Homeless Blanket Afghan # 9 - The Isle of Deserted Mountains (mdI)

Just to sit and mindlessly crochet, that's what I'm really digging right now.  Will I have them all done by December?  Nope, but I will complete them all AND give them all away.

I'm using Impeccable (Michael's) Putty for the single color.  Making them pretty good size so I don't have to do too much sewing together.

12/16/22  So.  I made a decision.  I'd like to make Brendan's girlfriend, Neveah, something special for Christmas.  So since I only had a few of these squares made, I took the whole project to Maine with me to see if I could complete it for her by Christmas.

12/23/22  Finished!  Placed it into a huge Christmas bag I found at Reny's, and gave to her on Christmas day.  She appeared to love it.  Made me really happy.

28. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

listened on Libby/borrowed from the library

narrated by Gabra Zackman  beautifully

Unabridged audio (11:00)
2018
338 pgs.
Contemporary CRF
Finished 3/27/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 129,079 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary Wisconsin, then Seattle, then Thailand

First line/s: "But first, Roo was born.  Roosevelt Walsh-Adams.  They had decided to hyphenate because --- and in spite of --- all the usual reasons but mostly so their firstborn could have his grandfather's name without without sounding too presidential, which seemed to his parents like a lot of pressure for a six pound, two ounce, brand-new tiny human."

My comments: The husband is a stay-at-home author dad, the wife's an outstanding ER doctor.  Four sons, and the then fifth Claude, who really wants to be Poppy, right from the start.  A move from Wisconsin to Seattle, for safety, and then on to Thailand for clarity.  Great parents raising great kids amid turmoil and questions and wanting to do the right thing.  There were a few places where I burrowed my brow or scratched my head, a few places there was just a little too much fairytale telling or philosophical thinking, but all in all this was a great story, beautifully narrated.

Goodreads synopsis:  This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.
          This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.
          This is how children change…and then change the world.
          This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.
          When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
          Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
          This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.
          "This is a novel everyone should read. It’s brilliant. It’s bold. And it’s time.”
―Elizabeth George, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Banquet of Consequences

Picture Book - When Lightning Comes in a Jar by Patricia Polacco

Illustrated by the author

2002 Philomel Books

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.34 - 6.25 ratings

My rating:  
Endpapers:  Deep pale orange

1^st line/s:  "Today is my family reunion!  I can hardly wait."

My comments: A young Patricia Polacco recalls their annual family reunion that includes jello salads and meatloaves, baseball games and croquet matches, photo albums and picture taking, stories told by the elders, catching fireflies, and spending special time with cousins, aunts, and uncles.  Then we see how those same family traditions continue as an older Patricia Polacco becomes one of the elder storytellers.  Lovely story: as usual with tots of text.

Goodreads:  It's family reunion time! Trisha and her cousins can hardly wait to see one another again. They can't decide what they like best: the great feast (with zillions of meatloafs and gazillions of Jell-O salads), the softball game, the storytelling . . . the yearly rituals go on and on. But this year, Gramma has a new surprise in store: She promises to teach the grandchildren to catch lightning in a jar. Lightning in a jar! Trisha can't wait to find out what she means. It's a secret she will pass down to her own grandchildren one day, along with the family stories handed down with love through all the generations.

PICTURE BOOK - Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall

Illustrated by the author

2018 Little Brown & Co.

HC & price40 pgs.- the last one folds out

Goodreads rating:  4.44 - 648 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers: front:  photos and writing on beige; Back:  "About Lighthouses"

1^st line/s:
"On the highest of a tiny island
at the edge of the world stands a lighthouse.
It is built to last forever.
Sending its light out to sea,
guiding the ships on their way."

My comments:  I enjoyed reading and admiring this book three times before I closed it.  It's a lovely story about a keeper, and then his family, that inhabited a lighthouse through the seasons for a number of years.  And this lighthouse was on a rock, with no yard or walkway, totally surrounded by the sea!  Sigh.  A lovely book.

