Steve is trying to fix the mess I made on the other computer so I can't access a picture to add to this posting. Never download free anti-virus software 30 day trials is what I learned. The pop-up screen wanting me to purchase it is in an infinite loop and won't let me access a web site! Growl!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Steve took me out to lunch on Saturday instead, which is good as he was worshipping the porcelain goddess on Sunday due to some short term bug or something he ate. Couldn't been too bad as he wanted meat loaf for dinner! He also gave me the coolest "picture tree" that you hang small photographs on to help me keep my family memories alive. Very cool! Once I find the top of my desk again I'll ask him to set up the photo printer so I can start filling those little frames up. I am also going to scan in a bunch of pictures my mom gave me and one of Mic and Mary when they were kids. Then I'll have them to look at whenever I want without hauling out the boxes.

We chilled at home yesterday and watched the sub-titled version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/The-Girl-With-the-Dragon-Tattoo/Michael-Nyqvist/e/705105743950/?itm=1&USRI=girl+with+the+dragon+tattoo, which was wonderful. But, you can't do anything but watch closely when a movie is subtitled as you'll miss something. What a beautiful stark area the movie was filmed in. Reminded me a lot of back home, especially the cold! It's funny - I never had any desire to read the book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Girl-with-the-Dragon-Tattoo/Stieg-Larsson/e/9780307269751/?itm=5&USRI=girl+with+the+dragon+tat (might be the very unattractive cover) but now that I've seen the movie I'd like too. Steve read it and didn't care for it but he did appear to like the movie. I kept asking him what was going on so I think those who have read the book have a much better idea of what is left unsaid in the movie version. After watching this version I don't know how I'll respond to the U.S. version of it. Should be interesting to compare them. I just read the short synopsis for the other two Swedish movies and would like to see them as well. Who knows, maybe I'll end up reading all three books. I've certainly heard enough people rave about them.

Speaking of raving about a book. I can't say enough good things about David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Story-of-Edgar-Sawtelle/David-Wroblewski/e/9780061768064/?itm=3&USRI=story+of+edgar+sawtelle. Yeah - I'm a little late on this one as it is a 2008 debut novel, but I couldn't resist it on the Broward Regional Library book sale table when I saw it was set in Northern Wisconsin and mentioned towns I knew. I started reading it and basically spent every free moment with Edgar. It is one of those books you both savor and devour at the same time. You find yourself going back to read the beautifully descriptive passages yet barnstorming you way through it as you just have to find out what happens to this mute young teen who says more with his hands and his eyes than most people could ever dream of saying with words. Beloved by his mother and father, Edgar is raised on a rural dog breeding farm where the dogs are treated better than many people are elsewhere. The family's life revolves around breeding and training the legendary Sawtelle dogs that sell for well over $1000. They aren't any purebred, but through the years Edgar's grandfather and father have breed healthy, intelligent dogs that can be trained to do things many dogs will never be able to do. I have to admit, I wanted to skip over all the dog details to get to the good stuff - the dynamics of this unique family - but it is well worth slowing down and reading the details as they enrich the remainder of the book as the dogs are as rich, unique characters as the humans are.

As I set down The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, that did not end the way I expected it to, I realized had I not been browsing a table of $2 hardbacks at a library book sale I would have never read this book. The time spend browsing and serendipitously finding a treasure like this one is priceless. I wish we allowed our children and teens the pleasure of browsing libraries, book stores, etc. for treasure like this. No AR points involved, no preconceived notions of what they want to find, just browsing for a good book to curl up with.

A delayed treat after the Spring semester was put to bed was opening a box of Scholastic books. I found myself laughing aloud at Craig Smith's The Wonky Donky. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Wonky-Donkey/Craig-Smith/e/9780545261241/?itm=1&USRI=the+wonky+donkey This is a very cheap little paperback but worth every penny as I am sure it will be a story time and bedtime favorite if it isn't already as it was initially published in 2009. The illustrations by Katz Cowley are as funny, or funnier, than the text. It is a cumulative tale about a three legged donkey with one eye, who stinks, etc. My favorite double page spread is "I was walking down the road and I saw a donkey,
Hee Haw! He only had three legs, one eye... and he liked to listen to country music. Yee Haw! He was a honky-tonky, winky wonky donkey." The illustration of the yellow toothed, grinning donkey in a cowboy hat and a bolo tie with a guitar on it will bring a smile, if not cause a chuckle for any reader. There is a little funky looking yellow bird on each page and he's flat on his back as "he [the donkey] smelt really bad. He was a stinky-dinky..." You get the picture. Little ones will be "reading" this one on their own after a few read alouds. Cumulative tales are perfect for read alouds for this reason. The repetition is essential.

That's it for today. Steve is still working on the computer. Apparently there is a virus on it, smarter than the virus software already on it. Groan! He's going between computers and printing out directions to purge it. Thank goodness I am married to an IT guru!

