I couldn't resist taking a picture of the angel on our front door step. There was also a wisp of snow on the little bird she is holding but you can't see it in the picture. No matter how frustrated I get after another doc's appointment that isn’t good news, one look at this contented angel and I feel better. The Christmas snow gently falling is making me homesick for childhood sledding and walks through the snow to Aunt Ruth’s. You can take the girl out of snow country but you can’t take the love of snowy landscapes out of the girl!

Perhaps my little angel would be more at home in the Italians settings brought to life in Susan Vreeland’s The Passion of Artemisia http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Passion-of-Artemisia/Susan-Vreeland/e/9781615574285/?itm=1&usri=passion+of+artemisia. I love to listen to audiobooks set in other countries as I hear the proper way to pronounce names and I adored the way the name Artemisia flowed off the narrator’s tongue. Vreeland is a gifted author, bringing to life a young woman destined to be a painter in a time when women were meant to stay in the background or be the model for a painting, not the one creating it. Artemisia is raped by her father’s partner artist and he brings the rapist to court, not because of what he did to Artemisia, but because of a feud over a painting. Artemisia is married off to a man she soon realizes cannot stay with one woman for long, including his wife. So Artemisia and her daughter create a life of their own. She is even befriended by Galileo. Mature older teens may enjoy this book but I wouldn’t offer it to just any teen who reads historical fiction.

I also listened to James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffany's http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Sundays-at-Tiffanys/JamesPatterson/e/9781615567133/?itm=3&USRI=sundays+at+tiffanys I enjoyed listening to this book as the concept of imaginary childhood friends has always intrigued me as I was often alone as a child but my friends were in books. They were “real” to me so I really had no need for imaginary ones. This is a sweet tale of a lonely rich girl whose mother is more interested in finding the next husband than in her daughter so Michael, Jane’s 30-something imaginary friend, keeps her company until he must disappear as do all imaginary friends when a child is “too old” to believe in them anymore. Much to their delight, Michael encounters the adult Jane and she can see him when no one else can. As you imagine with a Patterson “beach read” it has a happy ending. I like this kind of escapism once in awhile. Not a teen novel but I am sure there are teenage girls who would enjoy this love story.


The cover art on Anita Shreve’s Body Surfing http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Body-Surfing/Anita-Shreve/e/9781600244735/?pwb=2 may suggest this is a summer romance, but it is a very stark, troubling tale of a young woman who is tutoring the learning disabled sister of two brothers who are constantly in competition, even when it comes to Sidney’s heart. She is 29 and twice married – once a widow and once a divorcee. She isn’t looking for romance but she is not immune to being seduced by the brother who will win at all costs. One of my favorite audiobooks this year but not an “easy breezy” book by any means. There were more than a few times I sucked in my breath in dismay over the callousness of the brothers and manner in which their mother treats her.

Sorry the links to B&N aren't live. I'm having trouble with blogspot and my browser as of late. Need to figure out what is going on, but not right now.

Now, back to going through books. I really need one of those huge old houses that I could fill the rooms with different genres and types of books. Wanted to get these audiobooks blogged before I set them aside to give away.

It is only 11 degrees and we could have below zero temperatures tonight. Interstate 64 was closed down for 5 hours last night when a truck carrying explosives was involved an accident. In other words - stay off the roads! Schools are closed and many businesses as well. Winter weather advisories and 6 below with the windchill - locals news just reported over 100 accidents in our county.

If Steve weren't home from work today with a respiratory flu I would have insisted he dig my Santa Fe out of the white blob in the driveway instead of driving his little car. We went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie the day after Christmas and a guy let fly with a sneeze and Steve felt the spray hit his face. It was a lost cause as Steve is really prone to respiratory/sinus problems. He has sinus damage after a really bad motorcycle accident when he was 19. He has a metal rod in his leg that causes security screening issues. Who knows what that is going to look like in the full body x-ray machines!

Worked on finding the top of my desk yesterday and found the 9/27/09 New York Times article I saved entitled "When the Cool Get Hazed." An example of an article where the author doesn't know the difference between children's/tween books and those for teens. I was surprised to see an American Girl Today series doll that goes with Chrissa http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Chrissa/Mary-Casanova/e/9781593695668/?itm=1&USRI=american+girl+chrissa by Mary Casanova. I was further disappointed to note that Chrissa is listed as YA on the Barnes and Noble site. No wonder - the cover photograph looks like a young teen but the setting is a 4th grade classroom. The article initially got my attention as the color illustration of the Chrissa doll has a conversation balloon shouting "YOU SAID I SLEEP AROUND!" No wonder upper elementary and middle school youth are so confused as to appropriate behavior for their age. Not that is isn't possible, but a 4th grader sleeping around? The article author, Tina Kelly, adds to the confusing message by using this particular book and doll as the visual for this article on high school level bullying.

If the author, Mary Casanova, sounds familiar, it is no surprise as she is a talented author who also writes super historical fiction for middle grades such as Klipfish Code http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Klipfish-Code/Mary-Casanova/e/9780618883936/?itm=4 set in Norway during WWII that addresses the Norwegian resistance, include teachers who were put in concentration camps for refusing to teach the Nazi propaganda. She is also author of the delightful Dog Watch series, starting with Trouble in Pembrook http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Trouble-in-Pembrook/Mary-Casanova/e/9780689868108/?itm=2&usri=dog+watch+series+1. A solid addition for 2-4 grade readers who love animals. A canine neighborhood watch - what fun! Mary is one of the coolest authors I've had the pleasure of meeting. While at an ALA social event my ears perked up when I heard her voice as she sounds like "home" - the distinct Midwest accent. She grew up in Northern Minnesota, the setting for many of her books. I just browsed her web site and saw she has written 19 books from picture books to YA novels. http://www.marycasanova.com/index.html.

Isn't it interesting the spaghetti connections our brains make? All of the above because a picture of a doll with a disconcerting conversation bubble caught my attention. But, I am glad it did as I plan on visiting more of Casanova's books. She is a superb author who writes across the entire span of youth literature.

