45. O' Artful Death - Sarah Stewart Taylor

For: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Pub: 2003
Pages: 280
Rating: 1.5 (first half) 4 (second half)
Finished: Sept. 2, 2008

I started this book a month ago, on advise from my daughter-in-law. Sweeney St. George is a professor at Harvard, expert in gravestones as well as the lore and history surrounding cemeteries. And a murder mystery to boot. Right up my alley, including a New England setting. But I tried and tried and tried to get into the story. It was painfully slow. Long explanations to set up the scenes. Boring. I kept putting it down. Yet I kept coming back to it, because Heather has mentioned so many times that she really likes Taylor's work. So yesterday, blowing my nose, coughing, uncomforatable, I curled up on my bed with this book, determined to plow through it. I did. I'm glad. The second half was great.

Sweeney accompanies her best fried Toby to Vermont for the Christmas holidays. They stay at his aunt and uncle's huge home in the artist colony of Byzantium. (This so reminds me of the summer colony in Northeast Harbor.) She is fascinated with a gravestone that is beautifully done, a sculpture, actually, unsigned and mysterious. Mary Denholm died in 1890 at the age of 18. Tragic. A mystery to be solved. Was she murdered? Why? Who was the sculptor? At the same time mysterious events are taking place on the "island", including burglaries and not one, but two murders. What's going on? Research follows, at the library, historical society, in Cambridge (ooo, I love it). Even some romance is thrown in, with mysterious Ian from England. Sweeney has a photographic memory and a mind for puzzles. She puts all the clues together and wraps up a mystery that you don't totally see coming.

This is Sarah Stewart Taylor's first book. I'm hoping that it took her awhile to figure out her pacing and that the stories that follow will be more like the second half of this book than the first. I will give the next one a try one of these days. I'm still hacking and coughing, but glad I didn't give up this time. Redemption!

All the World's A Stage - Rebecca Piatt Davidson

Illustrator: Anita Lobel
For: Middle Grades
Pub: 2003
Rating: Cool
Read: Sept. 1, 2008

I stumbled upon this book while I was looking up aanother picture book about Shakespeare. Drawn immediately to Lobel's illustrations, I then realized that the verse is a take on the House that Jack Built...

This is young William,
His mind all ablaze,
Who stays up all night
Writing poems and plays.

This is the Muse
Who sings to the boy
Who stays up all night
Writing poems and plays

As the page is turned, we see that the next illustration is titled "The Comedy of Errors": At the bottom of the illustration is a famous quote from the play, "We came into the world like brother and borther, and now let's go hand in hand, not one before another."

These are the twins
In matching disguises,
Courting and sporting
All kinds of surprises...

Amusing the Muse/Who sings to the boy/Who stays up all night/Writing poems and plays.

We continue on through Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer's Night's Dream, King Lear, The Winter's Tale, and ends...

"You'll be my players
And the world, my stage.
We'll live through the tales
That unfold on each page!
Happy you'll be
When you act well your part,
And happier, I,
Making words into art."

The last three pages are information about each of the plays, descriptions of the characters in the illustration, and added commentary. The illustrations are bright, bold, drawn very much in a style that I enjoy. And yes, I can SO think of ways to use this book in my teaching of Shakespeare. I'm teaching Othello, Merchant of Venice, and Julius Caesar (as well as Romeo and Juliet) this year. I'll have the three classes that are NOT included in this book design pages in the same style and tone for the plays that they are reading! Cool!

MidEastern Reading (With a few leaps)

I have always had an interest in happenings in the Greece-Egypt-Mesopotamian part of the world. When I first came to Tucson I worked with a handful of Turkish teachers, visited Turkey for a few weeks with a couple of them (wow, what a place, I'm in love!), and now work at a Jewish day school with Russian-Jews, Israeli-Jews, South African-Jews, and American Jews. I learn so much from reading novels and memoirs about that HUGE part of our world, I wish I had time to read more. What follows is a list of what I've read recently. I'll post them alphabetically by title.











ATTACK, THE - Yasmina Khadra, ADULT, 2007, POV: Israeli-Arab,
..........Setting: Israel & Palestine (5)
BOOKSELLER OF KABUL- Asne Seierstad, ADULT, 2004 POV: Western
..........female, Setting: Kabul (3)
BOTTLE IN THE GAZA SEA, A - Valerie Zenatti, YA, 2008, POV: 2-
.......... Israeli Jew & Palestinian, Setting: Jerusalem & Gaza Strip
..........(5)
BREADWINNER - Deborah Ellis, CL, 2001, POV: anti-Taliban, Setting:
..........Afghanistan (5)
GIRLS OF RIYADH - Rajaa Alsanea, ADULT (or YA) Upper class Saudi marriage system, Setting: 
..........Saudi Arabia (4)
KITE RUNNER, THE - Khaled Hosseini, ADULT, 2004, POV: Afghani,
..........Setting:Kabul and California (5)
MANGO SEASON, THE - Amulya Malladi, ADULT, 2004, POV: Indian
..........American, Setting: India
ONE MORE RIVER- Lynne Reid Banks, YA, re2007, POV: Jewish,
..........Setting Israel Kibbutz (4)
PALESTINE - Joe Sacco, ADULT Graphic Novel, 2002, POV: Palestinian,
..........Setting Occupied Territories/Gaza (4)
PARVANA'S JOURNEY - Deborah Ellis, CL, 2003, POV: anti-Taliban,
..........Setting: Afghanistan (4)
PEARL THAT BROKE ITS SHELL, The - Nadia Hashimi, ADULT CRF & HF POV: 2 different abused Afghani females, separated by 100 years
..........Setting:  Afghanistan (4.5)
RUG MERCHANT, The - Meg Mullins, ADULT, 2006, POV: Iranian carpet dealer
..........Setting: NYC (3/mixed)
SHADOW of GHADAMES - Joelle Stolz (trans. from French by Catherine
..........Temerson), CL, 1999/2004, POV: Late-19th century female
..........Setting: Libya (5)
STONE IN MY HAND, A - Cathryn Clinton, CL, 2004, POV: Palestinian,
..........Setting: Gaza City (4)
VEIL OF ROSES - Laura Fitzgerald, ADULT, 2006, POV: Iranian,
,,,,,,,,,,Setting: Tucson, Arizona (4)
VIRGINS OF PARADISE - Barbara Wood, ADULT, 2007. POV:
..........Multi-generational, Setting: Cairo, Egypt

