Books I've Read Recently

Well, sort of recently-- over the last couple months.

Books I would Highly Recommend:

North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell-- a sort of Pride & Prejudice story, but with more political themes.

The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck-- short, quick read, about a village wiped out by a tsunami and how the people who are leftt alive recover.

Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz-- about Jean's life growing up in China and how she wishes for America even though she's never been there. This covers the few years she and her family lived in China before the Chinese revolution (1927).

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley-- a Newberry Medal winning fantasy novel written in 1984. I love fantasy novels and I'm always looking for more!! I think this has at least one more book from the same land, and the author has written a number of other books so I should be happily entertained for a while. This is about Aerin, the daughter of the king who has never been fully accepted as royalty because it is rumored her mother was a witch woman who enspelled the kind into marrying her to get an heir, only to die of despair when she realizes she has given birth to a daughter. Aerin must uncover the truth of her origin and find a way to fill her place as the king's daughter.

Books I've Enjoyed: These are mostly books from several series that I have been reading the last couple years.

Rapture of the Deep: A Bloody Jack Adventure by L.A. Meyer-- Book 7 in the Bloody Jack series-- another book, another adventure. There are some things I don't like about the series-- the characters can be a little crass/forward, and as a reader I know she won't get to marry her sweetheart until the series is going to end so this makes it feel like a never-ending problem.

The Chrestomanci Series by Diana Wynne Jones-- author of Howl's Moving Castle (which I also just read again), these are about the wizard Chrestomanci. Overall I really like Jones' books, but you never get a complete explanation of how magic works in the worlds she creates so I always feel unsure of what/how things happen. I feel like this with the howl books as well.

Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale-- I just read the newest release, book 4, Forest Born (Utah Beehive Award Nominee for 2010) and I enjoyed it. I liked it more than book 2 or 3, but The Goose Girl, book 1, is still my favorite. Sometimes with her books I get the impression that she's trying to come up with the most outlandish things she can think of to keep the reader entertained, when really she should just stick with telling us a good story. BTW, I was reminded of her book Austenland as Kurt and I were watching the BBC series Regency House Party about 10 modern day people going back in time to the early 19th century to find love while they try to live true to that time period (men lived so much better than the women!).

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban-- Utah Beehive Award Nominee for 2010, this book is about 11 year old Zoe who wants to give piano concerts at Carnegie Hall, but her dad buys her a Perfectone D-60 organ. Her teacher discovers she is talented and signs her up to play in the Perfectone Perform-O-Rama contest. Despite reality not matching her dream, Zoe forges ahead to make the best of the situation.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas-- Utah Beehive Award Nominee for 2010, Conn lives on the streets and tries to steal a wizard's lotus stone, something that should kill him, and when it doesn't the wizard takes him on as an apprentice. Conn discovers someone is trying to steal the magic of his city and must work out how to stop them. I guess this is part of a series of 4 books, but it looks like my library system only has the next book.

Books that were Okay:

The Lion's Paw by Robb White-- an okay children's adventure novel about a brother and sister who run away from an orphanage so they aren't separated, and Ben, who's father is missing-in-action, and also runs away so his father's boat won't be taken from him. They are trying not to get caught by the authorities and are in search of The Lion's Paw, a rare sea shell. Supposedly it is one of the most sought after out-of-print books and it has rave reviews on Amazon, but it was just okay for me.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, and the sequel The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey-- I don't know quite how to explain these books so read about them at amazon-- for me they were a too complicated with too many things to keep track of. There is a 3rd book, but I don't have much interest to read it.

Author - Melissa Nathan

I've read 3 of her books:

Pride, Prejudice, & Jasmin Field

Persuading Annie

and

The Nanny.

The first two are modern re-writes of Jane Austen's books Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion. I found the PP&JF at a used bookstore years ago, and I still like to read it once in a while. It is a light and easy read, stays true to Austen's story (will Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy end up together???), but also has an original take on the story that makes it fresh and modern.

I just read PA for the first time, and found the first 3/4ths of it a little boring and a little complicated. I couldn't exactly tell how Nathan's characters were supposed to match up with Austen's and how the story was supposed to match up (which was probably my fault for trying to match them up in my mind, but that's how my brain works), but then the ending made the story more interesting, and made it enjoyable overall.

I hesitated over The Nanny for a while. I had horrible visions of the Scarelt Johanson movie and knew I wouldn't be able to stomach that kind of squirmy, embarassing blather. I know the Nanny Diairies is a different book entirely, but I figured there is enough related subject matter to give me concern. Anyways, this book reminded me of PP&JF, with the light, fast moving story. Actually, the plot reminded me of Austen's Northanger Abbey, but I don't know if Nathan intended this one to be an retelling of Austen's novel. I might just read the Nanny Diaries now so I can compare them.

I'm going to be on the look out for Nathan's other books: The Waitress and The Learning Curve.

Aaach. While reading about The Learning Curve at amazon I learned that Melissa Nathan died of breast cancer shortly after finishing it, her 5th novel. It makes me sad for all sorts of reasons.

Confusion & Poetry

An email newsletter I subscribe to said today, October 15th, is World Poetry Day, which had me all excited, until I did a search online and my hopes were dashed. Today is NOT World Poetry Day (March 21st was - so not even close to today) and National Poetry Day was October 8th. This same newsletter said to write a poem in honor of National Poetry Day (Oct 15th) and then listed World Poetry Day under October 15th. And then I googled "poetry day oct 15" and found that the National Library and Information System Authority, somehow linked to Trinidad & Tobago, 2 countries who share an island, will be celebrating National Poetry Day today.

Well, whatever!! Any excuse to share some of my favorite poetry!!

Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant --
There's a certain Slant of light
Much Madness is divinest Sense

And lots more Dickens!!! (I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died --)

Robert Frost - Nothing Gold can Stay & Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Browning - My Last Duchess (I love how evil the Duke is!)

Shakespeare's Sonnets - Too many to list individually, but one is Sonnet 116, which I had to memorize in high school, but I obviously still remember it because of the Sense and Sensibility movie with Hugh Grant.

A poet/poem I have recently been learning about is Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite (her only complete poem recovered).

Favorite poetry I've read with my kids:

AA Milne's When we were very young & Now we are six
Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verse
Margaret Wise Brown's poetry (We have a book called Nibble Nibble, as well as others like Goodnight Moon and A Child's Good Night Book)

Nyah's favorite poetry right now is from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein-- she recently memorized Melinda Mae.

