I always wanted a collection {Works for Me Wednesday}

I’ve never really been one for collecting things.  I really like stars and star-shapped items, and our living room is somewhat decorated in stars, but I don’t really “collect” them.  You know, like those people who you always know what to get them because they have their “thing” – frogs, UT stuff, apples, whatever.  I’ve always wanted to be one of those people, but alas I just don’t have a “thing”.

I also thought it would be neat for Michael and me to have something to collect when we travel.  But again, I couldn’t come up with anything.

But while working the book fair at school during my practicum this semester I had an epiphany…we could collect children’s books!  Meaningful and practical!  Now, Michael wasn’t quite as jump-up-and-down excited as me (not that I have a love of books or anything…) but he was willing to go along with it (he’s pretty great about jumping on all my crazy idea trains – wait ’til you hear our next one later this week!).

My reasoning was this: collecting children’s books would help us mark or remember those special trips and occasions, plus we would be building a library for our future kiddos.  And I think (hopefully they will too) that it will be neat to read the books to them and tell them “Mommy and Daddy bought this for you when we were in Chicago…long before you were born!”.

I kicked off our collection with a purchase from the book fair – a book about dress up and shoes and one of the little girls name is Caitlin!  So perfect.

Then I bought a Fly Guy book for my last day of my practicum (and was gifted two more by my sweet practicum supervisor)

The professors I worked for carried on the theme (although they didn’t know it) by giving me a book as part of my going away present – Can I Bring Woolly to the Library, Ms. Reeder?

We bought Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as our “souvenirs” for our Gatlinburg trip (and because I needed them for my book-themed graduation party!)

When we found Larry Gets Lost in Chicago, we knew it was the perfect acquisition to represent that trip

On the inside of the book I’ve been writing when and where we got them (i.e. Chicago trip spring 2012)

So if you too want to collect something and have no idea what, here’s one!

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday.

High Five for Friday

Yay for Friday!  Here are some things I’m excited about:

1. After reading my post from last Friday about loving my Sharpie pens, my sweet husband went out and bought me a pack that had more colors: purple, orange, and green.  He had them laying on my placemat as a surprise when I got home from Cookeville on Saturday.  What a sweetheart!  I’ve been putting them to work take notes at church this week and I’m still just so amazed that they don’t bleed!

2. Tonight we are having a scrapbook night at church.  If you only know me through my blog (and not in real life) then you probably don’t know that I love to scrapbook.  I’ve been scrapbooking since middle school and I usually stay pretty current, but I actually haven’t scrapbooked anything since I started this blog (and thus haven’t talked about it much on here) – partly because I’m posting my pictures and memories here, but also because at our house in Lexington, I had a table in the office where my scrapbook stuff could stay laid out all the time, so anytime I had some spare time or we were watching some tv at night, I could work on a page or two.  Now that we’ve moved to a townhouse there is no room to leave my stuff out, and I just haven’t felt like hauling it all out then having to pack it all right back up as soon as we want to use the kitchen table again.  So, I haven’t scrapbooked anything from July to now (which for me is very behind).  I’ve printed out pictures from July to Christmas and I hope to get a bunch of that knocked out tonight.

3. Then tomorrow we are going to Lexington for my friend Amanda’s baby shower.  I’m excited to see everyone!

4. Every once and a while I get tired of the same ole turkey bacon and egg routine that I’ve eaten for breakfast the majority of the days since I started being concerned about my health 6 years ago, so I’ll get on a cereal or oatmeal kick for a while.  I decided this week that I was ready for a breakfast variation so I tried out this blueberry, banana, and walnut baked oatmeal.  It’s just a tad too banana-y for me, but other than that I love it!  I have two other flavors of baked oatmeal that I’m looking forward to trying after I finish up this pan.

5. Listening to audiobooks: I love audiobooks and think they are a great way to “read” a book while still doing other things.  The summer after we bought our house in Lexington, I spent days cleaning every inch of that place, including wiping down every last blind on the windows, and while I cleaned I listened to audiobooks.  I was able to read and be productive!  I also always download one to listen to when I have to drive somewhere (like 2 hours or longer) by myself.  In preparation for my trip to Cookeville I downloaded a book to read.  I then realized that I could also listen to my book at work!  A lot of what I do for the professors I work for is data entry, which doesn’t require reading (I can’t listen to a book or music if I have to read anything, but I’m able to do math/look at numbers and listen to books or music).  So off and on this week at work I’ve been listening to my books – I’ve finished two and have started on a third.  What a great discovery!