Adult Mysteries Read

The following are mysteries I've read since I landed in Tucson in August of 2002.

ADDISON, Corban
     The Garden of Burning Sand (4)

ARMSTRONG, Lori 
Mercy Gunderson, South Dakota
       2- Mercy Kill (4.5)
       3 - Merciless (4)

ATKINS, Ace - continuing Robert B. Parker's Spenser series
       Lullaby (4)

AYOOB, Michael
        In Search of Mercy (3)

BARCLAY, Linwood
       The Accident (4)
       No Time for Goodbye (3.5)

BARNES, Linda
Carlotta Carlyle, Boston
       Cold Case (4.5)

BARR, Nevada
National Parks
       Deep South (4.5)

BLACK, J. Carson
Laura Cardinal, Tucson
       1 - Darkness on the Edge of Town (5)
       2 - Dark Side of the Moon (3)
       3 - The Devil's Hour (4)
       4 - Cry Wolf (2)
       5 - Flight 12; A Laura Cardinal Thriller  (4)
non-Tucson Cyril Landry
       The Shop (2)
Tess McCrae - Tucson
       The Survivor's Club

BLACKSTOCK, Terri
          Twisted Innocence (2)

BLOCK, Lawrence - Matthew Scudder, NYC
1- The Sins of the Fathers (2.5)

BRACKMANN, Lisa
       Getaway (3.5)

BROWN, Dan
       Angels and Demons (5)
       DaVinci Code (5)

BROWN, Sandra
          Deadline (4)

BUCHANAN, Edna
       Margin of Error (3)

CAIN, Chelsea
Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell
       1 -  Heart Sick (5)
       2 - Sweetheart (4)
       3 - Evil at Heart (4)
       4 - The Night Season (4)
       5 - Kill You Twice (5)
       6-  Let Me Go (3)

Kick Lannigan & John Bishop
       1 - One Kick  (3.5)

CASTILLO, Linda 
ex-Amish Chief of Police Kate Burkholder
       1 - Sworn to Silence (4)
       2 - Pray for Silence (4)
       3 - Breaking Silence (5)
       4 - Gone Missing (4.5)
       4.5 - Long Lost (short story) (3)
       5 - Her Last Breath (4)
       6 - The Dead Will Tell (5)
       6,5 - (short story) A Hidden Secret
       7 - After the Storm  (4.5)

CHILD, Lee
Jack Reacher, ex-Army intelligence, no address
       1 - The Killing Floor (4)
       4 - Running Blind  (3)
       10- The Hard Way (3.5/Liked it a lot)
       11- Bad Luck and Trouble (3.5)
       12- Nothing to Lose (3.5)
       14- 61 Hours (3.5)
       15.5 - Second Son (3)
       16- The Affair (4)
       18 -  Never Go Back  (4)
       19.5 - Small Wars  (4)

COBEN, Harlan
Myron Bolitar, NJ Sports agent
       1 - Deal Breaker (5)
       2 - Drop Shot (3)
standalone
        Six Years (3)
        Missing You (2)

COLE, David - Laura Winslow, Arizona
       1 - Butterfly Lost (3) 2000
       2 -The Killing Maze (4) 2001
       3 - Stalking Moon (3.5) 2002
       4 - Scorpion Rain (3) 2002

CONNELLY, Michael
Harry Bosch, LA
       1-The Black Echo (5)
       2-The Black Ice (5)
       3-The Concrete Blonde (4)
       4- The Last Coyote (5)
       5-Trunk Music (5)
       6-Angels Flight (5)
       8-City of Bones (4.5)
       9-Lost Light (4.5)
      10-The Narrows (3) (The Poet and Terry McCaleb's death)
      11 - The Closers (5)

Terry McCaleb, LA
       Blood Work (5)
Standalone
       Chasing the Dime (3.5)

CONNOR, Alex
       The Other Rembrandt (4)

CORNWELL, Patricia
Kay Scarpetta, all-over-the-place
      19 - Red Mist  (4)
Win Garrano, Boston:
       At Risk (4)
       The Front (3 and 5 lots of unanswered questions)
Andy Brazil
       3 - Isle of Dogs