As some of you know, I have an interest in debut youth titles and one of my favorite debut YA novels is Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Elsewhere/Gabrielle-Zevin/e/9780307282415/?itm=9. When 15-year-old Liz is killed while riding her bike, she finds herself on a boat, journeying to the other side. When she arrives she is met by the grandmother who had died before she was born. In Elsewhere people age in reverse. This is a beautifully written novel that stays with you long after you close the book. So, when Zevin's Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Memoirs-of-a-Teenage-Amnesiac/Gabrielle-Zevin/e/9780374349462/?itm=4 arrived in a box of review titles it immediately went in my "gotta read" pile but I kept skipping it as I found the cover so unappealing, illustrated with keys from an old manual typewriter. After reading several essays about it by my YA Lit students I had to give it a chance. Naomi wakes up after being knocked unconscious due to a fall down the steps in front of her high school. Rather than protecting herself as she fell, she saved the yearbook camera. The new "bad boy" in school is there when the ambulance arrives and tells the EMTs that he is her boyfriend. Since Naomi can't remember anything, she initially doesn't question this, but soon discovers her boyfriend is actually a football player, not the moody James who soon does become her boyfriend. She also can't remember her best friend Will or that her parents are divorced and she has a young stepsister. Naomi's journey to rediscover herself and accept the changes in her life is beautifully written. A superb novel but I still adore Elsewhere. I am always fascinated by the uniqueness of each author's web site. Zevin calls her web site Memoir Sofa - quite interesting but I find italics very difficult to read on a computer screen so I didn't do much browsing here: http://www.memoirsofa.com/

That's it for this snowy a.m. I feel like the Tinman in the morning until I have my Diet Coke and breakfast in bed. I'm still there - thank goodness for laptops! I am seeing a pinprick of light at the end of the health tunnel. I certainly related to Naomi's fall down the steps. It is almost a year later and I am still dealing with the impact (ha-ha) of the fall down the steps at Midwinter in Denver. I finally have a Worker's Comp. representative here in KY. She know KY docs and made an appointment for me with a different surgeon to do the second knee surgery. I'd been waiting for months to get prompt answers - it took the pics of my swollen head/eye and banged up knee taken the day after the fall to get a local rep. assigned. Didn't help that ECU changed Worker's Comp. companies this summer so it has been like starting over with the process. I am off of both of the fibro meds that help with the pain and fatigue until after the knee surgery. All I can say is - ouch!! Savella is a wonderful fibro med. so if it is indeed what is causing this elevated heart rate that spikes as high as 180 I am going to be very disappointed. Perhaps the neurologist I will be seeing for the ongoing headache since the fall will have some answers. I just keep plugging along and try to keep a smile on my face as I know how easy it would be to let this all get me down. But, I have too much "good stuff" in my life to let that happen. I love teaching, reading, and reviewing youth literature so I couldn't find a better professional position than the one I have. And, I have such a wonderful family. I just wish I could see the grandkids more often. I have pics of them all over my office - not the "real thing" but they help.

Now, I truly am signing off!!

Winter is here in full force. Schools in other parts of KY have been out this week but our Fayette county kids aren't so lucky. That may change as we may get another 3-5 inches today. We already have a couple of inches as it is been slowing falling for the last two days but it hasn't been enough to cause real problems. Very cold though. It is currently 14 degrees and 5 with the wind chill factor. With this weather I don't even mind being house bound. Sophie is curled up on the bed at my feet instead of standing at the backdoor pleading to go out. She gets a runny nose and eye if she goes outside so we haven't been letting her out to make sure the neighborhood cats haven't had the audacity to come on our back deck! I'm nice and toasty with a heating pad behind me and covered with a down comforter. I am planning on spending some of the evening hours in the tub now that we have a hot water heater than can fill it. Word of advice for anyone else with a jetted tub - don't put too much bubble bath in before you turn on the jets! I've been in the tub quite a bit as the hot water helps with the fibro aches and pains. It is also my "non-work" related reading area as I am known to drop paperbacks in the tub. I am working my way through a few more of Christine Feehan's The Ghostwalkers series. There are currently 8 books in this series about a group of men and women who have genetically altered by an unscrupulous scientist. Of course, the men meet up with the women (who were trained as children and are emotionally/psychically vulnerable). I'm reading the 6th title, Predatory Game http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Predatory-Game/Christine-Feehan/e/9780515144284/?itm=1&usri=ghostwalker+saber . I enjoy reading about the scientific experimentation as well as the steaming romances, this time between Saber, who can kill with her touch, and Jesse, a SEAL who lost the use of his lower legs. Saber learns her touch can heal as well as kill. These are not books to be put in high school libraries as they are more than "spicy"!

Certainly not spicy is Steve Lohr's Revolutionaries: The Men and Women Who Brought Computing to Life. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Digital-Revolutionaries/Steve-Lohr/e/9781596435322/?itm=1&usri=revolutionaries+steve+lohr I read this one because it is so difficult to keep the computer section of a school library up to date. This is a paperback with grainy black and white photos that may not draw tweens in but the easy to read narrative style will keep them reading if they are researching the history of innovators in computing. Included is a series of articles, from 1948 to 2006, that will also help the young researcher, as will the Further Readings section. Appropriate for upper elementary and MS, this is also a possible addition to HS libraries - for those teens resistant to the titles filled with computer jargon. This is a New York Times title written by a journalist so the writing is general audience friendly.

Another title for the upper elementary/MS readers is the boldly illustrated The Secret Science Alliance and the Copy Cat created, written and drawn by Eleanor Davis http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Secret-Science-Alliance-and-the-Copycat-Crook/Eleanor-Davis/e/9781599903965/?itm=1&usri=secret+science+alliance+and+the+copycat+crook . Eleven-year-old Julian Calendar thinks he can change his geeky persona when he moves to a new school but his intellect and innovative nature show through. Greta Hughes (a feisty African American girl)who wears a bike helmet at all time to protect her very amazing brain and Ben Garza, the tall lanky basketball player who doesn't realize just how important he is to the completion of their inventions, see a kindred heart/mind and invite Julian into their super secret lab. They become the Secret Alliance and their inventions take on a new edge. They are so innovative an unscrupulous scientist steals their plans. The Alliance uses their intellect and a little help from Greta's eccentric curator father to save the day, and to solve a museum robbery. Personally, I had difficulty with this book as the illustrations are so detailed. The very reason I didn't enjoy reading Richard Scarry books to my kids - the detail - was the reason my son spent hours with them. I responded to this book the same way - too much to look at! This graphic novel will be devoured by detail oriented tweens, both male and female as Greta is a great character! But, this graphic novel reminded me why assuming graphic novels are for poor readers is often inaccurate - this one requires a great deal of visual and textual comprehension skills but I anticipate the characters will win over even readers like me who skimmed over much of the detail in the drawings.

Time to finish up a couple of book reviews and find the top of my desk before things get really busy - Spring 2010 classes begin on Friday. Time to take a deep breath and hang on until May!

The pic isn't as clear as I'd like it to be, but don't they just look cute? Thank goodness my grandkids love books! Wish they lived closer to help me review books as there is nothing that works better than the look on a child's face as to whether or not a book is working.