Goodreads:  A new picture book that will transport readers to the seaside.
Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around. Inside, the daily life of a lighthouse keeper and his family unfolds as the keeper boils water for tea, lights the lamp's wick, and writes every detail in his logbook.

40. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

read on my iPhone & Kindle
2015 Harper Voyager
460 pgs.
Adult Science Fiction
Finished  4/29/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.18- 32,685 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:  Waaaaay outer space, somewhere in the distant future

First line/s: "As she woke up in the pod she remembered three things.  First, she was traveling through open space.  Second, she was about to start a new job, one she could not screw up.  Third, she had bribed a government official into giving her a new identity file.  None of this information was new, but it wasn't pleasant to wake up to."

My comments:  Did I just read a scifi novel set waaaaaaay in the future in outer space and LOVE it?  I did!  Ms. Chambers wrote this book with all sorts of wild and crazy species and all sorts of weird technology (both of which I usually give up on) - and wrote it in such a way that I understood it all! And I couldn't put it down, reading it in two days (and I'm a really slow reader).  What pictures I had in my head, I wish I could draw.  The setting, the characters, the plot ... all were so well created that this piece of literature - in a genre that is usually hard for me to complete - drew me in and captivated me. A true story of "family."  Loved it.

Goodreads synopsis: Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
          Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
          Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe. 

Short Story - from The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngoi Adichie

The Thing Around Your Neck 
Chimamanda Ngoi Adichie
2009; Anchor Books, Random House
Nigerian American woman
12 short stories
I purchased a paperback copy of the book

"Cell One"
p. 3 - p. 21
read Sat. 1/14/17
Adichie put me in Nigeria immediately.  I instantly knew the four characters in the story, the teller, her brother, Nnamabia, and her two parents.  When Nnamabia is thrown into jail because he stayed out past curfew and was with cult (gang) members in a bar, the family drive to visit him every day.  His cockiness slowly ebbs and his humanity shines through as he witnesses humiliations to a 70-year old man.  The abrupt ending put me off a bit.  I wanted more.  Good story.

MOVIE - Captain Fantastic

R (1:59)

7/8/16 Limited Release

Viewed Sunday, 8/14/16 at Carlisle Theater on High Street, Carlisl

RT Critic: 79   Audience:  85
Critic's Consensus:  Fantastic's thought-provoking themes -- and an absorbing starring turn from Viggo Mortensen -- add up to an above-average family drama with unexpected twists.

Cag:  5.5 Wonderful, thought provoking movie which I really loved (though a tear jerker in places)

Directed by Matt Ross

Electric City Entertainment

Viggo Mortensen

My comments:This was a wonderful movie to watch.  Pulled me right in, I was there, laughing and crying and relating and commiserating. The whole cast really worked, and Viggo Mortensen was fabulous.

IMBd Summary:  Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, isolated from society, a devoted father dedicates his life to transforming his six young children into extraordinary adults. But when a tragedy strikes the family, they are forced to leave this self-created paradise and begin a journey into the outside world that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent and brings into question everything he's taught them.

3. Counting by 7s - Holly Goldberg Sloan

2013 Dial Books for Young Readers

380 pgs.

Tweens CRF

Finished 1/10/15

Goodreads rating: 4.15

My rating:    (5) Awesome  (I wanted more!)
TPPL

Contemporary Bakersfield, CA

1st sentence/s:  "We sit together outside the Fosters Freeze at a sea-green metal picnic table.  All four of us.  We east soft ice cream, which has been plunged into a vat of liquid chocolate (that then hardens into a crispy shell)."

My comments:  'kay....I loved this story.  It was brilliant.  Willow, the 12-year-old genius and her collection of people that ultimately made up her family - priceless! I want to read on and on and on, want more, more, more.  A definite feel-good book for older kids AND adults!

Becky's review from Becky's Book Reviews

Goodreads book summary:  In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family. 
     Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life... until now.
     Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.

