Disclaimer:

Many stories herein are subject to the faulty, and sometimes creative, memory of the blog owner and should not be taken as factual, although the names and events are real! Kind of.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I've Been Reading

If you don't read anything else in this post, scroll down to the bottom and read the poem!



I've been reading alot lately.  I brought books home from the High School Library.  I have books borrowed from friends.  And I bought a couple of books myself.

When I go into a bookstore, I want to buy everything and nothing.  I want to buy everything I see because they look so good.  I don't want to buy anything because I'm a librarian.  Anything I could possibly want to read is available in my library, the church library or the city library.  If the book is not available in any of those places, I can usually rationalize buying it for the High School somehow.



Young Adult Books I'm Reading:

I just finished A Season of Gifts (Richard Peck) set in small town Illinois in the 50s.  Peck is my FAVORITE author.  I got to meet him once and wanted to swoon at his feet ala Elvis Presley Fans.  He was born in 1934, so my marriage is safe!  I haven't read any of his books I wasn't in love with!  They are written for Middle and High School students but are so entertaining you won't care.


I'm reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Jacqueline Kelly).  In small town Texas in the summer of 1899, 11 year old Calpurnia is the only girl smack dab in the middle of seven children.  Can you imagine having 6 brothers?  She becomes interested in Natural History and develops a close relationship with her Naturalist Grandfather.  She sneaks off to the river on hot afternoons, sneakily cuts her hair off one inch at a time, raises caterpillars in her bedroom and endures piano lessons taught by an old maid piano teacher who smacks her knuckles regularly when she messes up.

I have two more in line to read:  How to build a House and A Brief History of Montmoray.   Home Renovation and a book with a castle on the cover.  Need I say more?




A friend loaned me Dawn's Prelude by Tracie Peterson.  Set in Sitka, Alaska and filled with good and bad guys galore.  It was a great novel and the first in a new series so I'm not finished with the story!

I received Saving CeeCee Honeycutt free in the mail from the publisher to read.  It's not been published yet and looks Really Good.  I will post a review of it later.



We went to a bookstore and I purchased Trap Door by Sarah Graves--Home Repair is Homicide!  Another home renovation book with built in murder!  I've already read several in this series and of course they are....Really Good!

I've been reading in every library-ish publication about Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.  He was a mountain climber who almost dies in Afghanistan while attempting a climb.  He was saved and befriended by some villagers and when he eventually returned to the U.S., he began raising money to build schools for girls in remote areas of the world, beginning in Afghanistan.  He's compared to Indiana Jones--adventurer/explorer with a heart of gold!  This book is several years old.  I'm slow to jump on the bandwagon, I'll admit it. 

And that last book in the picture What the world is Reading was free.  It contains the first chapters of books that I've heard of but not necessarily wanted to read, but reading the previews has made me want them.  I won't list them here right now because I've droned on forever here and I want you to be sure and read the following poem.

By my literary hero--Mr. Peck!

Twenty Minutes a Day
by Richard Peck

Read to your children
Twenty minutes a day;
You have the time,
And so do they.
Read while the laundry is in the machine;
Read while the dinner cooks;
Tuck a child in the crook of your arm
And reach for the library books.
Hide the remote,
Let the computer games cool,
For one day your children will be off to school;
Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice;
Let them hear their first tales
In the sound of your voice.
Read in the morning;
Read over noon;
Read by the light of
Goodnight Moon.
Turn the pages together,
Sitting close as you'll fit,
Till a small voice beside you says,
"Hey, don't quit."

5 comments:

Shannon said...

I love this poem!

Becky said...

I, too, love the poem. And I'm excited because now I have some new authors to try! Thanks!

marymary said...

Dawn, you want to know how weird I am? I get so overwhelmed going to a bookstore or library because there are SO many books and you can never read all of them. I think that they should stop publishing for a period of time so that I can catch up! In the 6th grade I thought I would try to read all the books in the library at my junior high school. I made it through to the B's in the fiction section before I gave up.

I love the poem, especially the line, "let them hear their first tales in the sound of your voice."

Marilyn said...

I loved this post. I loved the poem and it is so true. I don't understand why young mothers don't know to read to their children.

Relyn Lawson said...

OH, what a great post. Full of goodness I haven't heard of. I'm a second grade teacher who recently taught fourth for 7 years. My husband is a high school librarian. Needless to say, we are a reading family. Your post has made me very, very happy. And, you're sending me rushing off to my library's website. Thank you.

One Last Thought.......

Pleasant words are a honeycomb;
sweet to the soul and healing to the body.
Proverbs 16:
24