Questions from the Backseat

Even though my son still has a little over a week left of fifth grade, the summer reading list and assignment has come out for incoming sixth graders. My wonderful neighbor and friend, armed with the list and library cards, brought my son and her daughter to our public library over the weekend to get a jump on checking out the books. As they have to read two each, she saved me a good thirty bucks by getting the books before they are all checked out of the library.

From the short stack he brought home, my son asked me to pick out the one I thought he would like best. I was shocked but leaped into action and selected Gennifer Choldenko's Al Capone Does My Shirts. Apparently I chose well because he is moving through it at a pretty fast clip. On the drive to his allergist's office the other day, my son read in the backseat and peppered me with questions such as

"What is a phonograph?"

"What is a radio cabinet?"

"What is an asylum?"

"Tell me everything you know about Alcatraz."

I was shocked by how much I know about Alcatraz Island, which is where the book is set in 1935. The main character is the son of a prison electrician.

I hope we have as much luck with the summer math packet he has to complete!

Another Thing I Am Too Old For

My precious bibliophile daughter turned ten this past week. Ten! I can hardly believe it. She had a pajama party here at the Book Bench house with a bunch of lovely but high spirited girls on Friday night. I am still tired. Her friends know her well and several gave her books and gift cards to the bookstore. We were in the aisles of our local Borders spending one of those cards by noon on Saturday. With a fistful of coupons, she was able to do some damage to their stock. Currently, Hayden is reading three books, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Mary Poppins Comes Back, and The Magician's Elephant. She is also reading a book in school with her class. I don't know how she keeps the plot lines straight. I can't even remember where I put my book down half the time. It's good to be young!

The Best Possible Scenario

I know I have mentioned on this blog how much my kids (and I) love Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. It was with much glee and anticipation that we recently went to see the movie in the theater. It was funny and we laughed and elbowed each other at the good parts throughout. The best part for me, however, was as we walked out of the theater and the kids told me that although it was great, the book was better. I love when they like the book better!

Seven Things That Made Me Smile Today

1. It is 73 degrees and sunny outside.

2. I played charades with a group of high school juniors today. I played it with them during the last period of the day on the day before spring break. All that separated them from a sunny spring break was 50 minutes and me. Instead of being cranky, distracted, or too cool for school, they threw themselves into the game of charades with abandon, and we had a lot of laughs.

3. During library duty I squeezed in a few pages of Kate Atkinson's latest Jackson Brodie mystery, When Will There Be Good News?

4. This afternoon, my son who is in the first grade informed me that he "is moving on from Flat Stanley to The Boxcar Children."

5. I ate a few marshmallow Peeps.

6. Anticipating a new 30Rock. I'm hoping The Office is new tonight too. What the heck. If you're gonna dream, dream big.

7. Rolling down my window and belting out Jackson Five tunes in the car.

I hope you had much to smile about today.

A Shortlist on St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays. As a lover of carbohydrates (soda bread, potatoes, green bagels) it's a no-brainer. I also like to affect a brogue and green is one of my better colors so it makes sense. There are also many great picture books based on Irish myths and legends that I've enjoyed with my children over the years. Our favorite is Tomie dePaola's Finn McCoul which I mentioned here a few weeks ago when deciding on a read aloud book for my son's fifth grade class. dePaola's Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato and Jamie O"Rourke and the Pooka are also fun reads for the three to nine year old set.

For older readers, eight to twelve years old, Marie Heaney's The Names Upon the Harp is a lovely book of Irish myths and legends illustrated by P.J. Lynch. P.J. Lynch is worth an Amazon search of his own as everything he illustrates is beautiful.

For contemporary Irish fiction for that same age group I of course recommend Eoin Colfer. I think I have made it clear in this blog that his Artemis Fowl books are utter brilliance. His Half Moon Investigations about the somewhat inept twelve year old private investigator Fletcher Moon, set in a modern Irish suburb, is great fun. I've read that the BBC made a TV series of this book, and I'm curious to view it.

For adults looking for a compelling story wrapped up in the history of twentieth century Ireland, Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture is perfect. My book club read this one in the fall and I have not stopped thinking about it or giving it as a gift. It is sad and wonderful at the same time, telling the story of Roseanne (Clear) McNulty an Irish woman sent to a mental institution for the bulk of her life. The book begins as the institution is about to close and her doctor needs to place her somewhere. Her story and their relationship grow from there. Roseanne's personal story and fate are tangled up in the national story and fate. Loved it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What's The Difference Between a Hockey Blogger and a Pit Bull?

