run with all the stress of page-turning. There are many ways you can repair torn pages but my best bet is to use archival repair tape. Some die-hard book repair people, however, go by Japanese paper (or rice paper) with some starch paste.

* Cover it with plastic

Clear plastic book covers helps in keeping your book in pristine condition, especially your paperbacks. One tip though, allow for extra for shrinkage. Some plastic covers shrink with age.

* Storing in shelves

Make sure that your shelves have ample space and are strong enough to carry the collective weight of the books. You don't want to overcrowd them. You might unnecessarily use too much fore pulling books free that you may damage them. Use bookends if the shelves are not filled. Letting the books slump damages the binding.

For large and heavy books like atlases and unabridged dictionaries, you may want to stack them flat on their back covers. The weight can put stress along the edges of their covers.

* Mind the heat

Too much heat can dry out the pages causing them to be stiff. Some types of paper can crumble with too much stiffness. Too much moisture can cause mold and mildew to grow and ruin them too. So a cool dry place is suitable for book storage. Also, allow for ample space at the front and back of the shelf so air can circulate freely in the shelf.

* Cleaning and dusting

Not because they're individually protected by book cover and shelved, you can be off free not minding your book collection. Dust the shelves once a month. Schedule a yearly individual dusting too.

As for your precious leather-bound books, you may want to condition leather with good petroleum jelly.

During the last decades, the rate of reading traditional books has obviously decreased. Instead, people prefer to buy audio books online and listen to the content of the printed text whenever and wherever they want or can. Figures show that almost a third of the American population prefers listening to books on tapes, CDs, iPods or MP3 players to actually reading traditional books.

This shift of perspective has occurred mainly because our life styles have changed significantly lately. Our normal activities have different importance now in our lives and we are very much preoccupied with careers and studies. We can say we live the busiest times in the human history. This has obliged us to give up entertaining and relaxing activities. Among them, there is reading. Fortunately, technology offers us the possibility to keep in touch with culture and with reading book by listening to audio books. The great benefit is that you can listen to these books while performing a series of other activities. Audio books are all the more attractive than traditional books since we are provided with dramatic flair.

Because people have less time every day to sit down and read a book, they have found the perfect solution: to buy audio books online. They have the chance to listen to a novel while commuting, while working, while doing housework or any other jobs, while walking or jogging. Technology offers nowadays various possibilities to enjoy a good book without being stuck at a table or in bed. Audio books allow you to be dynamic, active and multifunctional.

At the beginning people tend to ask themselves how they can listen to such books once they purchased them from the internet. Basic guidelines on the websites inform people of the choices they have. There are several format possibilities for audio books to be downloaded. All you have to do is to opt for the right format, the one that meet your necessities and lifestyle. You must also take into consideration the place where you listen to the recording.

Audio books recorded on tapes are the oldest format that some people still use. But its sound quality is also doubtable. Still, there is the possibility to convert the tape into a CD and listened to the story in any digital format. CDs represent an audio support that appeared in the early 1990's, its purpose being to replace the conventional cassette. Sound quality is obviously improved and life-like. Also, CDs can be listened to in various devices: portable CD players, computers, home stereo systems, in-car systems. iPods or MP3 players are updated alternatives and at the same time they make people aware of how many possibilities they have. They do not have to restrain to printed books.

If you buy audio books online and listen to them to digital systems, you can say that the author himself speaks to you. This is mostly because to technology we add human voice and interpretation. The fact that the story is read by someone real, a professional actor it gives beauty and sense to the story. Therefore, you cannot find an excuse anymore not to read books for you can listen to them now anytime and anywhere.

So this is why people shifted their interest and attention from traditional formatting books to audio books. And the first method to purchase them is to buy audio books online. It is easy, fast, and fun! People want to read good books, but they tend to give up due to lack of time which is no longer an excuse now. By: David Yuri

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Time was, with most of us, when Christmas Day encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and every one around the Christmas fire; and made the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete.

Time came, perhaps, all so soon, when our thoughts over-leaped that narrow boundary; when there was some one (very dear, we thought then, very beautiful, and absolutely perfect) wanting to the fulness of our happiness; when we were wanting too (or we thought so, which did just as well) at the Christmas hearth by which that some one sat; and when we intertwined with every wreath and garland of our life that some one's name.