CRAIS, Robert
Elvis Cole, LA
       7- Indigo Slam (4.5)
       8- L. A. Requiem (5)
       10- The Forgotten Man (5)
       11- The Watchman (5) [it's really Joe Pike's story]
       12 - Chasing Darkness (4.5)
       13- Taken (4.5)
Standalone
        Demolition Angel

CRAMER, Rebecca
Linda Bluenight, Tucson
       Mission to Sonora (2)

DEAVER, Jeffrey
Lincoln Rhyme
       4 -Stone Monkey (4.5)

DEKKER, Ted
       Saint (-1)

DOIRON, Paul 
Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
       1- The Poacher's Son (4)
       2- Trespasser (3.5)

DUNNING, John
Cliff Janeway, Denver Bookman/Retired Cop
       1 - Booked to Die
       Deadline

EVANOVICH, Janet
Stephanie Plum, NJ
       Three to Get Deadly (3)
       Four to Score (4)
       High Five (3.5)
       Hot Six (4)
       Seven Up (3)
       Hard Eight (3)
       To the Nines (3.5)
       Ten Big Ones (3)
       Eleven on Top (4)
       Twelve Sharp (4)
       Lean Mean Thirteen (3.5)
       Fearless Fourteen (4)
       Finger Lickin' Fifteen (1)

FAIRSTEIN, Linda
Alexandra Cooper
       4 - The Deadhouse (4)

FIELDING, Joy
       Heartstopper  (3)

FLORA, Kate
       Girls' Night Out  - an eBook of 32 pgs. (5)
       Playing God  (#1 Joe Burgess) (4)

FOLSUM, Karin - Inspector Sejer, Norway
       Don't Look Back (4.5)

FOWLER, Earlene
Benny Harper
       1-Fool's Puzzle (4)

FRANCIS, Dick - various British Horse Racing
       Dead Heat (2.5)
       Break In (Kit Fielding #1) (4) 1986
       Bolt (Kit Fielding #2) (3.5) 1986
       Hot Money (3) 1987
       Decider (4) 1993
       10 Lb. Penalty (5)1997
       Dead Cert (3.5)

FREY, Stephen
       Forced Out (2)

GALBRAITH, Robert (J. K. Rowling)
Cormoran Strike, London PI
       1-The Cuckoo's Calling (4)
       2-The Silkworm (4)

GARDNER, Lisa 
Quincy & Rainie
       4 - The Killing Hour (4)
       6 - Say Goodbye (5) Very disturbing

GEAR, Kathleen O'Neal & W. Michael 
Anasazi Mysteries
       1 -The Visitant (4)
       2 - Summoning God (4)

GERRITSON, Tess
       The Bone Garden (2)

GOMEZ-JIRADO, Juan
       The Moses Expedition (2)

GRAHAM, Heather
       2 - Deadly Harvest (1)

GRAFTON, Sue
Kinsey Millhone, Santa Teresa, CA
       P is for Peril
       Q is for Quarry (4)
       R is for Ricochet (4)
       S is for Silence (3)
       T is for Trespass (4)
       U is for Undertow (4)

GRAVES, Sarah
Lizzie Snow, Bearkill, Maine
     Winter at the Door  (2.5)

GREENLAW, Linda - near Ellsworth, ME
       Slipknot (3)

GREGORY, Jill, and TINTORI, Karen (stand-alones)
       The Book of Names (3)

GRIFFITHS, Elly
Ruth Galloway, Norfolk, England forensic archaeologist
      1 -  Crossing Places, The (4)
      2 - The Janus Stone (4)

GRIMES, Martha
       Biting the Moon (2.5)

GRIPPANDO, James 
Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck
       3 - Last to Die (4)

GRISHAM, John (stand-alones)
       The Summons (2)

GROSS, Andrew
 The Dark Tide (2.5)

GROSSMAN, Lev
       Codex (5)

GUILD, Nicholas
       Blood Ties (4)

HAMILTON, Denise
Eve Diamond, LA Investigative Reporter
       1 - The Jasmine Trade (5)
       2 - Sugar Skull (3)

HAMILTON, Steve
       The Lock Artist (4)

HAND, Elizabeth
Cass Neary, NYC photographer, druggie, dark...
       1 - Generation Loss (3)
       2 - Available Dark (4)

HARRIS, Charlaine
Snookie Stackhouse LA Vampires
       1- Dead Until Dark (3.5)

HARRIS, Lisa
Southern Crimes #1
        1-Dangerous Passage (1)

HART, Carolyn
       Death in Paradise (2.5)

HAYMAN, James
       Girl in the Glass (4)
       Darkness First  (3)
       The Cutting (4)
       Chill of the Night  (4)

 HINTON, S. E.
       Hawkes Harbor (3.5)

HOFFMAN, Jilliane
       Last Witness (4)

HOOPER, Kay
       Chill of Fear (2)

HOWARD, Linda
       Cry No More (3)

ILES, Greg
       Blood Memory (5)

JACKSON, Lisa
       Shiver (3)

JANCE, J. A. - Sedona
       1 - Edge of Evil (1)
       2- Web of Evil (2)
       3 - Hand of Evil (1)

JOHANSEN, Iris
       And Then You Die (3)