And here’s a little bonus fact that goes along with #5.  It’s kind of an embarrassing confession: my secret indulgence is reading (or listening to) Christian romance novels.  They are so cliche and so predictable, but I love them!  It’s always the same: boy and girl have some sort of conflict that keeps them apart, usually one either is not a Christian or has fallen away but finds God during the course of the book, and then they get married and live happily ever after.  But I love them!  They are so sweet, not at all raunchy, and they have a good message.  I’ve read just about every Christian fiction author out there and maybe someday I’ll share a list of my favorites.

Linking up to High Five for Friday.

High Five for Friday

I’ve told you before about my bloggy friend (and real-life friend) Amber (I’ve borrowed her Pinteresting Tuesday idea a few times).  Well another party she links up to is High Five for Friday – something hosted by Lauren at From My Grey Desk (who happens to be the sister of Kate from The Small Things Blog aka my biggest hair-crush ever…small blogging world!).  Did you follow that?  Anyway, the point of the party is to link up your five favorite recent things.  I wanted to join in on the fun, so…

1.

Today I’m headed to Cookeville (where I went to college) to visit my friend Anne (who also went to TTU and is now a teacher in Cookeville).  I’m super excited to have some fun girl time!

2.

I’ve mentioned my love for pens before but I just have to mention it again.  Especially because I am super-loving these Sharpie retractable pens.  Several weeks ago Michael was using one in church.  I had never seen one before so I borrowed it and gave it a try.  And found it to be awesome.  Fortunately my husband loves me very much and gave it to me (I think he had others at home, but we’ll pretend it was a huge sacrifice…shh) and I’ve been using tons ever since.  I also like the Sharpie pens with the caps – he gave me some of those for my birthday last year and I use them a lot too.  The best part is that they don’t bleed!

3.

After six months of living in Bowling Green and visiting tons of churches, we’ve finally settled on a new church home.  We officially placed membership this week and it’s nice to have a place to call home.  We’re excited to get involved.  P.S. Be looking for a post coming soon on things to do and not to do to welcome visitors to your church…a compilation of all our church-visiting experiences.

4.

These Belvita cracker/cookie things are awesometastic.  Renee, the librarian I did my practicum with, introduced me to them and now Michael and I can’t get enough!  There are 4 cookies (they call them breakfast biscuits, but they don’t seem biscuit-y to me) in a package so it’s a pretty big amount of food – I usually divide them in half and will have 2 cookies for a snack.  Sometimes Michael eats them for breakfast.  The blueberry ones are our favorite.

5.

Now that school is over, I actually have time to read for fun (i.e. not a textbook) again.  In January I started watching the tv show The Firm, based off John Grisham’s book.  I really liked it, but decided I wanted to read the book first.  Michael bought it for me for Valentine’s Day and I hadn’t had a chance to read it until last week.  I finally got to read it and I loved it!  I’ve gone back and watched all the tv episodes (but just in case you wondered, the tv show picks up 10 years after where the book left off, so the characters are the same but the plot is different.  I thought it would be the same story as the book but it wasn’t.  It’s still good, though).  I also loaded up with John Grisham books last weekend while we were at my in-law’s.

Linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk

Oh, and don’t forget to enter the giveaway I’m doing…one lucky winner gets a free That Works for Me! book.

free audio books {Works for Me Wednesday}

I have another great educational resource to share with you.  I found a website called Books Should be Free, where you can download tons of free audiobooks.  All the books are from the public domain so you aren’t going to find Twilight or Hunger Games or Jodi Picoult or anything; however, these are very well known books.

Obviously this resource can be used by anyone who just wants to download and listen to a book, but I can really see the potential of this website for high school/college students.  Many of these books were ones that I read in high school or recognize as popular high school assigned reading books.  Since many of the classics that are read in high school have bigger words or harder language, this would be great for a struggling reader to listen to the audio book and follow along in the actual book.  Or this would be a good way to listen to their reading assignments on the go.

I love audiobooks because I can “read” my book while still being productive (driving somewhere, cleaning, exercising).  I always make sure to have a good audiobook to listen to when I have to drive a long distance by myself because listening to the book makes the trip go so much faster!

Some of the choices include:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Treasure Island
• Robinson Crusoe
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• The Swiss Family Robinson
• Moby Dick
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Beowulf
• Don Quixote
• Pollyanna
• The Secret Garden
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Grimm’s Fairy Tales
• A Christmas Carol
• Little Women
• Black Beauty
• Anne of Green Gables
• The Scarlet Letter
• Heidi
• Romeo and Juliet
• Frankenstein
• Silas Marner
• The Velveteen Rabbit
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• Aesop’s Fables
• Pride and Prejudice
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Jane Eyre
• Emma
• Dracula
• Sense and Sensibility
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• War and Peace
• The Odyssey
• The Canterbury Tales
• A Tale of Two Cities
• The Red Badge of Courage
• My Antonia

And I haven’t even scratched the surface!  There are tons of great books.  Go check it out.

