Happy Good Friday to one and all. The schools are pretty much out around here so there were families everywhere when we took time off from our computers to go out to lunch at the new Mexican place in town, Lime. A cute little cafeteria type place where you order and they bring it out to you. Lots of food and good food too at a reasonable price. Their sign says, “So Mexican we can’t open in Arizona!” Steve took a picture of it to send to a friend in AZ. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful breezy day while we ate.

I was outside by the canal this morning finishing up a book I’ll write about in a moment and I paused to just quietly say thanks for the beauty of the area we live in. I was laying my head back on the chair and looking up into the canopy of cypress trees I was sitting under and thought I saw our cat asleep way up in a crook of the truck and a large branch. Thank goodness it was not Sophie, but a napping raccoon. I went in to get the binoculars and Steve to come look too. The raccoon was sprawled across the branches sleeping and opened his eyes long enough to look down at us and yawn and went back to sleep. Reminded me so much of Sophie when her nap is being interrupted, but lots bigger incisors! There was also a squirrel having a late breakfast of green coconut in the palm tree next to him. At one point while I was watching the squirrel he put his tail across his back so that he looked like Stripe from the old Gremlins movie. I laughed aloud and I swear he looked down at me and bared his teeth in a grin! If one sits back and watches nature around us it is astonishing. Sadly, I’ve really not done that much in my life. I’ve been too busy doing everything else to slow down and enjoy it. Perhaps there is some “goodness” to be found out of the health issues I am experiencing that have forced me to slow down. At least I am trying to view it that way, especially when I am frustrated and want to do something and haven’t the energy to do it!

Okay – now to the book I was reading when I spotted the raccoon. I was vicariously on the California coast near Monterey rather than sitting in the backyard in South Florida as I was finishing up a wonderful mermaid tale. I have been enchanted with mermaid and selkie tales since I was a kid so when I opened a box of review books from Houghton Mifflin and there was L. K. Madigan’s The Mermaid’s Mirror http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Mermaids-Mirror/L-K-Madigan/e/9780547194912/?itm=2&USRI=mermaids+mirror+madigan I knew it was going on my “gotta read” shelf. Since I have stepped back from reviewing for VOYA or LMC for awhile and reading what I want, I have been focusing on fantasy and Christmas “stuff” – alternating between the two. Imagine being a teen drawn to water with a father who was once an avid surfer and who will not step foot into the water or let her learn to surf. His fear of going into the water is painfully evident, but the cause of it is something Lena has never learned. But when she turns 16 the draw of the ocean near their California beach town is too much for her and she finds herself awaking from sleep walking on the beach. It is as if the ocean is calling to her in her dreams. She can hear it singing to her. Her boyfriend and best friend surf and Lena watches them from the beach and sometimes swims, but never surfs. Or at least, until she can’t stand it anymore and accepts her boyfriend’s sister’s offer to teach her. Lena is a natural on a board. No surprise as she is instinctually at home in the to sea and can read waves without thinking about it. She discovers why her father will not go into the sea and how her mother died – both of which change her life forever. She takes the chance of surfing one of the most dangerous stretches of beach to find the mermaid she is sure she saw in the ocean days before and who is drawing her to the sea. Lena almost dies in her attempt to surf the waves at Magic Crest Cove but instead she staggers out of the water clutching the key to her future and her past. A beautifully done coming of age and romance. I didn’t want it to end.

For any of you who have been reading my blog for a long time, you know I am a major Audrey Hepburn fan so when Margaret Cardillo’s debut children’s book, Just Being Audrey, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Just-Being-Audrey/Margaret-Cardillo/e/9780061852831/?itm=1&USRI=just+being+audrey from HarperCollins arrived, I had to read it immediately. The delightful, mellow illustrations by Julia Denos bring Audrey’s impish beauty to life visually for the young girls who have no idea who Audrey Hepburn was but know the “look” even today. This graceful gazelle of a woman enchanted us from the moment we saw her on the screen and humbled us with her humanitarian efforts when she was no longer acting. Quirky, often self-conscious, but also stubborn and sure of what she wanted, Hepburn left an impact on the world such that I am delighted to see her life introduced via a picture book. Perhaps it will pique both the mothers reading the book and the daughters to find out more about her, especially her later in life work with UNICEF, the organization that was there at the end of WWII when she was a hungry child, hiding with her family and 40 other people. This one goes in my personal collection to be shared with my granddaughters and hopefully we’ll watch Hepburn movies together when they are older.

Lastly, my Easter time Christmas reading! Heather Graham’s Home in Time for Christmas http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Home-in-Time-for-Christmas/Heather-Graham/e/9780778328230/?itm=2&USRI=home+in+time+for+christmas+graham caught my attention because of the time travel romance that reminded me of my favorite Jude Devereaux novel, A Knight in Shining Armor http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Knight-in-Shining-Armor/Jude-Deveraux/e/9780743457262/?itm=2&USRI=knight+in+shining+armor+devereaux. But, instead of a nobleman coming back through a time warp, in Heather Graham's delightful time travel romance it is a young Revolutionary War soldier and author who appears in the middle of the road as Melody is driving home to spend Christmas with her parents. He is dressed in Revolutionary War-era clothes and has no clue what a car is or where he is. Instead of taking the man she “softly” hit with her car to the ER, she takes him home for Christmas. As one would imagine, she falls in love with the man but there is a contemporary rival for her heart who she loves but is not in love with. The best part of this book is Melody’s quirky parents. Her mother is a Catholic Wiccan and her father is an avid inventor who periodically sets fire to his workshop! Once they realize Jake truly is from the past and he needs to get home for Christmas to check on his sister, they are in on figuring out how to open the time portal. What fun to ponder time travel. I never tire of reading books that address it.

Now, since this is supposed to be a day off, I am going float in the pool for awhile!

I had the third procedure done on my neck and I am having a reaction, again, to the oxygen during anesthesia. The first time I thought I had caught something at the hospital as I was really sick for three days after I got home. This time isn't quite as bad - I just feel like I have to sneeze 24/7 and when I do it is enough to take the roof off! My eyes are watering and my nose is running. The doc's office called today and they assured me it would settle down "in a day or two" and it happens to some people. Oh joy!

It may be April, but I am always in the Christmas spirit and found Sherryl Woods A Chesapeake Shores Christmas http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Chesapeake-Shores-Christmas/Sherryl-Woods/e/9781441876737/?itm=3&USRI=chesapeake+shores+christmas at Borders. Our local one went out of business last weekend and I stocked up on Christmas books and other fun stuff I wouldn't normally buy. What a sweet Christmas story about a large family with the grown siblings having concerns, especially the one who became a divorce lawyer, about their parents getting back together years after their mother left for New York. From what read in the introduction there are 3 previous titles about the O’Brien family in the Chesapeake Shores series and a new series to come about the son who became a divorce lawyer. It is his infant son who helps bring him around to supporting his parents’ remarriage. With all the horrible natural events and other bad news we hear and read on a daily basis, a sweet, quiet family story/romance like this one is just what one needs sometimes.

I may have already written about Awakened http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Awakened/P-C-Cast/e/9780312650247/?itm=2&USRI=awakened+house+of+night+series+8 by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast, mother and daughter writing team. The House of Night is my all time favorite YA vampire series as it features a strong will female main character, Zoey, who is part Native American. You don’t see this kind of character in YA literature very often. Stevie Rae, her blonde haired, rural Okie sounding, best friend is a key character in some of the titles – this one as well. Stevie Rae's relationship with Rephaim, the Raven Mocker, has taken a turn for the better and even his father has stood up to the nasty Neferet, but I am sure her evil doings are far from over. This 8th book in the series is as interesting reading as the first one, even more so when I think about it as I’ve developed a character/reader relationship with the characters in the series and find myself thinking about them as “real people” – which is fine praise for a series about fledgling vampires and High Priestesses!

