The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—For adults and teens

I think if I could write just one book in my life, I would wish I had written this book. I love this book so much–I wasn't sure if Lucy (12) was too young to read it, but she's studying WW II, and this book is about the struggle of a beautiful bunch of people during a time of war.

She loved it. She read the entire thing in one day, well beyond the hours required of her for homeschool. She came into my room last night glowing. I can tell by little comments she's made since that she's been thinking about it pretty much nonstop.

Read it first and decide for yourself if your child is old enough for this tale that sucks you in until you wish you could be a part of that village, a part of those people's lives, just as Juliet does.

For adults and teens.

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

The Clockwork Scarab

For your teen who loves a good mystery that isn't too gory or sexual:

I'm always wanting to read a Sherlock Holmes YA novel. I have a bit of a fascination with Sherlock Holmes, probably thanks to the Young Sherlock Holmes movie that came out forever ago. There are quite a few young Sherlock Holmes series out there, but I haven't liked any of them. Until now. 

This series revolves around the niece of Sherlock Holmes who teams up with the niece of Bram Stoker (she's a vampire hunter, but there weren't any vampires in this book) to solve a mystery. I really, really liked Sherlock Holme's niece in this book. I related to her, so while the mystery was good, I kept on reading for the character. I had to jump ahead to find out the ending because of time limitations (I know, I know! Evil, some may say!), but I still went back to read what I'd missed.

For me, that's saying something.

Ages 12 and up. 

Great main characters

I was reading a book recently that was touted (on its own cover) for being the next Harry Potter. The premise was great, a truly fresh, exciting idea. There was a lot of potential for something gripping.

But the book started out with an obnoxious main character. Very obnoxious. Not just a character with issues, not just an unlikable character, an obnoxious character. I didn't care about her from page one and I didn't care about her on page fifty. And despite the incredibly detailed, unusual setting, and a few supporting characters that were a little bit interesting, getting to page one hundred didn't change my feelings.

So I gave it up.

Right after I gave up on the next Harry Potter, I began a new book. This book:



The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (isn't that a great cover!). I love the main character in this book. I don't know why, I just do. She's someone I can relate to, and even though her world is nothing like mine, I became a part of it the minute I opened the book. This book, interestingly enough, is also compared to Harry Potter on its cover, and I think this one much more closely hits the mark. (This is one of the freshest takes on magic I've seen in a long time!) I highly recommend this to any kid ten and up who loves magic.

Love

I've found it. It's been a long time. Too long. I began to wonder if I would ever find it again—that relationship with a book that I can't put down for the story, for the plot, for the narration, for the characters, for everything.

The last book I read that really gripped me was this:


The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds

And now, happily, rejoicingly, I can tell you about this book:


Jinx by Sage Blackwood

Here's a description (probably from the book jacket...):

In the Urwald, you don't step off the path. Trolls, werewolves, and butter churn–riding witches lurk amid the clawing branches, eager to swoop up the unwary. Jinx has always feared leaving the path—then he meets the wizard Simon Magus.

Jinx knows that wizards are evil. But Simon's kitchen is cozy, and he seems cranky rather than wicked. Staying with him appears to be Jinx's safest, and perhaps only, option. As Jinx's curiosity about magic grows, he learns to listen to the trees as closely as he does to Simon's unusual visitors. The more Jinx discovers, the more determined he becomes to explore beyond the security of well-trodden paths.

And here are the starred reviews:

In this expertly paced, beautifully written fantasy, Blackwood elevates familiar fantasy elements with exquisitely credible characters who inhabit a world filled with well-drawn magic and whimsy. (Booklist (starred review) )

Blackwood fills her tale with drama and delightfully funny dialogue. (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

Readers will thrill to journey with Jinx. (School Library Journal (starred review) )

[Blackwood] puts her central three [characters] through a string of suspenseful, scary situations before delivering a properly balanced closing set of resolutions, revelations and road signs to future episodes. (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

Give to your child who loves Harry Potter. I think they'll love Jinx too.

Reading Prevents Alzheimer's

Probably.

this article about Alzheimer's disease, without being conclusive (because what studies are conclusive), explains that people who read are two and a half times less likely to have Alzheimer's disease, whereas TV watching may actually be a risk factor for getting Alzheimer's.