That was the time for the bright visionary Christmases which have long arisen from us to show faintly, after summer rain, in the palest edges of the rainbow! That was the time for the beatified enjoyment of the things that were to be, and never were, and yet the things that were so real in our resolute hope that it would be hard to say, now, what realities achieved since, have been stronger!

What! Did that Christmas never really come when we and the priceless pearl who was our young choice were received, after the happiest of totally impossible marriages, by the two united families previously at daggers--drawn on our account? When brothers and sisters-in-law who had always been rather cool to us before our relationship was effected, perfectly doted on us, and when fathers and mothers overwhelmed us with unlimited incomes? Was that Christmas dinner never really eaten, after which we arose, and generously and eloquently rendered honour to our late rival, present in the company, then and there exchanging friendship and forgiveness, and founding an attachment, not to be surpassed in Greek or Roman story, which subsisted until death? Has that same rival long ceased to care for that same priceless pearl, and married for money, and become usurious? Above all, do we really know, now, that we should probably have been miserable if we had won and worn the pearl, and that we are better without her?

That Christmas when we had recently achieved so much fame; when we had been carried in triumph somewhere, for doing something great and good; when we had won an honoured and ennobled name, and arrived and were received at home in a shower of tears of joy; is it possible that THAT Christmas has not come yet?

And is our life here, at the best, so constituted that, pausing as we advance at such a noticeable mile-stone in the track as this great birthday, we look back on the things that never were, as naturally and full as gravely as on the things that have been and are gone, or have been and still are? If it be so, and so it seems to be, must we come to the conclusion that life is little better than a dream, and little worth the loves and strivings that we crowd into it?

No! Far be such miscalled philosophy from us, dear Reader, on Christmas Day! Nearer and closer to our hearts be the Christmas spirit, which is the spirit of active usefulness, perseverance, cheerful discharge of duty, kindness and forbearance! It is in the last virtues especially, that we are, or should be, strengthened by the unaccomplished visions of our youth; for, who shall say that they are not our teachers to deal gently even with the impalpable nothings of the earth!

Therefore, as we grow older, let us be more thankful that the circle of our Christmas associations and of the lessons that they bring, expands! Let us welcome every one of them, and summon them to take their places by the Christmas hearth.

Welcome, old aspirations, glittering creatures of an ardent fancy, to your shelter underneath the holly! We know you, and have not outlived you yet. Welcome, old projects and old loves, however fleeting, to your nooks among the steadier lights that burn around us. Welcome, all that was ever real to our hearts; and for the earnestness that made you real, thanks to Heaven! Do we build no Christmas castles in the clouds now? Let our thoughts, fluttering like butterflies among these flowers of children, bear witness! Before this boy, there stretches out a Future, brighter than we ever looked on in our old romantic time, but bright with honour and with truth. Around this little head on which the sunny curls lie heaped, the graces sport, as prettily, as airily, as when there was no scythe within the reach of Time to shear away the curls of our first-love. Upon another girl's face near it--placider but smiling bright--a quiet and contented little face, we see Home fairly written. Shining from the word, as rays shine from a star, we see how, when our graves are old, other hopes than ours are young, other hearts than ours are moved; how other ways are smoothed; how other happiness blooms, ripens, and decays--no, not decays, for other homes and other bands of children, not yet in being nor for ages yet to be, arise, and bloom and ripen to the end of all!

Welcome, everything! Welcome, alike what has been, and what never was, and what we hope may be, to your shelter underneath the holly, to your places round the Christmas fire, where what is sits open- hearted! In yonder shadow, do we see obtruding furtively upon the blaze, an enemy's face? By Christmas Day we do forgive him! If the injury he has done us may admit of such companionship, let him come here and take his place. If otherwise, unhappily, let him go hence, assured that we will never injure nor accuse him.

On this day we shut out Nothing!

"Pause," says a low voice. "Nothing? Think!"

"On Christmas Day, we will shut out from our fireside, Nothing."

