book love – Peaceful Reader

Summer food and a few books

I am loving my solitude this summer. Groovy Girl goes off to work at the water park and the husband goes off to make a movie or direct a show and I have the day to myself. I have been to work several times and it is so quiet there that it is easy to get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. I am almost finished with inventory for the year. My goal for meals is to have something ready for my two worker bees; it’s the least I can do for them after they’ve labored out there in the world especially the teenager as she is out in the hot sun for a good 9 hours. I want to have good food ready for them.

I made this vegan corn chowder even though it is way before sweet corn season but I had a large bag of white corn in the freezer and soup to me is always good even on hot days. I am in the process of making this pasta dish tonight with fresh cut basil from my garden. I roasted some broccoli and I put together a fresh salad using greens a friend who shared part of her CSA for the week. I’m looking for easy meals that I can put together and they can eat late when they come through the door. Easy for me, easy for them.

Our girls

I’ve browsed through a new cookbook, The Fresh Egg Cookbook, that my friend MK gave me. She is honestly one of the best gift givers. She went to the Decorah Seed Saver store and found this cookbook for me in celebration of the beautiful chickens that grace my back yard. There are some really good recipes in here as well as chicken tips. We are on our fourth round of chicken parenting and we love it! They are quirky characters that roam our backyard and provide us with eggs.

I finished the first, Shadow and Bone, in the GrishaVerse trilogy today which was recommended to me be a family of former students. I have to pace myself though before I start the second one. My mother-in-law recommended How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior and I picked it up yesterday from the library. Before all that I finished my Book of the Month Club May pick; Things we lost to the water by Eric Nguyen, which was a very compelling story of immigration, New Orleans, Vietnam, and Hurricane Katrina.

You may wonder if I am getting ANY homework done…?

ThinkIn15 with Mr Schu

On Saturday I participated in a ThinkIn at an elementary school about 45 minutes away. Even though it was gorgeous weather on Saturday and I live to be outside when it is so lovely out, I went. I could have rolled over at 7:30 am and gone right back to sleep as the other peeps at my house did but I didn’t. I had a strong conviction to go because Mr. Schu (John Schumacher) was the guest speaker and I love to follow his lovely blog posts and tweets. He’s created quite a community of readers, authors, bloggers, librarians, and teachers. I gave up my Saturday morning for him and it was well worth it.

He had a plethora of slides about connecting students with books to start the day off and we didn’t even get to half of his slides. He says he has OCD when it comes to making slide shows. That OCD is exactly what makes him entertaining to see in person. He flits from story to story, sharing funny anecdotes about authors he’s met, and his own quirkiness. He has a smell test for all new books. Yes, I said smell test as in “doesn’t this book smell a-m-a-z-i-n-g!”

I had many things I wanted to say to him but I’m nervous and weird and can never get the right sentence out at the right time so I nodded my head a lot in the two conversations we had. One of the things I wanted to say was that I loved Matthew Baker’s book, If you find this, which when Mr Schu shared about this book everyone else looked at it like they’d never heard of it and he said he couldn’t find a copy of it in the book stores he stopped in on his way through Iowa. Hmmm. I loved the book and we need to start a buzz about If you find this.

His second presentation shared lots of new books with us and he gave away lots of books. He talked about authors he loves like Kate DiCamillo, Ame Dykeman, and Katherine Applegate and he likes funny books which made me wonder if he likes Emily Gravett books. Her books are unusual and kids like her sense of humor.

I was the lucky winner of TWO books from Mr. Schu (thank you, thank you!); A passion for elephants; the real life adventure of field scientist Cynthia Moss by Toni Buzzeo and Holly Berry and Ivan; the remarkable true story of the shopping mall gorilla by Katherine Applegate and G. Brian Karas. I loved The one and only Ivan also by Applegate and many teachers use it for a read aloud so this book will make a great addition to our library. And did I mention that it’s signed by K. Applegate!

I think it is interesting that I got two books with super long titles and both about animals. I had to sit on my hands for the rest of his giveaways and it was very difficult; he had so many great books to give away. My friend Nancy was the lucky winner of Brian Selznick’s new book The Marvels.

You can find Mr Schu’s wonderful blog posts at Watch. Connect. Read. I love reading his posts, his book recommendations make my lists long on Titlewave, and he entertains using Vine and lots of book trailers.

Feature Friday

I have three picture books to feature today because I fell in love with them just this morning! It is the month of love so I give you three books you shouldn’t live without…

1. The Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen (2009)

I’m not a fan of the circus-the kind that uses animals to entertain so I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to feel about this book, until I read it of course. It is a delight! It rhymes. When a storm ruins the ship the captain saves the the mean and greedy circus boss, Mr. Paine, who chooses to leave the animals behind to save his own. The animals swim to an island beach, taking refuge with the local people, who are at first scared and then learn to love having the animals around. The circus animals win their freedom from the demanding circus boss through a great hide and seek scene. The illustrations are larger-than-life beautiful and it is loosely based on a real event. 5 stars

2. “I have a Little Problem,” said the bear by Heinz Janisch and Silke Leffler (2007)

Bear wanders in to town to get help but noone listens to his problem. The inventor, the tailor, the hatter, the doctor, the street vendor, the eye doctor, the shopkeeper, and the shoe maker all jump to their own conclusions. Noone even listens to what it is until bear meets a curious fly outside of town. In my storytime hour children didn’t get the big picture but I know a little girl at home who will understand and love it. The illustrations are whimsical and kindergarten students loved the repitition. 5 stars

3. the cow loves cookies by karma wilson and marcellus hall. (2010)

I’ve come to expect great things, usually rhyming things, from Mrs. Wilson as she is the author of The Bear Snores on series of books. This one didn’t disappoint. All the other animals on the farm eat what the farmer gives them-the horse loves hay, the chickens; chicken feed, the pigs love their slop but the cow…she gets special treatment. Students loved learning why the cow loves cookies…because she shares her milk with the farmer and he shares his cookies. Milk and cookies go so well together. I wish I had some for my lunch today! 5 stars

What ever you do today, ENJOY!!
If you need a picture book-these 3 will not disappoint.