TV may indeed rot your brain and reading may indeed grow it. Maybe.

If you do decide to be bold and daring and turn off the TV this summer (you won't regret it!), you can use this article as ammunition. You can proclaim this summer an experiment. You can ask them if they can feel their brains growing as they read or play or do other intellectually stimulating activities as opposed to when they used to watch TV and play video games. You could involve them in the process and the decision. You could sit them down and explain to them the benefits of reading and how you want them to live long, satisfied lives. Summer is the chance to separate test scores and multiple-choice questions from reading, because so many kids associate reading with school and school with pressure and tests. How many of our kids associate reading with pleasure and growth?

The one thing I can promise you is this: if you talk to your kids about decisions like this and explain why you are making them, they get it. They understand. My boys do not play any video games whatsoever, and they seem to be the only ones around them who do not, but they never complain. Really. So far. I promise. I am not delusional. Except for sometimes.

So since summer reading should be reading for pleasure, and because I am giving up on the idea of Battle of the Books, this is what my kids are reading right now—for fun:

Mary (nearly 13):

Heist Society by Ally Carter (and its sequels)

and

Family Tree Book #1: Better to Wish by Ann M. Martin (This totally surprised me. She loved it so much, she wanted to see if the next in the series was out yet. This is out of character for this girl who tends to pick up whatever is lying around, start it and not finish it).

Lucy is reading


for this first time. And she's very confused about how the books line up with the movies. But she'll get over it.

Calvin is reading


The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart and its sequels.

Shaemus is reading

Captain Awesome by Stan Kirby

and

Dinosaur Cove by Rex Stone

and (don't tell him I told you this—a girl detective!)

Cinderella Smith by Stephanie Barden

Flannery is loving sticker books by Roger Priddy right now:

Does anyone out there have any really great sticker books to recommend? Our family is going to a family fiddling camp in a little over a week and Flannery and I are going to have lots of staring time at each other while the others are off making music...

A mystery (or two)

I am not a ginormous mystery fan. I don't love any genre in particular, I generally fall in love with an author for their wit (Jonathan Stroud), for their characters (Hilary McKay), for their sense of the absurd (Jane Austen), for their view of the world (Trenton Lee Stewart), for their love of children (Jeanne Birdsall). 

I don't read much for plot, and mysteries tend to be about plot. 

Unless they're not. 

I have one mystery series I really love. It's a famous mystery series I'm sure you've heard of: 

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

I haven't read them all, but I've read a bunch, and I can easily slip into Precious Rmatswe's world, a world so different than my own. 

But I've found a new series I believe I will dabble in for some time to come. These books are complete in and of themselves. There are no cliffhangers at the end that force you to read the next book. I'll pick them up at my leisure, but this series has a great world and a great main character: Flavia de Luce.

I've only read the first book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't read novels for adults often, so I'm always surprised by the amount of unnecessary text—the diversions the narrator will occasionally slip into—but it is nice to fall into those little diversions occasionally, as long as the author gets back to the story quickly, and Alan Bradley does. 

Check out, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie if you like a good mystery. And even if you don't!

Grown-up, No-guilt Summer Reading

Summer reading for grown-ups should be fun too. I don't know what I mean by that, exactly, but if you don't read regularly and you have a hard time enjoying yourself while reading, then please, please read for fun!

No guilt. Just read.

Here's an awesome book that, despite starred reviews, flew under the radar when it came out in 2009. I've blogged about it before, but I'll blog about it again, because I've been perusing it while I should be reading something new:

Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud

Vikings. Romance. Great writing. Fantastic adventure. Man, I really love this book (and you can skip the Viking poetry interlaced through the chapters if you have a hard time with that stuff—I enjoyed it, but I usually don't so much). This cover doesn't really do it justice, because this is a book for everybody (not just Dungeons and Dragons fans...).

Kalpana's Dream

I know this book is not for everyone. I know that Judith Clarke is one of my favorite authors in the universe and she doesn't fit that bill for every reader.

But I love this book, and if you haven't tried it, you should. The various covers for this book are abysmal, and the title isn't very good, but the book is worth its weight in gold. This is a book for twelve and up and it is definitely, in my opinion, a great book for adults as well.

