Text and Java

We had boatloads (pun intended) of fun at the Nautical Nonsense Craft today. We made lighthouses, oceans in bottles, and ate "dessert islands". The big hit was the balloon fishing poles complete with fish. The islands were in this month's issue of American Girl mag and the lighthouses were from a girl scout leader's website. The balloon twisting I learned at a workshop this spring. All of the photos are pre-event, as we cannot take pix of our kids without permission, but this was before the chaos.

The best fiction is the kind that allows you to walk in the shoes of a person whom you could never be otherwise. This is one of those books. Sam is growing up during the Civil Rights movement in Chicago. His father is an important figure in Dr. King's work, and his older brother has become a member of the Black Panther Party. Sam sees two versions of everything. Should he follow his father's nonviolent methods of protest or his brother's more hands-on, gun-toting way. Sam's family lives in an affluent suburb of Chicago, but his girlfriend (the spunky Maxie) lives in the projects. Should he be the rock or the river? The writing in this novel was wonderful, never lecture like, and serves as an eye opener for readers. I would have liked a little more of a historical background in the beginning of the book, but there is a nice history in the back pages. My concern there is that a reader unfamiliar with the history of the Civil Rights Movement may not understand the setting ...

I just finished The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb and while it will probably not go down as a literature classic, I really enjoyed the spooky charm of the setting (both the isolated island and the "haunted" house. It is everyone's dream come true, a rich relative leaves you a couple of million and a giant house, but in this case poor Hallie's rich relative happened to be her mother-the same woman her father had told her died in a house fire many years before. In order to solve the mystery of why her level headed father removed her from a loving mother, Hallie stays on the island and digs for clues. My only complaints about the novel are that it never occurs to Hallie to check out the local library for answers and that handsome, single men fall into her lap. I am not a romance fan, and I felt that some of the scenes with the could be boyfriend dragged a little tiny bit, but that was only because I suspected him of having something to do with the mystery. I...

I just finished The Line and it was not half bad. Of course, that means it was not half good either. Rachel and her mother live/work on the property of an older single woman. Much is made of the fact that Rachel's mom felt the need to stay hidden and out of the cities because of rumors that surrounded Rachel's father when she was a baby. I liked Hall's voice, but her writing style was very simplistic. Perfect for a reluctant reader, or a fan of Haddox's Hidden books, this is obviously a set up for a series as not much happens until the last twenty pages. Some issues I had with the book concern the world building which seemed generic and incomplete. Rachel uses items that have funky sounding names but that are clearly known items: a flashlight has some cutsey name and pictures are digims or something...but they are not at all different from real flashlights or photographs so why bother? Hall also throws out the rules of the government quickly with very ...

Here are some pix from my Alice in Wonderland Tea Party! This craft was open to 4 to 9 year- olds and it was a blast. The decor was red, white, and black with tissue paper flowers and playing cards spread between the settings. I borrowed six teapots and the plates were red and the napkins were black. I created a display of Alice books and served little cakes, brownie bites, and chocolate chip cookies. The teapots were filled with iced tea and lemonade. (We do apple juice all of the time and I thought they might need a break). My mom made the petits fours and I thought they were amazing. The program: I acted out the story of Alice in Wonderland, in costume, in under twelve minutes. I did this in stations and used props (a table with a bottle labelled "Drink me", a key, a box that said "Eat me", a fan, a small toy house, etc.) Then the kids designed their own Mad Hatter hats that I bought from Oriental Trading Company. Note: This is not something I usually d...

Still deciding what to read for the name challenge...so far I have- K- Keep Sweet by Greene (done) R- The Red Tree by Kiernan (done) I- Incarceron by Fisher (done) S- Scorch Trials by Dashner (not until October) T- The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Webb (done) I-? E- Eighty Four Charing Cross Road by Hanff (done) I think I'm going for a re-read of Into the Forest for my last "I". It will be the third time I have read it in 10 years. I love to discover, again, why I loved it the first time. Sometimes, though, books do not hold up and I do not love them as much on a second read. That and time constraints keep me from re-reading more often. I finished Horns and it was a little draggy. I think Hills skills improve every time I read him, but I didn't care for the main character. The story was more of a murder mystery with supernatural elements than a supernatural story with a secondary plot of a murder. It was still good, but I thought it was a little too much. I fou...

I just popped in on Andrea's blog to say hi, and she is involved in a bunch of cool challenges! I love the read your name challenge , so I signed up for that one. Hmmm... Books that start with K..... Where I am going to find time for book challenges now that I've started grad school is beyond me. Maybe I could sleep less. Last night I was up late starting the new Joe Hill, Horns . Too bad I don't have an H in my name. Normally, I dislike writers who are the sons or daughters of famous writers, it makes me sick to think Bram Stoker's (great?) grandson has written a sequel to Dracula and is cashing in on it. At least come up with an original idea for crying out loud! But Joe Hill is an exception to my rant because even though he is the son of Stephen King, I fell in love with his short fiction before I knew who he was, and his work is totally original (yes, he writes horror, but his voice is distinctive and his imagination is incredible). Locke and Key is one of t...