Isn't McKinley adorable? Mary says she'll add a pink bow or something to the costume so it is clear she's a little girl. Wish I could be there to see the kids all dressed up for Halloween. I had as much fun on Halloween as my kids as back then I dressed as a witch (green face and all) and had a cauldron and turned out the lights and read or told scary stories in the elementary school library. Sure can't do that anymore! Now it is a harvest festival and no Halloween type decorations. Need to find the lighted jack-o-lantern for the front porch. I am buying Halloween candy I can't eat or else I will!

I played flamingo (my bad left leg up with my foot on my other ankle) while holding onto the counter tops as I made chili for dinner. I was in the mood to cook and that is very unusual for me so I ignored not being allowed to stand for any length of time on my left leg as I was going to cook. I am paying for it now as my knee is hurting like Hades but I am not taking anything stronger than Advil as I have to keep myself awake until 12:30 a.m. and set an alarm for 6:30 a.m. so I get a max of 6 hours of "bed time" for the next 5 nights. I am seeing a cognitive/pain doc to help deal with the fibromyalgia insomnia and pain. He assures me that if I am willing to give this the 5 days of 6 hours and then add a 1/2 hour until I am past the number of hours I need I will not need to take sleep meds. and I'll get more "refreshing" sleep. He swears that they have a 97% success rate with this technique and biofeedback with fibro patients. Since I am more than tired of hurting 24/7 I am willing to try most anything. Acupuncture only worked for a few weeks as the fibro pain got smart and just moved from the area he was working on.

So, I stopped at Barnes and Noble and picked up Dan Brown's Lost Symbol http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Lost-Symbol/Dan-Brown/e/9780385504225/?itm=1 I had read both previous books about Langdon long before the movies so I was really disappointed to have Tom Hanks play him as Hanks just doesn't live up to the good looking young guy I had in my mind! I am interested to see if I now see Tom Hanks in my mind as I read this. Hopefully I can stay awake until after midnight by reading this.

I also picked up a copy of the graphic novel of The Gunslinger Born http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dark-Tower/Peter-David/e/9781615531318/?itm=1&usri=1 which was on sale for less than $7 so I didn't think I could go wrong as I loved Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Again, I read it when it first came out so I've forgotten much of it but it will be interesting to see if the illustrations work for me. This graphic novel series is a gotta have for HS level graphic novel collections and at $7 it is a bargain! I'll write more about it when I finish reading/viewing it.

We all know that Stephen King writes really creepy horror that gets into your head and does not want to leave. Another author, who is incredibly gifted in creating dialog and narrative that makes the reader look behind him/her to see if the creepy character is Neil Gaiman. Lots of discussion about The Graveyard Book http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Graveyard-Book/Neil-Gaiman/e/9780060530921/?itm=1&usri=1 which to me is very much a MS level book and isn't one I'd hand to an elementary school student. But, that Newbery designation causes many librarians and teachers to misjudge this book as a children's book. It is pure creepy tween reading. Perfect to create an October book display around. He has also taken on the Norse mythology I grew up with in his Odd and the Frost Giants http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Odd-and-the-Frost-Giants/Neil-Gaiman/e/9780061671739/?itm=1&usri=1 Don't let the short length trick you into believing it isn't a sophisticated story even though it seems quite simple and easy to read. Odd is a young boy lamed in an accident while trying to use his deceased father's cross-saw. Odd states things as he sees them - simple yet confusing! It is his blunt look at the world and his simple logic that saves him from forever being lost in the world of the Norse gods. Although the reviews suggest ages 8-12, this is one I would suggest MS teachers read aloud when studying mythology as it is an absolute delight.

Since I started out talking about Halloween, I need to end on that note with the boootifully delightful Never Say Boo! by Robin Pulver and illustrated by Deb Lucke http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Never-Say-Boo/Robin-Pulver/e/9780823421107/?itm=1&usri=1 Poor Gordon - his ghostly parents have moved in the abandoned house across the street from the elementary school and have insisted he attend. But, his fellow classmates are more than a little scared of him. "Bummer!" as Gordon will say more than once. He has a blood curdling "BOO!" but knows better than to open his mouth, even when the teacher, Ms. Boodle, starts asking questions for which the answers all start with boo, including boomerang and booster. His haunted lunchbox is not a big hit, but Gordon saves the day when there is a fire in the school. Well, let's just say he wasn't booed for his "BOO!" that cleared the school. :-) Lucke's illustrations are as funny as the text as poor Gordon's teeth keep falling out of his mouth and he has a scar on his head similar to Frankenstein's monster. I know, I know - no Halloween books during story time in the school library, but at least this is a gotta have for the picture book collection. And, what a fun way to introduce words that start with boo.

Isn't she the most beautiful child you have ever seen? Well, I may be a bit prejudice as I am her Gramma, but this pic of McKinley is my screen saver. She has the same fine, white-blonde hair that I had as a child. Her mom's wasn't quite that blonde but she was a towhead as well. I have the weather for here in Lexington, Mary's Green Bay, and our, hopefully, next home, Ft. Lauderdale on my main page to compare the weather. It is as beautiful in Green Bay today as it is in both Lexington and Ft. Lauderdale, though not quite as warm. Perhaps Mary has taken the kids to the park again while the weather is nice. Winter will arrive in Green Bay way too soon. Hopefully we'll have this warm Autumn weather for awhile yet. I'd like to be able to take a walk in the neighborhood after the trees change, but my knee won't allow that yet.

Speaking of weather - I just received a copy of Mitzi's World: Seek and Discover More Than 150 Details in 15 Works of Folk Art by Deborah Raffin and illustrated by Jane Wooster Scott. The folk art depicts the seasons in the detail rich Americana folk art. I like the winter scenes best, even if I only like to look at snow from behind a window pane these days. Hopefully we won't get ice storms here this winter. Mitzi is a little white and black dog that kids, and adults, will enjoy finding in the illustrations, along with lots of other listed items. I am not a Waldo or I Spy fan but I do like this book. I like to look at the art even without trying to find the items listed. The only thing the kids might find confusing is that there are 15 illustrations but the last page states "And now a new year begins". Nevertheless, this is a wonderful book to curl up under a blanket with a child as the rain or snow blows outside.

My adult reading as of late has been Wild Women and Books: Bibliophiles, Bluestockings, and Prolific Pens from Aphra Behn to Zora Neale Hurston and from Anne Rice to the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Brenda Knight. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Wild-Women-and-Books/Brenda-Knight/e/9781573242714/?itm=1 A very interesting set of short biographical essays about female writers from religious zealots to cult favorites like Anne Rice who arrived to an event in a hearse. J. K. Rowling is included as well as Laura Ingalls Wilder as far as authors with child appeal. I don't agree with Knight's list of "Other Beloved Children's Authors" as it includes Anne McCaffrey who is an adult author with teen/tween appeal. She listed Beatrix Potter but does not highlight her; that is a disappointment. But, at least the list includes Judy Blume.

I am listening to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Picture-of-Dorian-Gray/Oscar-Wilde/e/9781556852534/?itm=1&usri=1. I read it years ago as a teen but listening to it has been very entertaining, especially Lord Henry's witty, but cutting, anti-female comments, which are down right funny when heard rather read.

What would people today sell their soul to the devil for? Well, how about a 1958 Cadillac? That is exactly what happens to Eunice, aka Bug, a multiracial girl whose grandfather made a deal for his soul, and his granddaughter's. He may have died but somehow he beat the devil and now he's come to El Paso to collect on Bug's soul. She isn't about to give it, or her Cadillac, up to Beals, who is tied to the car. Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Soul-Enchilada/David-Macinnis-Gill/e/9780061673016/?itm=1&usri=1 is wickedly funny and very much an urban tale. He pulls no punches as far as the gross out factor or Bug's gritty language, but you have to keep reading to find out if Bug, with the help of Pesto, a car wash manager who is also an agent for the ISIS, International Supernatural Immigration Service, figures out a way out of the contract her grandfather signed. Now I have to tell you - I sure wouldn't sell my soul for a Cadillac - it would be more like a Jaguar!! No - I am just kidding!

I felt like I had let my "baby" go out into the world when I dropped my tenure portfolio off at UPS to be sent to ECU today. A 4" high binder full of examples of my professional life/contributions since August 2006. Hard to believe I am beginning my 4th academic year at East Carolina University. Seems like yesterday that I attended all those "new faculty" meetings and realized why it is good idea to stay at one university long term - you only have to attend those once! :-) But, now maybe I can catch up a few things and actually enjoy life for a bit even if I am stuck sitting with a heating pad on my knee. I have migrated from the bedroom to the recliner in the living room - I feel less like an invalid out here and can look out at the ferns swaying in the breeze on the back deck and the plum tree we planted when we first moved in, which is growing like a bad weed. Thank goodness for small laptops. I absolutely love this little Dell Latitude E4200 - it is bigger than the small notebooks but so much lighter than the average laptops and I really don't mind the smaller screen. It is small enough that I don't even have to put any pressure on my left knee when I sit with it.


