The Middle Aged Woman Who Sat On The Beach

My children are on our lake community's summer swim team. They are in different age brackets on that team which means they practice at different times. That means I sit on the beach for a minimum of three hours each Monday to Thursday. I know: boo hoo. I'm trying not to micromanage my children- Free Range Kids and all- so once the sunscreen is on, I try to do my own thing without hovering. I've only got so much chit chat, gossip, and complaining to other parents in me, so eventually I start reading. I tried reading for my new teaching gig, but it's hard to focus on Shakespeare with frequent interruptions for snacks and squabble settling, so it's strictly beach reading at the lake now. I'm almost done with Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire. I read his first last year for my book club (it was a big hit with the ladies, by the way), and I think I like this one even better. Honest to God, though, every single character and place name sounds like an item in the IKEA catalogue. That's not even me trying to be funny. While I was reading it the other day, another mom mentioned that she is on the third of Larsson's novels and had I read the review in the Times (NY I assume) that proposes that the main female character, Lisbeth Salander is actually the grownup Pipi Longstocking. I had not seen that article, but the notion has made me happy all week. I think I have written here about how much I loved Pipi as a girl and how thoroughly my kids and I loved reading Astrid Lindgren's book a year or so ago.

So, that's what I'm reading at the beach. Have you got a juicy summer book? Do tell.

If Only I Could Fit Into Their Jeans

I am just like a fourth grade boy. I have spent my days at our local lake this week, swimming, jumping off the dock, eating ice pops and reading The Name of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. Two fourth grade boys there told me they are reading the same book. The mother of a third fourth grade boy told me her son is reading it as well. I am reading it (actually I finished it yesterday) at my daughter's urging. She has read the entire series and pushed me to read at least the first so we can discuss it. I'm glad I did. It is a fun read and has helped me get in touch with my inner ten year old.

The Name of This Book is Secret is the story of eleven year olds Cass and Max Ernest, misfits in their elementary school, who discover a dead magician's notebook and something called The Symphony of Smells. They end up trying to solve a mystery and save a classmate. The book is filled with riddles, word play, suspense, and much silly humor. It's the perfect beach reading for kids like me.

Travel Prep

The Book Bench family has a trip to Europe planned for later this spring. We are preparing feverishly. Mostly that consists of hoping for the Icelandic volcano to behave and reading guidebooks. A little advice to parents out there: Fodor's and Let's Go guides are great as are the Rick Steeves travel guides and anything with "Kids" in the title. I would not recommend allowing your eleven year old son to check just any old guidebook from the travel section of your public library. If he checks one out published by MTV Books (you read that right), he might be able to tell you how many grams of marijuana you can carry without being hassled by local police and how to ask where to buy condoms in French. This will result in your having to explain to him what a condom is, not the most fun conversation imaginable.

My daughter is taking a much more enjoyable approach to travel prep. She is hoarding candy in case she doesn't like the food in Europe and she is reading novels set in London and Paris. Currently she is reading and loving Siobhan Dowd's The London Eye Mystery.

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!

Words I Never Thought I Would Hear

"I think this book might be better than Harry Potter," said my nine year old daughter last night of Blue Balliet's Chasing Vermeer. Gobsmacked I was!

It Always Comes Back to T-Shirts

I'm up to my eyeballs in research on Edgar Allen Poe. I want to do a good job preparing these lessons because a) I've never taught Poe before and b) Some of my students have told me they are looking forward to reading his works, and I don't want to disappoint them. Of course I keep thinking of the awesome Simpson's version of "The Raven." While I can mention it and maybe even show it, I think I need more than that. I've found some great ideas and biographical information on Poe, which is good, but as is so often the case, I end up at cool t shirt websites.

I love this Nevermore Raven, but I can't quite justify purchasing it to wear for only one school day a year.

I guess I'll just have to come up with a gangbuster lesson plan instead.