In case you don't have hockey fans in your home, yesterday was a big day in ice hockey. There was nail biting and screaming and dropped jaws in my house yesterday as the Canadian team beat the US team in overtime yesterday afternoon. If "our team" had to lose, at least it was Sidney Crosby who scored the game winning goal. My boys really admire him. In fact, last February I posted an entry about a Crosby biography here at The Book Bench. I don't generally rerun posts, but I will provide the link in case you are interested. It is http://thebookbench.blogspot.com/search?q+sidney+crosby. That said, I would be much happier today providing the link to a book about Zach Parise or Ryan Miller. Ah well, good for Sidney!

If the link above does not work, my original Sidney Crosby post is from February 3, 2009.

School Nurse Books

Were you the kind of kid who frequented the school nurse's office or avoided it like the plague? As a kid, I was never a big fan of visiting the school nurse. Do not misunderstand; my elementary school nurse, Mrs. Koch, was a lovely woman. I even played her in a tribute/school play when she retired. I think I landed the part because my own mother is a nurse and had a uniform, complete with nurse's cap, for me to use as a costume. Despite that, I didn't want much to do with the nurse's office. I always failed the eye test and feared failing the scoliosis test (Deenie, anyone?). So I was a little shocked yesterday when my daughter was upset that she missed the school nurse's visit to her classroom. Head lice are apparently running rampant through my town's public schools. The nurses are coming in to check all of the kids' heads. (I apologize if you are now hypochondriachally scratching your head as you read this.) My daughter was out of the room as her class was being checked. When I asked why this bothered her, she told me, "The nurses puts these like chopsticks on your head and it feels so good." I love her, but that kid is strange sometimes!

It got me to thinking that I don't know of any school nurse books besides The School Nurse from the Black Lagoon. I also imagine that there might be a Cherry Ames: School Nurse, but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head. That is kind of odd considering the big role the nurse plays in the lives of many schoolchildren. I am curious if anyone out there knows of a good school nurse picture or chapter book?

Somehow Santa got wind of our plans to take a family trip to Europe in the spring. The Bookbenchers are headed to London and Paris for a week this year and the giftgivers jumped all over that, much to my delight. We unwrapped maps and guides to those two cities as well as novels set in them. My boys received Stepping Stone easy reading chapter book versions of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Last night we read the first two chapters of Quasimodo and Esmeralda's tragic story before bed. We were all hooked and can't wait for tonight's installment. Before you get to thinking, "Wow, that Bookbench family is so cultured, reading 19th century Victor Hugo classics," let me just say we spent the two hours before the read aloud watching Dodgeball (funniest sports movie evah!) and laughing so hard someone fell off the couch. We are a mix of high brow and lowbrow over here. I'm worried the European vacation may have more than a little in common with the Griswold's European vacation.

Happy New Year!

A Holiday Cliche

We have been read ing a chapter or two of this each night this week. Everyone loves it. It's a classic, it has ghosts, and there is an illustration on every other page. What's not to love? Merry Christmas and happy reading to all!

The True Gift: A Christmas Story

One of my favorite holiday traditions is reading Christmas stories with my children in the evenings leading up to Christmas Eve. We have some old favorites, but every year I like to find at least one new holiday picture or chapter book. I struck gold with this year's new selection, Patricia MacLachlan's The True Gift A Christmas Story. Perhaps you know Patricia Mac Lachlan from her lovely and now classic Sarah, Plain and Tall. The True Gift is a short (which is a bit of a gift to me during this busy time of year) and gentle chapter book that highlights the beauty of thoughtfulness, generosity, and community. Liam and Lily work to find a friend for White Cow, the lone cow on their grandparents' farm. In trying to help the cow, they help a young boy whose family is struggling financially, and they in turn are helped by the members of their grandparents' farming community. It could inspire some good conversations about whether or not animals have feelings and what it means to give. Brian Floca's pencil drawing are quietly gorgeous. I recommend this one for readers from first through fifth grade looking for a good holiday book that is not too Christmasy.

