Childhood's End

In the long agonizing weeks between giving my daughter my Kindle Keyboard and waiting, waiting, waiting for my new Kindle Paperwhite to show up, I decided to grab something off my TBR pile.  I have an old, 80s cover art version of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End that I've always meant to get to.  I read a bunch of Clarke back in middle and high school and I was pretty sure I'd read this, but was foggy on the details.

As I re-read it this time I think I must have only read the first section because that was all very familiar but the ending was new to me.  Why did I stop reading such an elegant book half way through?  I have no idea other than I tend to read more than one book at a time and it must have just slipped through the cracks at some point.

Interestingly enough, this title isn't available on the Kindle as far as I can tell, so I guess it was a good choice. I remember buying it new (for $2.50!) and it has since yellowed with age. While dated in some ways, the story itself holds up marvelously.  I think it works so well because the science and technical details aren't as important as the allegory aspect of the tale.  Clarke is letting us know that the universe is bigger and stranger than we can probably imagine, so we need to do the best we can here and now before we drive ourselves to extinction.  He seems to worry more about a possible nuclear war, but climate change is a possibility as well.

I can't completely summarize the book without giving too much away.  Basically the old science fiction cliche (yes, even back in the 50s when Clarke wrote this) of a bunch of massive alien spacecraft appearing over the major cities of the world takes place.  The aliens never show themselves and do not take violent action except as necessary.  They become known as the Overlords and subtly but effectively push humanity in certain directions.  Wars cease.  Poverty is eliminated   Things are looking up.

But they never show themselves and the main point of view character tries repeatedly to find out why this is so.  Finally they give in and say that in 50 years, they will come down from their ships.  This gives them enough time to have a whole generation of humanity who have never known a world without them to be there when they reveal themselves.

The reveal isn't the major point of the book though.  It goes on with different POV characters and slowly more is revealed, not only of the Overlords, but of humanity and the universe in general.  It ends in some very surprising ways.

Many call the end depressing but I'm not sure I agree with that.  It's definitely wistful at least and probably more than that.  But just because something comes to an end, is that the worst that can happen?  Should we never buy a pet knowing full well we'll be burying it before two decades are out?  Should we never build or create anything knowing that nothing will withstand the ravages of time?  I don't think so but I suppose that those who find the ending depressing do.  I'm not saying nothing sad happens, but I didn't feel depressed after reading it.

Mostly, I was in awe of Arthur C. Clarke's achievement in writing such a fantastic book. He may be gone, but we still have his work to enjoy.  At least until the sun burns out or aliens attack or the Borg assimilate us or humanity evolves into something...else.

I have more to say but then I'd have to reveal too much, so I'll leave it to you if you're interested.

Kindle Paperwhite Review

Dude.  It's awesome.

So before this I had what is now known as a Kindle Keyboard with the built-in light cover.  It was great.  I have been very happy with it for a couple of years now and it's been adopted by my 9-year-old for her right-before-bed re-reading of the Harry Potter series. I usually took that Kindle out of the cover when I was around the house and only used the cover for carrying around out in the world.  It was a bit bulky and now I can catch up with the books on my iPhone when I'm out and about.

I dreamed of a newer touch screen Kindle without the keyboard and they announced those last year.  But I'm not one to upgrade every iteration of some tech just because.  And I like to wait for the reviews to make sure there's no problems.  The Kindle Touch was nice, but it just didn't really seem worth upgrading for.  Then in the spring when Barnes & Noble announced the "GlowLight" I knew it was only a matter of time before Amazon released a similar feature.  I figured it would be the same Kindle Touch with the added lighting and figured, well, that might be worth upgrading for.

It was worth the wait.  This is the Kindle finally done right.  It's smaller than those other versions and has absolutely no buttons on the front.  There's just a power button on the bottom and a place to plug in the charging cord. I got the case (similar to the one in the photo above, but mine is black).  This cover should come with the thing because it goes with it so well.  This Kindle fits snugly into the case and the clasp is a little magnet that turns it on and off when you close it.  It folds back and actually makes it easier to hold while reading.

The touch screen is better than I expected.  I was worried I'd always be accidentally turning pages, but you need to give it a decisive push or swipe to turn the page.  A light brushing or tap won't do it, which is nice.  I love being able to just touch a word and have the definition pop up!  And it's easily manipulated with one hand, so that's great too.

But I know it's the built in light that's the big draw here.  It's amazing.  I was concerned it would feel like reading on something backlit like an iPad but it's not.  It really feels like there's a light source reflecting of the page (which I suppose there is).  So it doesn't cause any eye strain like trying to read off a tablet in the dark does for me.

There are four little LED bulbs embedded at the bottom of the screen and they somehow magically spread their light evenly over a thin film of magical light spreading something-or-other.  (I'm sure you can read the technical specs if you care.  I'm sticking with magic.) Of course at the very bottom of the page where the little light photons begin their journey across the screen, there is a bit of shadowing of brighter and darker areas.  It's noticeable in low light but it's at the very bottom so doesn't bother me at all.  I've heard people complain about this and often wondered when these people have 100% perfect light coverage over their whole page completely shadow free 100% of the time, because I live in the real world and am always moving around and tilting my books this way and that to get just the right light.  I'm guessing those people would complain if you hung them with a new rope.

