I am, I am! It’s true and I know it, because, Loretta told me so! That’s right – she gave me the Halloween Sweet Award for encouraging kids to read (and for lots of fun Skype chats)! Thank you, Loretta! And why do I do so much ‘reading preaching’? We all know that I do it because: READERS ARE LEADERS!

And that is exactly why I want to give this award to three of my new visitors to The Bookworm Broadcast! They have been leaving wonderful comments here on my site and they love books as much as I do! I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing from other ‘bookies’ and so I would like to bestow upon them the sweetest of treats!!

Terry of Terry Heath – A Writer’s Journey

Deborah of The Rhythm of Write

Catherine of everyday life as lyric poetry

Eldon of Wordpreneur – How to Make Money Writing

(Can I just say? I love that word ‘Wordpreneur’!! Very cool word!)

All of these guys/gals have been super sweet bookworms and wonderful bloggy visitors!

If you guys want to ‘pay this forward’, that would be totally awesome! The creator of the award just asks that we pick people that are new to us and/or outside our regular circle of bloggy friends.

You see, here’s the deal at my house – my hubby preaches ‘law school, law school, law school’ to the kids. And I preach ‘be happy, learn to love, be happy’ to the kids. So I figure we balance each other out perfectly in our parental preachings! They’ll go to law school – and be happy doing it!

Wouldn’t that be great if they went to law school and worked for one of those pro-bono places? And they were deliriously happy doing it? Or is that just my evil, I-told-you-so heart being snooty again?

Well, anyway, let’s say they (or any of them) decide to go ahead with law school. They have got their work cut out for them. Taking the LSAT is no walk in the park. Anyone considering it will need some serious LSAT prep help and guidance. And at Prep101, they are sure to gain a much more competitive edge. And we are assured of this by the money back guarantee, which says:

After taking our Comprehensive Prep Course your LSAT score is guaranteed to improve.

The LSAT Prep Course is so comprehensive, that I don’t think they’ve left any stone unturned! They even offer follow-up email tutoring from instructors and an Applying to Law School Seminar.

They also have a free repeat policy. You can take the course as many times as you need, until you feel ready.

I definitely think Prep101 would be awesome help for anyone considering law school.

My friend, Deb, told me about a very cool site yesterday. It’s called Kindersay – Preschool Learning, and it helps preschoolers learn lots of words and their alphabet with online videos! It’s very cool! (Did I already say that?) I just love early childhood education – I get so pumped up about it to begin with, but, then you add the technologies that we are blessed with today – and I just get all geeked up!

Use of the website is free, and it can help not only preschool kids, but, also, English as a Second Language (ESL) students.

Each page is very simple and uncomplicated, with very few buttons to choose from. It is such an easy set up, that after a few tries with help, I’m sure kids can operate the site on their own. When you click to a new page, there is a pause, before the Kindersay lady says the word, so the child gets a chance to guess the word first.

Oh! Somebody send me a preschooler! I want to try this site out! Ok, you guys just go get your preschoolers on it, and report back to me how cool it was!

There is even a section where you can put family pictures in and have them assigned words like mom, mommy, mother. And you can even upload pictures of your pets!

So check it out, it looks awesome and I would love to hear your feedback about it! Kindersay – Preschool Learning!

I meant to tell you about another book by Kathleen Krull in that last post about The Giants of Science Series. I have so much fun researching and learning about children’s book authors. I love ‘bookies’ period (writers and bookworms), but, children’s authors just get me all fired up! I have been adding them to my sidebar here, and I think I will start some Squidoo lenses on some of my favorites!

Back to the topic at hand, though – we have a book by a children’s author about a children’s author! Can you get any sweeter than that? The book is called The Boy on Fairfield Street – How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss.

Here’s a quote from her site about the book:

Truly only about his youth, the narrative ends at age 22, when Seuss goes to New York City to launch his career. Four following pages provide a synopsis of his life and a timeline up to his death in 1991. Bordered, full-page oil-on-gessoed-paper illustrations evoke pertinent scenes, while spot art of Seuss drawings dot the opposite pages. Some of these original images are absolutely haunting; the magic of his name will make this a huge hit, but it’s the lively writing that puts the hat on the cat.

Bold is mine, because, I just love that part!

Here’s a pic of the book:

I also had meant to link to her website in that other post, and I forgot, so if you’d like to go read some more about her, click here: Kathleen Krull. When I was there reading, I discovered a cool and funny similarity between her and I. She was fired from a job at the library when she was fifteen. She was reading too much while on the job! Ha! When we lived in Texas, I would often work for the Richardson Independent School District annual book fair. It was a very big fair – people would literally come from all over the country to shop! It was a lot of work, but, so much fun! And as hard as I tried not to, I would catch myself reading instead of working! I would always joke that they could fire me, but, as it was a PTA function, that was just not gonna happen! I don’t think I could ever work in a library!

I love baking! I really haven’t done much baking since we moved, because, I just haven’t gotten comfortable in this kitchen. I think it’s not a very baker-friendly kitchen. You know how some kitchens just don’t have a very good set up?

There is another thing, too, though. My mixer is so lame, it’s not even funny! It is the one I got years and years ago. I probably got it as a wedding present fifteen years ago. It’s a little hand held jobbie, that has lost some of the parts.

