culture – Peaceful Reader

Are you watching the Oscars?

We are and we had friends over to share the night with and it’s fun to watch with others as we “judge” dresses, hairstyles, and handsome guys! Neil Patrick Harris is doing a fantastic job of hosting-perfect amount of dry wit and silliness/underwear.

I was up early this morning making dough for homemade pizzas, cut up veggies, cheeses and cooked good Italian sausage + more to enjoy. Our friends brought salad, chocolates, wine, and beer. We filled out Oscar ballots and had fun watching everyone stroll down the red carpet in the rain.

This event is part of my NY’s resolution to have a new person over for dinner once a month and two months out I’m still going strong. This was a little bit more stressful event though as my husband had a play open last night, my stepmother was an overnight guest last night, and my amazing in-laws are arriving this week plus I’ve had a lot of balls in the air at work. We pulled it off though and I’m pretty sure everyone had fun.

My reason for making this a resolution; I worry about the cleanliness of my house. I don’t like to clean house. Why would I want to dust when I can be reading? I do love to cook though so I made a promise to worry more about what I could make for people instead of where dust bunnies are hiding. The pizza was a hit and nobody mentioned any dust. This is now my measure of success.

Also we made this kickass batch of mint fudge. It was delicious and we made a double batch (super smart) so we can share it with our incoming guests.

Our Oscar comments feed:

What’s with so many red dresses?

What up with Lady Gaga gloves?

The Lego movie rocks!

Lots of hair that really looks a lot like “bed hair”

So happy that Patricia Arquette won! And her speech was wonderful.

Reese and Anna Kendell looked fantastic.

Felicity Jones looked great.

Scarlett: amazing dress shade!

Mmmm. John Legend.

We all agreed we would like a Lego Oscar statue….

Thank you. That’s it. Good night.

Weekend Cooking; One World Kids Cookbook

One World Kids Cookbook;

Easy, healthy and affordable family meals

by Sean Mendez

(2011)

“The most important ingredients in any meal are: Love, bonding and sharing.”

Great advice for families everywhere! Groovy Girl and I checked this book out from the library and browsed through it two days ago while we ate breakfast together. Many of the recipes included odd ingredients that made her not interested. We did love the photography and the sage wisdom sprinkled throughout made it a perfect start to our day.

“To the above, all you need to add is a dash of patience, a pinch of creativity and a heaped cup full of enthusiasm?”

Each two-page spread features a country with a map, facts and proverbs related to food or culture. This would make a wonderful tool for school as students research about another culture or country.

Russia’s food proverb:

“The rich would have to eat money if the poor did not provide food.” (perfect moment for this conversation)

We settled on Rice with vegetables (like I need a recipe for that…) but this dish is from Somalia and we plan to try it soon. I have to admit adding the wide variety of spices to the recipe will make it very new for me. Groovy Girl liked the vegetable choices except she requested we use only 1 garlic clove not 3!

Rice with Vegetables (Somalia)

1 cup basmati rice, rinsed
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 courgettes/zucchini, diced
2 peppers, any colors, diced
1 vegetable stock, cube
4 cardamon pods
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
2 1/2 cups water
4 T olive oil
salt/pepper

Heat half the oil in a large pot. Fry onion and garlic for about 8 minutes, stirring often. Add the cinnamon stick and spices, and cook for 3 minutes to release their flavor. Pour in the rest of the oil.

Add the remaining vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Rinse rice until water runs clear. Add rice and water to pot, crumble stock cube in and bring to a simmer. Cook rice according to package instructions.

Remove cardamon pods and cloves, if you can find them!

Tasty Tip: This dish is also nicely finished off with a handful of raisins or your favorite fresh herbs. For those addicted to spice, sprinkle some Tabasco over your dish and tuck in!

Directions include step-by-step photographs featuring young chefs which really adds to the kid appeal.

My favorite proverb comes from Spain:

“For wine to taste of wine, you must drink it with a friend.”

Countries included:

Russia, Brazil, USA, China, New Zealand, India, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Morocco, Columbia, Somalia, Spain, Philippines, Iran, Australia, U.K., Ghana, Greece, and Jamaica.
My favorite recipe hailed from Morocco-couscous with chickpeas and peppers. An extra section on smoothies is included plus lots of cooking tips.

