The Fairy Rebel

Publisher's Comments:
The Fairy Queen strictly forbids fairies from using their magic power on humans. But after Tiki accidentally meets Jan, a woman who is desperate for a baby daughter, she finds it impossible to resist fulfilling her wish. Now up against the dark and vicious power of evil, this fairy rebel must face the Queen’s fury with frightening and possibly fatal results.

The Fairy Rebel, by Lynne Reid Banks, was sitting on the shelf at the library when I stopped by to pick up some books for my classroom last week. I was familiar with LRB because I had read her book, The Indian in the Cupboard, many years ago, so I brought this home to read hoping that it would be something I could read aloud to my second graders. It's actually written more for intermediate readers, and after reading it I thought it would be perfect for fourth or fifth graders.

I was immediately captured by this pink-haired, blue jeans-wearing, kindhearted rebel fairy, Tiki, and her elf friend, Wijic. It was fun to think of the world of faerie being right in your own backyard, and the chance encounter that brought all the characters together happening as Jan was sitting in her own garden.

A sweet little book for the classroom, and another fun read for Carl V's Once Upon a Time III challenge...

Classics of British Literature

B and I just finished a college course called "Classics of British Literature." No, we didn't have to register and go to classes during the week. We bought this class from The Teaching Company, and have enjoyed watching these lectures (48 of them) in the comfort of our own home, usually while we ate a bowl of sherbet after dinner one or two evenings a week. Each lecture was 30 minutes long, the lecturer was John Sutherland, and the course was a grand introduction to British literature from the earliest roots to the present.

More than just a survey course, Classics of British Literature shows you how Britain's cultural landscape acted upon its literature—and how, in turn, literature affected the cultural landscape. Professor Sutherland takes a historical approach to the wealth of works explored in these lectures, grounding them in specific contexts and, oftentimes, connecting them with one another.

While it is vital that we appreciate the universal and transcendent quality of literature, according to Professor Sutherland, we also need to appreciate "as fully as one can, the conditions that gave birth to these works of literature; to reinsert them, that is, back into history."

The end result is not a laundry list of famous works but instead a mosaic of Britain's history as revealed through the individual threads of its most revered literary masterpieces. Throughout the course, you discover how each work is linked to others that have come before it—whether building on its predecessors' work or casting it aside to challenge readers and audiences with new ways of understanding a changing world.

We enjoyed the course very much, and were proud of ourselves for completing it. We didn't have homework and weren't required to read specific things before and after each lecture, although we could have! The list of works of literature discussed is extensive and would keep us reading for years and years! We simply enjoyed his lectures, many of them on some of our favorite authors and books. And we learned a lot!

Legacy Libraries

Library Thing has a fun feature -- it's called their "Legacy Libraries," which are lists of the personal libraries of famous readers. It's interesting to look at those lists and compare them to the books you have on your own Library Thing list. It's really interesting to see which books you have read in common with those famous readers!


For example, I've read these 6 books out of the 68 books listed in Tupac Shakur's library:

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
• The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934
• 1984, by George Orwell
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
• The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X

And I've read 25 books out of 1,759 (an incomplete listing) in Karen Blixen's (Isak Dinesen) library:

• Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
• Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
• The Cocktail Party: A Comedy, by T.S. Eliot
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
• The Snow Goose, by Paul Gallico
• Death Be Not Proud, by John Gunther
• The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
• The Odyssey, by Homer
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers
• Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak
• Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton
• Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
• The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare
• Frankenstein, by Mary W. Shelley
• The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
• Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
• Venture to the Interior, by Laurens Van der Post
• Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
• The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder
• Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

And I've read 17 books in common with Sylvia Path's library, 100 books in common with Carl Sandburg's library, and just 3 books in common with John Muir's library.

photo by Andre Kertesz

The Raven Steals the Light

Raven and the First Men
Sculpture by Bill Read

The Raven Steals the Light, by Bill Read and Robert Bringhurst, is a wonderful retelling of some of the classic myths of the Haida peoples from the Queen Charlotte Islands of the Pacific Northwest.