I've had new car envy all afternoon. Keep looking at the 2009 Santa Fe online as there are big incentives going on right now but basically they don't look any different than the 2007 model I already have. And, I'd just be adding more debt we don't need. So, I've opted to refinance mine at a lower rate with our KY credit union and get it paid off faster. We are waiting to see what is going to happen with Saab since GM isn't going to keep them in production and that's what Steve drives. I guess some small Swedish company made GM and offer that they turned down.

The sun has finally come out after days of dreary weather but it has pretty much melted all of our snow. The forecast is for possible snow on Christmas day. We are having a quiet Christmas at home this year. We didn't even put up the big tree, the lighted village, or any of my many other Holiday decorations. I just don't have the energy to do it all and Steve just isn’t into it. I found a cute little holographic tree that doesn't even need ornaments and it looks very cute in front of the fireplace. We did get the wreaths out, including the beautiful one Monica made for me a few years ago. It goes on the laundry room door so I can see it, rather than outside. Steve put the lighted garland on the mantle and I put out the Spode table cloth and napkins in the dining room. Also have carpets and dishtowels for the kitchen and we are set. I hope someday the grandkids will all be here for Christmas and I can decorate big time, but for now I'm good with what we have out.

I spent most of the day answering Christmas cards and finding the top of my desk, including a few books I wanted to blog. I have Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom that is noted as "The Official Picture Book of His Bestselling Autobiography" abridged by Chris Van Wyk and illustrated by Paddy Bouma in front of me. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Nelson-Mandela/Chris-van-Wyk/e/9781596435667/?itm=2&USRI=nelson+mandela+long+walk+to+freedom . Both author and illustrator were born in South Africa. Van Wyk shares incidents in Mandela’s life that children can relate to, such as wanting so much to be like his father than he rubbed ashes in his hair to make it gray. Short, easy to read sentences and lovely illustrations rich in soft blues and browns bring Mandela’s maturation from a village child, to a college student, to a demonstrator, to a political prisoner, to his election as the President of South Africa beautifully to life for even the youngest reader. As I read this book I could hear Mandela’s lilting soft voice in my head and I smiled. I’ve not seen the new movie, Invictus, http://www.filmofilia.com/2009/06/09/morgan-freeman-as-nelson-mandela-in-invictus-first-look/ with Morgan Freeman as Mandela, but if anyone can portray Mandela well it would be Freeman. He is one of my all time favorite actors as he feels like part of the family from his time on Sesame Street and The Electric Company when my kids were young and these shows were daily regulars.

Speaking of kids – Mary just called and I’m still teary eyed. We didn’t realize today’s Scholastic book delivery by UPS was actually from her and it was sitting next to my desk waiting for me to open it. She called as she knew it had been delivered so I found it and sure enough – it had her handwriting on the address. Inside were two folksy Santa figures (I collect Santas) – the wooden one is now on the mantle and the small tin ornament is hanging from the kitchen light.  What brought me to tears is the framed collage of pictures she created. Some have the kids with I and, oh my goodness, but do we all have “that Finn look” to us. I especially love the pic of Mary and I standing with our arms around each other as it is so evident how much taller she is than I. Pretty soon my grandkids will be affectionately calling me “Shrimp” as Mic did with my mom who he towered over at well over a foot taller than her.

In yesterday’s blog I mentioned Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Leo-the-Late-Bloomer/Robert-Kraus/e/9781435109919/?itm=1&USRI=leo+the+late+bloomer . I immediately thought of this book while reading Bartleby Speaks! by Robin Cruise and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes – the other picture book sitting on my desk impatiently waiting to be blogged. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bartleby-Speaks/Robin-Cruise/e/9780374305147/?itm=1&usri=bartleby+speaks . Bartleby, like Leo (but not a tiger cub), is a quiet, happy child. At age three he still had not said a single word but it is no wonder as the rest of the clan is so busy trying to get him to talk he can’t get a word in edgewise! And then Grampy came to visit for his birthday and instead of blowing out his candles when Bartleby drew in a breath, he said – “Listen!” And, they all did. For a change, Bartleby’s family is quiet enough to listen to all the wonderful sounds they’ve been missing. Finally, Grampy whispers a query to Bartleby, asking if he has anything else to say and he does! With a huge smile on his chocolate covered face, Bartleby says – “Good cake!” I adore this book as Mic was a quiet child while Mary was verbal from the moment she was born. So when Mic spoke I paid attention, and if I hadn’t, I would have missed his amazing comments in the clamor of a busy household had I not known he didn’t speak unless he truly had something to say. Mic would sit back with a calm smile on his face and listen and watch. If my son had lived to become a father I suspect his son would have also been a quiet soul like his father. My greatest wish, which can never come true, is to watch my children’s children play together, but God had another role in mind for Mic and with time I have come to accept that, not like it, but accept it.

Initially I picked up Bartleby Speaks! because I saw Kevin Hawkes name – he is one of my favorite picture book illustrators. Check out the many books he’s illustrated: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=kevin+hawkes&box=kevin%20hawkes&pos=-1 . Library Lion comes up first and that is no surprise, but take a look at Chicken Cheeks http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Chicken-Cheeks/Michael-Ian-Black/e/9781416948643/?itm=3&usri=kevin+hawkes. If this book of animal bottoms by Michael Ian Black doesn’t have you chuckling aloud, nothing will!

That’s it for today. I hear Steve playing an Indiana Jones game on the Wii so I can sneak into the bedroom and wrap a few of his presents when he isn’t paying attention!

Winter has come to Lexington with colder temperatures than normal for this time of year, but it certainly looks like Christmas! This pic was taken from our back door looking up the green space between the houses. Sophie is not too keen on the snow. Our not so little "piglet kitty" looks quite silly trying to tippy-toe across the deck. We can't complain too loudly though as Eastern KY got slammed with a lot of snow and power outages. We are just far enough south and west that we don't get as much snow. I am praying we don’t get another ice storm like last winter.

Fall semester officially came to a close this past weekend. I don't know where the semester went. I never did get caught up from the extremely busy 2009 summer session. I didn't even have the Fall 2009 grades posted before my Spring 2010 YA materials course students were asking me for the syllabus so they could do some of the reading between semesters. Before I know it the semester break will be over and it will back to the normal hectic schedule.

