NEWS AND UPDATES
03/07/10: You've probably noticed that Sparrow Tree Square has not been updated on the first of the month lately. My schedule has shifted somewhat since I began attending college and so I have had to make adjustments to Sparrow Tree Square's publishing schedule. From now on, look for new issues sometime within the first ten days of the month.
Thanks to all my readers for sticking with me through this schedule change! I hope you enjoy the next issue, which features the author Louisa May Alcott, when I post it later this week.
02/04/10: Hello everyone! I promise that the February issue, "The English Regency," is almost ready to post. You can expect to see it go up sometime this weekend, if no unforeseen difficulties arise.
While you're waiting, you might want to check out some past issues of Sparrow Tree Square. Since Valentine's Day is only ten days away now, I thought I'd post the links to some Valentine-themed issues I've published in years past.
From February 2006, there's Love and Romance, which features some famous love poetry and an excerpt from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. From February 2009, there's Friendship, an issue that celebrates love of friends and features some Valentine frienship fun.
01/13/10: Finally, the new issue is posted! I hope everyone enjoys the first issue of 2010, "Time." This issue has some really interesting pieces, including a story by Charles Dickens that came from a book I received this past Christmas, The Haunted House. I really enjoyed this book, written by Dickens and several other well-known authors, and was happy to be able to include an excerpt in this issue.
I also want to add that this issue's Historical Connection, which discusses the history of sundials, was written by my sister Maureen Friel. Maureen was the former editor of Halfway Down the Stairs magazine, which is currently down due to web hosting problems. I'm sure all of HDS's fans will be happy to see Maureen's contribution to STS.
I'd also like to apologize once again for the lateness of this issue. Usually I take a short break from working on the magazine in December, during the Christmas holidays. After the New Year, I generally begin formatting the January issue and can have it ready to post by the 10th. This issue was a couple of days late from this schedule, due to my getting ready to start my second semester at Villanova University. I hope the delay wasn't too bad and that all of the readers of this magazine will enjoy this issue now that it's up!
This issue is special because I had a little help from a guest editor. My mother, Michelle Friel, contributed the Activity to Explore the Theme for this issue. The article features a recipe for shortbread, which is an absolutely delicious cookie for Christmas and is so easy to make. I'd like to give a thank you to my mother for creating and writing this recipe for all of the readers of Sparrow Tree Square!
And while we're on the subject of fun things to do for Christmas, I'd like to remind everyone that more Christmas issues of Sparrow Tree Square can be found in the Past Issues section of this site. There is one Christmas issue for every year that Sparrow Tree Square has been in publication, so look for A Victorian Christmas from December 2006, Sing We Now of Christmas from December 2007, and Charity and Giving from December 2008.
I hope you all have a happy holiday season!
11/13/09: It's ard to believe that there are less than two weeks until Thanksgiving! If you haven't already, take a look at the current issue of Sparrow Tree Square for a fun Thanksgiving story by William Dean Howells.
If you're looking for other Thanksgiving-related issues, check out Early America from November 2007 and Home and Family from November 2006. The 2007 issue has great selections about Pilgrims and Native Americans, an article about the history of Thanksgiving, and a recipe for cornbread that you can make for your Thanksgiving dinner. The 2006 issue has Lydia Marie Child's classic poem "A New England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day," also known as "Over the River and Through the Woods." All three issues referenced above are great to print out to make long car trips more interesting or to give younger family members something to do while waiting for dinner to begin!
11/02/09: I hope everyone had a fun Halloween, and enjoyed the last Halloween-themed issue from Sparrow Tree Square! It's hard to believe November is already here, and so is a new issue of the magazine. You can read "Feathered Friends" by clicking "Current Issue" on the left menu bar.
You may have noticed that, whatever each month's theme happens to be, I usually try to tie some aspect of each issue to the season or holiday it's going to be posted around. This issue is no different-- while the theme doesn't have anything to do with Thanksgiving exactly, I managed to include a story about Thanksgiving turkeys by William Dean Howells. It's hilariously funny, but may be a little too scary for young children, so I recommend that parents preview this story before sharing it with their children.
10/03/09: Many apologies for the two-day delay! All I can say is that with the mid-semester approaching, I've been very busy with papers and studying. However, I managed to get this issue up not too much later than usual, and I hope the wait was worth it!
I simply can't believe that October is already here and therefore time to start thinking about Halloween. As you can probably guess from the fact that every October issue of Sparrow Tree Square is somehow tied to Halloween (see Ghosts and Haunings, Legends and Superstitious Part 1 and Part 2, and Fears and Frights), I'm a big fan of the holiday. I particularly liked this theme, "Magic and Witchcraft" because it allowed me to use one of my favorite Walter de la Mare poems, "I Saw Three Witches." You can read it and the rest of the selections for "Magic and Witchcraft" by clicking on "Current Issue" in the menu bar to the left.
07/31/09: August begins tomorrow, so I thought it was soon enough to post the new issue of Sparrow Tree Square. I had a lot of fun putting "Nighttime" together, and I think this issue has some of the nicest illustrations of any I've done yet. The pictures on the Introduction page, the poem "Summer Stars," and the poem "A Night-Rain in Summer" are by illustrator Blanche Fisher Wright, and are taken from two nursey rhyme books you can find on Project Gutenberg. Just search for "Blanche Fisher Wright" in the author search box to see more of her lovely illustrations.