Black Dog - Levi Pinfold

Illustrated by the author

2011 - Templar Books; Candlewick

HC $15.99

24 pages

Goodreads rating: 3.97

My rating: 4.5 (awesome illustrations)

Endpapers same as the cover:

This is a great story about being afraid and being brave - with a touch of cockiness from the littlest girl, and wonderfully humorous illustrations.  This is a great book to use with older kids to talk about what you actually see when your stress level is high....how do you interpret what you see..... The artwork is exactly the type of thing that we talked about at a workshop I went to last week about the messages in what you see, not what you read.  I think this is one to show on the Smart Board in big gorgeous color for everyone to examine while I read it aloud - perfect for fourth grade discussion AND for reading to my 3-year-old grandson!

Goodreads says:  An enormous black dog and a very tiny little girl star in this offbeat tale about confronting one’s fears.  When a huge black dog appears outside the Hope family home, each member of the household sees it and hides. Only Small, the youngest Hope, has the courage to face the black dog, who might not be as frightening as everyone else thinks.

What’s Cooking, Jamela? – Niki Daly

Illustrated by the author

2001, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

28 pages

HC $16.00

I’ve read many of Niki Daly’s books, but it wasn’t until this one that I realized he was a HE.  He lives in South Africa, where this story is set.

Endpapers:  Yellow with brush-stroked chikens running forward and backward.

Title Page:  Two-page spread of a city street, with Jamela and her mom walking happily.  Nice.

SETTING:  Contemporary South Africa in the days approaching Christmas.

1^st sentence/s:  “Gogo and Mama were maiking plans for Christmas.”

OSS:  Jamela raises a chicken that is to be the main part of Christmas dinner, but when it becomes a pet she goes to dire straits to make sure that “Christmas” does NOT become Christmas dinner.

Includes a GLOSSARY.

Illustrations:  Well….perhaps ink and colored pencil?  They’re lovely, showing South African life , I’m particularly fond of the fabrics of rich African cloths.

Chirchir is Singing – Kelly Cunnane

Illustrated by Jude Daly

Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011

HC $17.99

32 pages

Rating:  4.5

Endpapers:  Brown earth with a few floating musical notes

Title Page:  her family, walking across the page.  Full color.

Illustrations:  cover most of page, in acrylics.  Sparse yet detailed.  Give a real feel for the setting.

Setting:  Contemporary northwestern Kenya, Kalenjin tribe

OSS:  Young Chirchir wants to help her family with the chores, but is a little too young to be able to actually help.

We meet Chirchir’s family as they are working.  Mama, who is drawing water from the well; Kogo, her grandmother, tending fire to cook chai; Ji-Bet, her sister, spreading a fresh layer of cow dung and ashes on the floor of the kitchen hut; Baba, her father, digging potatoes in the hill garden.  She sings everywhere she goes.  And so she sings to her baby brother, which keeps him entertained , as her voice travels to the rest of her family and keeps them happy, too.

Great language…simile and metaphor, with info in the back about this culture and a glossary and pronounciationguide for the Swahili words used.

Let's Go See Papa! - Lawrence Schimel

Illustrated by Alba Marina Rivera
Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2009
$18.95
40 pages
Rating:  Liked it a lot
Endpapers: Light Blue
Title page:  Beige with illustration of the house where the little girl lives
Illustrations:  Full page on beige, some go over onto the facing page.  I like the illustrations a lot, looking closely I think they're done with colored pencils.
1st line/s:  "On Sundays I wake up early even though I don't have to go to school./Papa's going to call us.  He phones every Sunday because it's cheaper.  Sunday is my favorite day.
Setting:  A Spanish-speaking country, contemporary.
OSS:  A little girl misses her father who has been working for over a year in the United States while she and her mom live with her abuela and wait for him to come home or send for them.

This is a lovely story, of family, of missing a parent, or how life goes on while waiting for change to come when you know it's coming.  The little girl in the story, who lives in an unnamed country, waits for Sunday to talk briefly with her papa on the phone. She keeps a journal for him, telling him what's happening in their life each day while he's gone. He's in America, and this Sunday, after almost two years, he's telling her she and her mom are going to fly there to live with him.  She has, of course, mixed feelings...she'll be leaving her best friend, her grandmother, and her dog, but she misses her father so badly that she's still happy to go.  The book ends as the mother and daughter are flying away on an airplane over the ocean.