Most of us know at least one of the versions of the story of the kind and not so nice sisters who encounter a goddess, witch, etc. Heather Tomlinson’s Toads and Diamonds http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Toads-and-Diamonds/Heather-Tomlinson/e/9780805089684/?itm=2&USRI=toads+and+diamonds is version set in a fictional India – the Hundred Kingdom. Diribani meets the goddess at the well while on a trip for water and is blessed with speaking flowers and precious jewels. One would think this would be a wonderful gift, but like all people with wealth, she has to wonder - are they loved for who they are or what they have? What happens to Dirabani is opulent captivity. What stayed with me more so is the strength of the sister, Tana, whom the goddess blesses with speaking snakes and toads. Tana has the intellect to turn what appears to be a curse into a blessing of sorts, saving the kingdom and herself in the end. Tomlinson weaves a land that fascinated me as a reader and created strong female characters, though very different from teens of today, ones whom they may well see themselves in as they compare the sisters' responses in this magical kingdom to situations in their own lives.

I am hoping I get to blog some of the many books sitting here on my desk that I've read when I haven't been feeling well enough to do much else. I am actually taking the summer off from teaching to see if I can get back on healthier footing. I hope I'll catch up on some of the blogging of books and sleep until I cannot sleep anymore. I think I've become a cat - my body wants to sleep more hours than it is awake and when it is awake, it is weird hours of the day and night. Please excuse any wonky wording in these blogs. My brain seems to be doing weird things as well!!

I I feel like a heel because I am getting Astro's Valentine card and picture up barely in time for Easter! For those you who didn't read the earlier posting - Astro is the delightful Steller Sea Lion in Jeanne Walker Harvey's book Astro The Steller Sea Lion that is beautifully illustrated by Shennen Bersani. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Astro/Jeanne-Walker-Harvey/e/9781607180760/?itm=3&USRI=astro+the+steller+sea+lion Jeanne sent me the above pictures and I am sorry I didn't get them posted sooner. The woman is Erin Gibbons, Astro's trainer at the Mystic Aquarium. Such a cool book! Has a really fun to read section at the back called "For Creative Minds". Did you know that pinniped means flipper footed? It is amazing what you can learn from children's books! :-) Now, I'm going enjoy the Sunday paper and the NBC Sunday morning news.

Isn't this a wonderful picture of Steve? I honestly do not know where this was taken. He sent it to me from his phone so someone else must have taken. Probably on one of his business trips. But I think Steve is very handsome when he smiles. Well, he's handsome to me all the time, but especially so when he smiles!

I apologize for not posting more. It would take me days to write about all the health issues I'm dealing with right now so I won't even try other than to say they have made it very difficult to keep up with work let alone enjoying writing on this blog. I owe emails/letters to lots of friends and family and my office looks like a tornado went through it, but I am focusing on keeping up with grading and making it through this semester. The docs have asked me to take the summer off to recuperate and I am doing so.

Steve took me to Borders, which is going out of business, and I stocked up on Christmas mysteries and romances to read while sitting out by the pool. I am going to read "adult" books for a change with a few YA a children's when I have "withdrawal" symptoms as I've been reading most youth literature for years.

I am just about done with Jennifer Donnelly's The Winter Rose http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Winter-Rose/Jennifer-Donnelly/e/9781401301033/?itm=3&USRI=winter+rose+donnelly. It will be my treat later this morning after Steve and his mom wake. My body has decided getting up at 4:00 and then taking a nap at 8:00 is what is wants so I get grading and email done in the early a.m. Anyway - back to this wonderful historical novel set in London during the early 1900s. Although she is the daughter of nobility, Lydia has turned her back on position and money and attends medical school to work in the "slums" of Whitechapel where living conditions are deplorable and children and women die of illnesses and diseases that are easily preventable with better living conditions and nutrition. Corrupt and broke Freddie Lytton has spent years wooing Lydia, not because he loves her, but because he wants the money her parents have promised him if he can convince her to marry him and stop working in the clinic in Whitechapel. But Lydia falls in love with the "criminal" Sid Malone and the story takes so many twists and turns that you need to hang on to the sides of your chair to keep up. There may be 720 pages in this book, but you'll devour every one of them.

But, I suggest you read Donnelly's the The Tea Rose http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Tea-Rose/Jennifer-Donnelly/e/9780312378028/?pwb=1& first as it sets the scene in the 1880s when Jack the Ripper is terrorizing London and murdering and mutilating the prostitutes of Whitechapel. Fiona Finnegan is the heroine of this prequel to The Winter Rose, in which she still plays a part. She is madly in love with Joe Bristow and they are busy saving every penny they can for their own store one day but he is seduced by a wealthy shop owner's daughter. Fiona runs away to America and makes a name for herself as a tea merchant, seeking revenge for her father's murder in the process. Not quite as lengthy, at 529 pages, it is as fascinating as the sequel. This is Donnelly's debut novel and her skill at writing historical fiction is keenly evident.

I was introduced to Donnelly through her YA novel A Northern Light http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Northern-Light/Jennifer-Donnelly/e/9780152053109/?itm=5, a Michael L. Printz honor book, based on the murder of a young pregnant woman at a lodge in the Adirondacks. Set in the summer of 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie is working at the lodge when a lodger named Grace gives her a packet of letters to destroy. Young Grace's body is later found in the lake. Mattie is a strong female character at a time when women were expected to take care of the home and marry young. She has a suitor and is caring for her siblings as her mother has died but Mattie wants a better life. She wants to go away to school and is encourage by her teacher. There is a train bound for New York City with Mattie's name on it, if she can muster the courage to take it. Teens will relate to the strong female characters in this novel even though the time setting is quite different from the hallways of today's high schools. My YA literature students are booktalking with HS age teens right now and I remind them that a successful booktalk, not matter what time period a book is set in, focuses on making a connection with teens of today.

And then Donnelly totally blew me away with Revolution http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Revolution/Jennifer-Donnelly/e/9780385737630/?itm=1 , her latest YA novel. It is in part a contemporary novel about a teenage girl who is destroying herself with grief over her role in her little brother's death. Andi is sent to Paris for the Christmas holiday to spend time with family friends and to work on her Senior thesis on a little known Paris musician who composed for the guitar, unique for the time period of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Inside a guitar case from that time period Andi finds the journal of a young woman who had been the playmate of the young prince. With no warning Andi finds herself transported through time to take on the persona of the young woman Alexandrine and lives the French Revolution through her. It is an incredible novel. Teens won't even realize how much French and music history they are learning as they vicariously live with Andi/Alexandrine.

Donnelly also delved into the picture book arena in 2007 with her delightful Humble Pie http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Humble-Pie/Jennifer-Donnelly/e/9781416967514/?itm=16#TABS We've all known the little boy, or girl, who is spoiled rotten, greedy, and grabby and just a pain to be around. So does this grandmother who makes a huge humble pie - the crust is as large as bed sheet! It has all kinds of yummy ingredients and greedy Theo falls right in. Grandmother isn't about to let him out no matter how much he howls but all of his jumping and bumping sends the pie tumbling along. Not surprisingly, no one will help him until the pie rolls into a town of hungry townspeople and Theo is able to escape without being baked into the pie. He returns home a reformed boy. Donnelly's rhyming text and message makes this a fun one to read at story time as little kids all have a bit of Theo in them.

Most of you will recognize the whimsical style of illustrations as the illustrator is Stephen Gammell who has illustrated myriad picture books, winning awards too! Barnes and Noble lists 131 results for this illustrator: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&ATH=Stephen+Gammell My personal favorite is Song and Dance Man http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Song-and-Dance-Man/Stephen-Gammell/e/9780394893303/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=2 that won the Caldecott Award. Gammell's color pencil drawings bring to life the old man showing his grandchildren just how a bowler hat and a pair of old dance shoes can transport them to another time when Grandpa used to dance the old soft shoe to "Tea for Two." I can't even count the number of times I read this one aloud when I worked with primary age children. So - now you know a bit about every book Jennifer Donnelly has written - from her debut adult, YA, and picture books as well as two more. Can't wait to see what is coming next. But, while you wait you can check out her web site for cool stuff: http://jenniferdonnelly.com/index.html

Okay, that's it for today. Now I'm going finish the last few chapter of The Winter Rose so I can get it in the mail to my daughter Mary as I know she'll love it too.