Check out Superchef‘s review with another recipe, Chicken and Spinach Curry from India.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a meme hosted by Candace at Beth Fish Reads. Click to her site for many more food-related posts.

Three Unique Picture Books You'll Enjoy!

In between chapter books Groovy Girl and I have had the chance to explore three very cool books. She is fascinated with Russia and chose to do a report on the country for school. She brought this book home from her school library:

Russian Girl; Life in an Old Russian Town (1994) by Russ Kendall. Meet 9-year-old Olga Surikovain in this nonfiction picture book and share a little of what her day is like. Her family lives in the small town of Suzdal-150 miles east of Moscow. The photos are lovely and Groovy Girl poured over them, trying to fully understand Olga’s life. Even though this title is “older” the information is worthwhile and shares a time in Russia’s history. My paternal grandfather came from a small town on the Russian/Polish border and I love to see my girl explore these interesting roots. The back of the book includes two recipes, an alphabet of Russian letters,and a good list of Russian words and names.

Running with the Horses (2009) by Alison Lester. This is a fictionalized version of an event that occurred during WWII; the rescue of the Lipizzaner stallions from the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Nina, a fictional young girl, works with her father, the stable master. The academy has closed and the war comes closer every day. Eventually her father and another stable hand, Karl, decide to take the horses across the border to her deceased mother’s parent’s farm. The story is beautifully told and the illustrations are a gorgeous mix of pencil drawings and what look like photographs but may actually be paintings.

An Edible Alphabet; 26 Reasons to Love the Farm (2011) by Carol Watterson and Michela Sorrentino. I LOVE this book. Every page stands for something I believe in with all my heart. It is a kid-friendly manifest of why we need to be eating locally from farms and our own backyards. It has snippets of healthy information swirled into beautiful illustrations. I’ve already ordered it for my school library collection. On a personal note I have an organic kid’s book on my computer with this same title-no kidding. Guess I better get busy and finish it before some else writes the book.

happy reading!

Saraswati's Way

by Monika Schroder

2010

233 pages, including glossary

I love to get books directly from the author. Monika Schroder contacted me and asked if I would read and review her book and I casually replied “Yes, I’d love to…” and at that point you never know how it’s going to turn out but the book was wonderful. I especially loved learning more about Indian culture and I fell in love with Akash and his passion for learning.

Summary: Leaving his village in rurual India to find a better education, mathematically gifted, twelve-year-old Akash arrives at the New Delhi train station, where he relies on Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, to guide him as he negotiates life on the street, resists the temptations of easy money, and learns whom he can trust.

Akash’s story demonstrates how difficult in many cultures it is to become educated and even though the United States has a public school system we experience the same; if your family does not value education that fact alone will make it hard to be a good student. Akash has been in school but his math knowledge exceeds his teacher’s and he needs to locate and pay for a math tutor so he can pass the a test and get a scholarship to get into a good high school. His father believes in Akash’s education but when his father dies his grandmother is quick to send him off to work in the rock quarry.

After only a few days at the rock quarry Akash has the chance to “see” the ledger keeping all the accounts for the quarry. When he realizes it will take him years and years to pay off his grandmother’s debt he chooses to run away. He knows he has what it takes to change and his desire is to be educated. Jumping a train to Delhi Akash is hidden by a portly train employee.

In Delhi he doesn’t know anyone and ends up sleeping in a box through the night. While he’s taken himself out of one bad situation (rock quarry) he quickly finds living on his own has its drawbacks. He has to deal with other boys fighting to stay alive, police, and drug dealers. While Akash makes some good decisions and some bad ones he learns to keep his focus on finding an education. On the train platform he eventually meets Ramesh-ji who runs the magazine stand. He lets Akash sleep on top so he isn’t bothered by the police officers in the night. Ramesh and Akash build a good relationship, realizing there is more to each of them than one would think.

Three Quotes:

Other street boys befriend Akash and teach him the ways of the station. They all have ways to deal with their homelessness and hunger.

“I will fly away,” Deepak said, fluttering his arms. His face distorted to a horrid grin.