Robert Bringhurst explains the location of the Haida in his introduction to the book:

Haida Gwaii, the islands of the People, lie equidistant from Luxor, Machu Picchu, Ninevah and Timbuktu. On the white man's maps, where every islet and scrap of land, uninhabited or otherwise, lies now in the shadow of somebody's national flag, and is named for preference after a monarch or a politician, Haida Gwaii are shown as the westernmost extremity of Canada, and they are named not for the Haida, who have always lived there, nor for the Raven, who somewhat inadvertently put them there, but for a woman who never saw them. Her name was Sophie Charlotte von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, but the British called her simply Queen Charlotte, for she was the wife of the Mad King of England, George III.
So the Raven, who often likes to call a rose a skunk cabbage, just to see what trouble he can cause, has tricked us again, Haidas and outsiders alike, with this one. He has us trained now to point to Haida Gwaii and say "Queen Charlotte Islands."These stories were told there well before Queen Charlotte's time.

Haida culture is fascinating and these stories are short and fun to read. Raven, the trickster, is the central character in this mythology, and in the first story he's the one responsible for releasing the sun from a small box and for making the stars and the moon.

Before there was anything, before the great flood had covered the earth and receded, before the animals walked the earth or the trees covered the land or the birds flew between the trees, even before the fish and the whales and seals swam in the sea, an old man lived in a house on the bank of a river with his only child, a daughter. Whether she was as beautiful as hemlock fronds against the spring sky at sunrise or as ugly as a sea slug doesn't really matter very much to this story, which takes place mainly in the dark...

Bill Reid was the author of a number of other books, but he was also a wonderful artist. The sculpture of Raven and the First Men is one of his finest works. It's on display at the beautiful Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, BC, and I'll never get over the awe I felt when my husband and I first saw it. Bill Reid's beautiful sketches are at the beginning of each story in this book. According to the back cover of this book, Robert Bringhurst is "a poet, cultural historian and scholar of Native American literature." He, too, has published other books of stories and poetry. The collaboration of these two artists made this book a lovely thing indeed, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in mythology, folktales, or art!

Indian Hut, Queen Charlotte Islands
by Emily Carr

Click here to listen to Bill Reid narrating one of the stories from this book!
Click here to listen to Robert Bringhurst reading from Nine Visits to the Mythworld, a book of Haida poetry he translated.

This was my second book read for Carl V's Once Upon a Time III challenge.

A Splash of Color

A splash of color a la Georgia O'Keeffe from my second grade classroom...for those of you where wintery spring is still gray and stormy.

Weekly Geeks: Historical Fiction

One of the things I loved about teaching 6th grade for sixteen years was teaching our Middle Ages unit each spring. Reading anything regarding Medieval times has been a fascination for me for all those years, so I was happy to see that the Weekly Geeks topic for this week is:

Is there a particular era that you love reading about? Tell us about it--give us a book list, if you'd like. Include pictures or some fun facts from that time period, maybe link to a website that focuses on that time. Educate us.

Do you have a favorite book that really pulled you back in time, or perhaps gave you a special interest in that period? Include a link to a review of it on another book blog if you can find one (doesn't have to be a Weekly Geek participant).

Among my favorite books that take place during Medieval times, are the Brother Cadfael series of mysteries by Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter). They completely transport me to the 1100s, Shrewsbury, England. The mysteries are compelling, and the authenticity of setting is incredible. It's like you are there!

I've written about these my love of these books before, so you can read that post here. And here's another interesting link to follow: In the Footsteps of Brother Cadfael

The Book of Lost Things

It's been a long time since I read a book the way I did when I was a kid. You know, when you found a book that really grabbed you and you couldn't stop reading, and that's all you wanted to do... That's what happened to me with The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly. I love that feeling, and I really liked this book. It was powerful and dark, definitely not a children's book...full of fairy tales retold with a twist...and with a story about grief and loss, courage, and growing up.

Twelve-year-old David loses his beloved mother to cancer, and then his father remarries and has another son. It's too much for the still grieving David, and he is filled with anger and jealously. Strange things start to happen to him when they move into the very old home of his new stepmother. He can hear the books in his bedroom talking, for one thing...and there's a strange, crooked man that watches him. And then one day, while walking near the sunken garden behind the house, he hears his dead mother calling him, and he enters a dark and violent world under the garden, and it is the beginning of a journey of self-discovery, of growth, and of coming to terms with loss.

