We Quit A Book

For the first time ever, we have quit a bedtime reading book. I have quit many a book on my own, but as a family it has never happened. Sure, we've plowed through some clunkers but we've always seen them through. A few months ago, we decided to read Katherine Paterson's Newberry Medal winning Bridge to Terabithia. It should have been a hit. As I said, it won a Newberry. It is read in elementary schools across America. It references Free to Be You and Me ( the soundtrack of my elementary school years). It was popular enough to be made into a movie a few years back. Despite all of that, the BookBenchers threw in the towel on page 32. I think I knew for sure it was not for us when my youngest son left my room while I was reading, saying "Keep reading. I'll be back soon" and went to his room and fell asleep.

That was a few weeks ago. The kids and I have been doing our own things for bedtime reading for awhile now, but they asked me to pick out a new bedtime read. Ever happy to kill two birds with one stone, I chose Bernard Evslin's The Adventures of Ulysses. I have to read it with freshmen in the fall so I figured I would dry run it at home. Bingo! We have a winner!

It has soldiers and sailors and lots of action. My boys are content. It has Greek gods and goddesses and cleverness. My daughter is on board. It is only 172 pages of short chapters and written on what I would guess is like a sixth grade reading level. That makes it easy on my voice. We are back in the family read aloud game! In case you care, tomorrow's installment will bring us to the Land of the Lotus Eaters.

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!

We're Back!

The Book Benchers have returned from Europe, our bellies full of Mars bars, fish and chips, lager, wine, cheese, croissants, chocolate croissants, almond croissants, and baguettes, our pockets full of Underground and Metro ticket stubs, Mars bar wrappers, foreign coins, croissant crumbs, and dirt, and our laundry room filled with a lot of filthy clothing. Actually, we've been home for about two weeks now and I've been too busy processing the laundry, helping the kids catch up on missed schoolwork, and getting a job for September (alleluia) to post.

It was a fantastic trip, the "best week of my life," according to my seven year old son. He is the one sporting a beret in the picture above. At seven, ten, and eleven, my children are the perfect ages for a trip like this one, which is a good thing too as it was probably a once in a lifetime event for us. It was magic, and fun, and immensely educational. The London highlights include Westminster Abbey, riding the London Eye, and Stonehenge. As an English teacher, I have to include Shakespeare's Globe Theater on this list as well. Having my family sing "Happy Birthday" to me on top of the Eiffel Tower was of course a highlight, but all three kids cite Notre Dame as one of their favorite things we toured in Paris. I am so glad we read The Hunchback of Notre Dame as preparation. Three hours in the Louvre was just about right for all of us. From the photo above, you can tell that we enjoyed biking around Paris. If you are ever there, I cannot sing the praises of Fat Tire Bike Tours loudly enough.

We brought some great guidebooks with us. Here is my shout out to Fodor's. If you are planning a similar trip with kids, Fodor's has Around London with Kids and Around Paris with Kids which were invaluable when planning ahead. While on the trip, Fodor's London's 25 Best and Paris' 25 Best which come with pull out maps were very helpful.

For the plane ride and downtime (there was none, by the way), my ten year old daughter packed only books set in Europe. I was inspired by that and brought Chris Cleave's Little Bee which is largely set in contemporary London. It was a real page turner. More on it soon.

Vacation

I am supposed to be gone fishin' or at least gone sightseein' as of this evening, but who knows as it seems my family and I are in a race against a new volcanic ash cloud to see who can reach London first. Hopefully I will be absent from The Book Bench for a week and will come back with tales of European books and such.

A Question for You

Imagine you are going to be on an airplane for seven to eight hours. What book (or other reading material) would you bring?

The Nominee

Ok, this isn't really about books, but it is big. Moreover, I plan to read lots more about Elena Kagan in the coming days. I love that she praised her late mother and brothers, all public school teachers, today when President Obama introduced her as his nominee to the Supreme Court.

The Thief Lord

Here is a book I've recently finished and passed on to my ten year old daughter. I'm pretty sure she is going to love it. In all honesty, I did not pass on to her the actual copy I read since I listened to the audiobook on my drive to and from work, and I checked a paper copy out of the library for my daughter. Do you consider listening to the audiobook "reading"? I know some book clubs scorn it. It makes good sense to me as I can't stand overly political or overly hyuk hyuk silly talk radio in the morning.

Back to the book. The Thief Lord, written by master German storyteller Cornelia Funke (Inkheart, Igraine the Brave, and so on) tells an adventure story of two orphaned brothers who run away to Venice after the younger one is about to be adopted by an unloving aunt and the older is to be sent to boarding school. Once in Venice, the brothers, Prosper and Bo, meet up with other children on their own and join forces to survive. They also become involved with Victor Getz, a kindhearted private detective the aunt has hired to search for the brothers. Victor is easily my favorite character in the book, which is saying something as this is a very character driven book. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of plot going on as well. There is a lot of adventure, a touch of mystery, and even a tiny bit of magic. And even though it is written for young people, this old lady learned a good bit about the city of Venice from the pages of The Thief Lord.

Apparently the book was adapted into a film a few years back, but I was unaware of that. I am quite glad I "read" the book, and I think my daughter will soon be as well. It is a good choice for fourth through I'd say seventh graders who like a bit of adventure.