Raehink: March Read

A hearty welcome to Qait! We've been waiting for you...I love the titles you've added here and on your personal blog. I have heard good things about Jonathan Strange, but haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet.

It sounds as though everyone is enjoying the February assignment. I have read a couple of Nancy Drew books and have even shared them with Ivan. He has been amused and I have had fun remembering why I loved them in the first place. I also reread Charlotte's Web. Haven't tackled Harriet yet but I did notice a TV movie that will be on soon called Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. That cracked me up. They keep trying to update anything that was good back in the day.

Our March assignment will be somewhat a continuation of the February read. Many schools will be celebrating the Read Across America phenomenon on March 2 (which is Dr Seuss' birthday) and I thought it would be fun to participate. The official NEA event "calls for every child to be reading in the company of a caring adult." Notice they didn't say responsible or literate adult :)

So, for the month of March and in the spirit of Reading Across America, continue reading those memorable books from February and throw in a couple of good picture books to boot. Then read WITH your loved ones, regardless of their age. I'm still a child at heart and I love to read in the company of anyone :) Enjoy the month and report your discoveries.

Happy reading!

QAIT: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Have any of you ever read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke? I feel a little guilty because I haven't finished it! I LOVE IT, but I'm hardly halfway through! I think we moved in the middle of my reading, so even though it got put away on the shelf in plain view, I never picked it up again. Kind of sad.

Michael loved it. It's about magicians in perhaps the 1800s, and the author makes it seem like historical fiction with footnotes and a few real events thrown in...it starts with some people discussing magicianry and how it's really just a fun hobby of tricks and things...but then there's one person who believes it's far more than tricks, so he seeks the training of a reclusive man who can perhaps teach him to be a real magician.

I really, really like it... but I kind of feel like I have so many books to read, I wonder if I want to dig that one out of the basement. Have any of you read it? Do you like it? I wish I could better tell you to read it. I mean, if I'd finished it, I'd totally tell you you HAVE to read it. But I can't well do that right now! :D

QAIT: February reading assignment

It's been hard for me to think of something, but when I was talking to Michael's sister, she mentioned a book she just read, Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. I remember loving the character Cimmorene for her tomboyishness, being a sort of maid for a cave of dragons. And I felt like it wasn't too shallow of a book.

We'll see now, I guess! There are about four books, maybe five with that whole dragon thing.

I just can't think of many. And I still really enjoy reading YA books, often more than books meant for my age...although, in my defense, I have read many, many classics, and if I haven't read it, I've likely heard of it and have some idea of what it's about. :)

I think it would be kind of fun to read lots of books from my tweens this month--if I could just remember them!

Abby: Look who's joined us!

I don't know how it happened, but Qait hasn't been a member of the blog before! So she's here now! She asked if it was okay if she didn't always read what we were reading, and I of course told her that was fine. I told her she should share a post she had on her family blog about children's books. I've already requested all of them from my library.

Lulu and Qait were both talking about a book called Eulalie and the Talking Heads. Anyone know the actual title and author? No amount of google searches brought it up.

Qait: Children's Books

I adore this book. Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen is so sweet! Michael and I laughed aloud while reading this to Ender, and Ender even laughed while enjoying the darling pictures! It's kind of an ugly-duckling story but with far more charm (and the crocodile isn't changing into anything fancy). I HIGHLY recommend it. I want to own it.

If you're looking for some literature that is incredibly uplifting, masterfully written, stimulating for any brain, and brilliantly plotted, this book is at the top of the list (The Stupids... by Hary Allard and James Marshall). Hahahaha. Just kidding. It's at the bottom. But I have such fond memories of my mother cracking up while reading these books to us (because they ARE stupid), and even fonder memories of us being stupid and remembering the book. Have you ever gotten in an elevator and forgotten to push the buttons? "The Stupids ride the elevator." Maybe that's why I love these books--it makes it easier to laugh when I do something stupid knowing The Stupids always do something stupid.

Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis is a cute and imaginative book. The author's also written "Not a Box," which might suggest she lacks imagination for titles, but the books encourage children to be creative with ordinary objects (the stick can be all sorts of things). That's important to me. Somedays I feel weary of toys because they're practically manufactured to do all the thinking for kids (well, kind of). Some of my better childhood memories come from being insanely creative with everything around me (A fence as a cannon? It worked)!

There are lots of Mr. Sillypants books by M. K. Brown and I haven't actually read them all, but I remember reading this book with my sister. We even have a picture of us together with it! Hm, now I need to see if I can find it anywhere. Anyway, simply put, Mr. Sillypants really is silly.

