Liar and Spy

 

Georges and his family have to move from their Brooklyn house to an apartment, which when coupled with bullies at school is a really big deal.  Plus, since his dad lost his job, Georges mom has to work a lot of double shifts at the hospital, and his name is Georges, pronounced George, but most people don't understand that.

Then, on the first day at his new apartment, he sees a sign that says, Spy Club Meeting Today.  That's where he meets Safer, the unusual kid from upstairs and learns about his first assignment:  to spy on Mr. X, the man dressed all in black from the 4th floor who mysteriously walks around with suitcases all the time.  

Meanwhile at school, Georges science class is doing the unit of destiny, where a taste test becomes a matter of life, death and love.  During this unit, Georges learns more about struggling through bullying and who makes the rules at school.

You already know that I am a big fan of When You Reach Me, so I was very excited to read Liar and Spy.  The two books are not very similar, except that there is a strong friendship theme that runs through both.  There are a few big questions in this book:  Who is the liar and who is the spy and Who makes the rules?  Personally, I think that the second question is more important, but the first question makes for some great plot twists.  

I greatly enjoyed Liar and Spy and I'm very glad that I bought it.  It's just one of those great books that makes you believe in children's literature, and in some ways, the goodness of humanity.  I might be over exaggerating, but after a bunch of YA dystopian fiction, that's how I feel.  

As for Newbery buzz, yes it will get some buzz because it's Rebecca Stead and former winners always receive buzz.  I don't think that this will win though.  Not that it's not worthy, but I have a feeling that the committee will go big this year and pick something a little more out there.  This book is very reader friendly, though, so I would love to see it on the Caudill list in a couple years.  Especially since there is a male protagonist, this will be an easy sell.

Happy Reading!

Delirium

Lena lives in a future dystopia where  love is considered a disease.  Everyone receives "the cure" around the age of 17 and this is a procedure that children are preparing for their whole life.  Each cured is matched with a mate, told how many children to have, and pushed into a predetermined profession.  It's controlled, it's predictable and it is for everyone's safety, but it's all a lie.  

Lena's mother committed suicide after having the cure three times and never being truly cured.  She raced out of the house one night after telling young Lena "I love you, remember that.  They can't take it".  Lena was then raised by her aunt and became an outcast for having a diseased family.  Many teens show signs of amor deliria nervousa, but the cure takes all of those symptoms away, along with any feeling or passion.

While on a normal run with her best friend Hana, Lena meets Alex, a cured that seems to have a secret.  Then Hana starts listening to non-approved music and going to parties.  Lena is trying to save Hana but at the same time, she's discovering a whole new world herself.  She befriends Alex and learns about his troubling past, and how that could effect her predictable future.

All in all, Delirium by Lauren Oliver is a thought provoking book.  What if your whole life was planned?  What happens to your relationships after the cure?  What would it be like to be raised in a world without love?  Not only are teens not allowed to show love toward members of the opposite sex, but parent's don't even show love to their children.  Parents treat child rearing as a chore or duty.  That's very disturbing to me.  But like so many dystopian heroines before her, Lena must choose between escaping to the wilds to survive on her own and fight, or accepting society promise for a perfectly predictable life, much like in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series or Rachel Cohn's Beta.  That's a part of the dystopian genre, the main character must leave society to fight from the outside.  

Delirium is a good book and was definitely worth my time, but I realize that I have read too many YA dystopias lately because I am getting pretty cynical about them.  I have one more on my reading list, Divergent, but I'm putting that on the far back burner for right now so I can cleanse my palette with some light middle-grade chapter books, or even a big stack of picture books.  

Happy Reading!

Let's Play!

I've mentioned football several times on this blog and I do love football season.  Well, I love it for a month, and then I'm over it!  But, during that month, I love to do a sports-themed story time.  What better time to force your sports allegiance on unsuspecting preschoolers!  I tried to teach my kids the I-L-L, I-N-I chat, and it worked okay, but not great.  I'll have to try harder in the future.

