Peaceful Reader

Black Box by Julie Schumacher

I’d never heard of this author before and now I want to race back to the library and get one of her older titles. Black Box is a book about a family in crisis-real crisis not our everyday-to-much-going-on crisis). Dora is the very troubled sister and Elena, the narrator, is the stable sister, the one trying to hold it altogether. Julie Schumacher does an amazing job of creating realistic characters. There is only mom, dad, Dora, Elena and Jimmy Zenk, a teen-age neighbor, to focus on and the author weaves the story tightly around these characters. There is no fluff, no extra dialogue…not one sentence that shouldn’t be there. The opening of the book has Dora locked away at the local hospital psych ward, screaming her head off after an overdose. The rest of the family spirals around this change in daily routine as if they are looking for ruby slippers. Elena especially is left confused by her sister’s betrayal and truly feels she is the one that must save Dora. Elena just wants the life they had before; before Dora decided to be crazy. The sisters do have a special bond, which Dora, in her depression, uses to her advantage, creating more confusion for Elena. Jimmy’s odd friendship ultimately brings truth to the family and to Elena. I reread the last chapter over and over when I was finished: (little excerpt)

“I needed to be closer to the ground…..
I dropped to my knees. Cars drove past in both directions. I thought about what the Grandma Therapist had told me. ‘You learn to carry it with you. But sometimes, in the presence of a person you trust’– ‘I was supposed to save her, Jimmy,’ I said. ‘She asked me to save her.’
The traffice streamed by on either side of us. ‘I’m right here with you,’ Jimmy said. ” p. 164

This is not meant to be a spoiler but a tease and of course, the reason why all this makes such sense to me and why I will carry these lines around with me for awhile is because the rest of the book makes it all fit together so perfectly! You’ll have to read it now. Another reader who enjoyed this book as well.

Back to work Monday

beautiful, fun and one of my top ten movies!
check it out!
Thanks to Books List Life for starting my Monday this way

Easter Weekend

What a great and crazy weekend! We’ve run errands, we’ve grocery shopped, we’ve readied the church for Easter service and we’ve managed to relax! Saturday the children and I dyed silk scarves in Easter egg colors instead of trying to dye our beautiful brown organic eggs and having too many hard-boiled eggs around. It was a great project, both children enjoyed their creativity and one inspired by my friend Verda in Little Rock. She was inspired by The Rowdy Pea and when I got ready to do it this is where I found the easy and exact directions. Here is another great site that recounts their dyeing experience.

I did get some knitting done(just about finished with the white washcloth) and since I did not make it to the library on Saturday amidst all my other errands, I pulled a book off the pile of to-reads-eventually by my bed. I chose I have lived a thousand years; growing up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson. I purchased this book a few years ago in DC at the Holocaust Museum. After reading The Devil’s Arithmetic a few of my fifth-graders in our multicultural book club are interested in the Holocaust so I thought I would read this and pass it on to one of them. I’ve read five chapters and am impressed with how well it it written. The author writes a lot about her early dreams of becoming a poet; the one object she smuggled out of the ghetto was her poetry notebook. The dishes are done, my son wore a tie today and the Easter Bunny brought good peanut butter treats and black jelly beans!! The meal my mom and I prepared together was delicious. The day is done.

Another week gone…

I finished Elvis and Olive by Stephanie Watson today-great cover illustration which perfectly matches the story inside. Elvis and Olive, aka Annie and Natalie, find themselves sharing a summer together with all the fun and trouble two young girls can find. They don’t like each other in the first few minutes of meeting on the first day of freedom. Annie, the risk-taker, shows Natalie a dead bird and then invites Natalie into her makeshift under-the-porch clubhouse.
Who knows why Natalie goes with her at this point-she is grossed out by the dead bird and Annie’s up-front behavior. She does go with her though and somehow their differences turn into a caring relationship. I thought both characters were so lovable and real. I love their spy names and all the neighborhood secrets they discover together. I thought the conflict that arose was especially poignant for 3rd-6th grade girls to read about it; Arguments happen then you get over them!! check out what others have said…Kidsreads, The Breakfast Platter, me (te he) previously and haiku written by Ms. Watson herself!
I noticed her interview on the haiku for two site that a sequel is on its way-we can continue to read about this little friendship.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

I finished The Underneath today!! I began this book as a read-aloud for my 6-year-old daughter because of the cute dog and kittens on the front cover. J and I, soon concluded it was not a good story for her.Gar Face’s character scared her, she did not like the Grandmother Moccasin sections and it simply confused her as to how any of the stories were connected. She liked Ranger’s tale and how the cats all became part of one family. I decided to keep reading on my own. I am still struggling with how I feel about the book. I thought some of the images were beautiful. I love Ranger’s story and I honestly wanted the book to just stick with that relationship. I didn’t think the three stories merged enough to make it work. The Tale of Desperaux by Kate Dicamillo is, for me, a great example of various stories merging to make one great tale. Gar Face did not have any redeeming qualities and yes, he gets it in the end but it all just ties together in one quick knot. I thought the writing was repetitive and went on to long (i would have cut out a few chapters). As a school librarian my main concern is who to recommend this book to; what age group; what teacher for read-aloud. I am left wondering. Many students would love the animal aspect but be very put-off by Gar Face’s treatment of animals and his swilling of every known spirit available to him. The snake, Night Song and Hawk Man thread is complicated and students have trouble traveling back and forth, back and forth so frequently. Was this bookmeant for elementary students? I am glad I read it and parts of it will stick with me; I have especially enjoyed reading the variety of comments about this book from other bloggers. There seems to be no definitive answer on this book and perhaps that is what makes an interesting tale.

Freaky Friday

I haven’t read any books today! I have been spending far too much time browsing blogs, browsing cookbooks, and selling books to students and I am so ready to go home. What I did not get done was cleaning my desks of piles. The last two days have been conference days and so the Scholastic book fair is in the library. Parents and students have browsed and bought and I like that; I just don’t like the commercialism of the book fair. Two tables are devoted to the amount of Disney stuff they include. High School Musical cookbooks (did they cook in the movie, how is this related??), Hannah Montana work books, photo albums and chapter books devoted to the girl and all that fluff gets in the way of the good books that are there. Doesn’t even count the powderpuff pens and fancy ribbon pencils that I leave in the box…ugh…
Okay enough ranting!! I do love it when parents come in and buy their student a good book or two and say no to the crap. Yeah Parents! Yeah Friday! Ready, set, go home and relax…with a good book.
Here is what I am reading: Elijah of Buxton for a school book club, Elvis and Olive, and trying to finish The Underneath. I’ll take a cold beer with those books and hope and pray we do NOT get the winter storm predicted for this area.

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.