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11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

11 Years Ago-Willow Falls Birthing Center

The oddest thing about Angelina D’Angelo was that no one could remember a time when she didn’t live in Willow Falls. The oldest man in town, Bucky Whitehead, swears Angelina was an old lady when HE was a boy. But when questioned, Angelina just smiled. The person asking would get so distracted by watching the duck-shaped birthmark wiggle on her cheek, they would forget their question altogether.

Rereading that first paragraph made me rethink how we meet these two odd and interesting characters over again. This is a fun story which begins with a mysterious encounter between Angelina and two sets of parents at the Willow Falls Birthing Center. Two babies, Leo and Amanda, born on the same day fall under an enchantment given to their great-great grandfathers, bickering men, who owned adjoining apple orchards. Amanda and Leo have celebrated every birthday together since the very first and have a comfortable and close relationship until Amanda overhears Leo say mean things at their 10th birthday. Amanda storms out and the two do not speak for a year.

Interesting that I should finish this book today because what happens to Amanda and Leo is they keep reliving their 11th birthday until they get it right…12 days later. This little twist will delight students and create all kinds of great classroom conversation if used as a read-aloud. They are witness to how their actions affect many around them and learn slowly how to patch it back together as well as how important it is to stay true to yourself. I loved it when Amanda decides to head to band try-outs instead of the gymnastics audition she keeps flubbing. Of course, it reminded me of the great and wonderful, Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray-where he is forced to relive this day over and over!!
This is a very easy read, great for the intended audience and should lend itself to easy discussion.

Highly Recommended

Elementary Fiction

4/5 peaceful stars

Wendy Mass website-click here.

A Young Readers review-click here.

***Sadly, I had this book in my book bag and somehow on the way home from work, in the back seat of my car, my water bottle leaked its remaining 1/3 all over four books, including this one. While I made dinner for my children this evening I used the microwave to slowly eek the water out of the pages and the cover…it is not back to normal but it isn’t fat and crinkly either!!!

Minor damp spot in an otherwise beautiful Feb. 2nd!

Happy Reading…

This one has been on my mental to-read list, since I found out Mass will be coming here to speak with students for our annual Cedar Valley Youth Reads.

TT and Happy Groundhog's Day!!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here’s my two:

“Leaning back in the chair, I tilt my face to the sun until I feel its warmth spread across my cheeks. I could get used to this.” p. 81 from Wendy Mass’, 11 Birthdays.

Speaking of Wendy Mass, she will be heading here for a week long program sponsored by our joint public libraries!! I’m so excited and this is an adorable book. I’m almost finished!

What are you reading today?

Think Spring today…right now, here it is snow, snow, snowing…but

I still hope the P.P. will NOT see his shadow!!

My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald

This book resonates with the idea that young people will be the ones to change the world!!

Lucy, a twelve-year-old, helps out at the family pharmacy. Her mother and grandmother are constantly at each other over bills and whether or not the pharmacy and their family home are going to survive. Lucy’s mom loves causes and the grandmother loves the pharmacy but neither one can see anyway to save it. Lucy, on the other hand, is brimming with fabulous ideas. She knows her products and one afternoon she helps an older student with a really bad hair plan gone wrong. Soon others are coming to Lucy for advise and beauty tips. Through an afterschool Earth Club she locates a Going Green Grant from the mayor. All she has to do is figure out a way to tweak the pharmacy’s business to fit it into a green plan. Lucy’s older sister, Claudia, a first-year college student at Northwestern, helps her fill out the grant information. This is such a great idea for a story with so many important themes running through (green businesses, eco-friendly products, as well as what can happen when bills are a struggle, girl power) to make the book timely and relevant. Lucy’s friend Sunny is a great addition as a multi-cultural character who suffers from her very first boy crush-Lucy gives her wonderful advise here as well. Lucy is all about being yourself and she passes this message out very well.

That said it wasn’t my favorite read so far this year. I loved Lucy-she was a great character but her mom and grandmother fell short for me. They were slightly wooden and spent way, way too much time in the back room of the pharmacy. There were also the little inconsistencies like when I’m broke I can’t go out for pizza (they do) and even though they are broke, Claudia, the older sister, heads to a third-world country to help out on a Spring Break trip. Usually college trips are only partially funded by the university and it seemed an odd choice because of their financial crisis. It would have made more sense for me if they would have just made mention that Claudia wanted to come home to help but couldn’t because of flight prices or homework. It was far-reaching for me to keep hearing allusions to expensive things when in the next chapter their power goes out because the bill hasn’t been paid.

