Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Seven Up by Janet Evanovich

This Stephanie Plum novel felt more serious to me than the others. Is it the pressure that Ranger and Joe are putting on Stephanie? Is it Stephanie’s childhood memories of her Grandma Mazur providing a haven? Is it Stephanie’s mom’s revelation and her surprising decision at the end of the book? I have to admit, that while I read this series because of Stephanie, I probably relate better to her mom, and in this book, Evanovich really develops her character beyond the two-dimensional caricature.

Yes, this book is still funny—not as funny as the previous six. It’s different—more thoughtful, more poignant. I’m anxious to get started on Hard Eight to see where Evanovich is going with the series and to find out if Ranger called in his debt.

Four out of four bookworms.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich

I just finished a two-day Stephanie Plum indulge-myself marathon. I read Hot Six and Seven Up. Nothing gets done when I’m reading about the world’s most innocent bounty hunter. Well, almost nothing. I get my daughter to school, and I eat . . . a little. Just when I think Evanovich can’t get any funnier, she proves me wrong. Hot Six is the funniest Plum novel, yet. I laughed until I cried. Grandma Mazur moves in with Stephanie. Stephanie tries to help Ranger clear his name. Morelli’s on the case, too. There’s even a Star Trek convention! Most importantly, we find out whether Joe or Ranger was about to get invited into Stephanie’s bedroom at the end of High Five. I have to say, that revelation disappointed me. Four out of four bookworms.

Tomorrow: Seven Up

Sunday, January 28, 2007

How to Get Kids to Read - Part 3

So how do you find a book that your child will enjoy? Start with his interests. Does he like sports? Find a novel in which the sport he enjoys is important to the plot. Matt Christopherwrites novels about kids and all kinds of sports for girls and boys. Does she want to be a princess when she grows up? There are all kinds of princess novels out there. I know because my daughter read them all when she was younger. Try The Jewel Princesses series by Jahnna N. Malcolm and Neal McPheeters. Does your child like gross humor? Try Dear Dumb Diary #1: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jim Benton or Adventures Of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey. Do you have a young historian? Try the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne and Sal Murdocca. A budding scientist? Try Animorphs by K. A. Applegate or the Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole. An animal lover? Animal Ark Pets Series is popular with younger kids. Hank the Cowdog books by John Erickson combine animals and a mystery. The whole family will love reading them. Bill Wallace writes some wonderful animal books. Try Snot Stew to start. Kids love the title! What movies or TV shows does you child enjoy? Is there a comic book or series of books published in conjunction with the show, such as Cheetah Girls , Lizzie Mcguire, or Spider-Man?

Still stumped? School librarians can make great suggestions. Independent bookstores may also have someone on staff who can recommend a good book for your child. I've found a local used bookseller who can give me recommendations. Or you can ask me. If I can't come up with something, I'll bet I know someone who can.

Now, get thee to a library or your favorite bookstore.


Saturday, January 27, 2007

How to Get Kids to Read - Part 2

Another way to get kids to read is to let them see you reading. I still remember watching my parents read. My dad sometimes read over my mom’s shoulder. We adopted my daughter from China when she was seven years old. She didn’t speak English, didn’t read or write Chinese or English. But from the time she met us, she watched us read newspapers, books, magazines, even cereal boxes. Young children want to be like their parents. They want to do what their parents do. Take advantage of that while they’re young. Let them see you read, so they will realize how important it is to you.

Does my daughter like to read? You bet! Give her a Goosebumps Series book or a Dear Dumb Diary book, and I have to force her to put it down and go to sleep at night. She loves comic books, and I encourage her to read them as well as the funnies in the paper. She’s reading, and that’s what’s important! I do the same with her assigned reading that I did with my son. I read with her to get started. I always finish the assigned reading, but she usually finishes before I do. Right now, she’s reading Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi. We started together, but she got tired of waiting for me to read with her, so she’s way ahead of me. But I’m going to finish it. It’s a great story.

Do I let my children read anything? No. It has to be age appropriate. Even so, it might not be right for them. In first grade, my son was determined to read a Goosebumps book. I finally broke down and let him read it, knowing it would be too scary for him. Sure enough, he read only one chapter before he got so scared he couldn’t read anymore. He hasn’t read a horror novel since then.

Tomorrow, suggestions on how to find a book your child will enjoy.

How to Get Kids to Read--Part 1

What’s the best way to teach a kid (not the baby goat, but the human child) to enjoy reading? Why is it important for a child to enjoy reading? Is it ever too late to get a kid hooked on reading?

Too late? My husband was 25 when he and I married. He hated reading. It only took me two months to get him hooked. It’s never too late.

