WWW Wednesdays – June 27, 2012

Before I start this update, let me ask you this. Did you hear about this school principal who challenged his students to read 10,000 books in the school year? He lost his bet and had to dress as Lady Gaga and got to milk a cow. I know you won’t believe me until you see it!

My bookshelf

– What I’m currently reading

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. After the obnoxious Fifty Shades of Grey, this is a much more enjoyable read.

 

– What I recently finished reading

The Enchantress by Michael Scott. This is the last book of the series and my very favorite. I love how Scott wraps up everything so nicely, where it all makes sense. Wrapping up the past with the present, ending a world to start a new one. And what happens to Josh is brilliant, I never saw it coming. I recommend this series not only to young adult readers but to anyone looking for a great adventure, full of magic, mythology, courage, revenge, evil, and lots of good. I can’t believe they haven’t made movies out of this series yet.

 

 – What I think I’ll read next

The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller. 

 

My kids’ bookshelf

– What they’re currently reading
– Baby Brains, and Baby Brains and RoboMom by Simon James. In Baby Brains, Mr & Mrs Brain’s new baby happens to be very intelligent and gets to do a lot of things reserved for grown-ups. But a space walk far away from Earth reminds everyone that Baby Brains is still just a baby. In Baby Brains and RoboMom, Baby Brains invents RoboMom to do all the household chores and give his tired parents a rest. But RoboMom is overzealous and ends up overheating…
– Dog Tales by Jennifer Rae. This book tells several fairy tales from a dog’s perspective, including “Cindersmelly,” “Jack Russell and the Beanstalk,” and “The Doberman’s New Clothes.” Of course, a dog’s book wouldn’t be complete without wisecracking cats commenting on the stories. Guess who has the last laugh.

– What they recently finished reading
– The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. Although we enjoy The Cat in the Hat’s DVDs and my kids have learned a few things watching them, I really can’t stand this book. The cat is so obnoxious, making a huge mess and waiting until the last minute to clean things up. You can see the poor kids are really sweating it! “Your mother won’t mind at all if I do.” Yeah, right.
– Sneakers, the Seaside Cat by Margaret Wise Brown. In this book with very lively illustrations (Sneakers looks so real my kids wanted to kiss him), a little cat named Sneakers experiences the sights, sounds, and smells of an ocean beach, just like a young child would.

– What I think they’ll read next
I have no idea! What about you? Any books you or your kids are reading you’d like to share?

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WWW Wednesdays – June 20, 2012

Oops, my WWW Wedsnesdays is one day late! What can I say? Work projects and my kids interfered with my blogging time. At least I have my priorities straight, right?

My bookshelf

 – What I’m currently reading
I’m finishing up The Enchantress by Michael Scott, paying my 25-cent-per-day fine because I couldn’t finish it by the time it was due. But it’s all worth it and I’ll review it next week. 

 

– What I recently finished reading

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James. This book is garbage, absolute garbage. Erotica is not one of my genres, so I’d never read it if it weren’t for my book club. Even though I skimmed the last 3/4 of the book, those are a few hours of my life I’ll never get back. Reading this book is like watching porn: lots of bad sex scenes, and no substance in between. With better writing and editing, the story would have been 100 pages. This book looks like it was written by a teenage girl who can’t write and has limited vocabulary. I have no idea how many times I read roll her eyes, smirked, muttered, mumbled, bit my lip, cocked his head, and so on, but I’m sure someone has kept a tally. The 22-year old female character is more naive and gullible than a 12-year old. The 27-year old character is perfect: billionaire, the most beautiful man in the world, he speaks fluent French, and is working on solving world hunger. Pleeeeeaaaase. The sex scenes would have been the best part of the book if they hadn’t been so repetitive and laughable. Anastasia has orgasms by just hearing her name and have Christian look at her. Right. If you haven’t read this book but still want to, do it at your own risk. I bet any other book in that genre will be better than this one.

 

 – What I think I’ll read next

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. Perfect summer read, I hope.

 

My kids’ bookshelf

– What they’re currently reading
– Pete & Pickles by Berkeley Breathed, the author of the Bloom County comic strip. This book will have to go on my 2012 list of favorites! It is funny, heartwrenching and inspiring all at once. I think I heard my kids say wow, and I know I did too. This is the story of Pete the pig is lonely and sad but doesn’t know he is. When Pickles the elephant turns his life upside down, Pete eventually realizes that a perfectly predictable, practical, and uncomplicated life is not always better, and he finds a new friend along the way. A MUST READ!
– Meet Wild Boars by Meg Rosoff. You can try as much as you can but it’s very hard making friends with wild boars because they’re dirty and smelly, bad-tempered, and rude. Spoiler alert: the end is quite shocking, and smelly. My boys loved this book.
– Spuds by Karen Hesse. Maybelle, Jack, and Eddie want to help their mom by putting something extra on the table, so they decide to go out at night and take potatoes from a nearby field. But it’s hard to pick potatoes out of the dirt in the dark. When they get home and empty their sacks, they’re shocked to realize they only harvested rocks. But a kind and caring farmer may end up helping the thieves after all… This is a wonderful story about kids trying to help out a parent, facing disappointment after hard work and how something negative  can turn into something positive.

– What they recently finished reading
– Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak but we read it in French as Max et les Maximonstres. You can’t go wrong with a classic, which we’ve read in English many times. I’m glad my library has the French version and the kids enjoyed it.
– A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. To remain popular at school, Camilla Cream always does what the other kids expect her to do, even pretend she dislikes lima beans when she loves then, until the day she ends up covered in stripes. A great book on peer pressure and the importance of self-identity.