I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted. A lot going on that I'll address in another posting, but since I cannot be at my aunt's funeral today, I felt the need to write down what I remember about her. Aunt Ruth holds a special place in my heart and always will.

My favorite Aunt Ruth, whom I am named after, passed away this week. I’ve not seen her in several years as my visits to Pointe Mills were infrequent, but I could always depend upon an offer of a cup of coffee and something sweet. I don’t think I could have “inherited” my sweet tooth from her, but she did teach me cool things like dipping cucumber in sugar! Yummy! And to take your “propeller” out of your coffee after you stir in a heaping spoon of sugar – otherwise you may poke your eye out with your first sip! Oh yes, and the crunchy, delicious, sweet, saltiness of scooping up a dollop of soft ice cream from your cone with a potato chip.

Aunt Ruth savored food, as she did life. I cannot remember her being anything but warm and welcoming. When I wasn’t in Mom’s or Gramma’s kitchen, I was in Aunt Ruth’s kitchen. The kitchen was the place we hung out to play cards and just talk away the hours. Since she and my mom are sisters and married brothers, the two families spent a lot of time together at home and at the lake. She was a reassuring presence in my life, even though I didn’t consciously realize it growing up.

It was in Aunt Ruth’s kitchen I watched my cousin Karen learn how to drink without gulping – a lady-like endeavor I have never accomplished myself. I sound like a dockworker chugging a beer when I drink liquids. No dainty quiet sips from me! It was at Aunt Ruth's table where I laughed so hard my sides hurt while Karen was mimicking the “a little dab will do ya” commercial. Why it was funny – I have no idea today, but Aunt Ruth just smiled at the silliness.

It was on Aunt Ruth’s living room floor that Karen taught me how to lay out and mark patterns, cut them out carefully, and make my own clothes. Granted, Gramma taught me my first stitches on her treadle machine, but it was in the safe comfort of Aunt Ruth’s home, with Karen’s quiet guidance, that I learned to sew.

It was in Aunt Ruth’s yard that I learned what family is, even though I didn’t realize how unique the St. John’s Day gatherings were. They were just part of life. Juhannus, a celebration in honor of John the Baptist, is a Finnish holiday initially celebrated on June 24th. In Finland it is now celebrated on the Saturday between June 20th and 26th. I don’t know if it was ever celebrated at any other family home other than Aunt Ruth’s but that’s where it was as long as I could remember. There were Aunts and Great Aunts “everywhere” telling stories, many of which young ears probably should not have been eavesdropping on! Mom and Aunt Ruth had a lot of aunts and they all had very unique personalities! The tables were laden with food and Aunt Ruth’s kitchen was like a sauna from all the goodies she baked on her wood stove. No one was watching their weight as they loaded up plates. I shied away from the green Jello with bananas though! YUCK!! Homemade Finnish "squeaky cheese" - YUM!! What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and quietly listen to the women's stories – I could have learned so much about my heritage and extended family but where/who we came from just doesn't seem important when you are a kid. We are looking forward, not back at that point in our lives.

My Aunt Ruth was the queen of backseat drivers! I don’t remember her ever driving but I do remember her telling my mom, or whoever else who was driving, how to do it better. If there are cars in heaven and St. Peter took her to the where the rest of the family was waiting for her, she was telling him how to drive! She and Dad used to have an ongoing feud about her backseat driving and he was known to pass up a close parking spot just because she told him to park there!

My Aunt Ruth is now with Uncle Hank and the other members of our family who have passed and were waiting there for her to join them. I dearly loved my Aunt Ruth. She was a stable, loving part of my childhood and the first person I went to visit when I went home. I can close my eyes and hear the screen door opening and see her smile. She will bring laughter to heaven!

I love this picture of Michael. Mary found copies of Rob Kidd's Pirates of the Caribbean Series in a used bookstore and brought them home for him. Michael immediately curled up on the couch and was lost in his book. One of the titles, Quest for the Sword of Cortes
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Quest-for-the-Sword-of-Cortes/Rob-Kidd/e/9781423106562/?itm=6 has a cover that will pique the interest of any pirate loving boy like Michael. He has found his "unconscious delight" reading. The kind of reading that helps create lifelong readers. Books (often a series or those by a favorite author) that a young reader can lose themselves in as they realize that there is pleasure in reading. It is something they choose to do for enjoyment; not sure something they have to do for points or for a class assignment.


This kind of unconscious delight reading is an essential step in becoming a lifelong reader. Sadly, in our zeal to create competent readers who can pass standardized tests, we have created alliterates. Kids who can read but choose not to because they find no pleasure in the process. School librarians are already talking about the upcoming issue of Knowledge Quest that focuses on Readicide - a term coined by Terry Gallagher - to address the killing of reading in our schools. There's a short note about it on the KQ website:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/knowledgequest/kqweb.cfm The cover art and web content should be there soon for the March/April issue.

Being involved in teaching, reading and reviewing children's and YA books since the 1980s has its perks. I received a signed copy of Mary E. Pearson's manuscript for The Fox Inheritance
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Fox-Inheritance/Mary-E-Pearson/e/9780805088298/?itm=1&USRI=fox+inheritance+pearson Even though it won't be out until August 2011, Barnes and Noble has a link to it. Oh my!! I had to force myself to put it down this morning and get on this computer. It is stunning. Locke and Kara died from injuries in a car accident but the content of their brain - memories, intellect, etc. were download to a computer drive. There they floated in a painful limbo for 260 years until an unscrupulous scientist used a much refined version of bio-gel (what was used to bring Jenna - the third teen in the accident - back to life) to create bodies for Locke and Kara. What he doesn't know is how those years trapped in darkness has warped the psyches of the two teens. I am only 63 pages into the manuscript and I have page markers galore so I can go back and read passages. I have gasped aloud and even had the hair raise on my arms due to Pearson's skill at bringing to life the inhumanity of a future where human looking and sounding Bots are only complete to the waist. Put this one on your pre-publication order NOW!!

And, if you have not read The Adoration of Jenna Fox
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Adoration-of-Jenna-Fox/Mary-E-Pearson/e/9780312594411/?itm=2 yet, please do so. You won't be sorry. Not only does it tell Jenna's story to help prepare you for Locke and Kara's, it is one of the most haunting futuristic YA novels I've read. I am so impressed with the quality of writing of this novel, as well as the relevance of the bio-gel created teen to today's teens, that it is required reading in my YA Materials course. Jenna is the daughter of the scientist who created the bio-gel that is used to repair his daughter's accident ravaged body. But, is she truly human with only 10% of her brain? How much is required to ensure you have a soul? I've read this book several times since it came out in 2008 and each time it causes me to pause and think. Just what a good book should do! I have the link to the paperback cover above as I like it better than the hardback cover with the butterfly on it, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Adoration-of-Jenna-Fox/Mary-E-Pearson/e/9780805076684/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=2 but you'll get why the butterfly when you read it.

I was scrolling back through this blog to 2003 and saw that I had discussed Pearson's Scribbler of Dreams
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Scribbler-of-Dreams/Mary-E-Pearson/e/9780152045692/?itm=3 published in 2002. It didn't get great reviews but I liked the modern version of the Hatfields and McCoys family feud. She wrote David v. God http://search.barnesandnoble.com/David-v-God/Mary-E-Pearson/e/9780152020583/?itm=2&USRI=pearson+david+god back in 2000 but I wasn't writing the blog yet then.

I knew she was a YA author to watch. And sure enough, she knocked one out of the stadium with A Room on Lorelei Street http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Room-on-Lorelei-Street/Mary-E-Pearson/e/9780805076677/?itm=27 in 2005.
Look at the honors:
WINNER of the 2005 GOLDEN KITE BOOK AWARD for FICTION
WINNER of the 2005 JHUNT AWARD for Young Adult Literature
2006 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
2006 NYPL Best Books for the Teen Age
Bank Street Best Teen Books 2005
Richie's Picks: THE BEST OF 2005
Baltimore Great Books 2005
Capitol Choices Noteworthy Book 2006
Texas Tayshas List 2006 - 2007
2006 California Collection
I couldn't talk about this book enough as we didn't have enough books like this - with totally realistic older teenage characters who were making decisions (not always good ones) to move into adulthood. I cried as I read her joy with having her own room, a safe place, on Lorelei Street. You can explore Pearson's other books on her website: http://www.marypearson.com/ There are links to her LiveJournal Blog and you can even find her on facebook, myspace and twitter. YA authors have to also be Internet savvy as that is where they will meet their readers.

