Learning something new.

OK, so this post has absolutely nothing to do with anything literacy related. Franki is trying to teach me, technogoddness that I'm not, how to put a youtube video onto my blog. #26 is my oldest son. He's also doing the background rap.




And then here is Son #2, the Quarterback!

A DOG'S WAY HOME

WARNING: This is probably another one of those everyone else has already read and blogged about this, so why is she just doing it now posts!

I am a dog lover to the nth degree. I wake up every morning with Jack and Star, my two black lab mixes, squished tight against me. I cover the couch, so the dogs can look out the window while I'm gone. When we moved in last summer, the backyard was beautiful. And now, well, let's just say now it's not (I'm open to ideas about how to have two big dogs and a backyard too, if anyone has any).

Interestingly, I don't always like animal stories. I especially don't like stories where the animals talk or act like people. Last week at the library, however, I picked up A DOG'S WAY HOME by Bobby Pyron. And I loved it.

Abby Whistler is a twelve-year-old girl, living with her mother, musician father, her grandmother, and her best friend, a sheltie named Tam, in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. Tam is an award-winning agility dog, and on the way back from a contest, four hundred miles away from home, the family is in a car accident. Abby and her mother are both hurt, and Tam's crate is thrown from the back of the truck, down the side of a mountain, and into a river. By the time Tam makes his way back to the spot of the accident, several days later, his girl is gone, and Tam is faced with a long journey home.

I had a lump in my throat from the beginning of this book to the end. The book is told in alternating chapters, one told from Abby's point of view, and the next from Tam's. Abby negotiates middle school and a mid-year move, all the while missing her dog and dreaming about him almost every night. Tam faces life in the wild- hunger, predators, bad weather, and animal traps- trying to get home to his girl.

A terrific read, sure to hold the attention of any dog lover…

JOY (and Kindle) FOR BEGINNERS

A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, a new friend (@mimireads) told Patrick Allen and I that we should check out THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS by Erica Bauermeister. I did, and loved it (see post here) , so on Friday night, I online went looking for other books Bauermeister had written. Bauermeister's newest book, JOY FOR BEGINNERS, was just released a couple of weeks ago. Knowing that my boys had a football-a-thon (ok, really a 7 on 7 tournament, that lasts for twelve hours, which is divided approximately equally between watching football, fetching water and gatorade for grumpy, overheated children and just sitting around waiting for games to happen), I downloaded JOY FOR BEGINNERS onto my Kindle and threw that into my bag. I spent more time being water girl and less time waiting, so I didn't get much read during the tournament, but I read a good chunk yesterday, then finished JOY FOR BEGINNERS this morning.

The main character in JOY FOR BEGINNERS is Kate, a woman who has been through a mastectomy and subsequent treatment for breast cancer. In the opening chapter of JOY, Kate and six of her closest friends, women who have cared for her during treatment, are having a victory party, celebrating Kate's return to health. Shortly before the party, Kate's college-aged daughter, Robin, has asked her to consider a river rafting trip down the Grand Canyon and hung the pamphlet on the bulletin board in the kitchen. Kate's friends encourage her to go on the trip. Kate agrees that she will, but only if each of her friends will take on a challenge during the next year. The biggest twist is that Kate will decide what each challenge will be.

Bauermeister has come to be a new favorite author. She goes into a "category" with Elizabeth Berg and Anna Quindlen. Those authors write simple clean stories that I can read at football practices or waiting rooms. Even though the stories are relatively straightforward, there are lots of big truths, great lines that I write down or mark to share with friends. I loved this story about women and friendship and taking on challenges. I want my book club to read it. I want us to think about challenges we might set for each other. Maybe even set a few…And like Quindlen and Berg, Bauermeister is a terrific writer, a master of specificity and sensory details, someone I revisit again and again as I attempt to become a better writer.

As I was reading JOY FOR BEGINNERS, I also thought a lot about my reading process. I got my Kindle for Valentine's Day, and I'm still trying to figure out what place it has in my reading life. I had wanted one for a long, long time, but if I am honest, I have not really used it all that much. Here are some initial observations:

Things I love about my Kindle:

• The size.
• I can get a new book within a couple of minutes (this might also be a dangerous feature, given my propensity for buying books instead of food or clothing).
• I love that once I'm done with a book, it doesn't take up a lot of space in my life. I still have it on my Kindle, and I can go back to it any time I like, but I don't have to try to find room for it on my overflowing bookshelves.
• That ebooks, even new books, are much less expensive than "regular" books (and yeah, I'm aware that I don't have the right language).

