Blue by Joyce Hostetter

I want you to meet Ann Fay Honeycutt. She lives on a farm in NC in 1944. When her father goes off to fight in the war, Ann Fay is left to fill his boots. I want you to see her standing there in her overalls ready and willing to fill in even while she knows the job is just too big. When you meet Ann Fay, you’ll learn about farming and what a wicked beast that beautiful wisteria can be. I want you to meet her family, neighbors, and friends. Some with hearts big and brave enough to love through all kinds of heartache. Some with hearts that seem small and scared. All I can say is thank goodness for Junior and Bessie! Make sure you have a box of tissues handy. If you are like me, you will laugh quite a bit with Ann Fay, but there are times when you’ll have to sort through the heartache with some tears. The tissues will come in handy then.

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

In NC, we are so very lucky to have authors for neighbors. I assume that’s true all over the world, but I’m guessing I’d just never thought about it before I became a (very active) librarian.

I met Stacy McAnulty several years ago. I was asked to be her escort at one of our NCSLMA conferences, and I’ve been lucky enough to meet up with her again on several occasions. One of the things I love about Stacy is that she was an engineer! The math teacher in me immediately bonded to another lover of numbers and words. So, I jumped at the chance to go see her talk about her latest book, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl, at Bookmarks.

Meet Lucy, a middle school mathematical savant. Lucy was struck by lightening and developed quite a few oddities. She’s a mathematical genius, OCD, and not very good with people. And her grandmother is forcing her to go to middle school when she should be going to the university. Will there be enough disinfectant wipes to protect her from all the germs in a middle school? Will she make even one friend? How does a genius fit in? Lucy is filled with fear as she starts her adventure, and you are going to love watching her maneuver her way through situation after situation. 

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Epic for Educators

This gem came across my facebook feed. It’s only an IOS app. BUT I’ve read several books already on my iPad that I don’t have in my library. Some of the books have a read aloud feature and there is a timer on the books so kids can’t go through them too quickly. I’ve mainly examined the picture books and have read some that I would not have otherwise.

The only thing they ask in return is for you to let parents know about them. That can easily be done on our school webpages. If you have an apple device, give it a try!

See my other recommendations on where to find books.

I need a hug!

I Need a Hug! by SpanPress

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read this to the kindergartners. We read half the book one week and I had students asking me in the hall what would happen to red bug! They loved it!

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56 days of summer – 33

I haven’t felt well the past couple of days. Something in the vertigo camp. Light headed verging on dizzy. I’ve been horizontal more than vertical. Had to miss a conference on Smart Notebook. That was terribly disappointing, and it means I’ll have to do more digging on my own. I did finish the Longmire book. It was good! Very good!

 

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got this book because of the TV show which I really enjoy. Usually, I read a book before watching related items. I didn’t even know Longmire was a book, so that didn’t work out so well for me this time. I knew the book would be good. It had to be for the show to be so entertaining. What I didn’t know was that the book would be great! The show is just a little tiny candle flame compared to the bonfire of the book – the story, the humor, the characters. Loved it all. Can’t wait to start the next one!

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Books about Town

How cool is this!?

Around the World in 80 days!

2 July – 15 September 2014

Books about Town is coming to London this summer! Find all 50 unique Book Bench sculptures, designed by local artists and famous names to celebrate London’s literary heritage and reading for enjoyment.

Read Across America

Dr. Seuss for the Classroom on Pinterest

Several links are videos for books.

Scarlet

I’m not a series person. I do read them, but I can’t say I’ve found any that I really look forward to reading. Well, I think I’ve found one in The Lunar Chronicles.

I read Cinder earlier in the month and thoroughly enjoyed it.

In Scarlet, we find out more about Cinder and Kai. We are introduced to some new characters including Scarlet and Wolf in addition to a captain who is really a cadet. I wondered a little at the beginning where Meyer was going with Scarlet, but she tied it up nicely well before the end. Well, maybe not so nicely as I still felt hanging and wishing I had the next book in my hand when I got to the end.

Anxiously awaiting the next installation of The Lunar Chronicles.

Three cups of tea

I downloaded Three Cups of Tea (from the NC Digital Library) to listen to on my drive back and forth to Winston.  So, it’s good and positive. It seems extremely self-serving, but, call me Pollyanna, I do like to think there are people like that in the world with nothing on their agenda other than making the world a better place.

When I got home, I started doing some digging and the first thing I found is Jon Krakauer’s Three Cups of Deceit. Oh my goodness, I could tell from the experts that this was not going to be good. Very disappointing. More digging; more disappointment. Everyone involved seems to be under indictment. The stories are at best a gross exaggeration or at worst, blatant lies.

So at first, I tried to listen to some more of the book and as good as the story is, I just can’t finish it. Now I’m wondering what to do with the copies in my library. Of course, the advertiser in me thought about making a display called “Fact or Fiction” with this book at center. I’ll have to think about that some more.

Argo

I started reading Argo today. So far, it’s been very engaging. Perhaps part of its fascination is because I vaguely remember the incident. I remember my mother talking about the Shah like he was some kind of rock star. I was a teenager and for sure didn’t care about all the political (or other) implications. I don’t think this book will be sitting around long waiting for me to finish it.