My thoughts are that a younger audience is not going to pay any attention to that-they are going to see Lucy as an energetic, smart character, with great life tips and not worry about these minute inconsistencies. Even though I saw this listed as a YA title on Titlewave and in my local library I really think a younger girl audience would read it.

Highly Recommended

Middle Grade Fiction

4/5 peaceful stars

YA Books Central-good review-a 10-year-olds review!!!

Laura Mercier’s website-Lucy idolizes her and hopes to be as successful as her one day!!

This one I picked up at the public library, counting for J. Kaye’s

2010 Support Your Local Library Challenge

Kreativ Blogger Award

My very first…blogger award…I am so excited!! Thank you so much to Natalie at This Purple Crayon, which is a beautifully unique blog so I’m happy she thought of me! Thank you Natalie!

Here’s how the award works:

•Thank the person who gave this to you.

•Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

•Link the person who nominated you.

•Name seven things about yourself that no one would really know.

•Nominate seven “Kreativ Bloggers.”

•Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.

•Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

I have to try to find seven different traits of mine not listed on my list of 21, over on my left sidebar so here goes:

I stick my foot in my mouth often; (example) I went to a visitation tonight and told the family “Thank You” instead of “I am so sorry for your loss.” I’m not insensitive just tongue-twisted.
I am easy to live with-(the opposite of a high maintenance woman) or so my husband says.
I am a vegetarian who eats locally-raised meat (odd, yes) so if I’m eating at a restaurant I will only order veggie options but in my own home I might have bacon from a local farmer’s market. My switch to part-time meat-eater came after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral plus I had several blood tests done, showing that I have a serious anemia issue. Does this make me high-maintenance?-luckily, my family doesn’t think so!!
As a young child I had open heart surgery on my mitral valve twice…thus the wide gap between my two naturally-born children.
Both of these sweet children were premature (3 lbs, 4 ozs, and 4 lbs, 4 ozs) yet fully developed and healthy!
I am an eternal optimist, generally happy and try to see the good in all.
I was a bartender and worked for years in the restaurant business before I went to graduate school to get my degree in Library Science. People are generally surprised by this. Oh, and I have a tattoo of Winnie-the-Pooh!

Okay, that wasn’t so hard.

Here are my 7 favorite bloggers where I try to read everyday!

Tina at Books are my thing
Janssen at Everyday Reading
Jenners at Find Your Next Book Here
Lisa at Books, Lists, Life
Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea
Jana at Milk and Cookies; Comfort Reading
Julie P. at Booking Mama

Please check out these marvelous blogs! Happy Reading!

Thank you again to Natalie of This Purple Crayon for thinking of me!!

Now I have to stop blogging so I can watch a movie and eat popcorn with my night owl husband.

Peace.

In my mailbox

Today I came home and found two very exciting things in the mail, always wonderful when there are more fun things than bills!! The first wrapped package was obviously a book and I was thrilled to unwrap Meg Tilly’s Gemma, which I won over at Find Your Next Book Here from Jenners!! I love winning things probably because it doesn’t happen very often. Gemma’s tale circles around child abuse/molestation issues so I know it will be a tough read but interesting. I’ve enjoyed Meg Tilly’s odd roles as an actrees so I look forward to reading her latest creation. Thank You to Jenners for her latest giveaway!!

My second fun piece of mail was my Vegetarian Times-one of my favorite magazines. I used to get quite a few magazines but found, sadly, they were often the last thing I would read and I would get months behind. I seem to easily be drawn into Veggie Times’ great articles and healthy ideas. I found some amazingly tempting recipes like: Garlic and Kale Soup, Red Pepper-Carrot Soup, Vegetable Korma and this one which made me think of a summertime farmer’s market, Roasted Vegetable Linguine with Torn Fresh Basil. (I thought I would be able to search VT’s website to add in these delicious dishes but for some reason the website isn’t searchable for the magazine’s recipes??? that is a glitch!) Sorry!

I was so happy to find these delightful items in the mailbox I forgot momentarily about my earlier goof. I lost my phone for about 25 minutes and even made a trip back to where my last meeting took place to check the parking lot, to no avail! Luckily, (fueled by my urgent, pleaful prayers) I found it between the seats in the Volvo, when I unbuckled to go pick up my daughter. Yeah!!! I hate losing things-so very frustrating-so I was near-tears-thankful to find it!!
Other important items I read today: a great blog post about AR (accelerated reading) from TeacherNinjas and an email that says I was given a blog award from Natalie at This Purple Crayon. Thanks Natalie! I will have to dream up seven interesting things about myself to share as well as seek out candidates for my seven choices (accepting all manner of bribes)
How about you there-how was your day??