I'm not sure if the title or the art intrigued me the most, but neither disappointed me. I did kind of wish it went into scientific-like details of the supernatural talent of eating books (that just sounds fun to me), but the story takes it a good direction anyway. The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers is one that I think any kid might enjoy because the very idea of eating books is cool!

I love just about anything written by William Steig. His art is almost childish, comparable to Quentin Blake's illustrations. And the storylines are clever, funny and sweet. In this book, Pete's a Pizza, a boy is very bored and doesn't know what to do. His father pretends Pete is a pizza and plays with him, putting "food" on the boy and "baking him." It makes me think of something either my parents would do with us or Michael would do with Ender.

Thank heaven for brilliant librarians! I've wanted to find this book for ages, and I finally just asked the librarian if she knew what book I might be thinking of. I described it like this "A grandpa is telling his grandkids about how his house got flooded when he was a child, and it was funny to me because the child version of the grandpa still had a mustache. But I can't remember anything else!" The librarian smiled sweetly. "Sounds like James Stevenson! Yes, 'We Hate Rain,' does that look like the right book?" HALLELUIAH!!!!

In the same conversation (she'd sparked my faith), I said "Maybe you'd know another book I've been wanting to find. I read it when I was about 11, so all I can remember is that it took place in England--they called trucks "lorries"--and there was a kind of battle between the peddlers and truckers..." A librarian around the corner poked her head around a bookcase and said "The Pushcart War. Darn funny book!" I couldn't stop smiling. I've put a picture of something that's apparently based on the original novel, but the link goes to the original. Whatever!

Again, bothering the same librarian--I couldn't help myself!--I asked if she knew about a book where a boy drank the stories through a straw. She had to think maybe a minute before she recalled the title for me! AMAZING woman! I read The Ink Drinker by Eric Sanvoisin when I was about 10. I loved it so much! I loved the book even more by the fact that the author wrote in his bio-note that if someone were to write to him, he would send them a straw--guaranteed.

I have yet to read the sequel! Oh my! I just realized in my search that there are two morebooks! Happy day! :) that's two separate links there.
I love librarians. And libraries. Books make me so happy!

Abby requested I repost this. :) Maybe more to come? This is the first time I made the effort to do this...

Lynness: February reads post

Oops- I hadn't even realized I sent it to Lulu- here's a fix- Abby, just delete the other and here is the original.

So, I clicked on Lulu's link for A Room Made of Windows to see what it was about, since I wasn't familiar with it.  I looked down the Amazon page a bit to the "Customers who bought this also bought" part and found that I actually had read some of her other books- some of the "Mushroom Planet" ones.  I clicked on The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet and scrolled down to the same section, where I found other books I had read: The Enormous Egg, The Mad Scientists' Club, Half Magic, among others, and I saw one I thought I might have read: The Forgotten Door.  Turns out I hadn't, but then I started looking for the one I thought it was.  All I remembered was that it was about a door or something that went underground, there were mushrooms (what is it about mushrooms?) and a king maybe and Gog or Oog or Og.  Using that I finally found the title- The Secret World of Og, a Canadian tale from the 50's that seems to be much-beloved and not readily found at your local US library.  This was all probably elementary school stuff, so maybe I'll try something earlier than teen for my February read, since I can't seem to think of anything that fits the bill there.  Notice how all these are sci-fi/fantasy type?  I also remember reading the first 4 or so of Isaac Asimov's Norby series in elementary school.  Anyway, I've been having fun romping around Amazon, finding old friends from the bookshelf.

Lulu: Pardon.

Ahem....

Lynness emailed me that post below and I assumed she wanted it on the family blog, so I copied and pasted it...and it became enormous. So...I apologize, and have no idea how to fix it.

Abby?

Lulu: What a cool assignment!

Aunt Rae, I am SO thrilled about this month's assignment. I love a good re-read, but especially a nostalgic re-read.

First, I'm going to read A Room Made of Windows, by Eleanor Cameron. I don't remember a whole lot of the subject matter--I loved the main character, Julia, and her room with tons of windows (hence the title), and I remember loving the way I felt as I read it. So I'm excited to read it again.

I might also re-read the Wrinkle in Time series, Jane Eyre, or Dragonwyck.

Lynness- February: reads revisited

Maybe I grew up early, or maybe I still haven't...I still occasionally re-read many of the same books I read as a tween and teen: A Wrinkle in Time, etc., Anne of Green Gables, etc., King of the Wind and Misty of Chincoteague, Madeline Brent's Tregaron's Daughter, Stranger at Wildings, and Moonraker's Bride (these were introduced to me by my 8th grade English teacher), and Jane Eyre.  I'm trying to figure out what else I loved then that I don't already have and haven't read since then.