Way back, oh so many weeks ago when we were still in the heat of the summer, I signed up to participate in Cinnamon’s BlogFest 2010 Big Giveaway. That was when September loomed far in the future and whoop there it is, smack in my lap-September 10th!
What is BlogFest? (from a Journey of Books)
BlogFest is a massive carnival of giveaways with a great collection of participating blogs. Each blog has a giveaway and the idea is to hop from blog to blog, entering all the giveaways your little heart desires. Hopefully you might even come across a few blogs you might want to bookmark and continue visiting.
To enter leave a comment on this post including your email address.
For extra entries (leave a separate comment for each entry):
+1 Follow this blog (via Google Friend Connect, RSS Feed, email subscription,etc.)
+1 Follow me on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway (include @peacefulreader in your tweet)
3 entry maximum. (Not open internationally.)
The next stop on the hop is Inspired by Fiction. Keep clicking and entering…
The deadline for entry is Midnight (Eastern Time) September 12th.
And as if that wasn’t enough great stuff…
Please don’t forget about the massive BlogFest 2010 grand giveaway! Head on over to http://ajourneyofbooks.halfzero.net and click on the Tracking Site link to head to our own exclusive tracking site. Once there you can register with a valid email address (to be used solely for the purpose of contacting the winner). This site will allow you to track your progress through BlogFest 2010! You can log on from anywhere at any time and continue where you left off. The best part is that every blog that you visit and mark off through this tracking site will give you one entry into the massive giveaway! We have a great collection of books, goodies and other swag that is looking for a new home!
Keep it real-
Vanishing Cultures is the series title for seven books by Jan Reynolds and all with beautiful covers. Each book showcases an indigenous group and highlights their close relationship to their surrounding environment. With gorgeous photos and easy text these are fantastic books to share with any age child.
Frozen Lands begins: “As the sun sets on the edge of the frozen shores of Qumanituaq, a large inlet of Hudson Bay, Kenalogak asks her grandmother for one more story. They hurry to prepare tea before the chill of darkness comes, and Kenalogak’s grandmother begins her tale.” (p. 1-2) Inuit history is shared as well as day to day life for Kenalogak’s family. They depend on the caribou, their snow dogs and a shared respect with the natural world that helps them survive. Kenalogak and her brothers learn how to build a new igloo from their father and it only takes the family about an hour to build it. I think kids of all ages would find Kenalogak’s life fascinating in the frozen land of the Canadian Arctic.
Down Under shares the aborigines Tiwi tribe who live on an island just off the coast of Australia. It begins: “Far down under, the bright sun sets over one of Australia’s tiny islands. Inside a ring of small fires that keep wild animals away at night, a young aboriginal girl named Ampenula whispers to her mother, asking for one more story. She curls up close as her mother begins her tale about their tribe, the Tiwi.” (p1-2) Amprenula talks about dancing your own Dreaming and how it brings her closer to the land. As the tribe travels from place to place they hunt for food in the trees as their ancestors did before them. They catch a bandicoot and a large carpet snake in the book. Kids will love the close up photos of the snake as it is pulled from an old log.
Both books show children and adults in native clothing, which in the Tiwi tribe (naturally) means less clothing. While noone is naked per se there are photos of nealy naked children and the backside of a woman wearing just a skirt. My girl asked honest questions about this as would kids in a school setting-kids in a school setting might giggle a bit about this but it wouldn’t keep me from sharing the story.
This whole set would make a great addition to any collection but would be especially perfect for a cultural study. My friend Tina at Books Are My Thing! is posting about two other titles in this series. Please travel over to her blog to check out what she has to say! I thought there were only four titles in the series (our public library only had four) but now that I know there are seven I’m anxious to read the other choices. I loved the connection to the environment each book made a point to share-it is important to realize as we advance our own culture, other cultures would prefer to stay as they have for centuries. Jan Reynolds reminds us how important it is to respectfully allow them to live in their preferred manner.
Check out this pdf file to use with this series.
I realized while researching this author that she wrote another nonfiction title, Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life-reviewed here by me. I found an interview with Reynolds at Lee and Low Books about sustainability.
It’s Friday and time for the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Jennifer at Crazy-for-Books.
The question for today is
Do you judge a book by its cover?
Emphatically Yes! A beautiful cover draws the reader in and will continually keep a hold on you.
For instance while I read Shiver I kept looking back at the cover, even though it’s just some vines and a wolf, it was
Sam’s and Grace’s world and I felt drawn into it.
I will read books with less-than-attractive covers because it could still be a fantastic story within-it just makes me disappointed in the art and perhaps expect more from the story. Once I learned that authors have pretty much no say over their cover art, which is was a shocking discovey and complete failure in the balance of the world, I think I judge less.
No matter what though the cover has the opportunity to pull me in and great attention to detail should be paid in representing that story, the one hand-crafted by the author.
Hop on over to Crazy-for-Books, check out the rules and the hundreds of blogs participating, and hop, hop, hop!
“It did not stand to reason that a shark would find you in the first quarter hour you were in the water. Statistically it would have been a fluke, a crazy ironic coincidence, like lightning burning a Z in Zorro’s shoulder blade, or a boat impaling itself on a rusty engine part.” (30)
~hippie chick by Joseph Monninger
Teaser Tuesday is a bookish weekly meme hosted by MizB. at Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along. Just grab your current read and do the following:
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (don’t share too much; 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!