"Instead, while others aided you along the way, it was your own strength and courage that brought you at last to an understanding of your place in this world and your own. You were a child when first I found you, but now you are becoming a man."

This is a remarkable and powerful book. The last few pages were so beautifully written they took my breath away. The story lingers and haunts you for awhile.

Many people have read and reviewed this book. After reading Chris's (Stuff As Dreams Are Made On), Nymeth's (things mean a lot), and Dewey's (The Hidden Side of a Leaf) reviews of this book, I knew I had to read it. It was a perfect beginning for the Once Upon a Time Challenge III.

Dysenchanted

In celebration of Carl V's Once Upon a Time Challenge III, take 6 minutes and watch this humorous independent short film, called "Dysenchanted." If you haven't seen it already, it's about the heroines of our favorite fairy tales in a therapy session with Jim Belushi as the therapist. The film was written and directed by Terri Edda Miller.

"I believe that all women are heroes in their own stories..."

Once Upon a Time III: My Quest

I'm so excited that Carl V's Once Upon a Time III challenge is underway! I've finally decided what I'd like to read for my Quest, and I know it's going to be another wonderful journey!

Last year, among the books I chose to read for Carl V's OUaT Challenge II, were four books that turned out the be the highlight of the challenge for me. It was a unique collaboration between four authors, who each wrote a book centered around one of Brian Froud's paintings. The four authors were Charles de Lint, Patricia McKillip, Terri Windling, and Midori Snyder, and it was a wonderful creative collaborative project. This year I was hoping to do something similar since I enjoyed that type of reading project so much. I've found just the thing! My goal this year is to read Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Series! (Or at least as many of them as I can get hold of.) I'm also going to participate in the Short Story Weekends reading!

• The Sun, the Moon and the Stars, by Steven Brust
• The Nightingale, by Kara Dalkey
• Tam Lin, by Pamela Dean
• Jack the Giant-Killer, by Charles de Lint
• Snow White and Rose Red, by Patricia Wrede
• White as Snow, by Tanith Lee
• Fitcher's Brides, by Gregory Frost
• Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen, is also part of that series, but I read it last year during the OUaT 2008 challenge.

Just in case I find more time to read, I've also put together a list of books already on my TBR shelf, waiting for this challenge, so we'll see how many I can get through in the next three months.

My TBR Shelf possibilities:

• The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly (underway!)
• Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon Hale and
• A Fine & Private Place, by Peter S. Beagle
• The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
• Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling
• The Book of Atrix Wolfe, by Patricia McKillip
• Daughters of Copper Woman, by Anne Cameron
• Arabian Nights & Days, by Naguib Mahfouz
• Moonheart, by Charles de Lint
• A Hidden Magic, by Vivian Vande Velde
• Heroes & Heroines in Tlingit-Haida Legend, by Mary L. Beck
• The Raven Steals the Light, stories by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst

My TBR list has gotten longer each year I participate in this challenge, but that's what I love about it -- being introduced to new authors and wonderful books by reading all the reviews that fellow travelers post on their blogs.

The Time Has Come...

The time has come! In my mind now it's officially Springtime! ... according to the calendar it starts tomorrow, but I count the onset of Spring by Carl V! His Once Upon a Time challenge has been the highlight of my spring for the last two years, and tonight he has just announced the 3rd year's version. I'm going to do this:

Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time III criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.

I'm putting together a pool of books and authors to choose from for this challenge, but I also want the freedom to choose as I go along and discover new possibilities and new paths. Like it was for the last two years, I know this will be a very enjoyable journey!
Click here to read my list of books chosen for this challenge!

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.
--Theodor Geisel

Tomie dePaola

I'm in love! (Sorry B...I know we've been married for almost 40 years, but I can't help it, I've fallen in love with Tomie dePaola). Never met him, but just look at the photo above and you can see that Mr. dePaola is a happy person, and he certainly brings a lot of happiness to the world of young people of all ages! I'm completely captured with his work again and in a whole new way.

