Reading is Fun

Summary: Emma, a puppy, lives with her owner George who is a painter. They get along fine most of the time but sometimes Emma cannot seem to get anything right in George's eyes. Everything she does seems to set her human owner off: lying down on the new couch, talking to her neighbor canine friends fishing in the trash etc. All she hears all day from George is "BAD ! BAD ! BAD !".  Emma is desperate to fix this friendship. During one of her visits to the library she discovers a canine advice columnist, Queenie, who offers advice to dogs. Emma emails Queenie for advice. Queenie advises Emma to get off the couch and try to be more useful to her owner. My view: The cartoon like drawings led an appeal to the story. Most kids will understand Emma’s dilemma of being misunderstood by her owner. The multiple panel inserts accompanying each story line on a page are a nice touch. Emma’s dilemma is made more real by the accompanying emails she writes and receives from Quee...

Summary (from the Book) Former marine Tom Cavanaugh has come home to Virgin River, ready to take over his family's apple orchard and settle down. He knows just what the perfect woman will be like: sweet, decent, maybe a little naive. The marrying kind. Nothing like Nora Crane. So why can't he keep his eyes off the striking single mother? Nora may not have finished college, but she graduated with honors from the school of hard knocks. She's been through tough times and she'll do whatever it takes to support her family, including helping with harvest time at the Cavanaughs' orchard. She's always kept a single-minded focus on staying afloat but suddenly her thoughts keep drifting back to rugged, opinionated Tom Cavanaugh. Both Nora and Tom have their own ideas of what family means. But they're about to prove each other completely wrong. …

Summary (From the Book): Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone are run out of their home, Boneville, and become separated in the wilds, but better fortune begins when the three cousins reunite at a farmstead in a deep forested valley, where Fone meets a young girl named Thorn. In Out From Boneville, volume 1 of this 9-book epic, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert. One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures. Eventually, the cousins are reunited at a farmstead run by tough Gran'ma Ben and her spirited granddaughter Thorn. But little do the Bones know, there are dark forces conspiring against them, and their adventures are only just beginning! 

Summary: Angel is the illegitimate child of a single mother. Her father is married and wants nothing to do with her. Angel’s mother has been rejected by her own parents for bearing a child out of wedlock. The society they live in ignores them. Angel is sold into prostitution as a young girl. She has known nothing but rejection throughout her life. Michael Hosea is a godly man sent into her life to rescue her and show her the redeeming and transforming power of God’s unconditional love. Francine takes us on an emotional journey of Angel’s rebirth. We witness Angel’s stubborn acceptance of present circumstances, Hosea’s persistent pursuit in the face of her rejection, Angel’s brokenness and healing as she finally accepts Hosea’s love. This is an inspirational story about God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.

Interesting. Not a fast read

Bibliography: Alexie, S.(2007).The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown. Book Summary Arnold Spirit, otherwise known as Junior, doesn’t get the best start in life; he was born with “water in his brain”. Even though he survived the surgery that drained this water, he was not left entirely unscathed. He developed too many teeth, he had poor eye sight, he had seizures, his body parts were un-proportional and he had a “stutter and a lisp”. For someone who has such a bad start in life, one would expect him to cave under all the pressure. But Junior draws cartoons to all the time. He draws “because words are too unpredictable”. The cartoons are his way of expressing himself in an otherwise mangled world. Junior knows that life at the rez will not amount to much; the school is still using text books that are at least thirty year old. He decides to transfer to a neighboring schoo...

Bibliography: Havill, J.(2008).Grow: A Novel in Verse. Atlanta: Peachtree. Book Summary When Berneetha decides to grow a vegetable garden on Mr. Conn’s vacant lot, twelve year old Kate joins her. Berneetha is a retired teacher and everything about her is big. In Kate’s words” Berneetha not fat. “She’s big. She’s round. There is a lot of her. Berneetha is not meant to fit in the same skinny space reserved for people who care about those things”. Kate and Berneetha head out together to the vacant lot and start preparing it for planting. First they have to get rid of all the trash. At first people in the neighborhood think the two are crazy. But as the garden starts to take shape people slowly join in to lend a hand. They are joined by Harlan the “graffiti gangster”, Dr. Citra Arockiasamy who contributes tomatoes plants, and various other community members. Soon the garden is ready and the vegetables have be...

Bibliography: Park, B.(1992). Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. New York: Random House. Book Summary This is the first book in the Junie B. Jones series. It’s the first day of kindergarten for Junie. Junie is scared to ride the school bus. After she learns that she is going to ride the bus on her first day of school Junie B. ”stayed scared about the bus for a whole week”. She doesn’t like anything on the bus; there are no cloth covers on the seat and the bus is smelly. She doesn’t like the other kids either. After school Junie is more scared to ride the bus after her new friend Lucille tells her that bad things could happen on the bus such as milk being poured on you. She hides in the class and misses the bus. Junie B. wanders around the school and is eventually found by the janitor .Junie B. explains to her mother what happened and her mother cautions her about ...

Bibliography Brown, D.(2004). Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Book Summary The author highlights some of the odd characteristics of Einstein from birth through adulthood and how he became famous. His grandmother thought he was too fat and his mother thought he had fat head. Einstein took longer than normal to start talking. He had a temper and often had “nasty tantrums” and was sometimes cruel to his sister. He often ignored things that didn’t interest him but paid single minded attention to things that interested him such as math which he was brilliant at. My Impression The book chronicles the life of Einstein from birth to adulthood. The author includes the odd details that characterized the physicist’s life. These details make Einstein more real. The struggles he experienced at home and at school help the reader get a clear picture of Einstein. The text is simp...

Bibliography: Sayre, H.(2004).Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. Book Summary: In this book, Sayre gives readers a list of 50 art masterpieces ranging from 22,000 B.C. to A.D. 1964. The art pieces cover a wide variety of styles. Sayre takes the readers on a world tour as they explore the art from the prehistoric age to the modern 21 st century art of Rene Magritte in the “Son of man” and the Andy Warhol Campbell tomato soup can painting. The selection includes paintings that are not only famous but beautiful to look at. My Impression The paintings are chronologically organized according to time period. The author provides facts and analysis of each art piece. The size of each art piece is provided and a sidebar provides the artists timeline. The author gives background information, time period, some information about what was going on d...

Bibliography: Blue, R & Naden, C.(2009). Ron’s Big Mission. New York: Dutton Children's Books Book Summary Nine year old Ron McNair enjoys reading and dreams of flying planes. In the 1950’s black people are not allowed library cards and therefore cannot check out books from the library. Despite being the library’s “best customer” Ron cannot check out books under his name because he is not allowed to have a library card. But on this summer day in 1959, Ron is determined to change all this. He selects some books and heads to the check out desk. He insists on getting his own library card and refuses to move until he gets one. My Impression This fictionalized account of a real event that happened in the life of Ron McNair who went on to become a successful astronaut. The author uses simple language to portray the message. The illustrations are vivid and expressive. They portray different emotions ...