Menagerie

My life is overrun with animals lately, none of them real. It began with traced hand turkeys a little over a week ago. We were coloring and decorating them in preparation for the Thanksgiving which largely wasn't due to swine flu. Piggy flu hit our household and we're still feeling its effects. To distract one son while he underwent a nebulizer treatment, I read some wonderful Aesop's fables. As you know, those are largely concerned with animals, clever foxes, timid mice, ants, grasshoppers, and the wolf the boy cried about. I have not read Aesop's fables in years, and I'm now on a mission to find some really good versions. It was pretty slim pickings at my local library. The best animal of the long weekend was a fox, Fantastic Mr. Fox specifically. My husband and I took the kids who we judged to be finally noncontagious to see the film last night. It is genius, genius, genius (I'll stop now before I wear out the "g" on my keyboard)!

It is based on the book of the same title by Roald Dahl. That was quite timely as my daughter who adores any word from pen to paper by Roald Dahl is writing a report on him this week. I am happy to report that my nine year old Dahl devotee was satisfied with the film adaptation. I never read Fantastic Mr. Fox, but can honestly say the movie is the best I've seen in about a year. George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman are brilliant as Mr. Fox and his son Ash respectively. The kids and adults in our family left the theater satisfied and talking about the favorite and cleverest parts. There were many.

One last animal note, my six year old son was thrilled to see a preview for the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, a "squeaquel," I can guarantee two things about that movie. One, it will not be as wonderful as Fantastic Mr. Fox and two, he will get me to bring him to it anyway.

Foodie Friday: Clementines Are Here!

I am soooo happy! Why, you ask. I'll tell you why. I am so happy because clementines, or as my children sometimes call them, clementimes, are n the groceries stores of the northeast once again. From now until January, I will have an easier time packing school lunches and I will feel better about my parenting. I will feel like a parent who dispenses citrus fruit rather than leftover candy as an after school snack. If we have company coming over, I throw a bunch of clementines in a bowl and tell myself I've created a Martha Stewartesque centerpiece. If I haven't really done that, please don't burst my bubble.

In honor of the return of the clementines, I have decided to mention Sara Pennypacker's Clementine books about a creative and challenging little girl named Clementine. These books are perfect for first through third graders. Despite the female protagonist, I've had success reading it with boys and girls. Like Junie B. Jones' voice, Clementine's voice takes a little getting used to, but it's worth it. Also worth mentioning are Marla Frazee's lively illustrations.

Everything is Relative

Our current family nightly read is the first Hardy Boys book. My sons are very interested and my daughter hates it. She has no interest whatsoever in Joe and Frank Hardy with their motorcycles and sleuthing skills. It's just not her thing. It has gotten us talking however, about how different people view the same thing in different ways. Besides the Hardy Boys, a recent example is my daughter's Halloween costume. She made a candy button costume and kept it secret from her friends until the big day. About a week before Halloween we were at a neighbor's house and the kids kept asking me and Hayden what her costume would be. Of course I didn't reveal the secret, but I gave what I thought was a hint. I said,"It's delicious." The dad over there said, "She's going dressed as a rack of ribs" while his daughter asked, "Is she going to be a cupcake?" See, everything is relative.

In a similar vein, my older son dressed as an Ipod. Most people recognized him as such, but in one neighborhood where they trick or treated, a number of elderly people mistook him for a television remote control, saying things like, "Come here, Marge, there's a clicker at the door."

In any event, we'll be wrapping up the Hardy Boys soon so I'd better get looking for a book that will please everyone.

Foodie Friday: Fast Food Edition

I haven't written a Foodie Friday since the summer and prepare yourself, this one isn't earth shattering. Three kids on three different soccer teams is killing me. Last night after an evening dental appointment and dragging the kids through Target for toilet paper and sundry other items, I treated them to dinner at Wendy's. I was feeling a small measure of guilt about the fast food dinner because they rarely pick the healthy side choices preferring grease and salt like their Mom. Redemption came in the form Kids' Meal "toy." Rather than a toy, each kid's meal contained a Scholastic Audiobook. And my kids liked them! They were excited about the selections. all Halloween themed, including a Jigsaw Jones mystery and a Geronimo Stilton. French fries and guilt averted. Who can ask for more at 7:30 on Thursday night?