Why is it important? If a child enjoys reading, he’ll read more. If he reads more, he expands his vocabulary and his knowledge base. In short, he expands his world. Want a more concrete reason? Children who enjoy reading get better grades.

“But how do I get him to enjoy reading? He hates his school textbooks!”

Heck, can you blame him? I hate textbooks, too. In fact, I hated history in school because we learned about it through textbooks. It wasn’t until my last year of college, when I discovered that you could learn about history from sources other than textbooks, that I learned to love it. Textbooks should be outlawed! What an awful way to teach a child to read. What an awful way to teach a child anything! My children didn’t like reading textbooks. They still don’t. Fortunately, that wasn’t their first experience with reading. I read to them from the time they were born. When they were infants, I chose books with bright, interesting pictures. As toddlers and preschoolers, I added stories that were interesting and easy for them to follow, like Where's My Teddy? and Miss Spider's Tea Party . As they got older and developed their own interests, I chose books that I thought they would enjoy. I didn’t care if it was an award-winning book. In fact, most of the Caldecott books I’ve seen haven’t done a thing for me. The Newberry books usually have a pretty good story, but they often take a while for my child to “get in to.” For instance, my son read Johnny Tremain , a Newberry winner, in 5th grade. I’d remembered reading this book when I was in 5th grade. I loved it then and was excited that I could share this with my son. But Johnny Tremain is slow to start, and my son was having trouble getting in to it. So, I sat down with him, and we took turns reading the first few chapters out loud—no more than one chapter a day. After a few chapters, he didn’t want to quit reading, so he took the book to his room and continued on his own. We did this with many of the assigned books for his elementary and middle school English classes. He’s a senior in high school now, and while we don’t read aloud to each other, I will sometimes read one of his assigned novels, so I can discuss it with him.

Books he selected on his own or books I selected for him have often kept him up all night. Science fiction, action adventure, mysteries. Animorphs, a series of science fiction novels for young adults, isn’t the most literary of works out there. But my son loved that series, and it got him to read. He consumed them in one sitting.

That’s all for today. More tips tomorrow.







Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The Knight Miscellany Series by Gaelen Foley



Ms. Foley’s novels are as rich in history and detail as they are sensuous and suspenseful. There are seven books in the Knight Miscellany series. While you can read them out of order without being lost, it’s best to start at the beginning. Of course, I didn’t. I began with the third book, Lord of Ice, then read the second, Lord of Fire, then went to the beginning with The Duke. She hooked me from the beginning with Lord of Ice, the story of Damien Knight, one of the brothers in the Hawkscliffe clan of brothers and sisters sired by different fathers to the same mother while she was married to the Duke of Hawkscliffe. Damien suffers from PTSD (although not called that during the Regency setting of this novel), and only Miranda FitzHubert can help him overcome the demons that have driven him to solitude. Emotional, sexy, and fun, as are all of the books in this series. Four out of four bookworms.




Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia by Carmen Bin Ladin

How does an intelligent, Western woman find herself married to a man who abhors her intelligence and Western ways? Carmen Bin Ladin tells us how she met, fell in love with, and married Islamic fundamentalist Yeslam Bin Ladin, Osama Bin Ladin’s brother. We see her try (and fail) to adapt to life as a Saudi woman. We learn why Saudi Arabia is such a threat to the United States. When you finish this book, you may wonder why President Bush attacked Iraq as opposed to Saudi Arabia. Carmen lived with the Bin Ladin clan, making her insight into Saudi Arabia fascinating as well as educational. Four out of four bookworms.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Mayada: Daughter of Iraq: One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein by Jean Sasson

Jean Sasson writes revealing accounts of women’s lives in the Middle East. This factual story of Mayada Al-Askari, a member of a prominent Iraqi family will convince you that Saddam Hussein was pure evil. It will also leave questions in your mind about whether Saddam Hussein was indeed involved with Osama Bin Ladin and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mayada attracts Saddam’s attention as a journalist. What begins as Saddam’s favorable interest in her journalistic skills becomes imprisonment and torture on his orders. The stories of the women with whom she shares a cell are as compelling as her own. Four out of four bookworms.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, by Queen Noor

Imagine growing up in a fairly typical, albeit wealthy, American family, then falling in love with and marrying a king. Not the King of Monaco, but the King of Jordan. Sound like a work of fiction? A fairy tale, maybe? This is Queen Noor’s life. Her autobiography gives us an insider’s view of Middle Eastern politics, government, culture, and religion from the perspective of a woman born and raised in the United States. It is also a love story—between a woman and a man, and a woman and her adopted country. Queen Noor’s autobiography reads like a novel, compelling to the end. Four out of four bookworms.