It is a territory holiday today - Transfer Day, when the Dutch transferred ownership of the islands to the U.S. Everyone jokes about all the holidays that the VI celebrates. A friend who works in the public schools says that there are often months where they never work a full week. Montessori doesn't have as many days off as the public schools.

Just finished grading my graduate level class discussion postings about adult books for teens. The subject came up about how we seem to have no problem with using classics, even those with "objectionable" subject matter, for class reading. Can you just imagine the uproar over a YA novel similar to The Scarlet Letter. I think a young woman getting pregnant by the local fundamentalist minister would have much of the community upset if it were used as a class reading title. Hmm, wait a minute, there is a teen novel somewhat similar to that by James Bennett called Faith Wish. It is about a teenage girl who is seduced by a traveling minister and becomes pregnant, but when she finds him, thinking they will have a life together, he puts her in seclusion at a cult like camp. The main character, Anne-Marie, is a bit on the naive side and has learning difficulties so her self esteem is quite low. She is an easy target for this long haired charismatic preacher. A very interesting read, but not one I would use for a class reading set. :-)

My favorite James Bennett YA novel is The Circle Squared. It is definitely for older teens as the main character is a freshman in college and the language and issues addressed are more appropriate for the older teens. Wish every young guy who goes off to college thinking he wants to join a fraternity reads this book. Recommend it to the guys who love college basketball.

It is a territory holiday today - Transfer Day, when the Dutch transferred ownership of the islands to the U.S. Everyone jokes about all the holidays that the VI celebrates. A friend who works in the public schools says that there are often months where they never work a full week. Montessori doesn't have as many days off as the public schools.

Just finished grading my graduate level class discussion postings about adult books for teens. The subject came up about how we seem to have no problem with using classics, even those with "objectionable" subject matter, for class reading. Can you just imagine the uproar over a YA novel similar to The Scarlet Letter. I think a young woman getting pregnant by the local fundamentalist minister would have much of the community upset if it were used as a class reading title. Hmm, wait a minute, there is a teen novel somewhat similar to that by James Bennett called Faith Wish. It is about a teenage girl who is seduced by a traveling minister and becomes pregnant, but when she finds him, thinking they will have a life together, he puts her in seclusion at a cult like camp. The main character, Anne-Marie, is a bit on the naive side and has learning difficulties so her self esteem is quite low. She is an easy target for this long haired charismatic preacher. A very interesting read, but not one I would use for a class reading set. :-)

My favorite James Bennett YA novel is The Circle Squared. It is definitely for older teens as the main character is a freshman in college and the language and issues addressed are more appropriate for the older teens. Wish every young guy who goes off to college thinking he wants to join a fraternity reads this book. Recommend it to the guys who love college basketball.

It is a territory holiday today - Transfer Day, when the Dutch transferred ownership of the islands to the U.S. Everyone jokes about all the holidays that the VI celebrates. A friend who works in the public schools says that there are often months where they never work a full week. Montessori doesn't have as many days off as the public schools.

Just finished grading my graduate level class discussion postings about adult books for teens. The subject came up about how we seem to have no problem with using classics, even those with "objectionable" subject matter, for class reading. Can you just imagine the uproar over a YA novel similar to The Scarlet Letter. I think a young woman getting pregnant by the local fundamentalist minister would have much of the community upset if it were used as a class reading title. Hmm, wait a minute, there is a teen novel somewhat similar to that by James Bennett called Faith Wish. It is about a teenage girl who is seduced by a traveling minister and becomes pregnant, but when she finds him, thinking they will have a life together, he puts her in seclusion at a cult like camp. The main character, Anne-Marie, is a bit on the naive side and has learning difficulties so her self esteem is quite low. She is an easy target for this long haired charismatic preacher. A very interesting read, but not one I would use for a class reading set. :-)

My favorite James Bennett YA novel is The Circle Squared. It is definitely for older teens as the main character is a freshman in college and the language and issues addressed are more appropriate for the older teens. Wish every young guy who goes off to college thinking he wants to join a fraternity reads this book. Recommend it to the guys who love college basketball.

Tried to post this morning but BlogSpot was having technical difficulties. Got busy grading and working on other projects and forgot about it. But, I have an online chat with my undergraduate class in an hour so I thought now would be the time to write. We are discussing The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Being Dead, and What My Mother Doesn't Know. Quite a mix of genres - fantasy, horror short stories, and a contemporary verse novel.

