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.

April Blahs! & Sisterhood of Traveling Pants

For the month of april I went through the reading blahs- I didn't want to read anything, nothing sounded good, I didn't even read the book for Jesse's book club. Blah blah blah. Then at the end of the month I decided to read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series after I watched teh 2nd movie for the 1st time. These are by Ann Brashares. They were fun enough to perk up my reading interests.

Book 1 is very much like the 1st movie. The writers of the movie followed the story line very closely, but I always think the characters are better developed and represented in books. So that was enjoyable.

The 2nd movie is a modge-podge of the next 3 books, which I thought was pretty weird. I liked the books tons better than the movie, not just because of better character development, but also more extensive plot lines.

I give these books a Thumbs UP!!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Girls in Pants: the third summer of the sisterhood
Forever in Blue: the fourth summer of the sisterhood

Poor Tom Bombadil!

As I have mentioned on my Our Days blog, my son Austin is listening to The Lord of the Rings and currently he is listening to The Fellowship of the Ring. Because of recent problems (staying up past midnight and listening instead of doing chores) he is listening to them downstairs, and as a result we are all listening to them. The audio cd's are an animated reading of the books, which means they are mostly the character dialogue with just a little of the explanatory details. So far I would have considered them mainly unabridged, until TODAY! I'm making dinner and the Hobbits leave the Shire and are suddenly walking into the Prancing Pony. What? What's up with that?

Poor Tom Bombadil is completely left out!! WHY?! First in Peter Jackson's movies and now the audio cd! Actually, the audio cd was probably made before the movies, but you get the idea.

Personally, I like him, and I like when he saves Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow and then sings Old Man Willow back to sleep. I'm pretty sure it is the only song in the whole series that I can stand to read all the way through.

I would love to read The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and other verses from the Red Book, but my library only has it in spanish. That stinks.

Books by Polly Horvath

The Trolls & Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath (Author of The Vacation)

The Trolls is about 3 children being left with their Aunt Sally when the babysitter their parents arranged to take care of them while they go to paris for a week cancels. Melissa, Amanda, and Pee Wee have never met their Aunt Sally, travels from Canada to their Ohio home to take care of them. Aunt Sally is full of interesting stories about her and their father growing up on Vancouver Island, including the story of the trolls.

The book jacket touts the troll story as a story that "changed Aunt Sally's family forever," and will "affect the lives of the three present-day listeners in a different, but no less significant, way."

Yeah, I don't know. While this book is full of the quirky characters that I enjoy in Polly Horvath's books, it just doesn't fall together for me. Does that make sense? I don't really know how to explain it. Thumbs SIDEWAYS.

Everything on a Waffle was much more entertaining. The story of Primrose Squarp (I don't know whats up with the name, but poor tormented kid) whose believes her parents didn't die at sea, contrary to what everyone else believes- her babysitter, the school guidance counselor, the kids in her class, and everyone else in town. When the town council determines they can no longer pay Miss Perfidy, the babysitter, her hourly wage, they try to locate a family member. Uncle Jack is found, and he reluctantly comes to Coal Harbour to be her guardian. Primrose finds a true friend and an escape at a local restaurant, The Girl on the Red Swing, where everything is served with a waffle. The school guidance counselor, Miss Honeycut, takes a liking to Uncle Jack and thinks it is unfortuante this handsome bachelor is forced into parenthood, and seems bent on finding a reason to get rid of Primrose. Unfortunately for Primrose, several accidents involving lost digits find her cast into foster care. Through it all Primrose is certain her parents are alive, but does anyone else believe her?

Thumbs UP- lovely, quirky characters, unexpected happenings, and a happy ending.

A problem with reading a book series is . . .

When your library system doesn't have books 6 or 7 or 8, especially if book 5 ends in the middle of a crisis situation. I've been reading the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan and none of the Salt Lake County Libraries, all 18 of them, have books 6, 7, or 8. What a pain. What to do?? We are in the middle of a CRISIS after all.

The Vacation by Polly Horvath

When we first started listening to this in the car I almost turned it off because it starts with Henry's mom wanting to become a Mormon so she go on a mission to Africa, mostly so she can have a free trip to Africa to help people, and I thought "What kind of a book have I picked?" But then I decided we could see where the story was going. The church tells her that's not how things work, so she and her husband go to Africa with another charitable group to build houses, even though she plans on telling everyone she is a Mormon missionary anyways. Henry is left in the care of his Aunt Magnolia and Pigg. Yes, her name is Pigg, and the book gives an explanation of why, but I don't remember the details, and it isn't as distracting as I first thought it would be. Henry has a couple months of school left, so Aunt Mag and Aunt Pigg, who have their own interior design company, decide to remodel the house while Henry's parents are away. Henry's parents occasionally check it to let him know where they are and what they are doing. After tiring of building houses, they go to another country in Africa to visit an animal refuge and help study the monkeys.

Back in the U.S., Mag becomes incredibly sick, but she doesn't go see a doctor until the house is finished. They find out she has a weird disorder, but isn't going to die, but this is when she decides she wants to take a vacation. They pull Henry out of school, load up the car, and take off. They start with wanting to go to the beach, so they head for Virginia. While on their way Henry's dad calls and informs him his mom is missing. She followed a student researcher out into the jungle, and neither of them have returned. So the dad is stuck waiting at camp for the mom to eventually come back. (At first I thought she left the Dad to run off with the researcher, but that's too PG-13 for this G book- she really is just lost in the jungle.)

When they make it to the beach, it just isn't as nice or exciting as they thought it would be so they head out again, and that's pretty much the basics of the book. Then they go to the Shenandoah Valley, and on the way Henry gets to visit his Grandpa for the first time in his life because he is estranged from Henry's mom. Around this time Henry's mom turns up in Africa, but his Dad has malaria so he can't travel yet.

When they go to Florida to visit the Everglades Henry gets lost by floating off on his raft and when he finds someone he thinks can help him, it turns out to be an autistic boy who has wandered away from home. They float through the Everglades to the ocean where they are picked up by a boat. Henry is happily returned to his aunts, and content to disappear from public view, but they aren't headed home. When Henry's parents find out he's missing they fly back to America, but he's been found by this time and driving through Oklahoma.

I really enjoyed listening to this book-- the characters were awesome-- weird and quirky and unexpected. Two forty year old single aunts trekking across America with their nephew? It was so much fun. But the ending was disappointing, and I'm going to discuss it so if you don't want it ruined for you stop reading now.

When Henry's parents start traveling with them the mood of the vacation completely changes-- henry's dad is angry with his mom because she disappeared and he caught malaria, and he's still sick. Henry's mom therefore gets upset with his dad, and they stay in separate motel rooms when they stop for the night. They've lost Pigg (I won't ruin that storyline for any potential readers) so Mag isn't her usual self either, and all this tension is driving poor Henry crazy. At this point the book spends a lot of time on the relationship of the mom and dad, which I think is distracting from the "vacation." The book ends with the family impulsively deciding to play in an all day softball tournament in one of the little towns they've stopped at and seemingly reconciling the relationship tensions. The End. I was disappointed. The vacation wasn't over, the family still needed to travel home. And there was so much plot on remodeling the house, and the parents not knowing about it, and how would they react, and to not take the reader home with them to see how surprised/upset/whatever reaction they have about their new house was annoying.

But even with the disappointing ending, I still really enjoyed the characters, so it gets a Thumbs UP