Another Wednesday, another website

Short and sweet. Bookworm 4 kids offers reviews of books for littles, middles and almost grown kids. Check it out. Nuff said.

Whatever Wednesday

Randomity today:

Check the storytelling page for new stuff, - a new link and a new game.

We switched cable/bundle providers last week.  I hate change and so does the Hub.  All that technical stuff making things work the way they used to is very trying.  Any techies willing to reinstall Adobe Flash for patience-challenged older folks?  My Mac is untouched.  Finally, a reason to be grateful for my iMac.

This is the American cover, much more expressive than the British cover, I think.

I read Earwig and the Witch by the great and, sadly, late Diana Wynne Jones.  It's very short and reads like the beginning of a longer book or possibly a series for younger readers.    We will never know, though, will we?  Suddenly, I feel bereft - again.

Anyway, Earwig is a typical Diana Wynne Jones character - willful, clever, maybe even a little devious.  She gets "adopted" by a witch who really just wants "another pair of hands".  Earwig makes sure the witch gets what she wants.  Hehehehehehehehehehe.  Man, I wish there could be another book about Earwig.

Started Wonder by R. J. Palacio.  Love Auggie's voice so far.  There is not a lot of detail about his deformities.  Is that good or bad?  I will find out.  Check out the book trailer.

I read The Running Dream by Wende Van Draanen last week.  I liked it but it read, in parts, like a manual on the building and fitting of prosthetic limbs.  Fascinating!  No, actually, very fascinating!

It's a very hopeful book, full of good people pulling together to "make things work".  A track star loses part of one leg in a bus accident.  That's how the book starts.  Somehow, she and her family and her friends have to make her recurring running dreams a reality again.  Although I wonder how realistic the main character's reactions could be, I feel that Van Draanen provides a model for how these challenges should  be met.  Hope keeps people alive and striving.  Hope makes people happy.  Hope rules. 

That's it for now. 

GIVEAWAY!! Whatever!

It's Whatever Wednesday here and I have so much on my mind that if I did not control my flailing fingers - Wow!  Be grateful for my reticence.

 I uploaded a story fragment on Scribd.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  There is a story behind the names in this story.    Someday, I might share the story-behind.

And now to the main event!

  I have a giveaway.  TWO FREE PASSES to StoryFUSION's  Saturday Evening Elizabeth Ellis performance on March 31st at Northampton Community College's Lipkin Theater.  This is an awesome giveaway made possible by the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild.

Here is how you enter.  Comment on this blog.  Add your town and state.  For example, if your user name is watergirl and you live in Cranston Ohio, just put that in.  I am guessing that local people are more likely to enter.

You have until next Wednesday, March 14th,  to enter.   I will put all the entries into the Chobani Cup of Oracleness; pull out the winner; and announce that winner here on Thursday, March 15th, (The Ides of March), as part of Storytelling Thursday.  You will then email me at an address to be disclosed at that time and tell me where to send the passes.

You get another entry if you share this post on your Facebook page and come back and comment SHARED here.  Thanks so much.  StoryFUSION is - I need a new word that indicates a level of excellence that is rarely achieved by local arts festivals - artawesome? Fantasabulous?  Tale-errific?  Help me out here.

Get yet another entry if your comment includes a new word that describes a truly excellent art festival experience.

That's THREE possible entries for each of you.  Put on those thinking caps.  Share this post with everyone and get them to comment, too.

Whatever Wednesday

1. Parent Magazine's Camp Mom has a whole bunch of book lists by age on their site.  When you visit, expect ads.  It's a magazine.  That's how they roll.

2. I just returned from a StoryFUSION committee meeting at Northampton Community College.  This festival is HUGE with events Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday, March 29th through April 1st.  I will tell you much, much more tomorrow on Storytelling Thursday.

3. So, book reviews.  I am finally reading Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.  Here's a warning.  This is not a good, relaxing bedtime read.  Once you get used to the narrator's annoyingly self-absorbed self-deprecating remarks, this book is hilarious.  It's sad, too, but mostly, it's laugh out loud funny.
I haven't reached the end, though, so maybe it gets depressing.  But I laughed so hard - several times - last night that I jazzed myself awake.  My poor long-suffering husband retreated to the sofa.  Yeah, it's that funny.