As much as I have tried to be a Pratchett fan I am not. I have read Hat Full of Sky and The Wee Free Men, which are about Tiffany Aching, a young witch learning how to deal with her powers. Yes, I did enjoy the antics of the little blue feisty "fairies" who help her out, but I wasn't as enchanted by them as many are. I also read The Bromaliad Trilogy and liked it better, but that did not make me want to wade through the myriad of Discworld titles. But many teens do. Pratchett's fan base is enormous both with teens and adults. Amazing Maurice is my favorite of those I have read, though I like Napoli's Breath better as a rewrite of the Pied Piper of Hamlin story - it certainly is more gruesome and for older teens.

Now, Vivian Vande Velde is more my style. I love Never Trust a Dead Man. How can you not love a book where a young man is accused of killing a guy who is then brought back by a witch, but accidentally in bat form. The boy and the bat then try to figure out who the murderer is. But, my favorite Vande Velde book is Companions of the Night. It is the first one of her books I read and since I enjoy vampire tales, this one held my attention. Who would figure the guy being beat up in the laundromat is a vampire? Makes you think twice about going back in the middle of the night to get your little brother's left behind teddy bear now doesn't it?

Sonya Sones has a strong following for her verse novels. They are quick and easy reads and are about subjects teenage girls can relate to. My favorite is Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. Verse novels have become very popular. I have been looking at how many of them have appeared on both BBYA and Notable Children's and it is surprising.

Don't you ever wish that you had an extra 24 hour time period for just reading? There are so many great books out there that I have missed and would like to read, like all of the Tamora Pierce fantasy novels that I have missed. I read all of the Alanna ones, but haven't kept up with the rest.

The Easter Break has come to an end and we are all back at work even though the traffic sure did seem light going into Charlotte Amalie to bring Steve to work. But, there are 5 cruise ships in so I am sure it will be a nightmare to go in and get him here shortly as I have to drive by the cruise ship area.

It was a great 5 days break. We took the ferry over to St. John on Good Friday and had lunch at Island Jazz on Coral Bay. It was so relaxing to just sit and watch the herons walk along fishing and the sailboats rocking at anchor. That side of St. John is very pretty - hadn't visited there before. We would love to live on St. John but since most of it is National Park rentals are few and very expensive. A lot of the teachers live on St Thomas and take the ferry over each day.

I didn't do as much reading as I wanted to during the weekend as we watched a lot of movies. I wallowed in oldies - one with Doris Day and James Garner and then Gidget - I had never seen it before. We also watched Drew Barrymore's 50 First Dates - what a wonderful feel good movie. The Hawaiian scenery was nice too. I liked Shall We Dance because Richard Gere is in it but Steve wasn't too impressed. I don't even want to talk abut Bubba Ho Tep, the funky movie he rented. Imagine Elvis overweight and old in a rest home fighting an Egyptian mummy wearing cowboy boots and hat. Oh yes, and Elvis' side kick is JFK, who is now black and played by Ossie Davis!

Okay - gotta mention books. I finished Crutcher's The Sledding Hill. It was an interesting read, but not my favorite of his books by any means. It is very message driven about censorship. A fundamental church group is trying to censor a fictitious Crutcher book called "Warren Peece". The story is told from a dead boy's point of view about his best friend standing up to the church group, which his mom belongs to.

But, I did love Forest of the Pygmies, the third Alex Cold and Nadia Santos adventure by Isabel Allende. I also loved the first one - City of the Beasts that is set in the Amazon with wonderful disappearing Amazonian Indians, etc. The second one Kingdom of the Dragon is set in a China like kingdom with Alex and Nadia getting involved in saving the Golden Dragon. Wasn't as exciting. Forest of the Pygmies is set in very remote part of Africa. I loved the first part when the elephant let Alex know how she felt about him riding her by knocking him into a puddle then "blowing wind" in his face - and it wasn't from her trunk. :-) Again, Alex and Nadia use their totemic powers to save the pygmies and the villagers from a band of mercenary soldiers who are using them as slaves. I'm sorry to see their adventures come to an end.

That's all the YA reading I did - I am in the middle of an adult mystery set in the Caribbean at the moment. Have to give myself a break from the YA once in awhile. Okay - gotta get in the car and go get Steve. I am listening to a YA novel - Card's Ender's Game and I am not impressed. I waited all this time to read/listen to this book and I am not enjoying it. All the practice battle scenes are boring me and I am not crazy about the narrator's voice. I guess I shouldn't have chosen this one to listen to after the beautiful language of Cold Mountain.

Good morning! I am off to the eye doctor's shortly. GRRR!! Old age is creeping up on me and I need glasses for my close up vision. Never had problems with that before - just distance and that was fixed with lasik a few years ago. Steve convinced me to have it done in time for our first sailing trip together. He knew I was pretty much blind without my glasses or contacts and a sailboat is not a good place to be with no depth perception. I still remember sitting in the restaurant on Mustique Island and looking out at the lush vegetation and realizing I could actually see the delineation between leaves. I find myself pushing up those imaginary glasses again, but now it is because I can't read the fine print.

