We just read Pinkalicious by sisters Victoria Kann & Elizabeth Kann. We enjoyed Goldilicious so much that we wanted to read this one, which was actually published first. Now, we’ll just have to get our hands on Purplicious, and our “licious” life will be complete.
We just read Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg & Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth (who also did the collages).
It’s the children’s version of Three Cups of Tea, which I read two years ago. It tells the story of building a bridge and a school for the children of Korphe.
The story was very simple, so I had to answer questions about veils on girls and why they wear them and boys don’t. I also explained that girls in that part of the world often aren’t allowed to go to school.
The Pearson Foundation has a nice video of Mortenson and his daughter explaining the Pennies for Peace program, which was set up to educate children and give them a way to help.
He also has a “youth” version of his book and a song, featuring Jeni Fleming and his daughter, Amira.
Speaking of pennies, maybe we should send that fancy Lincoln bicentennial penny and the rest from my son’s money unit at school to Pennies for Peace. Eh?
I just finished reading Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber. What a great mystery and thriller! I read her book Crescent (enjoyed it very much), which had a completely different feel to it. Abu-Jaber is a wonderful writer. I love her descriptions.
Did you know there’s a Little House on the Prairie Cookbook? It’s called The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker and illustrated by Garth Williams. This would be a great addition to our Little House library.
Anne-Marie Nichols wrote about it at her blog, This Mama Cooks! She has lots of great information, recipes and lists of other books and activities to celebrate reading in March.
So I’m on page 13 of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, thoroughly enjoying myself and the way she writes, thinking, “Hey, I really like this author.” Can anyone tell me why I’ve never read her before? Ah well. At least now I know what I was missing.
I just finished reading Salt Dancers by Ursula Hegi. It’s the story of Julia, who revisits dark family issues when she travels from one coast to the other to return home after more than 20 years away. She wants to understand what went wrong with her family so she can avoid that with the child she’s expecting. It’s haunting and painful, yet it’s also hopeful. And, oh, so familiar.
I’ve said before that we love Dr. Seuss in this house. We have plenty Dr. Seuss books on the shelf, but we have several everywhere else — in the dollhouse, beside pillows and under covers, on the coffee table, in the toybox, in the bathroom. My kids enjoyed looking through my old My Book About Me By Me, which I got when I was about their age. They each got one last year for Christmas.
As I look at the titles, I realize we have read every one of them, some of them many, many times (we went through a serious Horton Hears a Who! phase a while back). We love them all. Well, I don’t care much for Fox in Socks. That was a dirty, dirty trick, Dr. Seuss, that would drive any parent to drink. At least the ones who actually try to read it out loud at bedtime. I mean, c’mon.
Through three cheese trees
three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew,
freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made
these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made
these trees’ cheese freeze.
That’s what made these
three free fleas sneeze.
(from Fox in Sox: A Tongue Twister for Super Children by Dr. Seuss)
Seriously? Children. “You have em, I’ll entertain em.” Indeed, Dr. Smart-Aleck.
But really. You gave us The Eye Book, The Foot Book and The Sleep Book. Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop. The Lorax, Sneetches and the Grinch. Most of all, you gave us playful rhythms, language acrobatics and a wonderful carnival ride into the world of your imagination.
If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you.
If you’d never been born, well then what would you do?
If you’d never been born, well then what would you be?
You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes.
Or worse than all that . . . Why, you might be a WASN’T!
A Wasn’t has no fun at all. No, he doesn’t.
A Wasn’t just isn’t. He just isn’t present.
But you . . . You ARE YOU! And, now isn’t that pleasant! (from Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss)
We’re so glad you had a birthday and that YOU were YOU. Thank you for that. And from all of us in my home, happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!
I just finished reading Home by Marilynne Robinson. It was a closer look at some of the people in Gilead. A bit darker than Gilead (not as dark as Housekeeping, though) but just as insightful. Robinson is an amazing writer.
Our next Read a Million Minutes selection was Snow Day! by Patricia Lakin. Fun read and appropriate for our winter.
I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Books don’t usually make me cry. I can count on one hand the books that did make me cry: Middlesex, The Kite Runner, Final Salute. This one made me cry more than once. OK. I’ve been in a weepy place lately, but still. It moved me.
I was skeptical when I first started reading. A white woman telling black women’s stories, speaking in “less educated” voices. The white women’s voices didn’t have one stray “ain’t.” Really? Hmm.
But I got sucked right in. I identified with one character more than others, and I’m guessing that means I identify with the author “by and large.” (She said the story was fictional, by and large.)
Oh, it was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with. If I’d had a sister or a brother closer in age, I guessed that’s what it would be like. But it wasn’t just smoking or skirting around Mother. It was having someone look at you after your mother has nearly fretted herself to death because you are freakishly tall and frizzy and odd. Someone whose eyes simply said, without words, You are fine with me.
A few things I could see coming a mile away, although I don’t think this story necessarily needs to “surprise” me. Even though I tend to believe the best in people, I know about the worst. So I can usually sense when something bad is coming. (Oh, if only that were always true in my real life. *sigh*)
Everyone who told me this was a great book, though, was right. It’s a compelling read.
