Saturday Snapshot- Mother's Day!

This week we went to the drive in and my two youngest fell asleep in the cutest positions, but my camera battery was dead and my cell phone doesn't take good shots in the dark, so we were unable to get a shot of them.  I was looking back through my pictures and found the ones I took of the flower arrangement I got for Mother's Day.  It was beautiful and I'm not sure this picture does it justice, but my children picked it because purple is my favorite color.

Once Upon a Crime (Sisters Grim #4) by Michael Buckley

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

The Grimms take Manhattan in the fourth book in the New York Times bestselling series!

When fairy-tale detectives Sabrina and Daphne Grimm venture back to the big city to help a friend, they land in the middle of a big mystery. Puck’s father, King Oberon, has been murdered, and the Grimms suspect one of the many famous (and infamous) fairy-tale folk who call the city home. Can they find the culprit while coming to terms with their mother’s secret life? And will Sabrina ever accept her family’s destiny?

Funny and fast-paced, this series puts a fresh spin on girl-detective stories and has won an everexpanding number of fans.

My thoughts:
This is our latest car audio book.  This is the first book set outside of Ferryport Landing as the Grimms are taking Puck back to his family so he can be healed after having his wings ripped off by Little Red Ridings Jaberwocky at the end of the last book.  Going to NYC has Daphne and Sabrina excited because they are going home to the city they lived in with their parents before the Red Hand kidnapped Veronica and Henry and put them into an enchanted sleep.  Unfortunately the girls discover that the city is full of Ever Afters and always has been.  Their mother had been working with the Ever Afters and her best friend, Oz, to try to get everyone united and working together before her kidnapping.  It is a surprise to the girls to learn that their mother was so entrenched in the secret society.

As usual, there is plenty of action and mysteries to unravel.  Mr. Cainis is undergoing even greater transformation, new Ever Afters are met, more fairy tales are exposed to children.  Last week at the library we checked out a huge book Grim Fairy Tales and I have already seen my daughter reading it.  I wonder how many of them she will go through!

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780810995499
• Publisher: Abrams, Harry N., Inc.
• Publication date: 4/1/2008
• Series: Sisters Grimm Series , #4
• Pages: 296
• Age range: 8 - 12 Years

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

  

                                            

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

Sixty years ago, on October 15, 1952, E.B. White's Charlotte's Web was published. It's gone on to become one of the most beloved children's books of all time. To celebrate this milestone, the renowned Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo has written a heartfelt and poignant tribute to the book that is itself a beautiful translation of White's own view of the world—of the joy he took in the change of seasons, in farm life, in the miracles of life and death, and, in short, the glory of everything.

We are proud to include Kate DiCamillo's foreword in the 60th anniversary editions of this cherished classic.

Charlotte's Web is the story of a little girl named Fern who loved a little pig named Wilbur—and of Wilbur's dear friend Charlotte A. Cavatica, a beautiful large grey spider who lived with Wilbur in the barn.

With the help of Templeton, the rat who never did anything for anybody unless there was something in it for him, and by a wonderfully clever plan of her own, Charlotte saved the life of Wilbur, who by this time had grown up to quite a pig.

How all this comes about is Mr. White's story. It is a story of the magic of childhood on the farm. The thousands of children who loved Stuart Little, the heroic little city mouse, will be entranced with Charlotte the spider, Wilbur the pig, and Fern, the little girl who understood their language.

The forty-seven black-and-white drawings by Garth Williams have all the wonderful detail and warmhearted appeal that children love in his work. Incomparably matched to E.B. White's marvelous story, they speak to each new generation, softly and irresistibly.

Wilbur the pig is desolate when he discovers that he is destined to be the farmer's Christmas dinner until his spider friend, Charlotte decides to help him.

My thoughts:
My two older children were reading this book for a book discussion group at the local library and I decided to check out the audio version of the book a day before their meeting to allow all my children to enjoy the story.  I don't know how many times I've read this book, and I know I have read it to or with my children before, but there is just something about it.  I tried to get my children to dig a little deeper into the story this time, since it is familiar at this point.  They've read it with me, at school, on their own and seen both versions of the movie so I wanted more than just what parts they liked and didn't.

The main things we narrowed it down to is that people are afraid of things they don't understand, as Charlotte tells Wilbur during the story and that words have power.  All it took was five words in Charlotte's web to save Wilbur.  He was "Some Pig", "Terrific", "Radiant" and "Humble".  We talked about using words and talking things out whenever possible before resorting any sort of physical or violent method of communication.  Later we went to the drive-in to see Man of Steel and the exact same line about people being afraid of what they don't understand was in the movie and my son turned to me and smiled, so at least I know he remembered what we talked about!

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780064400558
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers                 
• Pages: 192
• Age range: 6 - 11 Years

This Is How: Help for the Self: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike by Augusten Burroughs

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

If you're fat and fail every diet, if you're thin but can't get thin enough, if you lose your job, if your child dies, if you are diagnosed with cancer, if you always end up with exactly the wrong kind of person, if you always end up alone, if you can't get over the past, if your parents are insane and ruining your life, if you really and truly wish you were dead, if you feel like it's your destiny to be a star, if you believe life has a grudge against you, if you don't want to have sex with your spouse and don't know why, if you feel so ashamed, if you're lost in life. If you have ever wondered, How am I supposed to survive this? This is How.