KAMINSKY, Stuart M.
       Vengeance (4)

KAUFMAN, Thomas
       Drink the Tea (5)

KELLERMAN, Faye
       Gun Games  (3.5)
       Forgotten (3)
       The Burnt House (4)
       The Mercedes Coffin (3)

KELLERMAN, Jonathan
       Deception (3.5)
       Victims (4)
       The Murder Book (3.5)
       Rage (4)

KHOURY, Raymond
       The Last Templar (3)

KING, Laurie R.
Standalone
A Darker Place

KONRATH, J. A.
Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels, Chicago PD
       1- Whiskey Sour (4)
       2- Bloody Mary (2)

KRUEGER, William Kent 
Corcoran "Cork" O'Connor, northern Minnesota
       1 - Iron Lake (5)
       2 - Boundary Waters  (4.5)

LANCET, Barry
Jim Brodie, SF Antique Japanese Art Dealer/expert and Investigator
       1 - Japantown (DNF-2)

LARSSON, Stieg
Lisbeth Salander & Mikael Blomkvist, Sweden
     The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (5)

LEONARD, Elmore
       Pagan Babies (5)

LEVERONE, Allan
Kristin Cunningham, Boston FBI Special Agent
          Flight 12:  A Kristin Cunningham Thriller  (2)

LINDSAY, Jeffry
       Darkly Dreaming Dexter (4)

LIPPMAN, Laura
Tess Monaghan
        10- Another Thing to Fall (4)
         8- By a Spider's Thread (3)
not Tess Monaghan
       Life Sentences (2.5)

LOGUE, Mary
Claire Watkins, Wisconsin cop
       9- Lake of Tears (2)

LOVELACE, Merline
Samantha Spade, Air Force Technology analyst
       All the Wrong Moves (2)

MARA, Will
Jason Hammond, Billionaire amateur sleuth
       Frame 232 (2)

MARON, Margaret
       Last Lessons of Summer (3)

MARSONS, Angela
D.I. Kim Stone, Black Country (West Midlands) ENGLAND
     1 - Silent Scream (5)

MAYOR, Major
Joe Gunther, Brattleboro, VT state detective
       Tag Man (2.5)

McDERMID, Val
       The Grave Tatoo (3)

McGARRITY, Michael
Kevin Kerney, NM
       1- Tularosa (4.5)
       2- Mexican Hat (4)
       3- Serpent Gate (4)

Miller, Susan Cummins 
Frankie MacFarlane (Tucson based)
       1- Death Assemblage (3.5)

MITCHELL, James
       Choke Point (3.5)

MORRELL, David
Frank Belanger (Asbury Park, NJ ex-cop)
        Creepers (3)

MULLER, Marcia
Sharon McCone
       11 - Trophies and Dead Things (4)
       16 - A Wild and Lonely Place (3)
standalone - Cape Perdido  (2)

NASH, Jonathan
       Twenty-Seven Bones (3)

NEGGERS, Carla
Sharpe & Donovan; Boston-based FBI
         Saint's Gate  (2)

O'CONNELL, Carol
Kathleen Mallory
       Mallory's Oracle (5)

O'SHAUGHNESSY, Perry
Lake Tahoe
       Motion to Supress (5)
       Unlucky in Law (3)

PARKER, Barbara
       Dark of Day (5)

PARKER, Robert B
Spenser, Boston
       27 - Hugger Mugger (2)
       28 - Potshot (3)
       30 - Back Story (4)
       31 - Bad Business (4)
       33 - School Days (4.5)
       34 - Hundred-Dollar Baby (4)
       36 - Rough Weather (3)
       37 - The Professional (4ish)
       39 - Painted Ladies (5)
Jesse Stone, Paradise, Mass.
       Stranger in Paradise (3.5)
Sunny Randall
       3 - Shrink Rap (3.5)
       5 - Blue Screen (4)

PARKS, Brad
Carter Ross
       Faces of the Gone (4)

PATTERSON, James
1st to Die (2)
Violets are Blue (4)

PEARSON, Ridley
Sheriff Walt Fleming, Sun Valley, ID
       2 - Killer View (3.5)

PELELCANOS, George
Spero Lucas, Washington, DC
       1 - The Cut (4.5)

PERRY, Thomas 
Jane Whitefield
       4 - Blood Money (4)

PESSL, Marisha
       Night Film

PRESTON, Douglas & Lincoln Child
       12 - Two Graves (3)

RIORDAN, Rick
Tres Navarre, San Antonio
       1- Big Red Tequila (4.5)

ROBB, J. D.
       Naked in Death (3)

ROBINSON, Steve
Jefferson (JT) Tayte, Genealogist
       1 - In the Blood (2.5)

ROBOTHAM, Michael
       Night Ferry (5)

ROSENBERG, Nancy Taylor
       Sullivan's Law (1.5)

ROSENFELT, David
          Down to the Wire (3.5)

SANDFORD, John
Virgil Flowers, Minnesota
       1- Dark of the Moon (5)
       2.  Heat Lightning (4)
       3 - Rough Country (4)
       4-  Bad Blood (5)
       5 - Shock Wave (5)
       6 - Mad River (4.5)
       7 - Storm Front (3)
       8 - Deadline  (3)
Lucas Davenport, Minnesota
       1 - Rules of Prey (4)
Standalone
       Dead Watch (3.5)

