Second day from the feather bed. GRRRR!! Steve wants to go to a play at the historical theater in Tillet Gardens tomorrow night so this darn herniated disk had better settle down. Besides, I don't want to miss my 1/2 of a Shipwreck burger tomorrow for lunch. The remodeling is gorgeous and there are now TVs all over the place with at least one of them playing a music concert DVD. I like those better than the soccer, which is always on the big screen. Some woman won $20,000 on the slots in there two weekends ago. Have yet to try them out myself though. Just isn't the same as playing nickle slots with my Mom at the Indian casinos in Upper Michigan.

Was looking through the 2006 YALSA lists and see that John Coy's Crackback is on the Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/06qp.htm
Although I watch football with Steve every weekend and we had season's passes to the Texans before we left Houston, I am still a football novice and did not know what a crackback is. After reading it is a nasty type of hit in football I am very glad I only watch the game. I do miss sitting in our seats at the Texan's games. It was as much fun to people watch as it was to watch the game, especially the Sunday we had a wannabe model type in front of us by a few rows with low rise jeans and a tank top on. I'd say quite a few of the guys around us missed seeing a play or two! Watching them was quite entertaining! :-)

Back to Coy's novel about Miles, a football player who loves the game but not enough to buy into the BS the over zealous new coach is dishing. Miles is smart enough to see beyond the narrow sighted world the coach and some of the players live in, including Miles' best buddy, Zach. When Miles refuses to take the steroids Zach and many of the other players are taking to bulk up he finds himself pretty much alone in the locker room. Life isn't any easier at home as his father was once a college football player and praising Miles for anything he does on the field, even a great play, isn't within his capabilities. And when Miles has to run laps for thinking on his own and running a play the coach didn't call his father knows about it. There is no where for Miles to hide from his father's disapproval and verbal abuse in their small town. His mother and little sister avoid much of his anger be lowering their eyes and becoming mute, but Miles is a constant target. It isn't until a class assignment causes Miles to ask questions about his family that Miles learns the secret his family has been hiding for years - a secret that has helped make his father the angry and quiet man he is. Now Miles must decide what he will do with the information and how it will affect his relationship with his father. Offer this one to those jocks who are only reading a novel because they have to. They may just find out they are finishing this one because they want to! :-)

I have always been into knight and dragon stories. Never wanted to be a damsel in distress about to be eaten by a nasty dragon and saved by a knight. I wanted to be the feisty girl who befriended the dragon instead. So I found a new favorite picture book called The Knight Who Took All Day by James Mayhew. You may recognized Mayhew because of his highly acclaimed prehistoric picture book called Boy. His newest picture book for Scholastic is humorous both textually, with the adjectives (terrible, marvelous, gloomy, etc.) in bold print, and illustratively, telling my favorite part of the story about the princess. While the knight is busy making his squire run up and down 101 steps to get his armor for him, the princess is donning hers and has already tamed the dragon (children are happily riding on him) before the knight arrives intent on a fight. The disgruntled knight trudges back to the castle while the princess marries the squire and they ride off on the dragon to see the world. My kind of dragon book and certainly my kind of princess!

All for today.