I loved dolls as a child. I mean I LOVED them. It was slightly pathological. I think I liked dolls more than people. I was never into Barbies, or plastic dolls at all. I loved rag dolls and made them my family. I had Raggedy Anne and Andy, as well as Holly Hobbie and several … More Marvelous Middle Grade Monday – Rumer Godden’s Doll Stories
I don’t normally do real book reviews here, apart from Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. The blogosphere is inundated with YA book reviews and thus I stick to my pithy book-tweets to let the world know how I feel about what I read. But I’m going to make an exception for THERE IS NO DOG by … More Books for teenage Atheists – THERE IS NO DOG by Meg Rosoff
Sometimes students ask me if the protagonist of a book has to be “good’. I tell them certainly not, while pointing out of course, that it’s best if they are likable in some way. Then they will sometimes say “But he’s the hero. Aren’t heroes always good?” There follows a discussion of the relative interchangeability … More Protagonist vs. Hero – A Provocative Suggestion
I just want to point out, that after doing my Terrific Teen Tuesday for a few weeks now, I have noticed something a little sad. I research these teens primarily through word of mouth – other people’s tweets and Facebook posts and such. But sometimes I just do a Google news search on “teen”. While I’ve … More Terrific Teen Tuesday – Jessica Ahlquist vs. God
For this week’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday I’m looking at a classic survival story, HATCHET by Gary Paulsen. This is one I didn’t read as a child. This Newbery Honor book was published in 1987. when I was already an adult and I didn’t read it until well into the 21st Century, when I was … More Marvelous Middle Grade Monday – HATCHET and Survival Tales
I’ve done a lot of reading this week. A LOT (not “alot”, which is in fact this kind of creature). And after this week of contention on the blogs about bad reviews and snarky authors I’d certainly like to throw a real flaming cannonball at someone, but in reality, everything has been pretty good. … More Book Tweets
I’m the girl everyone loves but no one wants to marry. At least I was. Eventually I convinced my husband to marry me, and I don’t think he regrets it. And even though I was only 31 when I got married, it seemed like I had spent a lifetime listening to men tell me how they … More Waiting for the Ring
I was going to go dark today because of SOPA/PIPA but, being Canadian, I felt it better to have a laugh at the whole sorry mess, because that’s what we do. In that spirit, here’s a very silly video, courtesy of 107.7 combining two of my favorite things: Don McLean and cats.
To be honest, people have been tweeting about Bill HB 2281 for a couple of days now, and I’ve been ignoring it. So many crazy things happen in the USA these days with the various political loop-dee-loops on the rampage that it’s hard to take anything too seriously. But I caught a detail from this story … More Terrific Teen Tuesday – Go Tucson Teens! Stop Censorship!
For this week’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday I’m remembering a book I read over and over as a child – The One Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. Now I’ve got nothing against either the Disney animated version of this story or the live action one, although the series of sequels is getting a … More Middle Grade Monday : The One Hundred and One Dalmatians
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