Another thing I've heard people complain about is Amazon no longer supplying a wall plug to charge the device.  They do supply a charging cord that ends in a USB plug.  The end that plugs into the Kindle is the same universal size as 90% of the cell phones out there.  So if you have anything in the world with a USB outlet (every computer ever) have or had a cell phone with one of those charging plugs our have any other USB ready wall plug (I like this one) then you're fine. So this is not a big problem.  And if you have a previous version of the Kindle, then you already have a wall plug.  So people need to get over that one.

We've already heard Amazon is taking a loss on most of their Kindle line, so cutting unnecessary items is not surprising.  This Kindle no longer has speakers, text-to-speech or audio capabilities.  I never used that stuff anyway.  I just read books on it. My school is interested in the text-to-speech feature, but Amazon still sells the 3G Kindle Keyboard so we're looking at those.

I'm cheap, so I have ads on my screen saver.  I only see them for a half a second though, before I've opened up my book and am reading.  It does chap me a bit that on the home screen, they now have a "cover view" along with"list view" like they've always had but the entire second row of covers is stuff they're promoting, not stuff from my library.  So I keep it on list view.  But that is a very minor complaint with such a great overall reading tool.

Oh, and have you heard about their little "time remaining" feature?  On the bottom right it shows you something like "19 minutes left in chapter."  It's not terribly accurate but it is a nice ballpark estimate that lets you know if there's a good stopping point coming up.  Cool feature.

As I've mentioned, I'm no format nut.  I read on the Kindle, on my phone, listen to audio books, and check out actual physical books at the library.  I ask for gift cards for birthdays and holidays to keep the Kindle supplied with books, but then use the library or my never-ending pile of unread books at other times.  It always cracks me up when someone says to me, "I'd never get one of those things because..." and it's usually "...I like to get my books for free" or "...I just love the feel of real books" or whatever.  That's okay, you don't have to!  Keep going to the library.  Keep reading real books.  I do too!  It's not an either-or thing.

But if you do have any interest in an e-reader, then this is the best one you're going to find.  If you're already married to Barnes & Noble, I wouldn't switch or anything, but if you already have an earlier Kindle or are ready to take the plunge into e-books, then this is for you.

I Got My New Kindle!

The Paperwhite! I'm so excited...

Books! Both audio, paper and electronic...

I've been reading a bunch but blogging little.  For my physical book club I read Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut.  They didn't have it in audio at my library, so I checked out the paperback copy they did have.  Usually I renew books as soon as I get home two times, so  I can keep them for the full nine weeks if I wish.  But this had a reservation on it and I had to turn it in before I was finished.  So I downloaded the Kindle version and read the rest that way.  It was a good, but uneven collection.  Vonnegut himself gives it a B-.  I'd rate it a bit higher but only a few of the stories really stand out.  I'll stick to the novels.

I listened to the audio of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and I'm so glad I did.  It's a book I've heard about for some time but it seemed to me that it was going to be another one of those Oh-look-how-clever-I-am-books like, well, you know who I mean I'm sure.  The Sword & Laser has been reading it this month in anticipation of the movie.  It's funny because a friend loaned it to my wife who was happily reading it until the first section cut off.  Then the movie trailer came out and she was like, "No thanks."  But the trailer actually intrigued me and I picked up the book, then got the audio from the library.  The audio is the way to go because it's actually six different stories nested together.  Think of those nested Russian dolls, except only the big one on the outside is complete, the rest are all cut in half vertically.  Then they are lined up with the smallest left half, the next biggest, the next, the next, then the big, whole one in the middle, then the other halves of the smaller ones in descending order on the right.  So the last thing you read is the second half of the first story you started with, which was cut off mid-sentence.

Only the sixth story is told complete, without any breaks.  They are all told in different formats as well.  The first is an adventurer's journal form the late 1800s.  The second is a set of letters from an aspiring composer in Europe in the 1930s.  The third is the pulpy novelized version of an investigative journalist's attempt to learn the secrets of a nuclear power company.  The fourth is the hilarious account of of a shady publisher who goes into hiding to avoid strong-armed creditors and finds himself, then trying to find a way to escape his own accidental imprisonment in a rest home of sorts.  The fifth is the holographically recorded testimony of a kind of cloned human created for slave labor in the future.  The sixth is an oral account told around a campfire in a post-apocalyptic future.  So yeah, Mitchell is very clever and playing games, but the stories are much more accessible than I expected and the references between and to the other stories, along with the recurring and refracting themes was always fun.  I'm especially glad I was listening because the audio producers decided to have a different narrator for each section.  The sixth story is also told in a kind of pidgin English that I would have probably found annoying on the page, but on audio it wasn't any more difficult than puzzling out a thick Irish accent--you get into the flow of it and it makes sense.  Or at least sense enough.  Problem is, now I don't know if I actually want to see the film.