But, I am hoping to find the floor of my office before then. I have review books spread out far and wide that I have read, want to read, and to blog about. I didn't get to this blog anywhere near as much as I wanted to this semester - I need to just schedule it into my week and once in awhile ignore the darn emails that keep popping in. One could spend all of their time answering emails or deleting the junk that comes in. I’ve had a couple of friends ask about my Facebook account and I just laughed – I can’t keep up with the blog, so another online site to keep up with is out of the question. And, I don’t Twitter either. And, if you have emailed me at my Yahoo email, I have not had time to check it in many weeks. Try clarkr@ecu.edu instead.

Since there are not enough hours in the day to keep up with what I want to read, my spending more time online just isn’t an option. Even with all the hours I’ve spent sitting in doctor's offices, which I am still doing a lot of again, I don’t get as much reading done as I’d like. The medical problems are never ending - I am now having issues with my heart rate. Went through all of the cardiac tests and my heart appears to be healthy, which was a relief as both parents had strokes. But my resting heart rate averaged 100 with spikes of 140 during the 24 hours I wore a heart monitor. All I can say it is very tiring and my chest just stays sore - like Sophie is sitting on it! The cardiologist thinks it may be a reaction to the Savella, which is the new fibromyalgia medication I started taking in April. So I am weaning myself off of it to see if that helps. I'm not happy about it as the Savella is helping with the fibro pain and stiffness. If my heart rate goes back down I'll have to consider some of the other fibro medications, which I haven't tried due to their lactose content - it is used as a filler in a lot of medications.

And, who knew a fall down a set of steps could have such long term consequences? January 2009 Midwinter in Denver seems like eons ago, but it is a conference I will never forget because of that tumble. I am waiting for the go ahead from Worker's Comp. to have a MRI on my knee as the orthopedic surgeon thinks I will need another surgery to complete the repair on my left knee. So I'm hobbling around on it, never sure when it is going to give out. And, waiting for an approved head trauma doc's appointment to figure out why the headache around my left eye, where I landed, is still banging away. Guess my head isn’t as hard as I thought it was – it lost the battle with the marble steps!


While sitting in the cardiologist's office I chuckled my way through Marlene Perez's Dead Is So Last Year http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dead-Is-So-Last-Year/Marlene-Perez/e/9780152062163/?itm=1&USRI=dead+is+so+last+year This is part of the Dead Is Series, along with Dead is the New Black http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dead-Is-the-New-Black/Marlene-Perez/e/9780152064082/?pwb=1& and Dead is a State of Mind http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dead-Is-a-State-of-Mind/Marlene-Perez/e/9780152062101/?pwb=1& . I remember one of the YALSA pre-conferences when the presenters were talking about zombies being the next “big thing” in young adult novels and I thought of that while reading about the zombie like Doppelgangers of the local residents in small-town Nightshade, CA. At first no one is too alarmed as this is a town where werewolves, witches, psychics, and invisible restaurant owners are the norm. But when one of the sugar-crazed clones appears to be the long missing Mr. Giordino, Daisy and her sisters are out to find out if this is really their father or a clone out to ruin his reputation as a loving father and family man. Add a band of young out of control werewolves, one of whom just happens to be Daisy’s football playing boyfriend, and the mysterious happenings take the reader on a boisterous supernatural romp. The addition of tongue-in-cheek humor makes this a good recommendation for middle school through high school age teens looking for a fun, fast read as well as lovers of supernatural novels.

As readers of my blog know, I am a big fan of Orca Soundings titles for resistant teen readers as well as anyone else who wants a quick, satisfying read. In the Woods by Robin Stevenson http://search.barnesandnoble.com/In-the-Woods/Robin-Stevenson/e/9781554692002/?itm=1&usri=in+the+wood+stevenson is a must have for high school libraries. Cameron and his twin sister are as not alike as twins can be. Katie is driven to succeed in both her school work and on the swim team. Cameron struggles to complete his school work and is back riding his bike because of an accident with his mother’s car. He’s home alone with Katie calls and begs him to ride to the park. Katie won’t tell him why, but Cameron responds to the insistence in her voice and sets out in the icy rain. He has just about given up on finding out why his sister made the frantic call when he hears a baby crying. Someone has left a newborn in the park. Everyone – parents, social workers, and the police – are questioning Cameron as to why/how he knew to go to the park at just the right time to find the baby. And soon questions are being asked of Katie as well. Although only 124 pages long, Stevenson develops teenage characters the reader responds to as well as addresses the self preservation/denial stage a teen can go through when unable to face the truth of a pregnancy.

If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift for the children’s literature lover in your life, consider giving them a copy of Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life edited by Anita Silvey http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Everything-I-Need-to-Know-I-Learned-from-a-Childrens-Book/Anita-Silvey/e/9781596433953/?itm=1&usri=everything+I+need+to+know+I+learned+from+a+children+s+book+silvey Silvey asked a variety of folks, from children’s authors such as Judy Blume, Marc Brown, and Betsy Byars, to the heart surgeon William C. Devries, to the actor Kirk Douglas, to the physics professor Ronald Mallett, to the football player Tiki Barber, as well as many more leaders – “What children’s book changed the way you see the world?” The delight for the reader of this compilation of essays is revisiting well known children’s books such as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Where-the-Wild-Things-Are/Maurice-Sendak/e/9780060254926/?itm=1&usri=where+the+wild+things+are to meeting characters in books you may not have read such as Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Liza-Lou-and-the-Yeller-Belly-Swamp/Mercer-Mayer/e/9780606115728/?itm=1&usri=liza+lous+swamp+monster This is the perfect book for a lazy evening with a cup of tea or glass of wine and a leisurely literary walk down memory lane. And, a perusal of the list of books addressed in the essays will have you asking yourself how many of them you don’t recognize and when was the last time you read a particular book whose title you do recognize. Hmmm – I wonder where my copy of Robert Kraus’s Leo the Late Bloomer http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Leo-the-Late-Bloomer/Robert-Kraus/e/9781435109919/?itm=1&usri=robert+kraus is. Sadly, his name is misspelled in the “Recommended Booklist”. It is Ruth Krauss, the author of the classic The Carrot Seed http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Carrot-Seed/Ruth-Krauss/e/9780694004928/?itm=1&usri=ruth+krauss whose last name is spelled with 2 s’s. What you may not know, the illustrator of this classic, Crockett Johnson, was Krauss’s husband. Most of Krauss’s 30 books have been reissued, if they ever went out of print. Her ability to connect with the inner child makes her books timeless.

And, that is it for me today. I may not blog often, but when I do – I tend to be wordy!

I didn't realize just how much my daughter Mary and my niece Liz look alike until Mary sent me this pic. They even chose the darker rimmed glasses. I wish they lived closer together as I think they would be great friends if they did. Liz, like Mary, is very close to her mom.