SATTERTHWAITE, Walter
Joshua Croft, Santa Fe
       2- At Ease with the Dead (5)

SCOTTOLINE, Lisa
Rosato & Associates
       5 - Moment of Truth (2) 2000
       8 - Dead Ringer (3)
       9 - Killer Smile (3) 2004
   
SEFTON, Maggie
Kelly Flynn
       1- Knit One, Kill Two (3)

SETTERFIELD, Diane
       The Thirteenth Tale (4)

SLAUGHTER, Karin
Will Trent
       7 - Criminal  (5)
Grant Country, Georgia
       1 - Blindsighted (3)

SMITH, Alexander
       1- Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency (2.5)

SPENCER-FLEMING, Julia
       8- Through the Evil Days (DNF-Didn't like it at all)

STABENOW, Dana 
Kate Shugak, Alaska
       6 - Blood Will Tell (4)

SWAIN, James
       2- The Night Stalker (4.5)

TALTON, Jon - Phoenix
       1- Concrete Desert (4)

TAPPLY, William G.
Stoney Calhoun, ME
       1- Bitch Creek (4.5)
       2- Gray Ghost (4)
 Brady Coyne, ME
       Cutter's Run (4)

TAYLOR, Sarah Stewart
Sweeney St. George, Harvard/Mass.
       O'Artful Death (Set in VT) (1.5 and 4)

TEY, Josephine
       The Daughter of Time (3)

THOMPSON, James
Kari Vaara, Finnish Chief Police Inspector
       1 - Snow Angels (4.5)

THORNTON, Betsy
Chloe Newcomb, Dudley (Bisbee), AZ
       1- The Cowboy Rides Away (5)
       2- High Lonesome Road (4)
        3- Ghost Towns (5)
       4- Dead for the Winter (4.5)
       5- A Song for You (5)

THURLO, David & Aimee
Vampire NatAm Cop
       Second Sunrise (3.5)

TISHY, Cecelia
Regina Cutter, Boston "psychic"
       Now you See Her (3)

URE, Louise
       Forcing Amaryllis (2 and 4)

VanGIESON, Judith
The Stolen Blue (2)

VERDON, John
Dave Gurney, retired NYC super-sleuth, upper NY state
       1- Think of a Number (5)   
       2 - Shut Your Eyes Tight (4)
       3 - Let the Devil Sleep (4)
       4 - Peter Pan Must Die (4.5)

WALKER, Walter
       Crime of Privilege (3)

WEAVER, Tim
        4 - Never Coming Back (5)

WEBB, Betty
       1- Desert Noir (3.5)
       2- Desert Wives (4)
       3 - Desert Shadows (4)

WOLF, Dick
NYPD Detective Jeremy Fisk
       1 - The Intercept (4)

WOODS, Stuart -
Stone Barrington
       15 - Hot Mahogany
Will Lee
       5 - The Run

44. Bronte's Book Club - Kristiana Gregory

For: Middle Grades
Pub: 2008
150 pgs.
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Aug. 31, 2008

Bronte has just moved from the desert of New Mexico to a house on the water in southern California, where her parents will run a restaurant on the pier. The summer drags before her and she knows no one. She loves to read. Sunbathing will be hampered by her red hair, fair complexion, and lack of a binkini-body. Then she has a brainstorm.

Bronte posts posters (hey, I see where the word POSTER comes from) around the pier and beach advertising a book club for girls who like to read. Eventually four girls join her and friendships form, are tested, and strengthen. They read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell together, and some of their field trips are prompted by what happens in that book. One of the girls, Nan, lives on a sloop where they gather frequently. Willow, whose mother wants her to be a model or actress, is a slow reader, which she tries to keep secret. Lupe's family owns a bakery, and Jessie harbors a secret that makes her sad and sullen. We watch their friendship and the summer unfold together.

I've gotten so used to reading edgy YA novels that this seemed tame and bland at first. However, its message about being a good friend is strong and each girl's story is compelling. The setting; on the beach, surfing, on the ocean, and on the pier, are well-drawn. At one point they disobey parental instruction and almost drown, but working together they all pull through.

I have a fifth grader who loved Because of Winn-Dixie and is constantly looking for a book much like it. I'd say this fits the bill perfectly .

43. The Amazing Life of Birds - Gary Paulsen

The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech
For: Middle School
Pub: 2006
96 pgs.
Rating: 3.5/5
Finished Aug. 31, 2008

I laughed, snickered, and guffawed my way through this book.

Ah, so humiliating to be twelve. Zits (appearing, disappearing, moving from one place to another on your face) - cowlikcks (when you try to cut it off, the resulting bald spot starts a rumor that you have ringworm and the whole school is tested before a ringworm epidemic can break out) - falling over - tripping over shoelaces...many times, and usually in the lunch line (and involving getting covered with various horrible lunch items) - knocking over library shelves (!!) which results in urine testing for drug use - jamming fingers in yoru locker - getting knocked into, knocked flat, and knocked senseless playing volleyball in gym class - need I go on? Even his name, Duane Homer Leech, christened DooDoo by friends early in life, is a thorn in his side.