Well, I finished Walter Mosley's 47. It is an intriguing mix of historical and science fiction. 47 is a young slave who is to be the savior of the universe, at least that is what Tall John, a runaway slave who is actually an alien from another planet/solar system, tells him. 47 learns that calling himself or other blacks a niggah is not appropriate nor is considering himself property of the plantation owner. This is a very thought provoking book, but I have to admit I was disappointed by the ending.

I started Crutcher's Sledding Hill last night and so far am enjoying it. He wasn't kidding when he said there is no profanity in it. You have to chuckle when he says the student used a term in class that rhymes with what they call a classmate's dad who drives big diesel trucks. The narrator, Billy, has recently died and is watching his super hyperactive best friend not dealing well with the recent death of his father and his best friend.

The question came up on YALSA-BK about what is the one YA book you would give someone. That is a tough one as there is a book in every genre that would be appropriate, but for contemporary realistic fiction I would have to recommend Crutcher and anything he has written. For years Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes was the one I had my students read, now it is Whale Talk. But my favorite of Crutcher's is Ironman - because of the inner battle the protagonist has with his anger and feelings toward his domineering father, but mostly because of his letters to Larry King. :-)

In historical fiction one of my all time favorites is Sherryl Jordon's The Raging Quiet. A romance, but so much more with her teaching a mute young man how to communicate and her response to the villagers testing her as a witch. My own palm was tingling as I read about her holding the red hot metal rod in her hand.

All for now.

Yahoo! The Internet connection is working at the same time I want to use it. :-) Had to go in to the Montessori library on Sunday to work on a book order that was due on Monday because our DSL connection at home was down. It was so darn hot in there I thought I was going to melt. The library doesn't have air conditioning - just lots of louvered windows and fans, but because the library is between other buildings it doesn't get much air flow. I am trying not to get excited about the new books for the students as I have been told it will take about a year to get them. These are books bought with Federal funds and nothing works quickly through governmental channels down here.

Speaking of books - I have a new favorite - A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson. I really enjoy the edgy books for older YAs and this is one of them. Zoe (with a f....ing "e" at the end!) has her anger just barely under control. Well not always under control - she is suspended from class for her outburst about how to pronounce her name! Luckily she can let some of that anger and frustration out on the tennis courts. Zoe has finally had enough of being the caretaker for her alcoholic mother and moves into a room on Lorelei Street in the home of an eccentric older woman, Opal. Opal gives Zoe a delicious touch of caring - something no one in Zoe's family has done in years. Opal actually goes to Zoe's tennis matches - Zoe is so stunned and touched she doesn't know how to respond. But, the wonderful feeling of having a safe and calm place of her own may be coming to an abrupt end as Zoe has to give her grandmother most of her rent money to pay for the car registration. Now Zoe has to figure out how to come up with the rest of the rent money so she can keep her promise that she will not go crawling back to her mother and grandmother. Will be out in June 05.

Pearson's other books for teens are David v. God and Scribbler of Dreams.

I haven't had much time to read in the last day or so but I am about through with Mosley's 47. Such a beautifully written, but strange book - a combination of historical and science fiction. I will write more about it when I finish it. I'm still at the savoring point. :-)

All for today.

Just watched a small sailboat come into the marina for fuel. It was under power, sails down, which made me think of the huge sailing ships of years ago and how they didn't have an engine to depend upon when the wind died down or when they had to navigate into small places. Amazing!

Started the ARC for A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson. It is fantastic! I love the edgy YA for older teens and this is one of them. The scene where she loses it in class and tells the battle ax of a teacher that her name, Zoe, has an f...ing e at the end is so true to the teen with such anger building up inside that erupts at the most inopportune times. Pearson also wrote David v. God and Scribbler of Dreams.

A short posting today.

With summer upon us the sun in the morning is quite intense. We still open the patio doors but have begun to drop the shade to keep some of the heat out. The cat sure doesn't like having to go under it to go outside. Not that she can't go out the window we keep the screen off of for her. She is spoiled rotten and shedding like crazy due to the weather change. Who would have thought that a cat would even get a "winter coat" in the islands?

The sunburn is healing but now I look like a half peeled tomato. My nose is the worst. The kids didn't say a word yesterday - I was surprised.

