library – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Picture Book Frenzy

In between road trips Groovy Girl and I have spent a lot of time at the library this summer. It is one of our favorite places in our quaint downtown area. We love to browse and talk to the librarians about what we are reading or plan to read or are thinking of reading. It is a great thing to surround our children with this book talking, especially over the summer.

The last time we were browsing I went crazy down the new book shelf of titles. While Groovy Girl searched the new chapter books I picked up picture books galore. I even added one into the pile that i thought my handsome husband would enjoy.

1. The True Stories of an amazing all-brother baseball team; Brothers at Bat by Audrey Vernick and Steven Salerno (2012) :

This is a great family story with very retro artwork. The book shares the story of the Acerra brother; 12 brothers, 1 baseball team during the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s. We love a good baseball story and through this text we learn more about life during this era. The 12 brothers played ball for years; their high school team had an Acerra on it twenty-two years in a row! The story shares the troubles the family experienced as well as the many good times they had together. Eventually the 6 older boys get pulled away to WWII. The very lucky thing is that they all come back alive! This is the book I brought home thinking my husband would like it; and he did! I found him one morning, eating his breakfast, reading through the pages.

2. No Ghost Under My Bed by Guido Van Genechten (2010):

While not so new this is a charming little book that reminded me exactly what it was like to have a little one struggle with bedtime. Jack is ready for bed, all tucked in but he hears a sound coming from under the bed. Dad comes each time to calmly check it out, assuring Jack that ghosts do not exist. The father penguin is calm each time and checks to make sure that all is secure. Very sweet story with beautifully subdued pictures in tones of gray and peach.

3. The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson and Eleanor Taylor (2012):

I adore Peter Rabbit and think Emma Thompson would be the perfect person to imitate her in person or in writing. This story takes Peter on a new adventure to Scotland where he meets Finlay McBurney, a large black rabbit, and his clan. This book also included a CD with Ms Thompson reading the tale to us. Very, very sweet!

4. If waffles were like boys by Charise Mericle Harper and Scott Magoon (2011):

A very simple book that takes me back to my own dear son, now a teenager, and definitely not the rambunctious young lad he once was. Now more shy than bouncy I remember easily how he went from activity to activity and that inanimate objects were incorporated into play. This book celebrates that which makes boys, well boys.

5. Hello My Name is Bob by Linas Alsenas (2009):

Bob is a bear. He thinks he is boring. He likes to sit. He likes to hum or count toothpicks. He is quiet. Lucky he has a friend, Jack, who is a bit more thrilling, according to Bob. Jack likes to do wacky stuff like surf, and paint. This story is endearing and brings out the best part of friendship; it is often the differences in each of us that bind us together. This one was a Groovy Girl favorite and really the only one in the stack she was interested in.

What are you picking up at the library?

Calling Invisible Women; A Novel by Jeanne Ray

Calling Invisible Women

Jeanne Ray

2012

246 pages

Jeanne Ray’s latest contemporary women’s fiction novel has something to say about how we allow products to heal ourselves whether they are expensive drugs prescribed by our doctor or Botox-type enhancers that lift money from our wallet for temporary solutions.

Clover Hobart, a fifty-something wife and mother, wakes up one day and discovers she cannot find herself in the mirror after her morning shower. Her first disappearance lasts only a short time but she’s concerned because her son says he can still see her. She thinks she might be losing her mind. When it happens again she locates a group of invisible women that meet at the local Sheraton Hotel. Clover learns that a combination of three medicines all made by Dexter-White, a pharmaceutical company, is what causes many women of a certain age to become invisible.

Through this group she begins to take action as the reporter she once was spurring others to get busy by exploring what they can accomplish as invisible women. Because of her new bravery she stops a man from harassing a woman outside the grocery store, she un-arms a robber in the midst of bank robbery, and she and another invisible woman ride the school bus to corral bully behavior. Eventually she takes on the Dexter-White.