Trying to catch up on email and saw that Reading Rainbow is going off the air. Not enough funds to continue airing it. Here's a bit of the quote from NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112312561

The show's run is ending, Grant explains, because no one — not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show's broadcast rights.
Grant says the funding crunch is partially to blame, but the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming. The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration, he explains, which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.
Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do. "Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read."

For those of you who know me, you can probably hear me grinding my teeth and growling at the shift to telling kids what to read and how many points a book is worth based on the often incorrect reading level and how everything is standardized test focused these days. The way kids become better readers is to read, for pleasure, and by selecting books they want to read, even if the books are below or above their supposed reading level determined by a test. I'd love to see someone do a reading level test on a paragraph of a limited text book about dinosaurs - the one that has all the dinosaur names in it and then tell me that a primary age boy can't read this book because it is above his reading level. Heck - the Kindergarten-2nd grade boys used to help me pronounce the names - they even know how to spell them. Delight in reading comes from reading what interests us. But, I have sung this song before and am sad to see a beloved show that actually encouraged the love of reading to be let go like this.

Some of you may recognize Susanne Dunlap's name from her adult historical fiction novels - several of them that look very interesting. But, I was pulled in by the lovely illustraqtion on the cover of her first YA novel, published by Bloomsbury, The Musician's Daughter http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Musicians-Daughter/Susanne-Dunlap/e/9781599903323/?itm=1 - a young woman with what looks to be a violin in her hands, but the character of this book, fifteen-year-old Theresa Marie has learned how to play the viola. It is 18th century Vienna and her father has been found dead in a Gypsy camp on Christmas Eve, his beloved violin gone. With her mother pregnant and a younger brother who is as hungry as she is, Theresa goes to her Godfather, none other than the composer Hayden, for assistance. He hires her to create the sheet music as he composes as he can no longer see well enough to do it on his own. Young women of her day do not go out alone, but she is determined to solve the mystery of who killed her father and where his violin is and in the process puts herself and her younger brother in grave danger. This is a historical mystery that will pique the interest of possible female musicians and those who like historical romance, as there is a bit of that as well. Yes, some of the incidents appear to be a bit stretched, but that's part of what historical fiction does - takes real people and creates a new story around them, while being seeped in historical setting accuracy. And, as far as the musical accuracy I wouldn't know if something was wrong as I have no musical talent or knowledge, but I trust Dunlap to have gotten it correct as she has a PhD in music history from Yale! From her website, it looks like she has another YA novel coming out soon in March 2010, Anastasia's Secret http://www.susannedunlap.com/Susanne_Dunlap/Home.html

My grandson Michael started his first day of First Grade today and was not the least bit happy about being back at school from what my daughter Mary said. Hopefully that will change as he gets back into the school focused schedule of the academic year. Maybe he feels a bit like the kids in many of the poems in Laura Purdie Salas's Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Stampede/Laura-Purdie-Salas/e/9780618914883/?itm=1&usri=1. The rhythm and the rhyme of the poems will make them great fun to read aloud to elementary age students. Lots of the issues addressed, such as not having done your homework and getting lost in the school, are topics that cross all age levels, but the bold illustrations by Steven Salerno make this more appropriate for primary grades, though I am sure some of the older elementary students will also enjoy the poems. Love all the illustrations except for the one for "New Mouse" about getting lost in the maze of hallways. The other illustrations are appropriate to the elementary school environment, but this one shows a maze with arrows pointing to rooms such as Woodshop, History, and French - none of which would be found in elementary schools even though the mouse girl illustrated is of elementary age. The one thing I do like about this particular illustration is that Salerno uses the term Library rather than media center, a term I really detest, especially since in most school libraries the students are not allowed to check out any of the media! Order this one rebound as the trade edition is so poorly bound a child could easily stick a pencil under the binding string and pop it. One circulation and that would be it if first checked out by the inquisitive child who wants to see what happens if the string in the book is broken. If you can't find a rebound edition it would be worth adding to your own collection for storytime.

And one other gripe - children's picture books normally have the same illustration on the book itself as on the dust jacket, but if an elementary librarian wants to save money by taking the jacket off and processing the book without it, the author and illustrator information is no longer accessible to the children, nor is the book blurb. I wish they'd be "forced" to keep the dust jacket on as is the case with most YA and adult hardbacks as the book itself is not illustrated and a blank cover with the title on the spine only will not pique a potential reader's attention as did the cover art of The Musician's Daughter for me.

That's it for today - back to over flowing email inbox. I haven't checked my yahoo email in weeks so if you sent me an email there, bear with me. I have to catch up with ECU email first.

I'm sitting on the bed with heat on my knee (instead of ice now) watching Ted Kennedy's funeral. We watched the "wake" at the JFK Library last night. I laughed and cried and truly tired myself out. Many of us vicariously grew up with the Kennedy family. I don't remember a time when there wasn't a Kennedy in the news. I've always had a fascinating with Jackie Kennedy and how she lived her life in the years after JFK died, including being a well thought of editor. It isn't just the Kennedy born who are incredible in their own way, it is the women and men they choose to marry and the children they bear. I hope Teddy's sons will carry on their father's work and all will continue the family expectation of public service of some type.

Sophie has gotten used to sleeping on her own blanket on the bed as I do my "elevation" time. Cats can snore almost as loud as humans! But, we've put a lot of hours in together here on this bed. When I saw the surgeon earlier this week he prescribed another 3-5 weeks of limited use of my left knee. The physical therapist wasn't as optimistic as he measured it, saw the amount of swelling, and the limited movement. He predicted 5-6 weeks at best if I behave myself. Well, that is not so easy to do when creating the 3# binder full of "stuff" that has to go in when going up for tenure. The sections are spread out across the dining room table. Steve can't believe that I am expected to create such a "scrapbook" to prove my worth when it is all cited on my vita and my Cumulative Annual Review form. Honestly, nor can I, but academia is a world unto itself!

I did take a break or two when I hit "brain dead" from all the work on the grant and the tenure portfolio to escape with a Fern Michael Sisterhood novel, Under the Radar http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Under-the-Radar/Fern-Michaels/e/9781420106831/?itm=1 I'm amazed that there are 13 titles in this series. No wonder I was surprised by the relationships of the Sisters as I have only read a handful of them, though I'd like to sit and read the rest of them in order to see how the heck the relationships occurred. This was not one of my favorites because it was a bit too "in your face" for me in relation to how they treated the older women in the polygamist cult they raided to rescue the young pregnant brides of the leader.

Steve is home from the gym and has the grill heated for lunch so I will close for now. Sorry - no young adult book or children's as I am not in my office where I love being surrounded by books. Next time.

I make great resolutions that I will blog more often and I swear the more I "resolute" the less I blog. So, I am going to only say that I will try and see if that helps. What got me going this a.m. was an exploration of the Monday, August 17th issue of USA Today and finding an article on books and gaming. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2009-08-16-shadow-complex_N.htm. Lots of hot links in the article so I had to warn myself not to start exploring or I would still be "exploring". Teens may not be big newspaper readers, but articles like this one can be highlighted as "today's cool newspaper article". Add USA Today as a favorite on the computers in the library - http://www.usatoday.com/ We can bemoan the fact that teens don't read the newspaper, but rather than "accepting" this bad news about teens, make the newspaper a source of what they want! Show them its link to their online world of gaming and social networking.

I love USA Today and am always delighted when it is the newspaper outside the hotel room door and it was at the Sheraton in Kansas City. I am just now getting to read it though. Very interesting article "A 'Complex' road to the game world: Designer, book author team up". I had to read it as there is a cover art shot of Orson Scott Card's Empire http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Empire/Orson-Scott-Card/e/9780765355225/?itm=2#TABS This futuristic novel about the American Empire, and what can happen when the vicious fighting between the right and the left result in the assassination of the president and the "team" around him, has a setting perfect for the basis of a virtual world game. For readers who love Card's Ender Quartet series http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?SID=365953, four SF novels focused on Ender Wiggins, a young boy who saves the world, Card's myriad adult novels may not be to their taste, but many male readers move from Ender's Game http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Enders-Game/Orson-Scott-Card/e/9780765342294/?itm=2 to Card's adult SF. Card has joined forces with the gaming industry and Card readers will be able to play the downloadable Xbox Live version of Shadow Complex http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/shadowcomplexxbla/ based on Empire. Be aware the game is is rated T (teen) for violence.