We forgot poor McKinley and Kegan's sunglasses when we went out in the boat and moving they had to squint the whole time. But, they did get to see one alligator. It was a cloudy day so there weren't a bunch of them sunning themselves. I had Kegan in my lap so I wasn't worried about them falling in but I can't imagine what it would be like to get lost in those canals amongst the weeds and dead trees. We have a note by the gate with the alligator catcher's name and phone # as it is gator mating season and I guess more of them come out this time of year. We've not seen any in our part of the canal but it is really shallow right now - more weeds than water. We need rain!!

The Internet was down this morning and I was up at 4 a.m. so I wrote the below fairly long blog entry:

My morning routine is off because our Internet access is down. We just don’t realize how much of what we do is dependent upon access to the Internet until we can’t use it. My early morning hours are for answering email, finishing up end of semester details, checking grades, etc. I’ve tried every way I know to bring it up but will have to wait until “IT Guru Steve” wakes up to fix it. Only a few more days to go and the Spring semester is over. And, I am taking the summer off from teaching. Yahoo!! I can sleep until my body says it has had enough – if that is possible. And float in the pool on the blow-up chair that floats back and forth, looking lonely right now!

How early my morning starts depends upon when the cat wants out and how badly my achy body wants out of bed – usually about the same time every morning – between 4 and 5 a.m. Groan! I so fondly remember the days of being a night owl and sleeping in until 10:00 in the morning and then “rushing” to get ready to leave for the office to do afternoon office hours and teach evening classes. 2:00 a.m. was not an uncommon bedtime back then. I’m not really a lark either, as I typically go back to bed when Steve gets up and sleep for a few more hours in the morning. Then it’s doc’s appointments or other stuff and another nap, dinner, and bed. It is a good thing Sophie and I aren’t competing for the same space on the bed! I’m looking at yet another neck surgery on May 10th. Let’s hope this one works!

My morning routine is off because our Internet access is down. We just don’t realize how much of what we do is dependent upon access to the Internet until we can’t use it. My early morning hours are for answering email, finishing up end of semester details, checking grades, etc. I’ve tried every way I know to bring it up but will have to wait until “IT Guru Steve” wakes up to fix it. Only a few more days to go and the Spring semester is over. And, I am taking the summer off from teaching. Yahoo!! I can sleep until my body says it has had enough – if that is possible. And float in the pool on the blow-up chair that floats back and forth, looking lonely right now!

How early my morning starts depends upon when the cat wants out and how badly my achy body wants out of bed – usually about the same time every morning – between 4 and 5 a.m. Groan! I so fondly remember the days of being a night owl and sleeping in until 10:00 in the morning and then “rushing” to get ready to leave for the office to do afternoon office hours and teach evening classes. I’m not really a lark either, as I typically go back to bed when Steve gets up and sleep for a few more hours in the morning. Then it’s doc’s appointments or other stuff and then another nap, dinner and bed. It is a good thing Sophie and I aren’t competing for the same space on the bed! I’m looking at yet another neck surgery on May 10th. Let’s hope this one works!

For those of you who have followed this blog for awhile, you’ll know Alex (Alexandra) Flinn is one of my all time favorite YA authors. I fell in love with Breathing Underwater http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Breathing-Underwater/Alex-Flinn/e/9780064472579/?itm=1&USRI=breathing+underwater+flinn and have read everything she’s written since then. We’ve been going back and forth via email lately as I recently read Cloaked http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Cloaked/Alex-Flinn/e/9780060874223/?itm=2&USRI=cloaked+flinn and she let me know that, on May 20, Breathing Underwater comes out with a new cover and UPDATED CONTENT (e.g., no references to pagers, Beanie Babies, etc.). It will be 10 years old on April 24. http://www.harperteen.com/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780064472579 It is amazing to think I have been using Alex’s books as required reading for 10 years in my YA literature course. Breathing Underwater has been discussed, booktalked, and contemplated the most of any of her books used in class, though they have all been booktalked many times. The background of the teenage male abuser in Breathing Underwater is a point of view we don’t often see and it opens more than a few eyes of teenage guys. And girls for that matter. I am delighted that it has been updated and a new edition will soon be available to teen readers. For those of you with older copies in your collections, now is the chance to replace it and booktalk it with your teens.