Mary is holding McKinley and Liz is holding Kegan. Liz was born about 3 months before Mary and my Mic was born less than two months before Ben, Liz's brother. I spent time at my brother Bob and sister-in-law Lennie's home when our kids were little and my brown eyed, darker haired children looked more like Len's kids and her's like mine as Liz has my coloring. Who knows what the gene pool will do as far as our children are concerned. As they mature we see more of family in them and that makes me feel closer to the loved ones who are no longer with us. Mary looks like me but she is tall and willowy like her paternal aunt Marlene who I think is one of the most beautiful and kind women in the world. I smile to myself as I watch Mary mature into the same kind of woman as her aunt. I guess with the Holiday season approaching I am thinking about family. With both Mom and Dad playing Rummy with Mic in heaven I feel like the only "blood" family I have left is Mary as my brothers are not the kind to stay in touch, though I wish they would. But, not all mothers can say, as I can, that their daughters are not only the joy of their lives but also their best friend, so all things considered I feel blessed.

I just got home from the dentist and trying to sip a soda with half of my mouth numb is quite interesting. So far I haven't dribbled too much. At least this time it was just a filling and not another implant, root canal, or crown. We have spent a lot of money on my mouth in the last couple of years. Guess I inherited Mom's soft teeth. I never knew my mom without dentures as she had all of her teeth pulled years before I was born. No dental care when she grew up so she made sure, no matter how tight money was, that all four kids went to the dentist every year. As children we just don't realize how much our parents sacrificed for us. I am realizing it more and more as I let go of my grief over Mom's death just when we were becoming close and let myself remember what a wonderful, resilient woman she was.  Even though there wasn't much as far as "extras" in our home my mom made sure we always had a bountiful Thanksgiving and Christmas meal. All those hours baking and cooking on the wood stove made our kitchen cozy, or at times downright hot. You did not want to wear a big heavy wool sweater in Mom's kitchen during the Holidays as it was toasty and then some! Sadly, as a child and a teen I was so selfish I never thought to offer to help Mom with any of the preparations and she rarely ever asked for help. But, I knew I would be washing dishes for what seemed like hours after those meals while the boys and any guests for the holiday meal would be in the livingroom watching sports or chatting. The dishes were my job no matter how big or small the meal was.

I am feeling nostalgic all the way around today and listening to Rod Stewart's new CD Soulbook http://music.barnesandnoble.com/Soulbook/Rod-Stewart/e/886973025628/?itm=1  It has so many of my old favorites on it with even a few duets, such as Tracks of My Tears with Smokey Robinson and My Cherie Amour with Stevie Wonder. Right now I'm singing along with Wonderful world. I only sing when I am alone as I can't carry a tune at all.

My students are responding to a set of 10 questions Richard Peck came up with instead of book reports when he was a HS English teacher many years ago. He was at the American Association of School Librarians conference in Charlotte, NC last week and many of my students attended. One of them told him how I use his questions in my YA lit course. I should email him and thank him for making my students think about the YA novels they read from different perspectives. The response essays are a delight to read. These questions could so easily be adapted for children. There are so many ways for a reader to respond to books rather than those awful electronic reading quizzes.

And, Susan Beth Pfeffer's dystopian novels Life as We Knew It http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Life-as-We-Knew-It/Susan-Beth-Pfeffer/e/9780152058265/?itm=1&usri=pfeffer+susan and the dead & the gone http://search.barnesandnoble.com/the-dead-and-the-gone/Susan-Beth-Pfeffer/e/9780152063115/?pwb=1 the second book is the Life As We Knew It set of companion novels are frequently used to answer the Peck question about why a book is set where it is, location or time wise. I really hate to use the term series as to me this means the books are about the same set of characters, but B&N online notes the dead & the gone as Life as We Knew It #2. (I dislike when titles are all in lower case.) I checked the Library of Congress cataloging information on the verso and sure enough, even lower case here.

Well, I have spent the hours since I blogging last working on the article on booktalking and I am a bit saddened by the lack of support I see in the data from HS teachers for booktalking. Most of them did enjoy listening to the booktalks and do see booktalking as an effective reading incentive activity but only a couple of them actually said they might try it themselves. I hope my YA lit students are proactive and go out there and train more booktalkers at the schools they become school librarians in. At UHCL we made YA lit a required course of alternative licensure students getting secondary certification and what a great group of students they were to teach. I loved seeing these guys start out with their arms crossed and "yeah-right!" looks on their face to emailing me after they had classrooms of their own to tell me how they were booktalking in their classrooms. I loved it!
And, since I was a bit frustrated after I finished the rough draft of the article I started going through picture books as I knew there was no way I could stay grumpy if I read picture books. :-)

With Halloween tomorrow I had to read a book about owls. My all time favorite owl book is Jane Yolen's Owl Moon http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Owl-Moon/Jane-Yolen/e/9780399214578/?itm=1&USRI=owl+moon It is both the rhythmic text and the wonderful snowy night illustrations by John Schoenherr that makes this the most wonderful father and daughter story for those of us who grew up in cold country where we were so bundled up that we could hardly walk, but would have walked through the snow as long as needed to spend time with our fathers. This may be set it New England, but it may as well have been the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I grew up where the Great Horned Owl hoot can also be heard in the dead of the night.

I have found a new beloved title in Jennifer A. Ericsson's Whoo Goes There? illustrated by Bert Kitchen. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Whoo-Goes-There/Jennifer-A-Ericsson/e/9781596433717/?itm=1&usri=whoo+goes+there+ericsson As with Owl Moon B&N indicates ages 4-8 for this book but I am a lot older than that and this one stays with me! I will share it with lots of folks, old and young, but I won't give my copy to anyone. The illustrations are so beautiful I thought of buying another copy so I could frame some of them. The predictable text is an absolute delight - Owl is listening and watching for his evening meal. He is hoping for a mouse but it turns out to be a slinking Siamese cat - not a fit dinner for Owl. Something moving under the brush - perhaps a squirrel for dinner but it is a skunk - Owl didn't want skunk for his dinner. And so the evening goes as Owl predicts what the sound might mean but he is wrong each time and the man scares him away and little mouse can find his evening meal. A wonderful title for teaching little ones about the various animals who search for food at night as well as prediction skills. A must have for every primary school collection and public library. What a great storytime book to support the science curriculum or just as a fun Autumn read.