Why is this book lover talking about gaming? Because teens love to play games and if we can make the connection for them to books, let's do it! Card states: "When you play the game, instead of trying to act out the whole story of the novel, instead you get to do the cool things that you only read about in the book." Games have players' guides that teens will practically memorize so help these teens realize that reading Empire will increase their ability to play Shadow Complex. Once this word gets out, the library will have waiting list for the book.

What else can we do? Set up displays that connect the books to the games as well as create book lists that focus on the books that have been used as the basis for a game. Take a look at the extensive list of hot links on Wikipedia entry - "Category: Video Games Based on Books" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_books to the content of the games. Yes, I know - Wikipedia is not the most accurate source of information, but in this case it is a good place to start. We have to meet teens in the places they occupy and this is often role playing games.

Librarians are the gatekeeper to the books that will help players excel in the game and yes, even the non-reader teen male will check out classics and and fantasy titles, such as the Shannara series by Terry Brooks http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=shannara+brooks&box=shannara%20brooks&pos=-1 if he realizes reading the books will help him excel in playing the game.

I am a big Brooks' fan, but my favorite series of his is Magic Kingdom of Landover series http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=magic+kingdom+of+landover+series&box=magic%20k&pos=0 I'd like to take this series with me as audiobooks on an extended vacation. I'd sit back, close my eyes, and let Brooks take me to Landover so I can visit with Ben, Willow, and Abernathy - my favorite characters in this teen friendly series. In most cases, adult fantasy and SF are "safe" for teen readers.

As far away from gaming as I can go, the same issue of USA Today has an opinion column "Teach the Bible? Of course." http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-teach-the-bible-of-course-.html There are 58 responses to this opinion piece. I have added The Bible and Its Influence http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-teach-the-bible-of-course-.html to my B&N Wish List. It is a high school level textbook so it is pricey. I'll watch for it on used book sites. Many of my MLS students assume that they can't have the Bible or Bible stories in a school collection. When they tell me this I ask them if they have other books on religions of the world and most respond they do. Hmmm - it is okay to have books on other religions, but not Christianity? Whether you are a Christian or not, Bible "stories" are part of our cultural literacy, such as referring to someone as a "good Samaritan".

Okay, enough for me today. Back to getting my YA Materials course materials updated for Fall semester. Classes begin next week, but faculty has officially been back to work as of Monday. That extended vacation with Brooks' audiobooks? I need it after a wickedly busy summer session teaching 3 classes, having knee surgery, and fibromyalgia symptoms at their worst. I'm working from bed with frozen peas on my knee - the spot I've been in more often than any other this summer. Thank goodness for small laptops. I love the new Dell Latitude E4200.

We are such creatures of habit. Once I hear Steve and Sophie moving about in the a.m. my body says it is time to get up. Well, when it is shortly after 6 a.m. I am not too keen on this, but I can't fall back to sleep so I got up and read for a bit. Steve crawled back into bed and he'll fall back asleep quickly (the bum!). He has his cardiologist appt. this morning. I am going with him so I can hear the test results. Steve is so macho he waited an hour before he actually told me he was having a tightness in his chest that wasn't normal. It was almost an hour before that he had asked me when I'd be done with what I was doing. I somewhat sarcastically responded that I was grading and it would be literally days, but, in a kinder voice (I hope!) asked what he needed. He said nothing, of course. I knew something wasn't right, but it took close to an hour before he admitted what was going on. He said let's give it five more minutes. I told him no and to get in the car! Thank goodness the hospital is less than 1o minutes from the house. He was in the hospital over night and most of the next day before he finally was released. I can't help but think it was some type of infection/virus that got into his heart as he was running a fever a couple of day before and after he got home. I changed the sheets twice one of the nights as he soaked through a t-shirt, sheets and mattress pad. If the doc didn't do testing on that I am going to insist he does as it could be serious.

Since I was up at 6 a.m. I finished The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Measure-of-a-Man/Sidney-Poitier/e/9780061357909/?itm=1 I love his movies To Sir With Love and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night. I respect him as one of the great actors who has not gotten the attention he deserved. He writes about what it was like to be a star in the 50s and 60s yet not be able to walk in the front door of many hotels and restaurants. He shares a bit about his life as a child on Cay Island in the Bahamas where he ran around in burlap clothes and had no idea there was a different way of life. He has certainly come a long way - via Nassau, Miami, and New York. He could call the greats of Harlem his friends. He rambles a lot - it is after all, a spiritual autobiography written in his 70s after he survived prostate cancer, but I didn't see a man who grew as a father or a husband. He rarely wrote about his children and basically never about his wives. I don't think we can write a spiritual autobiography and not address our own nuclear family. He wrote extensively about his father, who he clearly respected greatly, and his quiet mother ,who rarely spoke, but he has at least 4 children and there is probably less than two pages total about them. So, I was disappointed in the book. A year later he wrote Life Beyond Measure: Letters to my Granddaughter http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Life-Beyond-Measure/Sidney-Poitier/e/9780641983726/?itm=2 Perhaps that is the book I should have read. Will see if I can find a copy of this is Half Price books. Hmmm. I think I'd rather listen to it as I love his voice.

I am still reading new YA author's debut novels. Julie Berry's The Amaranthe Enchantment http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Amaranth-Enchantment/Julie-Berry/e/9781599903347/?itm=1 is one my latest reads. As do many of the new YA authors, she has a MFA in writing for children and young adults. This is a Cinderella story about 15-year-old Lucinda whose wealthy parents are killed in a carriage accident when she is young. She becomes the ward of her uncle and aunt who own a jewelry repair shop were he ekes out a living. Her aunt does not hide the fact that Lucinda is a burden and makes her do all of the cleaning and may well ask her to scrub a floor over that she had just finished scrubbing. Everything in Lucinda's life changes whens the Amaranthe Witch entered the repair shop with a huge, unique jewel that she wants reset so she can wear it around her neck. When her aunt discovers who brought the jewel in for repair she said they will not do business with a witch and Lucinda is to return it to her. Well, Lucinda doesn't quite do that and it is stolen by the young thief who boldly enters her bed chamber that night and sleeps on her floor. Their lives become intertwined and she finds herself dancing with the Prince at an outdoor fair. She is quite bold in her approach to him as the thief has stolen the jewel from her room and sold it to the Prince to give to his new bride. She steals it from his pocket. Lucinda has fallen in love with the Prince and knows he is out of her league, but one's heart doesn't know when we shouldn't fall in love. The tale takes many twists and turns with Lucinda taken to prison to be hung in the morning for stealing the jewel from the prince, but her aunt, who is the one who "fingers" her as the thief, then bribes the jailer to free her. The Amaranthe Witch plays the role of fairy godmother, but she is from another world and the jewel is what will allow her to journey home. As all good fairy tales, and retellings, do - Lucinda lives happily ever after. And, of course, there is more to the young thief than meets the eye. Give this one to MS through HS girls who like to read fantasy romances. It is a delight fairy tale romp with a "intergalactic twist."

My students, along with introducing themselves, they also address the first book they remember reading or being read to them. Many of them are the old I Can Read or Dr. Seuss books. These all have a unique feel to them due to the limited use of color, often red, green, and blue, and the controlled vocabulary. A new title, that has that old "feel,"to add to the Early Reader group is Hat by Paul Hoppe. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hat/Paul-Hoppe/e/9781599902487/?itm=1 The cover immediately grabbed my attention as it is a simple drawing of a boy wearing a huge red hat that covers his eyes, but not the the satisfied grin on his face as he stands nonchalantly with his arms crossed. Young Henry finds a large brimmed red hat sitting on a park bench and the adventure begins. We see Henry laying spread eagle on a beach towel with Hat covering him almost down to his belly button. Hat keeps off the rain; it's great for catching mice, for hiding a rabbit - he is a very smug magician. It even becomes a sailboat and sled racing through the snow. Henry's imagination and Hat can even make Henry a superstar. But, imaginary adventures must come to an end when Mom reminds him that someone else may need the hat. Off his imagination goes again and he see a smug crocodile with the outline of a head poking out of him, because the adventurer didn't have Hat to shove in the croc's open mouth, a terrified grandma whose kitchen has been taken over by mice, and a sweating, sunburned lifeguard. Henry knows it is time to lay Hat back down on the bench and head for home with Mom. I absolutely love this book! The illustrations are of a minimalist style but throb with emotion and fun. A delightful book to share with your little and let him/her go on adventures with Henry and learn they can read this one on their own. What could you do with a hat the size of an umbrella? :-)

Time to get ready to head to the doc's with Steve.

