Went from one hot and humid place to another, but I know I am home. I didn't have to do laundry and wash dishes while in New Orleans, nor did I have a very whiny cat let me know how she feels about my being gone most of the the last two weeks. I spent yesterday just catching up on mail, email and chores around the house. Planned on grading, but never got that far - was in bed early. My mornings of lolling in bed with the cat are over as I have to get as much done at Montessori as I can before I leave at the end of the month.

On the flight home I read Alex Flinn's Diva. Chick lit with a bite! Flinn's sense of humor comes through in Cait's e-journals, as does a wonderful education in opera titles and plots. And yes, this is the very same Caitlyn from Breathing Underwater. And yes, she does encounter Nick a number of times in the progression of this book. Cait's realization that her relationship with him is truly over was much needed by the fans of Breathing Underwater. Diva truly is Cait's book - Nick isn't central in her life, her singing is - a desire so strong that she blackmails her mother with the threat that she will go live with her father so she can go to the Performing Arts school in Miami. Cait now has a sidekick, Gigi, with an eyebrow ring and electric colored hair. Hardly the cheerleader group she hung out with at her old school. But, even at the Performing Arts school Cait is a bit different - there aren't many teenage girls who lose themselves in opera. Sean is also an important person in her life and as she learns more about his rough home life she loves him even more, but in a different way. And we see the person behind Cait's make-up and appearance focused mother, a woman much stronger than her daughter, or the reader, initially gives her credit for. The mix of "straight novel" and e-journal entries allows Flinn to delve deeply into Cait's life as she comes to terms with who she is, both in a physical and an emotional sense. A totally satisfying read, and I didn't even mind learning about opera :-) I actually found myself laughing at Cait's e-journal descriptions of the various operas and the murderous outcome of most of them. Flinn has smoothly made the transition from her edgy male perspective novels to this well written, thought provoking, and down right entertaining novel from a female perspective. And, has given her readers what they have been begging for - Caitlyn's story.

The wind is blowing like crazy and the rain is coming down in sheets. Although we need it to fill the cisterns, I want it to stop before we leave for work. I hate driving in the rain. One of the best things about the almost two weeks off the island was being able to take a leisurely shower. Oh how I can't wait to be able to enjoy the jacuzzi tub in my new condo in Greenville! We close on it the end of the month and I am already decorating it in my head. Light oak furniture and pastels! It is going to be a "girlie" condo. :-)

It is now 4 p.m. and I need to publish this as it is thundering like crazy outside. We lost power this a.m. so I couldn't publish it. Here we go!

Wow! What a great ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. The city welcomed us with open arms and we had a great time. I am headed back to the island today. I did some shopping yesterday afternoon after I did the wonderful exhibits and the store clerks were so nice. Although my poor stomach had trouble with the spicy Cajun food, it has been a great conference and visit to this beautiful, but still hurting city.

Superb children's and young adult literature related programming this year. I was in awe of Aidan Chambers. He had me laughing and crying. The man is an incredible speaker and author. Can't wait to read his 800 and some page newest novel coming out with Abrams/Amulet. He spoke at the Abrams luncheon and had us in stitches. In his mid twenties he was so sheltered that he didn't know about girls' monthly issues. It was a hoot to hear him talk about his confusion as to why they had to go to the bathroom during class, and in pairs no less! He talked about the 30 year path he has taken in his writing, to arrive at the end of the story, with the aptly titled This is All, which is the sixth book in a connected sequence of novels that began with Breaktime in 1978. His award winning Postcards from No Man's Land is part of the sequence.

Chambers also spoke at the YALSA President's Program on How Adult is Young Adult. Michael Cart gave us a lot to think about, as he always does. Wish I had my notes in front of me. I had to write down a few of his statements to use in my YA literature courses. But, my favorite program was the Friday night Booklist Forum. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! Mo Willems, David Lubar, Lisa Yee, and Jack Gantos out did themselves in making us laugh. After the all day workshop on audiobooks, which was fantastic, it was perfect!

Anyway, I can't say enough of how wonderful the conference was as well as how welcoming New Orleans has been as a city. Even though there are terrible incidents going on in the outer areas of the city, the French Quarter and the Conference Center area are well patrolled by police cars and safe. In other words - tourists, come back and have fun! We certainly did.

Now to finish packing and head for the airport. Although the bed here at the Hotel Monteleone has been comfortable and the service fantastic in the hotel, I am ready to sleep in my own bed and have my spoiled Sophie getting cat hair all over me. Steve said she tore a hole in the sliding screen door and jumped from the chair on his shoulders in an attempt to be a cat stole, so it is clear she misses her Mamma and I sure do miss her. Steve too, of course! :-)

What a week it has been. We left last Wednesday afternoon for DC and drove down to Greenville on Thursday. There really wasn't much sight seeing to do as we took the freeway so other than rest areas and fast food joints, it was woods and fields. Once we hit Greenville on Thursday the apartment and condo hunting began big time. I discovered quickly that the apartment complexes with decent rental prices were either in neighborhoods I wouldn't want to live in or full of students. The ECU students make up almost half of Greenville's population so they are everywhere! By the time we figured out the complexes I would be happy in we realized we would be better off buying a condo. So then out again with the realtor. And we found the perfect condo for me! It even has a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. Can't wait to soak in the tub and not worry about how much water I am using! :-) We close on it the end of July. I am going to have fun picking out furniture. :-)

Not much time for reading, but I did finish Carol Plum-Ucci's The Night My Sister Went Missing. I loved The Body of Christopher Creed and booktalk it all the time so I was pretty sure I would like her newest thriller as well. What mind games these teens play with each other. It is summer and the group of teens who grew up together on this small East Coast island have found their latest victim - Stacy, the newest member of the group and the granddaughter of a wealthy family on the island. Stacy has a foul mouth and an attitude, but the reader learns more about Stacy than maybe even Stacy knows about herself as Kurt listens to his "friends" tell their version of what happen on the pier that night. They all know that Kurt's younger sister Casey went off over the edge and into the turbulent water below. But, the question is - Did she turn and dive or did she fall off the pier when she got shot? Second question - did they really see blood and is Casey dead or is this one of her practical jokes? All the ugly things people think but don't say come out as the teens are being questioned about the shooting Due to an electronic malfunction, Kurt and his best friend, the police chief's son, can hear what is being said in the interrogation room. They learn some of the dark and dirty secrets of their small town, such as why Stacy bought the small hand gun that was fired at Casey. What a fantastic teen thriller and one to booktalk with teens. Mysteries are coming up as the top genre choice in the interest surveys my students are doing with teens. This one fits right in.