Ernest Cline's Ready Player One was also a joy to listen to.  It's narrated by Wil Wheaton, which is appropriate since it's a celebration of all things geeky.  It's kind of a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory scenario for geeks who grew up in the 80s.  It also takes place in a terrible future.  It's not post-apocalyptic, but post-oil crunch.  The world is not a happy place, but luckily some genius has created a wonderful, immersive, online virtual world that everyone hangs out in anyway.  It's where our main character, Wade, even goes to high school.  The genius that created all this died five years ago and left a video announcing a contest.  Whoever can find three hidden keys, get through the gates they open, and find a final hidden "easter egg" will win and inherit a controlling interest in this virtual world's founding company and the creator's own multi-billion dollar nest egg.  Like I said, it's been five years and our guy is the first one to find something that puts him on the games leader board.  Suddenly he's the most famous gamer in the world and the competition gets stiff.

The fun thing about this one is that the genius creator, and obviously Cline himself, are obsessed with 80s pop culture so to navigate these puzzles and challenges, Wade and the other challengers must have and encyclopedic knowledge of music, movies, books, television shows and especially video games from the 1980s.  It's quite a hoot for someone my age.  I wouldn't put it quite up there with Snow Crash as a novel, but it's pure enjoyment and great fun if you're the right kind of geek.

Finally, I just read a good old fashioned library book.  It was John Wood's Leaving Microsoft to Save the World.  I recently watched the film Half the Sky based on the book by Nicholas Kristof and Cheryl WuDunn.  Holy crap is all I can say.  But one of the many great charities the referred to in the film was Room to Read set up by former Microsoft exec John Wood.  They are focused on providing books, libraries and schools to the developing world with an emphasis on the education of girls.  The book is about how he came to make the switch from being a Microsoft exec running himself ragged to becoming a guy who creates a successful non-profit and running himself ragged and trying to save the world.  And unlike that ultimate dingleberry Greg Mortenson (who wrote a similar but mostly fictional book called Three Cups of Tea and mismanaged a whole lot of charity money), Wood really is doing great work and his non-profit is actually doing what he says it's doing.  Think of all the Carnegie libraries in the US.  What a legacy, right?  Well he set up  2500  libraries, primarily in the US (and other English-speaking countries.  Room to Read has already set up more than 12,000 libraries AND built about 1500 schools AND publishes native language children's books AND has provided over 13,000 scholarships for girls.

Rock on, I say!

Read Aloud Update

We (the family an I) are reading Gordon Korman's Swindle right now, but before that we read the newest Familiars book, The Circle of Heroes by Epstein and Jacobson.  And right before that we read the third Gregor Underlander book, The Curse of the Warmbloods. And before that we read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I don't think there's anything to say about Harry Potter anymore.  You either love it and know all about it, or you don't read this blog.  Either way, yes, we finished that one (actually listened to Jim Dale read it to all of us) and then watched the movie and then I took Harper to a GameStop where she traded in some older Wii games and got LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7.  So it was a multimedia event, I tell you.

The third Gregor book was my favorite of the series so far. It's richer, more wide-ranging and seems to be taking the series to a darker but also more rewarding place than I first suspected.

The third Familiars book is action-packed but also pretty dark.  The authors do a good job at keeping it moving and throwing in lots of fun one-liners to keep it getting too bad, but the unending zombie hordes, along with the illustrations, will make sure you don't think this is just a cutesy animal series.  No, indeed.

Swindle has been out for a while.  He's turned this into a series as well, but the first one is very much a stand-alone book.  Some kids find an old Babe Ruth baseball card in an abandoned house and take it to a collector.  He gives them a couple hundred bucks and they're happy.  Then they see him on TV saying he's going to auction it off for upwards of a miiillion dollars!  Without a receipt and just being kids, they decide their only recourse is to try to steal it back.  Then they figure out he has quite a lot of security on his shop.  And the meanest Doberman Pinscher in the world.  But they just happen to know a dog whispering girl in their class.  And a computer hacker.  And a climber.  And so on.  So we get a Ocean's 11-type heist thriller for the upper elementary set with a very satisfying conclusion.

Swindle is actually the first pick for my spouse and daughter's newly-formed Mother/Daughter book club they've formed with some other mom/daughter combos they are friends with.  It'll be interesting to see how that goes!

An Abundance of Katherines

I'm so glad for this year's TBR Double Dare.  I'm definitely getting books off of my pile that I don't know when I'd have gotten to otherwise.  I actually started another book before this one.  It was a well-recommended mystery novel from one of those respected mystery novelists who write many books in a series about an interesting detective in an interesting place.  I tried.  I really did.  But I was nearly a fourth of the way into it and I just did not care.  I may go back to it someday, but it really wasn't doing it for me.  So in desperation, I went looking for something I knew would be lighter and more fun.

Nerdfighter John Green to the rescue!  This is definitely light.  It tries a little too hard at times and there are things that got a bit annoying, but overall it was a welcome relief from the ponderous abandoned murder mystery.

I first came across John Green through the Vlogbrothers Youtube channel he does with his brother Hank.  Hank wrote a song about Harry Potter back when the last book was coming out and it went viral on Youtube. Then many of us who love books, nerds, and brothers went back and watched these videos.  At some point in the recent past they had both gotten video cameras as a Christmas present and had started sending these videos back and forth.  But since they are so smart and  funny  it became more of a thing and it's popularity exploded.  It was also around the time I was deciding to switch from straight teaching to becoming a school librarian.  Since I was open to becoming a librarian at any school K-12, I thought I should catch up on some YA books and got the first three John Green novels but up to now had only read his first, Waiting for Alaska.