Austin's favorite is Bone Poems by Jeff Moss-- he recently memorized Bones:
Bones are important,
They do a big job.
Without them, you'd be just
A big squooshy blob

We have also been listening to William Blake the last couple months (The Tiger) -- Librivox is a great place to download poetry and make your own CD!!

One of my manyy favorite books is The Oxford Book of Story Poems, which includes classics such as The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson (thank you Anne of Avonlea!) to more modern favorites like Jabberwocky by Lewis Carrol. It also has one of my favorites from when I was a kid- The Owl and the Pussycat.

My favorite book about poetry is The Art of Poetry - How to Read a Poem by Shira Wolosky.

And since I've moved from actual poems to books about poetry, I must be starting to get carried away! I could list LOTS more, but I will control myself and stop now.

Do YOU have any favorites? Please share by leaving a comment!!

So sad!!

With my little girls napping less, our new school year starting, and all the regular mom duties I take care of, I can no longer spend as much time blogging as I wish I could and so I am putting this blog on hold for a time. I hope to post occasionally when I read a really great book and have a spare moment, but it just isn't happening these days!!

Recent great reads:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (watch the BBC mini-series too!)

Goose Girl, The Princess Academy, and Austenland by Shannon Hale (Austenland is a Jane Austen related story where a modern day girl is dreaming of finding her own Mr. Darcy, ends up taking a vacation to a resort set in the Pride & Prejudice time period where she has to act like a character of that time - really fun read; Goose Girl has sequels, but I didn't think they are as good)

The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley (I read another by Hanley but like this one the best)

Look at that!! I'm already trying to squeeze some book reviews in!! But really I won't be blogging here much in the near future (I can already hear a little voice calling to be rescued from her crib-- naptime over already!)

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

Picture from this book. This is the copy I have, but I used the online version for these posts.

She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and had been cut off.

“We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors. Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.” And then they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath the waves.

The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent, and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince’s breast. She bent down and kissed his fair brow, then looked at the sky on which the rosy dawn grew brighter and brighter; then she glanced at the sharp knife, and again fixed her eyes on the prince, who whispered the name of his bride in his dreams. She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood. She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body was dissolving into foam.

BUT that's not all!!! Go here to find out how "The Little Mermaid" ends.

Can You Guess #3

Guess what children's classic fairy tale this passage comes from:



[She] could not help thinking of her first rising out of the sea, when she had seen similar festivities and joys; and she joined in the dance, poised herself in the air as a swallow when he pursues his prey, and all present cheered her with wonder. She had never danced so elegantly before. Her tender feet felt as if cut with sharp knives, but she cared not for it; a sharper pang had pierced through her heart.


She knew this was the last evening she should ever see the prince, for whom she had forsaken her kindred and her home; she had given up her beautiful voice, and suffered unheard-of pain daily for him, while he knew nothing of it. This was the last evening that she would breathe the same air with him, or gaze on the starry sky and the deep sea; an eternal night, without a thought or a dream, awaited her: she had no soul and now she could never win one. All was joy and gaiety on board ship till long after midnight; she laughed and danced with the rest, while the thoughts of death were in her heart.


The prince kissed his beautiful bride, while she played with his raven hair, till they went arm-in-arm to rest in the splendid tent. Then all became still on board the ship; the helmsman, alone awake, stood at the helm. [She] leaned her white arms on the edge of the vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush of morning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death.

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

As I am typing, Olivia is watching Finding Nemo, and Marlin and Dory are in the belly of the whale. Lovely coincidence. Notice the 50 cent price tag? I love people who throw out wonderful masterpieces and DI takes them and sells them and they are found by me. I was on the brink of buying a cheap paperback version online for $4 when I found this beautifully, illustrated, hardback, unabridged, early translation of Carlo Collodi's fabulous book. While I was trying to find a link for this book I found price tags as much as $50!! Treasure!! This amazon link is not the exact edition I have, my book is blue and the one on amazon looks liek a condensed version, but you can see a couple more of the illustrations if you want.

The father and son were on the point of drowning when they heard a voice like a guitar out of tune saying: "Who is it that is dying?"

"It is I, and my poor father!"

"I know that voice! You are Pinocchio!"

"Precisely. And you?"

"I am the Tunny, you prison companion in the body of the Dogfish."

"And how did you manage to escape?"

"I followed your example. You showed me the road, and I escaped after you."

"Tunny, you have arrived at the right moment! I implore you to help us, or we are lost."

"Willingly and with all my heart. You must, both of you, take hold of my tail and allow me to guide you. I shall take you on shore in four minutes."

Geppetto and Pinocchio, as I need not tell you, accepted the offer at once; but instead of holding on by his tail, they thought it would be more comfortable to get on the Tunny's back.

When they reach the shore, Pinocchio sprang on land first so that he might help his father to do the same. He then turned to the Tunny, and said to him in a voice full of emotion:

"My friend, you have saved my papa's life. I can find no words with which to thank you properly. permit me at least to give you a kiss as a sign of my eternal gratitude!"

The Tunny put his head out of the water, and Pinocchio, kneeling on the ground, kissed him tenderly on the mouth. At this spontaneous proof of warm affection, the poor Tunny, who was not accustomed to it, felt extremely touched, and ashamed to let himself be seen crying like a child, he plunged under the water and disappeared.

Book Club

My sister Jesse has a book club that has been going on for a few months now. It seems like interest is dwindling (but maybe everyone is just on summer vacation) so I want to invite anyone who is interested to join us!


The schedule can be found here.

Current discussion is about Phantoms by Dean Koontz.

August's book to read is Macbeth by Shakespeare.

September's book hasn't been announced yet.

Right now Jesse is letting members pick book selections, but I think in the future she will be making the book choices with suggestions welcome.

You can register with ibetts forum here.


Happy Reading!!

Can You Guess?

Another beautiful classic butchered by a certain cartoon-maker I will leave unnamed. Guess away!!

"Then if you are not a fish, why did you let yourself be swallowed by the monster?"

"I didn't let myself be swallowed; it was the monster who swallowed me! And now, what are we to do here in the dark?"

"Resign ourselves and wait until the Dogfish has digested us both."

"But I do not want to be digested!" howled _________, beginning to cry again.

"Neither do I want to be digested," added the Tunny (pronounced tune-y), "but I am enough of a philosopher to console myself by thinking, that when one is born a Tunny it is more dignified to die in the water than in oil."