Okay - gotta finish packing as I leave for the ALA Conference in New Orleans tomorrow. Looking forward to the YALSA preconference on audio books. I am listening to The Thin Man by Hammett right now - very different from the delightful b/w movies.

Looks like Steve and Sophie's rain dance yesterday on the deck worked! Sophie didn't look too happy about their antics but we did get a nice downpour yesterday afternoon and it is dark and breezy this a.m. and we are "sure" to get rain. I know we will as I dressed in a light dress for work so I will get soaked at some point today. But oh - glorious rain! :-)

My poor hands are so sore. I switched out all my CDs and the "paperwork" into the gorgeous CD carriers Steve gave me, but what a killer on the fingers. I have paper cuts on three of my fingers and my thumb is sore from forcing open the cases to get the back sheets out. I spent the rest of the weekend packing for the move. I packed two golf club bags and a suitcase full of my stuff, but this trip's load isn't much of my clothes. Those will have to go in the next trip. Figured we may as well take advantage of the two bags each and get as much moved for free as we can. Had Steve standing on the scale with the bags to check for weight. I filled those babies as full as I could since I have him there to help carry them! We will rent a small storage unit in Greenville. We leave here on Weds. and fly up to DC since Steve has training for the Court there the following week. We will drive down to NC on Thursday. I have never driven through that part of the country so this should be fun. About a 6 hour drive I think. Then we will explore the Greenville area and hopefully look at some apartments. Then I fly home for a day and 1/2 before heading off to New Orleans for ALA.

Speaking of ALA - we were out to dinner at Bonnie's by the Sea on Friday night and sat next to a young couple from New Orleans. When Steve said I was headed there for a conference in a week or so she said knew it was the ALA conference. We thought that was pretty funny as they both work in the medical field. The city is anxious for us to arrive and for things to go well. We are the first large conference to hit the city since the flooding. They were very upbeat about the renovations so I hope things go well as we are such a big group.

Along with all my packing I did read Linda Sue Park's Archer's Quest, a delightful fantasy romp with a Korean character, as are most of Park's books. Kevin is home alone on an early release day from school and who should materialize in his bedroom but Chu-mong, the prince who founded the Koguryo kingdom in 37 B.C., in what is now known as Korea. Chu-mong is a gifted archer and tries to put an arrow through Kevin's closed window to prove it. So, now not only does Kevin have to deal with his parents' anger over the broken window, he has to help get Archer back to his time before the year of the Tiger ends, in just a matter of hours. The Prince fell through a time warp off the back of the tiger he was riding, so they must find a tiger for him to return home on. The live tiger at the zoo won't work. Archer discovers that when he deftly maneuvers himself into the cage and "talks" to the tiger. Wrong kind of fur - not a Siberian tiger - won't take him home. They discover Chu-mong, who Kevin calls Archer or Archie, was born in the year of the Tiger, and it is a Metal Tiger year in his time. So off they go to try the bronze statue, the mascot at the university where Kevin's parents work. At first nothing happens, but then Kevin remembers the important difference between this year of the Tiger and Chu-mong's and able to help this lengendary figure return to his time. Wonderful humorous fantasy adventure for the upper elementary and MS crowd. There is also a lot of math woven into the story as Kevin figured out the Chinese Zodiac. The boys will enjoy this one. Certainly give this to the math teacher to read! :-)

Darn it - the rain stopped already and I see hints of blue. Oh well, at least a little bit of rain went into the cisterns. It is hurricane season so I am sure we will get more. The West Indians are predicting a back storm season as it got intensely hot earlier than usual. Off to Montessori for the day to swelter in the heat.

I would like to blame my early rising on the baby birds, but I plain just woke up a little before 7 a.m. What a bite! I could have slept in as long as I wanted to, but no such luck.

So I finished the last couple of short stories in Alden R Carter's Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports. I certainly see why Booklist starred this one - what a delightful group of high school characters. These guys (and their girlfriends) are not your stereotypical football players by any means of the word. Carter is at his Midwest humorous best, starting out with a section called "A Girl's Guide to Football Players by the female editorial staff of the Purple Cow Literary Magazine, Milking Creativity in Psychedelic Color". I knew that I could wallow in Wisconsinism while I read about shopping in Pranges, Menards, and Fleet Farm! I also know that Carter lives in Marshfield, the major town south of where I lived, Medford. Marshfield is home of the famous (at least in the Midwest) Marshfield Clinic. Since Medford only had a KMart, a trip to the small mall in Marshfield was a bit deal for us. And when Mary and I were feeling adventurous we would drive to Wausau to the "big mall"! :-) Many of Carter's books feel like home to me. My favorite is still Up Country, about the street smart city kid who is sent to live with relatives in Northern Wisconsin. His streets smarts aren't doing him much good as the country kids teach him a few new things. :-) Carter's Between and Rock and a Hard Place should be in every HS and MS collection as it addresses the issue of diabetes and how two cousins deal with it while stranded in a remote area. Besides, this is one heck of an exciting survival story.

