Thomas Hughes, b. 1822.
Arthur Rimbaud, b. 1854. A decadent poet for my French readers.
Fortunately, I don’t read French.
John Dewey, b. 1859, pragmatist and educator. In fact, Dewey was so pragmatic that if you don’t like this quotation, you can probably find one that says the exact opposite that you will like.
Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.”
I’m not much of a fan of Mr. Dewey, but the above statement rings true and meshes well with home-schooling.
Betsy-Bee’s review:
Moxy Maxwell is a nine year old crazy girl who has to read the book Stuart Little. She keeps the book with her all summer, And she does not read it (It seems like she will fall in love with him!). She always has a excuse for why she does not read it. It made me think about when I have excuses to not do my school, my jobs, etc. She takes Stuart Little with her everywhere! She has very good ideas all the time, and one of them was a Peach Orchard. She accidently drowned her mom’s Prizewinning Dahlias and her mom got mad at her and let her go to one place and could not go to some other place and she had to stay home. Eventually she stays up all night and reads all of the book of Stuart Little. Moxy’s twin brother Mark is always taking photos. I love the characters: Moxy Maxwell, Mark Maxwell, Pansy Maxwell, Miss Maxwell, the dogs, Mudd and Rosie, Moxy’s friend Sam, Mr. Maxwell (Ajax). It is a very good and funny book. Moxy Maxwell is a funny, crazy, bossy, smart, good excuse girl and a good friend. You should really read Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little today! Make sure you read all of it .(I’m not kidding!)
Sherry’s Mom Thoughts: Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little really is a good book, one of the funniest I’ve read this year. Check out these sample chapter titles:
Chapter 8: In Which Moxy Actually Considers Reading Stuart Little.
Chapter 11: The Part Where the Story Really Starts to Heat Up.
Chapter 32: In Which Moxy’s Mother Sees a Dahlia Fall From the Sky.
Chapter 36: The Breath of Ajax Is Felt Upon Moxy
Great fun. Easy enough for a second or third grader to read, and yet there’s enough universally appealing kid humor to hold the interest of older children and even adults like me.
The photographs with captions, ostensibly taken by Moxy’s twin brother Mark, are an integral part of the story and very well done. I think kids are going to love this book, and they might even be inspired to read Stuart Little after they finish reading about Moxy Maxwell’s adventures.
By the way, I think Betsy-Bee has a new nickname for those times when she’s acting a bit like Moxy Maxwell. Don’t you think calling her “Moxy-Bee” with a smile will encourage her to ditch the excuses and distractions and get to work?
This book has been nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. Do you have a favorite children’s book published in 2007? Nominations are still open in the following categories: Fantasy and Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction Picture Books, Middle Grade Fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult Nonfiction, Nonfiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction.
I saved these two stories quite a while ago to share with you all, but I’m just now getting around to doing so. Enjoy.
David Darlington tells about his experience in Biloxi, helping to build houses post-Katrina:
Everywhere we went during the week, people expressed appreciation for the volunteers who keep coming back to Biloxi. With the media attention gone, and the casinos and WalMarts running close to normal, there’s the impression that things are ok on the gulf coast. This is most certainly not the case. Indeed, a frequent refrain — from local restaurant owners to local Baptist pastors to, believe it or not, the garbageman who stopped his truck to check out the progress we’d made on our house — was that ‘if it wasn’t for the churches, we’d have been forgotten long ago.'”
Though Olivia required constant attention, I never saw a counselor or camper begrudge her their time and energy. She was welcomed with open arms, and included in everything all week long. This speaks well of the campers and counselors, but mostly it speaks well of Olivia: She loved everyone she met, and so everyone loved her back. There aren’t that many people in the world whose whole faces light up when they see you; Olivia’s always did. Every awkward and self-conscious girl in that camp knew that one person, at least, would be enthusiastically glad to see her.”
Reviewed by Brown Bear, age 12:
When I first saw this book, I looked at the jacket blurb and got an entirely incorrect first impression, as almost all of my first impressions are. I thought I would not enjoy the book because I thought I knew what kind of book it was. It thought it would be very typical and predictable.