I liked to make my sports programs kinda general not only to keep the kids engaged, but also because I feel like there aren't a lot of great storybooks about one particular sport.  For instance, I'd love to do a nothing-but-football story time, but I just couldn't find the books to support it.  If I'm missing something, please let me know!!

Let’s Play!

Preschool Storytime

Opening Song:  Bendable Stretchable by Georgiana Stewart

Opening Rhyme:  Dance your fingers

Dance your fingers up, dance your fingers down.

Dance your fingers to the side, dance them round and round.

Dance them on your shoulders, dance them on your head.

Dance them on your belly and now put them to bed!

Book:  Sergio Saves the Game by Edel Rodriguez

Rhyme:  Balls

(for each size ball, make that shape with your arms)

A great big ball, a medium-sized ball, a teeny-tiny ball I see

Let’s count them, ready!

One, two, three!!

Book:  Let’s Play Football by Jan Mader

Dance:  Sport Pokey

You put your cleets in, you take your cleets out.

You put your cleets in, and you shake it all about.

You do the sports pokey and you turn yourself about.

That's what it's all about!

(glove, helmet, shoulder pads, etc)

Book:  Dino-Baseball by Lisa Wheeler

 

Rhyme:  This is the way you play baseball

(Tune:  Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush)

This is the way you hit the ball

This is the way you catch the ball

This is the way you throw the ball

This is the way your run the bases

When you play baseball!

Book:  Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord

Rhyme:  10 Speedy Racecars

(Tune:  10 Little Indians-I liked to hand each child a cardstock

car with a number on it and have them stand as we sang.)

One little, two little, three speedy racecars.

Four little, five little, six speedy racecars.

Seven little, eight little, nine speedy racecars

Ten little racecars race!

Craft:  Foam Finger

For this craft, I cut out two foam finger shapes from Fun Foam, as shown in the picture below from www.giverslog.com

 

Then, I punched holes around the foam finger so the kids could lace them up with shoestrings.  Finally, I let the kids color on the foam with markers and add stickers.  Giverslog paints her foam finger and uses craft glue, so that would work great with older kids, but little ones have fun just lacing and coloring.  

My finger was orange with blue laces of course!  Go Illini!  But this makes a great craft for any sport's theme and with a few adjustments, works for any age.

Happy Reading!

 

Chopped

Consider this part one of my August Wrap-Up.  I have a weird goal.  I would like to donate 66 inches of hair to Locks of Love.  That would be a donation equal to my height.  So, this August, I cut off 11 inches to bring my total up to 35 inches over the past 6 years.

As you can see, above is the before.  My hair doesn't even quite fit in the frame!

And here is my hair after.  I had to go pretty short as you can see, but since I've donated twice before, I'm pretty used to short hair.  I wanted to grow my hair even longer and donate a crazy amount late this winter, but I couldn't get my hair dry and get to work on time anymore, so time to cut!

Here are the before and after pics from the last time I donated in November 2010.

Okay, I know that the bangs were bad.  Don't blame my stylist-she was great, but I insisted that she cut them short so I wouldn't have to get a band trim for a long time.  I was totally wrong! 

And speaking of bad photos, here are some before and after-ish shots of my first donation to Locks of Love way back in 2006.

The first pic is from my friend's wedding in July 2006 and the second pic is from December 2006.  All told, I donated about 14 inches that time, so these two pics don't quite do my donation justice.  Also, this further proves my belief that I take terrible pictures.  Although I look exactly like my mom in that second picture.  I swear that we have a pic of her like this from every single Christmas. 

Okay, now for some fun!  Let's put all the long hair pics together and all the short hair pics together and see how little I've aged.

So, from left to right, we have 2006, 2010 and 2012 long hair edition.

And 2006, 2010, and 2012 short hair edition.  If I do say so myself, I look good for 30!  I honestly thought that 30 would hit me in the face like a ton of bricks, but it's not bad.  Although for some reason I photograph better with long hair.  Oh well!

And my newest short hair pic is cropped from this gem with my Aunt Roxie:

More on my lovely Cincinnati vacation later!  