Anyway, reading about the interaction between this group of teammates and their friends in Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports brings to light the variety of personalities that make up a football team. You do have the plain jerks, like Catman, who ignores the coach's order not to run plays on the side of the field that Steve, who plays for the opposing team, is playing on. Everyone in town knows and loves Steve, who has Down syndrome. This is Steve's Senior year and his first time out on the field and he is jumping up and down with excitement. Thinking everyone else has the same killer/winning attitude he does, Catman throws the ball to Kenny who "misses" it instead of steamrolling over Steve. Steve catches the ball and is the hero. Was it worth losing the game to see his joy? Everyone but Catman seems to think so.

And then we have Rollin Acres, the fullback who falls in love with Sandy Dunes (yes, those really are their names), and wants to make sure she wins her next cross country race. Then maybe she will start paying some attention to him for a change! She talks about nothing but the cross country meet and how she wants nothing more than to beat Kendra, who she acts like she despises. So Rollin gets the dumb idea to haul a deer carcass onto the track as Sandy told him that Kendra was so prissy she wouldn't run through a mud puddle. The time it would take for her to figure out how to get around a huge bloated deer in the middle of the track would give Sandy the seconds she needed to win the race. Well, a group of elderly bird watchers interfere with Rollin and Kenny's attempt to get the deer through the woods to the track. Of course, Kendra wins the race, but Rollin can't figure out why Sandy and Kendra are hugging each other and happy as can be. You see, now they are a team and with them pushing each other, they both improved their time. We all know a girl is allowed to change her mind, but Rollin is still shaking his head over this one!

Most of the stories are humorous, but all of them make you think as these are characters with heart and their own unique personalities, aside from the position they play on the football field. Give this to anyone who has the mind set that all football players are like Catman, jerks. And, to the guys, football lovers or not, who don't read by choice. They won't be able to resist reading just one more story. These are like Lay's potato chips - you can't read just one! :-)

All for today.

We have a family of birds nesting in the rafters of our carport, which is right outside of our bedroom window. The babies start twittering at 4:30 a.m. Feels like having a newborn in the house again, but at least I don't have to get up and warm a bottle for these babies. I can roll over and go back to sleep. :-) Add the first time out for the morning happy barking of the puppy in the house down below us and our quiet neighborhood has changed. It used to be completely quiet in the a.m. until the workers on the house being remodeled showed up and started their day's worth of bickering and singing. Sound really carries up the hillside. Reminder to self - make sure I find a quiet neighborhood in Greenville full of non-morning people like me!

Please excuse me if I already talked about this book, but I have my piles of books - blogged and not blogged - mixed up on my desk. Having loved both The Midwife's Apprentice and Catherine, Called Birdy I was looking forward to reading The Loud Silence of Francine Green. I enjoyed this book, but I wasn't as taken with it as the other Cushman books I have read. The main character wasn't as well defined as I would have expected. Francine is a 13-year-old Catholic school student living in the LA area during the time of McCarthy accusations and bomb shelters in the backyard. Francine's little brother is so scared that the Chinese will come up through the hole his father is digging in the backyard for their bomb shelter that he goes out and pushes dirt back in every morning. Francine is smart enough to wonder why the government recommends bomb shelters when the nuns assure the students that crawling under their desks and covering their heads with their arms will be enough to protect them from radiation. Francine becomes friends with Sophie Bowman, who is the strong feisty female character one expects in a Cushman book. Sophie is the daughter of a father who wants his daughter to think and question the ways things happen in our world - something the nuns highly frown upon. Sophie spends a lot of her time standing in front of the room in the trash can as punishment. Whereas Francine is afraid to open her mouth, let alone voice an opinion, Sophie is not. She voices her opinions, of which she has many, most of which do not agree with the general conservative, anti-communist atmosphere of the time. When Sophie's father's actor friend is arrested for his beliefs Sophie and her father move away. Francine is left to decide how she is going to deal with the silence that is left behind, now that Sophie has opened her eyes to what is happening in the world, beyond her home and her Catholic school. Was I thrilled with it? No. Do I think it is a must for every MS collection? A resounding yes! There are very few novels for children or teens set during the Cold War Era after WWII and this one helps fill that void.

Off to Montessori again. What a day it was yesterday. With the intense heat and the kids in and out and the slamming screen door and the problems with the computer I was ready to get out of there. Came home and took a quick shower before I went to pick up Steve. My clothes were stuck to me and even though I don't use bug spray there was so much of it sprayed in the library yesterday that I felt like I was covered with it too. I hate the smell of Off! Today is the Upper Elementary School and MS Graduation. At least it is at 9 a.m. so it won't be quite as hot in the outside music room where it is held.

A very hazy morning here. The volcano on Montserrat, south of us in the British West Indies chain, has been very active and the volcanic dust is blowing right at us. American Airlines cancelled about 18 flights in and out of St. Thomas in the last couple of days. The air doesn't smell as bad for sulfur as it did a few days ago but I have been sneezing and my eyes are sore. Didn't stop 3 cruise ships from coming in yesterday.

While moving books around from bookcase to bookcase I found my old copy of Strunk's Elements of Style, which I bought years ago in undergraduate school. It is one of those classics that most people recognize. So when I was reading Wendy Wasserstein's Elements of Style I was waiting for the reference to Strunk. It was there, but Wasserstein has a style all of her own. I don't know as the critics thought her last book as good as her other writings, but I loved it. Her insider look at the rich and disturbed in NYC is a hoot. This is the middle aged woman's version of The Gossip Girls by Von Ziegarsar, that the teenage girls are eating up. The main character is Francesca Weissman, Frankie, who is now the pediatrian to be seen taking your children to. That is, if you can stand the welfare types in her office, as Frankie actually has a conscience and a heart. The tantrums and dramatics of these middle aged drama queens makes my hot flash induced mini meltdowns look like a raised eyebrow! If you want a hilarious beach read for vacation, pick up Wasserstein's Elements of Style. Not only will you laugh, you just might recognize some of yourself, and your friends, in these characters, even if you don't live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan! :-)

I made it through the last shelf of Everybody books yesterday and on to the biographies. Friday is the last day of school so who knows how many overdue books are going to come in that aren't barcoded and in Destiny. This is the 4th school I have brought on board with a Follett automation system and I honestly hope it is the last one! Why did I ever think retrospective conversion was fun?

