Book Week 44 - Q is for quirky, quick, quarrellous quackers

Book Week 44

I love Dolores Cronin's books and even at 11 years old, my son still loves to pull out her books and read them. Poor Farmer Brown - no rest for the weary. Especially when you are dealing with a barnyard full of quirky farm animals as in Duck for President. 

"Running a farm is very hard work.

At the end of the day, Farmer Brown is covered

from head to toe in hay, horsehair, seeds, sprouts, feathers,

filth, mud, muck and coffee stains.

He doesn't smell very good either."

                

But what happens when he decides to take a vacation as evidence in Giggle Giggle Quack 

"Farmer Brown was going on vacation.  He left his brother, Bob, in charge of the animals. 'I wrote everything down for you.  Just follow my instructions and everything will be fine.  But keep an eye on Duck.  He's trouble.'  Farmer Brown thought he heard giggles and snickers as he drove away, but he couldn't be sure."

He also has another problem.  They've learned to type as in Click, Clack Moo, Cows That Type.

"Farmer Brown has a problem.  His cows like to type.  All day long he hears.

Click, clack MOO.

Click, Clack, MOO.

Clickety, clack, MOO."

Doreen Cronin's quirky stories about quick, quarrellous, quackers and moody cows that type will entertain every one in the family. 

What children stories have you come across that are fun to read at any age?

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Link to your reviews.  If you have multiple reviews, make it easy on yourself and  link to your blog with (multi reviews) after your name.  

Book Week 26 - On beyond Zebra

On Beyond Zebra

We love Dr. Seuss in our house and one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is "On Beyond Zebra" in which the young narrators teach Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell that the alphabet doesn't stop at Z.   

...Then he almost fell flat on his face on the floor
When I picked up the chalk and drew one letter more!
A letter he never had dreamed of before!
And I said, “You can stop, if you want, with the Z
“Because most people stop with the Z

“But not me!
“In the places I go there are things that I see
“That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
“I’m telling you this ‘cause you’re one of my friends.
“My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!

 

He introduces many wonderful new creative letters such as Yuzz  as in the Yuzz a ma tuzz and Humpf for the  Humpf-Humpf-a-Dumpfer.  

The ending letter is left up to the reader to figure out a name for it.   We've reached the ending letter in our normal alphabet and this week marks the halfway point in the year and our quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks.  How are you all doing?   Are you ready to go on beyond Zebra and explore a bit more?  Step farther outside of your reading box and create a new alphabet, dive into some new genre's, authors, stories?   Great! Let's go.......

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Link to your reviews.  Perhaps provide a half way there update on where you are in the challenge.   Plus, let's make this a bit easier.    If you have multiple reviews for the week, provide a link to your blog with (multi reviews) in parentheses after your name.  

THE LIGHTNING THIEF

WEEK 21


"The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan




(from the back cover)
Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school.......again.And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

This is the first book in the series. There are 5 books in all. I love Greek Mythology books and I was thrilled when I read about this book at another book blog. I was at our school book fair a few weeks ago and they had all 5 books and I bought them all. So you will be seeing the rest of them popping up here.
Percy, Grover and Annabeth are on a quest of find the lightning bolt. Along the way they run into several bad people the the God's have sent, but which God it doing all this? That is the question of the day. Percy starts out at Half Blood Camp, a place for kids that have a mother or father for a God. There Percy meets Annabeth and several other campers. Percy has killed the Minotaur that killed his mother. He is hurt and taken to the camp to recover. This leads to his visit with The Oracle. And sends him on his quest!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

"The Graveyard Book"

by

Neil Gaiman

Front Flap: "Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy--an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack--who has already killed bod's family...."

"The Graveyard Book" is the first book I've read by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed it, even though it was weird and quirky. The story begins with a man named Jack walking through a home, killing first the parents, then bod's brother. Bod, even though a toddler, somehow manages to climb out of his crib and wander out the open door, while Jack kills his family. The killings are not graphically depicted but implied. The writing is very well done and paints a picture

"The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.

The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door." (pg 5 - 7)

Bod wanders up and into a graveyard where the ghosts and other denizens of the place decide to protect him. Of course, they have to put it to a vote first.

"A graveyard is not normally a democracy, and yet death is the great democracy, and each of the dead had a voice, and an opinion as to whether the living child should be allowed to stay, and they were each determined to be heard that night." pg 29

Bod is raised by the ghosts and Silas, who neither dead or alive, protects him and makes sure his physical needs for food and dress are taken care of. Bod gets an interesting education in history and thought from various ghosts from the different eras as well as lessons in slipping through shadow and fading from awareness, "the ways of the dead".

"Bod tried again. He closed his eyes and imagined himself fading into the stained stonework of the mausoleum wall, becoming a shadow on the night and nothing more. He sneezed.

"Dreadful", said Mr. Pennyworth, with a sigh. "Quite dreadful. I believe I shall have a word with your guardian about this." He shook his head. "So, the humors. List them."