He has long been a family favorite author/illustrator -- we loved his Strega Nona, and his Pancakes For Breakfast. And I use many of his books in my classroom. So I was thrilled recently to discover his autobiographical series, 26 Fairmount Avenue.

A Note From the Author in the first book:

Over the years, letters from my young readers have increasingly asked, "When are you going to write a chapter book?" But the idea seemed daunting.
Then one day, my long-time assistant, Bob Hechtel, said, "I have an idea for a chapter book for you -- in fact, for a series of chapter books. Why don't you write about all the things that you talk about from your childhood, but can't put into a single picture book." DING -- the bell went off - the light bulb lit. "That's it!

The series begins in 1938, when Mr. dePaola was four years old, and continues on into the War years. So far there are 7 books, full of life and wonderful stories about his family (to whom you become very attached) and his experiences as he grows and changes. And it's fascinating to see the emerging artist, for he certainly was an artist at that very young age.

I can't wait until the next one comes out. I also can't wait to introduce my students to these books and see what they think. I hope they enjoy them as much as I did. And even if you don't normally read many children's books, this series is worth reading. It's delightful to experience that period of time through the eyes of a gifted young person.

Mr. dePaola won the Newbery Honor Award for the first book, and he won my heart with this series.

• Tomie's blog

• Some very nice video clips of Tomie telling stories about his life and art

Enchantress From the Stars

Enchantress From the Stars, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, is a YA book worth reading -- it's a fascinating view of the future with ideas that are important to keep in mind.

Elana belongs to a peaceful, technologically advanced, space-faring civilization called the "Federation", which monitors worlds which are still "maturing", allowing them to grow without any sort of contact or intervention. Elana stows away on a ship in order to accompany her father on a mission to a planet where intervention has been deemed necessary because a technologically advanced empire has invaded the planet in order to take advantage of its resources. In order to lead a young woodcutter (a native of that planet) against them (without exposing him to the truth about either alien civilization) Elana takes on the role of an enchantress. She gives him various tools, leading him to believe that they are magical.

Engdahl wrote parts of this book in the 1950s, before so many of the technological changes we live with today, and before Star Trek (there similar ideas in the series), but that just shows that good ideas and a forward-thinking author can create a classic story with meaning for many generations. I feel Engdahl did exactly that in creating the character of Elana, and with the story of Elana's growing experiences on the planet she was striving to save. I loved the story, the writing, the characters, and the ideas in this book. She received the Newbery Honor Award in 1971 for it, and it was well-deserved. I'd like to read more by Sylvia Engdahl!

It is by now a well known fact that the human people of the universe have similar histories -- not that the specific details are similar, but the same patterns emerge on every home world. Each must pass through three stages: first childhood, when all is full of wonder, when man admits that much is unknown to him, calling it "supernatural", yet believing. Then adolescence, when man discards superstition and reveres science, feeling that he has charted its realms and has only to conquer them -- never dreaming that certain "supernatural" wonders should not be set aside, but understood. And at last maturity, when the discovery is made that what was termed "supernatural" has been perfectly natural all along, and is in reality a part of the very science that sought to reject it.

More Manga Reading

Rhinoa's Manga Reading Challenge has inspired me to choose some reading that is very new and different for me, and I'm enjoying my first experiences with the world of Manga. This week I read two more books for the challenge: Manga Shakespeare: The Tempest, and Return to Labyrinth, Vol. I.


The Tempest, illustrated by Paul Duffield, was the second book I've read from the Manga Shakespeare collection. I started with Macbeth -- the play I am most familiar with because I used it in my 6th grade classroom for 16 years -- and I enjoyed it but liked The Tempest better because I liked the artwork better. I'm looking forward to eventually reading all the books in the Manga Shakespeare collection. They're a fun way to introduce yourself (or a class) to the different Shakespeare plays.


Many years ago, my family and I enjoyed the movie, Labyrinth. A few months ago, my husband and I watched it again on DVD, and I think I liked it even more than I did way-back-when. So for Rhinoa's challenge, I decided to read the Manga series of Return to Labyrinth, by Jake T. Forbes, to see what happens to the story after the movie ends! At the library, I found Volumes 1 and 2 of what will eventually be a 4-volume story. I finished Vol. 1, and am most of the way through Vol. 2...Volume 3 comes out on May 12th.