Misc. Items

I want to write about a variety of book related topics that have occurred to me this week, but I feel I must begin with the title of this post. I wrote "Misc." on the chalkboard at school this week and more than one student asked me what it meant. I explained that it was an abbreviation for miscellaneous and I was asked twice why I didn't bother spelling that word out. That struck me as highly ironic since so many of my students write in such a way that I can tell they are of the texting generation. Their papers are filled with "&," "b/c," "w/" and "LOL." Yes, "LOL" on an essay. I spoke with another teacher who told me to brace myself for the emoticons that are sure to come, as in "It was sad when Romeo and Juliet died at the end of the play :(" I didn't see that when I was last teaching high school students almost ten years ago.

On a positive note, this week I had one of my best book conversations in the classroom ever. I was discussing Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and his "Speech in the Convention." I asked the kids what they think he valued based on their reading and was met with blank stares. Someone said he might have valued the Philadelphia Eagles because (b/c?) he lived in Philly. After we went over the fact that football was not played in the colonies nor was there an NFL, I asked if it had been played then, what position did they think old Ben would have played based on what they read by him. They warmed to the topic so quickly. I then asked if he was dropped into our society today, what sport would he enjoy the most based on what they read. The answers were brilliant and I left work happy that day.


Speaking of leaving work, I have something to listen to now on my drive home. A friend just lent me the audio book of Spencer Quinn's Dog On It, I've been told that it's a humorous whodunit with a canine narrator. Chet the dog and his owner, a down on his luck private investigator, solve a crime and have some adventures in this story that I have been assured I will enjoy greatly. While I'm in no hurry for Monday to get here, I am less cranky about my long commute now that I've got Dog On It to look forward to.

Book Club Report

My book club met one night this week to discuss Stieg Larson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was a big hit with most of the ladies. I really enjoyed it and was happy for the opportunity to discuss it with others. It's a difficult book to describe as it is part corporate intrigue, part dysfunctional family saga, and part mystery with some sado masochism thrown in there too. It set in Sweden and all of the place names are these ridiculously long Swedish words which I couldn't begin to try to pronounce so I just glossed over them while reading. No matter. The story was a quick engaging read, and I'm looking forward to the other books in the series that Larson wrote before he died. The book club was a double success because I think I also brokered a workable ice hockey carpool with one of the other moms who is in the club. Win-win. Next month's selection is Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture.

The London Eye Mystery

I went into reading Siobhan Dowd's The London Eye Mystery with mixed prejudgements. On the one hand, I planned to love it as I enjoy any book set in contemporary England because I just adore reading about people eating crisps and puddings, wearing trainers, and going "to hospital." On the other hand, I had decided that it might just be The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Light. It does bear some strong similarities to Mark Haddon's novel as both stories have male protagonists on the autistic spectrum solving mysteries, but the books are very different and worth reading.
The London Eye Mystery has been written for a younger audience. I would say it is ideal for fifth through ninth grade readers. It tells the story of twelve year old Ted who has, I believe, Asperger's Syndrome, and his older sister Kat who decide to solve the mystery of their missing cousin Salim. All three had been on a queue (another word which keeps me reading British novels) to ride the London Eye. A stranger offers Salim a ticket to ride, and he goes up on the sealed pod but does not come out when the ride is over. Ted' brain which "works on a different operating system" than other people's is ideal for solving the mystery. It is a tightly constructed mystery too, making for a very satisfying read.

The New Jersey Juice Bag Junket

My husband was in Boston this weekend for a much deserved guys' weekend away. I believe the trip earned its own name. Pub Crawl 2009. Not to be outdone, I decided to name my weekend home with the kids. I was chauffeur and activities director of the Great New Jersey Juice Bag Junket of 2009. It included play dates, carpooling, some other kid's bowling party, a playground visit, shoe shopping, and a boys' ice hockey game. The kids and I did make it to Borders to buy the new 39 Clues book (which my ten year old is really enjoying) and our weekend was alcohol free, but otherwise I bet the New Jersey Juice Bag Junket and the Boston Pub Crawl 2009 had a few things in common- overpriced and spilled drinks, inappropriate humor, loud places where one needed to shout to be heard, sticky tabletops, the consumption of bar finger food by the pub crawlers and too much eating with their fingers by the junketeers, and a splitting headache at the end of it all.