"Not the shadow of a vast City where the withered leaves are lying deep?" the voice replies. "Not the shadow that darkens the whole globe? Not the shadow of the City of the Dead?"

Not even that. Of all days in the year, we will turn our faces towards that City upon Christmas Day, and from its silent hosts bring those we loved, among us. City of the Dead, in the blessed name wherein we are gathered together at this time, and in the Presence that is here among us according to the promise, we will receive, and not dismiss, thy people who are dear to us!

Yes. We can look upon these children angels that alight, so solemnly, so beautifully among the living children by the fire, and can bear to think how they departed from us. Entertaining angels unawares, as the Patriarchs did, the playful children are unconscious of their guests; but we can see them--can see a radiant arm around one favourite neck, as if there were a tempting of that child away. Among the celestial figures there is one, a poor misshapen boy on earth, of a glorious beauty now, of whom his dying mother said it grieved her much to leave him here, alone, for so many years as it was likely would elapse before he came to her-- being such a little child. But he went quickly, and was laid upon her breast, and in her hand she leads him.

There was a gallant boy, who fell, far away, upon a burning sand beneath a burning sun, and said, "Tell them at home, with my last love, how much I could have wished to kiss them once, but that I died contented and had done my duty!" Or there was another, over whom they read the words, "Therefore we commit his body to the deep," and so consigned him to the lonely ocean and sailed on. Or there was another, who lay down to his rest in the dark shadow of great forests, and, on earth, awoke no more. O shall they not, from sand and sea and forest, be brought home at such a time!

There was a dear girl--almost a woman--never to be one--who made a mourning Christmas in a house of joy, and went her trackless way to the silent City. Do we recollect her, worn out, faintly whispering what could not be heard, and falling into that last sleep for weariness? O look upon her now! O look upon her beauty, her serenity, her changeless youth, her happiness! The daughter of Jairus was recalled to life, to die; but she, more blest, has heard the same voice, saying unto her, "Arise for ever!"

We had a friend who was our friend from early days, with whom we often pictured the changes that were to come upon our lives, and merrily imagined how we would speak, and walk, and think, and talk, when we came to be old. His destined habitation in the City of the Dead received him in his prime. Shall he be shut out from our Christmas remembrance? Would his love have so excluded us? Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not so discard you! You shall hold your cherished places in our Christmas hearts, and by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out Nothing!

The winter sun goes down over town and village; on the sea it makes a rosy path, as if the Sacred tread were fresh upon the water. A few more moments, and it sinks, and night comes on, and lights begin to sparkle in the prospect. On the hill-side beyond the shapelessly-diffused town, and in the quiet keeping of the trees that gird the village-steeple, remembrances are cut in stone, planted in common flowers, growing in grass, entwined with lowly brambles around many a mound of earth. In town and village, there are doors and windows closed against the weather, there are flaming logs heaped high, there are joyful faces, there is healthy music of voices. Be all ungentleness and harm excluded from the temples of the Household Gods, but be those remembrances admitted with tender encouragement! They are of the time and all its comforting and peaceful reassurances; and of the history that re-united even upon earth the living and the dead; and of the broad beneficence and goodness that too many men have tried to tear to narrow shreds.

THERE were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were all brothers, for they had been made out of the same old tin spoon. They shouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendid uniform, red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heard were the words, "Tin soldiers!" uttered by a little boy, who clapped his hands with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, was taken off. They were given him for a birthday present, and he stood at the table to set them up. The soldiers were all exactly alike, excepting one, who had only one leg; he had been left to the last, and then there was not enough of the melted tin to finish him, so they made him to stand firmly on one leg, and this caused him to be very remarkable.

