So, it seems to be time for that Summer Goals Meme. Mary Lee and I were just talking about it this week and then Amy at My Breakfast Platter mentioned that she was ready for it too! Last year, I wasn't so successful. I set some great goals and then didn't meet very many of them! I guess summer goals might be like that--no big deal if you don't accomplish them!? So, I am going to be more realistic this year. When I looked back at my goals, it was kind of depressing because I have still not accomplished some of them! The two books that were on my to-read stack last June are still on it today.
So, here are some goals that I have:
1. Read Lots
2. Continue Boot Camp but also add a 30-60 minute walk about 3-5 days a week.
3. Learn a few new recipes.
4. Drink more water.
Okay, so that's it. I am trying to be realistic yet change a few habits. We'll see how it goes!
And to get the meme restarted, we tag Katie D at Creative Literacy, Karen at Talkworthy, Bill and Karen and Literate Lives, Abby at Authentic Learner, Stella at My World-Mi Mundo , Mary Lee here at A Year of Reading, Amy at My Breakfast Platter and Megan at Read, Read, Read.
Happy goal setting!
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Saturday, June 07, 2008
48 Hour Book Challenge
Twelve down, thirty-six to go.
I have finished RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE, LIFE SUCKS, and THREE SHADOWS. I'm ending this graphic novel phase of the 48 hours by reading ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA by Terry Thompson. (Here's the link to the video podcast Franki mentioned earlier this week.)
I have finished RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE, LIFE SUCKS, and THREE SHADOWS. I'm ending this graphic novel phase of the 48 hours by reading ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA by Terry Thompson. (Here's the link to the video podcast Franki mentioned earlier this week.)
Talking About Books Counts...
...doesn't it???
The Columbus Area Kid Lit Bloggers (from the left: Stella of My World - Mi Mundo, Mary Lee and Franki of A Year of Reading, Katie of Creative Literacy, Abby of Authentic Learner, Karen of Talkworthy, and Karen and Bill of Literate Lives) met for a delicious NorthStar breakfast and then reconvened at Cover To Cover Children's Books, where Sally (the owner) let us take as many ARCs as we wanted! Heaven!
Then we were treated to the World Premier Author Chat and Book Signing by Sarah Prineas, author of The Magic Thief.
(Franki, Sally, Mary Lee and Sarah Prineas)
Now it's time to get back to reading. I finished RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE and I'm halfway through LIFE SUCKS. After I finish, I think I'll stick with the GN theme for now and move on to THREE SHADOWS and ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA. Then I'll be quite ready for WINNIE-THE-POOH!!
The Columbus Area Kid Lit Bloggers (from the left: Stella of My World - Mi Mundo, Mary Lee and Franki of A Year of Reading, Katie of Creative Literacy, Abby of Authentic Learner, Karen of Talkworthy, and Karen and Bill of Literate Lives) met for a delicious NorthStar breakfast and then reconvened at Cover To Cover Children's Books, where Sally (the owner) let us take as many ARCs as we wanted! Heaven!
Then we were treated to the World Premier Author Chat and Book Signing by Sarah Prineas, author of The Magic Thief.
(Franki, Sally, Mary Lee and Sarah Prineas)
Now it's time to get back to reading. I finished RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE and I'm halfway through LIFE SUCKS. After I finish, I think I'll stick with the GN theme for now and move on to THREE SHADOWS and ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA. Then I'll be quite ready for WINNIE-THE-POOH!!
48 Hour Book Challenge
So, realistically, I know I can't drop everything to read for 48 hours. I LOVE Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge and am excited to devote as much of this weekend as I can to reading.
So, I started yesterday and did a bit of reading while getting my hair colored--I had let it go for far too long and it was getting pretty gray!
So, I finished LETTERS FROM RAPUNZEL and also read BASKETBALL BATS--a new book that I think is going to be a new series.
More later--but I am fitting in reading with the rest of the things I have to get finished this weekend. Like Mary Lee, I'll be thrilled if I finish a few of the books on my stack!
Ready, Set, GO!
READY: I have selected the books for my stack. Nothing new; nothing from the teeming boxes of Notables. Those can wait. I am going to take out my to-read pile in the next 48-hours. Well, part of it, anyway. The stack that sits at the end of that one bookshelf. There's still that whole shelf full of adult to-read, the professional to-reads, and another half shelf of children's to-read. Sigh.Back to the list! I'll start with a graphic novel -- RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE. I've been saving it for the first book out. Then there's WINNIE-THE-POOH and THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER. Apparently, one of the places we are going to stay in England sits next to the forest where Milne received his Pooh-ish inspiration! Left over from CYBILS last year is A DROWNED MAIDEN'S HAIR, and left over from this year's CYBILS is GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! So I'll have a little Laura Amy Schlitz going on! HONEYBEE by Naomi Shihab Nye is on the pile, as are LIFE SUCKS and THREE SHADOWS. To complement the graphic novels, I'll read ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA. If I finish all that in 48 hours, I'll be amazed...and pleased!