The story in Return to Labyrinth, Vol. 1 takes place 13 years after the end of the movie. Here's a short summary from the publisher:

The Goblin King has kept a watchful eye on Toby: His minions secretly guiding and protecting the child... Legions of goblins work behind the scenes to ensure that Toby has whatever his heart desires... Preparing him for the day when he will return to the Labyrinth and take his rightful place beside Jareth as the heir to the Goblin Kingdom... That day has come......but no one has told Toby.

I felt a lot of loyalty to the movie and to Brian Froud's original artwork and Jim Henson's wonderful creations, so this book was a little hard for me to accept at first. But, it's fun to follow the adventure along, so I will continue through the story and read the upcoming volumes, too. And anything that keeps Brian Froud, Jim Henson, and David Bowie fresh in mind is definitely to be enjoyed and appreciated.

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day #7

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.
-- Galileo Galilei

The Lost Painting

Since we recently watched Simon Schama's DVDs called Power of Art, my husband and I have become very interested in the Italian painter, Caravaggio. So when I ran into a book at the library last week called The Lost Painting: A Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece, by Jonathan Harr, I knew we would be interested in reading it. It did not disappoint.

It's actually a non-fiction book about the discovery of a missing masterpiece (The Taking of Christ) by Caravaggio in the early 1990s. It was a fascinating story of research and detection, and read like a good mystery novel. It also told the story of the brilliant and troubled artist.

The glimpse into the art history and art restoration worlds was both educational and fascinating. Reading about Caravaggio's violent life was also fascinating and made for quite story.

From a New York Times article on the book by Bruce Handy:

...early in the book, Harr offers a sketch of Sir Denis Mahon, the greatest living expert on Caravaggio:

"Sir Denis believed that a painting was like a window back into time, that with meticulous study he could peer into a work by Caravaggio and observe that moment, 400 years ago, when the artist was in his studio, studying the model before him, mixing colors on his palette, putting brush to canvas. Sir Denis believed that by studying the work of an artist he could penetrate the depths of that man's mind. In the case of Caravaggio, it was the mind of a genius. A murderer and a madman, perhaps, but certainly a genius."

Although this book wasn't on my original list for Sarah's Art History Reading Challenge, I'm glad I found it.

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day #6

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated.
-- Edith Hamilton

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day #5

Being bored is an insult to oneself.
--Jules Renard

Thanks to D and R for the photo!

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Our latest Read Aloud in my second grade classroom was Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, by Betty MacDonald. The second graders loved this book! In case you are not familiar with this classic children's book, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a rather magical neighbor who loves children. She also has a "cure" for anything that ails the children -- and what we mean by things that "ail the children" are the many different kinds of negative behaviors they can try out! She has a cure for anything and everything, and her cures are delightful lessons for children.

With wonderful humor, Betty MacDonald tells story after story of how parents call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle asking her to please cure their child of some annoying behavior. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle devises a very clever cure, and within a very short time, the child's behavior changes. Some examples of the cures are: the Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker cure; the Answer-Backer Cure; the Selfishness Cure; and the Never-Want-to-go-to-Bedder cure. The book was written in 1947, so some of the details in the stories are a bit "old fashioned" now -- a father comes home and listens to the radio ... there are no TVs or computers.

After we finished the book, the students and I talked about these cures, and they decided they wanted to write some of their own. Just to show that Betty MacDonald's ideas about children are timeless, here are some of the "cures" my second graders invented and wrote about.

The Throw-Away-Everything Cure
The Too-Much-Candy Cure
The Big-Mouth Cure
The Sucking-Your-Thumb Cure
The Biter-Fingernail Cure
The Don't-Yell-Out Cure
The Watching-Too-Much-TV Cure

And here's the beginning of one of my student's stories...

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day #4

What I hear, I forget. 

What I see, I remember. 

What I do, I understand.