I really did want to like it, but Tim Hopgood's Wow! Said the Owl http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Wow-Said-the-Owl/Tim-Hopgood/e/9780374385187/?itm=1&usri=wow+said+the+owl is not going to be on my recommended. list. I have real problems with books that are meant to teach colors and they are not clearly the color indicated. The pink looks lavender to me and the orange ranges from almost red to gold. When teaching little ones colors we need to have very true colors and these are not. The indigo looks black and the red looks orange and I just ended up being frustrated. I will not share this one with my grandchildren as they will as confused as I am by how these colors came about.


And, since I was feeling grumpy I just had to add The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrated by Andrew Joyner  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Terrible-Plop/Ursula-Dubosarsky/e/9780374374280/?itm=1&usri=terrible+plopto my reading pile because the grumpy bear on the front reflected how I was feeling. But, soon I was laughing out loud at all of the animals running for fear of the Terrible PLOP! The rabbits were dining on chocolate cake and carrots by the lake when they heard the Terrible PLOP! And off they went, just like Henny Penny and her fear of the sky falling, in fear of the Terrible PLOP! The rhyming text is as delightful as the illustrations. "Up jump the rabbits ' Hop, hop, hop! They shout to each other, "Run! Don't stop! We must get away From the Terrible PLOP!" Bear is not happy about having his time in the sun being interrupted so he grabs the slowest little bunny by the ears and insists he sees where the terrible PLOP! happened. So, there they are at the lake, the apple swaying in the breeze when it happens again. The little bunny knows what caused the Terrible PLOP! but Bear is on the run in abject fear. It is hilarious and a great companion to other books that address the "sky is falling" wherever it happens to be!

They are all boy! Kegan is sitting on big brother Michael's back. Wish they lived closer so I could see them all dressed up for Halloween. I need to remind Mary she needs to take pictures of all three kids in costume.

Too bad today is not trick or treat day as we are supposed to have temperatures as high as the low 70s today. It is already 65 this early in the morning. But, then it will get cold and rainy. Perhaps a duck costume! I love Halloween and have the Today Show on because they are all dressed up as characters from Star Wars. Al Roker said he saw Star Wars three times in the same day when it first came out. In some ways it is difficult to watch this as Mic was an avid Star Wars fan and had just about every figure and prop there was. Sadly, we sold them at a garage sale when we left Alaska. I would love to have all of that now. Hindsight is always 20/20. No matter what generation you are from you know recognize the major Star Wars characters. Yoda is my favorite.

We had a wonderful chat with Suzanne Crowley last night. It was very clear she had done her research for The Stolen One http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Stolen-One/Suzanne-Crowley/e/9780061232008/?itm=1&USRI=stolen+one+crowley  and we were all intrigued by the details. Imagine an entire warehouse next to the wharf to store Queen Elizabeth's close to 2,000 gowns. Many of them were encrusted with real jewels. Not Halloween costumes I'd like to wear though I love the elaborate costumes of Tudor England. It is unusual for an author to have input as to the cover art for their books, but Crowley chose the dress and even got to keep the gorgeous necklace. She has begun to collect pears, which do have a role of their own in The Stolen One. Wild red-haired Kat never met her parents, but she knows she isn't ready to settle down as the wife of a local farmer. She escapes to London, taking her less than willing sister along, playing the role of her maid. Soon Kat is one of the Queen's maids of honor and a confidant to Elizabeth. The rumors swirl through court that she is the illegitimate daughter of the Queen. Kat is in more danger than she realizes. Fans of historical fiction will be right there with Kat due to the lush descriptions of the settings and the wardrobes of the characters. When booktalking this novel, I wouldn't even say it is historical fiction - I'd focus on Kat and her quest to find out why her adoptive mother will not talk about her birth parents and the dangers she faces at court. Booktalks with teens is all about finding an element of the book that relates to teens today and that can be done with any genre, including historical fiction. There are plenty of teenage girls who will relate to feisty Kat.



Crowley's family history suggests that she is a descendent of Lady Jane Grey who was beheaded. Ann Rinaldi's Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Nine-Days-a-Queen/Ann-Rinaldi/e/9780060549237/?pwb=2  would be a good compliment to The Stolen One. Offer it to the readers who bring back Crowley's book and want to read more about the Tudors. Jane Grey lived during the reign of Henry the VIII and lived in his court, developing a close relationship Katherine Parr and playing with Elizabeth and Edward. The intrigue of the Tudor court is fascinating and to think that if Elizabeth had been crowned queen instead of Jane Grey, and beheaded just days after being crowned queen, the future of England would have been drastically changed. I read Rinaldi's book when it came out in 2005 and I was fascinated by the intrigue and how the members of the court could start a rumor and destroy a life.

All of the cool costumes on the Today Show has me thinking of costumes for kids. A great book character Halloween costume would be Olivia, from Ian Falconer's delight series of books about a vivacious and imaginative young pig, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=falconer+olivia&box=falconer%20olivia&pos=-1  There are several picture books and board books to introduce your own vivacious little girl to Olivia. My granddaughter McKinley would be a very good Olivia as I can see her drawing all over the walls and trying on every outfit in her closet as she gets ready for school. Falconer used red as the only color in the first Olivia title and focuses on a different color in each book. A great set of books to introduce colors to preschoolers.

So, when I saw the cover of Trouble Gum by Matthew Cordell http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=trouble+gum+cordell&box=trouble%20gum%20cordell&pos=-1 I immediately thought of Falconer's books as it is illustrated in a very similar minimalist style and has a very feisty piglet main character. We now have a little boy piglet book for the boys who don't want to been seen with the Olivia books. Ruben is bored because it is raining outside. Mom tells him to go play with his little brother Julius and his cars. He proceeds to be a very loud ambulance and mother asked him to be quieter. But that doesn't deter Ruben for entertaining himself, if not Julius. His red Superpig cape does not keep him from landing with a THUMP! on a small couch pillow when he leaps off the arm of couch. Julius, in his round frame glasses, just quietly sit by and watches his older brother's antics. Of course, Grammy had an answer - GUM! Ruben teaches Julius how to chew gum with a smak, smak, smak while laying down, balancing on his head, etc. And, of course he swallows it. Mom said no more but Grammy reminds her that she too swallowed her gum when she was a piglet so Ruben was given another piece. Ruben's further antics will elicit giggles and even a few snort laughs from you and the youngsters you share this book with. And, of course there is a bubble disaster with Ruben delightfully shouting, "GUM!".

Isn't this just the cutest picture of Michael, McKinley and Kegan at the pumpkin patch? Well, Kegan looks like he may be sitting on a pumpkin stem, but I still love it! It wasn't long after this picture was taken that WI had a dusting of snow. BRRR!!