Things I'm still trying to figure out:

• I can't pass on books I love, like JOY FOR BEGINNERS, to my friends. Last night, for example, I was telling my friend, Kathleen, how much I was enjoying Erica Bauermeister's books. She said she needed something new to read. Ordinarily, I would just pass the book on to her, but because it was on my Kindle, I couldn't. I don't like that, at all.
• I'm also not sure I will buy many children's books on the Kindle, because if I like them, I want to be able to put them into kids' hands. That's not a possibility with the Kindle, unless I give them my Kindle to use.
• I'm am thinking, though, about what place the Kindle might have in the lives of kids who struggle with reading. Would it make reading easier for those kids if they could adjust the type size or face, number of words on a line, or the orientation of the page? If so, why would we not give them that option?
• I'm also trying to decide whether buying ereaders for my sons might encourage them to read more than they are reading now (not at all).
• And then I'm still trying to figure out the "gadgetry"of the Kindle. I haven't figured out, for example, whether I can get the stuff I highlight from my Kindle to my laptop. And I haven't taken time yet to learn how to get stuff from my Netgalley account onto my Kindle, even though I am pretty sure I can do that.

OK, enough Joy (and Kindle) for beginners. Gotta go do some real life stuff, like laundry and housework!

SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS

I'm off to do the mom thing today. You know, one of those days when you get up super early, spend an hour organizing the cooler, packing lunches, etc., then wake up two sleepy, grumpy teenagers, fuss at them to help you lift the cooler into the car, drive ninety minutes, then sit for seven or eight or ten hours in the hot sun while they do something they love. Then, to top it off, someone will ask tonight why you are tired because you didn't do anything all day (and please don't send me any parenting suggestions-- I know there are lots of people that do it better and have teenagers who are much more pleasant and respectful).

Anyway, before I start the day's festivities, read a terrific book yesterday. I heard about THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS, by Erica Bauermeister, on Twitter, from Mimi (@mimreads), who is a friend of Patrick's (@coloreader). I couldn't put it down.

The main character in SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS is Lillian, who owns a restaurant. Once a month, she turns the restaurant into a cooking school. This book chronicles the life of that cooking class over the course of a year. Each month, as they cook, Bauermeister tells the story of a different character, there's Isabelle, an older woman who is in the early stages of what appears to be Alzheimer's, Claire- a new mom, Chloe- a teenager who has basically raised herself, Ian- a technogeek, Antonia- an Italian kitchen designer, Tom- a lawyer who has lost his wife to cancer, and Carl and Helen- a couple who have been married for fifty years. The stories are rich and wonderful and sensuous. And if you are someone who likes to cook, I think you will enjoy them even more…

I loved this book. I'm downloading Bauermeister's newest book, JOY FOR BEGINNERS, for today. But first, I gotta go load the cooler…

Poetry Friday Roundup

Before I start rounding up,

MaryLee,

the Poetry Friday Organizing Goddess Extraordinaire,

wants me to remind you that we need people

to host Poetry Friday for the next six months.

Go here to sign up.

Lots of summer-licious offerings today…

Jama Rattigan's post, "Vegetable Love," and the beautiful pictures that accompany it, are directly responsible for me spending way too much money at the grocery store this morning

Then Susan Taylor Brown chronicles her new eating journey at Susan Writes.

And, Carlie's watermelon poem is so delicious I feel like I need to head to the kitchen to cut the melon sitting on my counter right now.

At Year of Reading, MaryLee reminds us of the wonderment of fireflies and gratitude.

Heidi Mordhorst brings us Edward Lear's, "The Jumblies," which she swears is perfect for a beach vacation!

At Florian Cafe, Doug Florian shares an e.e. cummings poem that I thought might be funny, until I got to the last stanza. Wow, wow, wow! Also loved knowing that cummings filled twenty pages in his journal before he finished this poem!

Some people found their bouquets in other authors' gardens…

• At The Drift Record, Julie Larios gives us five riddle poems, everything from the Aztecs to Emily Dickinson. I'm hoping a book of "riddle poems" is in the works, because I know kids would love it.

• Karen Edmisten brings us the work of Thomas McGrath (one of those poets I'm pretty sure that anyone who is semi-literate knows about, but that I don't remember ever reading!)
• At Kurious Kitty Diane brings us "Bye and Bye" by Charles McGrath, another poet I am pretty sure I should know, but don't. And for those of you that collect quotes about poetry, like I do, Diane has one of Wright's quotes at Kurious K's Kwotes.
• And yet another new to me poet, Sophie Hannah, from Tabatha Yeatts.