In this one we realize that John Green's main characters are going to be very similar people with different various obsessions looking for excuses to show of their random stores of knowledge.  Much like John Green himself.  We also realize that the main characters are always going to be obsessed with girls.  Especially beautiful unattainable girls.  And if the girls are in any way attained, it will usually not be in any believable way.  But there will be lots of humor and some thoughtful insight and interesting situations along the way.  So they're basically Woody Allen movies for the YA crowd.  Except they are books rather than movies, of course; at least for the moment.

I have one more John Green on my TBR pile and he just had a new one come out that is getting rave reviews.  So it'll be nice to read those and watch a writer mature before our eyes.  And if that doesn't appeal to you, then you can just follow he and his brother on Youtube where he does things like talk really fast about The Great Gatsby.

Kitchen Confidential

I finished this book early in the TBR Double Dare because I was waiting for the book club discussion.  Then the book club, toward the end of January, was so wonderful that I didn't think I could do it justice.  I am also afraid of getting any publicity for the book group or raising interest to a level that it becomes unmanageable.  (That won't be a problem this month since the actual meeting date and the one printed on the book store flyers don't match up for some reason.)

There's not much to say about the book.  It's been out a while, made Bourdain's reputation as the bad boy, rock and roll food lover he's known as today and catapulted him into various cable travel/food loving shows.  You either like him or you don't.  I don't know anything in particular about good food and I especially dont' know much about fine restaurants, so I learned a lot and didn't know who he was dishing about when he discusses different well-known restaurant owners, chefs, etc.

First thing is, it's very funny and very profane.  Second thing is, he loves the food.  Curt Cobain might have been a messed up individual but he obviously loved the music.  Bourdain can be messed up but doesn't claim to be anything he's not.  He even goes on at length about how exactly to run a kitchen and the absolute do's and don't you must follow as a chef.  Then, in my favorite section, shadows another chef near the end of the book whose work he adores and proceeds to see all of his rules not being followed.  This by a chef and kitchen he considers leagues better than anything he could do.  So while he's a loudmouth, he's a self-aware and, believe it or not, a sometimes humble loudmouth.

Some of the guys in the book club like food quite a bit and so this book was chosen to coincide with our first meeting in a members home.  We all signed up to bring some food and/or beverages and let me tell you, it was one of the best meals of my life.  Bourdain either inspired them to new heights or we secretly have some chefs in the group.

There was one ringer.  The homeowner brought a friend who had done the brisket.  It was divine.  I might cry a little to myself now just thinking about it.  I also brought a friend who had thrown four punds of pork shoulder into a pot and brewed up a Brunswick stew that had been bubbling away for 14 hours.  It was like honey, I tell you.  The homeowner has one of those big green egg-like ceramic oval cooker things (like this) on a specially built teak table on his deck that had been stuffed with pork.  It melted in our fingers.  We were pulling it off in chunks as he was carving it.

I know; a meat-induced coma, right?  There was plenty of food for the vegetarians as well.  Delightful appetizers.  A gorgeous and simple fresh salad.  A perfectly cooked potato side.  More veggies. Home made desserts that were delicious and not overwhelming.

And the wine!  My goodness, this guy had racks of it all over the place.  I asked him how he could possibly have this much of a backlog?  I'd have drunk it as it came in.  He smiled and said simply, "I like to entertain."  No kidding.  He even has a dartboard up in the living room!

I'm no cook, so I made sure to bring good beer.  There was also some after-dinner whiskey.  All of it was perfection.  Especially the company.

Since Bourdain makes frequent references to music in his book, so will I. It was the day Etta James died so we played some of her music during the time we were gathering, noshing and preparing.  Then the musicologist of the group stuck in his especially-prepared mix of food-related music.  Great stuff indeed, but after we could bring ourselves to push our chairs back I felt it important to play some punk rock, in honor of Mr. Bourdain's preferences.  With that fun "Genius" feature on Apple products now, I simply picked a Stooges tune and clicked on the "Genius" magic list maker thingy and soon we had Iggy and the boys, the Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, the Clash, etc going while we cleaned up.  Then, after dinner was a time for more thoughtful discussion with a backdrop of (only slightly) more mellow fare from the likes of The Black Keys and The John Spencer Blues Explosion.

Books, travel, art, music, good food, good drink, good friends, good conversation and darts.  A night to remember.

Cheers!

Two Fun Videos

 (via Richard Wiseman)


 
(via Baby Got Books)

Why So Grumpy? A Response to Travis Jonker

I just finished reading Fine. I Got an Ereader. Now What? A newbie to digital reading gets his first Kindle by Travis Jonker and I have a few things to say about it.  But first, if you haven't yet had the pleasure, go enjoy some time browsing his wonderful blog, 100 Scope Notes.  I've been enjoying his enthusiastic take on the world of school librarians and children's literature for the past few years.  He doesn't just write blog posts.  Well, he does.  But he also does much more, like comimg up with highly engaging activities for his readers.  He has a love of good book covers and I enjoyed it when he had us all designing our own fictional covers.

He doesn't just love talking about the covers of books.  He loves the physical objects themselves.  And what librarian doesn't?  That's one of the greatest perks of becoming a librarian: we get to buy books with other people's money!