Kalpana's Dream by Judith Clarke. A great Friday read.

Courage

Every so often I give myself a news fast. I say "give myself," because whenever I do this, it is a relief, a little gift to my spirit to not know what's going on in the world for a week or so. 

I like to be informed, and I find politics and such things interesting, addicting even, but sometimes my spirit needs a break. 

Something very interesting always happens when my news fast ends. I flip the news back on as I'm driving around and I find I haven't missed much. Particularly regarding politics and the economy, what I'm hearing sounds exactly the same as it did the week before. 

I had one awesome year where I hardly ever drove anywhere. I don't know how that happened, but I maybe had one car trip to make a day for kids, and sometimes not even that. I hardly ever heard the news during that year, and the following year, when I got stuck again in a routine of lots of driving, I started listening to the news on a regular basis again. 

And the same phenomenon was true. The news is generally the same day in and day out, and the news is stressful. 

I flipped on the radio yesterday as I was driving and heard the end of a story about a 34 year-old man who was too frightened to move away from home. It was "safe harbor" in a world that was too scary for him to face. 

The world is scary—I think sometimes the news makes it seem ten times scarier than it is—but regardless of whether or not these scary things are real or just perceived or a mixture, it is going to take courage for our children to get up every day and face jobs and insurance and taxes and terror and politics and schools and so forth. It is going to take courage for them to want to start families and bring children into this uncertain place. 

I've been thinking about courage and would love and book recommendations you have—from picture books to YA—that deal with the issue of courage. I want to tell my children stories that show them courage can be gained and used to get through the inevitable struggles of this life. 

Because there will be struggles. There just will. And stories can be the things that help our kids get through them. That's a large part of why stories have been told in every ancient civilization—not just for entertainment. 

Here are some of my favorites I'm going to share with my kids. Read any of them, and I think you'll be inspired by the courage of others.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (the movie and the book)

To Destroy You Is No Loss: the Odyssey of a Cambodian Family by JoAn Criddle (this will be tough to find at the library, but you can buy it used, and I can, with confidence, say that it is worth it—you will never regret reading this book). (14 and up)

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Septys (14 and up)

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (9 and up)

My Book of Life By Angel by Martine Leavitt (14 and up)

Heck Superhero by Martine Leavitt (12 and up)

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck (10 and up)

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson (10 and up)

Death to Book Snobs! (at least in our homes)

A friend emailed me this great link:

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/writing/online-writer-in-residence/blog/558/

30 Things to Tell a Book Snob

Really what book snobs are doing is comparing. They are examining the reading choices available to the world and determining that their choices are better than others. (I'm sure I do this, by the way—I'm sure I am much more book snobbish than I care to admit)

This article came at a good time, because I've been thinking about "comparing" lately. I've been thinking about how a great deal of the sadness that exists in this world (the modern, first-world anyway) comes from comparing.

The Jones's have a better house than we do, therefore we must be sad.

My children have no apparent talents as compared to the Jones's olympic athletes, therefore we must be sad.

I am not as thin as Mrs. Jones or her daughter or her husband or her cat, therefore I must be sad.

These are all lies of course, and I logically know this, but it still so hard to stop comparing.

Do we do this with reading?

It's interesting to look at what the majority of book clubs for middle-aged American women read. It's very interesting that so many of those books are the same (see Amazon for book club lists for this demographic—they are surprisingly uniform).

Books like this:


(I purposely put books up there that I have read and enjoyed. There is nothing wrong with these books. They are great. But it's interesting that many of these books have been recommended by Oprah Winfrey.)

Is this a problem? I don't know. Maybe it is. Not because there is anything wrong with these books, but perhaps we feel pressure to read them. Perhaps we feel like we must read what everyone is saying is the greatest book ever, because it will change our lives and we will feel more literary, more in sync, if we read it.

If we were really being true to ourselves and reading what speaks to us, reading what we love, would all these book clubs be so similar? Wouldn't we have a vast array of book clubs reading every sort of book imaginable because we are all so very different? Wouldn't Oprah have a lot less influence on what women in America read if we were more confident in our abilities to choose great books for ourselves?