The table on which the tin soldiers stood, was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle. Through the small windows the rooms could be seen. In front of the castle a number of little trees surrounded a piece of looking-glass, which was intended to represent a transparent lake. Swans, made of wax, swam on the lake, and were reflected in it. All this was very pretty, but the prettiest of all was a tiny little lady, who stood at the open door of the castle; she, also, was made of paper, and she wore a dress of clear muslin, with a narrow blue ribbon over her shoulders just like a scarf. In front of these was fixed a glittering tinsel rose, as large as her whole face. The little lady was a dancer, and she stretched out both her arms, and raised one of her legs so high, that the tin soldier could not see it at all, and he thought that she, like himself, had only one leg. "That is the wife for me," he thought; "but she is too grand, and lives in a castle, while I have only a box to live in, five-and-twenty of us altogether, that is no place for her. Still I must try and make her acquaintance." Then he laid himself at full length on the table behind a snuff-box that stood upon it, so that he could peep at the little delicate lady, who continued to stand on one leg without losing her balance. When evening came, the other tin soldiers were all placed in the box, and the people of the house went to bed. Then the playthings began to have their own games together, to pay visits, to have sham fights, and to give balls. The tin soldiers rattled in their box; they wanted to get out and join the amusements, but they could not open the lid. The nut-crackers played at leap-frog, and the pencil jumped about the table. There was such a noise that the canary woke up and began to talk, and in poetry too. Only the tin soldier and the dancer remained in their places. She stood on tiptoe, with her legs stretched out, as firmly as he did on his one leg. He never took his eyes from her for even a moment. The clock struck twelve, and, with a bounce, up sprang the lid of the snuff-box; but, instead of snuff, there jumped up a little black goblin; for the snuff-box was a toy puzzle.

"Tin soldier," said the goblin, "don't wish for what does not belong to you.

But the tin soldier pretended not to hear.

"Very well; wait till to-morrow, then," said the goblin.

When the children came in the next morning, they placed the tin soldier in the window. Now, whether it was the goblin who did it, or the draught, is not known, but the window flew open, and out fell the tin soldier, heels over head, from the third story, into the street beneath. It was a terrible fall; for he came head downwards, his helmet and his bayonet stuck in between the flagstones, and his one leg up in the air. The servant maid and the little boy went down stairs directly to look for him; but he was nowhere to be seen, although once they nearly trod upon him. If he had called out, "Here I am," it would have been all right, but he was too proud to cry out for help while he wore a uniform.

Presently it began to rain, and the drops fell faster and faster, till there was a heavy shower. When it was over, two boys happened to pass by, and one of them said, "Look, there is a tin soldier. He ought to have a boat to sail in."

So they made a boat out of a newspaper, and placed the tin soldier in it, and sent him sailing down the gutter, while the two boys ran by the side of it, and clapped their hands. Good gracious, what large waves arose in that gutter! and how fast the stream rolled on! for the rain had been very heavy. The paper boat rocked up and down, and turned itself round sometimes so quickly that the tin soldier trembled; yet he remained firm; his countenance did not change; he looked straight before him, and shouldered his musket. Suddenly the boat shot under a bridge which formed a part of a drain, and then it was as dark as the tin soldier's box.

"Where am I going now?" thought he. "This is the black goblin's fault, I am sure. Ah, well, if the little lady were only here with me in the boat, I should not care for any darkness."

Suddenly there appeared a great water-rat, who lived in the drain.

"Have you a passport?" asked the rat, "give it to me at once." But the tin soldier remained silent and held his musket tighter than ever. The boat sailed on and the rat followed it. How he did gnash his teeth and cry out to the bits of wood and straw, "Stop him, stop him; he has not paid toll, and has not shown his pass." But the stream rushed on stronger and stronger. The tin soldier could already see daylight shining where the arch ended. Then he heard a roaring sound quite terrible enough to frighten the bravest man. At the end of the tunnel the drain fell into a large canal over a steep place, which made it as dangerous for him as a waterfall would be to us. He was too close to it to stop, so the boat rushed on, and the poor tin soldier could only hold himself as stiffly as possible, without moving an eyelid, to show that he was not afraid. The boat whirled round three or four times, and then filled with water to the very edge; nothing could save it from sinking. He now stood up to his neck in water, while deeper and deeper sank the boat, and the paper became soft and loose with the wet, till at last the water closed over the soldier's head. He thought of the elegant little dancer whom he should never see again, and the words of the song sounded in his ears- -
"Farewell, warrior! ever brave,