"That is all nonsense!" cried _________.

"It is my opinion," replied the Tunny. "and opinions, so say the political Tunnies, ought to be respected."

"To sum it all up, I want to get away from here, I want to escape."

"Escape if you are able!"

"Is this Dogfish who has swallowed us very big?" asked the ______.

"Big! Why, only imagine, his body is two miles long without counting his tail."

While they were holding this conversation in the dark, _________ thought he saw a light a long way off.

What is that little light I see in the distance?" he asked.

"It is most likely some companion in misfortune who is waiting like us to be digested."

"I shall go to find him. Do you think that it may be, by chance, some old fish who perhaps could show us how to escape?"

"I hope it may be so with all my heart, dear ______."

"Good-by, Tunny."

"Good-by, ______, and good fortune attend you."

"Where shall we meet again?"

"Who can say? . . . It is better not even to think of it!"

100 Most Influential Books Ever Written

100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
By Martin Seymour Smith

The I Ching
The Old Testament
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
The Upanishads
The Way and Its Power, Lao-tzu
The Avesta
Analects, Confucius
History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
Works, Hippocrates
Works, Aristotle
History, Herodotus
The Republic, Plato
Elements, Euclid
The Dhammapada
Aeneid, Virgil
On the Nature of Reality, Lucretius
Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws, Philo of Alexandria
The New Testament
Lives, Plutarch
Annals, from the Death of the Divine Augustus, Cornelius Tacitus
The Gospel of Truth
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Sextus Empiricus
Enneads, Plotinus
Confessions, Augustine of Hippo
The Koran
Guide for the Perplexed, Moses Maimonides
The Kabbalah
Summa Theologicae, Thomas Aquinas
The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
In Praise of Folly, Desiderius Erasmus
The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli
On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Martin Luther
Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais
Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin
On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs, Nicolaus Copernicus
Essays, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Don Quixote, Parts I and II, Miguel de Cervantes
The Harmony of the World, Johannes Kepler
Novum Organum, Francis Bacon
The First Folio [Works], William Shakespeare
Dialogue Concerning Two New Chief World Systems, Galileo Galilei
Discourse on Method, René Descartes
Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes
Works, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Pensées, Blaise Pascal
Ethics, Baruch de Spinoza
Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Isaac Newton
Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke
The Principles of Human Knowledge, George Berkeley
The New Science, Giambattista Vico
A Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume
The Encyclopedia, Denis Diderot, ed.
A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson
Candide, François-Marie de Voltaire
Common Sense, Thomas Paine
An Enquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant
Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke
Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft
An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, William Godwin
An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Robert Malthus
Phenomenology of Spirit, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The World as Will and Idea, Arthur Schopenhauer
Course in the Positivist Philosophy, Auguste Comte
On War, Carl Marie von Clausewitz
Either/Or, Søren Kierkegaard
The Manifesto of the Communist Party, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
"Civil Disobedience," Henry David Thoreau
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin
On Liberty, John Stuart Mill
First Principles, Herbert Spencer
"Experiments with Plant Hybrids," Gregor Mendel
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, James Clerk Maxwell
Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
Pragmatism, William James
Relativity, Albert Einstein
The Mind and Society, Vilfredo Pareto
Psychological Types, Carl Gustav Jung
I and Thou, Martin Buber
The Trial, Franz Kafka
The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes
Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre
The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich von Hayek
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein
Syntactic Structures, Noam Chomsky
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, T. S. Kuhn
The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung [The Little Red Book], Mao Zedong
Beyond Freedom and Dignity, B. F. Skinner

All the books hightlighted in RED are books I have studied parts of in school or college, but I certainly can't claim to have read them completely. I was a little surprised I haven't completely read any of them, but again, it shows how many wonderfully influential books there are in the world that I may never read.

The Newberry Medal & Honor Books

I had so much fun with the 100 Books lists that I decided to do another one-- I have found some of my favorite books by trying to read my way through the Newberry Medal and Honor books. As my reading goals have changed I haven't read as many of these in the last few years, but I've also come to realize there are millions more books than I will ever be able to read. Which is soooo sad. I copied this list from the ALA's website.

Several things came to mind as I was reading through the list. First, all the wonderful books that I LOVE!!! Books I can, and do, read over and over- The Witch of Blackbird Pond is a perfect example. I've loved this book since I first read it in middle school. Second, I'm amazed at the number of books that are still popular today, like A Wrinkle in Time or Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Third, there are so many books on the list! I'd better get started if I want to read them all!! There is a wonderful blog called The Newberry Project that is about reading all the Newberry winners.

And lastly, while I haven't liked ALL of the books I've read, the Newberry's do provide a wide range of socially and culturally diverse books, many of which have given me a glimpse into other worlds, real and make-believe.

I counted a total of 381 books on the list, but will freely admit I could have miscounted, so the grand total may really be give or take five or so.

2009 Medal Winner: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean (HarperCollins)
Honor Books:
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, illus. by David Small (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt)
Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group in partnership with Walden Media)
After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (G.P. Putnam's Sons, a division of Penguin Books for Young Readers)

2008 Medal Winner: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)
Honor Books:
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion)
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)

2007 Medal Winner: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
Honor Books:
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm, (Random House)
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press)
Rules by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic)

2006 Medal Winner: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
Honor Books:
Whittington by Alan Armstrong, illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Random House)
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott (G.P. Putnam's Sons)

2005 Medal Winner: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
Honor Books:
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko (G.P. Putnam's Sons/a division of Penguin Young Readers Group)
The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights" by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)

2004 Medal Winner: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering, (Candlewick Press)
Honor Books:
Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy (Clarion Books)

2003 Medal Winner: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
Honor Books:
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Atheneum)
Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (Random House/Wendy Lamb Books)
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
A Corner of The Universe by Ann M. Martin (Scholastic)
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan (HarperCollins)

2002 Medal Winner: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
Honor Books:
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Farrar Straus Giroux)
Carver: A Life In Poems by Marilyn Nelson (Front Street)

2001 Medal Winner: A Year Down Yonder by by Richard Peck (Dial)
Honor Books:
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)

2000 Medal Winner: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
Honor Books:
Getting Near to Baby by by Audrey Couloumbis (Putnam)
Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm (HarperCollins)
26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola (Putnam)

1999 Medal Winner: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)
Honor Book:
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (Dial)

1998 Medal Winner: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
Honor Books:
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins)
Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff (Delacorte)
Wringer by Jerry Spinelli (HarperCollins)