A nasty overcast and windy morning out there. Wish it would just rain and get it over with. Especially since we ran out of water again this past weekend. Luckily neither of us were in the shower when it happened. Of course, our landlord is on the Mainland and then off to Europe so the lack of water wasn't bothering him. Thank goodness we have a fellow apartment dweller who was on top of the situation and we had water when we got back from our usual Saturday lunch and run for the mail. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of heavy traffic, but it is the beginning of hurricane season so fewer cruise ships in. I waited over 2 months for the last Drugstore.com order and this latest one came in a little over a week. Go figure! And I actually got a June issue of a magazine. It doesn't take much to excite me these days! :-)

Went for a comfort title for my last read and finished up Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Saving Shiloh, the third in the series about a boy and his beagle in West Virginia. Judd Travers, the dog beating alcoholic that everyone likes to blame for whatever bad happens in the area is now a suspect in the death of a missing man. Of course, Marty and his friend David have let their imaginations go wild in relation to how Judd must have hid the body, but Marty actually wants to give Judd the benefit of the doubt. Especially after Judd agrees to let Marty and his dad put up a fence around Judd's yard rather than having his hunting dogs chained up. As she has in the last two Shiloh books, Naylor has created a loving rural family who haven't an easy life, but make the best of it. It is certainly a boy and his dog trilogy that will be read for decades to come. I have not seen any of the Shiloh movies so I can't attest to the quality of them, but I am sure they are kid friendly as are these books. The publisher information suggests ages 8-12 and I agree, but no matter what your age, these are are just enjoyable feel good books. This one is a bit of murder mystery too so it should keep even the reluctant reader going.

Off to Montessori for the day. I hope this breeze keeps it cool in the library. I walk out of there at the end of the day feeling like a limp rag. The talk keeps coming up about air conditioning. Who knows - I would rather see a new building with a bit more space, but like in any small private school, funds are tight.

Sorry for the long time between postings. I stepped on a loose rock on the way back from the beach and fell hard on my elbows and knees. Wasn't feeling much like bending the elbows for a few days. They are scabbed over now so I am back at the keyboard. I had not realized how much we move our elbows to do everything - that is until it hurt like Hades when I moved mine even a tiny little bit.

But, I did read Nancy Werlin's upcoming novel, (Sept. with Dial) The Rules of Survival. I read it in one huge gasp and not sure I took a full breath before I reached the conclusion. I am a big Werlin fan anyway, with Double Helix required reading for my YA Literature courses, but this book absolutely sucked me into the world of teenage Matthew and his two younger sisters - a world controlled by their psychotic mother, Nikki. Werlin makes you accept, as much as you do not want to, that Nikki isn't just mentally ill, she truly is evil in her intent to hurt people, including her own children. And that their Aunt could be living right downstairs and know the torture this woman was putting her own children through. Of course she knew - Nikki had practiced on her when they were children. Matthew sees a knight in shining armor, actually I think it was leather, at the local convenience mart as he stepped in when a father was verbally abusing his child. Matthew had to find this guy, but Nikki is the one who finds and seduces him. But, when Murdoch sees what she is he tries to leave, but her revenge goes beyond stalking. In other words - you will sit at the edge of your seat as you read this heart wrenching ride straight into the headlights of an oncoming car, driven by pedal-to-the metal Nikki, knowing you can't get out until you know these kids are going to be okay, even though just surviving is more than enough for them on most days. Werlin has further staked her claim as an author for the older teen readership with The Rules of Survival. I see this one as a 2007 Printz contender.

Okay, now to try to find the top of my desk and work on my ALA agenda.

Memorial Day celebrations at Arlington cemetery on TV while I write this. Seems strange to think that I will never hear another one of my Dad's war stories from his time in the South Pacific. Some of them were funny - like the bug crawling in his ear - but others were very sad. Now Dad is with his childhood and war time buddies again, telling stories and playing cards.

Grieving for those we love is not easy. This reality is starkly, but beautifully portrayed in Ellen Wittlinger's upcoming novel Blind Faith. All the stages of grief are present in this novel, from absolute denial to acceptance. Liz's grandmother Bunny has died and her mother is grieving like a daughter, a daughter who is not able to be a mother and help her own daughter grieve for the grandmother who was more a mother to her than her own. Liz wants to believe in the readings she hears at the spiritualist church her mother has sought out in her grief. She wants to believe like her mother does. She wants to accept the "mistakes" in the readings, such as the cat in her grandmother's hands is really a bunny, since her name is Bunny. But she also understands her father's anger at her mother for believing in what he considers bunk. As the son of a fundamentalist father who proved to be both an adulterer and embezzler he had turned his back on all organized religion and his God is nature. When Nathan, Courtney and their dying mother move in at Crabby's house across the street, Liz's family sees another kind of grief - that of children knowing their mother is dying and the realization of a bitter old woman that her daughter is dying and she will be raising the grandchildren she never knew. Nathan's anger is so intense it radiates off the pages and Courtney's anger at not being told until the last minute that her mother is dying brings tears to the eyes. Wittlinger handles the issues of belief beautifully - never suggesting that there are any right answers in who or what God is and/or how one should believe or worship. The conversations between the teenagers about their beliefs are realistic as are the often less than mature reactions of the adults to death. I can't say enough wonderful things about this novel. Wittlinger is a gifted YA author and she has, yet again, taken a controversial but every present issue relevant to teens and given it a voice via a character who both makes you laugh and cry. I want to know Liz and listen to her play Mozart! Ellen, I applaud your skill and heart as a writer to speaks to teens as no one else can.