Oh my gosh - it has been over a month since I blogged. Guess I shouldn't be surprised as June was filled with the preparation for the COLRS Workshop for the scholarship students. We had so much fun and meeting them was such a joy. We had two great author presentations. Jacqueline Ogburn spoke about The Bakeshop Ghost http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bake-Shop-Ghost/Jacqueline-Ogburn/e/9780547076775/?itm=1 The very cool part was she went to California to watch the filming of an independent film version. We were all sorry we can't buy it on DVD. Seeing how they made the huge cake with cardboard boxes covered with frosting and that the bakery hired to create the real cakes used in the film is "haunted" by the prior owner and the baker talks to her was way cool! We also enjoyed listening to Shana Norris talk about how the library and books impacted her desire to be a writer. She also shared the number of refusals she received in the beginning. But, now she is on a roll with her second book, Troy High http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Troy-High/Shana-Norris/e/9780810946477/?itm=1coming out in August and of course, the warring football teams are the Trojans and the Spartans. I made the mistake of setting my copy of the ARC down at the Workshop and it disappeared. Will have to ask for another one from Abrams. I finished listening to three audiobooks since I last blogged. My favorite one of the three is The Splendor of Silence by Indu Sundarsan http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Splendor-of-Silence/Indu-Sundaresan/e/9780786147717/?itm=2 I love to listen to books set in foreign countries as I then know how to pronounce names as well as feel like I am there as the narrator typically has the accent of the country. Mathan certainly does - so beautifully melodious. This love story is set in India during WWII. Sam, a young Army captain on the surface, but in reality a OSS spy, meets Mila when he stays in her home as a guest of her father, supposedly recuperating from his shoulder injury. But he is trying to find his brother who has disappeared from his unit. The two fall in love in a time when there are few bi-racial couples. Mila is betrothed to a rich raj and when Sam leaves, she marries the prince, knowing she is carrying Sam's child. After Sam's death, a trunk arrives from India for his daughter, filled with her mother's saris as well as a long missive from the man who loved her mother as much as her father had, but sent her to Sam's family to raise. Through letters from the prince, she learns of her mother and father's love for each other, the political situation in his small kingdom of Rudrakot. An omniscient narrative style, changing from character to character, as well as to incidents before Sam and Mila met, adds depth, and sometimes a bit of confusion. However, it is a beautifully written novel that I would recommend to older teens who enjoy either historical fiction and/or a touching love story. Not at all "mushy" so male teens may also enjoy this novel. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier http://www.amazon.com/Falling-Angels-Tracy-Chevalier/dp/1565115082/ref=sr_oe_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247322340&sr=1-1 pulls the reader into early 20th Century London where two young girls become friends, and sometimes enemies, because their family's grave sites are next to each other. Although they are separated by social class, with Maude really caring nothing about their wealth or social standing and Lavinia acting like she is from a family of higher social status than hers actually is, they love to play together in the cemetery. The grave digger's son, Simon, is a fascinating character to both girls and his life becomes intertwined with theirs, in part because the maid and cook in Maude's home feel sorry for him and feed him when he sneaks in by the back door, but also because his mother is the one who both delivers babies and terminates pregnancies. Maude's mother is not aware it is Simon's mother who terminates her pregnancy after a dalliance with the cemetery caretaker. Shortly after she recovers from the abortion, Kitty - Maude's mother, becomes a suffragette. It is at one of their rallies that Lavinia's younger sister disappears and Simon knows who is to blame. Lots of subplots to keep any reader involved. Chevalier is a superb historical novelist. Older teenage girls may enjoy this. I also listened to The Lady and Unicorn http://www.audible.com/adbl/entry/offers/productPromo2.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&productID=BK_HCUK_000061 awhile back, which I also enjoyed. I would not have chosen Jane Hamilton's When Madeline Was Young http://search.barnesandnoble.com/When-Madeline-Was-Young/Jane-Hamilton/e/9781437614893/?itm=1if I were to read it as I was not terribly intrigued by the book summary, but it was too inexpensive at Half Price books not to buy it! I am very glad I did as it caused me to pause and think how I would react to a man asking me to marry him and having to take care of his brain damaged wife who has the mental capabilities of a 6 or 7 year old. I suspect I am not a good enough person to have taken on this role, but Julia is. The family saga is told from the perspective of Mac, Julia and Aaron's son, who "grew up" with Madeline without realizing who she was until he was almost a teenager. Perhaps he had avoided knowing, but it certainly raised questions in his mind as to how different his family is from the normal conservative 1950's family. The narrative spans decades, with Mac resisting his wife's insistence they attend his cousin Buddy's son's funeral. Buddy had tormented Mac at the family lake house in Wisconsin when they were kids and though now a surgeon, Mac knows how Buddy will react to him. Hamilton pulls no punches and sometimes I found myself cringing as I read the personal feelings and experiences of this family, but it a novel I would recommend to anyone who needs to address the needs of a brain damaged adult. I also read what I would refer to as very hot on the spicy scale! Do not give this to a teenager as the sex scenes are not raunchy, but they certainly are close to erotic in nature. I love Christine Feehan's books and Burning Wild http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Burning-Wild/Christine-Feehan/e/9780515146233/?itm=1is no exception. Like the bodice rippers I've been known to consume like a candy bar, I would take the cover off of this one before I read it in public. Steve noticed the studly man with rock hard abs covered in leopard print and I just smiled and said it was about a group of leopard people! It really is, but more of a romance than a study in how a human can become a leopard. Of course, the male falls in love with the woman who is caring for his son and .... well, you know how the story goes. I am addicted to her series. I did not realize there was a Leopard Series, with this being the second title, but I will find a copy of Wild Rain now that I've read the second one. My favorite series of Feehan's is The Drake Sister Series - 7 sisters who each have their own unique power, and of course fall in love with men after a love/hate relationship. I always say my inner child/teen is alive and well due to the amount of youth literature I read, but I admit when I step out of the youth literature arena, I need to just ready some "beach reads" for awhile. All of the above are going to Half Price today so I can see what other Feehan titles I can find. No point in trying to read any children's or YA while recuperating from knee surgery as I won't remember what I read anyway. I need to call the doc to reschedule on Monday - thought it was going to be Weds. but has to be postponed for 2 weeks as I have to be off the fibro fog meds. for 2 weeks before they'll put me under. Guess it can mess with heart rate. Not something I want to deal with! That's it for today. Need to get back to grading. I am teaching 3 classes this summer and it is about killing me.

What a gorgeous day! Sat outside for awhile drooling over all the cool international sites in the Conde Nast Traveler magazine while poor Sophie hid from the mockingbirds before catching up a bit on email.

We spent the morning cleaning house as the realtor showed it this afternoon. The "looker" wanted to see the subdivision pool so maybe they were very interested. A house similar in size to ours sold down the street so sales are starting to pick up. We drove down to a restaurant on the Kentucky River for lunch. I am still tasting the burger - yuck!! Won't be ordering a burger there again, but what a gorgeous day to sit and watch the river. Two pontoon boats on the river - they have to be crazy with the logs and other debris in the river after all the rain we've had.

Cover art on the June 15th issue of Time shows a twitter posting on a iPhone. I had to chuckle as I read the article about sharing your life in 140 spurts. Twitter was not this big when I wrote the article for YALS on cell phone novel bestsellers in Japan. In the U.S., we are using the cell phone to "talk" to each other rather than for authoring books 140 characters at a time. I am perplexed as to why we need to share what we had for breakfast via our cell phones, but I guess it isn't much different than what I am doing right now on this blog, but in short bursts during the day. Perhaps if I twittered I might actually share the "stuff" I remind myself to add to the blog and then I don't find the time to blog for days and having long since forgotten the "tidbit" I wanted to share.

The article that caught my attention more than the cover story on the "cultural force" twitter has become is the Coeli Carr's "No Souvenirs" article about adding radio frequency identification (RFID) to surgical sponges so they can be tracked. In other words, if the surgeon "forgets" to remove all the sponges during your surgery they can track them! This may seem like a bit much but I think it is a superb idea. Doctors will be more careful and if a mistake should be made they can find the sponge. Mic had his adenoids removed when tubes were put in his ears and the doctor left a sponge behind. Poor Mic had a nasty nasal discharge and the pediatrician kept saying he had a rash under his nose and sinus trouble, but Mic was miserable. It took months of going to the pediatrician with no results until I finally went to a different ear, nose and throat doc than the one who did Mic's surgery. He looked up Mic's nose, and before I could blink, stuck a thin nosed pair of tweezers up there and pulled out the nastiest smelling gross piece of gauze you have ever seen or smelled. And, before I could insist I wanted it for "evidence," he rushed out and flushed it down the toilet. So much for being able to do anything about the discomfort Mic went through and the multiple trips to the pediatrician. Tracking surgical sponges - I say, yeah - go for it!