“Are they okay?” Akash asked.
“I told you,” Rohit said. “The glue makes you see things that are not there.”
“At first,” Sunil said. “Then it makes you drowsy and when you can’t stop it turns your brain into glue.” (31)

and

“How come you didn’t go to the movies?” Ramesh asked. “Isn’t it Friday today?”
“I didn’t want to go. I need to save my money for a tutor. I found a man at Pahar Ganj who will teach me math.”
“That is very wise of you,” Ramesh-ji said, suddenly speaking in English.
“Ramesh-ji, I didn’t know you spoke English.”
“Maybe you would like to practice your English with me. For the kind of school you want to go to, you need to speak, read, and write English well. Didn’t you even bring an English textbook?”
“How do you know English?” Akash asked.
“I used to work as a cook for British people,” Ramesh said. “That was a long time ago.” (35)

Schroder does a great job of intergrating Indian culture so anyone reading will have learned from their experience…

Akash would have like to accompany him to the temple, but since Ramesh didn’t offer to take him, he didn’t dare ask. Navratri, the nine nights before Dussehra, had always been one of his favorite festivals. In the evenings he had joined the other youths from the village to watch the dandia dance. The men would form a circle on the outside and the women one in the inside. When the music began each cirle started to rotate slowly in opposite directions. (34)

I loved reading this book and couldn’t wait to see how Akash dealt with the street boys and the drug dealers, especially when he decided to become a courier to make some money. It is an intense story and I was cheering for Akash to get back on the right path. Luckily his deep desire for an education does win out and Akash and Ramesh find a way to work together.

This is a perfect middle school mulitcultural read. Thank you to Monika Schroder for sensing my need to read her gem. To find it at an Independent bookseller near you, click on the title…Saraswati’s Way

Muliticultural Winner!

Oh, okay so I’m a little behind in my life but I eventually get around to it. I recently finished Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by the amazing Grace Lin, which was a Newberry Honor Winner in 2010. Even though it took me a long time to get to it, it was definetely worth reading. I loved the mixture of folktales into this family/friendship story. Reading this book could make you a better person, really and the message of being true to yourself will come through even for elementary students. The message is subtle though even with the wonderful fairy tale-like ending.

Book Synopsis:

In the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, a young girl named Minli spends her days working hard in the fields and her nights listening to her father spin fantastic tales about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon. Minli’s mother, tired of their poor life, chides him for filling her head with nonsense. But Minli believes these enchanting stories and embarks on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man of the Moon and ask him how her family can change their fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest.

Grace Lin, author of the beloved Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat, returns with a wondrous story of happiness, family, and friendship. A fantasy crossed with Chinese folklore, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is a timeless adventure story in the classic tradition of The Wizard of Oz.

My thoughts:

I loved Minli’s character as she was all good things, brave and kind, but not too perfect. This is the type of book I want to save on the shelf for Groovy Girl to read as her chapter book skills improve. As a struggling third grade reader she wouldn’t make it all the way through it herself but one day soon and I want it to be waiting on the shelf with Beverly Cleary. I should have read it aloud to her but I used it as my school chapter book-reading it to myself to model good quiet reading to 4th and 5th grade students (and read it during my own lunch time) and now I have several students in mind to pass it on to for their own reading enjoyment.

I loved the images in this book-the goldfish man, the brilliant red dragon, the mountains-I would love to see this made in to an animated movie (a good one, of course) because I can picture it all so well in my head. I’ve enjoyed Grace Lin’s other books and use them for my lunch time book clubs with 4th and 5th graders but this book, in my mind, is a whole new level of excellence on her part! Way to go, Grace Lin!

Random Quote:

Feasting on juicy peaches, Minli and the dragon walked through the woods for many days. At night, when the dragon slept, Minli missed Ma and Ba. “But this is for our fortune, so they don’t have to work so hard anymore,” Minli told herself when she thought about the worry they must have been feeling. “When I get back, Ba can rest and Ma will never have to sigh again. They’ll see.” But the lonely moon never seemed to gaze comfortably down on her. [88]

If you have a young person needing a gift for the holiday season~this would be a wonderful book to receive!
I am an IndieBound affiliate and will earn a small pittance if you buy it from this site-Click on the title here….Where the Mountain Meets the Moon