Happy Reading!

I Can't Let Go

I'm not mentally ready to do my August Summer Wrap-Up.  Even though I was all ready for fall coziness a couple weeks ago, I'm not ready to give up on summer.  I know that school has been in session for over two weeks here and that Labor Day has come and gone and that NFL football starts tonight, but I just want to bask in summer for a little longer.

So, instead of looking back on summer with a sense of longing, let's look forward to fall!  I am all ready for hoodies and boots and scarves and sweaters.  I'm totally ready for hot chocolate and pretty leaves.  I'm ready to light up the fire pit and make smores!  I guess that fall isn't so bad.  We'll still have some warm (hot) days that I can enjoy after work.  I can still sit out with a good book and ignore the dishes and pretend that I don't have to make dinner.  I do wish that it could still stay light until 9.  Why can't Illinois have 16 hours of sunlight all year round?  I guess that it would cause some other part of the world to have more darkness, then those people would get all depressed and move to Illinois, then there would be rampant overpopulation in my little town, then I would beg my hubby to move, then we would end up in the small town on the other side of the world that only gets like 8 hours of sunlight per day, and I would be depressed, and the whole cycle would repeat itself.  When you put it like that, I better be thankful that I'm in my little town during the fall.  Perspective.

At no other time during the year do I feel so sad about seeing a season pass by.  I guess that's because summer is more than a season-it's a lifestyle.  Summer is so easy going.  Fall is full and busy.  Summer means no students in town, always getting a spot at the bar, whipping through Walmart in a second.  Fall is a crowded town with packed restaurants, and a crazy mass of humanity clogging up Walmart.  But I missed the students.  They're funny and really make me appreciate that I'm an adult.

So, I guess I can give up summer if it means fall.  I'll make soups and curl up in blankets and cheer at football games.  One big reason why I should look forward to fall is that all the good books are released in the fall.  It's just like fashion-fall is the big season.  Anyone else having trouble letting go?

Happy Reading!

Shopping Trip!!

I took a mini-vacation this Labor Day weekend that left me exhausted.  Seriously, I slept over 14 hours total yesterday.  But we're home now, the puppy is happily hanging out in her house and all is well.

Doug and I flew out to Arizona for his cousin's wedding.  When we had our bag weighed at the ticket counter, we were 7 pounds underweight, so the very helpful ticket-counter-guy told me that I could buy something pretty while we were away.  Why, thank you, ticket-counter-guy!  Don't mind if I do!

So, the other night Doug, my sis-in-law Kristen (of Pub n' Putt fame) and my mom-in-law, Nancy, hit up the local mall.  While we stopped at a bunch of stores, nothing was worth my seven pounds of luggage space.  Until I heard the siren song of Barnes and Noble.

Disclaimer:  I know all about buying from Indies.  I loved the Indie in Naperville, IL, Anderson's, but I don't live there anymore, and sadly my local Indie only sells books about local bootlegging and bodice-rippers, so forgive my patronage of a soul-sucking massive chain bookstore.  I also shop at Walmart, so feel free to hate me.

My hubby set me lose in Barnes and Noble with seven pounds of luggage space and a platinum credit card!  Oh the possibilities!  Of course, I went straight for the Children's and YA books.  My first pick was Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

I've been super excited to read this book for a while, so this felt like the perfect opportunity to grab it.  But, then I flipped the book over and thought that those images might give me nightmares.  Look how freaky that pic on the upper left looks!  If you don't know, the author found all of these freaky pictures of children, and they inspired him to write the book.  So, I hesitantly decided on this book.


Then I hit the kid's section and picked up two great (and non-creepy) books:  Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead and Splendor and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz.

 
Let's see what these two Newbery authors have in store!  Stead won for When You Reach Me, which you know, I love, and so does my book club.   Schlitz won for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, which I did not read, but I did like A Drowned Maiden's Hair, and and the cover had me thinking of The Night Circus somehow.  Both books were on my to-read list, so win!

