We Missed National Puctuation Day!!!!!!!!!

In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy and the comma is mummy, and the semicolon quietly practices the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big attention-deficit brother who gets overexcited and breaks things and laughs too loudly.

Yesterday was National Punctuation Day. As you can see by my use of nine exclamation points, missing it has caused me some serious distress. Had I used a mere six or seven, you may have thought that while I was sad to have missed it, I wasn't inconsolable.

When did we go from hesitating to use an exclamation point, reserving it for only the most deserving of sentences, to thinking the use of only one is halfhearted at best? When did the period at the end of a sentence start denoting irritation or, at the very least, indifference? Nothing sends my daughter into a tailspin quicker than when I answer a text with a "Sure." That period wields more force than a slamming door. She immediately responds with, "What's wrong???" Or "Are you mad at me???" Yes, apparently question marks now travel in groups as well. 

Now before my friends and family start fretting over how many exclamation points they used in their last text to me, I must say I'm often guilty of all of the above: the over-exclamation pointing, the fear of a favor being answered with a period, and the redundant question marks. I worry the use of only one exclamation point will send the message that while I'm excited, I'm not that excited.

Clearly, I'm not what Lynne Truss would call "a true stickler." I do, however, love her book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and highly recommend it for the stickler and slacker alike. You'll laugh while you learn, which makes for literary magic. It's been around a while, but a book that gives punctuation some personality deserves a shout-out today, or rather, yesterday. For the littles in your life, check out her children's book: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make A Difference!

Posted by Rachel

Baby Gifts 101

There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all. —Jacqueline Kennedy

Hear, hear! We at Two at Twenty-Seven are all for starting them young. So the next time you need to buy a baby gift, think big. Give a gift that won't just make them look darling, they're already experts at that, give them a gift that enlarges their world: a book. Or two. Or even better, three. We've rounded up some of our latest favorites here:

This charming book has it all: beautiful, classic illustrations in rich colors and a wonderful story line. A book that encourages children to chase their dreams knowing that their parents will always be their biggest fans. The Wonderful Things You Will Be is a book every child will love for years to come. We're also smitten with Emily Winfield Martin's other children's books: Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey and Daydreamers: A Journey of Imagination.

Darling illustrations and die-cuts throughout, this fun read will inspire little ones to become Brave as Can Be.

Fans of Olivia will love her newest escapade as she finds herself smack dab in the middle of an identity crisis. Never one to conform, Olivia scoffs at the idea that all girls want to be fairy princesses—she's set her sights far higher. Olivia and the Fairy Princesses might just be our favorite Olivia sequel yet.

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo is an oldie, but we fear it may not be as well-known as other classics so we're throwing it in here. The simple, rhyming text chugs along as a little boy's train set and toys come to life. It will leave little ones cheering, "Again! Again!"

Set a Watchman To Keep You From Reading This Book

"...before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. " - the Atticus Finch of To Kill A Mockingbird

Don't mess with my beloved literary father figures. It's hard enough in real life to grow up and realize your own father is human...even if he is the beautiful human kind that my dad was. It still robs you of your innocence—your notion that every little thing can be conquered as long your dad is beside you. To realize that this stronger than all, fearful of nothing man indeed has fears, heartaches, and sorrow can be unnerving. You adapt. You find your footing and learn to love the man he truly is, perhaps as in my case, even more than you did before. But a little part of you still yearns for that larger than life version you once knew if only for the safety net it provided. Thankfully, you think, I still have Atticus Finch and Mr. March. But no, apparently you don't. Forgive me if I sound melodramatic, I take these things quite personally. I still haven't forgiven Geraldine Brooks for "humanizing" Jo's dad in March, and I won't soon forgive the lawyers responsible for releasing this book either. If you loved the Atticus Finch of Scout's youth, do yourself a favor and leave this book on the shelf. If for no other reason, do it for Harper Lee who never wanted this book published.

The one good thing I will say about having read this book is it deepened my appreciation for the power of a great editor. For editor Tay Hohoff to have found within Go Set a Watchman, which was Lee's first submission, the potential for what would go on to become To Kill a Mockingbird, pays homage to gifted editors everywhere. In an article for The New York Times entitled The Invisible Hand Behind Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Jonathan Mahler writes:

...this week’s publication of “Go Set a Watchman” offers a rare glimpse at the before and after of a book widely regarded as a masterpiece. The main characters may be the same, but “Watchman” is an entirely different book in both shape and tone from “Mockingbird.” Scout is not an impressionable child in Maycomb, Ala., looking up to her heroic father, but a young woman from Maycomb living in New York. Her father, the great Atticus Finch, is a bigot.

The release of “Watchman,” which has been only lightly copy-edited, also leads inevitably to the question: Who was the invisible hand guiding Ms. Lee as she transformed this book into “Mockingbird”? Maybe more to the point, how big a role did she play in reconceiving the story from a dark tale of a young woman’s disillusionment with her father’s racist views, to a redemptive one of moral courage and human decency?

Both the editor and the writer in me wants to go back in time and hug Tay Hohoff for helping Lee bring to life the Atticus we all love, and the one we needed at the time of the book's release, and perhaps even more so, now.

You Had Me At Matilda

We love a genius writer with an amazing worldview. Happy Roald Dahl Day! To celebrate, enjoy some of our favorite quotes from our favorite books. Or better yet, grab one of his books and "go the whole hog."

 Matilda

Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog.

The books transported her to new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.

"A fine writer will always make you feel that," Mrs Phelps said. "And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”

 The BFG

“The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.”

“What I mean and what I say is two different things," the BFG announced rather grandly.

 The Twits

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

 Danny the Champion of the World

It's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself.

 The Minpins (This is Dahl's last novel for children and this is the very last line.)

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

#HomeToHogwarts

No story lives unless someone wants to listen....The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home. - J.K. Rowling

Buy on Amazon

For those of you as lonesome for Hogwarts as we are, do yourself a favor and follow @jk_rowling on Twitter. While it isn't the same as being lost in the pages of Harry Potter, it's the next best thing. Here are two gems from today:

"I'm in Edinburgh, so could somebody at King's Cross wish James S Potter good luck for me? He's starting at Hogwarts today."

"Have just heard that James S Potter has been Sorted (to nobody's surprise) into Gryffindor. Teddy Lupin (Head Boy, Hufflepuff) disappointed."

College is Overrated

Children have the unforgivable habit of growing up. —Bjarne Reuter

A little over eighteen years ago, as I was being wheeled into the delivery room to have my twin daughters, I grabbed my husband's arm and said "STOP. I can't go through with it. I don't want to be a homeroom mother or throw birthday parties." He looked at me as one would look at a person who has clearly lost her mind, and said, "You'll be great...and it's too late." Comforting.

What I should have added to that list of future terrors was this: "They'll leave for college at THE SAME TIME."  But then that wouldn't have stopped them from coming either. And thank heavens they came. They've been worth every birthday party and homeroom duty I've endured...er, enjoyed. Now their bags are packed, the car is loaded, and it's time for them to go. Just like that. And neither Meryl nor I can say anything to stop them.