I’ve always wanted one of those stand alone mixers, like the Hamilton Beach® Mixer. They are so cool and I would feel so official then – like my kitchen would be official, and my ‘housewifeyness’ would be official! Those things have 400 watts of power and can make nine dozen cookies! Wow!

I like the Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer over some of the KitchenAid models, as I’ve read that the KitchenAid ones are too big, too heavy, and too noisy.

And the Eclectrics® Mixer comes in a gorgeous Moroccan Red that would look so good in my kitchen with my burgundy cabinets. They also have a beautiful UltraMarine (blue) that would be good to get in case we decided to redo the kitchen.

The more I read about these things and look at their pictures, the more I want one! It’s so funny, but, there are two things that I’ve always wanted to make my kitchen official – a stainless steel fridge/freezer set and a stand alone mixer! I doubt I’ll get the fridge any time soon, but, I can surely dream for the mixer!

Oh, cool! It also has a quick-release tilt-up head. I always thought that getting the bowl out could prove to be dangerous for a ‘Lucy Ricardo’ like myself! Ha! Now I don’t even have to worry about that! That is awesome!

And I’ll just bet that a lot of my bookwormy friends out there like to bake, too! Sound off and let me know if you like baking as much as you like books! (Well, ok, almost as much as you like books!)

I got another new book in the mail! Yeehaw! I love books in the mail! This one is part of the Giants of Science series by Kathleen Krull, and it’s a biography of Isaac Newton. I can’t wait to dig into it with the kids! It tells about what he was really like, not just about his contributions to the world of science.

She has written several others in this series, one of which is Leonardo da Vinci. Did you know he was a scientist? I didn’t. Ms. Krull says that while painting was his livelihood, science was his passion. I will definitely have to get that one!

Also, upon visiting her website, I notice a fabulous book that I simply must get for Sammie and I to read – it’s called Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought)! It tells about twenty of the most influential women in history, with some details you won’t find in typical history books – very cool!

I know I keep talking about how much I love Halloween – well, it’s definitely true! And my whole family enjoys it with me! Just check out my sweet Sammie creating some yummy Halloween goodness!

What a great little Halloween chef! We should put her on TV!

You can check out the awesome, wonderful, stupendously fun cookbook right here:

MyVeryOwnMail.com/halloween

I’m so excited! Do you remember the other day when I was telling you how I had too many books to read and not enough time to read them? Well – guess what! I had a long wait in a doctor’s office waiting room and I was actually happy about it! What a nutjob I am, eh? Who me? No way! I just knew that meant I could READ! It is so often hard for grownups – with lots of icky obligations to take DEAR time. You know Drop Everything And Read? So I love when I am forced – I don’t have to sit there reading and have guilt in the back of my head over things that I really ’should’ be getting done, you know?

Anyway, I had started The Giver back when school started, but, then my son had to take it back to school. It was his summer reading book and they were working on it in class. Then he finally brought it home, and I have been reading it little bits and pieces at a time – until yesterday! When I had two glorious hours sitting in the waiting room. I was in Heaven!

I really, really, really liked this book! Wikipedia calls it soft science fiction. Well, I guess ’soft science fiction’ is my thing, then, because, I love stories like this.

I came home from the doctor’s office all excited and said to my fourteen-year old, who was home sick, “Patrick! I finished the book and it was great – I really loved it! And I realized there is another book that follows it – isn’t that great???”

To which he moaned.

Too funny! He had been entirely nonplussed with the book when he had to read it in seventh grade. He was even more nonplussed with the book he had to read for eighth grade! And it is even more of the type of story that his seventh grade brother and I love! I can’t remember the name of that one. I had begun reading it, when he rudely and crudely snatched it back from me to turn into his teacher. She told them that if they gave her their books, she would give them extra credit. So back it went! Poor Mama Bookworm!

I will have to check out the used book store in the town square and see if I can find it! And I will, of course, have to look for the two follow-up books to The Giver. (I just read on Wikipedia this morning that there are actually two of them!)

Our family loves to go camping – we all love being out in the wilderness! That is one good thing about having moved to Alabama – we are right next door to a National Forest. It is wonderful, and so beautiful. And whenever we decide to go camping, I just pack my clothes and show up. That is one thing my husband is very on top of – camping gear. He has everything we need, and he knows just how to organize it and pack it and set it up when we get there. I pretty much just sit back and relax and listen to the sounds in the trees. There’s nothing like reading a favorite book in the middle of the woods, feet propped up, and not a care in the world. It’s pure Heaven, I tell you. Oh my, I might’ve just talked myself into another camping trip! I better go tell Mark…

That is the name of my new book. Yep, I got another new book in the mail from my new book club. The subtitle is ‘A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America’ and the author is Christine Wicker. (She used to write for The Dallas Morning News – I like her already!) Anyway, she travels around the country exploring various mystical and sometimes even taboo subjects and how they are emerging in American culture today. She investigated the voodoo temples of New Orleans, witches’ covens of Salem, a graveyard in North Florida and much more! I wonder if she’ll have any warnings for me about buying Arizona real estate! I don’t know, but, it is just one of the many books that surrounds me that I can’t wait to dig into! It would be cool if we got snowed in for two weeks or something like that! Ha!