We are off to Iggy's for a burger for lunch. Been cooped up in this apartment working on the first draft of TT for HS, vol. II to send in tomorrow. Need to sit outside and watch the ocean for a bit.

The birds are chirping like crazy this a.m., which results in Sophie's tail flicking back and forth at about as rapid a pace as the chirps. I think they like to taunt her as they know she can't get them. :-) Of course, Saturday morning - I could have slept in, but, no, I wake up at 7:30! What a bite. But, I did curl up with Sophie, a diet coke, and a Luna bar. Yahoo - my drugstore.com order finally came in. What a joke to see the priority shipping marks on the box. It took over 2 months to get here. Thursday I was gnashing my teeth as I drove across town to the mail box place and, of course, he wasn't there. Just a note on the door saying he had gone to get something to eat. These are the kind of things that drive me crazy down here. Earlier that day I walked by an insurance office in Red Hook during my lunch hour. And there was a sign on the door saying they had gone to lunch - well, what is the time of day people who work have time to run in and drop off a payment or ask a question? Lunch time of course! I just shake my head in wonder at how people stay in business down here.

Since I was up so early I finished reading Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl, a tween/teen level retelling of the Grimm fairy tale. What I love about this retelling is that the princess works hard to get her prince, and to help save her kingdom. This is no accidental Cinderella type story - this is a tale of a girl whose talents are controlled by her manipulative mother until she is running for her life in the forest. Slowly Ani/Isi's talents for communicating with animals, and eventually the wind, strengthen as she grows into a determined young woman, a woman who will stand her ground and demand that her identity as the Princess be acknowledged and accepted. This is also a tale of a friendship between two girls from different backgrounds, who become friends during the Princess's time in hiding as the goose girl. I was enchanted by the story and delighted by Hale's skill as a writer. This is the perfect book to give to a MS age girl who wants to read an exciting tale with a touch of romance. The perfect summer read. Now to find a copy of Enna Burning, where the story continues, with Enna, the Forest girl who befriended the Princess, as the main character. I had already read Hale's The Princess Academy and really liked it, but it did not draw me in as The Goose Girl did. Can't wait to see how I react to the next book by Hale. But, it will have to wait as I just received a galley for Ellen Wittlinger's Blind Faith, which is most certainly my next read. My favorites of Wittlinger's so far are Hard Love, The Long Night of Leo and Bree, and Sandpiper.

Time for another diet coke and work on some booktalks before the Herschnner's online auction opens. Not like I need anymore needlework kits, Christmas or otherwise, but it doesn't hurt to look, does it? I'll leave my charge card in the other room! :-)

Not enough sleep! Groan!! Up at 6 a.m. after watching the season finale of Lost last night. We haven't been as regular with watching it as I would like, but this is my favorite show at the moment. The last scene had my mind whirling away at what role Penny plays in the island so I was up half the night. Oh well, I'll catch up on my sleep this weekend.

Two more boxes of books in the car headed for ECU. There are only two more on the floor near my desk so I will have to find more boxes. Steve brought home a couple from work but they are too big for book boxes. Still haven't figured out whether or not to have my car shipped back or try to sell it here. So many things to do before August. Steve has a meeting in DC in June so I made reservations to fly to DC and we will drive down to NC to get a storage place set up and look at apartments, etc. I have not seen that part of the country so it should be an enjoyable drive down. Only a day and 1/2 back on island before I leave for ALA in New Orleans so June is going to be a busy month.

I finally read Helicopter Man by Elizabeth Fensham. It has been on my bookcase waiting for me. I was totally wrong about the content based on the cover art of helicopters, but that was fine. I thought it would be about a guy still reliving whatever war he fought in, but instead it is a heartbreaking story of a young teen's life with his mentally ill father, who is sure his wife was taken away from them by a secret organization that is after them as well. She couldn't have left on her own volition, now could she? Of course not, so that is why Pete goes along with his father's hiding out in strange places - the last one being the storage shed hidden away on the back of a family's property. That is, until they get chased away by the owner and they turn up on the doorstep of the only friends who will let them in. Eventually, his father is hospitalized and Pete is able to piece together the events that led up to their homelessness and his father's illness. Although set in Australia, this is journal style novel is a one gulp read.

Off to Montessori for the day - lots of diet coke to keep me awake today!

Two boxes of books in the car already this a.m. I have been sending two at a time on T and TH to ECU so I can get them out of the livingroom. For every box I have to fill out Customs Declaration Forms which are a pain as they are multipart and my hand gets tired from pushing down so hard to get through all the copies. Since it took over 2 months for a couple of boxes of books to get to my sister-in-law in Florida I imagine they will get to NC about the time I do in August! The mail has been awful since Christmas - guess they never caught up. I have been waiting for an order from Drugstore.com since March and I am not a happy camper as I am out of Luna bars - my typical breakfast, with a diet coke, of course. I figure the vitamins and calcium in the healthy bar counteracts the 2, sometimes 3, diet cokes I have before lunch!

I actually woke up before Steve this morning. I guess my own dream-bearer was busy last night so I slept well. Lois Lowry's Gossamer gives the reader a whole new slant on the idea of why we dream. The dream-bearers are tiny creatures who visit us at night and by touching things in our homes they are able to bring out the memories and insert dreams, the act of bestowal, into us, often via our ears. Littlest is the smallest of the dream-bearers and is learning her craft, but has so many questions about what she is and what they do that she is driving her teacher crazy, but Thin Elder takes over and together they bring dreams to an old woman who is foster mother to a very angry little boy named John. John is about to be visited by the Sinisteed, the nightmares, and it it Littlest's task to give him enough good memories in his dreams to help him be strong enough to fight off the nightmares. This is one of the loveliest books I have read in a very long time. It is such a feel good book and so well written that the words flow into you, just like a dream bestowal. I can close my eyes and see Littlest, in her almost transparent form - little wings aflutter and eyes big with wonder. Keep this one to read aloud to your own children and add it to all elementary school collections.