But with all these electronic reading devices floating around, we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't keep track of what's going on with all kinds of different devices and formats.  But the problem with Travis is, he went and bought himself one and he doesn't seem to really want one.

I mean, I know why I bought one.  I'm a gadgety-gadget-head and love the idea of being able to carry around a whole bunch of books around at once.  And with Instapaper or Klip.me I have a ton of free longer articles to read more comfortably than on my laptop screen.  And many librarians I know enjoy the benefits of free publishers galley's on their ereaders.  I love that no matter how many books and articles I stuff into this thing, it's still only around eight ounces!

Many fellow librarians have been doing the whole keeping-an-eye on these ereaders with the thought that some form of these devices might be coming soon to their libraries.  Many of them are getting their hands on one to play with and see what they're all about so they can know what they're dealing with if there is ever an adoption in their district.  Some buy them, some just borrow them.  Is this why Travis got one?  I'm can't be sure.

In the article, he mentions asking around for which device to buy and seems surprised that most people told him to get the one they had gotten for themselves.  It's not really a surprise.  If you spent a few weeks researching which device to buy, you'd probably share your wisdom by recommending the one you finally chose.

I contacted Travis during this time and tried to be more objective.  I don't usually tell someone what to buy.  I tell them the benefits of more than one option for differing uses.  Be aware, this was late last summer so the Nook Simple Touch was out, but what is now known as the Kindle Keyboard was the only Amazon offering.  The raft of new Kindles had yet to come out.  I personally had a Kindle and enjoyed it very much.  But I told him that if he was getting this in anticipation of previewing it's use for his school library then he should go with a Nook.  Many librarians that had gone with a handful of Kindles had subsequently been disappointed with Amazon's policies and had switched over to the Nook.  While the Kindle can now borrow from the library, the Nook always had.  And at the time of this discussion, the Nook Simple Touch didn't have a clunky keyboard like the Kindle.  But I mentioned that I was happy with my Kindle for personal use.

What I don't get is that Travis waited until the new Kindles came out...and still got a Kindle Keyboard! If you look at the photo above, you'll see that both the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch (both now $99) have touch keyboards.  In the article he says the "buttons could use a redesign."  They clearly have!

He goes on to list the deficits he sees in his ereader.  Not enough free books available at the library.  Not everything published is available on the ereader.  He can't show off his ebooks like trophies on a shelf.  He's worried he might look foolish reading this in public.  Don't worry.  I'm sure no one would give you a second look.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  It's not an either/or proposition.  I like reading on my Kindle.  I like reading physical books.  I like audiobooks.  I still get books at the library.  I still buy physical books.  Different books lend themselves to different formats for me.

On the other hand, I know readers who prefer certain formats.  I know people who almost exclusively listen to audiobooks.  I know others who wouldn't go near an ebook.  They need to have a pencil hovering above the pages, ready to scribble and underline.

It's all good and it's all still available.  Tailor your reading to your own needs.  Don't feel pushed into anything.

I salute Travis and his desire to learn more in an attempt to help his students and staff adopt new formats and expand his knowledge.  But if he's going to feel "wary," and "foolish," and "shame" with his own, then I think he might want to put that puppy on eBay and head down to his nearest favorite bookstore.

Holiday Reading Roundup

Well, we’ve almost finished all the Sister’s Grimm books with our nightly read-alouds at home.  We now have to wait with everyone else for book nine coming out in the spring.  My daughter loved them and gave copies away to friends for Christmas so they can catch up and “play Daphane and Sabrina!”  Now we’re reading the last How to Train Your Dragon Book.  Then it’ll probably be the third Harry Potter because she liked dressing up as Hermione so much that she wants a Harry-Potter-themed birthday in March.

The book club read an unnamed Russian minor classic last month.  It remains unnamed because I couldn’t get through the darned thing (and most of the rest of the group didn’t either, including the guy who picked it).  But the great thing about our book club is that the book is often a jumping off point for many other wonderful discussions too.  And anyway, we had to pick next years books!

We’re doing something special for January.  We’re reading Kitchen Confidential and meeting at one of the guys’ houses to cook lots of food and drink to everything.  Should be
fantastic.  The book was certainly a hoot.  I finished it on my holiday travels (along with a few others I have coming up in separate posts).  I especially like how Bourdain describes in detail the pirate-like crew and raucus kitchen he runs, telling you exactly the rules you need in place to have everything go smoothly.  The he observes another chef’s kitchen and points out how basically every ironclad “rule” he has at his own place is broken here and probably for the better.  Even if you don’t cook, you’ll learn some things about what to order (and what now to order) in restaurants and you’ll just learn a whole lot about food in general.  It’s also an R-rated romp of excess and hilarity that’s just fun for it’s own sake.

Under the Christmas Tree

So one day a couple weeks ago my daughter had an overnight friend.  I was here at my desk and noticed it was quiet.  Maybe too quiet.  So I thought I better check on these girls.  I poked around and didn’t find them until I noticed these under the Christmas tree:

See them?  Those are their feet.  I leaned over the couch in the living room to get this next shot:

Yup.  That’s them.  They had tucked themselves under the tree and even gotten pillows so they could be down there reading for a while.  I think Harper had instigated this activity because she wants her friend to catch up with her on the Sister’s Grimm series.  One day when I picked her up from her friends house I asked her what they’d been playing.  “Sister’s Grimm,” she said.  “But we can only play from the first book because that’s the one she’s on.  I don’t want to give anything away.”