I mentioned the writing/children's literature degrees that the new YA authors have in my last blog. New YA author Tonya Cherie Hegamin is also high educated, with an MFA in Writing for Children and is an alum of a writer's retreat. Hegamin calls herself a poet, but I would say she is also a gifted novelist. Her debut YA novel M+O 4EVR http://search.barnesandnoble.com/M-O-4EVR/Tonya-Hegamin/e/9780618495702/?itm=1 is stunning. This beautifully crafted contemporary novel about two childhood friends who become very different teens, drifting apart as they mature, also includes a poignant tale of a runaway slave who falls in love with the Native American who helps her escape. O, whose given name is Opal, is raised by her grandmother, the storyteller who weaves the slavery tale into the stories she tells O and M (Marianne) when they are little girls. They play in the woods near the ravine where the slave girl ran to her death rather than be captured. M is running with the wild crowd, while O hides behind the hat she pulls low on her head and too big guy's clothes, watching her childhood friend, the one she loves, leave her behind. One of the teens will find herself at the edge of this ravine and make a choice that will affect both their families. This is not a novel written in verse, but the economy of words in this poignant debut is the work of a gifted poet, a gift author.

I read Hegamin's novel a couple of weeks ago, so when I started going through the new Houghton Mifflin titles I was delighted to find Hegamin's debut picture book, Most Loved in All the World http://search.barnesandnoble.com/M-O-4EVR/Tonya-Hegamin/e/9780618495702/?itm=1, about a girl who is too little to help her mother pick cotton but not too little to carry water to the fields during the day and watch her mama work on a quilt at night that tells a story. Cozbi A. Cabrera's illustrations bring the little girl and her mama to live,l as well as the quilt that tells the story of freedom - the safe cabin, the tree with the moss on the north side, and the brightest star. Mama finishes the quilt, puts it over her arm, and takes her daughter into the night where she hands her, and the quilt, over to another woman who will take her to safety. Mama return to the fields and her role of helping other slaves escape to freedom. Hegamin includes an afterward for parents and teachers discussing the role quilts played in the Undeground Railroad as well as a short bibliography of further reading. Again, Hegamin beautifully exhibits her ability to tell a poignant story with an economy of words. A wonderful new title to share with children during storytime and to add to the recommended titles for teachers to use in their classroom during African History Month.

Sounds like they are having a party at the pool - hope they don't go too late. I don't mind being lulled to sleep by music, just not this kind of music! Now to finish watching Harper's Island - glad this is a TV show and not a R rated movie or I couldn't handle it. Kind of like Ten Little Indians with characters being killed off one by one.

I am sitting in the living room watching the news - we are getting good weather this weekend - up to the low 80s. :-) We have had so much rain and cold weather this week that Steve turned on the heat last night to take the chill out. Mary said they had frost warnings in Green Bay so I really shouldn't complain. I sat outside and brushed Sophie for a while this afternoon but we have 3 very irritating mockingbirds who make harassing Sophie their favorite thing to do. They will dive bomb her even if I am on the back porch with her. They must have a nest in a yard near us, but it is not in ours. We have a family of robins that we love but these dang mockingbirds are a pain with their screeching and pooping on our railings. Makes it difficult to enjoy the weather - we have the back door open and Sophie just came flying in! She must have gotten pecked. She will not try to swat at them and ignores them until they dive bomb her. Poor baby!



Since I have had to keep my foot elevated I had a chance to do some reading and I couldn't put down Graceling by Kristen Cashore http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Graceling/Kristin-Cashore/e/9780152063962/?itm=1 It is a 2009 William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/morris/finalists.cfm and rightfully so. For a debut novel it is stunning. It is no surprise that Cashore has a master's in children's literature as clearly she has honed her craft. I find it very interesting, as I research new authors and their Debut YA novels, that a large number of these authors have master's degrees in children's literature and clearly envisioned a career as a youth literature author. This realization makes me even more intrigued to meet these new authors via their debut novels. Cashore introduces Katsa, a young woman who has been trained to be a killer and does the dirty work for her uncle, the King, breaking bones and cutting off fingers to terrorize anyone who crosses him. Katsa does not question her role as the King's killer until she meets a young prince who can hold his own both in hand to hand combat with her as they help each other hone their fighting skills. Katsa leaves their "practice" sessions barely winded, but Po limps away with bruises even though Katsa is holding back. Katsa is a Graceling - she has two different color eyes and she had grown up assuming her Grace is to kill. Po, who is also a Graceling, with a Grace he does not initially share with her, will help her find her true Grace as well as save a young girl from a king even more savage than Katsa's uncle. I cannot wait for the sequel and wish I had been at BEA to get an ARC. Check out Cashore's blog as it has the cover art for the sequel Fire http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/. It is fun to read about a new author who is an excited to meet the author as we YA readers are. :-) Cashore is fellow blogspot blogger! I can't wait to read about Katsa and Po's next adventure. This is a romance but if you booktalk it from Po's point of view you'll have male fantasy readers loving it as well. Katsa may be the main character, but Po is a very strong companion character who holds his own and then some! A must have in every HS level YA collection.

I wish Sophie would be a bit more sassy and fight off the mockingbirds as would Rotten Ralph, one of my favorite fictional cats, created by one of my favorite authors - Jack Gantos. He is as funny in life as Rotten Ralph is on paper. It is hard to believe Rotten Ralph has been around since 1976, but now we can enjoy another one of this sassy cat's escapades as he learns he is running out of cat lives - oh no! I chuckled my way through The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Nine-Lives-of-Rotten-Ralph/Jack-Gantos/e/9780618800469/?itm=2 Oh what a delight to revisit a bit of Ralph's adventures as he lost 8 of his 9 lives. But, you know he isn't going to settle down - well, maybe a little bit! Nicole Rubel illustrates this latest edition to the Rotten Ralph saga and if seeing this naughty cat in a baby bonnet doesn't make you laugh, you have lost your sense of humor! Set this out on display along with the older Rotten Ralph titles and you'll pull in readers as well as current fans.

All for now. Have a wonderful weekend and take at least a few minutes to meet a character in a new YA or children's book who you can share next week at work. Yes, it is okay for adults to read children's and YA literature even if they don't work with teens or children. Just go on vacation and note the number of adults reading youth titles. I am not a big Harry Potter fan but these books have certainly made reading children's and YA books "cool"!

It is hard to believe but Steve and I will have been married for 7 years at 5:30 this afternoon. I am so bad with numbers and dates that he chose May 30 (5/30) at 5:30 so I would remember our anniversary date. And, he proposed on Thanksgiving so I don't have to remember a particular date. What a wild ride it has been from the economic crisis in Houston that sent us to the U.S. Virgin Islands to try island living (not to my liking) and now in horse country with the hopes of moving to Florida soon. Just waiting for the house to sell but we are in no big hurry as are some of the folks trying to sell before they default on their mortgage. Summers are a wonderful season in KY so I have no problem with waiting for the right buyer as long as we have to. There certainly hasn't been a dull moment since we met in 2001 and I thought I'd lost him before we had a chance to develop a relationship when he was supposed to be in the World Trade Center but, thankfully, missed his plane. Our guardian angels have been working over time for both of us.

We are going to dinner at the lovely Merrick Inn here in Lexington but I won't be able to wear cute little sandals due to the wound between my big and second toe. Who would have thought to look for moles between your toes? I would not have had I not read an article in a woman's magazine about skin cancer. I read anything I see on skin cancer as I have a not so lovely scar on my back due to the removal of a cancerous mole and surrounding tissue last summer. Well, the scar between my toes may mess with wearing my favorite style sandals, but two scars on my back certainly curtail any thoughts of a low back dress tonight! During my annual check up yesterday he found another mole on my back that had to be removed. Hopefully he took enough tissue around it this time that he doesn't have to go back in for more like he did last year. So ladies - have your significant other check your back and you check those odd places like between your toes, your belly button, and under your arms. The "bad" kind of moles tend to hide there. Am I paying for frying myself in baby oil as a teen? I am hoping the 15 years in Alaska where I rarely was in the direct sun will save me from too many more scars.

I finished up an article for Library Media Connection on new YA authors and their debut novels. which will be in the October issue. What fun research! One of the novels I read had started as the author's master's thesis and she won a writing contest sponsored by Canadian Orca Book Publishers who also publish the wonderful Soundings titles - high interest subjects/themes for teens with low reading levels. However, Leanne Lieberman's Gravity http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Gravity/Leanne-Lieberman/e/9781554690497/?itm=1 is not one of the easy read titles and it certainly doesn't let you forget about it once you close the book. You feel like you have vicariously spent time with Ellie Gold as she comes to terms with her own sexuality within the very confining rules of her religion and culture - her family is Orthodox Jewish. Ellie's older sister can't wait to leave home for college but Ellie finds security in her faith and the rituals that go with it. Then she spends part of the summer with her non-Orthodox grandmother at a lake outside of Toronto and Ellie discovers that the barely clad body of the neighbor, Lindsay, is more interesting than the frogs science-minded Ellie has been observing. Ellie is infatuated with Lindsay and when she's back in Toronto she walks by Lindsay's school in the hopes they will "accidentally" bump into each other. Before Ellie realizes what is happening she is in a sexual relationship with Lindsay, forcing Ellie to examine her attraction to females and how it impacts her faith.