Off to Montessori for the day. It is going to be another hot one.

What a lovely breezy day it is outside, with several sailboats going by, sails taunt in the wind. Whenever people hear I live in the Virgin Islands they say it must be wonderful. Well, it is - but only to a degree. When you live down here you aren't out on the sailboat outings to Buck Island to go snorkeling. You are working. And you aren't staying in a gorgeous beach front room at one of the local resorts - you are living in an apartment and worrying about if the water will run out in the cistern. The islands are the place to go on vacation or retire on, which is what Steve and I have in mind. The fun of the next several years will be visiting more islands to decide which one we not only like, but can afford to retire on. Then it won't matter to me that the Internet is down again and I have grading to do, or that the mail hasn't come in over two weeks - heck, nothing would be coming in the mail I would be worried about. But, at the moment the Internet is up and I have no grading due for the semester yet. And, to top it off I not only got a catalog and a magazine in the mail yesterday - I received a box from B&N as well. Life is good! :-)

The school year is coming to an end and the dreaded summer reading lists are being prepared. It isn't that there aren't great books on most of these lists - it is just the idea that the kids are then expected to choose their summer leisure reading materials from these lists. What happened to the lazy days of summer when kids/teens could go to the library and spend hours browsing the shelves, finding their books serendipitously? That's how we find some of the greatest reads of our lives - not from a list, but because we pulled the book from a shelf in a library or at a bookstore and started flipping through it - reading a snippet here and there. I love all the summer reading programs, but again we are "paying" kids to read. I know, I know - the kids/teens today are not like many of us were - we read for the sheer pleasure of reading and no one had to bribe us with a Pizza Hut coupon or any other prize to read. If someone had offered me something I would have wanted another book, just like the one by a favorite author, or another fantasy title with dragons, etc. I wish we could just immerse kids/teens in books via booktalks and other ways of introducing books to them and let them choose their own, from a myriad of choices. Not, read 5 from the list and you get this, etc. We are taking away the much needed skill of self selection of reading materials. Kids/teens assume someone is going to tell them what to read next - how about giving them a variety of books and letting them make their own choices? Why does that seem like such an odd idea today? Oh, yeah - may have something to do with the focus on standardized tests, where kids aren't expected to actually think. Okay I am getting off my soap box now!

For a fun reading experience for teenage girls who love the Sonya Sones books - offer Kristen Smith's The Geography of Girlhood, which takes Penny from 14-18. In verse format Penny responds to her sister's reputation in school, their father's somewhat controlling behavior, the lack of a mother role model, and her eventual ride on the wild side when she runs away, but just for a little while, with a bad boy. Each of the poems is titled - some of which certainly bring a smile to the reader's face. Smith writes screenplays, including Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Ella Enchanted, all of which would be movies of interest to the girls as well.

It is only 10 a.m. and I have already drank two Diet Cokes and eaten more Hot Tamales than I would like to admit to. I keep telling myself that cinnamon is good for the digestion - overrides the # of calories in the candy! Now to find the top of my desk, which is covered with class folders from semesters present, past, and future!

How weird is this - I woke up wide awake at 6:15 a.m. and wasn't even in a grumpy mood! Steve was grumpier than me for a change. So I got into one of my Mother's Day presents from Steve - The Heidi Chronicles & Other Plays by Wendy Wasserstein. They are wonderfully witty and sarcastic and just right for this woman who refused to let "obey" be used in our wedding vows. Steve still teases me about that. He had heard about her last book Elements of Style (which he also gave me) on NPR and knew I would like her writing. He is so right! Can't wait to read this too. Not sure I would give The Heidi Chronicle to most teens, but the older girls going on to college might enjoy the plays, especially "Uncommon Women and Others".

Yesterday was a wonderful Mother's Day. We had gone out the night before for dinner at Molly Malone's with friends so I was happy to sleep in and stay at home. Actually we did go out to get pizza, as I was craving it, but both of our favorite places were closed so we picked up the ingredients (which cost more than 2 pizzas would have) and I made them myself. I wanted pecan pie for desert and Steve wanted brownies so we bought the first and I made the second. What a delicious mix on the same plate, but Steve says it needs ice cream too. I need to find a chocolate pecan pie recipe!

On Saturday, after our 1/2 burger at Shipwreck we went down to Main Street (jewelry row) to visit Harriet and Gene, who own the 19th Hole - a wonderful little bar with about 10 bar stools that Gene runs. This is a favorite hang out of the men who come to the row - they chat with Gene while their wives are shopping in the myriad of jewelry shops. They also make and bring drinks to the jewelry shops. When there are "big spenders" in the shops the owners offer free beer and tropical drinks. I have sat in traffic on Main Street during a busy day and seen Harriet go by with a tray full of bushwackers. Harriet also has a knock-off sunglass shop right next to the bar. I love the sunglasses I bought from her - 2 for $25. Had to hide them from Anne as she kept borrowing them while they were here. :-) Gene is a wealth of knowledge about the island as they have lived here for a long time and on Tortola before that. While we were there a West Indian young man won $2500 on the slots - he would have won close to $7000 if he had bet $4 instead of $2. Heck - I'd be just as happy as he was with the $2500. But, like Steve said - who knows how much he has put in the darn machines before this win. I want to go back to Sint Maarten and play the nickel slots!

That's all for now. I am trying to enjoy my quiet day as tomorrow I am back at Montessori and summer school starts at ECU on Weds. so I am sure my in box will be full of questions from students. It rained this morning (yahoo!!) but the sun has come out so I may even walk down to the beach after lunch.

