On hiatus

I’m officially going on hiatus for a while.  My husband has a severe enough case of the chicken pox that he is currently hospitalized, and will be there for at least a few days.  Between his pox, following up on tree damage, a toilet that make a weird noise and then quit working, summer school, and a big YALSA committee deadline, I have several other things to deal with.

I swear, this summer has just been too much.  I need a vacation from my summer vacation!

I’ll get back to blogging once this stuff calms down.  Thank you for your patience!

Photo Friday 7/23/2010

Tuesday, I came home from work to a sick husband.

By 8 pm, his temp was 102.8.

At 8:30 pm, we heard a loud thump.

We ran into our front room to discover leaves in front of the window.

Because this had happened:

With the help of some wonderful neighbors, we got the tree limb off the house.

Wednesday, I came home from work to find my husband breaking out in red spots.

A trip to the doctor confirmed my suspicion: chicken pox.

He somehow managed to avoid them as a child.

I still had lots of tree debris to clean up.

My week has been monopolized by a tree limb and the pox.  Which is why there has been a lack of posts since Monday.  I’m hoping to have some time to catch up with me-stuff this weekend while the patient convalesces.  As much as he can, at least, since adult males often suffer the most from chicken pox.  (And not in that men-are-babies-when-sick but really actually sick.)

The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow

The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow; read in March, 2010.  ARC provided at ALA Midwinter by Amulet Books.

Another fast five:

1. I LOVED the format of this book.  It reminded me of the notebooks I had in junior high and high school with my best friends.  Instead of writing notes on loose pieces of paper, we would trade a spiral notebook back and forth.  This book goes a step beyond that, though, with the illustrations.  It is fun to get this glimpse into the friendship between these two girls.
2. Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang are adorable.
3. I love that Julie has two dads and it is completely normal.
4. I think a lot of girls in the late elementary/early middle school range will relate to Lydia and Julie’s quest to figure out how to be popular.  I remember one of my childhood friends starting junior high determined to become popular.
5. The ending is adorable: the girls make up and list what they learned.  The list could be very after-school-special, but it is not.  They list lessons we all learn, and reminders never grow old.  Lydia’s older sister, Melody, has the best line at the end, “Your friends should be the coolest people you know.”  No doubt, Melody.

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Photo Friday 7/16/2010

Brinkley and I spent a recent cooler evening on our deck.

He’s such a pretty boy.

Have a great weekend!  I know I’ll enjoy it since I am working summer school for the next two weeks.

Thursday Tidbits 7/5/2010 Part 2

Because it can’t wait another week: the hilarious Cleolinda does it again – Eclipse in 15 minutes!

Thursday Tidbits 7/15/2010

Tidbits!

• If you’ve read the Betsy-Tacy high school books, you know that Merry Widow hats come in to play. I loved seeing this collection of hats, even if they were mainly to poke fun at them.
• Are you reading Catalog Living?  You should be!  Don’t believe me?  Tell me this doesn’t make you laugh out loud, for real.
• My friend Tony wrote about his experience meeting George Steinbrenner.
• Is anyone else excited about the new movie Easy A?
• LOLSlater is hilarious!

Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel; read in July, 2010.  Copy provided by St. Martin’s Press for review.

Rebecca Maizel begins her new series with Infinite Days.  The novel opens on Lenah Beaudonte, beginning to panic when she wakes up and realizes she is lying naked in the sunlight, expecting to burst in to flames.  She soon learns that despite the past five centuries that she has spent as a vampire, her life has been changed; she is now human again, thanks to the selfless sacrifice made by her soul mate.  He took her away from her coven to allow her to build a new life.

She is now enrolled in a boarding school and begins to experience life as a “normal” 16-year-old.  Of course, normal is not really what she is, as she still possesses some of her vampire senses, and she cannot quite bring herself to feel safe in the sun.  Lenah becomes friends with an artist, Tony, and develops feelings for the golden-boy, Justin, who is the antithesis of the vampires she spent centuries with.  Yet, she knows the coven she created is out in the world and will track her down eventually – they need their queen.  How long can she live this human life when she knows her vampire past won’t rest until it finds her?