This is a light-hearted look at how easy it is for older women to become invisible in society as what’s young and hip steals focus. I enjoyed the characters, the topic, and I felt more empowered as I raised my fist in solidarity with them as they crafted a plan to bring down Dexter-White.. It is an easy read-it only took my three days to read the book. Ray is the author of Julie and Romeo.

A quote:

“No one is interested in us,” Mrs. Robinson said. “When I look back on my life, I was invisible for so many years before I became invisible. I never did stand up for myself. If you don’t stand up before you become invisible, what chance do you have of making people pay attention to you when you aren’t there?”
“Amen to that,” a voice said. (66)

Reviewed at Dear Author

Super Imaginative Picture Books!

I dropped by the library for mere moments the other day and found a plethora of cute picture books on the “new” shelf.

I’ve read them by bits and pieces all through the week and I have three absolute favorites. All three while different have sort of a connection about imagination and comfort.

Naughty Toes by Ann Bonwill; ill. by Teresa Murfin (2011) Tiger Tales

Chloe narrates this tale about life with her perfect ballerina sister, Belinda. She’s not jealous, which is the first thing I noticed and loved. When their mom takes them to the ballet store to pick out leotards and shoes Belinda picks classic pink and white. Chloe picks a wide array of bright colors. The two sisters head to Madame Mina’s dance class where Belinda has “good toes” and Chloe “naughty toes” while Mr. Tiempo keeps the beat on his bright yellow piano. Before the next class Dad does their hair; Belinda’s hair folds elegantly into a beautiful ballerina bun while Chloe’s pokes and struts refusing to be tamed. This illustration is great, showing Dad with bobby pins peeking out of his frown. Back at class Madame Mina gives directions and Chloe continues to flounder. On the day of the big show Belinda gets a bouquet from Madame Mina and Chloe receives a box from Mr. Tiempo- tap shoes with a note that reads…”follow your feet.” The message is clear and abundant. Every character in the book celebrates their own path. Chloe’s never scolded for marching to the beat of a different drummer. Each parent participates in their own way.
This is a perfect score!

Princess Super Kitty by Antoinette Portis. (2011) Harper.

Simply narrated by a little girl with short cropped dark hair who is pretending to be a kitty. My own children did this often, asking for food on the floor, as they purred and scratched their way around the house. Most memorably my two oldest loved to pretend they were wolves. Oh, those were the days. Such an abundance of imagination! This young girl shifts from kitty to Super Kitty, ready to save the world by rescuing her baby brother. She even delivers his bottle in “zero seconds”. Super Kitty quickly morphs into Princess Super Kitty as she marches around the house for her family to adore. Each new character allows her the freedom to make a new choice about doing something helpful like taking a bath or playing nicely with her brother. From the tone we can easily hear that she is not a demanding or shrill princess character. I adore Portis’ other books, Not a Stick and Not a Box and this is another one to add to my collection.

Goodnight Dragons by Judith L. Roth; ill. Pascal Lemaitre (love his work!). (2012) Hyperion Books.

This is a “boy” book filled with wonderful imaginative play. This little guy wants to tame dragons so he gathers his tools and fills his wagon. He traipses off to the forest with his trusty “horse” dog. The book at this point hadn’t stirred my creative soul just yet but then this line hit me: “With a voice strong as hawksong, I call them to me. Come you heartbreakers. Come, you brokenhearted. Come put your fire with sweet chocolate milk.” he repeats peeking through the treetops. That line is magical to me-this little boy in the trees, offering comfort to the dragons, who come swarming for his call. Instead of sword play he offers them blankets, and a sleepy time treat. Magic. Simply shows how little boys can be nurturing and creative as well.

Sprinkle these extremely peaceful stories into your bedtime routine for lots of hugs and love!

This is all it takes for me.