Throughout it all, through his bedroom window, Duane watches a newborn bird being fed and nurtured, starting out helpless and ugly, slowly getting feathers and fuzz, then learning to fly, more or less coinciding with his own journey through the beginning of puberty. Thus the title of the book. Wish they'd chosen another title, however. I don't think this one works...at least not for me. (I also noticed that the paperback version is subtitled his 19-day puberty journal instead of 20-days. Wonder what gives?)

Dedication: "To my son James, in gratitude. Having missed my own puberty, because I lived through it, watching you go through yours provided a wealth of research material. Thank you."

I loved it. But would kids? I'm going to have to nab a copy for the classroom and try it out on some of the middle school boys.

Greetings from the 50 States - Sheila Keenan

Illustrator: Selina Alko
For: Middle Grades
Pub: 2008
Rating 4/5
Read: Aug. 31, 2008

I enjoyed this book during a leisurely Sunday morning at Border's, over a Caramel Frappacino. Yum.

Each of the fifty states and Washington DC have a double-page spread, with an illustration of the state, important places in the state, and items related to the state (cows for Vermont, potatoes for Idaho, umbrellas and alligators for Florida, etc.) On the right is an explanation of where the state name came from, another explanation about the nickname, and when the state was admitted to the union.

Illustrations are great fun to look at, and the borders around the text have to do with each state...peaches are part of Georgia's border, musical notes for Tennessee, jazz instruments for Louisiana, bison for North Dakota, corn cobs for Iowa, and Hershey kisses for Pennsylvania. Ice cream cones for Missouri? Gonna have to research that one!

My one tiny disappointment: Tall saugaros, sprawling, colorful Grand Canyon,, Sedona, Pima Tribal Land, the Colorado River, and Phoenix. Granted, the capital city is important, BUT.....no TUCSON? Shame!

THA Teacher's Book Club

2009-2010
There are usually five or six of us that meet every other Tuesday morning between 6 and 6:15 at the Einstein's on Swan and Sunrise. We have breakfast, greet friends, gossip, and spend awhile talking about a book we've all read. This year's schedule (subject to change, of course) is:

9/1 Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie - Sonnenblick (Terri)

9/15 Willow Run - Giff (Pat)

9/29 Daniel Half Human - Chotjewitz (Marlene)

10/13 One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies - Sones (Chris for Laraine)

10/27 Strawberry Hill - Hoberman (Chris)

11/10 Chains - Anderson (Laraine)

11/24 Nory Ryan's Song - Giff (Marlene)

12/8 The Alchemist: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel - Scott (Janece)

1/5 New Found Land - Wolf (Laraine)

1/19 Dodger & Me - Sonnenblick (Chris)

2/2 Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School - Fleming (Pat)

2/16 Schooled - Korman

3/2 Beware Princess Elizabeth - Meyer

3/16 Artemis Fowl #1 - Coifer (Janece)

4/13 The Book Thief - Zusak (Marlene)

4/27

5/11

5/25

And here's last year's schedule, 2008-2009

9/9 The Rules of Survival - Werlin (Terri) READ
9/23 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Alexie (me) READ
10/7 Pendragon: The Merchant of Death - MacHale (Marlene)
10/28 Shades of Gray - Reeder (Pat) READ
11/11 Curse of the Night Wolf - Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell (Laraine)
11/25 The Angel Factory - Terence Blacker (Terri)
1/6 Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy - Schmidt (me)
1/20 Sold - McCormick (Marlene)
2/3 The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 - Curtis (Pat) READ
2/17 What My Mother Doesn't Know - Sones (Terri) READ
3/3 The Curse of Addy McMahon - Katie Davis (Laraine)
3/17 The London Eye Mystery - Siobhan Dowd (me)
3/31 Dairy Queen - Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Marlene)
4/21 An Abundance of Katherines - John Green (Pat) (DNF)
5/5 The Cabinet of Wonders - Marie Rutkoski (Laraine)
5/19 Twisted - Anderson (Terri)
6/2 The Kingdom Keepers - Pearson (me)
..... Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie - Sonnenblick (Marlene)

Teachers as Readers Book Club 08-09

This year I'm going to try to go to the Teachers as Readers Book Club, which is sponsored by the Tucson Reading Association, meeting the second Wednesday of the month at 5 at Something Sweet on Speedway. The reading list for the year has been chosen from the IRA 2008 Young Adult Choices list.

For Sept. 10th:
The Amazing Life of Birds - Gary Paulsen READ
A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl - Tanya Lee Stone READ
Being Bindy - Alyssa Brugman
The Boy Book - E Lockhart (seq. to The Boyfriend List) READ
.....OFF LIST:
My Most Excellent Year - Steve Kluger WILL READ SOON
Outside Beauty - Cynthia Kadohata

for Oct 8th:
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne
Everlost - Neal Shusterman
15 Minutes - Steve Young DNF-Yuck
Fly on the Wall - E. Lockhart READ
.....OFF LIST:
Parrotfish - Ellen Wittlinger
Sunrise over Falllujah - Walter Dean Myers
The Black Book of Colors - Menena Cottin & Rosana Faria READ

for Nov 12:
Hell Phone - William Sleator DNF-Yuck
Hormone Jungle: Coming of Age in Middle School - Brod Bagert READ
It's A Mall World After All - Janette Rallison
.....OFF LIST:
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins READ
Sucks to be Me