-
- Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)

The Uncommon Reader

This book has been reviewed by many of the book bloggers, so I don't know that there's much more I can say about it that hasn't already been said, except to add that I thoroughly enjoyed Alan Bennett's delightful novella, The Uncommon Reader. It was a celebration of the joy of reading, and a fun view of the change and growth that reading sparks in all of us. I listened to the audiobook version of the book, narrated by the author himself, which added much to my enjoyment of the story. It's short, sweet, and a delightful way to spend an afternoon.

So what is this little book about? From the New York Times:

In “The Uncommon Reader” Mr. Bennett poses a delicious and very funny what-if: What if Queen Elizabeth at the age of 70-something were suddenly to become a voracious reader? What if she were to become an avid fan of Proust and Balzac, Turgenev and Trollope and Hardy? And what if reading were to lead her, in turn, to becoming a writer? Mr. Bennett’s musings on these matters have produced a delightful little book that unfolds into a witty meditation on the subversive pleasures of reading.

Click on these links to enjoy a few of the many reviews of this book written by other bloggers:

JenClair (A Garden Carried in the Pocket)

Nymeth (things mean a lot)

Joanne (The Book Zombie)

JC Montgomery (The Biblio Brat)

Dewey (The Hidden Side of a Leaf)

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day #3

Whatever you can do,
or dream you can,
begin it.
Boldness has genius,
power,
and magic in it.
--Goethe

For today's Weekly Geeks quote: This is a quote I have on a poster in my classroom. I put it together with this illustration by Cooper Edens, a favorite author/illustrator of mine.

Book Awards Challenge Completed

In anticipation of some new challenges coming up (in particular, Carl V's Once Upon a Time Challenge III which will start soon), I've completed another challenge. My goal for the Book Awards Reading Challenge was to read 10 books from 5 different challenges. Here's a list of what I read for this challenge. Thanks to Michelle (1 More Chapter) for hosting it.


Read 10 award winners from 5 different prizes between August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.

1. PULITZER: The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty
2. SASQUATCH: The Ghost's Grave, Peg Kehret
3. PULITZER Special Award: Maus I: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman
4. PURA BELPRÉ: Esperanza Rising, Pam Muñoz Ryan
5. NESTLÉ SMARTIES BOOK PRIZE: Varjak Paw, by S.F. Said
6. MASSACHUSETTS CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD: Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White
7. PULITZER: The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder
8. THE ALA'S SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD: Becoming Naomi León, by Pam Muñoz Ryan
9. THE MAUD HART LOVELACE BOOK AWARD: The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen
   
10. THE ROBERT F. SIEBERT HONOR AWARD: To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel, by Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day #2

"The biggest thing about being someone is imajunation. Before you can be something, you must imajun it."
-- Fifth Grader quoted by Seymour Papert

Escape to Africa

It wasn't planned ahead of time, but just happened to work out this way, that in the last month I have managed to escape some of the winter cold and darkness of the Northwest by being "transported" to Africa. First, B and I went to see The Lion King in Seattle. We've wanted to see this Broadway musical since watching a special program on TV a few years ago about the brilliantly creative Julie Taymor. We were anxious to see her costume and stage design work for The Lion King, and we were thrilled with both! We loved the evening of stunning visuals and wonderful music.



And then yesterday, after a last-minute invitation from a friend, I went to see the Lucy's Legacy Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. The tickets were for both the exhibit and the IMAX movie, The Mystery of the Nile. So for hours yesterday, we were completely immersed in Ethiopian history and culture.

And then, tired and hungry, we headed for the freeway to go home. But as we stopped for a red light, I looked over and saw an Ethiopian restaurant, and when I mentioned it to the others in the car, they all immediately said, "Let's stop!" So we had a lovely and absolutely delicious late lunch of traditional Ethiopian food to complete the day's immersion into the culture. It was a magical day!

And oh yes, I've always loved reading about Africa. Here are some of the books I've enjoyed over the years:

The Blue Nile, by Alan Moorehead

The White Nile, by Alan Moorehead

Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen

West With the Night, by Beryl Markham

The Flame Trees of Thika, by Elspeth Huxley

Venture to the Interior, by Laurens Van Der Post

The African Queen, by C.S. Forster

The Akimbo series, by Alexander McCall Smith

Weekly Geeks: A Quote a Day

This week's Weekly Geeks meme is a fun one: A Quote a Day for a week!