Yahoo! We got some rain last night. It poured buckets out on the East End yesterday while I was at Montessori but it didn't look like we had gotten much on the South side. So I hurried up and got my shower in last night before someone else used up the rain water in the cistern! And then it rained some more last night so I even washed a sink full of dishes today while I talked to Mary on the phone. I loved hearing the sound of the thunder last night. It reminded me of when I was a kid in Upper Michigan and we would get huge thunder and lightening storms. My Gramma said it was Thor making new shoes for his horses using his hammer and anvil. I still can close my eyes and see Thor in all his bare-chested glory, striking the anvil! :-) Oh wait a minute - that might have been a cover from one of those bodice ripper romances I read back in my 20s. :-) Either way, the image makes me smile.

While packing book to ship to North Carolina I came across the paperback reprint of Avi's City of Light, City of Dark - a graphic novel that was initially published back in 1993 and made PW 1993 Best Book of the Year list. Not sure I would go so far as to call this a best book, perhaps not even a better book, but a good book for upper elementary, early MS, yes. It took me awhile to even pick it up to read it as I find the cover very unattractive - it looks like the end of a bullet on the cover rather than the subway token it is supposed to be. This is not Avi at his best, but I give him credit for experimenting with this format back in the early 90s. The b/w illustrations, heavy on the black, by Brian Floca are not appealing to me, but then again I am a big fan of the Pini Elfquest series, which have beautiful elaborate illustrations. The story line of a young woman having to find a magical subway token every 6 months to keep the Kurbs, who supposedly are only allowing the humans to use their island, from deep freezing NYC is a stretch, but I do think boys who are not big readers will enjoy this book. This is certainly the testament of a mother in the reader's reviews on Amazon. I am more in agreement with the Kirkus review, but will certainly share this book with graphic novel readers. Also share this with the bilingual kids as one of the characters is Hispanic and the dialog boxes are in both Spanish and English.

That is it for today. I am going to take the laptop and go sit outside and work for a bit so I can catch some of the ocean breezes that cooled off our muggy weather a bit.

This overcast weather is really getting to me. And I have the end of spring semester, beginning of summer semester, working on a book grumpies! Too many things to do and feeling the need to procrastinate because of it. I can't wait for ALA Annual in New Orleans the end of next month to get the shot of professional enthusiasm I need. Getting to see everyone and catch up on each other's lives, personal and professional, is the best part of conference. Really looking forward to the YALSA Preconference on Audio Books. I have become addicted to them - they keep me sane is the craziness of island traffic and erratic driving behavior.

Maybe I need to get away on a houseboat like the Harrisong family in Deliver Us from Normal by Kate Klise. I related to 12 year old Charles who worries about everything, especially what people in their small town think of his eccentric Catholic family. Little things like the sticker on his cello case that make it evident he is the only kid in band who doesn't own his instrument, shopping for underwear at the discount store, and the bath bubbles his mother brings in as a gift for his teacher. Charles knows what the town thinks about his family, but so do his little brothers and sisters when a group of kids write Poor White Trash on Clara's posters. They will never know if Clara had a chance at the 7th grade presidency or not - the Harrisong family hit the road, headed toward a dream, that turns out to initially be a nightmare, and then perhaps their salvation - in the form of a dilapidated houseboat. Like so many "anal" kids Charles writes lists, but he is even afraid someone will find them. The realization that maybe he is the embarrassing one in the family is more than he can handle. A great addition to an upper elementary/MS collection.

Grumpy or not, my goal is to get a Reader's Advisory column writen from LMC today.

Another overcast and humid day down here. I just wish it would rain and get it over with! We were up in Tutu having dinner at Jack's last night when it actually drizzled a bit. Nothing here on the south side of the island, of course. We ended up eating out as right after Steve got home from work yesterday, and thank goodness after I got out of the shower, the power went out. So we headed to Iggy's for a burger but they were closed for a private party. I had my heart set on a burger so we went to Jack's. Big mistake - I got really sick from the buffalo burger again. Guess it is time I give up on them, but they do taste good. The power was back on when we got home but I was feeling too crummy to deal with flipping channels. I laughed out loud them a.m. when I read one of the top 5 things you will never hear from your husband is: "Here honey, you take the remote." No kidding! I try not to get too upset as I am never just watching TV - I am also checking email, working on crafts, or other projects while I watch, but when you are involved in a movie and just at the point when you might find out what is going on, like in Ronin, the other night Steve turns the channel to another movie 1/2 way through that I had no idea what was going on. And, of course, he mutes it or goes to the NFL channel during commercials. He does know better than to mess with my dorky horror movies on the SF channel on Sunday afternoons when I am into them, like the alligator one with Betty White. :-) I can only watch them on TV as they cut out all the gory parts. Wish they had cut more out of The Gangs of New York, which we actually did watch all the way through the other night. What a violent movie!

On the reading front, I am enchanted with Lois Lowry's Gossamer. It is a Houghton Mifflin title that came out last month. I can't wait to read this one aloud to my granddaughter Allyson when she is older. It is so beautifully written that I could see Littlest One, the tiny dream-giver, as I read, even though she is practically transparent to start out. Fastidious, Littlest's teacher, gets very frustrated with all the questions she asks about human and animals and what exactly they are, but Ancient One finds her playfulness and questioning manner appealing. Littlest and Thin Elderly, her new companion in transferring memories, which become dreams, to humans while they sleep are up against the Horde, which will bring terrible nightmares to their charges, a little boy and his elderly foster caregiver. Littlest is intent on finding the most wonderful memories in the limited items in the house that she can touch to gather memories so she can help build John's defenses against the Sinisteed. Lowry has done it again - enchanted me with a story of a wonderful fantasy character who has to be shared with elementary and younger MS age students.

All for today.