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday

Speaking of WFMW…don’t forget to enter the giveaway to win a book full of Works for Me Wednesday tips!

Tedd Arnold author visit + a Fly Guy cake

Today was my last day at my practicum.  It has been such a great experience and I am so sad to leave.  The teachers and staff at Warren Elementary have been wonderful and fun to work with.  I learned so much and had a blast!

At least I picked an exciting event to have as my last day – today Tedd Arnold, author and illustrator, came and spoke at our school!  He writes and illustrates children’s books such as:

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(see a complete list of Tedd Arnold’s books here)

We had a luncheon in the library today in between his presentations.  I used my newly acquired cake decorating skills to make the dessert.  I decided to make a cake with Fly Guy on it; I used this Fly Guy illustration as my guide.

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And here’s my version:

Whaddya think?  I’m pretty please with how it turned out.

I even got a “fancy” cardboard box from Hobby Lobby so it would look all professional and stuff…

I figured the cake wouldn’t be enough to serve all the people that would be there so I also made a batch of chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing (the buttercream icing was so delicious – I can’t wait to share that recipe with you!)

I’m glad I made both because every single crumb got eaten up at lunch!

With Tedd Arnold himself – what a nice guy!

displays of Tedd Arnold books made out of the flyswatters the students decorated as an activity to get ready for Tedd Arnold’s visit (to go along with his book Fly Guy Versus The Flyswatter)

We had a book fair this week so that the kids (and adults!) could buy books.  Tedd Arnold was so kind and autographed each one with personalization.

I got three books

I may be 25 but it still thrills me to have a book personally autographed by a real live author

His presentation was excellent.  He was so down to earth and funny – the kids absolutely loved him!  He told all kinds of neat stories about how he came up with the ideas for his books.  I love hearing the background behind the books!  I think I was as enthralled as the kids.  I’m so glad I got to hear him speak.

What a fun day!

The Help

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It’s been quite a long time since I’ve done a book review.  I can’t imagine why that is…it’s not like I’m in grad school or anything…

It’s actually because of grad school that I read The Help.  Last May I took a young adult literature class; one of the assignments for the class was to read and discuss The Help.  At that point I had never heard of The Help or knew anything about it at all, although apparently I was just not “with it” because when I would start to tell people about this great new book I had found they had either already heard of it or already read it.

I read the book and loved (I might have just spoiled the ending to my review, too bad) and when I started blogging in August I knew I wanted to do a post about The Help.  But I knew there was a movie coming out so I thought I’d just wait until I had seen the movie and review them both at once.  And here we are, in March, nearly a year later, and I finally watched the movie last night!  So I realize that by this point you’ve probably heard of The Help, read it, watched it, or multiple combinations of those three; but I’m going to give you my two cents anyway.

When I first found out I had to read The Help, I really wasn’t excited about it.  It just didn’t seem like the type of book I would like.  But I bought it and started it because I had to, and I ended up loving it!

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 60s and is narrated by three women: Aibileen and Minny, both black maids to white families, and Eugenia (aka Skeeter), a white, recent college graduate who wants to be a writer.  After Skeeter comes home from college she observes the way her friends, who had already married, had babies, and had maids of their own, treated their “help”.  She decides she wants to write a book that tells the stories of the help, both the good and the bad of working for the white families.  It takes some convincing, but she finally gets Aibileen and Minny on board to tell her their stories.  Since the book is written from the three perspectives, we also get to see a glimpse into the lives of the families that Minny and Aibileen work for, Skeeter’s family and love life, and Skeeter’s group of high-society friends.

I’m going to stop there.  I’m terrible about doing book reviews because I want to tell you about the book but I don’t want to give anything away and I never know how much to say!  So that was a very brief overview, and you should really read it for yourself.  I will leave you with my reactions:

1. I realize that there is a lot of controversy about this book.  People say that it wasn’t realistic, or it glorifies Skeeter as rising above the norm to join with the maids, blah blah blah.  So it may not be the best piece of literature ever written (and if it was, I probably wouldn’t like it anyway) but I think it is a great read.