"Um, Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, And the other one. Um, Melancholic, I think."

"And so it went, until it was time for Grammar and Composition with Miss Letitia Borrows, Spinster of this Parish (Who did No Harm to No Man all the Dais of Her Life. Reader, Can you Say Lykewise?) Bod liked Miss Borrows, and the coziness of her little crypt, and that she could all-too-easily be led off the subject." pg 106

Throughout the story, Jack never ceases to look for Bod and finish the job he started. The villains (the Jacks of all Trades) reasons in the story for killing bod's family and him are a bit vague and I'll leave the mystery of what happened to your imaginations.

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Graveyard Book" and look forward to reading more stories by Neil Gaiman. His books are intriguing, imaginative and entertaining. Even though they are written for the 9 - 12 year old age group, they are enjoyable for adults to read as well. Highly Recommended.

Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Harper Collins
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy


Other thoughts about the book:

Michelle of 1morechapter:
"The Graveyard Book contains a colorful (though some are long dead) cast of characters, some very creepy scenes, and some genuinely heartwarming ones."

Em of Em's Bookshelf:
"The Graveyard Book is pure delight from start to finish. This is the first book that I've read by Gaiman and, after the first couple of pages, I knew that I was in the hands of a master storyteller."

Rob of Robaroundbooks:
"It entertained me completely and as a reader who normally gets his kicks from the more dense prose of writers such as Steinbeck, Dostoevsky and Hamsun etc. that’s a big achievement. Bearing that in mind I’m confident that The Graveyard Book will entertain just about anyone."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief

By

Markus Zusak

Back Cover: "It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down."

Have you ever read a book that captures your attention and when you have read the last page, you sit there, so filled by the words, the images, the characters, you don't want to read anything else. It reminded me of Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place and The Diary of Anne Frank while reading the story. I finished The Book Thief last night and have to say it was a very unusual, yet interesting book. Very powerful. I can't say it was an easy read, because the subject matter is not an easy one. It wasn't a book I would ordinarily pick to read and chose it as one of the books for Dewey's Books Reading Challenge. None of the books I chose from her archive of reviews are books I ordinarily would read. But I'm glad I did.

How to describe this story or say what hasn't already been said in numerous reviews? The story is narrated by Death and takes place during the era of Hilter. I am used to reading stories from the jewish perspective from that period such as the Zion Chronicles by Bodie Thoene. This story is not only from Death's perspective, but Liesel's, too and provides you a look into the lives of the Germans and how they suffered under Hilter's rule. When death introduces the beginning of Liesel's story, she is traveling with her mother and brother to Munich where the two kids are going to be left at a foster home. During the journey Liesel's brother dies and Death comes to take his soul. Liesel's mother leaves her with the foster car authorities and is never or heard from again. Liesel is taken to live with her new foster parents, Hans and Rose Hubermann in Molching where life for ten year Liesel is changed forever. They end up hiding a young Jewish man named Max in their basement because Max's father saved Hans life during WWI.

There are so many nuances to this story that it would be impossible to explain. Zusak manages to make an ugly storyinteresting with words that provide vivid images.

"Upon her arrival, you could still see the bite marks of snow on her hands and the frosty blood on her fingers. Everything about her was undernourished. Wirelike shins. Coat hanger arms. She did not produce it easily, but when it came, she had a starving smile." (pg 31)

"The juggling comes to an end now, but the struggling does not. I have Liesel Meminger in one hand, Max Vandenburg in the other. Soon, I will clap them together. Just give me a few pages. (pg 168

"She didn't dare to look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging on to her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out. A voice played the notes inside her. This, it said, is your accordion. The sound of the turning page carved them in half. Liesel read on." (pg 381)

The Book Thief is a young adult book meant for 9th graders and above. It is an extraordinary and unique way to expose young men and women and adults too, to what life was like during the Hitler era. I highly recommend it.

576 Pages
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf - Books for Young Readers
Historical fiction

GOLDEN GIRL AND OTHER STORIES

Product Description(From Amazon.com)
On first glance, they seem like just a regular bunch of kids. The school runt. The science nerd. The mouse. The tough new kid. Mr. Average. And the golden girl. At school, they all follow the same routine and play the popularity game. But things are very different at home and in their thoughts. There's more going on at Elmwood High than any teacher could ever imagine.

This was a very good book. As I work with kids, I always wonder what is going on at home. Because I only have them a few hours out of a day, I always wonder if they are alright and what's going on to make them angry, sad, happy or upset.

Up next:The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Book ideas: The Book Thief and The Martian Chronicles

I go my invite to this blog today. So thought I would introduce myself. My name is Sherrie and I love to read books! Mysteries are my favorite, but I'll read just about anything! I finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak this past week. I am now reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbuy. I am looking forward to reading all your posts and maybe getting some great ideas for some new books. Have a great week!