One of my favorite children's authors is Barbara Joosse, whose name you may recognize from her Mama, Do You Love Me? http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Mama-Do-You-Love-Me/Barbara-M-Joosse/e/9780877017592/?itm=1 with a lyrical text complimented beautifully by the Arctic set illustrations of Alaskan artist Barbara Lavallee. This book is a delight to read aloud as is In the Night Garden http://search.barnesandnoble.com/In-the-Night-Garden/Barbara-M-Joosse/e/9780805066715/?itm=1 in which three little girls pretend to be different animals - a bear, a sled dog and a whale - as they play outside as evening sets in and it is time to go to bed. Elizabeth Sayles' illustrations, lush with pastel shades of blue and purple, perfectly compliment the simple text as three distinctly different little girls (one blonde, one in dreads, and one with short black hair in pigtails)"Rraaaaow, Haaoooo, and Eeeee" as a bear, dog, and whale as they prepare for bed. I cannot wait to read this one with my granddaughter McKinley and let her do the roaring, howling, and whale song along with me. Barbara Joosee will always hold a special place in my heart as she went out of her way to be emotionally supportive to me after Mic died. It was as if she had written him as a young child into her I Love You the Purplest http://search.barnesandnoble.com/I-Love-You-the-Purplest/Barbara-M-Joosse/e/9780811807180/?itm=2 where two siblings, one fierce (my Mary-although both book characters are boys) and one shy (my Mic) want to know who their mother loves best. I could not have found a better way to tell my children how my love for each of them is as individual and unique as they are. She has a gift for writing books that we parents need to share with our little ones - she helps us say, through her stories, the very things for which we can't find words of our own.

While I was working on this blog entry, Steve came home with a wonderful light lime green floppy brimmed hat for me with UVA protection so I can still ride with him in his car with the top down. And a picture of horses racing in the snow - to remind us of the first year we watched races at Keeneland - the last race was in white out conditions! My presents for him have a Florida theme (a solar lighthouse, a scaled to size sailboat to sit next to it, and a small potted palm tree) whereas his is Kentucky themed right down to a matching stuffed horse and key ring whose crazy sounding neighs indicates they got into some fermented oats! I'm going to wear the tiny, but very detailed, horse earrings tonight. :-) I am sure our next 7 years together will be as full of fun and adventures as our last almost 8 together has been.

I am thoroughly disgusted with myself that I have not blogged in a month! I talk to my students about time management, but I let myself get caught up in spending way too much time dealing with emails and that is just my ECU email. I rarely check my yahoo one anymore as I just don't have the time. I was just reading through the ALA newsletter and feeling overwhelmed with only browsing through the connections to myriad social networking options, YouTube library/youth literature related videos, etc. I could spend all day online. My goal is to limit my time daily on email - we'll see if it works.

Today is my last day of "vacation" between Spring semester and the Summer session. And, basically I haven't taken a day off during the break. Somehow it is much more time consuming to bring a new Blackboard site up than it used to be to update lecture notes, etc. when I taught face to face classes. It is amazing how many URLs I list in the course documents that have to be updated each semester. I feel like the Internet has taken over control of me!

This morning I was going through the last of the Sunday paper while watching NBC and there was a short piece on a group of teens who went without their cell phones and other electronic "toys" for 10 days. Wow - they actually did their homework and communicated with their families! I can't imagine bringing up kids in this technology glutted world where they'd rather text message than spend time with real people. I have been wavering over whether or not I am going to "treat" myself to an iPhone. Do I really want to be able to check my email from my phone? The more I think about it the less I like the idea. Perhaps we all need to have a "technology free" time during our day.

I type this in my home office with six 5-shelf bookcases filled to the brim - some of them double-shelved with children's, YA, and youth services professional print materials. Looking around at the books helps me feel grounded in a world where I feel like the lone wolf who has yet to explore Second Life or other virtual worlds. I know me - I could get lost in those worlds like I do in my books. And honestly - I rather the comfort of my books, whether I read them or listen to them.

Speaking of listening to books. I listened to Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Tree-Grows-in-Brooklyn/Betty-Smith/e/9781433203138/?pv=y and savored all 14 hours of it. I remember reading it when I was a tween, but I missed out on so much reading it as such an "innocent". I found myself smiling at the irony of young Francie Nolan's Aunt Cissy calling all of her "husbands" John no matter what their name actually was. I even chuckled aloud when I caught the old b/w movie version of it the other day and noted that they had changed the generic husband name to Bill instead of John. I guess the "hooker" connotation was too much for the time period. Heck - it went right over my head when I first read it! The author grew up in the same part of Brooklyn her protagonist did, in a time when families like the Nolans were the poor who lived in buildings where families shared a bathroom and knew everyone else's business. Francie adored her alcoholic father and disliked her mother, who was the strength and backbone of the family. It wasn't until her mother is in labor, with a child born after the father dies, that Francie realizes her mother does need her more than her beloved younger brother. So often we give children and teens books, especially classics, with young protagonists, assuming because the characters are children or teens that the book is appropriate. Somehow "maturity level" of the reader does not come into play when we recommend classics as they are so much "tamer" than the modern day young adult novels. I beg to differ! As I listened to Francie's tale I pondered why a teacher had recommended to me, but then again, she was the same teacher who had us reading Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter in 9th grade English- I didn't "get" that one until I read it again in college!

As far as a true YA novel goes - one of my favorites of late is Alex Flinn's A Kiss in Time http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Kiss-in-Time/Alex-Flinn/e/9780060874193/?itm=4 which came out in April. When you have had enough of the gritty, edgy YA realistic fiction (I often feel this way) and want something fun to read - grab this one. If you have kept up with my blog you'll know Alexandra is one of my all time favorite YA authors. She can "blow you away" with her edgy contemporary realistic novels such as Breathing Underwater http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Breathing-Underwater/Alex-Flinn/e/9780064472579/?itm=2 that addresses abuse from the 16-year-0ld teenage abuser's point of view and Breaking Point http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Breaking-Point/Alex-Flinn/e/9780064473712/?itm=5 where we hold our breath as we vicariously live through Charlie being tormented by his fellow private school classmates. And then she can merge the contemporary setting with the fantastical fairy tale in Beastly http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Beastly/Alex-Flinn/e/9780060874179/?itm=9 - a contemporary Beauty and the Beast. One cannot help but chuckle over the online chat room for "creatures" such as the Beast. I love her sense of humor! So after enjoying her first foray into the fantastical, I knew I'd enjoy A Kiss in Time. Growing up on fairy tales, I knew Princess Talia would indeed prick her finger on a spindle and be awoken by a kiss, but this is where the story takes a contemporary detour. The kiss is laid on her by a less than charming contemporary teenage Jack who gets lost while sneaking away to look for adventure on his European tour. He certainly isn't seeking true love. Alternating between Talia's and Jack's perspective, the reader is allowed to vicariously watch this unlikely couple learn to care about each other. For girls who love chick lit and fantasy this will be a delight. Suggest it as a fun read for the beach or at the pool.

I do love fantasy and would read nothing but if I were totally selfish. So, I (who despises what Disney has done to the great traditional tales of the past) admit I watched Enchanted http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Enchanted/Amy-Adams/e/786936716061/?itm=2 while "wallowing" in the New York Times yesterday morning. I constantly have to remind myself that if I am going to stay current with children's and teens' reading/viewing/listening materials I need to go beyond my own "comfort level". However, the only character I was enchanted with in this movie was the chipmunk! What a dorky movie, but little girls/tweens/teens/adult women (!) who still want to be princesses will enjoy it. I'd prefer they watch Ella Enchanted http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Ella-Enchanted/Anne-Hathaway/e/786936244892/?itm=3 with Anne Hathaway as the self reliant princess who can take on wicked stepmothers and sisters as she fights to overcome her curse of being obedience. Then hand them Ellen Carson Levine's wonderful tween novel of the same name, which this movie is based on http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ella-Enchanted/Gail-Carson-Levine/e/9780064407052/?itm=1.

Okay - that's it for today. :-)

One of my Young Adult literature students, Katie Allen, went to listen to Laurie Halse Anderson talk about her new book, Wintergirls http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Wintergirls/Laurie-Halse-Anderson/e/9780670011100/?itm=1 and had her picture taken with Anderson. I've not read this searing YA novel that came out in March, about the impact of anorexia on both the sufferer and the ones who love her, but it is on my "gotta read" list. I haven't read one of Laurie's books that I haven't loved. If it is as heart wrenching as Speak http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Speak/Laurie-Halse-Anderson/e/9780142407325/?itm=1 (and the reviews indicate it is) it will be one you will not forget. The latest issue of VOYA has a poem that Anderson wrote, the text of which is primarily taken from letters she has received from teen readers of Speak. This edgy YA novel is about an incoming freshman, raped at an end of the summer party, who is so traumatized by the rape and by being ostracizing by the other students, that she does not talk until circumstances force her to speak out.

