The Sunday Salon - Not a Good March

I have never done end of the month wrap ups on my blog.  Yes, others do it, yes, I read them on others' blogs, yes, it's fun to see the stats, but I just don't do it.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe this past month is a good reason why I don't. 

March was not good to me as far as reading went.  For what it's worth, April hasn't taken off with a bang either, but my plan is to remedy that before the month gets away from me.  Anyway, back to March.  Did I even finish a book?  According to Goodreads, I did...Adventures in Nowhere, but it was at the very beginning of the month, so it's just a blur in my memory.  Did I do a lot of reading?  Not as much as I would have liked, but I started some books:  Alice in Zombieland, Hailey Twitch and the Great Teacher Switch, and The Wilder Life.  These are all good books, but they just didn't hold my attention.  I've been in a reading slump before, but enough already!  I want a book that will "catch" me.  So, last night I started reading Hourglass while I took a bath.  2 chapters in and so far so good...let's hope it lives up to all the blogger hype.  I really need to get through this one, for me, for my reading inspiration, for the love of blogging.

April is a busy work month for me, but I've got to learn to prioritize so that it doesn't consume me.  For those of you with children or who are in the education industry, you know that states give standardized tests.  The end of the month is the TAKS, Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, test in Math and Reading for our 3rd and 4th graders.  They have been busily preparing, we have been anxiously stressing over practice test scores, etc.  Once it's over, I'll be able to breathe a whole lot easier and so will my teachers.

After that, it's adoption anticipation.  We went for our 2nd and final day of PRIDE training yesterday.  Now, we have CPR/first aid on Friday, our home study on the 13th, psychotropic meds on the 14th and then behavior management on the 23rd.  We've got almost all of our paperwork turned in, so after the 23rd, she can submit for our license and then we just wait on a phone call.  My oldest step-daughter is coming over today to help me clean out and redo the middle room for a nursery and my mom's coming to go get the material for all the nursery "stuff."  My grandmother and I will spend next Saturday sewing everything.  It will make for a long day, but in the end, it will be so worth it.  This is the material that we will be using.

 

It's gender neutral because we won't know if we'll be getting a boy or a girl until the phone call comes.  We don't have a preference one way or the other, just a healthy baby to love.  It's amazing to think that our life will change overnight and I'm trying to prepare for it in a month.  Pregnant women have 9 months to do all of that...hmmm...maybe I'm crazy!

Review: Stuart Murphy's I See I Learn Series

When I was a classroom teacher, I used Stuart Murphy's MathStart books to teach math concepts to my children.  Well, Mr. Murphy is back with a new series to help children learn skills important for school and life, called the I See I Learn series.  Thanks to Charlesbridge Publishing, I was fortunate to receive two of the books in the series, for review.

Title:  Percy Gets Upset

Author:  Stuart J. Murphy

Review Copy Provided by:  Charlesbridge Publishing

About the Book:  Sometimes Percy gets upset. He scowls and stamps his feet. But when he learns to take a deep breath, count to ten, and talk about his feelings, he can calm down. When Percy's not upset, he can have fun again! 

My Thoughts:  This is a great book to use with young children and teach who deal with frustration, being grouchy, being cranky and/or being angry.  It is all about emotional skills and what a child can do to deal with those appropriately and ultimately become happy again.  Children can relate to Percy because he feels as they would when they're upset.  Through the story, Percy teaches children how to stop being upset.  The colors are vivid in the illustrations, the pictures eye catching, and the print large enough for a read - aloud to children or for older children to read themselves.

I can see this book being used in classrooms and/or counselor's offices with children 2-7.  It is recommended for 2-5, but I think older children, maybe up to 2nd grade would enjoy it if used as a read - aloud to spark discussion.  One of the things I love about Stuart Murphy's books is the discussion questions that he adds at the end.  You won't have to come up with questions on your own, because they are provided for you.

Title:  Camille's Team

Author:  Stuart J. Murphy

Review Copy Provided by:  Charlesbridge Publishing

About the Book:  Camille loves to build sand forts at the beach. But it's hard to build a big fort alone. Camille and her friends make a plan. They find that they can get more done--and have more fun--when they work together.  

My Thoughts:  Where Percy dealt with emotional skills in children, Camille's Team deals with social skills.  It teaches children how to work together.  There's even a plan that children can follow:  make a plan, work together, and share the fun.  In Stuart Murphy fashion, the pictures are vivid and eye catching, exactly what children like to see.

Again, there are discussion questions that lend themselves to opening up a classroom discussion or even a discussion with your young son or daughter.  This is a great series to help young children learn important life skills!

Blog Tour: Adventures in Nowhere

I am pleased to be participating in another blog tour for Pump Up Your Book Promotions!

 

Title:  Adventures in Nowhere

Author:  John Ames

Review Copy Provided by:  publisher, Pineapple Press

About the Book:  Before Disney and far from the palm-lined Florida beaches, ten-year-old Danny Ryan is transplanted to a tiny community on the hyacinth-choked Hillsborough River outside Tampa, a place his older sister calls Nowhere. But for Danny and his best friend, the irrepressible Alfred Bagley, whose fondest desire is to grow up to be a junk dealer, Nowhere is where adventures lurk and lure them into more trouble than they can handle. More trouble is not what Danny needs as he copes with a family that includes a father sinking into schizophrenia; two sisters, one very ill and the other ready to run away with a shady boyfriend; and a mother trying her best to hold it all together.  

My Thoughts:  This wasn't an easy book for me to get into.  I'm not sure why, though.  After I got past the first chapter or so, it was an easy read.