Hockey Tournament Weekend

We were away this past weekend at an ice hockey tournament for my ten year old son. His team won the tournament so he was thrilled. The other guys on his team had siblings there and the hotel had a pool so my other kids were happy as well. I had vague ideas of doing a "Hockey Tournament by the Numbers" post this morning. Something a little like:

90= the number of consecutive minutes our six year old spent in the pool Friday night.

82= the number of pages I read aloud of The Mysterious Benedict Society on our road trip.

6 =number of pages I got to read in my own book, Elizabeth George's Careless in Red. Back when I was pregnant, I craved her mysteries the way some women crave pickles and ice cream. Don't worry; I'm just reading this one because I saw it on the new fiction shelf at the library.

6= also equals the number of rows my daughter knitted on the scarf she's making. It annoys me no end that she can knit and I cannot.

3= number of boys from our team in the penalty box at one time during a game!

Okay, you get an idea of what I considered writing. It probably would have been much more interesting and well written than all of that. But the last few minutes we spent in the ice hockey rink before heading home overshadowed everything else that came before, and I would rather write about those minutes. As my son's team was celebrating and packing up in the locker room, I noticed a number of tweens and teenagers in wheelchairs and walking with braces and crutches arrive at the rink. They were there to play a game of sled hockey. I had never seen sled hockey before, but I've become a fan. It pretty much follows the rules of standard ice hockey, but players with mobility limitations sit in specially designed sleds. There are two blades on the bottom of the sled and the players propel themselves on the ice with ice picks that look like small ice hockey sticks and can be used to hit the puck. My ten year old son had a lot of questions about how the players would get off the bench (they don't; they line up on the sides), how they would hit the puck (quite hard), and other aspects of the game. Just a few minutes of watching answered all of his questions and impressed him. It was fascinating and inspiring. Clearly those players love the game of ice hockey and weren't going to be kept off the ice by their physical challenges. It was very inspirational to me as a parent. I've got to grumble less about driving carpools and lugging equipment around for my kids' sports and activities and spend more time appreciating how fortunate we are. It was a great weekend from start to finish.

Why I Am Jealous Of My Children And May Be Kicked Out of Oprah's Book Club

I have been reading David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It has gotten some very good reviews and is Oprah's current book club selection. That means it was sold at 40% off on a day I happened to have a gift card to my local bookstore. I'm a sucker for a little buzz and a big discount, so I bought it. It's a good book, but I've been finding it a little slow going. My daughter, on the other hand, is flying through Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy. She's been reading it in bed and at the bus stop. She took it into the bathtub the other night. On her recommendation, my son is reading and loving Roald Dahl's Matilda. He is having fun retelling the funny bits to me, and there are quite a few of them. We all get a kick out of the name of Matilda's school headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. So of course I'm envious of my children with their juicy, engrossing books, or at least I was until Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, I picked up a copy of Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society. Holy cow, this book is awesome! I intended to save it as our next nighttime read aloud book, but couldn't resist reading just a few pages. I cannot put it down. I'm halfway through it. Last night my daughter woke up around 11 and came into my bedroom where I was reading it and said in an accusatory voice,"I thought you were going to wait to read it with us!" Look who's jealous now!

Capital Mysteries

It was not my intention to keep blogging about kids' books that have to do with politics. Then again, it was never my intention to drive a minivan, carry a purse filled with snacks and tissues for other people, or get gray hair. Things happen. I've decided just to go with it. After I wrote about Duck for President, MadLibs for President, and the picture books about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain, an acquaintance strongly suggested that I check out Ron Roy's Capital Mysteries series. Roy is the author behind the popular A to Z mysteries series. Like the A to Z books, the Capital mysteries (the Capital being Washington, DC) are written on about a second grade reading level. On a recent trip to the bookstore, I looked at Who Cloned the President?, the first in the series. As my older children had enjoyed a few of the A to Z books and they like mysteries, I was willing to give it a try. I showed it to them. Nobody showed any interest in reading it. So for now, our family's big Capital mystery is who will be moving into the White House in January.