The other picture is of the autograph on Katie's copy of Twisted http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Twisted/Laurie-Halse-Anderson/e/9780142411841/?itm=5 I totally agree - librarians are angels. :-) This YA novel about Kyle, a teen who is just a body in the mass of teens in his high school - a social nobody. That is, until he is caught spray painting graffiti on the walls of the school. After a summer in the sun doing community service, getting tanned and buff, he becomes the bad boy the girls find irresistible, including the daughter of his father's boss. Getting involved with her is a bad idea and when half clothed photographs of her end up on the Internet everyone assumes Kyle is the one who posted them. Kyle would like to go back to being the invisible one in the high school social scene but it is too late now.

I wish Spring would decide to stay instead of making short visits and then leaving us with winter weather. Poor Sophie - she is now a short haired cat, but the vet left her with a long ruff around her neck and her tail long. I think she looks cute, but she is quite mortified. Downside of getting rid of her mass of shedding fur - she is more susceptible to this cold weather. I left her out once and she started sneezing and had a runny nose. She is still quite irritated with me about both the new "do" and not being able to go outside. If it would warm up I'd let her out but BRRRR!! If we get the house sold and move to the Miami area she will be a happy kitty again, chasing geckos like she did in the islands.

I hope it warms up this weekend as Steve's older brother and wife arrive for a short visit and, of course, we are headed to the horse races at Keeneland. I did great on opening day - well, for the first 5 races, then Steve told the guy behind the betting window that I was going to lose the next race. He jinxed me - not only did I lose that race, I lost every single one from there on out. Good thing I only do $2 bets. Hopefully we'll have better luck this weekend. I have picked my favorite jockey Kent Desormeaux. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Desormeaux I learned the hard way not to bet against a horse he is racing. He's good! I just hope I don't have to be bundled up in my winter coat, two sweaters, a hat, scarf, gloves, etc. as I was on opening day of the races.

Speaking of bundled up, I laughed out loud at the picture of bundled up children building an ice sculpture dog in Alta Norway in 2001 in Ayana Lowe's Come and Play: Children of Our World Having Fun http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Come-and-Play/Ayana-Lowe/e/9781599902463/?itm=1 . The child who picked this picture to write about in Lowe's multicultural class named the "word riff," (what Lowe calls the short poems that accompany pictures of children at play around the world) Blue Night. I felt like a knew these kids, all bundled up and wearing fur hats - hats I had seen kids my own age wearing while growing up in Upper Michigan as well as on kids playing with my own children in Alaska. What photograph will you connect with?

April is poetry month (you can find cool things do with your students at: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41) and this collection of short poems written by children in response to photographs of children at play around the world is a great place to start celebrating poetry month. Share this cool book of photographs and poetry with children and adults alike. The photographs are from the Magnum Photos collection. Check it out at http://www.magnumphotos.com/. Oh could I spend a lot of time just exploring this site. The main page currently has a photograph slide show of various photographs depicting springtime. Come and Play is a visual feast that both children and adults will devour over and over again as they "spy" on children at play. What "word riff" would I write about the little Norwegian kids - hmmmm - something to think about. Perhaps I'll write a "word riff" or two of my own to celebrate poetry month.

Well, the for sale sign is up in the front yard. The new realty company, a couple who work together, were here to take pics and for us to sign papers. One step closer to our move to Florida. With today being one of my worse fibro days in a long time the warm moist weather of southern Florida sounds better and better. Even though I could barely move this morning I got up and helped Steve pick up and clean. By the time they left I was shivering with the chills. My darling Steve went and got us our regular Steak & Shake burgers and brought them home and ate lunch with me while I sat in my fuzzy winter bathrobe. He went off to the gym and I took a nap. It's going to be a do a bit of work from bed and nap when needed kind of day. I've been really pushing myself since the surgery in February - I should know better but no one but me knows what to do with my books and I brought home a car full when I moved out of my ECU office. So, as I sit here trying to join the world of the totally awake, I'm watching one of my favorite movies - The Last of the Dogmen with Barbara Hershey and Tom Berenger. Good description of it at: http://www.classicdvds4less.com/ProductInfo.aspx?ID=136 Puts Dances with Wolves to shame for wonderful Indian adventure movies and one of Berenger's best.

My YA book for today is Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Jumped/Rita-Williams-garcia/e/9780060760915/?itm=1 It is not my favorite of hers - that would be Every Time a Rainbow Dies http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Every-Time-a-Rainbow-Dies/Rita-Williams-Garcia/e/9780064473033/?itm=1 in which quiet sixteen-year-old Thulani, whose mother has died and is not living up to his older brother's expectations, comes to the rescue of a young woman who is raped and left battered in an alley but she berates him rather than being thankful. Thulani is fascinated by her reaction and works his way into her life. This is a beautiful, edgy and sometimes harsh urban novel for older teens. It is not one you will forget. Jumped is also set in an urban environment, but addresses the brutality of girl on girl violence. The central figures are three high school girls - a basketball player with an attitude, an artistic pretty girl who thinks the world's, at least all the boys', eyes are on her, and Leticia who spends more time telling her friend on the phone about what is happening around her than living her own life, including doing the right thing. When ditsy Trina gets in the way of angry Dominque, who has been kicked off the team for bad grades, Leticia hears Dominque brag to her friends that Trina is going to get tromped after school. Even with her friend on the phone begging her to tell the school security guard what she heard, Leticia doesn't. She just watches and Trina pays the price. It's much easier not to get involved, but can you live with the results of not standing up for an innocent who has no idea she is about to get jumped? Williams-Garcia raises many questions in this edgy YA novel of the harshness of the urban high school environment from the perspective of three distinctly African American teenage girls.

Remember the optical illusion that when you first look at it what appears are facial profiles but upon another look - it is a vase? In a similar vein, Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld offer up a visual delight with a touch of humor in Duck! Rabbit http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Duck-Rabbit/Amy-Krouse-Rosenthal/e/9780811868655/?itm=1 While doing a school visit together Lichtenheld drew the duckrabbit figure and the kids loved it. So did Rosenthal and she insisted it could be the basis for a book. Sure enough, the simple but irresistible picture of what looks like a rabbit with ears laid back or a duck with an open bill that the illustrator had seen in a college course called Zen and Freud and stayed with him since is now an absolutely addictive children's (well, all ages as I am certainly not a child, though my inner child is very alive and well) picture books. How fun read and discuss whether the illustrations are of a is a duck opening his bill to eat a piece of bread, quacking, wading through the swamp, flying, getting a drink etc. or a rabbit eating a carrot, sniffing at something, hiding in the grass, or hopping away. And of course, they leave you with yet another illustration open for discussion as to what it is - a dinosaur or an anteater - or perhaps you see something else altogether. Such a simple, but absolutely incredible visual feast to behold and visit over and over again, no matte what your age. But, I can't wait to read this one with the grandkids.

Okay - I think I am clear headed enough to do some grading! I don't wish fibro fog on anyone - gets totally in the way of concentration and I've even typed words that have no connection whatsoever to what I was thinking, so clearly the fingers and the brain do not always work in conjunction of a bad fibro day!

The trees in our yard don't realize just how cold and nasty it is. Spring hasn't quite sprung for us yet but our little plum tree, really more like a scrub at this point, is glorious in its pink blooms and the lilacs bushes are sprouting leaves. Can't wait until they bloom - lilacs mean home. Picking lilacs with my dad was an annual event when I was a little girl - I can close my eyes and smell them. My father and I didn't have a very good relationship, well pretty much no relationship, after my mom died. But, as a little girl I thought the world revolved around him - at least mine did. For years purple was my favorite color, and it still is to a degree - but now it is deep purplish blue as the color blue has become an integral part of my life. I am becoming my mother without even trying and I am proud to see myself resembling the incredible woman my mom was - even down to her forgetfulness. Just about every place mat I have bought for both the dining room and kitchen table are shades of blue and I wake up every morning to Georgia O'Keefe's 1925 Petunia that looks like it has blueberries in the center. http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Petunia-1925-Posters_i290791_.htm I didn't notice the resemblance to blueberries until very recently but it makes me smile as I think of mom busy picking wild blueberries.