Drifting onward to thy grave." -

Then the paper boat fell to pieces, and the soldier sank into the water and immediately afterwards was swallowed up by a great fish. Oh how dark it was inside the fish! A great deal darker than in the tunnel, and narrower too, but the tin soldier continued firm, and lay at full length shouldering his musket. The fish swam to and fro, making the most wonderful movements, but at last he became quite still. After a while, a flash of lightning seemed to pass through him, and then the daylight approached, and a voice cried out, "I declare here is the tin soldier." The fish had been caught, taken to the market and sold to the cook, who took him into the kitchen and cut him open with a large knife. She picked up the soldier and held him by the waist between her finger and thumb, and carried him into the room. They were all anxious to see this wonderful soldier who had travelled about inside a fish; but he was not at all proud. They placed him on the table, and- how many curious things do happen in the world!- there he was in the very same room from the window of which he had fallen, there were the same children, the same playthings, standing on the table, and the pretty castle with the elegant little dancer at the door; she still balanced herself on one leg, and held up the other, so she was as firm as himself. It touched the tin soldier so much to see her that he almost wept tin tears, but he kept them back. He only looked at her and they both remained silent. Presently one of the little boys took up the tin soldier, and threw him into the stove. He had no reason for doing so, therefore it must have been the fault of the black goblin who lived in the snuff-box. The flames lighted up the tin soldier, as he stood, the heat was very terrible, but whether it proceeded from the real fire or from the fire of love he could not tell. Then he could see that the bright colors were faded from his uniform, but whether they had been washed off during his journey or from the effects of his sorrow, no one could say. He looked at the little lady, and she looked at him. He felt himself melting away, but he still remained firm with his gun on his shoulder. Suddenly the door of the room flew open and the draught of air caught up the little dancer, she fluttered like a sylph right into the stove by the side of the tin soldier, and was instantly in flames and was gone. The tin soldier melted down into a lump, and the next morning, when the maid servant took the ashes out of the stove, she found him in the shape of a little tin heart. But of the little dancer nothing remained but the tinsel rose, which was burnt black as a cinder. - -

THE END

Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:
No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,
A rivulet then a river;
No where by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

But here will sigh thine alder tree,
And here thine aspen shiver;
And here by thee will hum the bee,
For ever and for ever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

THERE 's little joy in life for me,
And little terror in the grave ;
I've lived the parting hour to see
Of one I would have died to save.

Calmly to watch the failing breath,
Wishing each sigh might be the last ;
Longing to see the shade of death
O'er those belovèd features cast.

The cloud, the stillness that must part
The darling of my life from me ;
And then to thank God from my heart,
To thank Him well and fervently ;

Although I knew that we had lost
The hope and glory of our life ;
And now, benighted, tempest-tossed,
Must bear alone the weary strife.

I had been sitting alone with books,
Till doubt was a black disease,
When I heard the cheerful shout of rooks
In the bare, prophetic trees.

Bare trees, prophetic of new birth,
You lift your branches clean and free
To be a beacon to the earth,
A flame of wrath for all to see.

And the rooks in the branches laugh and shout
To those that can hear and understand:
"Walk through the gloomy ways of doubt
With the torch of vision in your hand."

We Now Have Ed Hardy Posters in Stock

Writing Children's poems

If you've read the writings of Dr. Seuss, children's writing may seem to be a snap. However, anyone that has ever tried to write a children's poem knows that the process is much harder than it seems. It's very easy to fall into overused conventions and produce work that is not original. It is a well-known fact that publishers rarely accept children's poetry. This is the reason that there are so few established children's poets. Use the following tips to create original and engaging children's poetry that may just beat the tough market:

1. Don't Be a Mimic

The first mistake that all new writers to children's poetry fall into is writing like another writer. Publishers receive tons of Dr. Seuss-like poems from hopeful writers. If you are going to write children's poems, you first have to develop a unique voice, one that no one can dispute or copy. Courses in this area are usually available at local colleges, and writer's groups are invaluable for testing new work. This is the key to breaking into the poetry market.

2. Know your Market

You can't get a feel for the market that will buy your poems unless you read into it. Spend some time at a local bookstore, and browse other sets of children's poems in order to see the different types that are out there. Order children's magazine, and take a look at what makes the cut.