I liked thinking about the immigrants that I see here in Tucson and the family they may have left behind, missing them, working hard to make life easier for them, how often do I think about that?  All most parents want for their kids is a good life!

68. Waiting for the Magic - Patricia MacLachlan

Atheneum Books, 2011
HC $15.99
for:  Middle grades
144 pgs. (quick read)
Rating:  5

First Line/s:  It was early on a Saturday summer morning when my mother and father stopped arguing and Papa walked away.  He is a teacher of literature at the college, so he could have said words when he left.  He didn't.  And this time he didn't slam the door.  He shut it with a small soft sound that made me jump.

Setting:  A small contemporary college town somewhere in America.
OSS:  William and his little sister, Elinor, deal with the departure of their father and the withdrawal of their mother when a number of new family members are added to their life.

William and his comical four year old sister/princess are left with a grieving mom and a huge surprise.  I think the surprise would be exciting for any kid....I was really excited at the idea, myself, and about how these two children would feel.  So I'm about to add some major spoilers here....do NOT read on if you haven't read the book, because being surprised - and pleased - a tickled - and excited - is part of the delicious reading experience of this book.

SPOILERS:  So Mama takes them to the animal shelter to get a dog.  But they don't get a dog.  Or two dogs. Or even three.  And throw in a cat.  And, near the end of the book throw in a new sibling.  But the biggest surprise, is the way that the animals and the family communicate.

Lots of gentle humor, complex characters despite the simplicity of the book, I absolutely, 100% loved it - and I don't even like dogs!!!!!

Oh, this woman knows not only how to write beautifully, but how to spin a story.  This one was spun.  Elegantly.

Tashlich at Turtle Rock - Susan Schnur & Anna Schnur-Fishman

Illustrated by Alex Steele-Morgan
Kar-Ben Publishing, 2010
$17.95
TPPL
32 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: White

On one of the school days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, my whole school goes by bus to Reid Park. Here, in the middle of the desert, is a huge green, treed park, complete with streams, pond, and even trickling waterfall. This is where we celebrate Tashlich.

I am new to Judaism, learning as I go in the Hebrew day school where I teach secular studies. I so enjoy listening to the blowing of the shofars every morning during the month of the high holidays, and I throroughly enjoy throwing away my sins. I'd never ever heard of Tashlich before, and knew next-to-nothing about even the most important Jewish holidays. So when I saw this book I couldn't wait to read it -- it means something to me now. And perhaps if a book like this had been available when I was a kid, I wouldn't be in the dark about so many aspects of Jewish culture.

Susan Schnur, a rabbi, writes this story of a family spending Rosh Hashanah afternoon hiking through the woods to Turtle Creek to shed their sins. Each family member - mother, father, brother, sister, has something special to be thankful for, a promise they want to make for the year to come, and a bad habit they was to rid themselves of. It's an interesting story for a young child. And it makes me realize what a wonderful tradition this family has created.

Wouldn't it be great if we could take one special custom or celebrations from many different cultures, the ones that might have special meaning to us, to make them our own? I plan to add this one to my hoard....well, my hoard of one.....I do celebrate the Day of the Dead. Two cultures, to great traditions.

Alex Steele-Morgan's painting are simple, colorful, and lovely. Actually, it might even be pastels. I can see the texture of the canvas through the colors.

For every family that celebrates diversity!