SET: My morning tea is made and waiting.
GO: I'm off to read!
Friday, June 06, 2008
Poetry Friday -- Endings and Beginnings
The school year has ended. The students have been delivered north of childhood to their freedom by the big yellow buses once again. The teachers have gone south. (Don't worry; we'll bounce back!)
Someone must have flipped a switch to begin summer -- all of a sudden it's in the 90's with no sign of relief for a week.
Here's a poem about endings and beginnings:
NORTH OF CHILDHOOD
by Jonathan Galassi
(read the whole poem here...this is the last half:)
Summer’s back,
so beautiful it always reeks of ending,
and now its breeze is stirring
in your room commanding the lawn,
trying to wake you to say the day is wasting,
but you’re north of childhood now and out of here,
and I’ve gone south.
Someone must have flipped a switch to begin summer -- all of a sudden it's in the 90's with no sign of relief for a week.
Here's a poem about endings and beginnings:
NORTH OF CHILDHOOD
by Jonathan Galassi
(read the whole poem here...this is the last half:)
Summer’s back,
so beautiful it always reeks of ending,
and now its breeze is stirring
in your room commanding the lawn,
trying to wake you to say the day is wasting,
but you’re north of childhood now and out of here,
and I’ve gone south.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Video Podcast with Author of ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA
I just discovered a video podcast on Stenhouse's website--an interview with Terry Thompson, author of ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA. Remember, we reviewed Terry's new professional book and then interviewed him about it last month. Now, you can hear him talk more on the topic in this interview. Well worth checking out!
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
48 Hour Book Challenge Invitation
Are you a Columbus-area kidlit or teacher blogger? Want to join our 48 Hour Book Challenge Kick-Off this Saturday?Contact us off blog at ayearofreading at earthlink dot net if you're interested!
(And now I'll sneak in a little happy dance -- today is the last day of school! Grading is done, report cards are done, dvds are burned, and freedom is only a few hours away! WOO-HOO!)
Monday, June 02, 2008
May Carnival of Children's Literature
Melissa Wiley, at Here In The Bonny Glen, took all the Maypole ribbons in her own hands and wove a very fine (11th hour) carnival that went up on Saturday, May 31st.
What are you waiting for? Go browse! You know you want to!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
THE MAGIC THIEF--AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Just as we promised, here is our interview with Sarah Prineas, author of THE MAGIC THIEF--coming out this week, June 3! Great timing-a great first summer read if you haven't read it yet.
Franki: Where did the idea come from for THE MAGIC THIEF?
Sarah: The way
I come up with story ideas is to have one idea and jot it down in a word file on my computer and set it aside until I find another idea or two to put with it. In the case of The Magic Thief, I had the first lines in one of those files:
“A thief is a lot like a wizard. I have quick hands. And I can make things disappear.”
Then I read a letter to the editor of Cricket magazine asking for more two-part stories and more stories about wizards. I figured I could do that, and Conn became the thief that spoke those words. His character makes the story go, so all I had to do was invent situations and challenges and see what he would do.
Franki: You are a fantasy reader yourself. Were you a fantasy reader as a child? Which books hooked you on fantasy reading?
Sarah: I didn't read a whole lot of fantasy as a kid, though I realized recently that T.H. White's King Arthur story The Once and Future King must have influenced me, first because I reread it about fifty times, but also because Merlin changes young Wart into lots of different animals, and that's like the embero spell in The Magic Thief. I read Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and loved it, because what dorky 12-year-old doesn’t identify with Meg Murry and love reading about her adventures?
Franki: Which fantasy authors are favorites for you now?
Sarah: My favorite fantasy writer is J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is the writer who taught me how to believe in the power of story and the sense of wonder that fantasy can bring to readers. One of my very favorite authors is Megan Whelan Turner, starting with her YA fantasy novel The Thief. Turner does just about everything right—her characters are deep and interesting, her plots are tricky and surprising, and her fantasy world is one in which you can spend lots of time. As a writer, I’ve read all of her books several times each just to figure out how she does what she does. The only problem is that she writes so slowly. It’s hard to wait such a long time for a new Megan Whelan Turner book, but it’s always worth the wait.
Franki: Tell us how the device in your husband’s lab ended up in your book!
Sarah: That’s a funny question! His lab equipment has a fancy name, the “molecular beam epitaxy facility.” It’s very cool looking, all shiny and gold, with dials and valves and porthole-like windows, and gauges for measuring pressure, and so on. I don’t like it very much because it’s an expensive machine that requires constant attention and is always breaking down, which means my husband has to go into the lab to take care of it. I just had to get my revenge by putting it into my book and turning it into an evil Device.
Franki: The setting was so clear to me as a reader when I read THE MAGIC THIEF. Did you have a particular place in mind when you wrote?
Sarah: I did! Not a place I’ve ever visited, though. I have a PhD in English literature and read a lot of 19th century English novels, and I always loved Dickens’s novels the most. Wellmet is modeled on the London of the early Dickens novels. I also used a map as inspiration [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/LON/Rocque/rocque_index.htm]. I got lots of ideas for street names and the twisty alleyways of the Twilight from looking at the seedy Southwark part in that London map.