It was not typical and it was not predictable in any way.
Emma-Jean Lazarus is suddenly faced with many difficulties. Emma-Jean doesn’t understand other kids. She considers them illogical and she knows that some are very rude. She keeps her distance from her classmates, observing them but never really interacting. But, despite this, when Colleen Pomerantz, whom she discovers sobbing over the bathroom sink at her school, asks desperately for her help with a problem of her own, Emma-Jean decides to help her.
On top of this, a boy named Will Keeler is being injustly picked on by a teacher, and she decides to help him as well. Emma-Jean solves both of their problems using methods involving forgery and trickery. But what happens when her deception is found out? Will Emma-Jean decide that getting into other people’s business, even with their permission, is a bad idea? Will she go back to the Emma-Jean she was before she walked in on Collen crying in the bathroom?
I enjoyed this book very much because A) The kids in it were exactly my age, which pleased me, B) It was original and wasn’t too reminiscent of any other books, and C) It had many different angles, so I never grew bored.
I don’t know what my favorite Cybil nominee is yet, but this one was one of the best I’ve read.
Sherry’s Thoughts: When Emma-Jean Lazarus’s classmates taunt her and call her “strange”, she and her mother look up the word in the Oxford English Dictionary, “kept out on her mother’s dresser for handy reference.”
The second definition for strange is “extraordinary, remarkable, singular.” Emma-Jean and her mother decide that the description is quite accurate as applied to Emma-Jean, and they further decide that Emma-Jean should take such an epithet as a compliment rather than an insult. The “strange” thing about the episode is that Emma-Jean does deal with all her problems just so logically.
Emma-Jean reminds me of the TV detective, Monk. She’s never labelled with OCD or Asperger’s or any other of the multitude of labels we give to those have strange (and remarkable) personalities, and that’s a strength of the novel. I’m not like Emma-Jean, but I can identify. Which of us isn’t extraordinary, remarkable, and singular in the unique way God created each of us, and which of hasn’t known the feeling of not fitting in with the crowd?
Emma-Jean learns and grows over the course of the novel, and at the same time she remains a singular, remarkable young lady. I agree with Brown Bear Daughter that this book was one of the best of the Cybil nominees I’ve read.
Reviewed by Betsy-Bee, age 8:
Cork was a muskrat and Fuzz was a possum. They both like it when they win a game. Fuzz always won and Cork wanted to win. And he finally did. It made me think about when my family always wins and I don’t. But eventually I do. Fuzz had longer legs then Cork; Fuzz was better at stickball than Cork and he was better at tackle ball. But Cork can swim and Fuzz can’t and he was very, very good at hide-and-seek. But there was a game that they both could win: A three-legged race!
Sherry’s thoughts: I read Cork & Fuzz: Good Sports, too, and I thought it was an entertaining and delightful easy reader. Cork and his friend Fuzz are personable characters, and the words themselves are difficult enough to be challenging (level 3), but with some repetition for phonetic and sight word practice.
This easy reader has been nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. Do you have a favorite children’s book published in 2007? Nominations are still open in the following categories: Fantasy and Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction Picture Books, Middle Grade Fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult Nonfiction, Nonfiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction.
Reviewed by Karate Kid, age 10:
How to steal a dog? Well, this book doesn’t really tell how to steal a dog, it tells why to steal a dog. Here we go, there is a girl named Georgina, and her little brother is named Toby. They are very poor and live in a car. Their father left them, leaving only a roll of quarters and a mayonaise jar with a bunch of crumpled dollar bills. That wasn’t much to live on and Georgina’s “Mommy” didn’t make too much money. One night, Georgina saw a sign, Small Dog Lost! Reward: $500 . That got Georgina thinking, what if she stole a dog, waited until she saw reward signs, and returned it for money! She asked her mom if 500 dollars would be enough to get a real home. Her mom said probably. Georgina’s heart leaped and she told Toby (her brother, remember) her plan. The next day they looked all over the neighborhood for dogs that wouldn’t bark, bite, or chew their leash off and run away. Finally, on a street called Whitington Road, they found it. A house that looked so good on the outside… with a dog on the porch. It was so inviting that Georgina imediatly whistled for him and he came right over! They picked him up and took him across the highway to an old house in the woods. there he stayed . . . for awhile. . . I am not telling you what happens next; I’ve given away enough already! Read it, you’ll love it!