We are having wonderful weather in Lexington, but I am in no shape to enjoy it. Lucky me - I caught the flu from a guy next to me at physical therapy last Friday who was snuffling and coughing and then literally sneezed on me! When that happened I had a feeling it was going to be a lost cause and it was. I am starting to feel a bit better, but just taking a shower wore me out. I can't imagine being a child and feeling like an elephant sat on you. Mary said Michael has been sick with this wicked flu and said he was too sore to walk. Poor kiddo. On top of the flu he has been having nose bleeds from the cold dry weather in Green Bay.


Speaking of Michael, his teacher told Mary he is the second best reader in his First Grade class. Happy Gramma!! Her Parent Teacher conference was the same day of the book fair (Of course - smart librarian!) and Mary treated Michael to two new books. She has fallen in love with The Library Lion by Michelle Knudson and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Library-Lion/Michelle-Knudsen/e/9780763622626/?pwb=2  I don't know where my copy is, but I would never have given away a book both about a lion and the library. Mary is so enchanted with the illustrations that she has claimed ownership of this one and doesn't mind reading it over and over again. The other book Michael picked out is Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Splat-the-Cat/Rob-Scotton/e/9780060831547/?itm=1&usri=splat+the+cat  which is quite hilarious. I need to send Michael a copy of Merry Christmas, Splat http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Merry-Christmas-Splat/Rob-Scotton/e/9780060831608/?itm=2&usri=splat+the+cat  as I love any Christmas book and a book about a this funny cat and Christmas. What could be better?

Speaking of Christmas, Steve did the sweetest thing for me last night. He had to run to the store and when I went to crawl back into bed there was a very large lump in my side of the bed. Warming my side of the bed was the cutest stuffed Christmas moose you've ever seen. He has the plaid flannel ear-flap caps that many a male Finn wore when I was growing up. It made me think of my dad and uncles as they got ready to go deer hunting, all bundled up. Never could figure out how they walked in all those clothes! So Merry Moose and I spent the day in bed emailing students about their Spring 2010 course schedules. Out of the corner of my eye I was watching a day long marathon of my favorite 1980s TV series with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman - Beauty and the Beast http://video.barnesandnoble.com/DVD/Beauty-and-the-Beast-The-Complete-Series/Ron-Perlman/e/097361377643/?itm=1&usri=beauty+and+the+beast  I remember avidly watching this on my roommate's tiny little b/w TV while I was going to school for my MLS at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. I'd love to have my own copy of the series as it is such a cool show! I just can't see Ron Pearlman as Hellboy as he will always be the lion-like Vincent to me. I'd take a small DVD player and this series with me on a vacation for sure.

I noted that I mentioned Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Hunger-Games/Suzanne-Collins/e/9780439023481/?itm=2&usri=hunger+games  in my last post. I have the perfect book to suggest to the readers who want another book like it - Maurice Gee's Salt http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Salt/Maurice-Gee/e/9781554692095/?itm=1&usri=salt+gee . This fascinating dystopian tale published by Orca will reach stores this month. This is the first title in a trilogy by a New Zealand author who has many accolades and has come out of retirement to write this trilogy. It took less than a handful of pages for me to be hooked as I could visualize the dark and brutal world of the Burrows where the dark skinned folks like Hari and his father fought for every bite of food and every bit of warmth. Hari often snuck into the Company compounds to spy on the families who ate their fill and dressed in sumptuous clothes, not rags. It is when Hari's father is captured and sent to the Salt that Hari sets out on a journey to rescue his father. At the same time, Radiant Pearl of the Deep Blue Sea was fleeing from an arranged marriage to a despicable older man, Ottmar of the Salt. It is the mysterious Tealeaf, who used her powers to ensure Radiant chose her as her maid years before and trained the young girl to defend herself, who leads her young charge away from the privileged life. As the reader anticipates, the two teens end up together as they escape poverty and privilege and join forces to rescue the men who have been sent to mine an ore that can destroy with just a few drops, but also eats away at the men who dig for it. Once you begin reading Salt, there is no way to not keep reading as you have to know if Hari rescues his father and if the two young people will overcome their differences. Now I have to wait for volume 2!!

About right now I wish I had McKinley's pigtail hat! BRRR!! We are looking at 40s tonight and high 50s tomorrow. I actually turned on the heat in the house a bit ago as it got so chilly in here. I am bundled up with a heating pad on my knee and an afghan and I hear the heat kicking on again. YES!!

I am now over my snit after a not so great news appointment at the orthopedic surgeon's office today. Not only did I have to sit in a waiting room full of sniffling and coughing fellow patients I also sat for way too long in a freezing cold examing room. The knee surgery was a bit more complicated than cleaning up a meniscus tear due to a growth that was impacting the kneecap and had to be removed. Between that and the slow healing normal for a fibromyalgia sufferer, I am looking at another month of physical therapy along with limited walking and standing. So, I won't be taking a long walk through the neighborhood to enjoy the Autumn color as the leaves will have fallen before I get the possible go ahead in late October or early November. At least Steve and I can take a relaxing drive along the backroads down to the KY river to enjoy the Autumn colors.

I took my first "big outing" since the surgery yesterday and attended a writer's workshop lead by Ellen Hopkins, YA author of Crank, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Crank/Ellen-Hopkins/e/9780689865190/?itm=1&USRI=crank+hopkins Glass http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Glass/Ellen-Hopkins/e/9781416940913/?itm=1&usri=g and the not yet published final book about her own daughter's meth addiction.  She was very open about her daughter's addiction and how it has impacted the family. It was heartbreaking to listen to her talk. Mic died in hiking accident and I thought I would die for a long time. I still miss him every day of my life but I cannot imagine watching my child kill herself a little bit at a time each day. She asked us to do a bit of writing of our own and I actually got the writing bug again as I used to write poetry before I began teaching at the university level and writing professional materials. I even bought a small spiral bound notebook to try writing poetry again. Don't know if I will have much time to write poetry as I am always behind with work due to my inability to work the long hours I used to. Brain stops working so much quicker these days.
We all received signed copies of Tricks http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Tricks/Ellen-Hopkins/e/9781416950073/?itm=1&usri=t written in her signature poetry style, that tells the story of a group of teens who find themselves selling themselves into prostitution. I have read about 1/2 of it already - I stayed up last night until I couldn't keep my eyes open as it is so good. I am feeling maternal toward these teens and would like to give their fictional parents a piece of my mind! I took a picture of her with my cell phone but I haven't figured out how to get it onto my laptop yet.