1997 Medal Winner: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
Honor Books:
A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer (Richard Jackson/Orchard Books)
Moorchild by Eloise McGraw (Margaret McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow/Morrow)
Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White (Farrar Straus Giroux)

1996 Medal Winner: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
Honor Books:
What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman (Front Street)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
Yolonda's Genius by Carol Fenner (Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy (Scholastic)

1995 Medal Winner: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
Honor Books:
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (Jackson/Orchard)

1994 Medal Winner: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
Honor Books:
Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly (HarperCollins)
Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep (HarperCollins)
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman (Clarion Books)

1993 Medal Winner: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
Honor Books:
What Hearts by Bruce Brooks (A Laura Geringer Book, a HarperCollins imprint)
The Dark-thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural by Patricia McKissack (Knopf)
Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic Hardcover)

1992 Medal Winner: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
Honor Books:
Nothing But The Truth: a Documentary Novel by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)

1991 Medal Winner: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
Honor Book:
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (Jackson/Orchard)

1990 Medal Winner: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
Honor Books:
Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle (Jackson/Orchard)
Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples (Knopf)
The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen (Jackson/Orchard)

1989 Medal Winner: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
Honor Books:
In The Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World by Virginia Hamilton (Harcourt)
Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers (Harper)

1988 Medal Winner: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
Honor Books:
After The Rain by Norma Fox Mazer (Morrow)
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)

1987 Medal Winner: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
Honor Books:
A Fine White Dust by Cynthia Rylant (Bradbury)
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (Clarion)
Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber (Bradbury)

1986 Medal Winner: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
Honor Books:
Commodore Perry In the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg (Lothrop)
Dogsong by Gary Paulsen (Bradbury)

1985 Medal Winner: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
Honor Books:
Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes (Knopf)
The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks (Harper)
One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox (Bradbury)

1984 Medal Winner: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
Honor Books:
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky (Macmillan)
The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by Bill Brittain (Harper)

(104 books on the list so far- don't give up!!)

1983 Medal Winner: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
Honor Books:
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
Doctor DeSoto by William Steig (Farrar)
Graven Images by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton (Philomel)

1982 Medal Winner: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
Honor Books:
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal (Farrar)

1981 Medal Winner: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
Honor Books:
The Fledgling by Jane Langton (Harper)
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)

1980 Medal Winner: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
Honor Book:
The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl by David Kherdian (Greenwillow)

1979 Medal Winner: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
Honor Book:
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)

1978 Medal Winner: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
Honor Books:
Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey by Jamake Highwater (Lippincott)

1977 Medal Winner: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
Honor Books:
Abel's Island by William Steig (Farrar)
A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond (Atheneum)

1976 Medal Winner: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
Honor Books:
The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis (Viking)
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Harper)

1975 Medal Winner: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (Four Winds)
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (Houghton)
Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene (Dial)

1974 Medal Winner: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
Honor Book:
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)

1973 Medal Winner: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
Honor Books:
Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel (Harper)
The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss (Crowell)
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

1972 Medal Winner: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
Honor Books:
Incident At Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert (Little, Brown)
The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin (Atheneum)
Annie and the Old One by Miska Miles (Little, Brown)
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

1971 Medal Winner: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
Honor Books:
Knee Knock Rise by Natalie Babbitt (Farrar)
Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (Atheneum)
Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)

1970 Medal Winner: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
Honor Books:
Our Eddie by Sulamith Ish-Kishor (Pantheon)
The Many Ways of Seeing: An Introduction to the Pleasures of Art by Janet Gaylord Moore (World)
Journey Outside by Mary Q. Steele (Viking)

1969 Medal Winner: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
Honor Books:
To Be a Slave by Julius Lester (Dial)
When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Farrar)

1968 Medal Winner: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
Honor Books:
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
The Fearsome Inn by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Scribner)
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Atheneum)

1967 Medal Winner: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
Honor Books:
The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
Zlateh The Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Harper)
The Jazz Man by Mary Hays Weik (Atheneum)

1966 Medal Winner: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
Honor Books:
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell (Pantheon)
The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz (Harper)

1965 Medal Winner: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
Honor Book:
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Follett)

1964 Medal Winner: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
Honor Books:
Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North (Dutton)
The Loner by Ester Wier (McKay)

1963 Medal Winner: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
Honor Books:
Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. (Leclaire Alger) (Holt)
Men of Athens by Olivia Coolidge (Houghton)

1962 Medal Winner: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
Honor Books:
Frontier Living by Edwin Tunis (World)
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Coward)
Belling The Tiger by Mary Stolz (Harper)

1961 Medal Winner: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
Honor Books:
America Moves Forward: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow)
Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer (Houghton)
The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden, pseud. (George Thompson) (Farrar)

1960 Medal Winner: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
Honor Books:
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (Dutton)
America Is Born: A History for Peter by Gerald W. Johnson (Morrow)
The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (Harcourt)

1959 Medal Winner: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
Honor Books:
The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson (Harper)
Along Came A Dog by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
Chucaro: Wild Pony of the Pampa by Francis Kalnay (Harcourt)
The Perilous Road by William O. Steele (Harcourt)

1958 Medal Winner: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
Honor Books:
The Horsecatcher by Mari Sandoz (Westminster)
Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (Harcourt)
The Great Wheel by Robert Lawson (Viking)
Tom Paine, Freedom's Apostle by Leo Gurko (Crowell)

1957 Medal Winner: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
Honor Books:
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson (Harper)
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
Mr. Justice Holmes by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
The Corn Grows Ripe by Dorothy Rhoads (Viking)
Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)

(207 books on the list so far)

1956 Medal Winner: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
Honor Books:
The Secret River by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)
The Golden Name Day by Jennie Lindquist (Harper)
Men, Microscopes, and Living Things by Katherine Shippen (Viking)

1955 Medal Winner: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
Honor Books:
Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
Banner In The Sky by James Ullman (Lippincott)

1954 Medal Winner: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
Honor Books:
All Alone by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
Shadrach by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
Hurry Home, Candy by Meindert Dejong (Harper)
Theodore Roosevelt, Fighting Patriot by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
Magic Maize by Mary & Conrad Buff (Houghton)

1953 Medal Winner: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
Honor Books:
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (Harper)
Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Coward)
Red Sails to Capri by Ann Weil (Viking)
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
Birthdays of Freedom, Vol. 1 by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)

