Book Loot

The Fed Ex man arrived at 6:30 last night with five boxes of books from a recently placed Amazon order. Just 12 hours earlier Ella arrived home from school with a Scholastic book order. Here's a look at our book loot. So many books, so little time...

Friday Finds (vol. 3)

A massive snow storm arrived on Friday leaving us with little computer time. So a few days late, here's our Friday Finds. This week they are the result of a little library sleuthing by Ella and a family recommendation.

1) Animorph's by K.A. Applegate -- Ella stumbled across this junior-sci-fi series at her school library. I love the fact that there seem to be  50+ books in the series. This gives us lots of material to feed our hungry reader! The stories are about five kids that can morph into any animal they touch. When they take on their animal personas they can help defend the Earth from invaders.

2) Innerstar University (An American Girl Series) -- My sister-in-law (and mom to a second grader as well) recommended this one. It is a new choose-your-own-adventure style book. The story turns on the decisions the reader makes based on how they choose to act or behave when confronted with  certain circumstances. Our first stab at the choose-your-own style of book was the Club Penguin series earlier this year, which was a hit.

The Newbery Medal Winner!!!

"Mom, mom, the slkfdhjskhfkhfsfhkldsfjskljfsfjskjfksf.....fhjdsfhdkjfhgjdbndjkjflf!"

This is what I heard as my daughter stood at the top step ready to descend from the bus the other day.  After "mom," the rest of her statement was drowned out by the noise of passing cars, the mighty purring of the bus engine, and the shouting of students behind her. As she stepped off the bus, excitement shaking her tiny little form, she tried again to share her big news as I leaned in closer to hear. What was coming? Perfect spelling test score? Bonus credit on her Hebrew test? New book from the library?

"MOM, the Newbery winner was announced today!!!!!!!!!!"

I have never seen a 7-year old get so excited about the selection of the Newbery Award Winner. Simply fabulous.

The 2013 winner is The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The Newbery Medal home page gives a summary of the book and the reason it was selected by the judges:

Ivan’s transformative emergence from the “Ape at Exit 8” to “The One and Only Ivan, Mighty Silverback,” comes to life through the gorilla’s own distinct narrative voice, which is filled with wry humor, deep emotion and thought-provoking insights into the nature of friendship, hope and humanity.

Saige's Mission -- An American Girl Book Review

Title: Saige (Part of the American Girl Series)
Author: Jessie Haas
Pages: 123

Rating: ** 1/2

Review:

In this book, Saige realizes at the start of fourth grade there won't be any art classes this year, only music. Every year, the school rotates between art and music because there is not enough money for both. Saige gets the party committee to have a party and a parade to raise money. At the parade, Saige rides a horse named Picasso. Saige and Gabby (her friend) teach Picasso how to paint; how to say yes, no and dah; and how to do a horse laugh. At the party, Tessa (her best friend) sings. I liked this book because it was about horses.

Friday Finds (vol. 2)

While I was racing through Target on Tuesday trying to find a small present and book for each of my two older kids -- a reward for the arrival of awesome report cards that said they were doing wonderfully in everything and trying hard and behaving (!!!!)  -- I passed a funny looking little book, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.

My first thought: Does no one tire of Star Wars?

My second thought: Ella and Nethaniel will probably love this.

Sometimes reading just needs to be flat out fun. Nothing deep, nothing serious. Just a story about a boy who makes an oragami finger puppet of Yoda.

So in honor of this unexpected find, we bring you this week's Star Wars-themed Friday Finds otherwise known as the Oragami Yoda Series:


1) The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (book 1)

2) Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger

3) The Secret of the Fortune Wookie by Tom Angleberger