Readable Rodents

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I recently attended an athletic event where all of the participants were rodents. In a weekend with two childrens' soccer games and another one's ice hockey game, we squeezed in the Hamster Ball Derby at Petco. That's right; I gave up precious hours of my Saturday afternoon watching Mario, our pet gerbil, put to shame on a plastic track by a bunch of hamsters in plastic balls. While my children cheered, cajoled, and commanded him to the finish line, Mario paused to groom himself and I thought it's not a far leap from Petco to the greyhound track or that whole mess Michael Vick got himself into. Trying to be more positive, later in the week we reflected upon other rodents who have impressed us with their adventures. By the way, they are all imaginary. Our list included Ralph S. Mouse, Lily of the purple plastic purse fame, that mouse who got the cookie, went to the movies and school, and of course, the Big Kahuna, Stuart Little. If we lined them in plastic hamster balls and yelled "Go!" who do you think would win? My money's on Ralph S. Mouse.

Foodie Friday During Old School Week

School is back in session, and no matter what I pack in my kids' school lunches, they get off the school bus, "Starving!" and "Sooooo Hungry!" Therefore, the topic of after school snacks has been much on our minds and in our conversations. These children are not satisfied with what was a perfectly acceptable after school nosh when I was a kid: pretzels and juice. They want cheeses and nuts, pomegranates and petit fours. Well, maybe they're not that demanding, but still...

While I was lecturing them recently on this topic, they reminded me that Harriet from Harriet the Spy ate a slice of cake and a glass of milk after school every single day. While they all love cake, they did think a slice of it each day would get old.

Then Ethan told me about an "old fashioned snack kids ate a really long time ago." He went on to explain how moms in the olden days would put peanut butter and sometimes raisins inside a stalk of celery. This was all related in a "Can you imagine?" sort of way. Can I imagine? Those ants on a log, while never a staple in the house I grew up in, showed up regularly at class parties and friends' houses in my youth. That is an old school snack never to show up again in schools with all of the nut allergy awareness these day.

I've got cucumber slices, grapes, and Ritz crackers ready for when my kids come home today. A tall stack of Ritz crackers was a favorite after school snack for me years ago. What was your favorite after school snack?

A Fair Is A Veritable Smorgasbord

I had to give this post that title up there because it comes from my favorite song in Charlotte's Web, but this post really isn't about that kind of fair and would be more aptly titled, "Evidence of Our Collective Nerdiness." Over the summer, my youngest son read #35 of Mary Pope Osborne's 7,000 Magic Tree House books. This one is Night of the New Magicians. In it, those

time travelling, clue finding siblings, Jack and Annie, travel to the Paris World's Fair of 1889. At the same time, I was reading Richard Peck's Fair Weather about the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 held in Chicago. I've been fascinated by that World's Fair ever since I first learned of it when my book club read Erik Larson's wonderful The Devil in the White City several years ago. Fair Weatheris written for a much younger audience. I'd say it is perfect for nine to twelve year olds and humorously tells the tale of a humble farming family who end up at the fair with their wealthy aunt.

So we've read some books about World's Fairs. That should be it. End of story. But not in this household! My six year old Ethan decided we needed to hold a Family Fair with exhibitions all over the house. Because they love anything that involves crafts and glue and headaches for me, the other two kids were all over that idea like white on rice. I eventually agreed and set some ground rules. The exhibits had to be contained in bedrooms and last no more than ten minutes. We had about three days to prepare and it turned out to be really fun. Inspired by the scientists at the Paris Fair, Ethan gave us a quasi-science/magic show. nine year old Hayden donned a kimono and put together an impressive origami display, and ten year old Aaron set up Matchbox track all over his bedroom and gave us all marbles to try out his ramps and then allowed us to build our own. My husband and I each put on lame little exhibits. The children appreciated the fact that we tried, but they clearly outdid us. I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it all was, and that is as close as this house will ever get to homeschooling.

Back to School

My children boarded the school buses for the first time this year less than an hour ago. While I should be doing research and writing lesson plans for my return to work as a high school English teacher next week, I first need to blog the lump out of my throat. I am pretty blue this morning. My baby is headed to first grade! How can that be? Plus, it was a really fun summer packed with swimming, bike rides, ice pops, and loafing around. While I'm kind of sad, I am caught up in the excitement of the new school year and am happy that my kids all left with big smiles on their faces. Really big ones. Look:

I like that picture, but I recently read an article about taking back to school photos that describes just that pose as cliche and expected. The article suggested taking photos of backpacks, school lunches, or shoes lined up at the door. Eh. Our backpacks aren't too inspiring

and you don't want to see the state of my boys' shoes. so I lined up the family water bottles, and while that picture may say "Make love not landfills," it doesn't say "Back to School."