Even if those books are found in the children's or YA sections of Barnes and Noble?

Now that I think about it, I succumb to this regularly. When people find out that I write, they inevitably ask me if I have read this book or that book and it is always some book like Atlas Shrugged that, yes, I did read long ago, but only because I had to. I always nod. I never explain that not only do I write for children, I almost exclusively read children's books, because that's what I love. I never do that.

This comparing, this snobbery with books, happens to our children too. Even though many adults would never submit to reading the below books because they are written for children, these are the sorts of books that intellectual, bright children must read. Books with stickers on them.


(Again, nothing wrong with these books!)

But what if they don't like them? Are they less bright?

Then I thought about the mandate from David Coleman, one of the authors of the Common Core (the new educational standards for the majority of children in America).

In this article,
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-schoolmaster/309091/,

Coleman explains (using some choice profanity) that he thinks most of what kids read in school is garbage. The article says this:

"the blunt application of these ideas [the idea that children need to see some version of themselves in what they read] has sometimes led to reading lists curated more for inspirational potential than for literary prowess."

In other words, when kids read for inspiration, they are going to be reading something less worthy. When they don't read for literary prowess, they are wasting their time.

I'm not going to argue here for inspirational reading over literary reading.

But I am going to argue for reading.

I'm going to argue that a kid absolutely obsessed with the sea, who loves the idea of captains and islands and adventures, would love the book I loathed more than anything else I read in high school, Heart of Darkness. (Oh, how I hated that book. It was like every time I opened it, my brain turned off. I could smell the characters and landscape and it all smelled like rotten fish. I could see the characters vividly in my mind, and they were the ugliest creatures in the world.) But there were people in my English class that loved it (a thing incomprehensible to me).

One of my favorites that year was, A Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man, no less difficult to read and one many of my classmates hated. But that book spoke to me and the other didn't. I'm not arguing that every book has to speak to every person, but with kids today struggling to pick up a book with all the distractions around them, it is our job as adults to avoid being book snobs. It is our job as adults to shoot down the book snobs, to find books our kids will love based on their content—what the book is about—not on the number of complex sentences in a paragraph or the number of stickers on the cover.

It is our job to stop comparing and to help our kids learn to joyfully, eagerly embrace themselves and find what they truly love.

We can't afford to be book snobs any more, and I hope, if any adults out there don't read because of the book snobs around them, because they don't enjoy the books being read at book club, or they feel like reading children's books, for example, would be a waste of time (even though they greatly prefer them), that they will change their minds. There are hundreds of books out there for every type of person. Thousands, probably.

With that in mind, I'm going to re-recommend my favorite rollicking YA fantasy duet:


Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

And I'm also going to recommend one of my favorite books of all time:
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton


Two very different books. As different as night and day, but as my son, Calvin, said when I asked him what he liked better, cats or dogs, "I like them both. They're just different. I don't really compare."

Man, if we could all take that statement to heart, what a better world this would be!

YA Pick, Nonfiction for Everyone, and a Really Great Sentence

I really loved this book:


A Corner of White: Book One in the Colors of Madeline by Jaclyn Moriarty

It's bizarre, but that's not a good word because it's not bizarre. It's partially set in a different world, but that's not right either because it's really not. There's a depth to this book that I do not quite get. And yet, I get it. Australia produces some great authors who are not afraid to write a book that fits no formula or prescription. This book is brilliant, but it doesn't feel like Moriarty was trying to be brilliant. She's trying to make you feel, but what you feel is up to you.

This is great YA fiction, the best, and as such, it really isn't for tweens. They will miss too much—it's a book worth waiting for until you can really understand the feelings behind it. This is for fourteen and up, really, I'd say for sixteen and up. A big, fat read, but, for me, it was worth every minute.


Now for Nonfiction for Everyone!

Do you know that The National Geographic is much cheaper than it used to be? You can get a years worth of issues (12) for fifteen dollars!

We get plenty of kid-friendly nonfiction magazines for homeschool purposes, but National Geographic is their favorite. They like it better than magazines specifically written for kids. The pictures are amazing and the articles are so interesting. My kids have read about the ability of scientists to recreate prehistoric creatures based on genes, the beauties and dangers of Rio, fracking, the Titanic, illegal ivory trading around the world and more. And they've read them for fun. Without parental pressure!