A few weeks ago my husband and I decided we needed to amp up the idea of date night in our relationship. What with kid activities, his many plays and meetings and my school life we some times don’t see each other much in a week. He sent me a text the other day and asked me out on a date and we went today for an early dinner at local sushi restaurant. We each had a salad, several sushi rolls and I had a glass of wine and he, a beer.

Because we like to be efficient we stopped pre-date at the running store downtown to pick up the sneakers he had ordered me for Christmas. After the date I had to stop at our local library to pick up a book for one of my student book clubs. My husband reminded me as we were going in that we had a time limit to get home to the kids.

Within 5 minutes in the library I was able to pick up this stack:

1. Fever; 1793-this is the book I needed for one of my students.
2. The Palace of Laughter by Jon Berkeley
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
5. The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule
6. The Parents We Mean To Be by Richard Weissbourd

Two, Three and Four were all very close to where I looked for Anderson, Laurie Halse and the last two just because I happened passed a display of parenting books. Wow. Just think if he’d given me 10 minutes.

All in all-two errands and a nice dinner made for a lovely night out and we were home by 6:30 with a pizza for the kids. Hope your day was blissful too.

Friday Features; Kindness

This week in the library our focus was on kindness. We do have Character Counts! at our school but I really wanted to get at the idea of each of us making another person feel special. The world would be a better place if we could all make that happen.

I read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and David Messing to each class except kindergarten (they had Eric Carle). Even the 5th graders listened and it opened up a good discussion of what each of us could do to fill someone else’s bucket. A first grade student said that the bucket is like your heart! Ah, thank you [big teacher smile] He understood the message.

With that book I read one of my all-time favorite picture books, Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow. The message and the illustrations come together into one outstanding tale of being true to yourself. We conversed about bucket fillers in this book (Grandma and Molly Lou) but also that Ronald Durkin learns to be less of a bully and more of a bucket filler by the end. I found this great Molly Lou video by Spoken Arts.

I also read Todd Parr’s It’s Okay to be Different and Carrie Weston’s The New Bear at School. I read Todd Parr all the time to kids but Weston’s book was a new read aloud and perfectly transmitted my kindness message. Stay tuned for more as I look forward to more kindness next week.

Do you have book favorites that share this message? Any book suggestions would be much appreciated!

I also finished off a beginning of the year order and sent it off to my secretary just because Jana at Milk and Cookies; Comfort Reading waxed poetically about getting her first school order of books for the year. I had to jump on the bandwagon!

Happy Friday!

Library Loot; A Quiet Trip to my Local

I ventured out yesterday with a small list of errands to do. I was on my own as Groovy Girl hadn’t even started cleaning her room she lost out on “getting to run errands” with me! One of my errands was to our local dairy for popcorn-yes, popcorn- and bleu cheese and she would have been able to get some farm fresh ice cream had she finished (or even started) cleaning her room. My errands were run solo and my library trip was quiet as I browsed the shelves. Sorry G.G.

Here’s what I found in the midst of all the beautiful library shelves:

1. Dirtall Pete by Eileen Brennen

2. Not All Princesses Dress In Pink by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple

3. Mudkin by Stephen Gammell

4. Hogg, Hogg, & Hog by Margie Palatini

5. Follow the Line To School by Laura Ljungkvist

6. A Garden for Pig by Kathryn K. Thurman

7. The Queen of France by Tim Wadham

8. An Amber Cat by Hilary McKay

9. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin

10. A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

11. The Sisters Grimm Number 6 by Michael Buckley

The first seven were from the new picture book shelf-a must stop for both Groovy Girl and I. She opened the bag and read all the picture books right after I returned yesterday.

Numbers 8 and 9 are picks for a fantasy class I am taking through Fresno Pacific. I’m excited about the class but I was a lot disappointed that the syllabus included with my course materials was filled with old (classics) and no new fantasy when there are so many.

Groovy Girl and I finished up number 5 of The Sisters Grimm on Saturday morning and she was desperate to get the next one. This series really has a hold on my little princess girl!