 

 

My thoughts:
I've never read or listened to a Burroughs book before, but in my mind he was similar to David Sedaris and I remember watching the movie for Running with Scissors.  I listened to this audio book last week.  His take on why people are having the problems they have in their lives and how to overcome them is interesting and refreshing.  We could all use more reminders to live in the present, to not allow ourselves to be influenced so greatly by the past and to realize if we truly want to change, we can and will.  It is easy to blame the past or parents or weight or age for why we can't do something, but for many things we have the power ourselves if we choose to exert it and use it.

Our local library is having a summer reading program for children and adults and for adults they have an added incentive.  There is a book full of brown paper wrapped books, with only the barcodes showing and a brief summary of the book glued to the front.  Last week I selected one book and took it home, when I unwrapped it this was the book.  Since I had just listened to it I did not read it again, but I wonder if that is a sign that I read too much!

 

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780594497011
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 5/8/2012
• Pages: 240

It's Monday, What are you reading?

The summer reading program has started at our local libraries and my children are excitedly reading books.  My daughter wants to be the reader with the most books, so I find her reading multiple books a day, both chapter books and picture books.  She loves to read as it is, but it is neat seeing her devouring so many books!

Here is my week:
Finished reading:
Ever After by Kim Harrison
Lethal by Sandra Brown
Sisters Grimm:  Once Upon a Crime by Michael Buckley
This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike by Augusten Boroughs


I'm still not totally back into the habit of posting about what I've read, but I've enjoyed getting back into it.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.  How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir.  In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his  cash.  He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and , unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented.  Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw the maps away.  Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.

Jon Krakauer constructs a clarifying prism through which he reassembles the disquieting facts of McCandless's short life.  Admitting an interest that borders on obsession, he searches for the clues to the  desires that propelled McCandless.  Digging deeply, he takes an inherently compelling mystery and unravels the larger riddles it holds: the profound pull of the American wilderness on our imagination; the allure of high-risk activities to young men of a certain cast of mind; the complex, charged bond between fathers and sons.

When McCandless's innocent mistakes turn out to be irreversible and fatal, he becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines and is dismissed for his naiveté, pretensions, and hubris.  He is said  to have had a death wish but wanting to die is a very different thing from being compelled to look over the edge. Krakauer brings McCandless's uncompromising pilgrimage out of the shadows, and the peril, adversity , and renunciation sought by this enigmatic young man are illuminated with a rare understanding—and not an ounce of sentimentality. Mesmerizing, heartbreaking, Into the Wild is a tour de force. The power and luminosity of Jon Krakauer's stoytelling blaze through every page.

My thoughts:
A number of years ago I watched the movie based on this book and I was struck by how selfish McCandless was and I did not seem to come away from it the same as other viewers.  I found it profoundly sad that he did not realize how important it is to have connections and share experiences with others until he was close to death.  I decided to give the book a try as I often feel the book is better than the movie.  While it was helpful to gain insight into why McCandless was angry with his parents and felt the need to distance himself from them, he still seemed remarkably immature and egotistical.

McCandless left his college apartment after giving his parents the impression that he planned to attend law school at the end of the summer and disappeared.  He never contacted them or his sister again.  He reinvented himself, renamed himself and lived off of the grid.  He became close to people for a time, but he seemed to have a much greater impact on them than any of them did on him.  He was befriended time and again and lived with and among people for stretches of time, but always later left to pursue the dream of being alone in Alaska.  He purposefully set off into the wilderness of Alaska ill prepared and carrying no maps. 

There are times when many of us would like to gain a little distance from society, but I can't imagine letting those who care about you and love you to be totally in the dark as to where you are and if you are safe and fed.  He never even talked to his parents about what it was he was angry about, never even told them that he knew some facts from the past that they believed were in the past.  His anger may have been justified, but he never found out more than a bare outline of the details and never gave them the chance to explain.

McCandless's adventure wasn't even all that far into Alaska.  He felt like he was all on his own, but he was within ten miles of civilization and everything he was trying to get away from.  He lived his dream, but his dream ended up killing him and I do not believe that he died happy knowing he had achieved it, but that he died alone realizing that he did indeed need and want to have other people in his life.

I wish the author had stuck to just McCandless's life and veered away with examples of other young men who behaved in a similar fashion, including himself.  Shorter examples would have been plenty and the long passages took the reader away from the story in a sometimes abrupt manner.  I am glad I took the time to read the book, and I understand his motivations a bit more, but I still have trouble seeing this from an overwhelmingly positive perspective.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780385486804
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2/1/1997
• Pages: 224

Saturday Snapshot-Last Day of School

Summer is going by so fast already, we are already a week and a half into it!  The end of the school year just seemed to creep up so fast, but it has now been and gone.  I have to start taking pictures of the things we are doing as this is my most recent shot.  So far this summer my children have gone to the pool, gone to the water park, been to an amusement park twice, watched a movie in the theater, had a movie night at home, watched a children's play, gone out to eat, played in the backyard, started the summer reading program at the local library, played baseball and gone to karate class.  It makes me tired even looking at the list.  They  have had downtime as well, but there have been very few "I'm bored" utterances.