My seventh grade son has been assigned the book, The Giver, by Lois Lowry - for his summer reading. He actually read it last summer, when his brother was assigned the same book. There is hardly a book in this house those two boys haven’t read, at least once! (He is going to read it again, though. He will, after all, be tested on it.) I have to admit that last summer, I never even looked the book up to see what it was about. What a neglectful Mama Bookworm! I did try to get some answers out of my son about the book, but, all that they told me was, “It’s weird.” That wasn’t a whole lot of help. It turns out that it is what Wikipedia calls soft science fiction. I don’t think I’ve ever heard science fiction called ’soft’ before, but, I think I can picture what they must mean by it. You can see the Wikipedia entry for it here: The Giver - on Wikipedia. Oh, and Amazon has a much neater cover on their copy of the book than ours. You can see it here: The Giver - on Amazon.

The story actually reminds me of several stories very similar. It is about a young boy who is growing up in a idealistic, Utopian society that has been stripped of color (literally) and emotions, and even what they call “stirrings” - emotional feelings for another of the opposite sex. Because in this ‘perfect society’ - your mate is chosen for you and they don’t want anyone to be upset with their choice of mate. It looks to be quite an interesting story about the price that is paid for everyone to live in a completely ordered and pain-free society. I think I might read this one when he’s done with it.

GO READ A BOOK!

It’s funny, but, Mark is taking vacation since we’ve been home from our vacation! Well, he worked the entire time we were in Dallas, so I guess he’s due. And it’s been kind of fun having him around the house. We’ve been to the museum, he keeps taking the kids out shopping, and we have nice dinners together every night. I might look through some different hamburger recipes for tonight.

When we were in Dallas, the topic came up one night of ‘your favorite hamburgers’. Everyone had a different idea of what person or restaurant served the best ones. My favorite ones were made by my Uncle Pat. I said, “Micky, remember Uncle Pat’s - out there on that back deck? Oh man! They were so awesome!” I’m sure it was at least 50% atmosphere, but, those are some very delicious memories!! I used to have a hamburger cookbook, but, I’ve lost it in between all of our moves. I recently saw another cookbook that looked pretty neat called, The Great Big Burger Book, by Elizabeth Yeh. I might just have to pick that one up!

GO READ A BOOK!

I was walking past my daughter’s room yesterday and heard the TV announce, The Wayside cartoon coming up next. “Wayside cartoon?” I asked my daughter. “Are they talking about Sideways Stories?”

“Yep,” she said.

Hmm…I was intrigued. I am usually quite disappointed when books become movies or TV shows, but, with a fun and silly book like Sideways Stories, it just might work! The books (there is a series) were written by Louis Sachar, and the kids and I just love them!

So I sat down to watch an episode with her. It was kind of cute, and definitely fun. There was a bit lost in translation, especially if you have never read the books. But, I suppose, if it is a good jumping-off point to get kids to read the books, and then further enjoy the TV show, that’s all good, right? Watch the show –> get interested –> read the books –> watch the show with the book knowledge –> read the books some more because you’re having so much fun! That sounds like a good plan to me!

It comes on Nickelodeon, and the Nick webpages for it look like they could be lots of fun, too! You can reach them here: Wayside And it is actually being co-produced by Teletoon in Canada.

There is already a Wikipedia entry for it, although it just premiered on June 25th! You can read it here: Wayside (TV series)

There was a great article about it in the Boston Globe, by Joanna Weiss, in which she puts into words so well the thoughts and feelings that I was having about this much-loved book-turned-cartoon. The article is aptly titled, “‘Wayside’ skips the nuance, but, not the fun”.

I would have to say that, so far, I am actually happy with this project that very well could have tarnished a cherished children’s book series. I think they’ve actually done a good job in representing the silliness that is Wayside, and possibly even gotten some children excited enough about the chaotic fun to read the books!

GO READ A BOOK!

My daughter got a fishtank and some fish with her Christmas money. She really enjoys them. She and her father take care of them together. I don’t like the work that comes with being a pet fish owner, and I kept telling her that she couldn’t have any (mean mom) - so she went with her father and bought some with her own money, with his agreement to help her take care of them. There are a lot of helpful books for children on the subject, one of them is Taking Care of Your Goldfish (A Young Pet Owner’s Guide) by Helen Piers. My little bookworm has been reading all about how to make sure that her fish are healthy and happy. The biggest responsibility, I think, when it comes to fish ownership, is cleaning out the tank. I had a tank when I was younger, and I really didn’t enjoy that part. But Sammie and her father just get to work, like there’s nothing to it. They use my old fish tank as a transfer tank, while they are cleaning out the tank the fish actually live in. I think it is actually turning into a good father-daughter bonding experience. So she is learning responsibility, spending time with her father, and receiving the joy that comes from taking care of another one of God’s creatures. And to think I was holding her back from all of that!

GO READ A BOOK!

My family and I love to hike and explore mountains. Driving through them is fun, hiking them is awesome, and my brother loves to take motorcycle rides through them. And we were all checking out the book, Hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains by Randy Johnson the other day. Being from the Rocky Mountain area, none of us have ever hiked or explored the Appalachians. We’ve read lots of books about them, though, and this one was really great. It had a ton of topographical maps in it, and you could tell the author had a lot of love and respect for the area and the people that live there. It all sounds so amazing and so beautiful, it makes me want to look into blue ridge real estate and actually consider talking everyone into a family migration!