They’re nuts, but lovable and mostly harmless.

Discouraging Read-Alouds

I forgot to post my monthly GLMA blog post, so here it is:


I heard a horrible rumor about a school librarian that was actually discouraging teachers in his/her school from read alouds.  I’m not one to listen to gossip and especially not one to share it but I’ve been thinking about this ever since and so feel compelled to write about it. Now, like most rumors, I doubt this one is true. A librarian?  Discouraging teacher read-alouds?  That would be kind of like a dentist discouraging you to brush your teeth wouldn’t it?

Maybe I misheard.  Maybe the gossiper meant the librarian was encouraging read-alouds.  Yeah, that must have been it.  But then, why would anyone be talking about that?  That’s what we spend a good deal of our time on, isn’t it?  I know not only am I actually reading aloud to classes but I’m often showing teachers new books that would be good read-alouds, suggesting more when they bring one up to check out and updating lists on the wiki of good read-alouds for certain grades and subjects.

As one of my favorite children’s lit. professors used to constantly reiterate: “Read aloud every day in every subject.”

My art teacher was delighted when I shared Chalk and Pete the Cat with her this year.  I’ve done much the same for many of the teachers in the building in a variety of subjects.  Yes, there are great non-fiction red-alouds!  Yes, you can turn that into an easy and fun reader’s theater! Yes, yes, yes!

The only problem I’ve ever heard with read-alouds is when someone doesn’t correctly match up their students and the book being read.  Often this comes from inexperienced or lazy teachers who haven’t read the book.  At one school I worked in, a fourth grade teacher picked up The Giver.  Maybe because it had an award on it, I don’t know.  It was a little much for that class and one student, upset at the ending, complained to parents.  The media committee in that school decided that the book was not appropriate for elementary and pulled it form the shelves, sending the copies to the middle school.

Maybe something like that happened with the school librarian in question.  Even so, that’s a dramatic and rare example that just reinforces the importance of the librarian’s job in helping find the right read-alouds for the right teachers and grade levels.  You can’t have people just pulling any old book off the shelf and reading it.  (Yes, I’ve seen this done, usually with bad results.)

So we need to encourage read-alouds and help teachers find the right books so they can…

Read aloud every day in every subject!

Virus!

I had a great post I wanted to do for Sunday, but my computer is infected.  I sent it off with my local geek to have it cleaned up and I just don't have time at work to properly blog.

But it has been kinda nice not having a laptop for a couple of days.  Then that blog post seemed silly.  I spend way too much time reposting.  If you're interested in that stuff, then just follow my shared items feed.

This space is for original content.  But I may not have any for a spell.

In the meantime, let me know your summer reading plans in the comments below.  I plan on hitting my TBR pile hard, other than book club books.  I need to clean out physical books so I don't feel any guilt about buying stuff for the Kindle!

What's your plan for the summer?

Friday Links

The first step to being a good critical thinker is seeing if you are wrong.  Kathryn Shultz, author of Being Wrong, now has a great TED talk on this as well.  Well, I thought it was pretty good.  But, you know,  I could very well be wrong about that.

Roger Ebert had a great essay on the idea of being "well-read."  It led to another essay by NPR's Linda Holmes,  The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything.

And I've heard a lot about the Khan Academy, but only recently started watching some of the videos.  Great stuff and worth sharing!

Laura Miller at Salon points out that while the Three Cups of Tea guy may be a liar, it's really the cheating that sucks more.

And does anyone have experience with Jump Math?  It sounds very intriguing. I'm intrigued!

Reading Challenge...Westerns? Yee-Ha!

Yessirree, I'm finally doing a reading challenge.  I kinda-sorta did C.B.'s TBR Dare in that I've made a commitment to read a physical book off of my TBR pile between every Kindle book I purchase (to assuage the guilt).

But this one is great.  I really only have to read one book, so it's not much of a challenge, it gets me (slightly) out of my comfort zone, but allows me to read something I've been curious about but never really explored (other than in the movies).

And it'll make my Daddy happy.  He's a big Westrern fan.  He loves every movie starring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood and read a pile of Zane Grey's and Louis L'Amour's back in the day.  I did skim through L'Amour's Education of a Wandering Man once (which isn't very good, I think it was something unfinished his family published after his death) and was impressed with his autodidacticism and pure, unalloyed love of books and history.  Over the last holiday break I was lucky enough to take my Ma and Pa to the moving picture show to see the new True Grit which was a treat for all.

The only Western I've read would not be something Daddy would enjoy (but I'll bet C.B. would).  It was a book I read years back called The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon by Tom Spanbauer.  It was about a bisexual, biracial (half Indian, half White) male prostitute in 1880s Idaho.  Now that was a story!

For this challenge I think I'm going to go with something by Elmore Leonard.  He's known for his crime novels now, but started out writing Westerns.  Some great Western movies have been based on his work including 3:10 to Yuma and Hombre.  After reading his 1930s-era novel The Hot Kid, I knew at some point I'd want to try one of his early Western books.  It has that same feel.