2. The thing that blew me away the most was that this was in the 60s!  Like, when my parents were little!  I think of slavery and racial injustice as being a back-in-the-old-days-long-before-me thing and I didn’t really realize until I read this that, although slavery was technically over, these black women (and men and children, I’m sure, that’s just not what the book was about) were paid next to nothing, treated like trash and/or criminals, and shunned.  And this was just one or so generations ago!  If anything, this helped me understand (not condone, just understand) some of the things that older people say that are racist – they probably grew up in this time and that’s what they are used to (again, I’m not saying it’s right).  This book really made “history” (sorry if you were around in the 60s and I just called that history…) come alive for me.

Anyway, it’s a great read and I highly recommend it.

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On to the movie.  I watched The Help last night.  I thought it was good, but not great.  As with all movies (in my opinion) it didn’t live up to the book – the book is always better than the movie!  There just wasn’t enough time in the 2 hour movie to develop all the characters and follow all the story lines that were included in the book.  They did alter one major part of the story toward the end (I won’t say what so I don’t spoil anything) that I thought was unfortunate.  And they glossed over a lot of the story to make it a more movie-friendly, happy, everyone wins in the end, type of story.  Also unfortunate.  But it’s worth watching.

The Help.  The movie is fine.  The book is great.  The end.

Gabriel’s Horses

Time for me to share another book with you!

As you may or may not know, I’m currently in graduate school working on my masters in library media education.  One of the classes I’m taking this semester is a research class where I have to design and carry out a small research project based on certain topics and criteria given by the teacher.  My topic is “does presenting booktalks on historical fiction increase the circulation of historical fiction books?”.  If you are unfamiliar with booktalks, that’s just when you tell someone (in my case a group of 4th graders) about a book and encourage them to read it.  It’s basically what I do here when I tell you about a book.

So for my project I’ve been going to a local elementary school, giving booktalks on a few books each week, and then tracking the circulation statistics.  I used the school’s online catalog and selected historical fiction books that they have at the library.  If I hadn’t already read the book then I had to read each book before giving the booktalk – good thing I’m using an elementary school, huh?

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One of the books that I read and gave a booktalk about is called Gabriel’s Horses, by Alison Hart.  This is not a book that I would have chosen on my own to read (at that age or now) because (despite Mom’s attempts) I am just not a horse-lover.  I started this booking just trying to get it read so I could summarize it for the kids but I ended up loving it!

The story is about a young slave named Gabriel.  The story takes place in Kentucky in 1864, during the Civil War.  More specifically, the story takes place and/or references Woodford county, Jessamine county, Lexington, and Georgetown.  That got me interested right off the bat since we lived in Lexington/Jessamine county until our recent move.  Gabriel and his mother are slaves on a farm, and Gabriel’s father also works on the farm although he has purchased his freedom and is no longer a slave.  The owner of the farm races horses (very Lexington-appropriate) and Gabriel’s father is his horse trainer.  Gabriel loves the horses and wants to be a jockey.  Although the Civil War is going on, Lexington and the surrounding areas are largely unaffected and thus the horse racing continues.

Gabriel’s father decides to join the army which leaves the farm with no horse trainer.  The owner hires a new trainer who is cruel to the horses and the staff.  The farm is also in fear of a band of Confederate raiders who want to steal the horses.  Gabriel has to decide what to do in order to protect the horses he loves from the trainer and from the raiders.

I loved seeing what all was happening in/near Lexington during the Civil War.  We learn a lot about the Civil War and slavery through the story without it being too textbook-like.  Gabriel is a lovable character with a big heart.  I know this is a kids book (and if you have kids you should consider getting this book for them) but it was too good not to write about.  I also found out that this is the first book in a trilogy, but I haven’t read the others yet.

13 Reasons Why

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As a teacher, every year I have to do various suicide trainings.  So I’ve heard the facts, I know the stats, I know the signs to watch for, but none of the trainings have impacted me the way this book, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, did.  I initially read this book last year right after completing my required suicide training for the year and I just kept thinking “Why don’t we have all the teachers read this rather than doing the ridiculous online stuff – it’s so eye opening!”.

I’m getting ahead of myself again.

13 Reasons Why opens with the reader being told that Hannah Baker has committed suicide.  The narrator of the story, Clay Jensen, comes home one night to find a package on his porch; the package contains 7 cassette tapes.  Clay begins listening to the tapes and is surprised to hear Hannah’s voice.  She explains that there were 13 reasons why she decide to end her life, that each tape contained two of those reasons, and that if you were listening to the tapes you were one of those reasons.  Her instructions say to listen to all the tapes, visit the places she has designated on the map, and then pass the tapes on to the next person.  Clay spends the night listening to each tape and finding out what each person, including himself, had done.