So worth the investment!

I have a roll of black contact paper waiting to go up on my wall so that we can take turns writing (in chalk) our favorite sentences, but we're working like mad to finish planting and mulching our front yard (pictures coming, I swear! Just in case you were worried...), and I haven't had time.

So you're stuck with my favorite sentence of the week. The purpose of these sentences is just to get us and our kids thinking about words. Words are fun. Sentence structure is awesome. Seriously.

Here it is:

"After a cursory search of the sleeping berths and a peek into the hold, he pointed his curved beak toward the Egg Gallery, where he found Junco sitting, of all places, on top of the stolen egg, fast asleep."

Imagine this sentence how many of us (and our kids) would write it:

"He performed a cursory search of the sleeping berths and peeked into the hold. When he turned his curved beak toward the Egg Gallery, he found Junco sitting on top of the stolen egg. Junco was asleep."

The latter sentence, the true sentence, is long and complex, but it doesn't feel convoluted. It flows. The commas are in all the right places, the structure of the sentence emphasizes all the right things.

Imagine the sentence this way:

"He finally found Junco, fast asleep in the Egg Gallery, sitting on top of the stolen egg after he searched the sleeping berths and peeked into the hold."

Not quite right.

This is Calvin's version of the sentence:

"He did a fast search in the bunkbeds and hold when he turned toward the Egg Gallery and finally found Junco asleep on the egg."

Here is Shaemus's:

"A person named Junco hid from a guy as he sat on an egg."

I had them do this, and soon after, both of them came to me with awesome sentences they found in something they read. It takes very little to stimulate our kids. Give them a question or an interesting idea, and watch them go. Give them words, give them sentences, and watch those brains wake up to the wonderful world of language. (Oh boy, that was cheesy. You can shoot me later.)

Please post a great sentence any time! We love them!

Etiquette and Espionage

For Friday's YA Pick:

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Seriously weird, but seriously awesome. Mary and I both loved it. If you're looking for something fun and unusual, a rip-roaring sort of thing, give this a try! Good for twelve (or maybe even ten) and up.

For Nonfiction for Everybody:

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

This is an old book, but so very wonderful. We own it and we love it. This gets pulled out and read all the time by everyone. It demonstrates what a real passion for something can do for you and the people around you. For the world. Definitely worth checking out and discussing. You could ask your children what things they feel passionate about. These things can, of course, change as our children get older, but they are NEVER too young, I don't think, to start examining the world around them closely and asking themselves what is important to them.

What a different world this would be if everyone had a passion for something and set about using that passion to make the world a better place!

I've been working on helping Mary in particular and my children in general love writing. I have some new ideas (some coming from a good friend), and one of them is pointing out great sentences (amazing sentences) and loving on them together.

So every Friday, I'm going to post a Great Sentence (or passage). Hopefully these will, in the future, come from sentences my kids have chosen, but for today, here's one I found in Going Solo by Roald Dahl.


Breakfast in Dar es Salaam never varied. It was always a delicious ripe pawpaw picked that morning in the garden by the cook, on to which was squeezed the juice of a whole fresh lime.


Can't you taste that pawpaw? I've never had a pawpaw, but I sure can imagine it (I imagine it tastes like lime mixed with Sprite. Probably not accurate). A simple sentence that tells so much! Find a great sentence today and share it with your kids!

YA Pick and Nonfiction for Everyone!!! (And some spear throwing)

Today's dangerous thing ended up being spear throwing. I was a little panicked when Calvin came out of our dungeon (our name for our garage thingy) with a hoe (a regular-sized garden hoe) and Shaemus came out with a heavy bat, and they declared their intentions to go throw some spears. But they both had on helmets and swimming vests. So they were well prepared.

I did not encourage them to do the spear throwing (one of the 50 dangerous things), they came up with the notion on their own, so I repeated many times that the person not throwing the spear had to stay far away and well-behind the person throwing the spear. This was after Calvin said, "Well, the good news is, when I throw the hoe, if it hits Shaemus, the heavy pointy metal part would only hit him right here." Then he pointed to Shaemus's helmet. I quickly pointed out that Calvin had no clue where the heavy pointy metal part would land and Shaemus had to, had to, had to stay behind him.