And when I finally decided that I had to close the book, I lay there trying to figure out how I would tell people about this book.   Here's the set up.  Greg Gaines has managed to reach senior year of high school without committing to any group, doing any extra-curricular activities, or making any friends - except for Earl, his film-making buddy.  He is a "normal" teenager who has decided that invisibility is the key to survival.  His attempts to remain under the radar have succeeded so far but they create a great deal of anxiety for him.

Then, his mother emotionally strong-arms him into visiting Rachel, a girl he "dated" in sixth grade.  (Do sixth-graders even go on dates?  What?  They're 11!).  Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia and is pretty darn sick.  The book is about Greg's attempts to "cheer up" poor Rachel.  Then he gets Earl involved and the films he and Earl hoped would never see the light of the screen are shared in an attempt to keep Rachel's spirits up.

To Greg and to the reader, Rachel is a shadow character, there to reflect (Do shadows reflect?  See, now Greg has me doing this questioning-the-writing-as-it-goes thing.) Greg's lack of self-esteem and to convince him that he is a loser supreme.  OK, SHE doesn't convince him; his own self-loathing convinces him that he is a loser.  She actually likes him and his films.

I am two thirds through the book.  I hope that Greg manages to keep his act together and graduate.  Right now, he is concentrating on Rachel so much he's blowing off his school work.  I hope one of his films is shown to be a work of genius - comic perhaps.  Or, that he manages to accept that he can't be a total loss if he worries so much about keeping someone else happy.  I hope that IF Rachel dies - and I'm not sure she will though that's because I am an eternal optimist - that her death is not sobbing-pathetic.

There's a lot of Teen Guy specific bad language and obsessions in this books - just a head's up. 

Oh, I just went to the publisher's page for this book and I have to go finish it - RIGHT NOW!!

ADDENDUM:  I finished the book.  The publisher's blurb promises something and the book delivered it - in a totally consistent way.  I was a little worried there that this book would be - um - socially redemptive in a smarmy way.  No worries.  No smarminess involved.

Wednesday Again? Whatever!

This post is going to be done in bits and pieces.

Bit #1:  I re-arranged my blogs and Favorite Links today.  Check out Lehigh Valley Family Fun.  This site has the most inclusive calendar of fun kids events in the Lehigh Valley.

Eva Grayzel is the power behind Six Step Screening.  A Stage 4 Oral Cancer survivor, Eva spends a great deal of her free time promoting preventive screening and presenting the story of her miraculous recovery.

I have moved some blogs and websites into "rotation" for now.

Piece #2.  The Story Swap at Godfrey Daniels starts at 7 pm tonight and should be stupendous.  It's free.  Go.  Listen.  Tell.

I know that Kristin Pedemonti will be there to perform.  And Kathy Long!!!! I am not auditioning for the opening slot at StoryFUSION but I think I have a story/rant to tell later.  Hope to see you there.

Bit #3.  Rectangles have been turned into mug shrugs and potholders.  I know, how mundane!  But if I get them out of my house, it's all good.

Piece #4.  I forget what piece #4 was going to be.  Sigh.  Maybe later.

I thought I remembered but it slipped away again so here is a cartoon someone sent me this morning.

Whatever Wednesday - Prepare for Battle

The roster of books for the SLJ Battle of the Kids Books (BOTKB) has been announced.  This is one of my favorite times of year because usually the list includes many titles I haven't read.  Since I had to do an end of the year book review session in 2011, though, I have read most of the books on the slate.  But, Not all of them!  I am so excited.

I can tell you what is NOT on this list.  Icefall by Matthew Kirby didn't make the cut. (Shock and surprise and a head-shake of disbelief!)  Nor did Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach, nor The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone.  What about How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (or all the other pregnant teen novels.  There were a slew of those last year!)? Or Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater?   What!!?? A book about flesh-eating horses from the Irish Sea didn't make the list??  Oh, well.  There is no accounting for taste.

Expect frequent updates here for the Battle of the Kids Books because I think this is one of the most fun events SLJ and its staff does all year.  Books for Kids Rock!