Now, I want to read a children's book.
I want to read it because the girl in this book's name
is Sonora, because it's so beautiful.
And I started this book because-- now there's
an age when kids are very embarrassed
about their parents.
Have you noticed that?
There's an age when there's nothing you do that is OK.
And mine have things like-- first of all,
don't laugh like you laugh--
I laugh loudly.
Don't laugh like you laugh.
Don't walk like you walk.
Are you going to wear that?
My god, woman!
You know, that sort of thing.
And they used to always tell their friends,
when their friends want to know what their mother did,
they'd always said she was a teacher.
That's because they were very embarrassed that I wrote poems,
and so I started thinking about it.
And I started thinking about that kind of thing.
And one day, my son came up to me and said, Ma,
I got ugly last night.
And I thought he hadn't.
And so this is a children's book,
and it's in five chapters.
"Sonora Beautiful.
Chapter one.
Some mornings, I wake up, and I am real ugly.
I'm not joking.
My face is all broken out.
My ears are waving like wings.
My legs and arms have shrunk or something.
My clothes fall off me like a stick.
Everything's hanging loose.
I'm not joking.
I don't fill out anything, but my shoes, real ugly.
I go across the hall and bang on the door.
Ma!
Something happened to me last night.
I got real ugly!
Then my mother comes out.
She looks at me, and she says, just like she does, oh stop.
You are beautiful, Sonora, beautiful.
Chapter two.
And that's another thing about Sonora--
whoever heard of anybody named that?
There is not another person in my whole school
with a name like Sonora.
I'm not joking.
People are supposed to be named after flowers, or months,
or other people, but oh no, not me.
I had to be named after a desert.
I'm not joking.
There's this desert in Arizona, where my mother first
saw Andrew.
He's my dad.
She was on this bus tour.
The bus stopped someplace on the edge of this desert.
My mother looked out the window and saw this guy, Andrew.
They both went nuts or something and named me after the desert.
I like to hear about it and all, I
like to hear about it and all, but I
have begged them to change my name on my knees.
I'm not joking.
But they just look at me.
My mother says, just like she does, oh, stop.
It's a beautiful name, Sonora, beautiful.
Chapter three.
And that's another thing about Andrew.
Guess what my father does for a living?
Could he be a doctor or have a job
in a shoe store or something?
No, not my father.
Andrew is a poet.
I'm not joking.
He spends his days writing poems or thinking about poems.
He also looks for the mailman.
He gets letters about putting poems in books.
I'm not joking.
Two days a week he works out with his weights,
so I told everybody at school he was a boxer,
and we have a gym at home.
Honestly, I had to.
I have asked my mother lots of times to talk to him.
Maybe he could get a job in a supermarket or something,
but she just looks at me and says,
just like she does, oh stop.
Poetry and poets are beautiful, Sonora, beautiful.
Chapter four.
And that's another thing about this house.
We do not have one regular room.
I mean in other people's houses you
can tell right away what every room is all about.
But, oh no, not us.
We first got to have a room for poems.
Then we have a room for Andrew to lift weights in,
and my mother to jump rope and all that stuff.
Then they have a room for him to sleep in,
but it's full of plants and things,
like a park or something.
I'm not joking.
Only the kitchen is a regular room, almost.
Honestly, no other person in my whole school
is in a house like this one.
I have spoken to them a million times
about moving to a nice house with regular rooms,
and maybe a fence, and a dog.
But my mother just looks at me and says,
just like she does, oh stop.
Our home is beautiful, Sonora, beautiful.
Chapter five.
And that's another thing about beautiful.
We go for walks a lot.
Usually, I'm real sleepy at first
because Andrew chooses the time a lot.
He likes to choose dawn or something like that.
I'm not joking.
It's crazy really.
Me, and my mother, and Andrew head out.
I'm sleepy at first, and I asked them,
why do we have to go for walks all the time?
But then we get to the park or some great place like that.
We buy orange juice, and sit-in the grass, and drink it.
My mother gives Andrew and me a kiss.
Then we all hug each other, and Andrew reads a really beautiful
poem or something like that.
We sit there a while.
We smile and love each other a whole lot,
in the morning quiet just like we do.
We're a family, and it's beautiful, beautiful.
I'm not joking.