Lots of poems grown in people's own gardens this week…

• Think the poetry thing must be genetic in Sara Lewis Holmes' family. This week, Sara's daughter has written a beautiful Father's Day tribute to her fighter pilot dad atReadWriteBelieve.

• Another lump in the throat poem from Amy at Poem Farm. "Stay Close," is such perfect advice for the times when someone we love is going through something hard and we don't know what to do for them. Amy's poem was included in a collection of poems and essays that Patty Digh gathered when her daughter Emma graduated from high school. I have got to have this book!

• Diane Mayr has a really interesting project on her newest blog, Kids of the Homefront Army. She's written a series of poems narrated by kids during World War II. I definitely want to read some more of these.

• And while we are on a biographical bent, at Bald Ego, Charles Ghigna has been doing a fascinating series of poems connected to famous artists. Today's is about a piece by El Greco.

• And since we have a social studies poem, it's also fortunate that we have one that's science related. Laurie Purdie Salas gives us a lighthearted look at the periodic table.

And a few animal poems…

• Dori's family was visited by a turtle this week, which reminded her of a poem, "Tortoise or Hare," she wrote a couple of years ago.

• Elaine Magliaro brings us Grizzly Bear, a poem which she actually cut from a manuscript about backyard animals. And then at Wild Rose Reader she has posted a poem she wrote for a music teacher that is retiring.

• Gathering Books shares "Trick of Light." I'm fascinated by the way they have superimposed the poem on top of an image. I want to know how to do that!

Several poems that would be fun to use in mini-lessons about poetry…

• At a Year of Literacy Coaching, Libby captures life with a toddler. This is also a great example of a list poem.

• Robyn Hood Black has a list poem written by first graders, then a couple of water haiku, all based on a photograph of the Salem Harbor.

• At Teaching Authors, April invites us to try a trimeric and gives us four of her own as models. Hers are so fun I'm considering trying one of my own. Maybe that will be my Poetry Friday post next week (don't hold your breath!)

• Speaking of April, Kate Coombs, who is moving out of state next week, shares a packing villanelle inspired by one of April's posts!

• David Elzey has a semi found road sign poem (Don't miss the comments written by some of our very clever Poetry Friday friends!)

• Rebecca shares a snow poem that would be really fun to use with kids in a lesson on poetry as a new way of seeing the world.

And a few wildflowers …

• At Random Noodling, Diane shares her thoughts on Kenau Reeves' current writing project.

• Irene Latham recently attended a writing workshop given by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Today she offers a few tips from that workshop.

• Janet reviews ELLINGTON WAS NOT A STREET by Ntozake Shange and illustrated by one of my all time favorites- Kadir Nelson.

• Kate shares two poems from Mary Ann Hoberman's YOU READ TO ME, I'LL READ TO YOU. I'm going to be in my own classroom for the first time in several years. I'll definitely going to build these two poems into the poetry we share in the first couple of weeks! Thanks for the reminder, Kate!

Think that's all for this week.

If I forgot anyone, it was purely accidental.

Shoot me an email and I will correct my mistake.

POETRY FRIDAY IS HERE!

Welcome!

Poetry Friday is here today!

I'm so glad to have you visit!

The iris in Colorado have been gorgeous

for the past few weeks.

Went searching for an iris poem

to match a picture I took this week

and found the perfect one by Mary Oliver.

"Praying"

Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention…

Read the rest of the poem here.

Leave your links in the comment section

and I will round them up several times throughout the day.

ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE

Mike is a fourteen year old boy, being raised by (or maybe raising?) his absent-minded, math professor father. When the professor is invited to teach in Romania for a summer, he sends Mike to live with a great aunt and uncle, who he has never met. His father believes that his math-hating son will be helping to build an artesian screw, which will help Mike, who has math learning disabilities, to get into a math magnet high school.

When Mike arrives in the town of DoOver, he finds a very different situation. His great uncle, Poppy, is completely overcome by grief over the death of an adult son, and sits in a chair all the time. His great aunt Moo has macular degeneration, but still drives (scarily). These two, along with Gladys, a heavily pierced and tattooed bank worker, and Past, a homeless man who has his "office" in the park, have teamed up to raise $40,000 to bring a little boy, Misha, from Romania to be adopted by Karen, the town minister. When Karen's father has a stroke, she is called away and Mike is put in charge of the town's fund raising efforts.

This book is funny, but also more than a little sad. Mike wants to be one thing, his dad hopes he will turn out to be very different. In Do Over, Mike discovers that it is ok to be who you are…

Read Mary Lee's review at Year of Reading.