I’ve been trying to spruce up my blog the last few weeks by changing colors and backgrounds but nothing seemed to fit. While jogging from one blog to another one day I discovered The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective blog and my eye caught a little blurb about button-making and viola, after lots of magic wand waving, she created a beautiful banner for me! Doesn’t it look lovely! Beyond that I’m pretty happy with my white background and varied color scheme as I’m not a fancy girl. Tell me what you think!
I finished Shiver last night and loved it-it made me ache for young love and for all those moments I see my husband doing his quirky things that make me so giddy. For instance recently he’s been needing cheater glasses to read-he hates this-but I ADORE it as he reads next to me at night. Something about those glasses makes me happy and Shiver brought out tons of good raw emotion. More on that later when I review it and now I need to find me a copy of Linger-second in the Mercy Falls series. I still need to write about One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, which was really good, and several new picture books burning a hole in my library bag.
I am reading hippie chick by Joseph Monninger while I wait for teenage son to finish Mockingjay-but I agree with JuJu of Tales of Whimsy who left me a comment acknowledging that starting it means ending it so I’m not racing to read it but am aware of its presence in the bedroom next door, right on the nightstand, sitting closed. It will call to me soon enough.
I did make the Cheeca Sauce I posted about yesterday but otherwise did not cook much this weekend. We had a wedding reception to attend and I had a ton of homework to do after my first week of school. I’ve finished my lesson plans for the week and some charts for positive behavior-I’m ready to roll for my second full week of teaching.
What about you…what made your week exciting? Mine is having that new banner to enjoy! Thank you to The Golden Eagle at Eagle’s Aerial Perspective. Happy Monday everyone…
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| This looks exactly like the mix of tomatoes I used for the Cheeca Sauce. |
I got my copy of Mockingjay on Thursday and even though I’m happy to have it in my hand it wasn’t as exciting as (the old days) getting the new Harry Potter in the late post on the same day. Those were some thrilling days, waiting in the driveway for the UPS man to hand deliver it in its brown wrapper. My son is taking his turn first since I am still enjoying Shiver. I have the third book in the Millenium series to read but maybe I’ll tuck Mockingjay inbetween.
by Melissa Walker, PhD
Every once in awhile I’m contacted by an editor, or publicist, to read a certain book because it matches my interests. You never really know if the book is going to be a good fit but this one was perfect. A Place for Delta, sent to me by Lisa Roe, from Online Publicist, is an environmentally-friendly, pay-attention-to-the-world-around-you, kind of book! It is a fast read with great details, the first book of a series, and I love when a series excites kids about reading!
Synopsis from Whale Press website:
The first book of the series, A Place for Delta, was published in June 2010, and has already been selected by International Book Awards as winner of the Best Children’s Fiction category. It is a 272-page, smythe-sewn, jacketed hardcover; a middle reader chapter book for 9-12 year-olds. A Place for Delta captivates, inspires, and empowers children. The novel incorporates current environmental concerns into the narrative of one family’s multi-generational adventures. Eleven-year-old Joseph travels to Barrow, Alaska, the most northern town in the United States, to help a group of wildlife biologists care for an orphaned polar bear. Stationed at a research center with his Aunt Kate, Joseph becomes a player in a complex web of mystery, scientific discovery and danger.
I appreciated how this book merged a great story with such deep scientific facts. As a non-sciencey-type person I enjoyed learning about the natural environment of both Georgia and Alaska. The above synopsis mentions the multi-generational structure of the book so you get a feel for how important the link is between our past and our future. Most of the story focuses on Joseph and his Aunt Kate taking care of Delta, first in the Alaska research center and later at a natural habitat on Joseph’s grandmother’s Georgian farm. Kate records data for Dr. Yu as he strives to learn more about the polar bear population and how global warming, and the local oil companies, may or may not affect their survival. He discovers a young polar bear on an ice floe one morning and later they find the mother bear dead. A mystery unravels as Joseph flies to Barrow, Alaska, to help his aunt care for the baby bear. Taking care of Delta turns out to be only part of his grand adventure.
Because my 15-year-old son has traveled to Alaska three times for fishing excursions I kept fact checking with him. “Would you actually see a moose close to downtown Anchorage?” and he would answer me (an exchange of conversation occurred-YEAH), filling me in with all sorts of his own details. Yes, it is possible to run into a moose in Anchorage and he knew of the spot Walker makes reference to in the tale. I was happy that each time I fact checked he was able to answer in the affirmative and it was a great way for me to hear more about his previous trips. I love a story that has the details correct-even fiction needs to make sense most of the time.
Melissa Walker has created a timeless tale using current issues, interesting cause and effect, problem-solving and makes it all very mysterious. It also is written in language easy-to-understand so students won’t feel overwhelmed.
Random Quote:
Inside the toy box, Joseph found a fuzzy wind-up mouse for Delta to chase, a blue ball the size of a canteloupe, and a bag of large foam blocks. Then he sat down on the floor next to the cub. For a few minutes, she was still as they looked into each other’s eyes. Joseph wondered what could be going on in her mind. All he could do was stare back, almost hypnotized by her gaze. Slowly Delta moved closer to Joseph. (97)
Kids will want their own “Delta” to feed and play with, perhaps opening their minds to the real issues facing all Arctic animals. Highly recommended for middle grade and everyone above, science read-alouds, animal lovers and earth-friendly classrooms. I look forward to the next book in Walker’s Delta series. Thank you Lisa for sending me a copy.
Peaceful Reader 