Two Weeks in Maine

Two weeks in Maine included swimming, kayaking, a glorious weekend on Abram's Pond, Acadia National Park (where Bren became a Junior ranger), frog hunting at Lake Pond, lobster dinners and clams by the shore, a birthday party at Rosalie's in Bar Harbor with Ashley, a couple of trips to Bangor, one of them to visit the Children's Discovery Museum (really wonderful place),reading picture books at the Ellsworth Library, humidity, huge horseflies, lupine everywhere, green....green....green, Ashley's dance recital and Brendan's preschool graduation, trips into Northeast Harbor to visit family and the cemetery, two of my favorite yarn shops - Shirley's just outside Ellsworth and Grace Robinson in Freeport, lots of time with Fran and the kids, and putting 1500 miles on my rented Subaru going back and forth from Massachusetts and Maine. It also included no time blogging!

That Cat Can't Stay - Thad Krasnesky

Illustrated by David Parkins
Flash Light Press, 2010
$16.95
32 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: blue with cat scratches, perhaps? Hard to say!

In this rollicking, rhyming story, a cat-hating dad gets saddled with first one, then two...three...four...FIVE cats...that all come to the family in different ways.

Cute, cute, cute.

The illustrations - watercolor over pen and ink - are a riot, especially the dad, a plump guy who always wears short and horizontally striped short sleeved shirts. And the cats. Oh, yeah.

This one's a real winner. I want to read it aloud - to my class, to my grandkids, to my friends....

What a great picture book to read along with Hate That Cat (Creech).

Aunt Mary's Rose - Douglas Wood

Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Candlewick, 2010
$16.99
24 large pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: large blossoming pink roses on a huge bush cover the pages

This memoir, told from a young boy's point-of-view in the 1950's (or so) is about family and tradition. Using a rosebush as a metaphor - and to illustrate real events - Auunt Mary raised this boy's father and uncle when their parents died. She goes even farther back to recount how her father had originally planted the bush on their farm. Events from the Depression and WWII are recalled, and the reader is asked to ponder family ties as each generation has a part in caring for the bush.

The illustrations are realistic and lovely, helping depict the historical feel.

Using this picture book in the classroom will open up discussion on a myriad of topics - U.S. history, gardening, family, perhaps even genealogy! Also a good model for dialogue.

The Middle-Child Blues - Kristyn Crow

Illustrated by David Catrow
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2009
$16.99
32 pages
Endpapers: Pale blue
Rating: 3.5

Okay, this one's fun.

Lee comes between Ray and Kate. He feels forgotten and confused. he's either "too big" or "too little" for much of what his siblings do. But then he pulls out his guitar and starts to sing the blues about this problem -- and draws a crowd of other "middle" kids. Lee ends up struttin' and happy. Cute and quirky. Illustrations cover the full page. Great fun....do I know any middle kids to share this with?

A Gift - Yong Chen

Boyds Mills Press, 2009
$16.95
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Red

A simple story.

I live 3000 miles away from my family, but I don't have to cross an ocean to get the them. I live in the same country and am surrounded by the same cultural stimuli as them. Not so for the mother of the protagonist in this lovely picture book.

Amy's mother's family lives in China - far away from Amy's American home. It's really difficult being so far from loved ones, but there are certain times that are even more difficult. For Amy's mom, the Chinese New Year is one of those times.

A package and a letter arrive from China. The mother's siblings, working together, have created a beautiful dragon pendant from a lovely found piece of stone. It's a beautiful gift within a loving, far-flung family.

Note" Red is the color of luck in Chinese tradition. For Amy to hang her pendant from a red string is a sign of live and a wish for luck.

Illustrations are realistic, large, many complete cover the page. The appear to depict the Chinese culture well.

Peeny Butter Fudge - Toni Morrison & Slade Morrison

Illustrated by Joe Cepeda
Paula Wiseman Book/Simon & Schuster, 2009
$16.99
32 pages
Rating: 4

First of all, the illustrations are bright, super colorful, and completely cover the page - no white at all.

Secondly, we meet a very cool grandmother; a break-the-rules gram, a let's-try-something-new nan, a Converse-wearing, game-playing, cook-it-up-good granny.

And thirdly, we enjoy some nice rhyme (I lose the rhythm in a couple of spots) in a very warm-fuzzy story.

A just plain fun book about enjoying life with a grandparent.