Happy Reading!!

Flowing words bring tears

Love, Aubrey

Suzanne LaFleur

2009

This is an amazing book and I commend LaFleur for her very first writing attempt!! It is melodical and free-flowing! I loved Aubrey’s character so much the very first chapter brought me to tears! Be forewarned…the rest of the book will made you cry also because Aubrey suffers such tragedy!

Aubrey is an 11-year-old, just trying to keep it together. at home, by herself. We gather from her thoughts why her home is empty. Her father and younger sister, Savannah have died fairly recently and her mother, numb with grief, has taken off somewhere. Aubrey is brave and determined to make it on her own. When she is down to her last food items, she heads to the local grocey store to buy what she needs. When the phone rings to much, bringing unwanted help, she stops answering the phone.

Thankfully, the door opens one day and Gram comes walking through the door to save the day! She’s an amazing Grandma and she gave me many flashbacks of my own motherly grandmother. She folds Aubrey into her arms and takes her back to Vermont with her. Gram helps Aubrey begin a long-overdue healing process, using little chore lists to get her moving. As fate would have it I lovely young family, with an 11-year-old daughter, Bridget live next door and through their friendship and a counselor at school, Aubrey moves forward, past her grief.
I don’t want to give much away as it is full of sweet surprises but here is one of my favorite quotes:

I listened to the rain, which was a bad idea because my stomach started feeling funny and I felt like there was oatmeal stuck in my throat. I pulled a pillow to my chest and held it tight. Bridget put the photos down, and put her hands in my hair, and on my back. ‘It’s okay,’ she said. That didn’t work. Words never helped anything. I pressed my eyes closed and remembered that other rainy day, when words didn’t help us…Daddy, why didn’t you just say it a little bit louder? Why? Why didn’t you make us all stop?’ Bridget didn’t say anthing as I started to cry. She just listened, and kept petting me. ‘I’m glad youre here,’ Bridget said. I liked Bridget, but I couldn’t agree. I should have been down in my own house in Virginia, with my own family. Then I thought I heard Bridget thinking. Bridget was thinking, Tell me, It’s okay, just tell me. And I thought back to her, No, Bridget, I can’t. p. 77

I would have loved a next-door neighbor friend like Bridget, understanding and full of compassion. LaFleur makes Aubrey’s feelings so palpable for me and the dialogue between characters as well as Aubrey’s thought process make this a treasure! I would love to see a companion book to unfold more of Aubrey’s story as she puts her life back together with her mother.
Click on Suzanne LaFleur’s website here.

Highly Recommended-Middle School

5/5 peaceful stars

Happy Reading!!
(p.s. this one was one of my random library picks from last week, thus counting for my brand new 2010 Support Your Local Library Challenge)

Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid; A Memoir

This book has been recommended by many friends and was my book clubs third reading choice. I didn’t read it then because I was busy reading other stuff! I kept putting it off…then when Bibliophile By The Sea presented the Reading off my Shelves Project; this book made my list! After reading Dreamland by Dessen I need a change of pace. Jenners from Find Your Next Book Here highly recommended this choice so I picked it up and read it.
I liked it far more that I thought I would…I’m not a huge fan of memoirs. It made me think and laugh and I really enjoyed the historical time-travel aspect of Des Moines history. I felt transported back to the 1950’s; a serene and innocent era of our history.
Here’s one of the many “expand my knowledge” parts:
“Often, all that was necessary to earn America’s enmity, and land yourself in a lot of trouble, was to get in the way of our economic interests. In 1950, Guatemala elected a reformist government-“’the most democratic Guatemala ever had,’ according to the historian Howard Zinn-under Jacobo Arbenz, an educated landowner of good intentions. Arbenz’s election was a blow for the American company United Fruit, which had run Guatemala as a private fiefdom since nineteenth century. The company owned nearly everything of importance in the country-the ports, the railroads, the communications networks, banks, stores, and some 550,000 acres of farmland-paid little taxes, and could count confidently on the support of a string of repressive dictators.” p. 133

He proceeds to inform how United Fruit took care of Jacobo Arbenz. I loved learning these horrible historical facts and thought Bryson did an amazing job of researching facts about this time period. He discussed how the Atomic Age impacted our lives-the fall-out (in my opinion) is something we are dealing with still!! Mixed in with all these facts are humorous stories (like the toity jar, p. 19), hysterical looks at his family life and the greater world around him. I loved the part about his paper route as I had brothers who suffered through the paper route ordeal and having to collect money from neighbors! Bill Bryson’s website-click here.
As per Project I need to let you know where this one is going-I’m sending it to my brother in Denver, CO, who attended Drake University. I think he will enjoy Bryson’s wit as well as the history of the city.