This book and many other great reading adventures have been nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. Do you have a favorite children’s book published in 2007? Nominations are still open in the following categories: Fantasy and Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Fiction Picture Books, Middle Grade Fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult Nonfiction, Nonfiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction.
I’ve read the following books in the past few months, but I didn’t review them because I really didn’t have that much to say about them. Here you have my brief opinions:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Mr. Sacks is a neurologist who writes in this book about patients with “conditions ranging from Tourette’s Syndrome to autism, parkinsonism, musical hallucination, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia, retardation and Alzheimer’s disease.” We’ve been watching a lot of House lately, and the book reminded me of the often strange diagnoses on that program. However, Dr. Sacks sounds a lot more compassionate than Greg House.
Christian Science Monitor: What Is Oliver Sacks Reading, Listening To, and Watching?
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith. Great if you liked the other books in this No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I did.
Austenland by Shannon Hale I first read about this book at Camille’s Book Moot. She refers to a review at Bookshelves of Doom. It was enjoyable chick-lit, nothing serious, for Jane Austen fans only. I can’t imagine anyone else finding the book of interest, but I can imagine especially young single fans of Mr. Darcy/Colin Firth finding the book to be a good way to spend an afternoon.
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin. Recommended by Cindy at Dominion family. I enjoyed this golden era mystery, reminiscent of Agatha, Dorothy, and Josephine. But not as absorbing.
Instructions for me: Access your iPod, Media Player or music storage device of choice, set it to random, and post the opening lyrics to the first 10 songs that come around, then let the friends-list guess the songs and artists (or songwriters, if you will). Offer fabulous prizes if do-able; if not, offer virtual Hershey’s kisses or somethin’.
And the instructions for you: Guess away, and have fun. Just refrain from peeking at the comments until you’ve made your guesses, because otherwise that’s JUST NOT RIGHT. And, uh, if you’ve WRITTEN the song in question, maybe you should bypass it.
No prizes. Well, maybe I could send you one of the songs off my iTunes. Can I do that? Is it legal?
1. They say that ___________ ___________ owned one half of this whole town,
With political connections to spread his wealth around.
Born into society, a banker’s only child,
He had everything a man could want: power, grace, and style.
2. When you’re weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes,
I will dry them all
I’m on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can’t be found . . .
3. And _____________ was her name,
A not so very ordinary girl or name.
But who’s to blame?
For a love that wouldn’t bloom
For the hearts that never played in tune.
4. I’m the cat that got the cream
Haven’t got a girl but I can dream
Haven’t got a girl but I can wish
So I’ll take me down to Mainstreet
And that’s where I select my imaginary dish.
5. Go ahead drive the nails in My hands,
Laugh at Me where you stand.
Go ahead, and say it isn’t Me,
The day will come when you will see . . .
6. I ran away from you
And left you crying
And though I’m back to stay
You think I’m lying
But I’ve changed
My ways.
7. _____________________________________
Where it’s warm and secure,
Are sorry you bought the one way ticket
When you thought you were sure.
You wanted to live in the land of promise
But now it’s getting so hard.
8. When I die there won’t be much to salvage from my earnings
I never had a lot of land or houses to my name
I’ve never been a corporate prince on Madison and New York
I never held a diamond in my hand.
9. Hey, girl whatcha doin down there
dancing alone every nite while I live right above you
I can hear your music playin’
I can feel your body swayin’
one floor below me you don’t even know me:
I love you.
10. Well, _______________ with their soft lights,
Your eyes that promise sweet nights,
Bring to my soul a longing, a thirst for love divine.
In dreams I seem to hold you, to find you and enfold you,
Our lips meet and our hearts, too, with a thrill so sublime.
I had to skip several songs on my iTunes that don’t have lyrics, music from LOTR and several Big Band hits and jazz numbers. Anyway, the first one to guess all ten wins . . . the satisfaction of having eclectic, weird, and mostly-seventies musical tastes.
