Uncategorized – Page 121 – Peaceful Reader

Double O book club

Shelf Awareness link is now working:)
Also President Obama, an avid reader, is launching a book club with Oprah Winfrey. Called the Double O Book Club, the joint venture will feature titles from “distressed” publishers and be tweeted from the White House.-–John Mutter

Just read this great little paragraph from Shelf Awareness. Can’t wait to see their selections. I never really participated in Oprah’s book club but adding my favorite president to the mix will make me read and write about it!!

J and I read a not-very-exciting book last night at bedtime, new from our public library; The Great Doughnut parade by Rebecca Bond. Here is the excerpt from the publisher:
“Just where is small Billy going? Why does he have a doughnut tied to his belt? Does he know he is being followed by, first, a hen (with a cluck, cluck, cluck), then a cat (all quiet and slinky), and, farther down Main Street, a band . . . and firemen? Then sign painters . . . brick layers . . . even cloud catchers! Author/illustrator Rebecca Bond reveals the truly marvelous things that can happen when a doughnut is tied up with string.

okay…I have to admit I have never once been curious about what might happen when a doughnut is tied to a string, especially tied to a belt loop…I did poll my family (we mostly all thought the doughnut would fall apart) and made my husband read the book to see if I was perchance missing something. He agreed with me; the book lacks imagination, a good rhyme scheme and as J put it “who would want to eat a doughnut after it has been bouncing back behind you?” Oops, now I’ve spoiled the ending for you. I’ve not read any of her other books and the illustrations by her were alright. I have to admit I was drawn in by just the word doughnut…sadly, just fluff.

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury

Shift by Jennifer Bradbury (2008)
I picked this book out again for Tristan, the 13-year-old, to read but the blurb inside the front cover had me. I finished it in the middle of the night on Sunday because I am suffering from some serious insomnia not because I was so gripped by the story. Again I liked the book but the front cover gave me a different impression or else how I read the blurb gave me a different impression, I’m really not sure (lack of sleep). I thought the book was going to be a bike ride then swing ahead into the later future where Chris discovers some amazing tale about what happened to his friend, which I guess would have been slightly more fantastical and cool. Instead it goes from bike trip to first week of college-still good. As it is Chris and Winston, two high school friends, set out on a long distance bike trek from West Virginia to Seattle, Washington. The tales along the way are interesting, their friendship is expressed in back-and-forth chapters between past, present and trip. The difference in boys is Chris comes from a loving, supportive family and Winston, a wealthy, cold family with a controlling father and vacation-happy mom. Chris becomes disenchanted with Winston and his antics and lack of responsibility and their relationship spirals out of control. The rest you will have to read yourself. One interesting fault that I had with the book was why Jennifer Bradbury had them ride so far north. She has them trek from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois up through Wisconsin and Minnesota, making note of a stop to see a statue of Paul Bunyon and his blue ox, Babe!! As a Midwest girl I kept thinking “why are they going straight north out of Iowa”- instead of cutting nw through South Dakota. Just me being a picky reader, knowing the lay of the map land way too much or very sleep-deprived. Bradbury does have a great website/blog and I enjoyed her story of how the book came to be. Also the ending (not a spoiler) to Winston’s tale is hmmm…I guess I really can’t say without spoiling so never mind. Suffice it to stay Winston’s character grew on me.

Reading by candlelight…

And flashlight last night we read four great books, My honey, J and I all crowded on the love seat, and read Half a pig by Allen Ahlberg, The Lonely Moose by John Segal, How Mommy met Daddy by Katharina Grossmann-Hensel and The Perfect Bear by Gillian Shields and Gary Blythe, all picked from our local library! Half a pig was interesting but long! The Lonely Moose is a quick, sweet tale about friendship. How mommy met daddy is odd on the last page but the idea is how two very different people can come together and become, through love, a better version of yourself. The Perfect Bear took our collective breath away with the amazing illustrations, which had an antique quality and really bring the Velveteen rabbit-like tale to life! The expressions on the tiny face of the “do not touch bear” were so true and real. All four of these books will be added to my to-buy list for school, especially the bear book. It’s not easy reading by a flashlight held by a wiggly 6-year-old!! Thank heavans we are not pretending to be pioneers for the long term. Family decision last night though was we should spend every Saturday using minimal electricity…getting snuggy on the love seat was a positive experience. We’ll see what the teenager has to say about this new family development as he was at a sleep-over!!

Earth Hour

Earth hour is fast approaching and I can’t wait to go outside and see if anyone else on this street could be participating!!! I need to get some candles ready because J is still awake and probably will not like utter darkness. I made delicious soup/chili with tomatoes frozen from last year’s garden so our tummies are full and happy. I wonder if the lights at the White House will be off…maybe at least some of them.

Movie Trailer

I just watched a clip of Where the Wild Things Are by Sendak directed by Spike Jonze!

This is a very treasured book at our home and we even have our own collection of lovable Wild Things my honey has collected for me over the years in celebration of birthdays and anniversaries. I love movies but don’t often spend the bucks to go sit in the theater except for special movies and this one makes that list!!
I just finished The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, which was so unusual and well-written! I, too fell in love with Jenna and all her complexities! It raised so many questions for me of what the future holds for us humans. Second to Jenna I love Lily and their relationship, which seems cold at first but warms up as Jenna continues to question herself. I don’t want to give any of this great story away but read it because it is filled with admiration for the human spirit!
My favorite read-aloud this week is The Zoo by Suzy Lee ,
which tells the story of a young girl discovering the zoo on her own wild romp, while her parents are frantically searching for her. Ms. Lee’s illustrations are so perfectly rendered using something close to chalk, which drew my wee students into it even more. Then when I showed them the back cover many were left wondering but just a few knew about her shoe already…we had to go back into the book to show everyone else her missing shoe. Some students thought the gorilla was going to eat the shoe but those of us that got it knew he was admiring not hungry!