Highly Recommended/Memoirs

4/5 stars

Happy Reading!!!

My Weekend!

I’ve had an eventful weekend again…

1. My new Dell Inspiron Laptop arrived and I am now writing my first post on it!
2. Our washer/dryer purchase from last weekend fell through (back to dislike Home Depot-blech, blech)
3. We ended up going to my first, but more expensive choice, Smitty’s, the local and apparently far superior choice.
4. Here’s why: they were upfront about delays from Maytag (backorder problems) and offered to get us a “loaner” washer while we wait for the washer to be delivered . Yes, that is worth repeating…on Monday morning they will deliver, install a washer (and take away old Kitchen-Aid washer) so we have one to use for the month it will take for the Maytag to be designed, made and then delivered! There is a bit of a price difference, but hey, it is peace-of-mind that by Monday evening I will be able to do the piles and piles of laundry around my house (two weeks worth).
5. Peaceful Girl had ice skating lessons and 4-H meeting today-fun but no time to read for me.
6. I met with a local Yoga instructor to research yoga in our school idea -our wellness committee put me in charge of figuring out!
7. As I walked around rink, during skating lesson, I thought of Isometrics from reading Bill Bryson’s Thunderbolt Kid-he discusses his dad’s love of the 50’s exercise program-it made me laugh quietly to myself.
8. The book makes me laugh and think but I’m so ready to be finished with it.
9. Instead of reading it tonight I am heading downtown for a friend’s birthday celebration. Jazz, friends, cold beer-should be fun!
10. I love my new laptop and it is hard to leave it…my 14-year-old will play with it while I’m gone. I’m not giving him the password though:)

Happy Reading!!

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Dreamland

by Sarah Dessen

(2000)

This is my third finished book for 2010 and like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it was not an easy read. I love Dessen’s writing but the topic of this one made it very difficult.

Synopsis:

Ever since she started going out with Rogerson Biscoe, Caitlin seems to have fallen into a semiconscious dreamland where nothing is quite real. Rogerson is different from anyone Caitlin has ever known. He’s magnetic. He’s compelling. He’s dangerous. Being with him makes Caitlin forget about everything else-her missing sister, her withdrawn mother, her lackluster life. But what happens when being with Rogerson becomes a larger problem than being without him?

You see, I read all that on the back when I purchased the book six months ago-I knew from that description the boyfriend, Rogerson was bad news but reading it was so powerful, so real, so right on-I was shocked and shaky at points while reading it. I made little gurgly, grunty noises of fear for Caitlin. It was powerful reading particularly because I had one boyfriend who had some snarky resemblence to Rogerson.

My “Rogerson” was Joey and he was gorgeous; curly, wild hair (hmm, like Rogerson), funny, sweeter-than-sweet smile, and a happy, no worries-kind-of attitude. All good until his vivid green stripes started showing and I don’t mean his environmental tendencies, either. Then he became wicked controlling within one weekend and his severe temper reared up and out and toward me. It was completely unexpected for me-he drove a VW Bus and worked by day as a talented carpenter for heaven’s sake!! For me, this situation only lasted one weekend and then I said “see ya” to sweet Joey. It doesn’t ever really end that easy and it doesn’t for Caitlin but having lived through an abusive situation I was amazed at how perfect Dessen’s writing was on this topic and crushed because this wasn’t going to be a love story where I could secretly love the young male character! Statistically, I know high school young women are so vulnerable (I was a little older-out of college) and I knew, as soon as I heard Rogerson controlling her, which road we were heading down.

Intermixed with the abusive relationship are flashbacks and thoughts about Caitlin’s sister, Cassandra, who disappears with her boyfriend, Adam instead of heading off to Harvard. This is the event which throws Caitlin into a tailspin. I enjoyed her family story and thought it related to so many together families…nothing really wrong-more right than wrong but somehow kids don’t go down the projected path. The hippie/neighbor/best friends were wonderful characters as well.
I wish all teenage girls would read a book like this and learn the signs of someone who does not have their best interests at heart. It hurt to read the book but I’ve never written anything out about Joey, so maybe the light shines through! Sarah Dessen writes this with such vivid descriptions it makes me wonder if she too has a Joey in her past??
As part of Bibliophile By The Sea’s Reading from my shelves project I am passing this on to my stepdaughter Kaylee.

Click here- for Sarah Dessen’s website.

Highly Recommended YA/ 4/5 peaceful stars

Happy Reading!!