3. Find Areas of Interest

There are some areas that will always be of interest to publishers for poetry. Some publishers prefer easy reading, other prefer non-fiction and teaching books, and so on. Read up on this.

4. Make your Work Challenging

Children are very intelligent. Many writers feel a need to make their work very simple. Allow children to think while they are reading. Also, provide text that will lend itself to rich illustration, because most children love pictures.

5. Be Original

Stories about "Hairy hare," "tiny turtle" and "purple pig" will not go over well. Avoid moralizing, because everyone does not have the same beliefs. Cute and typical stories will not make it, whereas original, off-the-wall ideas will.

6. Hone your Advertising Skills

If you can write a good query letter, you can often get your poetry in the door. Read up on writing these letters, and sending them in a manner that will incline publishers favorably toward you. Read up on publishers before you send them a manuscript. Some specifically say that they do not accept children's poems, while others may not be suited to your work.

7. Don't Give Up

It is very easy to give up in the field of writing. But remember, if your style is truly original, you have a good shot at getting something in print eventually. Good luck!

8. Test your Work

Kids always love a good story. Find a class, family or preschool and ask if you can read your stories to their children. Feedback from kids is usually the best gauge you can have.

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What is a Sonnet?

THE SONNET

The sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem in predominantly iambic pentameter, with a formal rhyme scheme. Although there can be considerable variation in rhyme scheme, most English sonnets are written in either the Italian (Petrarchan) style or the English (Shakespearean) style. A third sonnet form, the Spenserian sonnet, is also well-known, but far less commonly used than either the Petrarchan or the Shakespearean sonnet.

THE PETRARCHAN SONNET

The Italian sonnet form is commony called the Petrarchan sonnet, because Petrarch's "Canzonieri," a sequence of poems including 317 sonnets, established the sonnet as a major form in European poetry. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (an eight-line stanza), rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet (a six-line stanza), rhyming cdcdcd, or cdecde--or using some other variation of the cd or cde patterns, but without a final rhymed couplet.

The octave usually presents an idea, raises an argument, makes a proposition, or poses a problem. A turning point ("volta") occurs between the octave and the sestet, and the sestet develops out of the octave by illustrating the idea in the octave, varying it, responding to it, or solving the problem it poses.

THE SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

Shakespeare did not invent the English sonnet form, but he is recognized as its greatest practitioner; therefore, the English sonnet is commonly called the Shakespearean sonnet.

The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas), rhyming abab cdcd efef, and a couplet (a two-line stanza), rhyming gg. Because each new stanza introduces a new set of rhyming sounds, the Shakespearean sonnet is well-suited to English, which is less richly endowed than Italian with rhyming words.

As with the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet, that of the Shakespearean sonnet influences the kinds of ideas that will be developed in it. For example, the three quatrains may be used to present three parallel images, with the couplet used to tie them together or to interpret their significance. Or the quatrains can offer three points in an argument, with the couplet serving to drive home the conclusion.

THE SPENSERIAN SONNET

In his "Amoretti" Edmund Spenser used the sonnet form named after him. The Spenserian sonnet has three quatrains, rhyming abab bcbc cdcd, followed by a couplet, rhyming ee. The linked rhymes of his quatrains suggest the linked rhymes of such Italian forms as terza rima.

ORIGINS

The sonnet probably originated among the Sicilian court poets of the thirteenth century, who were influenced by the love peotry of the Provencal troubadours. It then spread to Tuscany, where it reached its highest expression in Petrarch's "Canzonieri," a sequence of love poems addressed to "Laura," his idealized beloved.

THE SONNET IN ENGLISH POETRY

The sonnet, along with other Italian forms, was introduced to England in the sixteenth century by Sir Thomas Wyatt and his younger contemporary Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. Both poets translated several of Petrarch's sonnets--often the same ones--as well as composing their own.