But, lilacs will not bloom in Florida - they need a cold freeze to bloom. But, there are lilacs that bloom in Texas, Denton to be exact. White Lilacs, written by Carolyn Meyer in the mid 90's http://search.barnesandnoble.com/White-Lilacs/Carolyn-Meyer/e/9780152058517/?itm=1i s a poignant YA novels for tweens about the prejudice of a small Texas town - comparing the life of young Rose Lee who lives in the all African American Freedomtown until the white folks run them out and create a park for the young women of Texas Woman's University - not called that yet in the 1920's. Yes, I remember this book in part because of the symbolism of the lilac blooming even in the worst of times, but also because I went to school at TWU. It is still in print, which says a lot about the quality and appeal of the novel.

Why did I mention lilacs won't bloom in Florida? We will be moving to FL if/when our home here in Lexington sells. We are in no hurry so I will surely get to see our lilacs bloom this summer. That's why we drove to the Miami area during Spring Break - to get some idea where we'd like to live. I can say it certainly will not be Miami proper. I thought the drivers in Dallas were nuts - they are old ladies in Buicks compared to the drivers on I95 in Miami. I laughed out loud at the below term from Urban Dictionary. Let's just say I wore the "passenger brake" out in the car! We will be looking a bit farther north or south where doing 75 mph isn't considered standing still.

March 26: Passenger Brake
The passenger brake is the nonexistent brake pedal located on the floor of the passenger (shotgun) side of the front seat of your car. It is used instinctively by the passenger when the driver is driving insanely too fast, and the car needs to come quickly to a stop, which may not seem very possible at that particular moment. It is sometimes used in conjunction with the OH SHIT handle by the passenger door.
Doris was using her passenger brake all the freaking way here. She's the one who made us late getting started from home by taking so long to get herself ready! I was just trying to make up some time getting through traffic...

My YA book for today is Lara M. Zeises' The Sweet Life of Stella Madison, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=sweet+life+of+stella+madison a Delacorte title that will come out in July. Lara calls herself a foodie and her love of food is very evident in this delightful YA novel about the daughter of foodie parents have been separated for years, but are still very close. Stella's mother is the grounded one with the business sense whereas her father is the chef who closes his own restaurant down for a period each year to travel throughout Europe to savor new foods, but mostly new wines. Stella has worked at her mother's restaurant, the Open Kitchen, where guest chefs are "on stage" to cook for a loyal following as well as new converts. Stella is content in her relationship with boyfriend - sweet Max. That is until her mother hires a new intern who looks as good as he cooks! Stella's crush on Jeremy and his flirtatious behavior toward her is not helping matters any. Exactly how far do you have to go to consider it cheating on your boyfriend? Does taking Jeremy to dinner at your father's restaurant count? Does thinking about him way too much count? Does wanting him to kiss you count? Stella's BFF's tell her to get a grip, but Stella's hormones are not making it easy. To further complicate her life, Stella is offered a summer newspaper internship and her own column, The Sweet Life of Stella Madison, in which she writes about food, mostly as a restaurant critic. Stella is not a foodie like her parents - she'd just as soon stop at Burger King. But, with some help from the gorgeous Jeremy, Stella realizes she is not so unlike her parents. Many of the chapters begin with the evening menu at the Open Kitchen, which I am sure will make many readers' mouths water. I hate to admit it, but I skipped them after the first one - like reading a foreign language to me. Foodie I am not - hard to be when you don't' eat any diary and have recently also added soy to the "no-no" list. However, this non-foodie loves Stella and her antics at the Open Kitchen as well as dealing with two guys and two best friends and parents who may be falling in love, but not with each other. A delicious read to say the least!

I'll be teaching an Early Childhood Materials course this summer so I have been reading lots of board books and other fun books for little ones. The Bedtime Train by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Jamison Odone. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Bedtime-Train/Joy-Cowley/e/9781590784938/?itm=1 stands out, not only for it's large size, but for its beauty. However, be careful using it with little ones prone to nightmares as there are growling bears, dinosaurs and alligators galore as a little boy and Brad, the train engineer who looks a lot like Dad, go on a rhyming night time ride. The illustrations compliment the text beautifully and are in muted colors so that even the growling bears are not so scary - especially when the little boy sits on the edge of his bed and sticks his tongue out at them. :-) With the wolves and cold, it reminds me a bit of The Polar Express by Van Allsburg http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Polar-Express/Chris-Van-Allsburg/e/9780395389492/?itm=1 but this has no holiday theme. The illustrations, especially the little boy, remind me more of Sendak's In the Night Kitchen http://search.barnesandnoble.com/In-the-Night-Kitchen/Maurice-Sendak/e/9780064434362/?itm=1 with their dream like feel. And anyone who has read my blog knows this is an all time favorite of mine. Although some of the creatures are a bit creepy, this is the perfect storybook for the little boys who love trains. They'll be joining in on the "Chugga-chugga, toot-toot. Chugga-chugga, toot-toot." refrain. The illustrations are rich in detail and little ones will find new details each time their parents (especially dads) are asked to read it again and again. It doesn't have to bedtime to share this delightful book about a little boy and his ingenious ways to save the day, or I should say night, with gumballs. :-) Cowley has been awarded the New Zealand Commemorative Medal for her service to children's literature. This Front Street publication of what started out as a story in Highlights magazine comes alive through Odone's incredible art. There are pages I'd love proofs of to frame and put on my wall.

Okay, on the not so fun stuff - grading.

It is a week past Spring Break and I still don't feel like I had a break! We drove down to Florida and stopped in Savannah for the night. We stayed at The Mansion on Forsythe Park - which is supposed to have several ghosts in residence. We did not see any as much as Steve tried to pretend he was one. Let's just say his ghost moans elicit chuckles, not shrieks of fear!!

Check out the pictures: http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=dspv&flag=l&itid=&itdx=&itty=&from=f&foop=0&hwrq=&htid=1160188&spsh=&spsi=&crti=4&nfla=1&mdpcid=21187-1.ExpediaHotelImagesUS+Hotel_Review+GTEST Anyway, we stopped at the gorgeous lounge in the Drayton restaurant adjoining the hotel and chatted with lovely Breigh - yes, sounds like the cheese. She suggested we eat at the Noble Fare http://www.noblefare.com/main.html - superb food! We didn't have reservations, had to sit outside in the beautiful evening air to wait to sit at the bar to dine, but it was worth the wait. The young couple who recently opened this restaurant clearly have a following already as there wasn't an empty table and they don't advertise in the tourist mags. Supposedly there's a ghost or two in this building too but we didn't see any. We stopped back at the lounge to thank Breigh and encountered one of the "ugly people". Too bad she was all too real instead of just a nasty ghost. We were dressed very casually and she let us know from the look on her face that she didn't think we belonged there as she sat texting on her phone. There were two open seats next to her but she made it quite clear one was for her husband and she was not about to move down one, which she certainly could have so we could sit together. We were both so offended by her rude behavior that we later said we should have sat on either side of her and leaned forward and talked across her. She personified Rich Bitch to the nth degree. I'd like to think she was just a nasty tourist in town and not a local as everyone else we have encountered in Savannah have been very friendly and helpful. But isn't is amazing how we remember the "snots" we meet more readily than the nice folks?



I'll write more about the vacation and my impression of Miami drivers, but that's for another time.



Some folks who read my blog may remember when I raved about Suzanne Crowley's The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Very-Ordered-Existence-of-Merilee-Marvelous/Suzanne-Crowley/e/9780061231971/?itm=1 Such a beautifully written book - you can read my review on her site: http://www.suzannecrowley.com/a_r.html



So when I received the ARC of Suzanne's new book The Stolen One http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Stolen-One/Suzanne-Carlisle-Crowley/e/9780061232015/?itm=2 I was surprised to see it is historical fiction, but even the most resistant reader of historical fiction will pick this book up because of the gorgeous cover. Kat Bab is arrestingly beautiful with her wild red hair - cover art is on Crowley's web site: http://www.suzannecrowley.com/stolenone.html Kat is a skilled seamstress, embroidering copies of her own detailed drawing of the flora and fauna around their rural cottage - very far away from the intrigue of Queen Elizabeth's court, where sixteen-year-old Kat will soon find herself as one of the Queen's "pets". Kat must choose between the luxuries of the court and the love of the young pear farmer she has left behind. Crowley has weaved a lush tale of love and intrigue as elaborate as the stitches on the dress, a personal gift for the Queen, that Kat is embellishing with creatures, both light and dark. The historical figures of Elizabethan England come to life on the pages of The Stolen One as real as the author-created characters - no history lesson here as often happens with an author less skilled - who come so vividly to life that the reader's mouth waters as Kat bites into a luscious pear from her beloved's orchard and noses wrinkle in disgust along with Kat's as she is bombarded by her first breath of the putrid air of London. This HarperCollins title will arrive in bookstores in early July - just in time to take on your summer vacation. Make sure you have a tall glass of iced tea next to you as you will lose track of time while wandering country lanes or castle hallways with Kat.



That's it for tonight.