Yahoo! The Internet is back up and working. We have so many problems with Innovative DSL Internet service down here. The drop rate is incredible. There are times we can't even stay online long enough to finish what we are doing on a web site. This morning was one of those times. I finally gave up and actually cleaned for awhile. How disgusting is that! But, it did force me to look through some of the children's books I have piled around the living room and find the 5 books for my latest Reader's Advisory column for Library Media Connection. Got that sent in a bit ago.

I also took some time out to sit in the sun and finish Tim Bowler's Apocalypse. Oh my - what an incredible book. I loved Firmament so I had a feeling I was going to like this one. And, when I read the blurb on the book jacket that refers to a family sailing into fog and wrecking on an island inhabited by a group of religious fanatics I was hooked into reading it. My hair still raises on my arms as I think of a 15 year old boy realizing that a naked man with a birth mark on his neck and face, who the islanders call the Devil, is his twin, just many years older than he is. And, that the tiny boat he bent over to pick up from the water that is handed to him through the waves by the very same man and caused him to lose focus and run their sailboat onto the rocks, is the prayer boat of the wild girl Ula. She was asking for help and some how the man thought Kit could be her savior. But, she is the one who keeps Kit alive on the island after his parents disappear. Add to that a shrieking sea serpent that causes waves of tidal wave proportion to cleanse the island, ghosts from long dead islanders who chill Kit to the bone, and blood thirsty fear-of-the-Devil crazed islanders, brandishing clubs. In other words, once you pick this book up to read it, it won't let you go, even after you have finished it. My brain is still roiling with questions and I know I am going to go back and read this one again. Adventure, mystery, intrigue, and horror all rolled up into one beautifully written novel. Oh my but Bowler is good!

Was working on a column discussing picture book biographies and really enjoyed the fictional account of Henry David Thoreau's time in his cabin and the fear that his woods would be used to make toothpicks! Check it out in The Trouble with Henry: The Tale of Walden Pond by Deborah O'Neal. You can't help but chuckle over his deaf aunt shouting out that he is nothing but "a crazy little rooster." :-)

All for now. The sun is setting and I do hope Steve is bringing home some diet coke. I am having withdrawal twitches as I type!