for Dec 10.
Holiday Book Exchange

for Jan 14.
Lush - Natasha Friend
Maybe - Brent Runyon READ
Mismatch - Lensey Namioka
My Lost and Found Life - Melodie Bowsher READ

for Feb 11.
New Moon - Stephanie Meyer CANCELLED
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Painting Caitlyn - Kimberly Joy Peters
Pieces of Georgia - Jen Bryant READ
Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature - Brande READ

for March 11
Pretty Little Liars - Sara Shepard
Returnable Girl - Pamela Lowell CANCELLED
School's Out - Forever - James Patterson
Small Steps - Louis Sachar
Bones of Faerie - Janni Lee Simner READ
Nation - Pratchett

for April 8
Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir (One-Book)
Hip Hip Hooray It's Monsoon Day - (Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford (One-Book)
What Happened to Cass McBride - Gail Giles READ
Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta (Printz)
Loud Silence of Francine Green - Karen Cushman READ

for May 14 (Wed. instead of Tues.)
Chandra's Secrets - Allan Stratton
Estrella' Quinceanera - Malin Alegria
Chains - Laurie Halse Anderson
Godless - Pete Hautman READ
The Compound - S. A. Bodeen
The True Meaning of Smekday - Adam Rex

for June 18 (date change)
Absolute Brightness - James Lecesne
Tender Morsels - Margo Lanagan
Brooklyn Bridge - Karen Hesse READ
Heroes of the Valley - Jonathan Stroud
Dave at Night - Gail Carson Levine READ
The Dust of 100 Dogs - A. S. King
The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trent Lee Stewart

for July 15
The Glory Field - Walter Dean Myers
Savvy - Ingrid Law READ
Fold - An Na
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea - Valerie Zenatti READ
The Rule of Won - Stefan Petrucha READ
The Hound of Rowan - Henry Neff

for Aug. 9th
The Alchemist - #1 The Secrets of Immortal Nicholas Flamel - Michael Scott
Beastly - Alex Flinn
Bunker 10 - J. A. Henderson
Chess Rumble - G. Neri

42. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl - Tanya Lee Stone

For: Young Adult
Pub: 2006
230 pgs.
Rating: 4/5
Finished: Aug. 30, 2008

After I'd read the first third of this book, I realized I'd read it before. So I looked it up and I had - when it first came out. I'd given it a 2.5 rating. It's written in verse, and I've read a lot of verse novels since then. And I've read a lot of books recently about teenage girls that can't figure out boys, so they're anxous fragility is still in my mind. But I do wonder why I apparently like this book so much better now than I did when I first read it.

Written in three sections by Josie, then Nicolette, and finally Aviva, the girls talk about a good-looking, sexy, too-good-to-be true senior that has swept them all of their feet, gotten away with as many "favors" as he can, then broken their hearts. Josie finds Judy Blume's FOREVER in the school library and writes a warning to other Beach High Girls. It comes to light that he has done the same thing to many, many of the girls in this high school in his four years there.

He is never named. I like that. There is nothing to admire in him, it seems to make him a lesser person, which he is. And this book, and the previous two that I just read (The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book), remind me of the thoughts and feelings and anxiety that teenage girls go through. Since I work with them every day, this reminder is a very good thing. I had sort-of forgotten. Hard to believe since it was only yesterday I was that anxiety-ridden teenage girl....

Addendum 9/3, A review I read that will help me remember the book:
"WOW - I devoured this book. The title is so appropriate yet misleading: the story of one guy and the girls he uses, one after another. Each girl tells her own story, leading the reader through the intense passion of a crush, the decisions to call, to kiss, to love, to leave. Written in verse, the language is packed with sensory imagery. Judy Blume's Forever plays an integral role as girls' notes to one another in the back of that old library book comfort and console. High school (and even mature middle school girls) need to read this book before they find themselves in similar situations; this would be a good companion novel to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak."

41. The Boy Book - E. Lockhart

A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them
For: Young Adult
Pub: 2006
193 pgs.
Rating: 4/5
Read: Aug. 28th (in one sitting)

This is really part two of The Boyfriend List, although it was set up a bit differently and I liked it a bit more. There were still footnotes, but not as many, and not as long, and they didn't seem as obnoxious.

Ruby is still a leper, practically friendless, and still seeing Dr. Z, her shrink. It's now junior year and her life is very, very different than it has been through the beginning of tenth grade. You can see how talking with a psychiatrist (at least a GOOD psychiatrist) helps you understand yourself a little better, as well as how to make the right choices for yourself.

Roo misses Kim but becomes friends with Meghan, who carpools her to school, and becomes friends-again with Nora. She still pines for Jackson, and has become buddies with Noel. She gets a part time job at a zoo, where she really seems to enjoy the animals, and is truly becoming less passive than previously. The crises point in this book comes when all the important characters in the story go together for a sort-of-nature week at "Canoe Island".

It's not a pat, girl-gets-boy ending. It's a REAL ending, an ending that shows growth and maturity and thoughfulness. It's an ending that's truthful. It ends, "I lay there in the blue light from the TV set. Not really watching. Just lying there, between Meghan and Nora..........The water lapped at the sides of our houseboat. And I felt lucky." She's going to be all right.