1952 Medal Winner: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
Honor Books:
Americans Before Columbus by Elizabeth Baity (Viking)
Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling (Houghton)
The Defender by Nicholas Kalashnikoff (Scribner)
The Light at Tern Rock by Julia Sauer (Viking)
The Apple and the Arrow by Mary & Conrad Buff (Houghton)

1951 Medal Winner: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
Honor Books:
Better Known as Johnny Appleseed by Mabel Leigh Hunt (Lippincott)
Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword by Jeanette Eaton (Morrow)
Abraham Lincoln, Friend of the People by Clara Ingram Judson (Follett)
The Story of Appleby Capple by Anne Parrish (Harper)

1950 Medal Winner: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
Honor Books:
Tree of Freedom by Rebecca Caudill (Viking)
The Blue Cat of Castle Town by Catherine Coblentz (Longmans)
Kildee House by Rutherford Montgomery (Doubleday)
George Washington by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
Song of The Pines: A Story of Norwegian Lumbering in Wisconsin by Walter & Marion Havighurst (Winston)

1949 Medal Winner: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
Honor Books:
Seabird by Holling C. Holling (Houghton)
Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin (Viking)
My Father's Dragon by Ruth S. Gannett (Random House)
Story of the Negro by Arna Bontemps (Knopf)

1948 Medal Winner: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
Honor Books:
Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop (Viking)
Li Lun, Lad of Courage by Carolyn Treffinger (Abingdon)
The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot by Catherine Besterman (Bobbs-Merrill)
The Cow-Tail Switch, and Other West African Stories by Harold Courlander (Holt)
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)

1947 Medal Winner: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
Honor Books:
Wonderful Year by Nancy Barnes (Messner)
Big Tree by Mary & Conrad Buff (Viking)
The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell (Harper)
The Avion My Uncle Flew by Cyrus Fisher, pseud. (Darwin L. Teilhet) (Appleton)
The Hidden Treasure of Glaston by Eleanor Jewett (Viking)

1946 Medal Winner: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
Honor Books:
Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
The Moved-Outers by Florence Crannell Means (Houghton)
Bhimsa, the Dancing Bear by Christine Weston (Scribner)
New Found World by Katherine Shippen (Viking)

1945 Medal Winner: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
Honor Books:
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
The Silver Pencil by Alice Dalgliesh (Scribner)
Abraham Lincoln's World by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
Lone Journey: The Life of Roger Williams by Jeanetter Eaton (Harcourt)

1944 Medal Winner: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
Honor Books:
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
Fog Magic by Julia Sauer (Viking)
Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates (Coward)

1943 Medal Winner: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
Honor Books:
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
Have You Seen Tom Thumb? by Mabel Leigh Hunt (Lippincott)

1942 Medal Winner: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
Honor Books:
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster (Scribner)
Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
Down Ryton Water by Eva Roe Gaggin (Viking)

1941 Medal Winner: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Blue Willow by Doris Gates (Viking)
Young Mac of Fort Vancouver by Mary Jane Carr (Crowell)
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
Nansen by Anna Gertrude Hall (Viking)

1940 Medal Winner: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
Honor Books:
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy (Viking)
Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz by Mabel Robinson (Random House)
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)
Boy with a Pack by Stephen W. Meader (Harcourt)

1939 Medal Winner: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
Honor Books:
Nino by Valenti Angelo (Viking)
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater (Little, Brown)
Hello the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford (Holt)
Leader By Destiny: George Washington, Man and Patriot by Jeanette Eaton (Harcourt)
Penn by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)

1938 Medal Winner: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
Honor Books:
Pecos Bill by James Cloyd Bowman (Little, Brown)
Bright Island by Mabel Robinson (Random House)
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper)

1937 Medal Winner: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
Honor Books:
Phebe Fairchild: Her Book by Lois Lenski (Stokes)
Whistler's Van by Idwal Jones (Viking)
The Golden Basket by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
Winterbound by Margery Bianco (Viking)
The Codfish Musket by Agnes Hewes (Doubleday)
Audubon by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)

(311 books on the list and counting . . .)

1936 Medal Winner: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Honk, the Moose by Phil Stong (Dodd)
The Good Master by Kate Seredy (Viking)
Young Walter Scott by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud by Armstrong Sperry (Winston)

1935 Medal Winner: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
Honor Books:
Pageant of Chinese History by Elizabeth Seeger (Longmans)
Davy Crockett by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)
Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic by Hilda Von Stockum (Harper)

1934 Medal Winner: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
Honor Books:
The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)
Swords of Steel by Elsie Singmaster (Houghton)
ABC Bunny by Wanda Gág (Coward)
Winged Girl of Knossos by Erik Berry, pseud. (Allena Best) (Appleton)
New Land by Sarah Schmidt (McBride)
Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
Glory of the Seas by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
Apprentice of Florence by Ann Kyle (Houghton)

1933 Medal Winner: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
Honor Books:
Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
The Railroad To Freedom: A Story of the Civil War by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)
Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia by Nora Burglon (Doubleday)

1932 Medal Winner: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
Honor Books:
The Fairy Circus by Dorothy P. Lathrop (Macmillan)
Calico Bush by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
Boy of the South Seas by Eunice Tietjens (Coward-McCann)
Out of the Flame by Eloise Lownsbery (Longmans)
Jane's Island by Marjorie Allee (Houghton)
Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy by Mary Gould Davis (Harcourt)

1931 Medal Winner: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Floating Island by Anne Parrish (Harper)
The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess by Alida Malkus (Harcourt)
Queer Person by Ralph Hubbard (Doubleday)
Mountains are Free by Julie Davis Adams (Dutton)
Spice and the Devil's Cave by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
Meggy MacIntosh by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Doubleday)
Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes by Herbert Best (Doubleday)
Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer by Alice Lide & Margaret Johansen (Little, Brown)

1930 Medal Winner: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland by Jeanette Eaton (Harper)
Pran of Albania by Elizabeth Miller (Doubleday)
Jumping-Off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely (Longmans)
The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales by Ella Young (Longmans)
Vaino by Julia Davis Adams (Dutton)
Little Blacknose by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)

1929 Medal Winner: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo by John Bennett (Longmans)
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág (Coward)
The Boy Who Was by Grace Hallock (Dutton)
Clearing Weather by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
Runaway Papoose by Grace Moon (Doubleday)
Tod of the Fens by Elinor Whitney (Macmillan)

1928 Medal Winner: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
Honor Books:
The Wonder Smith and His Son by Ella Young (Longmans)
Downright Dencey by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)

1927 Medal Winner: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
Honor Books:
[None recorded]

1926 Medal Winner: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
Honor Book:
The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)

1925 Medal Winner: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
Honor Books:
Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Annie Carroll Moore (Putnam)
The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish (Macmillan)

1924 Medal Winner: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
Honor Books:
[None recorded]

1923 Medal Winner: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
Honor Books:
[None recorded]

1922 Medal Winner: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)
Honor Books:
The Great Quest by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
Cedric the Forester by Bernard Marshall (Appleton)
The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure by William Bowen (Macmillan)
The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
The Windy Hill by Cornelia Meigs (Macmillan)

Total I've read: 108
out of around 311 total.