GO READ A BOOK!

My oldest son is a total reincarnation of Alex P. Keaton, minus the suits. He is money obssessed! If you remember, in this post, I talked about helping him with his MySpace page. Well, I noticed that he used “Money makes the world go around” for his tag line! And I keep teasing him about not wearing suits, but he just doesn’t get it. He really despises dress-up clothes, but, I explain to him that if he is going to be “Big Money”, he is going to have to dress like “Big Money”! I need to find him some old episodes of Family Ties, just so that he can see what I am talking about when I am constantly calling him Alex! (And maybe so that I can revisit my old crush!) For now, he just relates very strongly to Mr. Crabs on Sponge Bob, who is also highly money-obssessed! I found a book that would be really great for him, though, and would use his obssession for good! It is called, Snap-Together: Coin Sorter by Frank M. Young. This book not only teaches physics, in how the coin sorter
uses centripetal force to sort the coins, but, also it teaches all sorts of things to do with money! It talks about bartering, the World Bank, hidden symbols and images on today’s bills and coins and even includes a 50 states quarters folder, for collecting those coveted state quarters!

GO READ A BOOK!

Ok, well, we all know what happens to our adult brains as we get busy in our adult lives. Parts of them get rusty. And some parts of them get really rusty! I don’t know, but, maybe if you were a scientist, say - a nuclear physicist, you’d still be sharp as a tack! But perhaps your geography skills would falter, or your grasp of the literary arts would dwindle. Well, in any case, our lives get busy, and we just don’t have time to fill our brains up with all of that knowledge we were so begrudgingly forced to ingest in our schooling days. And now we long for it! Funny how that works, eh?

Well, my two new books are going to oil up my brain and refill it with all sorts of groovy knowledge! Totally cool!

The first one is called ‘Isms & ‘Ologies - The 453 Basic Tenets You’ve Only Pretended to Understand by Arthur Goldwag. You know how it is - you’re in a gathering and people start talking about some topic of which you know little, and you feign understanding. Ugh - I hate that. The back of the book says, “It’s time to stop nodding knowingly while inside you feel like a jerk.” Oh boy, can I relate to that! The author says, “‘Isms and ‘ologies can serve as invaluable intellectual and social shorthand.” Totally awesome - I can’t dive into this book fast enough!

The second book is rather cool, because, as a person in recovery - I adore daily meditation books. I have generally only seen these books as spiritual, religious, or self-help in nature. Well, this is self-help - just of a different form. It is self-help of the intellectual variety. It is called, The Intellectual Devotional - Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class and it was compiled by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim. The book travels from Monday through Sunday for 365 days and each day of the week a different field of knowledge is discussed. They are as follows … Mon-History, Tues-Literature, Wed-Visual Arts, Thurs-Science, Fri-Music, Sat-Philosophy, and Sun-Religion. So you are getting ‘bite-sized bits’, nothing that is too hard to swallow or digest, and you are expanding your intellectual horizons. Now doesn’t that sound like fun? Today I read about the origins of the alphabet - and it was very interesting. The letter ‘B’ actually comes from the ancient Egyptian character for the word ‘house’. I bet you didn’t know that, did you? Neither did I …until this morning!

GO READ A BOOK!

I am so excited - I got two of the coolest books in the mail from my book club. I actually hadn’t ordered them, but, I had forgotten to turn in the ‘I don’t want any books this month’ paper - so there they were in my mailbox. And I don’t recall if I had chosen categories with my membership or not, but, I love these books they sent me! I opened the package, without knowing what the books were, because, I was hoping they were novels, because I was going on a trip back home to Texas and thought it might be nice to have a couple of novels with me. Well, they weren’t novels - but, they are totally awesome books!!

I promised my son that I would help him with his MySpace template, so I’ve got to go do that, but, then I’ll come back and tell you all about my new books!

GO READ A BOOK!

I just remembered about a very special book that I have. My mother bought it for me and it is a weight loss devotional book from the Unity Church. I have so many of my things that I still don’t know where they are, as we haven’t been able to finish unpacking - because we don’t have as much room to put stuff here. And I just cannot seem to find that book. It would be really perfect for me to be reading right now, as I’ve really been focusing on getting healthy lately. I am just going to have to dig and dig until I find that book!

GO READ A BOOK!

My grandmothers also taught me a lot about Catholic Saints. The two that I remember the most are Saint Christopher and Saint Anthony. Saint Christopher is in charge of protection and both of my grandmothers had St. Christopher medals in their cars. Saint Anthony is the saint that I call upon - often! And I do mean often. He is the patron saint of lost things. I’m probably not saying that quite right, but, he helps you find stuff you’ve lost. And I am here to tell you that he will help you, and he does help me - often! So many people scoff at the idea of asking him to help when you’ve lost your keys or cell phone or wallet, etc. I’ve even had friends that are practicing Catholics, going to mass every week, children enrolled in CCD, who scoff at the idea. But let me tell you, if you believe in him, he will help you. I’m serious. All you have to do is believe. It’s simple, really! And you can read all about him in the book, Anthony of Padua, Saint of the People, by Jack Wintz.

GO READ A BOOK!