Edwardian reading: novels set in Edwardian England, a list by Danielle Torres.
Down the Pub With Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: A Review of The Company They Keep, C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien as writers in community by Diana Pavlac Glyer.
A Reading List for Jo, Carmon’s sixteen year old daughter.
Lena Mae’s Books by great-grandaughter Lanier: “Her family said of her that she believed there was never a boy or a book that was beyond help. Having lost her only son at the age of nine she was known all her life for her fierce tenderness towards the male race, pampering the boy grandchildren with a delightful shamelessness. But she was equally shameless in her defense of books. In her mind it was a mortal sin to throw away a book, right up there with dancing and playing cards on Sundays. Books that had fallen on hard times were no more to be censured than a genuine lady or gentleman of reduced means. If the message housed between the covers was still legible—and worthy to begin with—then it found safe refuge with her.”
Four exceptional children:
Sticky Washington, the boy with a glue-like memory.
Kate the Great Weatherall, or The Great Kate Weather Machine as she would prefer to be called.
Reynie Muldoon, the leader with a knack for figuring out puzzles.
Cranky Constance whose salient talent is that of finding the negative in everything and telling everybody about it, loudly and sometimes in verse.
Their Mission: To save the world, of course.
Their Enemy: Ledroptha Curtain, arch-villain whose goal is control of the world and whose methods are almost impossible to resist.
Their Friends: Mr. Benedict, Mysterious Milligan, Rhonda Kazembe, and Pencil Woman Number Two.
Can four children infiltrate the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened (L.I.V.E.), find out what Mr. Curtain is doing, how he is doing it, and how to stop him before he takes over the world?
I loved this book. It reminded me first of last year’s Kiki Strike —without the feminist agenda. In The Mysterious Benedict Society, just in Kiki Strike, four children form a team to fight evil, each has his own special abilities, and the adventure never quits. But in Benedict the children are two boys and two girls, and there’s never any hint of boys against girls or that obnoxious phrase “girl power.”
I think, for Harry Potter fans, there are some HP echoes, too, although I can’t be sure since I’m the only reader in North America who hasn’t read Harry Potter. (Constance and I share a stubborn streak.) Anyway, the idea of an elite group of children with special abilities who are tasked with learning to use their talents and finding a way to save the world seems to me to be straight out of the HP world.
Other themes in the books include: facing fear, finding and cherishing family, and teamwork. Each of these motifs is played out in the course of an adventure that keeps the reader turning the pages to see what will happen next. The Mysterious Benedict Society is Mr. Stewart’s first novel for children, and it’s a corker. I can hardly wait to read more books by this author.
Oh, and Computer Guru Son, who is a Decemberists (musical group) fan, immediately recognized the cover art as the work of Carson Ellis who also does the album cover art for the Decembrists. Here’s an interview with Ms. Ellis, if you’re interested.
Two more things you’ll understand only if you’ve already read the book: I really liked the revelation about Connie at the end of the book, and I didn’t guess it at all. And did anyone else have the brains and the time to figure out the riddle at the end of the book concerning Mr. Benedict’s first name? I must be dense because I still have no idea.
Oh, I also liked the fact that the book actually ends. The author may have left some room for a sequel, but in our mania for sequels and series we’ve gone way overboard, IMHO. I’m sort of tired of the book that never ends but only promises to do so possibly at some time in the future, and this one was a satisfying change. Nice ending, and I’m game for a possible sequel with some of the same characters or for something completely different from Mr. Stewart next time around.
The Curiosity Chronicle: An Interview With Trenton Lee Stewart.
Other reviews:
Renee’s Book of the Day: “I did enjoy the book a lot and definitely believe that ten- or eleven- year olds would drink this book right up. It’s full of puzzles, intrigue, evil plots, bullies, sinister institutions, action, humor, and warmth.”
Jen Robinson’s Book Page: “I would have adored this book when I was 10 or 11. The Mysterious Benedict Society is a sure winner for middle grade readers, boy and girls, especially if they like puzzles, or reading about mystery and adventure.”