This story is written from a young boy's perspective and set in the 1950's.  It takes the reader back to a time when youth was innocent, and young kids could run free without being afraid.  It's a very compelling coming of age story.

I loved Danny's character!  He was strong, witty, and independent.  Danny is like many kids today who come from a troubled family.  He does what he needs to do, within himself, to get through his childhood and become a strong, independent adult.    His family is dysfunctional: a dying sister, a father who could blow his top, at any moment, and a mom who tries to hold it all together, the best she can.  He doesn't have many friends, but the ones he does have stick by him.  John Ames has written a wonderful character in Danny; one I'd like to know in real life.

The story pulls you in, takes hold, and doesn't let go, even after you've turned the last page.  Ames has written a winner.  Open the cover and take a trip back in time with Danny; you'll be glad you did!

Review: Tell the Truth B.B. Wolf

Title:  Tell the Truth B.B. Wolf
Author/Illustrator:  Judy Sierra/J. Otto Seibold

Review Copy Provided by:  Knopf Books for Young Readers



About the Book:  Big Bad Wolf’s first visit to his local library (as related in Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf) was such a success that he returns to tell his version of “The Three Little Pigs.” His outrageous spin on the tale draws skeptical remarks from his audience: “Isn’t that wolf’s nose getting longer?” asks Pinocchio. “It’s a cooked-up, half-baked tale,” snaps the Gingerbread Boy. And “Tell the truth, B.B. Wolf!” squeal the Three Little Pigs. Caught in his own lie, B.B. explains that he is a reformed villain: “Now I’m begging on my knees, Little Pigs, forgive me, please!” How B.B. turns his bad old deed into a good new one provides a happy ending to this fun-to-read fractured fairytale.

My Thoughts:   As a teacher, I read many versions of The Three Little Pigs, even ones from the wolf's point of view.  Well, here is a new one and the wolf is at it again.

I really enjoyed Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf.  It was a fun story with bold illustrations.  I have not read Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf, but that didn't make a difference.  You don't need to have read it first to be able to understand this story.  In the story, B.B. Wolf tries to tell his side of the story, but he keeps getting interrupted by other storybook characters.  I loved how the author tied all of these stories together using the characters.  It is a great way to introduce young kids to many storybook characters that they might not know.  Many of these characters, like the little pigs, the gingerbread man, Pinocchio, etc. have been replaced by Dora and Spongebob.  Today's children may not know who these characters are, but books like this one will allow them to meet them, get to know them, and hopefully grow to love them, like we did as kids.

There are some lessons to be learned from B.B. Wolf as well.  He wants the pigs to forgive him, so he asks the other storybook characters to help him come up with a new name.  What else could B.B. stand for?  I could see this as a great activity for kids, after finishing the book.  They could write their ideas for B.B.'s new name and why they think he should have that name.  B.B. also apologizes to the pigs, so apologies could be discussed as well.  I think there is a lot to be learned from this book even though many will just see it as a fun read.

Tell the Truth B.B Wolf was a great read.  It was laugh out loud funny and I would read it over and over again to children.

Review: The Fates Will Find Their Way

Title:  The Fates Will Find Their Way

Author:  Hannah Pittard

Publication Date:  January 25, 2011 by Ecco

Review Copy Provided by:  publisher

About the Book - from Goodreads:  Sixteen-year-old Nora Lindell is missing. And the neighborhood boys she's left behind are caught forever in the heady current of her absence. As the days and years pile up, the mystery of her disappearance grows kaleidoscopically. A collection of rumors, divergent suspicions, and tantalizing what-ifs, Nora Lindell's story is a shadowy projection of teenage lust, friendship, reverence, and regret, captured magically in the disembodied plural voice of the boys who still long for her.
Told in haunting, percussive prose, Hannah Pittard's beautifully crafted novel tracks the emotional progress of the sister Nora left behind, the other families in their leafy suburban enclave, and the individual fates of the boys in her thrall. Far more eager to imagine Nora's fate than to scrutinize their own, the boys sleepwalk into an adulthood of jobs, marriages, families, homes, and daughters of their own, all the while pining for a girl–and a life–that no longer exists, except in the imagination.

My Thoughts:  When I first read the synopsis for this book, I thought it was YA, but as I read, I thought it might be adult fiction.  How could I have those thoughts?  Well, the book begins with everyone as teenagers, in high school, doing things that teenagers do.  But, the book is told in more of a "looking back" mode.  The characters are adults recalling their teenage days and how they got to where they are now.

This was a different read for me, because it is told from the male point of view.  While different, I enjoyed it.  Girls, women, are always wondering how the male brain works, and Pittard does a good job of getting into the male psyche for us.  There are many stories that relive high school from a female point of view, but it was amusing to hear it from the opposite sex.  They truly do think a lot about the female anatomy!

When Nora Lindell, age 16, disappeared, it left her sister and their group of friends wondering just what happened to her.  Although Pittard never really tells the reader the whole truth, we can piece parts of it together based on present day happenings in the book.  The boys in the group do a lot of speculating about what happened to her though.  Some scenarios are more plausible than others.  Nora is never forgotten, as some of the guys think they see her in various places as they are growing up and starting their own lives.

I think Pittard does a great job of putting into words and story form, what many of us do throughout our lives, wonder "what if."  What if we had done this, what if she had never disappeared, who would she have married?  Admit it, you've done it.  As an adult, I think we all wish we could go back to high school and maybe "do-over" some of our not so great moments.  We have all had those what if thoughts, and Pittard brings them to life, through the eyes of the boys.

Buy it at Amazon
Buy it at Powells
Buy it at IndieBound