Intense, but not scary

 This book that was recommended is called Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem.  My friend, Ann, told me that her 5th grade daughter, Paige, loves this book.  They are reading it for their school's book club, and it is one of the first book's that Paige has really been drawn into....so of course, I had to read it to see what was making Paige read so feverishly.  It is a fantastic story!  It is about a girl named Lucy who is 13 years old.  She is an only child to two extremely career-oriented parents.  Her mother is the American Ambassador to Ethiopia, and she has been relocated to Ethiopia to work and reside.  Lucy spends her days in a gated community with protection and many rules and not a lot of freedom.  As a teenager, she resents this and sneaks out and gets grounded.  This only fuels her desire for more freedom and adventure in a country she feels misplaced.  She is a minority in Ethiopia on many levels:  1.  She is a white American  2.  She is rich and 3. Her mother is a very important political figure.  She wishes she could explore the wildlife around here and hang out with her friends, but she is not permitted such freedoms.  She spends her days at home while her parents are at work where she builds card houses and dreams of a "normal" life.
She has one close friend, and together the two of them sneak out to the local market for some fun.  This is where the action starts, Lucy is kidnapped by drug dealers and taken to a secluded locale.  She is able to escape, but only to discover she is miles away from civilization in the wilderness of Ethiopia that she dreamed of....except it is not quite dreamlike...no shoes, no water, no food....but a constant beating sun, lions, monkeys and drug dealers on her tail.  A great action packed story that is full of intense adventure, but not too scary for the younger reader.

No TV Nights

 Starting last night, our family has decided to go without any television in the evenings Monday through Friday until Easter Sunday.  The evenings have been filled with the wrong type of noise for too long.  The noise of the television is one that gives me a headache quicker than a room full of 5th grade boys having a burping contest.  And I also feel time is going by so quickly, and I want to be a little selfish and grab some more time with the boys. So last night after bath time, I went from room to room scooping up books (even as organized as I think I am...there are still books strewn all over the house out of order....shocking, I know).  A parade of two followed me downstairs to our big comfy chair where the reading began.  We started with Everyone Poops....one guaranteed to make my boys laugh.....how can you not laugh when "an elephant makes a big poop"?
The reading continued for a good 45 minutes, and then we went up to bed for a few more books.  Nate & Benny picked out their favorites of the evening.  Nate selected Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky you Are? by Dr. Seuss.  He loves the illustrations ....he enjoys looking through them to find hidden gems such as someone sleeping or something about to fall on someone's head.  They both love the sing-songy prose, and I believe they enjoy laughing when I stumble over phases like "Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on Watch-Watcher-Watchering Watch-Watch-Watching theWatcher who is watching the bee."  Benny selected one of my favorites....The Day the Babies Crawled Away by Peggy Rathman.  Such a sweet, sweet book about a group of little babies who crawl away during a neighborhood picnic, and the only one who notices is a small boy.  He follows them and keeps them safe and fed as they explore the woods, caves, & bogs with all types of small animals.  The book reads so sweetly and is a perfect nighttime book.  The illustrations are shadows and very cleverly done.  Again, there are hidden items in the story that my boys love to find.  For example, there is a little caterpillar that befriends the boy and seems to aide him in rescuing the babies (though there is no foreshadowing of any real danger).  The caterpillar makes an appearance in each page all the way to the end when the babies are all back home safe in their beds.  We adore this story. 
We shall see how this no TV experiment goes....the older boys were at a basketball game with dad, so they were not home.  I am hoping to read a Little Hugo Cabret with Henry tonight or maybe some Harry Potter with Calvin.  Read On, my friends.

Here is another one that my friend Jill lent me, and I loved it!  It is called Sister by Rosamund Lupton.  (I love the name Rosamund).  It is a story of two sisters who have a close relationship...one that I would love to have with a sister, but sigh....I do not have a sister.  The older more responsible sister, Beatrice, lives in New York City while her younger sister, Tess lives in London.  Tess is a free-spirited who lives in the moment and sees beauty in everything.  One day, Beatrice receives a phone call that Tess has gone missing.  She grabs the first flight to London and begins to uncover just what has happened to her sister.  The police think she is crying wolf & refuse to take her seriously, her fiancee thinks she is overreacting & wants her to resume her "normal" life in NY, and her mother refuses to face reality.  Beatrice is alone and trying desperately to trace her sister's last known steps.  The story moves fast and always keeps you guessing....just when you think you have things figured out...you are lead down another carefully crafted path until the end.  I loved the characters of the sisters as well as their great names....Thanks again Jill...keep them coming!