I also found a very helpful young male librarian in the YA section who special ordered Crossed by Allie Condie for me!
Library Loot is hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair.

Weekend Cooking without the cooking; Food For the Soul

It is blisteringly hot here. We just rode our bikes to the library. It was Groovy Girl’s idea…oh, it was hot, hot, hot especially for a little girl to pedal a bike without gears. We did pick up quite a few tasty nuggets while we were there though so I present to you today a combination Library Loot and Weekend Cooking; a mixed bag of ~~greens~~ books!

Food for the Soul:

1. In The Green Kitchen; Techniques to learn by heart by Alice Waters (2010).

Alice is a food queen, to me! I’ve briefly paged through this handy book and know I’m going to enjoy it. She highlights chefs known for their love of local food and each shares a cooking tip and a recipe. As I open the book at a random page, David Chang is the featured chef , and his tip is “Pickling Vegetables” (81) where he writes about using salt and sugar for quick pickling to serve watermelon, radishes, daikon radishes and cucumbers as appetizers. Right now this sounds like an excellent idea as it doesn’t involve turning on the oven. I may have to request this for my birthday which is just around the corner (Aug. 3rd).

2. Mama Panya’s Pancakes; A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary and Rich Chamberlain; ill. by Julia Cairns (2005).

This is a delightful book from one of my favorite publishing companies, Barefoot Books. Adika and his mother head to the market. As they travel Adika, always one step ahead of his mother, invites all the friends they meet to join them for his mother’s delicious pancakes. He brags and she worries! Mama knows she only has two coins in her pocket to buy flour and a hot pepper. Adika keeps telling his mother it will all work out and as their friend’s arrive for the pancake feast they each have something to share.

The watercolor illustrations are filled with the bold colors of Africa and the end pages have tons of related information including a map of Kenya! I love when a book about a country does that; it makes it so much easier to share that information quickly with students as you read the story. Great choice. Of course, the pancake recipe is included. According to the notes pancakes are eaten around the world and it shares the names-Scotland-bannocks, France-crepes, Mexico-tortillas, Indonesia-dadar gutung and China-bao bing. Now I’ll know how to order one of my favorite foods.

Find other food-related posts at Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post.

What else did find at the library, you ask?

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly (read yesterday’s post and find out why I was happy to find this one on the shelf.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman-It was on the hold shelf for me and it will be my next read after I finish One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper-This one just practically jumped off the shelf at me as I perused the YA new shelves.

Now I’m grabbing my book and I’m off to the local water-~~ing hole~~ park to join Groovy Girl and her friend.
Have a blissful weekend whether you’re cooking or not!

ps. I found this great blog, Sweet Mama Jane while perusing for a photo of Alice’s book. Click there to read a full review of In The Green Kitchen.

If The Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney

It’s been years since I read any of Cooney’s popular titles but I picked up this title as my husband and I browsed for books for Teenage Boy to take on vacation. I’ve griped about this before but he does not like to GO TO the LIBRARY anymore…!? I hope his senses will return to him one day but as I expect him to read-we get him the books, he picks out a few that he “deems” somewhat interesting and he reads them. He read this one over vacation and when I asked him how it was he looked at me and shrugged very nonchalantly (if you have teenagers you know what I mean) and said it was okay in a very flat line voice. So I had to pick it up and read it just to see what that meant.

And guess what…it was okay but only okay with a shoulder shrug…

The story was predictable.The characters were flat.
The candle on the cover doesn’t fit-Jack Fountain on a bike, a television camera, a little boy in a Jeep-any of these would have worked.
It never fully adds up and Cooney doesn’t give me a good reason for Aunt Cheryl.
It was kind of sad to think no one cared about these kids to look deeper into their tragedy! Come on neighbors down the street!

Can you feel my shoulders shrug?