More 100 Books

Again, from A peaceful day, a list of the top 100 Banned or Challenged Books in 2000-2007 in the USA. There are certainly some surprises. (Junie B. Jones???) See how many you've read of this list!

1 Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier
4 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
5 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
6 Scary Stories - Alvin Schwartz
7 Fallen Angels - Walter Dean Myers
8 It’s Perfectly Normal - Robie Harris
9 And Tango Makes Three - Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
10 Captain Underpants - Dav Pilkey
Total: 2 read

11The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
12 The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
13 Forever - Judy Blume
14 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
15 The Perks of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
16 Killing Mr. Griffin -Lois Duncan
17 Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
18 King and King - Linda de Haan
19 Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
20 Bridge to Terabithia -Katherine Paterson
Total: 2 read

21 The Giver - Lois Lowry
22 We All Fall Down - Robert Cormier
23 To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
24 Beloved - Toni Morrison
25 The Face on the Milk Carton - Caroline Cooney
26 Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead - James Lincoln Collier
28 In the Night Kitchen - Maurice Sendak
29 His Dark Materials series - Philip Pullman
30 Gossip Girl series - Cecily von Ziegesar
Total: 3 read

31 What My Mother Doesn’t Know - Sonya Sones
32 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging - Louise Rennison
33 It’s So Amazing - Robie Harris
34 Arming America - Michael Bellasiles
35 Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane
36 Blubber - Judy Blume
37 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
38 Athletic Shorts - Chris Crutcher
39 Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya
40 Life is Funny - E.R. Frank
Total: 0 read

41Daughters of Eve - Lois Duncan
42 Crazy Lady - Jane Leslie Conly
43 The Great Gilly Hopkins - Katherine Paterson
44 You Hear Me - Betsy Franco
45 Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
46 Whale Talk - Chris Crutcher
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby - Dav Pilkey
48 The Facts Speak for Themselves - Brock Cole
49 The Terrorist - Caroline Cooney
50 Mick Harte Was Here - Barbara Park
Total: 1 read

51 Summer of My German Soldier - Bette Green
52 The Upstairs Room - Johanna Reiss
53 When Dad Killed Mom - Julius Lester
54 Blood and Chocolate -Annette Curtis Klause
55 The Fighting Ground -Avi
56 The Things They Carried -Tim O'Brien
57 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred Taylor
58 Fat Kid Rules the World - K.L. Going
59 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things - Carolyn Mackler
60 A Time To Kill - John Grisham
Total: 2 read

61 Rainbow Boys - Alex Sanchez
62 Olive’s Ocean - Kevin Henkes
63 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
64 A Day No Pigs Would Die - Robert Newton Peck
65 Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
66 Always Running - Luis Rodriguez
67 Black Boy - Richard Wright
68 Julie of the Wolves - Jean Craighead George
69 Deal With It! - Esther Drill
70 Detour for Emmy - Marilyn Reynolds
Total: 3 read

71 Draw Me A Star - Eric Carle
72 Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
73 Harris and Me - Gary Paulsen
74 Junie B. Jones series - Barbara Park
75 So Far From the Bamboo Grove - Yoko Watkins
76 Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
77 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes - Chris Crutcher
78 What’s Happening to My Body Book - Lynda Madaras
79 The Boy Who Lost His Face - Louis Sachar
80 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Total: 1 read

81 Anastasia Again! - Lois Lowry
82 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
83 Bumps In the Night - Harry Allard
84 Goosebumps series - R.L. Stine
85 Shade’s Children - Garth Nix
86 Cut - Patricia McCormick
87 Grendel - John Gardner
88 The House of Spirits - Isabel Allende
89 I Saw Esau - Iona Opie
90 Ironman - Chris Crutcher
Total: 2 read

91 The Stupids series - Harry Allard
92 Taming the Star Runner - S.E. Hinton
93 Then Again, Maybe I Won’t - Judy Blume
94 Tiger Eyes - Judy Blume
95 Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
96 Nathan’s Run - John Gilstrap
97 Pinkerton, Behave! - Steven Kellog
98 Freaky Friday - Mary Rodgers
99 Halloween ABC - Eve Merriam
100 Heather Has Two Mommies - Leslea Newman
Total: 2 read

Grand Total: 17 read

More great ideas for future book reads!!

100 Books

According to A peaceful day, The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Look at the list and highlight those you have read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Total: 6 read

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

Total: 4 read

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

Total: 6 read

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

Total: 6 read

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

Total: 1 read

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Total: 2 read

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Total: 3 read

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt

Total 3 read

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

Total: 3 read

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total: 5 read

Grand Total: 39 read.

Some of these I read years ago so it was fun to think about them again, and now I have lots more ideas for future reads.

Sunday Morning Reading

From the April 2009 General Conference talk "Unselfish Service" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks:


Elder Oaks is quoting C. S. Lewis, who said:

“The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first—wanting to be the centre—wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake. . . . What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come . . . the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1980), 49; emphasis added)

Baby by Patricia MacLachlan

I read a beautiful book tonight . . . sad, but in a healthy, lovely sort of way. This book is filled with beautiful words, Patricia MacLachlan's, as well as others.

"It was quiet outside, warm and peaceful. No clouds cluttered up the sky. Lalo and I sat in the grass with Sophie, playing patty-cake.

'She knows how,' said Lalo with an amazed smile.

'All babies know how,' said Byrd. She looked at me. 'Someone who loves them always teaches them.' (pg. 24)"

"Most of all she remembered the man. His hands, strong, brown. She could feel the rumble in his chest when he held her, the sound of song coming up through him and surrounding her, making her smile. Even now she smiled at the thought of it. Sometimes in a crowd of people she would hear a voice, turn, look for him. It was not so much his face she looked for. it was his hands she remembered. (pg. 33)"

"All the world can be found in poetry. All you need to see and hear. All the moments, good and bad, joyous and sad. (pg. 61)"

" 'Poetry is just words,' I said.