 

We  have added another author to our list of picture book favorites!  Oliver Jeffers!  This is our third book that we have read by him, and find them all funny and endearing and quite original.  This is Stuck.

This is a story of Floyd and what happens when his kite gets stuck in the tree.  He has many brilliant ideas of what could possibly dislodge his kite, and they each get more outlandish than the rest.  My boys were laughing at each page especially when the whale makes its entrance.  The illustrations are wonderful and original....my boys and I spent a lot of time just looking at how fun the whole book is. 

We also read Lost & Found and The Incredible Book Eating Boy. We are going to be grabbing more books by Oliver Jeffers!

Page Turner

  I stayed up .late last night to finish this book:  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close A Novel  by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I was leery about this book in the beginning because it took some time for me to get comfortable with the writing style.  It starts from the voice of a unusually intelligent and mature 9 year-old Oskar.  He has lost his father on September 11th in the World Trade Center.  He has a secret he has kept since then and feels it is his burden to carry.  His father was the most important part of his life, and Oskar spends his days trying to keep this relationship alive by searching for a lock that can be opened by the key he found in his father's closet.  He embarks on a journey through New York City meeting all kinds of people who help him indirectly.  He discovers secrets that everyone around him hold onto in fear of letting the truth out.  Secrets his grandmother keeps locked inside, and  eventually, the reader, gains insight to Oskar and his father's family.  I was confused at times, but that is what drove my desire to keep reading.  I made guesses as to the outcome, and some I pieced together while others were craftly woven throughout to help make a complete and satisfying ending.  I am glad my husband bought me this book which I would never have read on my own.  

Last Night, I read The OK Book  by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld to Henry & Nate. Benny fell asleep on the couch and missed out on story time. We have had this book for awhile, and we love it.  The main character is a little kid who is a stick figure that forms the word OK....very cute.  Throughout the story, the OK kid (as we call him) tries out all kinds of things.  He tries baseball, swimming, kite flying and sharing just to name a few.  He is OK at all these things, and that is OK because one day he will be very excellent at something....he just doesn't know what.  

Here is one of our favorite pictures. Marshmallow roasting is a hard skill to perfect!  This is a book that makes us smile and realize that life is not about being the best at everything, but having some fun trying out new things.  We love it!

Newspaper Boy

                Earlier this week, I finished Sue Corbett's The Last Newspaper Boy in America.  This is one that I am going to recommend to my 5th & 6th graders including my own son.  I read somewhere that what truly makes a great book is not the plot, but the characters in the story.  If the characters are endearing....if the characters really make you  care about them...then you have a good story.  The characters in this book were incredibly endearing to me.  It takes place in a rural small town in Pennsylvania where hard times have hit.  The local hairpin factory has been bought out and left empty for years leaving the townspeople unemployed and money hungry.  The story focuses on the David family.  The mother Magnolia, is a avid book reader-walker who writes book reviews and can always been found with a book in her hand.  She is a woman after my own heart.  Junior AKA dad is unemployed, but he still takes care of the hairpin factory in hopes of a potential buyer.   He is a forever optimist who looks at his unemployment as a blessing, for he now has time to cook and bake which is his true passion.  They have 3 boys:  Trace, the eldest and the artist, Sonny, the middle child who is a charmer yet a bit naive and then the youngest Wil.  The story focuses on Wil who turns 12 during this story and is about to take over the family newspaper route from Sonny.  Bad news descends when they learn the newspaper is going to cancel delivery to their small town. Wil is devastated.  He has been looking forward to carrying on the newspaper tradition as well as earning some extra money.  This triggers the action of the story into fast moving adventure about a family learning about each other, the people of their town and themselves.  I believe readers of all ages will find something to love about this story.