I just started reading Walter Mosley's 47, which will be out in May 05. I am just at the very beginning where the boy has been sent to the slave quarters and has his number branded into his shoulder. He hasn't yet met Tall John, the runaway slave who will change his life. So far I am enjoying it. Wondering if Tall John will be anything like Paulsen's Nightjohn. I do love that book and the sequel, Sarny.


Reading this book also made my think of my favorite Walter Dean Myers' book - The Glory Field. It doesn't get much attention but it is a wonderful novel that traces the lives of a black family for over 140 years - from when the first member of the family is brought over on the slave ships until present day when one of them is struggling with drug addiction. I am very glad to see that new paperback and hardback editions are coming out within the next year.

That's it for today.

Good morning! I look a little less like a tomato today but I am sure the kids at Montessori are going to comment on my red face. I have a group of 9th graders coming in to work on ancient civilization research. This is the same group that chose to read Alder's The King's Shadow - one of my favorite YA historical novels from the 90s.

I am looking at the inclusion of various fiction genre types on the BBYA and Children's Notables lists and was disappointed to see Mary Logue's Dancing with an Alien is out of print. A student borrowed my copy and didn't bring it back, but this one of my favorite YA SF novels to booktalk. Love the part where the alien is trying to convince her he really is an alien and pulls off his nipples. That would convince me. :-) YALSA-BKers have been talking about Melina Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi and it is also out of print. Wonderful book about an Italian girl in Australia that addresses the reality that cultural prejudice is also present in other English speaking countries.

All for now - the sun has finally risen and it is time to fight the traffic going into Charlotte Amalie to drop Steve off.

I am sitting here slathered from forehead to chin with aloe vera, along with a few other places the sunscreen didn't get. OUCH!! I look like an over ripe tomato. Went sailing with friends on Saturday and didn't put any sunscreen on my face. Just wasn't thinking about the fact that the new moisturizer I am using doesn't have a sunscreen in it. At least now I can smile without it hurting but it still hurts like heck to wrinkle my forehead. This is going to be really ugly if it peels!

But, on the positive side we had a really great time. Breezes were good and we sailed over to St. John and went snorkeling. Saw the biggest sea cucumber I have ever seen along with star fish and lots of the very same fish we used to have in our salt water aquarium in Houston. Lots of boats out because of the gorgeous weather. The guys put out the spinnaker - what a gorgeous billowing sail.

While laying around bemoaning my sunburned fate I finished Broken China by Lori Aurelia Williams. China stays in the denial stage of grief through most of the book - refusing to go to her little girl's funeral and doesn't visit the grave site even though she insisted on a coffin and a service she could not afford. She is working in a strip joint as a counter girl to make money to pay the funeral home loan. One minute she is acting like an immature 14 year old and then next she is old beyond her years. Made me think of Glovach's Beauty Queen which is also set in a strip club with a teenage protagonist who gets involved for the money. But she ends up getting hooked on drugs. China gets out before it is too late - she is fortunate to have a loving uncle and friend to help her. Glovach's Samantha is pretty much alone in the world.

Started reading the ARC for Barry Yourgrau's Nasty Book. It will be out in April. Have no idea what I think of it yet. Very short snippet type stories that are quite nasty. In one of them three girls plan on torturing the ghost who comes back to apologize for scaring them. In another an imaginary friend, a bear, decides his creator is boring and heads off on his own, only to be run over by a truck. My favorite so far is the ventriloquist puppet who suddenly realize he is a puppet.

That's it for today.

Yesterday was like Christmas on the island for me - not only did we get 7 boxes of new books in at Montessori, the health food store had a shipment in of soy products so I savored soy yogurt for breakfast this a.m. Yogurt is the only dairy product I really miss because of being lactose intolerant. I like the rice and soy based "ice creams" better, but miss the creamy texture of Yoplait yogurt. It tends to be feast or famine on the island as far as stocked shelves - buy it when it is there as likely it won't be the next time you are in the store. So yesterday was a good "shopping" day. :-)

I just finished reading The Game of Silence, the sequel to The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Having grown up in Upper Michigan I enjoyed reading about the Ojibwe way of life in the 1800s. Omakayas, a young girl with the ability to dream the future, is the only survivor of a small pox epidemic and is a much loved adopted daughter to Yellow Kettle and Deydey. A great addition to a middle grades (3-6) collection.

My YA reading at the moment is Lori Aurelia Williams' Broken China, about a teenage mother whose two-year-old daughter dies and her life spirals out of control. I met Williams when her first book When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune was first published. She is a delightful woman and I enjoyed talking to her about Houston as that is where her books are set. I loved her debut novel and have recommended it to many people. The way the neighbor girl deals with sexual abuse by referring to the wolves in the walls and making up stories about being from another planet breaks your heart. William's second book is Shayla's Double Brown Baby Blues. William's has captured the life of the inner city blacks of Houston in her novels.

