Wonder if the groundhog saw his shadow today. It is my day off so I slept in - burrowing into my blankets, wishing I were a groundhog. I am so not a morning person. This 5:30 a.m. on the days I work at Montessori is killing me. Whine! Whine! Whine!

As tired as I was last night I had to stay up and finish A Fast and Brutal Wing by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson. It is one of those books that you think about between reading sessions if you don't finish it in one sitting. The plot weaves in and out of reality and fantasy as the siblings shape shift into animals - Emmet into a hawk and Niki into a cat. They are eager for the hunt and the taste of blood - they even hunt each other. The credibility of the sibling's stories is further compromised by the psychiatrist, their missing father, and their mother's new boyfriend/ reclusive author having shape shifting abilities as well. Interesting that their father is missing and now so is Slanger, the author. And whose bone is it the police find in the woods where Emmet, Niki and their geeky neighbor Doug end up naked and bloody? The story is told via chapters in a book Niki is writing, Doug's emails to the psychiatrist, newspaper articles, along with Niki's and Emmett's letters to the more than spooky psychiatrist who specializes in working with teen murderers.

All for now - need to grade YA lit homework.