I really enjoyed this page-turning read.  It is a refreshing take on vampires.  So often, vampires are glamorized and romanticized; but Maizel depicts them as tortured creatures who yearn to be made human again – to feel again.  Lenah is a very interesting character.  She might take a bit to win you over, but it is because she is realistic and believable.  I loved her friend Tony – he was my favorite in the book.  I have to admit, I was never completely sold on Justin; he was too perfect and didn’t have much depth.  The glimpses the reader is given of the characters that make up Lenah’s coven are intriguing.  I look forward to getting to know all the characters further in the sequel.

While the YA vampire market is over saturated at this point, Infinite Days rises to the top and is worth reading.  The cover is extremely attractive and does not set up a false expectation for the story it contains.  I look forward to seeing this devoured by the fantasy fans in my high school library this fall.

Rebecca Maizel has a blog, and there is a GREAT trailer on You Tube for Infinite Days.

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Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill

Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill; read in July, 2010.  Copy provided by HarperCollins for review.

Stephanie Hemphill uses free verse and three different character perspectives to tell a fictionalized account of the Salem witch trials in Wicked Girls.  It is a fascinating take on a piece of American history about which we know many facts but not the full story.  The novel opens with Mercy Lewis, a 17-year-old servant in the Putnam’s house, as she gives the reader an idea of what life in Salem Village is like: cold, little to eat, lots of distrust of others.  The reader soon meets the other main characters: Ann Putnam Jr., the 12-year-old who yearns for attention, namely from her mother and Mercy, and Margaret Walcott, a 17-year-old cousin of Ann’s, with a fierce streak of jealousy.

Two local girls, Betty and Abigail, are the first to be afflicted, and Ann quickly joins in.  Margaret and Mercy are drawn in, as are several other girls.  Ann often leads the group as they name the “witches” who “torment” them, but the power in the group is fluid and loyalties change.  Each girl has her own motivation, and the way they use the power they hold is frightening.  The book spans a year as many innocent people are arrested and put to death.

I saw this book on display at ALA and the cover made me yearn to read it.  I was so happy when a copy soon came in the mail for me.  I could not put this book down!  Hemphill’s portrayal is very believable.  Teens will relate to the bullying, group think, and peer pressure that drives the characters.  I can see this book being used in so many ways, not just to bring attention to a piece of history, but to also talk about mean girls, and to study character voice.  Each girl has a unique voice so the perspective changes are not hard to follow.

Hemphill’s author notes in the back are thorough.  She goes in to detail about the real people and what happened to them, as far as we know.  Further resources are listed should the reader wish to learn more, and she writes about her motivation for writing the story.  I love that she included this glimpse into her brain.

Wicked Girls is an engaging read that I will definitely put in my high school library.

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Heaven to Betsy and Betsy In Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace

I have a backlog of books that I read in the past year and still haven’t reviewed.  So, rather than try to write a full review on a distant memory, I will get these books done with five fast thoughts.  I am naming this the “Fast Five View.”

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Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace; read in April, 2010.  Copy purchased for myself.

1. I fell in love with the Ray’s new house and “The Crowd.”  I wanted to be invited over with them, especially for Sunday night lunch, although the thought of an onion sandwich makes my stomach turn!
2. I really love how these books aren’t centered on boys and being popular.  Lovelace delves into religion when Betsy and her sister want to join a different denomination than that of their parents.  Their feelings are treated with care and respect, and the girls take their conversion very seriously.
3. Betsy does not always have the best taste in men, as evidenced by Tony and Phil.  But I love that she learns from her mistakes, whether the mistakes involve boys or something else.
4. One of my favorite things about these books is how the girls are encouraged to be themselves and follow their dreams.  Mr. and Mrs. Ray encourage Betsy’s writing and support Julia’s desire to sing opera.
5. In one of my grad school classes, when we studied the history of education, one thing we read claimed that being a teenager was an invention of the 1950s.  I’ve never really bought in to this idea.  Spring Awakening (the play that is the basis of the musical) was written at the turn of the 20th century, and the Betsy-Tacy books, which were based on life in the early 20th and published in the 1940s, both give credit to the idea that certain things about being a teenager are timeless.  Despite the passing of 100 years, Betsy struggles with many of the same thoughts and emotions that teens must face today.

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ALA Annual Washington D.C. 2010 Recap

ALA Annual was a blast this year!  It has taken me a bit to get my recap together as I am working summer school right now, but here it is.  (Better late than never – behind the cut!)