Franki: Can you describe your writing process at all? How does fantasy writing go for you? What is the typical process? A typical day? Etc.
Sarah: A typical day is that I spend lots of time writing emails to my friends and reading blogs, and I’ll also spend some time tweaking a scene. If I’m really in the zone, I’ll write for eight hours at a time and be completely immersed in the story, in the characters, in fitting the pieces together. When that happens my family lets me shut myself up in my room with my writing chair and laptop computer and waits for me to come out. Which I do, eventually…
I don’t outline at all, so I write into the void—figuring out what happens as I write it, which is a very fun way to write. It’s writing as discovery!
Franki: This is the first in a trilogy. Can you give us any clues about what to expect next?
Yes, I can! You’re the only one who has asked this question, by the way. Here are three clues. One is that Conn must search for something that is lost. Two is that he gets into trouble involving pyrotechnic explosions. Three is that he must leave the city of Wellmet. Biscuits and bacon also make an appearance. The second book is called The Magic Thief: Lost and it comes out in June 2009, a whole year after the first book.
You can read the first chapter on the author's website!
Franki: Where did the idea come from for THE MAGIC THIEF?
Sarah: The way
I come up with story ideas is to have one idea and jot it down in a word file on my computer and set it aside until I find another idea or two to put with it. In the case of The Magic Thief, I had the first lines in one of those files:“A thief is a lot like a wizard. I have quick hands. And I can make things disappear.”
Then I read a letter to the editor of Cricket magazine asking for more two-part stories and more stories about wizards. I figured I could do that, and Conn became the thief that spoke those words. His character makes the story go, so all I had to do was invent situations and challenges and see what he would do.
Franki: You are a fantasy reader yourself. Were you a fantasy reader as a child? Which books hooked you on fantasy reading?
Sarah: I didn't read a whole lot of fantasy as a kid, though I realized recently that T.H. White's King Arthur story The Once and Future King must have influenced me, first because I reread it about fifty times, but also because Merlin changes young Wart into lots of different animals, and that's like the embero spell in The Magic Thief. I read Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and loved it, because what dorky 12-year-old doesn’t identify with Meg Murry and love reading about her adventures?
Franki: Which fantasy authors are favorites for you now?
Sarah: My favorite fantasy writer is J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is the writer who taught me how to believe in the power of story and the sense of wonder that fantasy can bring to readers. One of my very favorite authors is Megan Whelan Turner, starting with her YA fantasy novel The Thief. Turner does just about everything right—her characters are deep and interesting, her plots are tricky and surprising, and her fantasy world is one in which you can spend lots of time. As a writer, I’ve read all of her books several times each just to figure out how she does what she does. The only problem is that she writes so slowly. It’s hard to wait such a long time for a new Megan Whelan Turner book, but it’s always worth the wait.
Franki: Tell us how the device in your husband’s lab ended up in your book!
Sarah: That’s a funny question! His lab equipment has a fancy name, the “molecular beam epitaxy facility.” It’s very cool looking, all shiny and gold, with dials and valves and porthole-like windows, and gauges for measuring pressure, and so on. I don’t like it very much because it’s an expensive machine that requires constant attention and is always breaking down, which means my husband has to go into the lab to take care of it. I just had to get my revenge by putting it into my book and turning it into an evil Device.
Franki: The setting was so clear to me as a reader when I read THE MAGIC THIEF. Did you have a particular place in mind when you wrote?
Sarah: I did! Not a place I’ve ever visited, though. I have a PhD in English literature and read a lot of 19th century English novels, and I always loved Dickens’s novels the most. Wellmet is modeled on the London of the early Dickens novels. I also used a map as inspiration [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/LON/Rocque/rocque_index.htm]. I got lots of ideas for street names and the twisty alleyways of the Twilight from looking at the seedy Southwark part in that London map.
Franki: Can you describe your writing process at all? How does fantasy writing go for you? What is the typical process? A typical day? Etc.
Sarah: A typical day is that I spend lots of time writing emails to my friends and reading blogs, and I’ll also spend some time tweaking a scene. If I’m really in the zone, I’ll write for eight hours at a time and be completely immersed in the story, in the characters, in fitting the pieces together. When that happens my family lets me shut myself up in my room with my writing chair and laptop computer and waits for me to come out. Which I do, eventually…
I don’t outline at all, so I write into the void—figuring out what happens as I write it, which is a very fun way to write. It’s writing as discovery!
Franki: This is the first in a trilogy. Can you give us any clues about what to expect next?
Yes, I can! You’re the only one who has asked this question, by the way. Here are three clues. One is that Conn must search for something that is lost. Two is that he gets into trouble involving pyrotechnic explosions. Three is that he must leave the city of Wellmet. Biscuits and bacon also make an appearance. The second book is called The Magic Thief: Lost and it comes out in June 2009, a whole year after the first book.
You can read the first chapter on the author's website!
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