I did pick up Wonder by R. J. Palacio for a second.  The book sounds great (a child born with a deformity doesn't attend public school until middle school) but since this is a new author to me, I couldn't justify the hardcover price, so it went back on the shelf, but stays on my to-read list.

 

With two great, non-creepy hardbacks in hand, I put Miss Peregrine's Home back.  I just couldn't really deal with having that creepy cover in my home.  I think I'll get that book from the library that way I can give it back once I'm finished.

After I'd picked my books, I giddily browsed the picture books to see what I'd missed.  I honestly told my hubby that I was as happy as a librarian in a bookstore!  

Just before Doug dragged me out of the place, I picked up Blink by Malcolm Gladwell for him.  I knew after reading Outliers this summer that he would really enjoy Gladwell's writing, and so far so good.  Doug started it on the plane and has enjoyed it so far.

 

Here's the irony though.  I had seven pounds of luggage space, but I put all of my books in my backpack to carry-on.  But, when we weighed out luggage to return, it weighed 34.5 pounds.  Somehow we picked up an extra 1.5 pounds.  Must have been those hotel shampoos I stole.  

After this little shopping trip, I realize that maybe I need to have a monthly book budget.  I'm quite the Kindle addict and those daily deals just call my name, especially now that they offer one adult title and one YA or children's title per day.  Evil geniuses!  So, I might start a monthly book wishlist as inspired by J's Everyday Fashion and her monthly wardrobe wishlist.  I'll let you know what I come up with.

So, there you have it.  I'm one busy reader!  I still have three more books to read for a slightly (very) overdue review packet, maybe 7 unread books on my Kindle that I actually paid for, more like 10 unread Kindle titles from NetGalley, and all of my Illinois award books.  Maybe I should have bought clothes!

Happy Reading!

Lone Bean

 

Bean is just starting 3rd grade, but she gets off on the wrong foot when she finds out that her best friend, Carla, is now best friends with Sam.  Then, she can't find her seat and ends up sitting next to Stinky Stan and trying her best to avoid Terrible Tanisha.  While Bean tries to navigate her way through 3rd grade best friend-less, she tries befriending Goody-Two-Shoes Gabrielle, who is too prim and proper, Stan, who is still too smelly and Tanisha, who gets Bean in a lot of trouble.  After a difficult couple months, Bean starts to learn who she really is, and is able to pull it together and make some great friends.

There are some real positives with this book.  First of all, Bean is an African American girl in a book that isn't race driven.  This book is not about race, rather it's primarily a book about a girl learning what it means to be a friend.  Take away the cover, and you'd never know what the character looks like.  

Also, Bean learns a real lesson with Tanisha.  Bean starts hanging out with Tanisha so she stops being bullied, but then Bean ends up being a bully herself.  She also learns that life is pretty hard for Tanisha, so maybe she needs a real friend to help her.  But the scenes where Bean is being so mean and hurtful will be hard for readers to understand.  I didn't really feel that Bean's only option was Tanisha, but it did provide a good lesson, although maybe too forcefully.

Bean's family is wonderful.  Her two older sisters are a pain, but there are moments of genuine love, which is true of any siblings.  Her dad is supportive and caring, and very encouraging in her violin studies.  Also, her mom is a nurse that has to work late, which becomes an issue toward the end of the book.  That is a reality for so many children though, having a good parent that sometimes can not be there due to work.  The fight at the end between Bean and her mother was again a little too forced, but made for a nice talking point.

What I really think is missing from this book that would take it from average to great is humor.  Bean is likeable and silly, but there just are not enough laugh out loud moments.  This book is a little too message driven and not humorous enough, especially when you consider other books in the age group.  If Bean wants to compete with Judy Moody, Clementine, and Ivy + Bean, she's going to need to work on her comedy routine.  

That said, I would still recommend this book for a reader looking for a fun, realistic fiction book.  I would also give this to Junie B. addicts, since some of Bean's speech, grammatically correct, is still fun and sassy.  I'm not sure if this will become a series, but if there's more humor in other entries, this could become a hit.

Happy Reading