Quick Vacation post; Rick Riordan series

I finished The Sea of Monsters...Yeah!!!!! I love this series. I am reading it with a fifth-grade book club and I love how this book creates an instantaneous love of Greek mythology.
I am anxious to read The Titan’s Curse-wish I had brought it with me to Little Rock! I am reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox also though, which is very good and mysterious as well.

Story time in Little Rock

Today I was hanging with my friend Verda at her home in Little Rock when I nonchalantly went through her current library pile and found an absolute gem of a book by Holly Hobbie called Fanny! I don’t know how this book got passed me because the adorable heroine on the front cover is wearing cute-as-a-button glasses and I am always looking for role models for J. in this area. I love the Toot and Puddle books so I don’t know how this one slipped by but thank heavans Verda had it in her library pile so I had to stop and read it to Sela and Japhy right then and there. I love Fanny’s sense of style because at our house we often have dance outfits mixed in with outfit of the day and we don’t give in to the Bratz doll craze although we do have antique Barbies. Fanny is a heroine who does things for herself in the face of adversity…her Mom saying “no” to the fancy Connie doll. She makes her own doll and stands up to her friends as well. I would like to invite Fanny over to my house for a playdate with J.-the two could commiserate over their Mom’s but have a blast playing in the meantime! Thank you V and S for introducting us to this great book!

More Spring Break reading

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I don’t really know what I expected but The Underneath by Kathi Appelt is not some simple animal companion story. I brought it home from the library a few weeks ago because I was anxious to read it and like a good mother I decided to multi-task and read it to J. for a bedtime read-aloud (a change of pace from Junie. B and fairy gems). I don’t really like to read reviews about books before I read them as those words tend to get in the way of enjoyment but this may have been a time I could have used some red flags. Oh, the book is so well written and the story is woven so beautifully together and we have yet to get to where the stories come together. Kate DiCamillo’s The tale of Desperaux is a perfect example of another extraordinary weaving together of seperate threads. I did ask J., after Gar Face appeared, if she would like me to quite reading the book to her and she bounced on her bed and said, something like “no, no, no” about a hundred times so she’s hooked. I would say the book would really be better for 4th, 5th grade students, which are exactly who will read it when I take it back to my school library but for now it stays and J. and I will finish it with glee and some sadness- every three chapters or so.
Now for the other child…the 13-year-old I am so frantically trying to keep amongst the reading. The second book( first one was the previously blogged about Compound) I picked out at our public library for him is Gone by Michael Grant(watch this great youtube video of MG talk about the book). This book, I found out, is part of a planned six book series and Tristan and I are ready for the second one to appear. The premise of this book is that something has occured in the world and all the adult have simply disappeared…in fact, every one over 15 disappears. There are town kids, babies, and a prep school for teens in trouble all stuck in one community together. Many normal things happen such as looting but so much happens that I couldn’t even, or wouldn’t even think possible. This isn’t a typical book I would pick up for just me to read but Tristan is looking for new material since the Eragon series is in remission. He finished it the other day so now I have been reading like mad and along the way we talk about it (don’cha love it). We talk about the character’s choices and the author’s ideas. What I love most though is his constant “where are you now Mom, what’s happening now?” and well, it keeps us connected. I haven’t finished yet but tomorrow looks like another good reading day.

The Red Shoe by Ursula

I just finished The Red Shoe by Australian author Ursula Dubosarksky. It took me a few tries to get into this book but once I did I really loved it. In the 1950’s outside of Sydney this family demonstrates the quirkiness that exits in every family. Matilda, as the youngest tells most of the story to us. She has spies living next door that she spies on, an imaginary friend named Floreal who came out of the radio one night and a father who is out to sea and missed for most of the book. Matilda has two older sisters, Elizabeth and Frances who struggle with their own demeans. Elizabeth, the oldest, quits school one day and decides to have an emotional breakdown. Frances observes and rarely talks. The spies next door create a bit of mystery as well as a trip the family took to the “Basin” for a picnic a few years ago. Interspersed among this fictional family’s unusual tale are real newspaper clippings from The Syndey Morning Herald delivering to the reader facts about a Soviet defection and other various real events of the day. I was intrigued by the cover of this book, sitting on the middle grade new shelf at the library and I am so happy I gave it a try. Wow, if I didn’t have to go to school every day I would get a lot more reading and blogging done!!! Yeah Spring Break!!

Tarah the Barbie snatcher

We love our four-month-old Christmas puppy but we had forgotten how much work a puppy takes and how much a puppy can destroy. Here is a short list of things Tarah has ruined:
1. My cool glasses
2. one brown Mary Jane shoe J. size
3. Countless kleenex
4. Sunglasses
5. Lots of Barbie limbs
6. stuffed animals and Beanie Babies

The Barbie fetish has us really laughing (not the Barbie girls though!) because I have given J. many older Barbies that I have gleaned from second-hand shops. Older Barbies have more movement; their knees bend, their torso sometimes twists around. Newer Barbies tend to be just one plastic piece; boring. The puppy loves the Barbies and chews off their hands and has left several with permanently maimed limbs (click on the photo to see dramatic chews). If you look very, very closely you will see the right hands missing and lots of bite marks on each of these glam dolls. Tarah does not ever choose the variety of Only Hearts club dolls we have. Tarah is only a fan of Barbies and every once in awhile she likes to lick Elizabeth, J.’s A.G. doll. She obviously has her favorites and she is, after all, a girl pup!! What can we expect! J. happily plays with her dolls, with limbs or without…it just doesn’t matter. She is non-discriminatory.
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