If you want to saddle up for this but don't know what to read, C.B. has you covered.  He recommends Deadwood by the blisteringly talented Pete Dexter.  Which I'll definitely add to my TBR pile (I loved Paris Trout).

Yippie Ki-Yay, mofos!

The Hop-a-Long, Git-a-Long, Read-a-Long Western Challenge

Morning Linkage

Tennessee doomed?: Antievolution bill passes in the house; Creationists notch big win in TN

Lost Dr. Seuss books to be published!

Richard Peck is awesome.  Big Kahuna Round of the battle of the books.

Global warming skeptic changes his tune - by doing the science himself: I think my favorite part of this story is  that this study was funded by the Koch brothers.  Heh, heh.

The 39 Clues

I've already posted about books 1-4 and have been kinda busy with fun stuff like jury duty and Spring Break (at the same time!) to post much lately, so here's a rundown of my thoughts on the rest of the series.

Book 4 was definitely the turning point for me.  I loved 1, but two and three were just more of the same without much growth in story or characters.  But book 4 was pretty good.  Then book 5, The Black Circle, was just as good.  Lots of great Russian history and mythology there.  I've said before that I think these are great for 3rd-6th graders to hear about some great people in history in a fun and entertaining way (along with geography of course).  But they also throw in plenty of historical myths that turn out to be true in the world of the Cahill family clue hunt.  Anastasia lived and all that.  Perhaps history teachers might be miffed, but the line between the fact and fiction is made pretty clear and I personally don't think it matters.  If it makes some kids go on to look up the true history then it will be for the good.

Book 6, In Too Deep, get us to Australia and some great character development and is again by Ms. Jude Watson.  Mr. Lerangis comes back for book 7, The Viper's Nest and does a much better job in my opinion.  By this point some of the original bad guys had grown consciences, so some of they're parents or uncles have shown up to be even badder bad guys.  Like on the Star Trek series' when the Klingons went a little soft around the edges, they brought in those no-good Romulens.  But when we could somewhat deal with Romulens they brought in those no-good Cardassians and so on.

Mr. Korman made some missteps in Book 8, The Emporer's Code.  The plot and story were just as exciting as the other outings, but the way he got Dan and Amy apart for a good chunk of the book didn't ring true to me.  He did well with the development of one of the other clue-hunters, though, which leads us up to the two final installments.  Ms. Linda Sue Park did book 9, Storm Warning, and does it brilliantly.  There's plenty of intrigue and clue-hunting but there's much more characterization and history.  Every object in the hunt isn't just another thing to check off a list and lead to the next clue, it becomes representative of the families and history it has been through.  Nellie, the babysitter, becomes a full-fledged character and a second important death affects the children.

Finally, Ms. Haddix has to tie up a jillion loose threads and while she might not get every single one, she does a great job with it and it's way better and more satisfying than Lost was.  It even opens the door to what has recently been announced as either an 11th book in the continuing series or the first book of a new mystery.  But this book 10 is definitely the finish of the hunt for the 39 clues and the brilliant historical figure she ties it too could be none other than William Shakespeare.  We get to have an action set piece at the new Globe theater, travel to his birthplace and visit his grave.  His dramatic style and the way he wrote some of the best low comedy and high tragedy simultaneously becomes the background which Haddix uses to tie together these disparate characters and all of their motivations.  It also pointed out (to me anyway) the funny things that had been going on in the series.  Like how Dan has a photographic memory, except when he doesn't and how Amy always stutters, except when she doesn't and how, well, you get the idea.

Whew!  I'm happy with the way it ended but not feeling like rushing out and getting the new one yet.  And I still need to finish the Percy Jackson series!  After that I'm going to stay away from series books for a little while.  I have plenty of other things to read.  But I felt it was important to get through this one because I added a set to our collection this year and a few boys are nearing the end.  I wanted to know what they were getting into and be able to geek out with them.  Now I need to find the $ to buy another set and the upcoming continuing series!

One final note: I read about half of them and listened to about half of them.  Listening to them takes longer and you don't get to see all the illustrations, but David Pittu, the reader does a fabulous job and evens out the differences between the writers by giving the whole thing one continuous voicing.  I wish I could afford audio books in the library but just can't so will definitely promote the use of the local public library for these!

The 39 Clues Box Set

Sneak Peek at the New "Elizabeth Bird Reading App!"

See that icon on the right end there?  That's the icon for the new "Elizabeth Bird Fuse #8 Reading App!"  Yes, of course I stuck it right next to my Angry Birds app just to be silly. (Get it?  Angry Birds?  Elizabeth Bird?  Oh, never mind...)

Here's my daughter interacting with one of the graphically-enhanced read-alouds:

She enjoyed the graphics, the sound, the cartoon characters, everything.  It is definitely pitched a little younger than her age group (she'll be in third grade next year and this seemed to be just about right for preK through 2nd) but it was still fun for her.  We'll definitely recommend it to her younger cousin's family.

Be sure to check out the "Parents and OTher Grown Ups" tab.  There are many booklist, read aloud suggestions and even a KidLit Drink Mix Guide!  Ms. Bird and company have thought of simply everything!