Then I let them go out side to seriously injure each other. But no one was hurt today and spears were thrown, so all's well that ends well (except that Flannery decided to stick her finger inside our little floor fan. And she'll never do that again!).

My YA pick is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I didn't love, love it, but I really did enjoy it. Excellent YA Fantasy, I would say, and I've now heard from friends that I must read book two, so there you go.

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rachel Carson

(I do not love this cover...)
This is a girl-protagonist book, something boys generally avoid reading. A friend of mine has a teenage son who can't find anything to read. He wants clean fiction—little profanity, no sex, mild violence—and it is harder and harder to find this in YA literature, particularly YA geared to guys. If anyone has any great suggestions for books that are YA but clean and have high boy interest, please pass it on!!!


And for nonfiction, we are all enjoying perusing the great photos and illustrations in this:

Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden

Now if this is the kind of book that makes you want to curl up under the covers and take a nap, change your ways. Now. Kids love this stuff. They love true stuff. They eat it up, but if they sense your wariness, your fear, your discomfort with heavy-duty history—with real stuff—they will quickly pick up your discomfort and blow it up into hatred. And if you haven't checked out, like really checked out, nonfiction for kids nowadays, it is (generally) awesome. These things read like novels now, they are so well done.

How's that for a lecture? But seriously, this is a book that your entire family could browse and read and discuss, and Lincoln is big right now, and, really, I'm not sure there could be a more important document for our kids to be familiar with. Might as well get 'em hooked at home, while it's fun.

I am posting about how to get our kids hooked on reading and writing on Monday. That's the only way to motivate people! To hook them, to get them interested, to reel them in...

The Running Dream and the Revolution

This post could be about how much I wish I could be a runner, but how that will always be a dream because I hate running. Really hate running. I ran every day straight for a year and a half in college and got endorphins once. Once, I tell you. Even then, those endorphins were weak and perhaps due to altitude.

But I'm not going to talk about exercise because that would turn this blog into fiction. Instead, I'm going to suggest a book I suggested once before because I picked it up again this week in a moment of brain deadedness (those moments are very rare for me...) and reread the whole thing.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen


So good for anyone twelve and up. It's about courage and work and faith, and of course... love. It's inspirational and motivating no matter what frame of mind you are in, and who couldn't use some inspiration and motivation? Perhaps even to go running? (I prefer to read about athletes rather than pretend to be one—it's very motivational in an empathetic sort of way.)



And for your family-nonfiction-around-the-dinner-table discussion, Those Rebels John and Tom by Barbara Kerley.

It's a light, sweet take on the relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, their differences, and how they got the revolution going and the people of America united against the British. The pictures are fun—a good opportunity to have a miniature family SOLE.

(I'm going to talk more about those on Monday!!! Very exciting—and just so you aren't worried this is some weird mystical thing, SOLE stands for Self-Organized Learning Environment—just a way for you and your kids to learn together or apart.)

Friday's YA and Nonfiction for all

I've been looking for a little lighthearted reading lately, and I stumbled on this book a few days ago. A little espionage, some fun girl-relationships, New York City. And, yes, a little romance. It has been the fulfillment of my not-so-serious quest for a little fun reading.

Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller

I started with book three in this series because I didn't have book one and I am one of those people that peeks at the endings of books and doesn't follow proper procedures. Even when installing garbage disposals, but we don't need to talk about that.

But even not knowing what happened in books one and two, I'm enjoying myself. I think this book crosses the line between middle grade and YA, so ten and up? The characters are all girls, but the adventure is definitely great for all sexes. (As if there were more than two...)

And as for nonfiction:

The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs by Sandra Markle



The pictures are remarkable, the story is compelling, and this a quick read for all ages that can get your whole family talking about this amazing world we live in and ways we can take care of it. I think this book would be particularly interesting to pair with a discussion about six thousand dead pigs floating through the main river of Shanghai.

Let's fill our lives with beauty and richness. Let's fill up our kids with curiosity and desire and depth.

Let's read!