Football on TV already! Having the NFL channel gives Steve 24/7 access to football stuff. I'd rather watch racing or most anything else during the off season. Yesterday we were watching a road rally that took place in Labrador, Newfoundland. Why someone would road race some of the old cars in that race is beyond me, especially since it was raining. But, I did enjoy drooling over the cars. Or I might have been drooling over the smell of French fries since Steve and I somehow "lost" each other in Havensight. He went across the street to get his hair cut and I went to buy Mother's Day cards. Since the post office was open I decided to stand in line for stamps to mail them. Big mistake - one of the elderly West Indian women in front of me had a stack of bills and was slowly pulling out each one and asking for money orders. So while I stood in line for what seemed like forever Steve had already finished getting his haircut and went to look for me at Dockside Books, where we agreed to meet. I headed there after the PO but he wasn't there so I checked out all the new YA on the shelves and the mysteries. Still no Steve so I bought a diet coke at Gourmet Gallery (closing my eyes to all the delicious varieties of European dark chocolate). Still no Steve, so I went and sat in the car and listened to a bit of McGuire's Wicked, which I am loving. How can you not love a sharp toothed little green girl, daughter of a promiscuous mother and a minister father who does not know she isn't his. How she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West is going to be one long delicious listen! But, it was wickedly hot in the car so I headed across the street to see what the heck was keeping him. There he was, having a drink, reading the Daily News, and chatting with the other locals at The Rum Shack. He said he assumed I would know where to find him! Oh well, by then we were starving so the Shipwreck burger was devoured, as were the fries. YUM!!

The mail situation is getting more interesting by the day. I would say humorous, but I am long past thinking it is funny. One, I always end up parking by the dumpster because the parking situation is horrible - people park any which where they want to. Two, the owner has taken over the counter, which he doesn't do well. There he was, sitting on the outside steps in the sun, sleeping, when we got there yesterday. He said he was bored as only 4 customers had come in so far that day. Oh yes, and the mail had just come in but he hadn't gotten around to putting it up yet. GRRR!!!

I curled up with a children's book this a.m. and read Kate DiCamillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. What a beautifully written gentle toy fantasy about a part china and part fur 3' tall rabbit, who starts out as the beloved friend of Abilene, a rich little girl who dresses him up in various costumes, hats and shoes included. Edward has his own bed and silk pajamas. He is one conceited rabbit who just accepts that Abilene loves him - he has no concept what that could be. But his journey begins when a couple of rowdy boys grab him while Abilene's family is sailing on the Queen Mary and he gets thrown overboard. It is a long time before an old sailor catches Edward in his net and he is dressed up as a girl rabbit, but this is so much better than the ocean floor he accepts the dress. Edward's learns, through a variety of owners what love is all about. A very touching story that reminds me of The Velveteen Rabbit by Williams. A wonderful bedtime read aloud for a little girl.

That is it for me today.

Another dreary humid day. It got so dark yesterday afternoon I was sure it was going to rain, but no such luck. Just so muggy that the air was heavy with moisture, but that won't fill the cistern. Figured I had better write in the morning as all my good intentions to do so at the end of the day are useless. After grading and other end of the semester projects I am brain dead. I said last night I would work until Steve got home and since he stopped to get pizza I was still grading at 7 p.m. It is so interesting to read the results of the students' evaluations of the different styles of booktalks. I am seeing a trend with the first person booktalks. The upper level HS students aren't as receptive to them as the 7th - 9th graders. They seem to be a real hit with this age group and enjoyed by the older teens only if it is a real intense book, like Graham's Acceleration.

Wish we could take off for another long weekend at Nail Bay on Virgin Gorda, but that won't happen until I can get caught up on some of the work piled on my desk. Steve sent me an email with a digital picture of the towel girl that the maid had created on our bed. I was having a great time checking out her daily creations - bunnies with floppy ears out of the hand towels, turtles on the bed, but my favorite with the doll made from towels, seashells for eyes and mouth and yellow flowers for her hair. I had Steve take pictures of all of them. :-) Thought I would share the cost of the "essentials" we bought at the local grocery store on Virgin Gorda. St. Thomas is expensive, but nothing compared to what we paid over there. And this is the grocery store the local people shop in. How do they afford to live there is beyond me. A 12 pack of Diet Coke was $10, a 10 oz bag of honey wheat pretzels was $4.25, a package of Chips Ahoy cookies was $6.95, and a 6 pack of cans of Amstel Light was $9.00. Next time I am going to take my Diet Coke and pretzels with me!

Speaking of intense books, I stayed up and finished Jack Gantos' The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs last night. It was not the best thing to have in my mind as I was trying to relax and fall asleep. One creepy, get under you skin and won't let your mind rest with wondering about it kind of book. No blood and and guts, but truly one of the most horrific books I have read in a long time. This is the kind of horror that messes with your head! I fell asleep thinking about the nature vs. nurture issue brought to light by this book. Do we truly have free will or it is hogwash as the Twins suggest in this book? The curse of the Rumbaughs is genetic and there is nothing they can do about it. So they had no control over themselves when they matter of factly used their taxidermy skills to stuff and mount their mother after she died of a natural death. She had always controlled their lives and she still did, after death. They were obsessed with mother love. And to think that these Twins seemed common place, though certainly a bit odd, to the inhabitants of the small Pennsylvania town they lived in. No one knew Ab from Dolph, even they thought they were part of one person. And no one knew about their mother except for Lily and her never-been-married mother, who had started working in the Twins' pharmacy when she was a teenager and became as much a part of the Rumbaugh family as if she were a blood relative. After all, she did keep their secrets and even had a plot in the Rumbaugh cemetery. Lily is about to find out about who she is and what role the Twins play in her life when she turns 16. Her mother tells Lily she isn't ready for the whole truth until then. Not sure I was ready for it either and I am a lot older than 16! Older teens will revel in the creepiness of this book and may even learn a bit of history in the process. Gantos includes wonderful thought provoking tidbits about early eugenics research, the Nazi medical experimentation, and research on twins to help you suspend your disbelief that people like Ab and Dolph could exist.

All for today.