MOVIE: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Rating: Still mulling it over
Viewed: Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008
Rotten Tomato Rating: 80%
People gave it 3.5 stars (out of 4)
Mine: Lower, I think...60% ?
EW: B- cag: B-
Genre: Black Comedy
PG-13 (1 hr. 36 min.)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS ACADEMY AWARD, Feb, 2009 - Penelope Cruz

Woody Allen's newest. Barcelona.
Romantic comedy? Hmmmmmmm.

Fantastic performances from all the leads: Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, and Penelope Cruz. Beautiful people. Beautiful setting. Hall's part was very Woody Allen-y. She was great. So was Bardem, a doll to look at, smoldering...reminds me lot of Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Penelope Cruz was .... Penelope Cruz. And I never realized Scarlett Johansson's lips were quite so. . . . full. Okay a lot of elipses here. But I've done a great deal of mulling about this movie today.

Cristina (Johannsson) and Vicky (Hall) are best friends spending their two-month summer vacation in Barcelona with an American couple (Patricia Clarkson is the female, not sure of the husband). One night, enjoying dinner in a cozy restaurant, they are approached by sizzling artist Juan Antonio (Bardem), who propositions them. They go for it, Cristina wholeheartedly, and Vicky kicking and screaming. Well, they both end up having a fling with (and falling in love with) said hunky Spaniard. His crazy (literally) ex-wife, Maria Elena (Cruz), who he still loves, enters the picture and really shakes things up.

There are no happy endings here. My favorite character, Vicky, seems destined for a dull, boring, existence from which she'll never be able to extricate herself. Cristina's never going to know what she wants. She'll continue as a dabbler, in love, in art, in everything she tries. Maria Elena is going to kill herself soon, and probably take Juan Antonio with her. What fun.

Actually, it was an okay movie. It was narrated throughout, which I didn't care for, finding it disconcerting and unneeded. Okay, these are all my humble opinion (humble?), but this is what I've been chewing on all day. I may add more once I've chewed even further!

(8/29) A comment , part of a positive review of the movie: "One of the year's most charming and sly works -- as well as perhaps the saddest film in the filmmaker's entire oeuvre." Someone agrees with me!

What To Do About Alice? - Barbara Kerley

Illustrator: Edwin Fotheringham
For: Early/Middle Grades
Pub: 2008
Rating: 3.5/5
Read: Aug. 26, 2008

Subtitle: How ALICE ROOSEVELT broke THE RULES, charmed THE WORLD, and drove her FATHER TEDDY CRAZY!

In this picture book biography of Alice Roosevelt, we learn about her upbringing, her energy, her mischieviousness, and her spirit. She sounds like a character that was hard to control, much to the dismay of her father, Teddy, the 26th president of the United States. Both the style in which it is written ( lots of capital letters, italics, and bold print) and illustrations (at least nine of them use dotted lines to show frenetic movement and energy) show something about her do-anything personality. ADHD, maybe?

This is a picture book, and although the illustrations work really well and add tremendously to the story, I'm just not crazy about Fotheringham's style. I DO like that he uses the entire page, leaving virtually no negative space, and the illustration of Alice "losing" herself in the library is quite cool.

Quotation marks are used throughout the text, so I'd say that Kerley researched well and chose many of Teddy and Alice's own words, or quoted from someone else's writing about them. This would be a good model for students.

Sometimes it's stupid little things that bother me....the front end pages contain the title page and the back end pages add interesting Author's Notes, BUT the library has (of course) firmly taped down the flaps so that I can not read everything without damaging something. I decided not to. How disappointing not to find out about "The Other Washington Monument", which I think tells about the years after Alice's husband's death.

A Child's Calendar - John Updike

POETRY
Illustrator: Trina Schart Hyman
For: Kids
Pub: 1965, 1999
Rating: 5/5
Reread for the umpteenth time: Aug. 23, 2008

Twelve poems, one for each month, written by Pulitzer Prize winner John Updike.
Alliteration.
Imagery.
Personification and Metaphors and Similes..
A veritable feast of words.
AND awesome illustrations by one of my favorite illustrators, Trina Schart Hyman. YeeHa!

AUGUST

The sprinkler twirls.
The summer wanes.
The pavement wears
Popsicle stains.

The playground grass
Is worn to dust.
The weary swings
Creak, creak with rust.

The trees are bored
With being green.
Some people leave
The local scene

And go to seaside
Bungalows
And take off nearly
All their clothes.
John Updike

Don't ya just love it?

Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears - Valorie Fisher

For: Kids
Pub: 2003
Rating: 4/5
Read: Aug. 25, 2008

Abundant alliteration.
Clever dioramas.
Multi-media.

I love alphabet books, and I love figurative language. I love collage and I adore cleverness. This books contains all. Each letter of the alphabet has a snazzy sentence and an accompanying diorama that not only illustrates the sentence but includes many other words beginning with that letter.

I want to share this book with my middle-schoolers and have them create sentences that they then illustrate with collage or diorama! We'll photograph them and put the page in our memory books.

A few examples:
"Fancy feathered fashions were favored by Floyd's farm friends. (You can imagine THIS diorama!)
"Kyle's kids kept kites in the kitchen.
"Quentin quickly quieted the quibbling, quarreling, and quacking of the quintuplets.
"Trust Trevor to tell you, typing on a trapeze was terribly tricky."

Loved it!