My students have been emailing me about the second Suzanne Collins title Catching Fire http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Catching-Fire/Suzanne-Collins/e/9780439023498/?itm=1 which I don't seem to have a review copy of it or I would have read it immediately as I loved Hunger Games http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Hunger-Games/Suzanne-Collins/e/9780439023481/?itm=2 I enjoyed getting to know Katniss, a strong a fiery female character living in a dystopian world that should scare us all silly.
With that book in mind I went looking for my copy of Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas' Woolvs in the Sitee http://www.amazon.com/Woolvs-Sitee-Margaret-Wild/dp/1590785002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254270204&sr=8-1 which is one of the creepiest dytopian futuristic picture books I've ever read/viewed. The stark illustrations draw me back to them over and over again. They portray a young boy who fears the wolves in the city, who aren't the 4 legged kind who roam the woods, but the ones who stalk the remaining humans when they venture into the city streets. He writes on the walls in phonetic spelling that often takes some thought to decipher. The boy's upstairs neighbor, an elderly woman, rushes out to get him when he thinks he sees bloo sky that, instead, turns out to be a painted wall that is quickly turning black. The old woman then disappears and he goes in search of her, leaving the reader to only imagine what happened to both of them. This is one of those picture books you would never give to a child as it is more horrific than any scary tale about a folklorish witch.

Which, of course, brings me to Arthur Yorinks' The Witch's Child illustrated by Jos. A. Smith. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Witchs-Child/Arthur-Yorinks/e/9780810993495/?itm=1&usri=w This is the book that sits next to the above YA level picture book.  Again, another picture book I would not share with young children. Upper elementary, yes, but not little ones. They'd be scared silly that a witch would turn them into thorny bushes! Smith's illustrations are beyond creepy in detail and nature. Let's just say the ending to the witch is similar to the Hansel and Gretel folktale with the witch's child being adopted by the little girl's parents. A little girl brave enought to enter the witch's house and try to mend the witch's child, a child of straw and leaves that even a lonely witch could not bring to life, but the love of a little girl could. There is a reason these two 2007 titles are still sitting on my bookshelf - they are ones I could not bear to give away. Nor will I!

My NCIS is over and Ziva is back home where she is supposed to be so all is right in my TV world. I have not decided if I like the California version with Chris O'Donnell yet. One week wasn't enough to draw me in but I plan to give it a chance. But it doesn't have Mark Harmon so how could it match up? :-)

I

I think Kegan and McKinley are going to be as close as my Mic and Mary were as kids. These two are even closer in age and McKinley already has Kegan and her older brother Michael wrapped around her little finger. Well, for that matter, her Mom and Dad too! Mary said they are now getting their summer weather. She called me yesterday from the park and she was in shorts and a tank top.

It has gotten chilly here in Lexington due to all the rain we have been getting. But, the flowers and wild strawberries in the front flower bed are growing like crazy. Steve picked a bunch of the tiny strawberries for me. They bring back memories of picking them as a kid and my mom making a white cake and covering the white frosting with the tiny berries. The coup was to find the first ripe ones so Mom could bring the cake to the St. John's Day celebration in late June. Summer came slowly to Upper Michigan - perhaps not as slowly as to Finland but my grandparents brought many of the celebrations with them.

I've been reading The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest by Dan Buettner. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Blue-Zones/Dan-Buettner/e/9781426204005/?itm=3&USRI=blue+zone. I found out about this book from Veronica, one of the other LS professors at ECU whose husband is Greek. One of the Blue Zones is a Greek island, very near to the one Nick grew up on. One of the secrets to a long life is "Your Tribe" - in other words, your family and close friends. I did not realize what a close knit tribe I grew up in. My dad and his brother married my mom and her sister so my cousins are double first cousins and the two families grew up together. I was the youngest so I missed out on many of the activities but it just seemed normal for my mom and Aunt Ruth to be together. Their friends were people my dad had grown up with as both families settled in the same little area. I have come to realize I have missed out on so much by leaving my tribe behind when my kids' dad wanted to move as far away as possible and that was Alaska. So now I am rethinking this whole tribe thing and how those close connections are what may be why my parents' generation were as healthy as they were.

Speaking of the Zone, many of us grew up watching Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, which to me is much scarier than the blood and gore movies of today. There is no skill in scaring an audience by cutting people into piece with blood spurting everywhere. But, to scare viewers with the possibility that the person sitting next to you in that little diner may actually be a Martian in disguise and the cook is from Venus, is a gift. Mark Kneece, one of the founders of the Sequential Art Department at Savannah College of Art and Design, has brought 8 of the Twilight Zone episodes back to life via graphic novels that will appeal to readers from upper elementary through adult. This series, including Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Twilight-Zone/Rod-Serling/e/9780802797278/?itm=2 which spooked me when I saw it years ago and again in this graphic novel. Give these to the resistant reader boys and they will be asking for each one. I hope Kneece adds to this series as it will be very popular and 8 books isn't going to be enough.

Although I was not impressed with Nuggest on the Flight Deck by Patricia Newman, with colored pencil illustrations by Aaron Zenz, I am still very aware that it will be popular with elementary age boys http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Nugget-on-the-Flight-Deck/Patricia-Newman/e/9780802797353/?itm=1&usri=n They will be delighted with the detailed drawings and enjoy the jargon used on an aircraft carrier. Nugget is the term used for a new aviator on his first tour of duty, but the illustrations make him look like an upper elementary age boy, rather than a young cadet. Young readers may think it odd that a boy is taken on a training mission. Nevertheless, it is still worth purchasing for the military and jet avid young readers.

Since the inception of Harry Potter there have been a lot of dragon focused fantasy for middle grade readers, but Shadow of the Dragon, Book 1: Kira by Kate O'Hearn is a bit unique in that it is set in a kingdom where girls must be married at age 13 and they certainly cannot have anything to do with dragons, which are trained and used by the king's army. Kira is a feisty 12 year old who is fascinated by dragons but not by the idea of being married. When Lord Dorcon, her father's nemesis, arrives at their farm to collect the family, Kira and her little sister Elspeth escape, but the middle daughter does not and is thrown into prison with the other girls who the king plans to starve to death. Kira's father and brother are forced to join the army. Not about to accept defeat at the hands of girls, Lord Dorcon continues to search for the girls, driving them into the mountains ruled by a rouge dragon. Their fate changes when they find an infant dragon who grows to allow Kira to ride him. With the help of a wizard, the sisters intend on rescuing their sister. A fun read. Upper elementary and MS readers will be impatiently waiting for the next book, which focuses on Elspeth. O'Hearn's debut novel will be enjoyed by fantasy readers who may have the same dream of riding a dragon that the author had, but she was vicariously riding between the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

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.