The new poetic form seems to have inspired the flowering of English lyric poetry in subsequent decades, reaching its peak during the reign of Elizabeth I. During the Elizabethan period the sonnet often appeared as part of a sequence of love poems, in the manner of Petrarch's "Canzonieri." The Elizabethans were particularly attractee to the complexity of a sequence in which each sonnet was both an independent poem and part of an ongoing narrative development. Many poets employed conventional images and patterns of thought in their sonnets, but the most skilled mangaed to create tension and complexity by playing against the conventions even as they made use of them.

Among notable Elizabethan sonnet sequences (Sir Philip Sidney's "Astrophel and Stella"; Samuel Daniel's "Delia"; Edmund Spenser's Amoretti") Shakespeare's sequence of one hundred twenty sonnets addressed to a "dark lady" and a "fair young man" is considered to be the greatest.

In the seventeenth century John Donne's "Holy Sonnets" used the sonnet sequence as a vehicle for religious themes. John Milton wrote sonnets on religious and political themes, as well as on such personal subjects as his own blindness.

In the nineteenth century the love sonnet sequence was revived in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" (1850) and in Dante Gabriel Rosetti's "The House of Life" (1876).

Even after five centuries the sonnet still attracts the attention of serious poets, partly because of the challenge provided by the rigorous constraints of its fixed form, and partly because of its long tradition of use by most of the important poets in the English language.

How to excel as an English major

I: What to Expect

Expect to read! When you sign up for a literature course, anticipate spending many hours every week in the company of books. Let this be your one great expectation, and you will not be disappointed. Do you like to read? Do you enjoy stories? Do you feel enriched by having your ideas challenged, by thinking philosophically about the circumstances of life, people, and abstract concepts, or by experiencing the beauty that is possible through the skilled or merely felicitous use of language? If so, then you will probably get along just fine with the company you'll be keeping.

But, alas, there are other factors--factors of a decidedly practical aspect--that insist on being taken into consideration. First, there is that most obtrusive time factor. Do you have the time to invest into a literature course? Courses vary, yet it is safe to say that literature will always take whatever time you can give to it, and teachers often demand that you give to it more time than you are inclined or believe that you are capable of giving. Therefore, expect to read even beyond your inclination and supposed capability. Such a conclusion may seem too vague to be helpful, but it is meant to suggest an attitude that may be of benefit when you find that all of your courses have assignments due during the same week. Of course, only you can decide what your schedule will permit, but if you have doubts, allow yourself the liberty of examining the course requirements before you commit yourself.

Second, there is the factor of your reading speed and comprehension. If you know that you lack the reading skills necessary to keep up with the course schedule, you may want to make that self-knowledge the basis of your commitment to the course. If you engage only in those activities in which you know that you can succeed, you're not likely ever to break through to any new success. John Stuart Mill said it best in his Autobiography: "A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can." Not all excellence is measured by an academic grade. If you have a weakness in reading, either in speed or comprehension, a literature course may not be the course to take for an assured "A," and yet it may provide you with the incentive to excell in self-improvement. Therefore, expect to improve as a reader.

What might you expect regarding the class and the way that the course is taught? Well, if you already have expectations, then expect also to be surprised. Some literature courses require considerable writing, others do not. Some emphasize the lecture as a mode of teaching, others favor class discussion, perhaps even allowing for student presentations. No single approach works best for all teachers or, for that matter, all classes. Therefore, aside from the expectation of being required to read, it is best not to have set expectations regarding the way that the course is structured or taught. In fact, whether a particular pedagogical approach works depends as much or more upon each student's willingness to accept that approach as it does upon the instructor's ability to use it. Teachers with any experience at all know this, and they will appreciate your support.

II: The Course Syllabus and Schedule

What textbooks are you going to need to purchase? By what date will you need them? Will there be any writing assignments? If so, what sort of writing assignments, how long must they be, and when will they be due? What about exams? What mode of examination should you expect--essay, short answer, multiple choice, or some other? Over what subjects will you be tested? How will the teacher determine your grades? All of these questions and more should be answered by the course syllabus and schedule.

