Teresa walked to the sink, filled a glass with water and handed it to Hannah. But when the system detects low joy, Teresa continued, it heightens the holiday happenings to compensate. For example, if the system detects a high amount of juvenile glee, the festive forces fall so as to not go overboard. Holiday physics is a closed system based on children's joy. Harry's throwing off the seasonal equilibrium, Teresa explained. Does the phrase youthful cheer paradigm mean anything to you? Hannah shrugged. How's that Harry's handiwork, asked Hannah. Your horrible happiness hang-ups are hatching holiday havoc. (SOUNDBITE OF "DUN DUN DUN" SOUND EFFECT) Harry Hammersley, she announced, we have a problem.
Perched at the table beside his sister sat Teresa Terwilliger. Harry Hammersley, Henrietta Hamersley called out, with just enough of a frown to make him want to smile, you have a visitor. In fact, for once, they weren't even smiling. Harry Hammersley groaned as he tumbled down the stairs, expecting to find his sister and mother at the breakfast table - which they were - laughing about this or that - which they weren't. And even worse, he wouldn't be able to escape the nagging of his sister.
Npr storytelling series#
Plus, the frozen crystal outside his house meant he wouldn't get to check out the next book in the fantasy series he'd been reading. Usually, the ice and snow meant cancel school, which made most children happy. You see, he'd had another Belvedere episode, but that's another story.ĪLEXANDER: It continued into the morning, also, when he woke to see his front yard had gone from green to glacial. SIMON: OK, Kwame Alexander, take it over.ĪLEXANDER: Harry Hammersley's horrendous mood continued at night. A whole army of elves could tickle my feet, a whole legion of gingerbread people could slide down my throat, I still won't smile during the horrid days, not once. Hmm, said Henrietta Hammersley, but I bet something will get you to smile during this holiday. You smiled when Teresa Terwilliger, the little girl next door, gave you a card with a bright white star on it. You ate some warm gingerbread once, Henrietta recalled. Oh, Harry Hammersley, said Harry's older sister, Henrietta Hammersley. Maybe, dear, said Harry's mother, but isn't that also nice? Grumpy people grin, candle lights flicker and dance, cookies are warm in the oven. That's hypocritical, Harry told his mother, as soon as he learned the word in the third grade. The horrible, horrid days, Harry called them, the weeks before the end of the year where everybody else in Chagrin Falls, Ohio - Harry Hammersley's hometown - went around smiling even though they frowned and growled the rest of the year. And tinsel, snowmen, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire which sounded horrible. He had to sing songs about snow, sleigh rides, silver bells, all of which sounded horrid.
He had to dress for school plays like an elf or a penguin, not a pirate or an astronaut. He thought they were - what was the word his mother taught him? - horrid. SIMON: Harry Hammersley hated the holidays. (SOUNDBITE OF ATTILA FIAS' "WINTER WONDERLAND") SIMON: Let me begin with a kind of holiday story. I'm gonna begin a story, Kwame will pick it up, Alissa will pick it up when Kwame leaves off, back to me. KWAME ALEXANDER: I say yes to everything. So in a moment of weakness, what made you say yes to this?
Playing along with him, Kwame Alexander, writer of many children's books, including "The Undefeated," and Alissa Nutting, author of "Made For Love." Before he took off to enjoy his holiday, Scott Simon combined both. If there's anything the holidays are good for, it's a heartwarming story, and when the right people are around, a good game.
0 kommentar(er)