'That's all we've got,' said Lalo.

I stared at Lalo. The rain came harder.

And when I left Lalo and ran up through the wind and ran to my house and opened the door, Mama and Sophie were at the kitchen table, Sophie covered with finger paint, her fingers squishing the red on the white paper. My mother turned, and on her face were tiny finger marks where Sophie had touched her. They had dried there as if she had left her marks on Mama forever. They both smiled at me, and Sophie reached out her hands to touch me too.

Ms. Minifred's wrong, I thought, as I left my slicker dripping in the hallway and went to join them. There are no words for this. (pg. 62-63)"

"They read books, Sophie talking and turning the pages and pointing. Byrd's voice was smooth, like the velvet of her hat.

'so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white chickens.'

'That's William Carlos Williams,' Byrd said to Sophie.

'She doesn't understand,' I said.

'She doesn't need to understand, dear,' said Byrd. 'She likes the way the words sound.' (pg. 80-81)"

" ' I love you Lark,' said Papa. 'I love you.'

'Love,' said Sophie, touching Papa's mouth.

I thought about that word, love, with Papa's arms around me. That word with a life of its own, traveling out over the town, over the water, out into the world, flying above all of us like the birds.

Love. (pg. 97)"

I have loved all the books I have read by Patricia MacLachlan. She has a powerful way with words. I love how this book has so many references to poetry of different time periods (How do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barret Browning to Fog by Carl Sandburg), as well as several songs that fit the story wonderfully. It has reminded me how much I love poetry.

Recent Reads

Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones- sequels to Howl's Moving Castle. These were fun and entertaining overall. I was disappointed Howl and Sophie weren't the main characters and only featured in these tales, but you do still find out more about their lives together, and the books were good. Thumbs UP.

Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith- About a brother and sister who promise their dying father they will do all they can to overthrow the king, protect their lands from being taken or destroyed by the king, and one of them then ruling the country. These are told from the perspective of the sister. Okay stories. These don't fall into the predictable story mold of either of them becoming king or queen, but I can't decide if it was intentional or the story ran away from the author. But I did enjoy them. Thumbs UP.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (greek gods not athletes) 5 book series by Rick Riordan-- Because I'm #230 something for the last book I'll go ahead and review this series without knowing how everything turns out. Percy thinks he's a normal boy until he discovers his father is really Poseidon. Then he has to go to demi-god camp to learn about the new world that he must now join to protect himself. In each book he either goes on a quest or helps a friend with a quest to save the world from Kronos, the father of Zeus and the other gods, who was banished by Zeus long ago, but is now trying to take over again. Not being very familiar with greek gods didn't stop my enjoyment of these books, but I suspect more knowledge would help a reader pick up foreshadowing, etc. And there is an overall prohpecy involving Percy and other kids who are illegitimate children of the 3 big gods, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, that ties all the books together. The whole "illegitimate children" thing isn't "in your face," though Percy does deal with emotional issues about being abandoned by his dad, and not seeing or getting to talk with his dad much. Thmubs UP

Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde- love these and will probably blog more about them in future, but must now rescue Jolie from "crib of death" or so she probably thinks it is.

My Guilty Pleasures

. . . in the book world, that is.

I have been enjoying a NPR series this summer called My Guilty Pleasure- authors confess their literary (or not so literary) book loves. So I was thinking about myself, and what books would be my guilty pleasure, and I realized I'm addicted to Young Adult and Juvenile literature. Sometimes these books are Newberry books or they have won some other book award, but a lot of the time its just something I pick up that looks interesting. They are books I can read in a couple hours, enjoy for that time, and then move on. I don't plan on using these books for our home school, or even recommending them to other people, but I like them while I read them and then I'm done with them. A lot of the time these are like adult books, but with a PG or PG-13 raiting- romance novels without the sex scenes, adventure/war novels without the graphic violence, controversial themes without being personal, very little swearing, and so on. However, all this also makes these hard to review for this blog. I don't have a lot to say about them.

Recent reads:

Crown Duel and Court Duel by Sherwood Smith

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman- Newberry Honor book, other books by Cushman that I have liked- The Midwife's Apprentice (Newberry Medal in 1996) and Matilda Bone. Rodzina also looks interesting.

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan- this book is about a homeschool family and I've read it over and over. Its also a Newberry Honor book.

And some other favorites that I read over and over because I love them so much, not because some stranger out there has declared they are of great literary value--

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books by JRR Tolkien

Chronicles of Narnia books by CS Lewis

Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

Jane Austen's novels- Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Lady Susan.

Modern remakes of Jane Austen's novels- Pride, Prejudice & Jasmine Fields byMelissa Nathan is one I have and reread all the time. I just noticed Nathan has also written one call Persuading Annie which I'd like to read, as well as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies recommended by Jesse. Be careful with these modern remakes because some are R-rated or soft porn. Its a scary book world out there sometimes, and I don't mean the zombies.


So, what are your guilty pleasures?

More on Howl's Moving Castle

I stumbled upon the Wikipedia page for this book, and thought it was very interesting. I liked the section on hints given to Sophie about Calcifer and Howl's curse, as well as the section on the characters and timeline.

Wikipedia- Howl's Moving Castle (book)

I was hoping to find that there were more Howl books out there, but I guess House of Many Ways came out just last year. I guess I'll give some of Diana Wynne Jones' other books a try.

More Peter Pan

Another favorite part of Peter Pan:

The wretched prisoners were dragged from the hold, all except Wendy, and ranged in a line in front of him (Hook). For a time he seemed unconscious of their presence. He lolled at his ease, humming, not unmelodiously, snatches of a rude song, and fingering a pack of cards. Ever and anon the light from his cigar gave a touch of colour to his face.

"Now them, bullies," he said briskly, "six of you walk the plank to-night, but I have room for two cabin boys. Which of you is it to be?"

"Don't irritate him unnecessarily," had been Wendy's instructions in the hold; so Tootles stepped forward politely. Tootles hated the idea of signing under such a man, but an instinct told him that it would be prudent to lay the responsibility on an absent person; and though a somewhat silly boy, he knew that mothers alone are always willing to be the buffer. All children know this about mothers, and despise them for it, but make constant use of it.

So Tootles explained prudently, "You see, sir, I don't think my mother would like me to be a pirate. Would your mother like you to be a pirate, Slightly?"