That's it for this morning!

Happy Valentine's Day!! Can't wait for Steve to get home from California tonight. He went out to watch the ProAm golf tournament at Pebble Beach. Wish he had gotten Drew Brees' autograph for me. He and a couple of other football players were playing. Bill Murray won this year! Brees is one of my favorite quarterbacks, along with Aaron Rodgers. I was so excited when the Packers won the Superbowl. I would not have been happy if that sleazeball Steelers' quarterback won. The idea of kids looking up to someone like him really bothers me. Brees and Rodgers are different - they give back to their communities and are not abusing their status.

Steve sent hand dipped chocolate covered cherries and strawberries from California for Valentines Day. Glad I was home when UPS delivered them or they would have sat outside and melted. Got into them as soon as I opened the box. The rest are in the fridge waiting to be savored. He spoils me and I love it!!

Now on to a book - my favorite part of these postings. I have an autographed copy of a delightful picture book based on the real life events - Astro the Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey and illustrated by Shennen Bersani. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Astro/Jeanne-Walker-Harvey/e/9781607180760/?itm=2&USRI=astro+the+steller+sea+lion#TABS Very impressive that the author is donating a portion of her royalties to the Marine Mammal Center and Mystic Aquarium. Astro was found alone on an island off the coast of California. He was brought to the Saulsalito Marine Mammal Center that cares for sick and injured marine mammals. Astro was later released into the ocean but kept finding his way back to the Center. He had spent too long with humans and could not re-acclimate to the wild so he was trained to follow commands and found a home at the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut. During one of his treks back to the Center after being released he joined a school field trip and even maneuvered his way through their coned walking route. I bet those kids were delighted!!

The illustrator - Bersani -visited both the Center and the Aquarium and spoke to the employees. Her attention to detail in the colorful, quite realistic double page spreads bring the settings, Astro, and the human caretakers to life. This is a Sylvan Dell Publishing title with copyright-free supplemental factual information about sea lions at the back of the book. In addition there is a really cool video about Astro to get kids involved at http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/bookpage.php?id=Astro And, lots of activities for the teachers. The author is currently a Middle School Language Arts teacher and has a cool website of her own: http://www.jeanneharvey.com/ And, a fun blog - True Tales & a Cherry on Top: http://www.jeannewalkerharvey.blogspot.com/

Astro is a must have for all elementary school libraries and public library children's collections. Great combination of a read aloud worthy picture book story supplemented by information on Steller Sea Lions. Teachers and Internet savvy kids will love the online content as well. This is a superb example of how the picture book can span the gap between storytime and the curriculum.

That's it for tonight.

That isn't a dog - it is horse! Mary is tall for a woman so that just shows you how big their dog is! I love the second pic of the boys - wonder who wore who out! I've yet to see this "puppy" and I am nervous around big dogs because of my balance. Can you imagine trying to dry her feet from a romp in the snow? I was talking on the phone to Mary the other day and I she was fussing at Michael as apparently he and Chloe had a snow fight and Cloe lost and brought her white blanket into the house with her. I was laughing but Mary certainly wasn't! :-)

Mary and the two little ones are coming down for my Spring break. :-) Can't wait! We are going to be lazy and lay around the pool and let the kids wear themselves out - at least I hope so. If it stays this cold they won't be doing any swimming, but it should be plenty warm for that by early March. Steve has solar panels floating in the pool - they look like big blue lily pads. They are supposed to warm the water up by we have a shady back yard due to our huge cypress and palm trees so they don't work real well.

Steve's Mom got here Sunday night. Sophie's nose is bent out of shape as she has a little dog that is considerably smaller than Sophie is. :-) They were nose to nose at first and now Sophie is just plain ignoring Carmen. Now I remember why I love cats - you don't have to take them out to do their thing - you can clean out a litter box in your pjs! Well, you could take a dog out in your pjs too but its cold down here as far as I'm concerned. I'm all bundled up in wool sox and a fleece shirt. Haven't worn shorts since before Thanksgiving and this is supposed to be South Florida! Was 46 degrees this morning when I got up at 5:00.

I've read a really odd mix of books lately. That reminds me - I need to get the VOYA review done for Jo Walton's Among Others
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Among-Others/Jo-Walton/e/9780765321534/?itm=2&USRI=among+others. If you are into SF this is your book. It is a booklist of the best SF ever written weaved into a heartbreaking YA novel about a fascinating Welsh teen. Not sure when the review will be published but I won't review it here. Just wanted to mention it - it hits stores this month.

I saw the cover of Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes by Ed Butts.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Shipwrecks-Monsters-and-Mysteries-of-the-Great-Lakes/Ed-Butts/e/9781770492066/?itm=1&USRI=shipwrecks+monsters+mysteries+great+lakes+butts and I knew I had to flip through to find the chapter on the Edmund Fitzgerald. It had to be there - it is one of the most famous, if not most famous, Great Lakes shipwreck. And Gordon Lightfoot brought this tragedy to life in his haunting ballad Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
http://gordonlightfoot.com/WreckOfTheEdmundFitzgerald.shtml I grew up hearing horror stories about Lake Superior and how it is so cold that when you drown your body sinks to the bottom. Twenty-nine crew members died on that ore carrier during a November storm in 1975. Their bodies were never found and the theories raged until earlier this year when researchers concluded the ship had been swamped by a 50 ft. rouge wave. They were once though legend, but they have been proven real on Lake Superior.

As kids we used to see the ore carriers go by when we were at the lake and they'd come in fairly close when seeking shelter from storms. They were just a part of life. There was a coal dock on the "way to town" as we said - it was on the way to Houghton/Hancock in Upper Michigan and ore boats were often at the dock. So when this huge ore carrier sank, we realized anyone on those ships was at risk. 1975 is a long time ago now but I can still see grown men cry when Lightfoot's song came on the radio. Everyone knew someone who had lost a friend or family member on the boats. It still raises the hair on my arms when I hear it.

Although not as close to home to me, I read the other shipwreck entries and those on lake monsters, such as the Nessie type sightings (never had one myself). This may be a region favorite for the states and provinces that border the Great Lakes, but the drawing of waves crashing against a lighthouse against a black background on the front cover will get some of the boys attention even if they have never seen an ore boat or swam in the Great Lakes.

However, one never forgets swimming in the icy waters of Lake Superior in early summer - BRRRR!!! Nor will I forget my frozen fingers dropping a friend's shirt down the hole in the outhouse when we were shivering and trying to chance out of our wet swimsuits!

I always pick up debut novels and Stay Kramer and Valerie Thomas' Karma Bites caught my eye due to the lime green color and the girl looking like she is up to something (which she is) as she lifts the lid of a box emanating light. A quick perusal of the author information and the note that Kramer had produced one of my all time favorite "sleeper" movies, Ulee's Gold with Peter Fonda sure got my attention. Here's the Wikipedia info for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulee%27s_Gold It is such a beautiful quiet movie that touches the heart. It's about a quiet beekeeper and what he does to help his granddaughters safe as well as help his daughter-in-law detox. The character reminds me of so many of the quiet men I grew up around even though it is set in the South. I also love this movie because it addresses tupelo honey, which has fascinated me ever since I heard Van Morrison sing Tupelo Honey
http://www.elyrics.net/read/v/van-morrison-lyrics/tupelo-honey-lyrics.html the first time in the early 70s. He sings the chorus and his splendid voice slides over the words "She's as sweet as tupelo honey" and I can't help but smile. But then again, there isn't a Morrison song I don't love!