The older kids each were asked to bring a book for pleasure reading to school today. Lucky public school kids! Let me say I attended Catholic schools until college and was never told to bring a book for pleasure reading or do anything else pleasurable for that matter. Maybe a photo of the books would be a nice non-cliche memory, but my ten year old son was still hemming and hawing between Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories from The Wayside School and a nonfiction book called The Kid Who Invented Popsicles as we walked out the door this morning. This is what my nine year old daughter packed:

She absolutely loves the wickedly evil pixie Opal Koboi in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books. It's a nice cover, but that shot doesn't scream "School Days" either. I believe the following picture does capture the essence of beginning school in September 2009. It is of what I think is the most important school supply my children have with them today, because as I was shouting "I love you! Have a great day!" what I was really thinking this morning as they got on those buses was "I love you, and don't you dare bring home swine flu!"

Here's One for the Baby Books (Or King Solomon)

Okay, so when I was pregnant with my second child, one of my major preoccupations was what I would do if both babies cried at once. Not many baby books covered that topic but probably because you figure it out quickly. Who needs you most. (Interestingly, when I was pregnant with my third child, the biggest concern to my then three year old son was how we would all fit into a bathroom. By all of us, he meant me, his potty training sister and the new baby. That all worked out too.) Yesterday I had one of those child rearing moments no book prepares you for. What do you do when two of your children come crashing into your house waving their arms and screaming like they are being chased by an axe murder? by a bear? by a flaming avalanche of shrapnel? Oh, and they are screaming, "We've been stung by bees! We've been stung!" And one of them has a stinger sticking out of his ear and the other one's back is swelling up before your eyes turning her into a slender nine year old female Quasimodo who is still screaming! Who to help first? There was no time for triage. I just picked a kid and started pulling out stingers and dispensing Benadryl.
So you would think our house was done with tears for the day after that. But no, a few more quiet ones trickled down the cheek of my ten year old son as he closed the last page on Where The Red Fern Grows. His brother and sister were fast asleep from the trauma of their day (and the Benadryl), but he lay up in bed reading until about 10:30. He couldn't believe that the dogs, Little Ann and Old Dan died.He didn't see it coming and it hit him hard. While I was sad for him, I was happy for him too. He will remember that book always and he's the kind of boy who can be moved by a powerful story. That makes for a wonderful life.

I'm All About Anecdotal Evidence and Unscientific Research

If the movers and shakers of marketing and publicity in the publishing world want to know what people are reading at swim meets in New Jersey this summer, I'm their girl. I worked the admissions table (charging an entrance fee and stamping hands) for a good six hours on Saturday. It's remarkable that I could even perform my duties as I had been chased by a bear on the walk to the meet (see yesterday's post), but as I told my brother, it was "for the kids," so I persevered. Sitting at that table for six hours, I saw a lot of swimmers and parents walk in for a long day of sitting around. I couldn't help but peek into their beach bags. Let me just say that about half the women who had books had Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. I don't even know if they plan to read it, I just think American women feel they must own a copy of it. I was happy to see two women come in with Stieg Larson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as it is my book club's book for this month. Unfortunately, when questioned about it, one woman said she hadn't yet begun reading it and the the other just made a little face (a moue, I believe it's called) and said "Eh." A number of men carried in folded newspapers. Three kids had copies of Zilpha Ketley Snyder's 1966 Newberry Medal winning book The Egypt Game. This piqued my curiosity as my daughter recently checked it out of the library. It turns out those three kids are all in the same grade in a nearby elementary school and that book is their assigned summer reading. One kid walked in with The Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch and was really excited to discuss it. Many little girls who would be stuck waiting around for their older siblings to swim had fairy books packed along with their beach toys and towels, but my absolute favorite was a girl with a copy of Tomie de Paola's fantastic classic Strega Nona. That's my kind of girl - one who chooses a lovable Italian witch with a magical pasta pot over a glittery Disney fairy.