April 21, 2009 at 10:06 pm (Uncategorized)
Since hearing Jim Trelease at a library conference explain that children’s reading and listening vocabularies don’t align until at least grade eight, I’ve made sure to continue to read aloud to my boys. My eldest suffered from being let loose to read primarily on his own once he was able to and I can definitely see how the youngest has benefited from a richer read-aloud experience. His vocabulary is richer and his tendency to follow the text as I read has helped his own reading pace as well. There are definitely personality differences at play as well. The eldest gravitates towards sports stories and, frankly, there aren’t a lot of them with much in the way of complex plot twists.
After thoroughly enjoying Heroes of the Valley, we went back to try Jonathan Stroud’s earlier books in The Bartimeaus Trilogy. The cheeky djinni was a popular read, but I’m really looking forward to getting to know Kitty and the Resistance in The Golem’s Eye. I think Kitty and Bartimeaus will both be quite hard on Nathaniel!
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March 23, 2009 at 8:48 pm (Book reviews, Nonfiction Monday)
One of the pleasures as my children grow up is that when we take car trips now sometimes my sons read to me. Since their choices are usually fact and photo-filled nonfiction books, I often have to grab them later to fill in some of the gaps, but it’s a wonderful treat for me and often stimulates a lot of discussion as we contemplate all the new facts we are learning.
DK’s See How It’s Made was one of the favourites this week and, while I lament the eldest’s resulting decreased enthusiasm for eating cheese (the cheese cow really is much dirtier looking than the ice cream cow!), the book is a definite winner. An overview of each item (such as cotton t-shirts, CDs, pointe shoes and sausages) is followed by a two-page spread with both an “At a glance” and expanded versions of the step-by-step process involved in making each item. The photography and explanations work well together and many hours can be spent absorbed with this super book.
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March 22, 2009 at 8:36 am (Links)
In a partnership between Nickolodeon and Mattel a new ‘tween’ Dora will emerge this fall targetted to girls 5 and up. From what I can tell no new show is planned, merely a whole line of commercial products especially a Dora Links doll that plugs into the computer where five-year-old girls can become enthusiastic online shoppers.
Video game characters help you remember the periodic table of elements over at I heart chaos. Clever idea. Given my limited knowledge of video games, I didn’t think it would help me at all. I was wrong. I will probably remember Curium (Cm) better than ever now that I can think of her and Cooking Mama together. Yes, Curium will forever be a female element for me now.
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March 21, 2009 at 3:19 pm (Uncategorized)
Actually, the opposite of madness. A week off from work with gorgeous weather spent in state parks and an indoor waterpark with my boys and friends has me feeling very relaxed. But still loving the basketball…
Reading notes.
The Mysterious Benedict Society just really didn’t grab me. Love those orphan stories, but this one didn’t work well for me. Was it Constance? The revelation about her at the end aggravated me rather than clearing things up for me. Surely someone would have asked her age at some point. Good grief.
One Beetle Too Many by Kathryn Lasky. Another great Darwin book. Matthew Trueman’s illustrations really enhance the text.
I’ve just started Do-over by Christine Hurley Deriso. I search of circulation patterns revealed that this is a tremendously popular book in our library and somehow I had missed all the buzz. So far so good. After moving to a new school, Elsa’s dead mother grants her the ability to redo the last ten seconds. Obviously a tempting power to have, albeit fraught with potential pitfalls.
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February 5, 2009 at 7:34 pm (Uncategorized)
Probably not. But I’ll try anyway. I’m going to the Computers in Libraries conference March 30 so I feel like I need to feel more comfortable with many things computer before then so the library gets their money’s worth! The current TBR pile includes: Graceling by Kristin Cashore, The Sacrifice by Kathleen Benner Duble, Savvy by Ingrid Law, The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding and 3 Willows by Ann Brashares. I’m most eager to read Graceling, but need to tackle this pile by due date because things are out of control so I’ve started with Sacrifice today. So far the characters have grabbed me. Abby is rebellious in a very tenuous way; her family filled with love and fear. And the witch hunts haven’t even started in earnest! I love historical fiction, but yet again am reminded how lucky I am to be alive in 2009.
Most appealing books that I catalogued today:
One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin by Kathryn Lasky (lots of great Charles Darwin books being published – will I get as sick of them as I am of Lincoln books?)
The Cow that was the best Moo-ther by Andy Cutbill for storytimes.
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July 9, 2008 at 9:39 am (Vacation reading)
Despite all the choices and time, I think I read less in the last 10 days or so than any other time during the last year. Car reading to the boys was The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas, a great read. I won’t go on about it here though since I already covered it here. Most of the books in the vacation reading pile have had to go back to the library, a sad, but inevitable fact of overly ambitious plans. Better luck this weekend?
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June 28, 2008 at 2:06 am (Vacation reading)
Vacation kicked off with the Staff Association providing ice cream sundaes at noon – great way to get in a summer mood! Neither my oldest son nor I listen well to audiobooks so I will probably squish between the boys in the back seat and read until my throat aches. They come back from overnight camp tomorrow so it’s hard to say what mood they’ll be in. I’ve checked out the following to offer up: Inkspell, Farmer Boy, Headless Cupid, The Magic Thief and Vampirates. My own choices: Great Expectations, Little Brother, On Etruscan Time, Straw into Gold, All Quiet on the Western Front, Ten Discoveries that Rewrote History and Edward VI. Do I really think I will read all these in 3 weeks?!? Don’t worry they won’t all get packed!
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June 26, 2008 at 10:58 pm (Challenges)
The 2nd Canadian Book Challenge appeals to me because as an expat, I don’t make enough effort to keep up on Canadian books. I’m hoping this will force me to do a better job keeping up with my homeland. Since I’ll be travelling to Montreal and Ottawa in August, I’m planning to hold off on declaring my choices before that trip. I’m open to suggestions before that though! I’ll be checking out the Toronto Public Library’s 100 Best Canadian Children’s Books as well. My double-dipping title is from the Daring Girls Challenge: Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy by Seymour Reit. While most of the story takes place in the U.S., like me, Emma Edmonds hailed from New Brunswick before moving to the U.S. Counts for me!
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June 25, 2008 at 10:36 pm (Award winners)
Before I can start in on these challenges, I needed to work my way through the piles of books I’ve had checked out or on hold already. A personal challenge for this year was to catch up on older Newbery winners and honors. One of the tasks for the Library’s summer reading program is to read an award winning book and I wanted to feel better prepared for those questions this summer. There is a lot of reading aloud in our schools and I find that the kids are already really familiar with the newer award books. I’ve read Johnny Tremain, My Brother Sam is Dead, Up a Road Slowly, Adam of the Road, The Matchlock Gun, and Calico Bush. So far Adam of the Road has been the big hit. It was a joy to watch one girl’s face light up at the mention of a minstrel. After a pretty obvious bias towards historical fiction this year, I suppose next year I should focus on all the animal books that have won the Newbery – that will be more of a chore for me. Sounds like one to read in anticipation of the upcoming Newbery is Underneath by Kathi Appelt. If it wins it will flow nicely into a year of animal Newberys.
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June 13, 2008 at 10:56 am (Challenges)
The third challenge I’m starting this summer involves my children’s cooperation and time so it may be a little trickier. The When I was Your Age Challenge involves reading three books I read as a child to my kids. With all the overnight camps and trips they have and the need to finish The Battle of the Labyrinth before starting these books, this may be tricky to fit in. The chosen books are:
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
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