Anyway, Karma Bites is a bit of delightful fluffy candy. Not a whole lot of substance, but a fun read for MS girls who like magic. Franny's Granny is staying with them and she brought a box with her that was given to her by Lama, who knows Justin Timberlake, but I digress! Franny discovers how the box grants wishes through funky recipes and she decides to fix the problems in her life, including the fact that her two best friends no longer hang out with each other. One has become a popular cheerleader and the other is a band geek. Franny spends her time running between their two after school practices. There are some laugh out loud moments in this plain fun to read romp, with a few lessons thrown in from Granny and recipes that go wrong. Middle School girls who like tween chic lit will eat it up, but I'm not too keen on a 12-year-old talking about looking hot at the end of the book. I guess I'm a bit of a prude that way.

Vowing I am going to do more frequent shorter posts. Can't believe another semester has begun. Classes begin today. Where did 2010 go? I hope 2011 is better health wise - I am optimistic it will be.

Sent in the review to VOYA for Jennifer Pharr Davis' Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trail
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Becoming-Odyssa/Jennifer-Pharr-Davis/e/9780825306495/?itm=1&USRI=becoming+odyssa - a memoir/trail guide about her trek up the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine when she was 21. Not one I would have self selected but I am glad I read it. That is one of the joys of reviewing - you experience books you would not have chosen on your own.

I loved the spiritual snippets in the book but my days of camping and hiking are long over so the trail descriptions weren't quite so enjoyable. We did a lot of tent camping in, as well as to and from, Alaska. Most summers we drove home to visit family in Upper Michigan. Even a grizzly tearing a small backpacking tent open above my face with Mic next to me as an infant didn't stop us from camping with the kids, but we moved to a larger tent and then to a truck camper but the bears in Alaska are known to tear the backs off campers if they smell something they want to eat so it really wasn't so much about what you slept in as how you cleaned up after you cook.

Davis didn't like to cook with the small backpack stove so she ate packaged food during her nights on the trail. We had the luxury of larger camp stoves but still ate a lot of granola bars! Becoming Odyssa would be a great graduation present for a college graduate who wants to experience the Peace Corp, hike the world, or go on some other type of "quest" before settling down into a job or going on to graduate school. Even though it is a female perspective, I'd have given this to Mic to read as I think much of his trip to and hike through New Zealand was to do just that - find himself. He'd graduated from college at 20 and wanted to travel a bit before starting graduate school. He was an old soul and very insightful, even when he was a little one. His early observations often amazed me as he seemed to know and feel so much for one so young. Mic was a joy as a son, as a child, a teen, and young man and I feel blessed to have loved him for the 20 years he had on earth. He may have passed from this world, but I will always be his mother. I remind myself daily that he still lives in my heart and always will.

Wow! I had no idea it had been so long since I posted last. I am so sorry! I think I need to just start doing short posts when I think about them rather than taking the time to do the long posts I normally do. Between moving to Florida, a wild Fall semester, and then being quite ill in the last few months, I've barely kept my head above water with the basics. Some days even those don't get done!

The good news is I am finally getting settled in with new doctors down here in Florida who I really like and had my first set of occipital nerve blocks last Friday. You know those occasional headaches that are so bad they make you sick to your stomach? Well, I had one of those 24/7 since September since I had my last nerve block in August before we moved from Lexington. Now the headache is just thudding away and that I can handle. The doc was optimistic that he can give me more long term relief and that was the news I needed to hear.

This morning I'm busy working on getting course docs up for my YA Lit course starting on Friday. Anyway, I was checking links in course docs to make sure they are still live and found a pleasant surprise on The Shambles web site - someone had posted a link to me booktalking at one of the workshops we had for our COLRS grant students: http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/booktalk/ I didn't post it, but I am glad it is out there even though most of us hate to see ourselves on camera. I had the mic clipped to my pocket and it made it difficult for me as I don't normally stand just in front of the room while I booktalk but my YA Lit students are required to present a 6-book booktalking session to high school age teens and find the video useful in preparing, especially my students who have never worked with teens before.

Due to the headache, I've not done as much reading as normal but did enjoy a new fantasy that is going to be a hit. John Stephens' The Emerald Atlas
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Emerald-Atlas/John-Stephens/e/9780375868702/?itm=1&USRI=emerald+atlas+stephens is the first in a trilogy about three siblings who are the key to three books of magic that the wizards of old hid so that no one could have the power bringing them together could create. Fourteen-year-old Kate has been trying to protect her younger brother and sister for the the last 10 years since their parents disappeared as they are shuttled from one nasty orphanage to another. When they arrive at a mysterious dilapidated old house, they find the first of the books and discover their ability to travel through time via this Emerald Atlas. A high-spirited battle of good against evil with the siblings in the middle of it all. Kate is one feisty young teen and her little sister Emma is right there behind her. The bookish dwarf-obsessed Michael is also a delight. His love of reading, with specticles sliding down his nose, brought back memories of young Mic's oversides glasses, visible above the latest book he was happily lost in. We make such a personal connection with each book we read; or at least I do. This is a fantasy romp Mic would have devoured. Watch for my review at a later date in Library Media Connection.



Back to course docs. My 2011 resolution is to do short blog postings regularly. Let's see if I can keep it up!

Umpteen millions things to do today but I had to write this short blog entry as I was so in the “reading flow” as Kelly Gallagher calls what I call "unconscious delight" in his intriguing book called Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Readicide/Kelly-Gallagher/e/9781571107800/?itm=1&USRI=readicide+how+schools+are+killing+reading+and,

I was so in the flow, the world disappeared around me and I was in Russia. I wanted to spend the rest of the morning curled up with Sarwat Ghadda's Dark Goddess http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Goddess-Devils-Kiss-Novel/dp/1423127595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288098714&sr=8-1 What an incredible sequel. Check out the cover art for this book. I shivered just looking at the background of snow falling around a Russian palace. At the forefront stands Billi (Bilquis), a Templar squire and the only woman member of the Knights of the Templar, with sword in hand.

Quite different from the cover on the debut title which makes Bill look more like a romance character in a flowing dress while the shadow of man stands in the background. Billi proves to be no shrinking violet in when we first meet her in Devil's Kiss http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Kiss-Sarwat-Chadda/dp/1423120221/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1 She is rebelling against her father, the master of the Knights of the Templar, who forced her to begin training at age twelve. She did her her best to hide the training bruises and wounds while trying to look like any other high school girl. She wants a normal life but that is never going to happen, especially when a new love interest, Mike, turns out to be the Michael, the Angel of Death. I won't tell you how that battle ends.

In Dark Goddess Billi's foe is no other than Baba Yaga of Russian folklore and she wants young Vasilisa, the Spring Child, the Oracle, whom the Templars are trying to protect. If the witch of Russian lore, Baba Yaga, devours Vasilisa she will gain the strength to cause a natural disaster. The disaster will in turn cause the Fimbulwinterm, ridding the Earth of the horrible humans who have ravaged it and Baba Yaga as she is the Earth. She is the Dark Goddess and revered by the werewolves, the Plenitsy - Man-Killers. The Templar Knights join forces with the Russian Bogatyrs to find the Spring Child only to discover the Bogatyrs are seeking the Oracle for reasons of their own. Intent on taking imperial power in Russia, their leader is furnishing humans for the vampires to feed on. This man has sworn to protect Prince Ivan but he wants him dead, but not by his own hands.

I remember reading the tales about Baba Yaga when I was a child and her house that stood on chicken legs - she was by far more frightening to me than the witch in Hansel and Gretel. Chadda has brought my memories to life with his description of Baba Yaga - "She shuffled into the faint candlelight, and the shadows deepened around her. She walked hunchbacked, but even so was thirteen feet tall. Rags covered her skeletal frame - animals skins and ancient furs. Insects scuttled in her floor-length white hair, which formed a veil over her face. Only the eyes peered out. Black, shiny, ancient. Her nails - long, curved daggers - clicked against her bone staff." The hair raised on my arms just reading this description. A horrific, "virtually strenuous" read that has me internally shrieking in fear as Billi battles one fiend after another. It is is a mix of folklore, myth, and horror and downright deliciously terrifying. Not for the faint of heart! My fingers and arms are sore from vicariously swinging a sword alongside Billi. And I think I'm scared of the dark again!

I just went to Chadda's web site http://www.sarwatchadda.com/ and you can read the first chapter of Dark Goddess.