Read The Compulsive Reader’s post if you want a different perspective.
Benjamin at Teen Reads talks about it .
Goodreads synopsis

My husband tells me that I never read books I don’t like because all my reviews are positive so this one’s for you, honey.

Library Loot

I had a lovely weekend cooking idea all about my attempt to bring less packaging into our home. The project is actually going quite well and I had photos to share but I cannot find our camera anywhere in the house!?! While I attempt to think back, back, backwards in my brain until the last moment I remember touching the tiny camera bag that post will just have to wait. We are a one camera family and my phone does take pictures but that is where they stay…on my phone…because I don’t have a connecting cable.

Instead we have Library Loot as we did make it to the library yesterday with Groovy Girl in tow and we found lots of amazing books and DVDs.

Sister’s Gimm Books #’s 3 and 4. We read 1, 2 and up to Chapter 5 of 3 but had to return it to her school library but they cut us off and she had to return it on Friday. (of course I get this as I’m a school librarian as well but it still felt a little like getting a book ripped out of my hands) Have you read this series yet? I tried a few years back and didn’t get into it on my own but reading it with her has made all the difference.

Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum. (2009) This one’s been getting a lot of press but I was drawn to it just from reading the flap. My dad was a newspaper man and I love historical fiction making this a great combination. Sadly, this morning while updating my status on Goodreads I read quite a few ho-hum reviews on this title. How much do other reviews influence your take on a book? I can’t say for sure but I feel a little less excitement over this book. I’ll forge ahead and form my own opinion.

Groovy Girl’s picks from the “NEW” shelf in the library:

Welcome to Italy by Mary Berendes. (2008)

Welcome to Russia by Elma Schemenauer (2008).

Brava, Mimi! by Helga Bansch (2010)

Hide and Squeak by Heather Vogel Frederick. (2011)

Dotty by Erica S. Pearl (2010)

Everything but the Horse by Holly Hobbie(2010)

I can easily do a personality profile on Groovy Girl just by her library picks! What do you think? A girl who loves travel, learning, animals and bright covers!

Friday Feature; A Book Lover's inventory!

Okay, truth be told, I don’t love all inventory but I do love beep, beep, beeping my way through the fiction books. It is much more than just a book count; it is review of what I have, what’s been popular and not-so-popular. While I’m doing this inventory I’ve been compiling a summer reading list with a notebook tucked next to my computer.

As you might imagine it is slow-going but oh, so much fun! I’ve been busted several times sitting on my step stool immersed in a book. Even my trusted assistant, Janice, jokingly said “hey, no reading during inventory!” I can’t help it, going through the fiction section makes me reminisce about the books I’ve read, popular books with students this year, books I want to recommend to specific teachers and sadly, good books that don’t fly off the shelves.

I found these books irrisistible and had a difficult time setting them back on the shelf to continue with inventory. I expect to go back to them very soon and may take a couple home tonight.

Treasures unearthed as I’ve done inventory. Click on the title for a synopsis.

1. On the Run by Gordon Korman (I was roped in instantly to the Falconers troubles)
2. Silent to the Bone by e.l. Konigsburg (same here with what happened to the baby)
3. Iqbal by Francesco D’Adamo (made me think of The Breadwinner)
4. The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz (baseball)
5. Stumptown Kid by Carol Gorman (baseball)
6. Over the River by Sharelle Byars Moranville (loved The Snows)
7. Roxie and the Hooligan by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (bullies)
8. Poison Ivy by Amy Goldman Koss (bullies)
Here’s a quote I found inside Baby by Patricia MacLachlan:

I wondered what she would do when Lalo went off-island to high school. Maybe she would wither away among all the books with all the words in them until no one could ever find her again unless they opened a book. (17)

What was I doing on page 17 of Baby, you could ask? I’m pretty sure I’ve read it so I flipped through to read a page or two and no kidding, flipped right to that quote! Perfect for me. Inventory is a blast!

Have you read any of the above books? Would you recommend any of them?