Think of the course syllabus as a legal contract between you and your instructor. Don't be misled by the fact that there's no dotted line requiring your signature. Your enrollment in the course is a tacit agreement to all the conditions set forth in the syllabus. Therefore, read the small print! Ask for an explanation of any details that are unclear to you. If there are important details missing from the syllabus, politely ask your teacher to make those details available to you. Perhaps, they could be written on the chalkboard during a class session for the benefit of all or, even better, printed as an addendum to the syllabus, so that copies can be distributed to the class. Although you'll want to leave it to your instructor to determine how she or he will make additions to the syllabus, don't be shy about asserting your right to know what to expect from the course and what conditions you are agreeing to by remaining in the class. Remember, though, to be courteous and respectful!

Know the syllabus! Study it as if you were to be tested on it. I've known instructors that have, in fact, formally tested their students on the syllabus. I too have tried that approach. Admittedly, we may have gone a bit too far. Even so, we instructors want and expect our students to know our policies and the requirements of course. At least, study the syllabus so that you know exactly what information it contains and will know, for future reference, when you need to consult it. If you miss an exam, a crucial deadline, or fail to bring the needed materials to class one day, you may want to check the syllabus to see what, if any, excuses may be valid; but, bear this one truth in mind--despite the fact that it is a cliche--that ignorance is no excuse. In fact, ignorance of the syllabus is worse than having no excuse, since it suggests to the instructor a lack of appropriate concern regarding the course. So, if your aim is to excel, don't sabotage your performance by failing to know the syllabus.

III: In the Classroom

Does your course syllabus note that part of your final grade is determined by class participation? If not, you might want to add it in the margin, for unless your grade is determined by a machine, you can be sure that--regardless of how objective your instructor may believe that she or he is--a definite personal impression is likely to have a definite, however small, effect on your grade. Many students make so little an impression on their instructor that their name, printed above the essays and exams they turn in, brings forward no favorable recollections to the instructor's mind. Even if your instructor insists that personal considerations have no bearing upon his or her grading, make it your policy to act as though they do have a bearing. After all, your instructor may be more human than he or she believes. Of course, impressions work on people's unconscious in differing ways, and it is always possible that the student who makes a positive impression in the classroom may create higher expectations in the mind of her or his instructor. This being the case, the surest and safest advice I can offer is this: first, realize that class participation does make a difference, and second, whenever possible, avoid making a negative impression.

More likely, however, your syllabus will state that a portion of your final grade will be determined by the quality of your class participation. What are the basic types of participation that your instructor will be evaluating? Usually, your syllabus will delineate these types. Look for any tasks that cannot be included in the other graded assignments. For example, if your syllabus notes that 40% of your grade will be based upon your exam scores, 40% upon your essays, and 20% upon class participation, then it is clear that anything required of you by the instructor that is not part of an exam or an essay will likely be considered as part of class participation.

Often, teachers will expect students to participate in class discussion, and usually that discussion will be about some aspects of the required reading. Unless both the reading and the discussion take place within the classroom during a single class period, you should allow time outside of class for whatever preparation is necessary for full participation during the class discussion. Occasionally, a teacher will give advance notice regarding the specific aspects of the literature to be discussed, but more often students are simply expected to be prepared for whatever discussion arises. So, come to class having carefully read the texts (see section iv below), and come to class with specific questions and observations that you are willing to share.

Set where you will be seen by your instructor. The more visible you are, the more likely you will be called upon to share your thoughts. At least, the instructor will note your interest in the discussion and your desire to participate. If the seats are arranged in rows and you are setting in the front row, when you participate in the discussion, speak to both the teacher and your fellow students. In other words, encourage a response by making the entire class your audience. Even if you want only the instructor to reply, let your question or remark be heard by the entire class, so that the instructor's reply will be meaningful to all.

Be polite. Never interject while another is still speaking. Don't engage in a discussion with your neighbor while another speaker has the floor. In fact, as a general rule, reserve all private discussion until after the class. Never, never, during class time, read a newspaper or notes or text for another class. Rather, always remain attentive, either to the lecture, discussion, or text under consideration, as the situation dictates.

When and how should you take notes during a class discussion or lecture? Very often students complain either that they can't write fast enough to keep up with all that the teacher is saying, that they take too many notes that prove to be of no use in exams or essays, or that they can't determine when something that is said during discussion should be noted for future use. These are serious complaints, but