The story is told in Clay’s “voice” as the narrator and in Hannah’s “voice” as she tells her story on the tapes.  This is not a light, happy story but it is definitely worth reading.  13 Reasons Why is well written and interesting; Jay Asher weaves a story of mystery and suspense that makes you want to keep reading to find out more.  Even more importantly, though, is the fact that this book gives a look into the reasonings and justifications of a teenager’s mind unlike anything else I’ve read before.

This book is not just a book about teen suicide.  Through Hannah’s narrative you can see exactly what events she considered hurtful enough to want to commit suicide.  I in no way condone what she did or think that these events leading up to her suicide were worth taking a life over, however, this story puts in to perspective how things that can seem very little to one person can seem huge and hurtful to another.  I finished this book thinking about how everything we do can have an impact on others around us, positive or negative, often without us even realizing.  I knew that in the back of my mind, but 13 Reasons Why really drove the point home.

Anyone who works with teenagers, is a parent of teenagers, is a teenager themselves, or know any teenagers (that means EVERYONE) needs to read this book.  It’s a pretty quick read and it is definitely worth your time.

The Hunger Games

 

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If you haven’t read The Hunger Games yet, drop everything you are doing and start reading now.  Ok, maybe you shouldn’t ignore other important things in your life, but you definitely need to put these books on the top of your books to read list.

Last year one of the librarians at Tates Creek told me I needed to read this book called The Hunger Games.  She said it has been really big the previous year (before I started teaching there) and that I needed to check it out.  I’m willing to try just about any book so I took it home over fall break.  I devoured the first book – it was amazing!  I didn’t realize there were more books to the series until I got to the end of the first book.  I immediately ordered the second and third books off Amazon so I could read them ASAP.  They are that good, y’all.  I don’t know if they are Harry Potter good, but they are very, very close.  And it takes a lot for me to say that.

The books are futuristic; North America is no more and instead has been replaced by the country Panem consisting of a capitol city and 12 surrounding districts.  Each year, one boy and one girl from each district are chosen to participate in the Hunger Games that is put on by the Capitol to remind the districts that the Capitol controls them.  The participants, called tributes, must fight to the death and the last one alive wins.  The story focuses on the two tributes from District 12 and their experiences in the Hunger Games. That’s all I’m going to tell you so I don’t ruin the story.

The books are fast paced and easy to read.  The storyline is unique and not just a repeat of the same ‘ole same ‘ole.  The Hunger Games (I know that’s really only the name of the first book, but I refer to them all as The Hunger Games) isn’t really a “boy book” or a “girl book” – it has a strong female heroine, a little romance, and plenty of action.

Ok, I’m going to stop now and just tell you GO READ IT! (Riley, this means you if you still haven’t read these yet!)

The movie is scheduled to come out in March 2012 and I hope it’s good!

Liar

I’ve spent pretty much all day working on grad school assignments (I’m already regretting taking 3 classes this semester!) but I’m taking a little break to write this post.

My school (that will no longer be my school in 6 more days) has a summer reading program that they call Big Book Madness.  It is completely voluntary; they create a list of 25 or so books (see the list here) toward the end of the school year, students can check them out over the summer, and then when they come back to school they can participate in book discusses.  This is so not the boring summer reading that I had to do in school – the books are contemporary young adult novels and there are no tests.  Many teachers offer extra credit for students who participate and the book discussion groups are very casual, led by a volunteer teacher.  This year was the second year for TCHS to have Big Book Madness and in my opinion is was a success!  There were about 120 participants, we had our discussions, some snacks, and some door prizes.

I read about half of the books on the reading list (maybe I’ll talk about them all later – they were great!), but the book discussion that I led was on Liar by Justine Larbalestier.

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Unfortunately, I can’t really tell you much about the book without giving away the whole story, but I’ll try to give you a teaser.  Liar is about a teenage girl named Micah who, as she tells you at the beginning, is a compulsive liar.  The story revolves around the murder of her boyfriend, but she keeps changing her version of the story throughout the book.  The reviews call this a “psychological thriller”, which isn’t the type of book that I typically read but it was definitely an interesting read.

The fact that you know from the beginning that the narrator is a liar, and thus unreliable, is unique and different from anything else I have read.  The story is frustrating because you just never know what the real truth is, but it also makes you think and you’ll keep thinking about it once you finish reading.  There are so many twists and turns and subtleties along the way that make for a very engaging book.  Since it is a teen novel it isn’t a particularly difficult book to read either.

I can’t say anything else with spoiling it, you are just going to have to read it for yourself. Then let me know what you think really happened.