Drink Orders

Jack and the Geniuses: At the Bottom of the World by Bill Nye & Gregory Mone

So there’s coffee, and then there’s coffee on a private jet. When Jen, our hostess, took our drink orders, she kept trying to push me toward chocolate milk or ginger ale. She even offered a root beer float. But I knew what I wanted.

Jack and the Geniuses: at the Bottom of the World by Bill Nye & Gregory Mone

Calming Ritual

Book Cover: The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud

Making tea is a ritual that stops the world from falling in on you. Everything pauses while you do familiar things with taps and kettles; it allows you to catch your breath and become calm. I’ve made tea on camping stoves while Specters paced beyond my protective iron chains; I’ve brewed some while watching a Revenant claw itself free of its grave.

The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud

The Music Grows

The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph

In the República Dominicana music grows in our blood right from the cradle, and dancing bleeds it out in bold colors, reds and purples, swirling everywhere. We wake up to merengue and go to sleep to sweet salsa. In between we sway and sigh to the melancholy sounds of countryside bachata.

The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph

Genius

It was all so clever. Bach was a musical genius, but he didn’t stop with beautiful music. He had all these jokes and numerical riddles running in his notes—forward, backward, and upside down sometimes. Two of her favorite things in one package: math and music! Oh, how she loved Bach!

Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill

In Any Language

Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lensey Namioka

Music is music in any language, and Father doesn’t have to say much during the lessons. When one of his students plays well, he smiles. And when a student plays a sour note, Father just puts on a look of great suffering.

Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lensey Namioka