He winked at Slightly, who said mournfully, "I don't think so," as if he wished things had been otherwise. "Would your mother like you to be a pirate, Twin?"

"I don't think so," said the first twin, as clever as the others. "Nibs, would--"

"Stow this gab," roared Hook, and the spokesman were dragged back. . . .

Peter Pan is Correct!!

See? it wasn't even a little bit hard. I could say Keshia had an unfair advantage as she listened to it with us in our car this past weekend, but as Jesse points out "captain" and "codfish" can only mean one guy! Here is the scene:

"Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night," he cried, "dost hear me?"

Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He immediately answered in Hook's voice:

"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you."

In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee and Starkey clung to each other in terror.

"Who are you, stranger, speak?" Hook demanded.

"I am James Hook," replied the voice, "captain of the Jolly Roger."

"You are not; you are not," Hook cried hoarsely.

"Brimstone and gall," the voice returned, "say that again, and I'll cast anchor in you."

Hook tried a more ingratiating manner. "If you are Hook," he said almost humbly, "come tell me, who am I?"

"A codfish," replied the voice, "only a codfish."

"A codfish!" Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, that his proud spirit broke. He saw his men draw back from him.

"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to our pride."

They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had become, he scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he whispered hoarsely to it. . . .


I love Peter Pan. It is such fun listening to it again.

Can you guess?

I'm going to try something new-- As I was reading today I read a line in my book that made me laugh, and I decided I would like to share it with my readers, BUT there is a catch!! I want you to guess what book this comes from!! You are probably thinking this will be hard, but I think you can guess this even if you haven't read the book-- its should seem pretty familiar. In fact, I would guess everyone has seen some version of the movie or play, even though this line isn't in any that I remember.

Here it is:


"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to our pride."


Sooooooo, in a week or so, or if someone guesses correctly, I will come back with the answer, and probably type out a good part of the scene. I'll see if this becomes a new series of blogs for me or not, but it will be interesting to see what happens anyways.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

First, our family loves Hayao Miyazaki's movies- I was first introduced to Hayao Miyazaki in my high school Japanese class with My Friend Totoro. It was a little hard to get what was going on because it was in japanese for class, obviously. Then a while ago (10 years or so?) Pixar and Disney started translating the movies into English and its so awesome!

Our Family Favorites: Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Porco Rosso, The Cat Returns, Castle in the Sky, My Friend Totoro (the dakota and elle fanning version is the best, but we've had a hard time getting it--netflix employees don't realize there are two different versions so you might get the older version, which is still good), and Kiki's Delivery Service.

And there are a couple we haven't let the kids watch, but Kurt and I love: Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro (there are tons of Lupin the 3rd movies, but this is the only one Hayao Miyazaki was a part of) and Princess Mononoke.

And Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea was released in Japan in 2008 but hasn't been released in the US yet.

Get them, watch them, love them-- enough said. (Note to reader- yes they are all a little weird, quirky, whatever, they are still fabulous)

Anyways, this brings me to the Second part of my post-- The totally great, awesome, fabulous, delightful, enchanting, non-stop action book Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I have been in a reading slump the last few months, but I have been snapped out of it by this wonderful book (and a couple other new series I'm in the middle of reading and will post about when I'm done). The movie is an excellent adaptation as far as those go, but the book has so much more to the story, characters, and my own enjoyment. PLUS, there are more Howl books by Jones, which means my hold list at the library is now full. My only warning is that you can't go into this book thinking about it seriously- its not going to have complete character development or describe everything down to the last detailed speck in the corner. Don't analyze it-- ENJOY IT!!

Books I forgot to mention, but meant to

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo- We loved this book! Adventure, suspense, love, honor, courage, it was wonderful. Very like a traditional fairy tale. As for the movie, half of it was completely made up- I have no idea what the idea was with the vegetable man, because there wasn't anything even remotely close to that in the book. And the wonderful story was mixed up or completely missing.

The Princes and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison- This was weird. People able to talk with animals I can handle, but animal and people subconsciousness' being put in the other's body was creepy. As a whole, the story is an intersting premise, but, yeah, a little weirdness.

The Ranger's Apprentice Series by John Flanagan- as previously mentioned the libraries of all Salt Lake county only have through book 5, which ends with a heroine in the clutches of the bad guy and the hero without a plan to rescue her. I had enjoyed the series up to this point, but this is one of the annoying things about a series.

Catching Up

I don't know if I am going to keep doing this blog. I have a number of books I've read this year that I've never blogged about, and I don't think I care to, not because I didn't like them, but it would be time consuming and I seem to have less free time each new day.

Here is a sampling:
Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley
Chicken Friend by Nicola Morgan
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
Esperanza Rising and Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan
The Thief, The Queen of Attoila, and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (Did I blog about these? I don't remember, but I highly recommend them)
The Aurora County All-Stars, Each Little Bird That Sings, Love Ruby Lavendar by Debbie Wiles (One of Wiles' main themes is death so be warned and have a box of tissues handy)

That being said, here are my books from May:

The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley- There are currently 7 books in this series with an 8th on the way, and that is probably the one thing I don't like about this series. By the last book it felt like I was really being dragged around. And book 7 ended with the characters in a bad place which is always super annoying. But I also love this series becaiuse its so creaetive- there are characters from all kinds of fairy tales- the wizrad of oz, jabberwocky, little red riding hood, 3 little pigs, and so on. They all live in Fairyport where they are kept from leaving by a barrier that will only disappear when the Grimm family dies off. Some of the fairy tale creatures are okay with this- not wanting the world human population to know there are real fairy tale creatures, and some are part of the Red Hand, an underground rebellion trying to get rid of the Grimm family.

The kids and I listened to The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy and The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall- both of these were pretty fun, but the 2nd one was about the girls' widowed father starting to date so it wasn't as interesting to the kids. We also listened to The Rescuers, which is nothing like Disney's movie (they never are). I get a kick out of the book being about the Prisoner's Aid Society- rescuing a poet from prison, regardless of his crime, because he has a poet's soul and should therefore be free. Mouse logic I guess.

I read You Don't Know Me by David Klass for Jesse's book club, with discussion going on here . We are currently reading my pick, Persuasion by Jane Austen. I love Jane Austen and read through her books about once a year.

And I read a bunch of parenting themed books because I was in a rough spot with Nyah. Positive Discipline and others by Jane Nelson are my favorites, if you can have favorite parenting books.