Curiosity was just killing this cat over the name Bilqis so I had to look it up. It is a derivation of the the Islamic name for the Queen of Sheba, Bilquis. I love how myths, legends, and lore find their way across cultural and geographic barriers, giving us all stories and tales that resonate with us no matter where and when we lived and listened to them. The retelling of these tales, orally or in written format, reminds us all that we are no so different after all.

Chadda's website also talks about The Chainsaw Gang
http://www.sarwatchadda.com/the-chainsaw-gang/ - a group of YA authors who write horror. Check out the covers on these horror titles for YAs. Just the covers should creep-out even the most avid teen horror fan. Sam Enthoven's Crawlers cover art has my skin crawling! Check out Enthoven's other titles at:
http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=sam+enthoven&box=sam%20enthoven&pos=-1 You may recognize his name from The Black Tattoo
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Black-Tattoo/Sam-Enthoven/e/9781595141330/?itm=3&USRI=sam+enthoven about a demon possessed teen.

As much as I want to finish the book, I have to defer the pleasure for later. I was one of those kids/teens who hid my "recreational reading," as Gallagher calls it, behind the textbook as the other kids in class laboriously stumbled over passages aloud in class. As if reading the chapter in the World History text was going to make this stuff any more interesting or real! Bring in Dark Goddess and tell them about Prince Ivan, the son of the Anastasia, the Russian Princess who legend says escaped the family massacre. And Rasputin, the Oracle who lost the fight with Baba Yaga. Make history interesting.

Bring in a picture book version of Baba Yaga like Marianna Mayer's Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Baba-Yaga-and-Vasilisa-the-Brave/Marianna-Mayer/e/9780688085001/?itm=2&USRI=baba+yaga with detailed illustrations by Kinuko Y. Craft. All picture books are not for very young children and this Russian tale is one of them. The illustrations in picture books can bring to life history so much better than the dry textbook can. I did find it interesting that no recently published retellings of this tale came up when I changed the search parameters to recent titles first. Mostly from back in the 90's. Time to pull out those copies and display them with the other Halloween/horror books.

Another beautiful day in South Florida. We are loving this weather! We drove down to the Upper Keys to watch the Texans win :-) on Sunday afternoon. We sat outside and looked out on the ocean and checked out the small boats as couples and families came in to have a late lunch and watch the various games. No worries about having to cover up your kids' Halloween costumes with winter coats or add snow boots like in Michigan's UP like we often did as kids.

My morning reading has been a beautifully written YA novel about a very disturbing community and a teen who lives there. Keep Sweet. Sounds like an enduring tidbit to say to someone you love as you depart, doesn't it? This assumption may be what causes a reader to pick up Michele Dominguez Greene's Keep Sweet. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Keep-Sweet/Michele-Dominguez-Greene/e/9781439157466/?itm=1&USRI=keep+sweet+greene#TABS Keep true. Keep silent. - Also on the cover, in smaller print but as intriguing as the innocent sounding title, beckoning the reader to open the book to read the blurb on the jacket flap where "KEEP SWEET ALVA JANE, ABOVE ALL. jumps out at you. Very disconcerting - a kind of disconcerting that made me keep reading when I realized just how awful this "term of endearment" really is. It is a warning to the females of the walled in polygamist community of Pineridge, Utah to remain passive and willing. Willing to be married off to a much older man, to become sister wives as soon as the young teens have their first period - the sign they are old enough to marry and bear children - the more the better. Only a man's first wife is his legal wife, with the remaining sister wives collecting welfare for their children. Alva Jane's mother, the 4th wife, has had 12 children since her marriage at age 14. The sister wives may appear to get along at first glance, but there is animosity and jealous as they vie for their husband's nightly visits, smug when it occurs more often than their "allotted" nights. Fourteen-year-old Alva Jean's relatively calm life changes forever when she does the most forbidden thing a young woman in this fundamentalist polygamist community can do - she fell in love with a young man. In her excitement about their future together when her young man happily tells Alva Jane that he has his father's approval to talk to her father about marrying her, this innocent teen impulsively kisses him but her head is viciously snapped back by her father's legal wife who has been spying on her. The young man is hauled into the desert by the "fathers" of the community and viciously beaten. The reader doesn't learn what happens to him until the very end of the book, but my hopes were confirmed. Alva Jane is also severely beaten and married off to an abusive 55 year old man who has recently beaten one wife so severely that she is permanently crippled - she will never attempt escape again. He takes great pleasure in sexually, physically and mentally abusing Alva Jane but she has become a strong young woman who will defy all odds. Keep True. Keep Silent. Keep Sweet. Six simple words that now raise the hair on my arms. Now to find a copy of Greene's debut novel, Chasing the Jaguar.

It is amazing how much the kids have grown and I am missing it all! I remember Mary and her brother Mic playing in the leaves much as McKinley and Kegan are doing in this pic. McKinley has the same blonde hair as her mom, my Mary, and I did at this age. Wish I could go up there during this Indian summer period in the Midwest but that isn't going to happen for a bit.

I told Mailene, my new Worker's Comp. Case worker, that she'd recognize me as I'd be the blonde with no tan! She laughed and said that will change after living in Florida for any length of time. Some of the women who are avid golfers and play tennis are as brown as George Hamilton. I'd prefer not to be!

I met Mailene and saw my new orthopedic surgeon yesterday. He does not agree with either of the two orthopedic surgeons from Lexington as far as the surgeries they wanted to do, but he wouldn't do surgery either not knowing what the "episodes" are that I'm still having. He wants me to use Lidocaine patches on the sorest parts of my knee and quit using the knee brace for awhile as the metal stays in it are pushing on the sorest parts. Oh boy - no support when the knee gives out and we have hardwood and tiles in most of this house too. He wants a new MRI to go with the x-rays his office did yesterday. My new worker's comp. case worker is an MD so she really knows her stuff.

Headache is banging away so I'm glad I see a neurologist on Monday. Mailene is getting things going quickly and I am glad of that as I'd like some answers to all of this so I can get on with my life without hurting 24/7, not knowing what is causing the episodes. I still have small ones every week, but had a wicked one Friday afternoon and spent most of the weekend in bed with a heating pad. Steve wanted to take me to the ER but the nightmarish overnight visit to UK's ER was enough to make me stay home and deal with it. My right arm is still partially numb and the headache is a banger and then some. I see a neurologist next Monday and it sounds like she'll be doing a batter of tests.

I finally found my iPod and am listening to the first book in John Marsden's Ellie Chronicle Series - http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=405453. Who knows how many there will be in this Marsden series about Ellie and her friends, but there are three titles so far and I'm listening to the first one - While I Live. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/While-I-Live/John-Marsden/e/9780439783231/?itm=3&USRI=john+marsden For those who have not read any of Marsden's 7-book Tomorrow Series, http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=283971, the first book in the Ellie Chronicles, may be a bit confusing as there are so many references to the war and the relationships that developed among the Ellie and her friends. Having read Tomorrow, When the War Began http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Tomorrow-When-the-War-Began/John-Marsden/e/9780439829106/?itm=1 when it was initially published in the mid '90s, I had some knowledge of what Ellie and her friends went through when they returned from a camping trip in the Australian bush country to discover Australia had been invaded. Their homes were either burned to the ground or deserted. These teenagers, who grew up in the bush, were soon an effective group of guerrilla fighters intent on rescuing their families imprisoned by the invading army. The war is over in While I Live and Ellie's family is trying to readjust with their farm acreage split up into 4 sections with three other families living there as well. I had a sense of deja vu as I listened to Ellie discuss Gavin's deafness and the changes in her relationship with Homer after a treaty was signed and Australia was split into two countries. The three are out hiking when they hear the shots ring out from Ellie's farm. By the time Ellie dashes back into the farm house, it is too late. Her mother and the family friend living with them are dead - their bodies barely recognizable from being shot up close with high power semi-automatic rifles. She races toward the barn to find her father and sees two of the soldiers lying dead. She knew her father didn't go down without a fight, but he, and a third soldier, are both dead on a barn floor. The war may be "officially" over but raiding parties from across the border brought it gruesomely back to life for Ellie. She wants revenge, especially when she wakes up one morning and realizes Homer and Lee are gone, knowing they have joined the resistance group trying to rescue prisoners kept in camps across the border. It becomes even more personal when Homer becomes one of them.