That's it for today.

Good Monday morning to all. A very large catamaran docked in the marina this a.m. That and seeing all the sails out on the diamond sparkling ocean makes me want to be sailing. A perfect day for it - sunny and breezy. Cats are more stable and easier sailing for those of us who suffer from motion sickness. I wear the wristbands when we sail. Been awhile - can't wait to get out on the water again.

Summer is upon us with heat and humidity. We went down to Sapphire Beach yesterday to walk and swim. Lots of tourists at the resort this time of year. They are so much fun to watch - the little ones with their "water wings" on but not quite sure they want to go in. All the shades of sun starved skin out on display - from whale belly white to fire engine red as they work on tans before they go back home.

I finished Brent Hartinger's The Order of the Poison Oak during the weekend. Russel and his friend Min both get taken in by Web, who is out for nothing but sex, with anyone of either sex who he can convince he "loves". There is no substance underneath those rock hard abs and sexy eyes. But, it is a love story nevertheless for both Russ, who finds his guy, and clumsy Gunnar, who is "found" by a girl. Russ also learns a bit about himself as he figures out how to work with groups of young campers to gain their respect. The title has to do with a special ceremony he does with his first group of campers - a group of male burn survivors who have been running him ragged.

Time for some breakfast and to find the top of my desk before I start working on an article for Library Media Connection.

Watched a sailor park his sailboat this morning while I ate breakfast on the balcony. It seemed so effortless for him to back into his small berth at the marina - and that was no tiny boat he was parking. Wish I could do as well with parking my car on this island. I thought parking spots were small and hard to find when I lived on Oahu, but St. Thomas is incredible. If only I could figure out a way to side-step my car into spots since I can't parallel park! Or even better, be able to just rotate the car from a central pivot point instead of trying to navigate around cars parked helter skelter in what are clearly not parking spots. Thank goodness I have an assigned parking spot at Montessori that I can just drive right into. :-)

Started reading Brent Hartinger's The Order of the Poison Oak this morning. Should be on bookstore shelves this month. Hartinger uses a first person narrative with the character, Russel, often speaking directly to the reader. Russel has recently come out of the closet and joined the Gay-Straight-Bisexual Alliance at school. As the school year ends Russel is more than sick of the fag jokes and makes a point of how words can hurt you. But now he, his geeky straight friend Gunnar, who has decided to give up on girls after all the embarrassing encounters he has had trying to get one, and their bisexual friend Min, who checks out body parts on guys and girls both, are working as summer camp counselors. Russel learns the hard way how all kids will manipulate you if given the chance - especially his charges who know he is afraid to discipline them because they are burn survivors. Russel also has eyes for the good looking bad boy, Web - more reading will tell where this goes. :-)

I loved Hartinger's Geography Club and really liked Last Chance Texaco so I suspect this will continue to be an enjoyable reading experience.

Now to write a midterm.

Insomnia has me in its grips again - last two mornings wide awake at 3:30 a.m. Finally gave up today and got up at 5:00. Not much of a sunrise - very overcast and dreary. That may change though. Summer is upon us heat and humidity wise - it arrived on Friday! The reason I say that is I work at Montessori on Tuesdays and Fridays and the library isn't air conditioned. I was miserable in jeans! So now I have to find my "summer clothes" - sun dresses, light fabrics, etc.

Have been working with the 9th grade History teacher to find a novel to read as a group. We narrowed it down to The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Alder. It was a BBYA title back in the mid 90s. Wonderful story of a Welsh boy named Evyn who is sold as a slave after his tongue is cut out. He ends up as the "foster son" to King Harold, the last Saxon King. A much more interesting way to learn history. :-) Our second choice was a newer titles - The Edge on the Sword by Rebecca Tingle but the students voted it down. Not surprising since most of the students are boys and some of the girls in the class had already read it. It is about the daughter of King Alfred. The class had just finished fighting their way through the Iliad. Wish I had known - I would have suggested Dateline: Troy by Fleischman to supplement or replace it! Wonderful juxtaposition of historical narrative text with newspaper clippings from modern events.

No new YA to report on this a.m. - I am reading a book written by a local VI author that was locally published. Not one Mainlanders will have ready access to!

That's it for today. Need to work on a Board presentation for Montessori - we are going to automate the library with Follett's Destiny. Will be the 2nd existing collection I have automated from good old check out/catalog cards to barcodes and scanning. But, that was an elementary school in Alaska in 1989! How times flies when you are having fun.