Title: The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale
Author: Carmen Agra Deedy & Randall Wright
Year Published: 2011
Rating: 4 stars
Ages:  8 and up
Format:  Listened to the audiobook

The Cheshire Cheese Cat is a classic animal tale with the kind of lovable characters, secrets and intrigue that make for a good read aloud story which appeals to kids and ( Read more... )

Books:
Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Year Published: 2006
Rating: 4 stars
Ages: 14 and up
Format: Listened to audiobook on mp3 player from Audible.com

A twelve-year-old girl in World War II Germany starts her life as a book thief when she arrives at the home of her new foster parents in a suburb of Munich. This is a lovely tale about regular ( Read more... )

Books:
Title: The Underneath
Author: Kathi Appelt
Year Published: 2008
Rating: 4 stars
For Ages: 9 years and up

An abandoned calico cat teams up with an abused dog to raise her kittens in rural Louisiana.  This lyrical story also features an abused man who has become a monster, the largest alligator in the bayou, and a mythical snakelike creature.  The ( Read more... )

Blogs:
How Reading Helps Kids Develop Empathy - If you have elementary-school-aged kids, or if you just enjoy middle grade books, check out the excellent Middle Grade blog, From the Mixed Up Files. It's chock full of helpful information for parents, teachers, and writers of middle grade readers. One of their recent posts is about how reading helps ( Read more... )

Books:
Title: Fantasy Baseball
Author: Alan Gratz
Published: March 2011
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Ages: 8 and up
Format: Read eBook on Kindle for Droid Phone

Alex Metcalf doesn't know how he ended up on a bus full of almost forgotten storybook characters who have formed a baseball team.  Here in storybook world, characters whose stories are no longer read vanish ( Read more... )

Books:
Title: Tuesdays at the Castle
Author: Jessica Day George
Date Published: October 2011
Rating: 4 out 5
Ages: 8 years and up
Format: Read eBook on Nook for Droid Phone

Every Tuesday Castle Glower adds new rooms to itself. For generations the castle has behaved like a living person, making life easier or harder for the inhabitants based on how much it ( Read more... )

Author: Marie Lu
Published: November 2011
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Ages: 12 and up
Format: Read eBook on Kindle for Droid

15-year-old Day is the Republic's most wanted criminal. He didn't set out to be a criminal, he just wants to help his family survive. In the future Los Angeles of the dystopian Republic, where most of the coastal areas are flooded, ( Read more... )

Music:
K'naan, Troubadour (****) [2009] - Rapper K'naan was born in Somalia. Right before the war broke out his family immigrated to New York and then Toronto.  His album is full of upbeat hopeful rap and hip-hop songs about the immigrant experience, with plenty of realistically sad details and a touch of bravado about what a badass he is for ( Read more... )

TV Quote of the Week: "Just because I tell you things doesn't mean you're allowed to know them," Caroline on The Vampire Diaries.

My Life:
 I like having one of my kids at college.  The daughterling gets to enjoy the benefits of being an only child (something my son got when he was young), and I love texting with my son and reading about his new ( Read more... )

I didn't listen to a new album every week, but I listened to one at least every other week. Though, I mostly kept to safe choices that fit in my music comfort-zone this summer.

Albums  Listened to This Summer:

Vanessa Carlton, Be Nobody [2002] (****), Heroes & Thieves [2007] (*** 1/2), Best of [2011] (****)
Vanessa Carlton is a piano playing ( Read more... )