07/01/09: I've posted the new issue just in time for the Fourth of July. "America for Me," which has a general patriotic theme, has some great activities for celebrating the holiday. You can baffle barbeque guests with the United States Trivia puzzle, or impress them by whipping up an old-fashioned flag cake. This dessert has been a staple at Fourth of July barbeques in my family for as long as I can remember.
If you need some more festive literature and activities, there are plenty of issues in the Sparrow Tree Square archive. Check out last July's "In Freedom We'll Live," last May's "The Civil War," and July 2006's "The American Revolution." You can also head over to Halfway Down the Stairs and look for "Stars and Stripes" (July 2007) in the magazine archive.
Have a happy Fourth of July!
06/02/09: After a day-long delay, the June 2009 issue of Sparrow Tree Square is online. "Food and Drink" has one of my favorite short stories in it, "Springtime a la Carte" by O. Henry, and has one of my favorite paintings on the cover, "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. I guess by now you can tell that Renoir is one of my favorite artists -- I also featured a painting of his on the cover of the March 2009 issue and another as an illustration in the May 2009 issue.
This issue also features a book by one of my favorite authors, Tasha Tudor. Ms. Tudor wrote and illustrated dozens of beautiful childrens books in her lifetime. Sadly, she passed away one year ago this month. I hope after reading this month's book review you consider adding The Tasha Tudor Cookbook, or any other Tasha Tudor book, to your library.
05/24/09: I hope everyone has been having a great Memorial Day weekend -- remember to check out Sparrow Tree Square's issue on the Civil War from May 2008 for some Memorial Day fun if you haven't already.
The main reason I'm posting today is because I have some exciting news. Under the Apple Tree, a Halfway Down the Stairs / Sparrow Tree Square joint project, is now online! Under the Apple Tree is an HTML archive of all the book reviews featured in Sparrow Tree Square and Halfway Down the Stairs, and will feature new reviews exclusive to the site as we continue to update. If you're looking for a particular book you read about in one of our magazines or if you need some ideas before heading to your favorite bookstore, Under the Apple Tree is the place for you!
Right now, Under the Apple Tree is being housed as a subdomain of this website, Sparrow Tree Square. You can access Under the Apple Tree through the "Book Reviews" link on Sparrow Tree Square, or by heading to http://bookreviews.sparrowtreesquare.com . I hope you enjoy the new site!
05/01/09: May has arrived, and so has the new issue of Sparrow Tree Square! This month's issue is all about plays, and includes one of my most favorite short stories. "The Complete Dramatist" is by A. A. Milne, whose works I tend to feature often in Sparrow Tree Square. I laughed out loud when I read this story, and I hope you like it too.
Since Memorial Day is coming at the end of this month, I thought I'd remind you of all the past patriotic issues of Sparrow Tree Square. There's "The Civil War" from May 2008, which includes some Memorial Day activities, "In Freedom We'll Live," from July 2008, and "The American Revolution," from July 2006. You can find all three issues in the "Past Issues" section of this website.
04/01/09: April 2nd is my birthday, and so I decided that for the April edition of Sparrow Tree Square I'd do an issue featuring one of my favorite genres of literature: crime and mystery fiction. There are so many great detective stories in the public domain that I had difficulty choosing just one for this issue. Ultimately, I picked "The Blue Cross" by G. K. Chesterton over any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories because Chesterton's stories aren't quite as well-known. If you do want to read a Sherlock Holmes story, go to Project Gutenberg and search for "Sherlock Holmes" in the title box.
Of course, every issue of Sparrow Tree Square features poetry as well as fiction, so I had to do some searching to find poems that discuss crime! I think the selections I chose for this issue fit the theme very well. I particularly liked P. G. Wodehouse's poem "A Solitary Triumph," which revolves around the true fact that more men commit crimes than do women. I love Wodehouse's novels, and it was a treat to feature one of his poems in this issue.
03/01/09: While March might contain the first day of spring, warm and sunny weather is still a long way off where I live. March is a good time for daydreaming, and some of the best inspirations for daydreaming can come from works of art. The March issue of Sparrow Tree Square is all about art and artists, and has lots of great poetry and two excellent stories. I particularly like "The Roman Road" from Kenneth Grahame's The Golden Age. If you'd like to read the whole book, you can find it at Project Gutenberg by searching for either the title or the author.
March is also the month for St. Patrick's Day. I come from an Irish-American background, so for last March I chose to do an issue full of Irish and Irish-American literature. You can click here to read "Dance With Me in Ireland", or visit the Past Issues section of this site.
02/01/09: February is here, and so is the new issue of Sparrow Tree Square. This month, the theme is friendship, which I picked because of its relation to Valentine's Day. As young children, we first celebrate Valentine's Day not as a holiday for romantic love but as a time to show our love for family and friends, so I felt that the theme was appropriate for this month.
In February of 2007, Sparrow Tree Square did do an issue called Love and Romance that focused on the romantic side of Valentine's Day. You can find it by clicking the title link in the previous sentence or by browsing the "Past Issues" section of this website. It has a nice idea for making homemade Valentines as well as literary selections about love.
01/09/09: I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Sparrow Tree Square is back from its annual holiday break, and the January 2009, "The Great Indoors," issue is up. Where I live, winter is a cold and depressing time of year, so the comforts of home are all the more appreciated. I think this issue really captures the feeling of a day spent cozy and warm indoors.
If you'd like more winter reading, try last January's issue, Wintry Weather. Unlike this month's issue, it celebrates the beauty of the winter world outdoors.