You may want to come up with a theme, such as favorite passages from books, author quotes, political quotes, quotes about books or reading, humorous quotes, whatever. Or you may not want a theme at all; maybe you just want to gather up seven assorted quotes that appeal to you. You may want to start each of your posts of the week with a quote, or you may want to give quotes posts of their own in addition to your regular posts. It’s all up to you!

As a teacher, I'm always collecting quotes about education that are meaningful to me, and that remind me of the things I think are very important to keep in mind. I write them in the margins of my Lesson Plan Book when I run into them. So this week, my quotes of the day will all have to do with education.

No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
-- Emma Goldman

One of Those Crazy Weeks!

This week truly has been one of those crazy weeks. It started badly but ended well, and I'm just happy the weekend is finally here. Bright and early on Monday morning I dropped my husband off at the bus stop, came home and put a load of clothes in the washing machine downstairs. A very short time later, I heard the smoke alarm go off in the wash room!

I grabbed my cell phone, then hurried downstairs to investigate and found wispy smoke in the family room, which is right next to the wash room. I figured the problem must be the washing machine, so I yanked out the plug, checked for flames or the source of the smoke, and called 911 all at the same time.

The Kirkland firefighters arrived in less that 5 minutes, checked everything out very thoroughly, and reported that the motor on the washing machine must have burned out. They were so kind and reassuring, and told me I did everything RIGHT: had a working smoke alarm, pulled the plug on the washing machine which stopped the problem from getting any worse, and called for help. They set up their big fans and blew the smoke out of the downstairs, and then told me I'd need to take that load of clothes to the laundromat so all our underwear (of course it was a load of underwear) wouldn't smell like smoke! We were so lucky! No fire, no smoke damage, just a scary way to start the week!!

The rest of the week has been filled with shopping for a new washer (and dryer), and with being at home for the delivery and installation, and with trying to catch up with what seems like massive amounts of laundry that had to wait for the new machine! All this around my husband's deadline at work, and trying to teach and meet my own report card deadline at school. But that's okay because all ended well. I have nothing to complain about.

Here's the little gem that arrived at our house on Thursday afternoon, and that we already love and appreciate. And I am so looking forward to a quiet weekend with time to read and visit your blogs, and perhaps get caught up on the laundry.

The Sci Fi Experience Wrap-Up

I should probably call this post the "Sci Fi Experience Almost Ready to Wrap Up." I haven't quite finished my last book for it. But the week has gotten so busy that I haven't had much reading time at all, so I think I'll go ahead with the wrap up and then post the review when I finish the book this weekend.

Carl V's Sci Fi Experience each winter is a nice way to get to know the genre of Science Fiction a little better. This is the second time I've participated in the Experience, and, like last year, it was a lot of fun. Here's a list of my Experience:

1. A Fisherman from the Inland Sea, Ursula le Guin

2. Mars Needs Moms!, by Brian Breathed

3. The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen (time travel)

4. Manga Shakespeare: Macbeth, by William Shakespeare (set in a post-apocalyptic world)

5. Enchantress from the Stars, by Sylvia Louis Engdahl

Science Fiction DVDs we enjoyed watching at our house during Jan-Feb:

• Doctor Who -- Series 1 (completed)
• Doctor Who -- Series 2 (underway)
• Battlestar Gallactica: the Miniseries -- Season 1 (completed)
• Equilibrium (directed by Kurt Wimmer)
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army (directed by Guillermo del Toro)

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel

I always wanted to be a ballet dancer, and took a lot of dance lessons as I was growing up. To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel really captured my own childhood fascination with and love of ballet, as well as the need to move and fill up big spaces with dance! But this is the story of a passionate young girl who made her dream come true, and her amazing experiences in the ballet world as a young professional dancer! The author, Siena Cherson Siegel and her husband, Mark Siegel, collaborated on this book. It is a lovely little award-winning graphic novel for young readers that I'm going to order for my class library at school.