– What I think they’ll read next
I have no idea! What about you? Any books you or your kids are reading you’d like to share?

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WWW Wednesdays – June 13, 2012

My bookshelf

 – What I’m currently reading
The Enchantress by Michael Scott, the last in the series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. It’s 500 pages long, due at the library in six days and I already know I can’t renew it. I also have to read Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James for my book club meeting at the end of the month. Since I got my copy from a friend who hasn’t read the book yet, I need to give it back to her by next week. Did I say it was another 500-page book? HELP!

 

– What I recently finished reading

A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron, the sequel to his bestseller A Dog’s Purpose. A Dog’s Purpose was one of my favorite books in 2011 and this one will make it to my 2012 favorites list. I wasn’t sure how the author would be able to pull off the sequel, after such an interesting initial storytelling twist. I mean, how many times can you reincarnate a dog without running out of steam? Well, Cameron did it and I gulped it all the way down to the last page, laughing, crying, feeling inspired, over and over. And I’m not even a dog person. Brilliant storytelling that makes us care about the characters, the story, and life in general. A MUST READ!

 

 – What I think I’ll read next

Hopefully I won’t need to return this book before I’m done reading it, but I’m planning to read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares.

 

My kids’ bookshelf

– What they’re currently reading
– Chalk by Bill Thomson. This beautifully illustrated wordless book tells the story of three children visiting a playground, finding some chalk, and drawing pictures that come to life, including a lifesize Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yikes!
– Flap Your Wings by P.D. Eastman. A boy finds an egg without a nest and puts it in a nest without an egg. Mr and Mrs Bird think the egg is a little big but take care of it. When it hatches, surprise, it’s a baby alligator! But the birds do their parental duty and keep feeding him until he’s too big for the nest. All he has to do then is “flap his wings” to leave…
– Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent by Lauren Child. Hubert Horatio is a prodigal child but his wealthy parents happen to be terrible spenders and about to lose the family estate. Hubert sets off to find a way to convince his parents to become more thrifty and save what little money they have left. A great lesson in money management, showing what can really happen when you blow it all.

– What they recently finished reading
– Dear Fish by Chris Gall. While at the beach, a small boy writes an invitation to the fish to come for a visit, puts the paper in a bottle and throws it into the ocean. What comes next is a little more than he expected. 
– No David! and David Gets in Trouble by David Shannon. David is a young boy who likes to get in trouble but figures out a way to apologize by the end of the day. This is the second time we’re borrowing the David books from the library and my kids can’t get enough of them.

– What I think they’ll read next
I have no idea! What about you? Any books you or your kids are reading you’d like to share?

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WWW Wednesdays – June 6, 2012

My bookshelf

A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron

– What I’m currently reading

A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron, the sequel to his bestseller A Dog’s Purpose, one of the BEST books I read last year. I read the first three chapters last night and I couldn’t put it down, but I figured I did enough crying for one night. I can’t wait to see what happens to Buddy in his new brand life!

 

– What I recently finished reading

Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him by Luis Carlos Montalvan. I really enjoyed reading this book, even though some parts were tough (the horrors of war) and others made me angry (the lack of strategy during the war, the VA’s poor treatment of PTSD and our soldiers’ health and minds overall, the discrimination against service dogs and the disabled, etc). Montalvan is a true soldier, courageous in the field and on the street. Even though he’s not part of the Army anymore, he continues to fight for his fellow veterans, their rights and their well-being. And Tuesday… Well, he’s Tuesday and he’s perfect, unaware of how much he’s done to save a lost veteran and give him traction again.  Everyone should read this book to understand the struggles our soldiers go through when they come back from combat wounded and confused.

 

 – What I think I’ll read next

The Enchantress by Michael Scott, the fifth and last (GASP!) installment of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. I really want to know how it all ends, but I really don’t want it to end!

 

My kids’ bookshelf

– What they’re currently reading

The duckling gets a cookie by Mo Willems

– The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems. Willems’ famous pigeon is very angry when the duckling gets a cookie just by asking politely. The ending is hilarious! The duckling kindly gives his cookie to Pigeon, but that’s because it has nuts and the duckling doesn’t like nuts!
– Dinosaur Cove – Attack of the Tyrannosaurus Rex by Rex Stone. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this book but my kids love it. What’s not to love about two boys who discover a secret entrance to a prehistoric world filled with dinosaurs at the back of a cave? This happens to be the first in the series so we’ll be reading more of them soon. The book is at the third-grade reading level but my kindergartner reads it with me out loud. An interesting topic is the key when it comes to reading!

– What they recently finished reading
– We’re gadly revisiting the wonderful Mercy Watson books by the brilliant Kate DiCamillo. The illustrations are so perfect for the text, it makes reading time a delight! My favorite books so far have to be Mercy Watson Fights Crime and Mercy Watson – Something Wonky This Way Comes. Both feature Leroy Ninker, a small man who longs to be a cowboy but can’t help himself being a thief…
– I know I’ve mentioned these books before but we’re reading them again since  they’re so good and worth sharing. Regis Faller, a talented French comic strip author, entertains us with his Polo the dog books, where imagination and creativity flow, mostly wordless. My kids love to love at the books and narrate the story strip by strip. So far we’ve read The Adventures of Polo, Polo and The Dragon, Polo and Lily, and  Polo and the Runaway Book.

– What I think they’ll read next
We still have lots of unread library books and still more are coming in – not a dull moment. What about you? Any books you or your kids are reading you’d like to share?

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