Elizabeth Bird Fuse #8 Reading App

GA Conference on Children's Literature

Mary Downing Hahn - Winner of the book award for Deep and Dark and Dangerous.  Was a delight.  Tall, willowy and sweet.  You'd never believe she could creep you out a bit.  A fun, brisk talk with slides of her beginnings as an artist and writer.  Once again, not a stellar student (that's always an interesting thing, many famous writers weren't).  Bad with direction and a "quiet little passive/aggressive" according to some teachers.  My favorite bit was her love of Penrod.  That is one fun book!

Next I went to see fellow GLMA blogger Dr. Phyllis Snipes and her talk on the use of wiki's to share literature links.  The wiki stuff wasn't new to me, but she had some great link I'll be checking out.  The best part was sitting and chatting with another fellow GLMA blogger, Andy Plemmons and his Dr. Seuss Converse high-top sneakers.  No, really.

Alma Flor Ada - This was painful.  Apparently she was scheduled to come but couldn't for some reason.  They tried to run it anyway as a Skype session but it was a bad connection and garbled.  She looked so earnest and I knew she had great stuff to share but there was no getting it.  I left early and ran into Mary Downing Hahn.  I told her my joke about sneaking up behind her and shouting "boo!"  She said, laughing, "I so glad you didn't!  I'm really quite jumpy!"

Luncheon - I got to sit with some other new school librarians and enjoy a nice conference luncheon.  If you've ever been to a conference like this, you know what to expect but apparently these guys hadn't so they we pleasantly surprised by the fanciness and the service.  All educators should get to be treated that way once in a while!  I got to speak with Judy Serritella, the coordinator of library media services for the state.  She's graciously reprinted a couple of my posts in the state newsletter, so it was nice to talk to her in person, even if I did probably look like a dork in this t-shirt.

Previews - Next up was a session introducing the nominees for next year for the book and picture book awards.  A whole lot of nice white ladies on the committees, though there was at least one guy on each.  I was on the picture book committee in 2003.  Maybe I should sign up again...

Oral History Project - Fellow GLMA blogger and elementary school librarian Andy Plemmons showed off a fascinating collaborative oral history project he worked on with the fifth grade teachers and students at his school.  He has the rare ability to pull together the most amazing projects and showcase them without sounding the least bit self-congratulatory.  In fact he was humble and quite forthright in the strengths and weaknesses and his recommendations for trying a similar project.  He'd learned along with the teachers and students when he came across some great suggestions from the Library of Congress in a free web-chat session they did with them.  Links below.

Gail Gibbons - A fun and wide-ranging talk with wonderful pictures from her photographer husband.  I was happy to hear she'd been to Mote Marine in Sarasota researching her Coral Reefs book.  It was informative and light for mot of the talk, but a simple question about recycling from a classroom teacher at the end led to an emotional plea for better human stewardship of the natural world and a standing ovation.

Next morning I was too late to make the first session, so stood in line to get my daughter an autographed copy of I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by a delightful Ms. Beaumont.  Then I browsed the vendors until running into fellow elementary educator and blogger, Eric Carpenter who was very psyched to be seeing M. T. Anderson.  Turns out he teaches at a school I once student taught at...sometime in the last century.

M. T. Anderson - My favorite presentation.  A great mix of the funny, the absurd, and the serious desire to share his love of discovery and, as he put it, "the romance of geography."  I definitely need to catch up on reading his books!  From his desire to travel and subsequent realization of the problems involved, to his inappropriate use of French Baroque opera, to his meeting with the governor of a strange and mysterious place called "Delaware."

Reading Fair presentation - a great breakout session in which we were treated to photos and videos of some schools that, along with those tri-fold Science Fait projects, have a session of Reading Fair projects as well.  Got my wheels turning...

Karen Beaumont - Winner of the GA Children Picture Book award for I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! Changed her planned presentation based on seeing Hahn and Gibbons tell so much about their backgrounds.  Told us about hers and it was compelling stuff.  Was fully aware of the genius of David Catrow and wished he could have been there as well.

Storyteller's Luncheon - Susan Liverpool is amazing.  She had us all in the palm of her hand.  We were all laughing, but Gail Gibbons was weeping with laughter and I saw people holding onto each other from cracking up.  She says her book has been sold to the movies and they'll have her songs in there as well.  If it's a tenth as funny as the two stories she told us it'll be something to see.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
Penrod by Booth Tarkington
Barrow Elementary Oral History Project Links
What We Read and What We Think by Eric Carpenter
M. T. Anderson's "Delaware"
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont and David Catrow
Little Liverpool Diaries by Susan Liverpool

Ms. Yingling Reads!

And reads and read ands reads.  (I always think of the Martha Speaks theme song in my head when I think of that, but the I do have a seven-year-old).

Ms. Yingling has completed one of the coolest reading challenges you'll ever hear of.  She has finished reading all of the fiction titles in the middle school library she runs.  From Douglas Adams to Jane Zirpoli.

Of course, not only has she read all the fiction titles that the library holds, but hasn't placed a new fiction title on the shelves until she's read those as well.  So the challenge continues! (Now I'm hearing the Rocky theme song for some reason...)

Volume: Done! --Librarian Reads Entire Collection

Ms. Yingling Reads