Marsden is one of the most famous young adult authors in Australia. There is even a John Marsden Prize for Young Australian writers. The movie version of Tomorrow When the War Began has recently been released in Australia. Not suprising as this series has been reprinted 17 times. I've seen at least three different cover art for the paperback reprints. Wikipedia (no - I don't want to go into the authenticity of this source) has a good write up on the series for those who are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_series.

I thought of Marsden's books when I first read Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now http://search.barnesandnoble.com/How-I-Live-Now/Meg-Rosoff/e/9780553376050/?itm=1&USRI=how+i+live+now, with England being the invaded country. Daisy is not as strong of a protagonist right from the start as Marsden's Ellie is, but she grows into her role as the protector of her younger cousins. Due to the media hype about Mockingjay http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mockingjay/Suzanne-Collins/e/9780545317801/?itm=1 - the final title in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Series
http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=574901 (not as big as Twilight) librarians need books to recommend when tweens and teens come in asking for more books like Collins' series. Marsden's Ellie is a strong female protagonist like Katniss, but with a contemporary war torn setting. Daisy isn't as strong of a protagonist, but the invasion focused plot is similar.

Tons to do today but just had to post about the burrowing owl that somehow decided the miniature golf course on a Caribbean cruise ship was a good place to call home. Poor little guy - no way to burrow a home into Astroturf! The endangered 9 " tall owl was captured with a net and set free. What a great current events story to tie in with a discussion about Carl Hiassen's Hoot http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hoot/Carl-Hiaasen/e/9780440419396/?itm=1&USRI=hoot - a hilarious MS novel about a group of Florida kids trying to save a group of these burrowing owls whose home is scheduled to be the site of a new pancake house. The movie is really cute as well. Even the most reluctant boy reader will enjoy Hoot.

Hiassen has a new adult mystery out called Star Island http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Star-Island/Carl-Hiaasen/e/9780307594389/?itm=1 that reads like Lindsay Lohan's life but is set in South Beach. I've not read it but I am sure there are mature teens who are reading it as the character is a 22 year old pop star with a really "dorky" name - Cherry Pye!

My Children's Lit students are reading Jean Craighead George's The Missing Gator of Gumbo Limbo http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Missing-Gator-of-Gumbo-Limbo/Jean-Craighead-George/e/9780064404341/?itm=1&USRI=missing+gator+gumbo+limbo which is also set in the Florida Everglades. How appropriate since we had a 4 to 5 foot alligator sunning itself on the golf course side of the canal behind our house. Since we are not that far from the Everglades and "all canals eventually feed into it" or so we've been told, this guy must have come through an area that had more water due the rains. There was also a heron so tall that his head almost hit the low branches of cypress tree he was standing under. Bird and gator kept their eye on each other! Then a feisty little duck decided to get in on the "watch the gator game" and even had the audacity to shake his little tail feathers at the gator. All he got was a gator yawn. Lots of new critters to entertain us down here.

I decided this semester to re-introduce some of my older favorites, including the above George title. The numerous titles in her Ecological Mystery series on endangered animals have stayed in print for a long time. Always the sign of a good book and they are great titles to introduce to another generation of young readers.

George has an incredible background in ecological issues and it is very evident in her novels. Most everyone knows about her Julie of the Wolves http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Julie-of-the-Wolves/Jean-Craighead-George/e/9780060540951/?itm=1&USRI=julie+of+the+wolves. The updated cover on the newer paperback is very appealing. Many young readers don't know that there are two follow up titles, based on requests from young readers asking George what happened to Julie and her wolves. Julie http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Julie/Jean-Craighead-George/e/9780064405737/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=1 addresses her return home to discover her father has a pregnant white wife and she fears he has forsaken their culture and Julie helping the wolf pack to relocate. In the final book, Julie's Wolf Pack http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Julies-Wolf-Pack/Jean-Craighead-George/e/9780064407212/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=1 Julie is not the main character - it is told from the wolves point of view. Readers who like Ann M. Martin's A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Dogs-Life/Ann-M-Martin/e/9780439717007/?itm=4&USRI=autobiography+of+a+dog will also like this older anthropomorphic upper elementary novel. Books with animal narrators are either really good or really hard to stay with if you can't suspend your sense of disbelief. Some kids love them and others won't touch them. I find that interesting as so many of the picture books adored by young and old have "talking animals" like Curious George, Winnie the Pooh, Lyle the Crocodile, etc.

The sun is out today - thank goodness! We had a day of down pours yesterday. The canal behind the house had risen up into the neighbor's yard and onto the golf course. Water got into our garage, but not from the canal. The water has pretty much receded and the pond on the golf course green is gone. I should be out doing some stretches in the pool but the rain water really cools it off so I'll wait until the sun has warmed it up a bit.

I have a week to figure out how to play bunko/bunco without making a fool of myself! I was all prepared to go in blind last night so I'm glad I had the week wrong. I need to find 3 dice in one of our board games to play with Steve to figure it out. I'm not great with numbers. Use to love to play Yahtzee as kid so I think I'll enjoy this. Will also get me out of the house and meet a few people who live in the neighborhood.

Back to my early reading time with Sophie. I get glimpses of the canal from the double patio-type doors in the bedroom so it is a delightful way to start the day for someone who is not a morning person.

Just finished Laini Taylor's Lips Touch Three Times http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Lips-Touch/Laini-Taylor/e/9780545055857/?itm=1&USRI=lips+touch+three+times which also has incredibly detailed drawings by her husband Jim Di Bartolo. The three fantasy tales can stand on their own but the illustrations help bring them to life. The intriguing cover art of a dark haired female with light blue eyes and lush red lips gets the reader to pick up the book and a quick flip through the pages and you're hooked by the illustrations of forbidden goblin fruit, a woman in a long dress descending the steps into Hell, and a red-headed girl trapped in a cage swinging above an abyss. The visual introductions to the stories pique one's attention before a word is read. Taylor then weaves tales of such supernatural allure, revolving around the consequences of a kiss, that there is no way to pull free from the web she's woven without reading all three tales.

In the first story "Goblin Fruit" Kizzy has been brought up on her grandmother's old country tales of goblins, keeping her razor sharp knife at her side right into the coffin. So Kizzy knows the out of season fruit the luscious Jack Husk is offering her is indeed forbidden. The nectar of the peach beckons to her and she lost when he takes the peach from her hand and bites into it, nectar sweet on his lips - lips she cannot resist. Kizzy knows "a goblin had her soul on the end of his fishing line, ready to real it in. She knew.... but "the knowing was as insubstantial as words written on water" and she let herself get lost in the need to "taste and be tasted". Sensual and downright scary!

"Spicy Little Curse Such as These" is set in Imperial India when British girls were riding elephants and playing the piano for appreciative audiences in their parents' parlors. But Estella is not a pampered British girl - she descends into Hell each day to barter with a demon to save the souls of children. It has been 40 long years since Yama, the Lord of Hell, appointed her the Ambassador to Hell. To entertain himself, Vasudev, the demon would offer more children's lives in earthquakes and other disasters, but he liked to add curses to the deal. Estella cannot refuse to allow all the children of a recent earthquake live and she has plenty of evil souls to trade for their innocent ones. But to curse the newborn daughter of the Political Agent's with "the most beautiful voice to slip from human lips" to seal the deal? Doesn't sound much like a curse does it? With a kiss Estella on the infant's mouth, she sealed the little one's fate to keep silent or her voice will kill anyone who hears it. Will her desire to speak be too much for both the beautiful Anamique and the soldier who has fallen in love with her? Taylor weaves this tale so beautifully you can smell the sulphur of Hell and the incense of the India.