Now, back to Cloaked. Steve and I have had more than few strolls and meals along the legendary South Beach main drag and have seen some pretty bizarre and extraordinary things, but we’ve never seen an international celebrity princess in search of her brother who has been turned into a frog! In case you haven’t figure it out – this is a modern fairy tale retelling, but the cool part is, Flinn has merged several of the lesser known tales into a fast paced, laugh aloud fun romp from South Beach to the Florida Keys. I have often felt like a pauper among the wealthy when in South Beach, but imagine being a lowly shoe repair guy whose main fear is to make enough money so that the power in the apartment he shares with his mother is not turned off. Taunted by the good looking lifeguard, but friends with the coffee shop girl, seventeen-year-old Johnny just keeps plugging along repairing the shoes of frazzled businessmen and replacing heels on the stilettos of the fashionistas. And, when no one is looking, he is designing women's shoes that he figures will never see the light of day. But that is all about to change when Princess Vicky sets her sights on Johnny as the person who can help her find her brother and break the curse. Before long, coffee shop Meg, who is more than she appears to be, is involved and a race against time and foreign gangster-types have the teens using every resource available, including magic, of course. Flinn delightfully weaves 7 lesser known tales into a contemporary setting for a completely satisfying tale. She concludes with an author’s note that offers a bit of insight into each tale. I hope Cloaked will open the door for teens to seek out the original versions of the tales as folk and fairy tales are storytelling at its very best and a resource to be tapped by bringing them back to life via retellings. This is Flinn’s third fairy tale retelling and if you’ve not read Beastly http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beastly/Alex-Flinn/e/9780061963285/?itm=2&USRI=beastly+flinn (yes – it’s the one the movie is based on and this is the link to the movie tie-in paperback) and A Kiss in Time, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Kiss-in-Time/Alex-Flinn/e/9780060874193/?itm=3&USRI=a+kiss+in+time+flinn you are missing out on two other delight tales. Alex told me – “My next will be a novel about Kendra (from Beastly) and her escapades, called Bewitching. It comes out winter, 2012.” I will be one of the first ones to read it!

Remember those ugly, slick covered biographies of presidents we all had on our library shelves that the students refused to even open unless they had to do a report? How about spending money on a family biography that will pique their interest instead? In the style of Russell Freedman, Harold Holzer brings the Lincoln family to life through descriptive text that focuses on the antics of the Lincoln boys and the family intrigue and, even better, is accompanied by well captioned archival photographs of the family and the time period and art reproductions. Father Abraham: Lincoln and His Son by Harold Holzer http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Father-Abraham/Harold-Holzer/e/9781590783030/?itm=1&USRI=father+abraham+holzer is a must have for every Elementary and MS library. I would even add it to the collection of most HS libraries as it so accessible to the resistant/reluctant teen reader.

Most of the time I prefer animal books with color photographs but the paintings by W. Allan Hancock in Amazing Animals: The Remarkable Things That Creatures Do written by Margriet Ruurs http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Amazing-Animals/Margriet-Ruurs/e/9780887769733/?itm=1&USRI=amazing+annimals+ruurs had me curled up exploring every illustration before I even read any of the text. The cheetah on the front cover grabbed my attention and when I flipped open the book I hit the page with the western diamondback rattlesnake and the artwork is so realistic I pulled my hand back from the page! Did you know that it uses the rattles, which form when it sheds its skin, to communicate with other rattlesnakes, not just to warn us to stay away? The short informative entries for each creature(bird, reptile, insect, mammal, fish, marsupial, etc.) in sections broken up by Size and Strength, Reproduction, Communication, Homebuilding, Migration and Navigation, Diet, Hunting, and Defense will fascinate readers both young and old. I can honestly say I’ve learned more about unique and well known animals, from this book than any other I’ve read as of late. Picture book style NF books are superb for introducing any topic to any age group. For example, it is good to know that a skunk can squirt its musk up to 20 feet away! If Tundra Books http://www.tundrabooks.com/ is not one of the publishers of NF books you look at regularly when doing collection development, add it to your review list. There is indeed a Canadian focus, but the books are well written and illustrated and always add elements not seen in other books of their kind.

With summer drives quickly upon us there are myriad children’s books to listen to, but for the adult crowd with no kids in the car I’ve a couple you may want to explore. My husband is not a fan of audiobooks but I do think he would have listened to John Grogan’s Life is Like a Sailboat: Selected Writings on Life and Living from the Philadelphia Inquirer. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Life-Is-Like-a-Sailboat/John-Grogan/e/9781597772556/?itm=6&USRI=life+is+like+a+sailboat The topics cover everything imaginable and cause the listener to pause and think and to chuckle. He often goes for the heart strings or hits you in the gut and you can’t stop listening. These are stories about real people, including himself and his family. To add to the enjoyment, John Larroquette is the narrator. This is one I’d give to the male road warrior.

And for those of you who grew up on One Day at a Time, you know who Mackenzie Phillips is. I listened to her matter of fact narration of her autobiography High on Arrival. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/High-on-Arrival/Mackenzie-Phillips/e/9781442303669/?itm=5&USRI=high+on+arrival If you think she was a bad girl as Julie Cooper in this 1970s sitcom, she was an angel compared to her real life of drugs, sex, and a less than acceptable relationship with her father. She doesn’t pull any punches discussing her addictions or her wrong choices in life and although I did not enjoy listening to her describe a life that was so out of control it seemed unreal, I couldn’t stop listening. Would I have picked it up on sale at Barnes and Noble if I had not seen her on the Today Show? Probably not as I am a Valerie Bertinelli fan, but if you want to engage in tough love – give this one to the older teen or young adult who thinks drugs and alcohol are “harmless”! So many wasted years for such a talented woman.

This is an entry that has been worked on through time but I have a hard time editing myself so please excuse my typos and other types of errors.