In the "Hatchling" 14-year-old Esme has no clue what horrors will come when her left eye turns from its natural brown to blue. She woke up to the howling of wolves and sees her blue eye in the mirror, but that is not all she sees. There was a glimpse of a ghost and peering at her altered reflection in the mirror, she knew it was familiar but the memories that crept into her mind were not her own. Mab, Esme's mother, knows the Druj hunters, the wolves, had found them and they try to escape. No wonder they try so desperately - the Druj are demons of a sort who can take human form and steal your soul through your eyes, or climb into you through your eyes, taking over your soul. For me this was the creepiest of the three tales. The Druj queen's room of stolen eyeballs was enough to give me nightmares!

Although there are three tales in Lips Touch Three Times they are distinctly different in nature. "Goblin Fruit" is not very long but the other two stories are close to being novellas and keep you reading on with a morbid fascination.

Oh my goodness! A knock on the door. We have the welcoming committee visiting us next Tuesday. That means we have to at least get the dining room area picked up a bit. This place looks like 10 tornadoes went through it but no one but us to put all this stuff away. I have a feeling Steve will be carrying a lot of boxes into the extra bedrooms this weekend!

That's it for today. I feel like I blogged about 3 books instead of one, but what a great set of supernatural tales.

It has been a wild few weeks. We had the house in Lex on the market for many months, gave up, took it off, and put it back on and it sold! So I am writing this from our new home in Plantation, FL. My docs are all delighted with the move to a tropical climate. The speed of the change over to a Worker's Comp. Case Worker here in Florida has been wonderful. I'll be seeing an orthopedic surgeon soon to get ready for the 2nd knee surgery. :-)

Once I find my camera I'll share a few pics of our new digs. We have cathedral ceilings in the main living area so the house feels much larger than it is and Steve loves his loft office accessed via a spiral staircase. He thought it was going to be a "female-free" area but Sophie has discovered she can get up and down the stairs. I love the fact that our yard backs on a creek - oops, they call it a canal down here! Since we are about 15 miles inland of Ft. Lauderdale and Alligator Alley is just west of us, we keep our eye out for alligators and snakes. Haven't seen any yet but have already been stung twice by wasps in the backyard - the house was empty for awhile so Steve has a lot of power washing to do to clean the fence, etc. We also have all kinds of little geckos and lizards. They love to sit on the cars. One got a ride to the grocery store, hanging on to the windshield wiper blades.

Not much time to read but I did get a review written today for You by Charles Benoit. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/You/Charles-Benoit/e/9780062008015/?itm=5&USRI=you This is a link to the digital book as it has the cover art that is so arresting. A very unusual book as it is written in 2nd person and the use of you makes the experiences of 15-year-old Kyle even more intense. Don't know when the review will appear in VOYA. I do a lot of research on the author when I write reviews, especially when I see the term "debut YA title/novel/book". It is does not typically mean debut title. For me, the "debut YA..." is a clue to search for what else the author has written. Sure enough, Benoit's debut novel for adults was an Edgar Award nominee. He is a world travelers and his adult mysteries are set in exotic locals.

I find it interesting how many established authors who write for adults are writing for teens. YA lit is selling as adults have also begun to realize just how well these books are written. Suzanne Collins' dystopian series about Katniss has kept YA lit in the limelight. Bookstores and libraries were having parties to welcome the 3rd book, Mockingjay http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mockingjay/Suzanne-Collins/e/9780439023511/?itm=1&USRI=mockingjay+(hunger+games+series+%233. Pretty cool that B&N is selling it at a 40% discount. All three of Collins' Hunger Games series titles http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=574901 are in the U.S.A Today's top 10 Best-Selling Books in the 9/2/10 issue. The 4th YA title in the top 10 is Stephenie Meyer's 4th book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Breaking-Dawn/Stephenie-Meyer/e/9780316067935/?itm=1&USRI=breaking+dawn. No surprise that Eclipse http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Eclipse/Stephenie-Meyer/e/9780316160209/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=2 is in the top 50 as is The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=short+second+life+of+bree+tanner%3a+an+eclipse+novella&box=short%20second%20&pos=0 about a "new vampire" who died in Eclipse.

A closer look at the top 50 made me smile as Dav Pilkey's graphic novel The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung Fu Cavemen from the Future http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Adventures-of-Ook-and-Gluk-Kung-Fu-Cavemen-from-the-Future/Dav-Pilkey/e/9780545175302/?itm=1&USRI=pilkey+ook+gluk stands out as the one graphic novel and it's a children's title. :-) There isn't a Pilkey title that I don't adore. Of course we all know about his Captain Underpants series http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=220063 that has delighted many a child and offended more than a few adults. Pilkey was writing fun picture books, like Dogzilla http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dogzilla/Dav-Pilkey/e/9780152049485/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=2 long before Mo Willems hit the scene with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dont-Let-the-Pigeon-Drive-the-Bus/Mo-Willems/e/9780786819881/?itm=1&USRI=mo+willems. Not that I don't love Willems' books, I do, and he is a fun author to listen to talk about his books.

It does bother me that we get so wrapped up in the newest "hyped" authors and books that we tend to forget about the treasures that are already on the shelves just waiting for the next group of young kids/teens coming through the library. I tell my students that there is no reason to booktalk the "hyped" titles as the kids/teens know about them. Booktalk the great books that don't get the attention.

Back to the top 50 - no surprise, Rick Roirdan's first title in his new series about the ancient gods of Egypt, The Kane Chronicles, Book 1: The Red Pyramid http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Red-Pyramid/Rick-Riordan/e/9781423113386/?itm=1&USRI=kane+chronicles+series is # 37 on the list. The first book in the tween series, Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=365467 is # 42. No surprise as there is a new ABC series based on it. http://abcfamily.go.com/shows/pretty-little-liars?cid=afm_psy_comsearch_PLL&kmed=ppc.

Delighted to see the old classic children's book Beezus and Ramona http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beezus-and-Ramona/Beverly-Cleary/e/9780061914614/?itm=3&USRI=beezus+and+ramona is popular again due to the movie. This link is to the movie tie-in paperback. Librarians should replace old editions with ones that have covers that catch the attention of today's youth. For example, S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders appeals to generation after generation of teens and the variety of paperback editions reflect what appeals to teens through time. I love this one: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Outsiders/S-E-Hinton/e/9780143039853/?pt=BK&stage=bookproduct&pwb=2 It is time to replace the movie tie-in paperback with Patrick Swayze on the cover! Kids and teens don't pay any attention to publication dates, they pay attention to topics and characters they can relate to no matter what time period it is set in. An example of generation after generation relating to a book character - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is # 20 on the list. Take a look at the variety of covers on this 1961 Pulitzer Prize winner: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=to+kill+a+mockingbird+harper+lee&box=to%20kill%20a%20mockingbird%20harper%20lee&pos=-1.

The newest top 150 USA Today list can be viewed at: http://content.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/default.aspx I just printed out the 9/5/2010 Best-Selling Books Top 150 and a quick glance shows 23 children's and YA titles. Of course, Jeff Smith's delightful Wimpy Kid series titles http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=390443 shows up 4 times on the list, including the movie-tie in edition.

Five of Roirdan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=390443 titles are on the list along with two of the 39 Clues series http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=book&SID=408338 titles. What is unique about this series is that the titles are written by a variety of well known children's and YA authors including Margaret Haddix, Linda Sue Parks, Rick Riordan, Gordan Korman, and Jude Watson, who also writes many of the Star Wars series titles.

It would be very interesting to track the numbers of youth titles on the best selling lists for the last 20 years. I am sure the youth title sales peaked when the Harry Potter craze was at the frenzy level. Just think of how children's and YA books become part of our cultural literacy. There won't be a generation of young people who won't know what a Muggle is even if they never read a Harry Potter book.

Many generations of movie watchers forget they've never actually read the classic The Wizard of Oz by Baum, or even any of derivatives found when doing a search of the title: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=wizard+of+oz&box=wizard%20of%20&pos=0 But, we all know what "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" type comments mean.

That's it for me tonight. I am rooting against Brett Favre and my once beloved Vikings and for Drew Brees and the Saints while writing this. I don't multi-task as well these days as I once did so I need to close this out. I am a sucker for nice guy quarterbacks like Brees. :-) And I dislike the ones like Favre who don't give back to the communities in which they play. All those years as a Packer and he did little for Green Bay. Yeah - I know, I'm a broken record about this but it really irks me!