Cybils Review: The Periodic Table: Elements with Style!

The Periodic Table: Elements with Style!
created (and illustrated) by (Simon) Basher, written by Adrian Dingle
128 pages; for ages 10 and up
Kingfisher Publications (Houghton Mifflin Co.)
Library copy
I’ve been looking forward to reading this book ever since I saw it mentioned on Carol’s and Rebecca’s blogs.
Artist Simon Basher and chemistry teacher Adrian Dingle have created a [...]

Poetry Friday: ‘Tis the season…

…to brave the stores.
Enigma for Christmas Shoppersby Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978)
It is a strange, miraculous thingAbout department stores,How elevators upwards wingBy twos and threes and fours,
How pale lights gleam, how cables runAll day without an end,Yet how reluctant, one by one,The homing cars descend.
They soar to Furniture, or higher,They speed to Gowns and Gifts,But when [...]

Fruitcake weather

I know my parents for certain and probably some readers consider the more severe winter temperatures up here (-18C this afternoon, around 0 F, and with a bitter wind) “fruitcake weather”. As in, suitable only for fruitcakes like us, content in the ice and snow and it’s not even December yet, for Pete’s sake.
But [...]

Snow fun

The kids rolled the torso and head up the plank.Note the saw on the snowman-to-be’s hip…

Inserting one of the arms

Adding the nose

Now the celery mouth

Last minute snowman surgery (sawing off someextra snow on the back of the head)
A new friend…

List of Cybils nominees for Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction

Nominations for the 2007 Cybils awards closed last Wednesday (don’t say I didn’t warn you). So here’s the list of nominated titles in the Middle Grade/Young Adult nonfiction category. All of the Amazon.com and BookSense links Cybils-affiliated and provide a small commission to the Cybils to help pay for (modest) prizes.
1607: [...]

Thanksbirthday celebrations under way

Yesterday we celebrated Davy’s seventh birthday and Thanksgiving. He was delighted to have turkey with all the trimmings, especially cranberry sauce, for his birthday meal, and I was happy to have a leisurely day to prepare, and a leisurely dinnertime to enjoy, our harvest feast, which included all of the usual suspects along with homemade [...]

Poetry Friday: Black Friday edition

A Modern Romanceby Paul Engle (1908-1991)
Come live with me and be my wifeAnd we will lead a packaged life,Where food, drink, fun, all things save painCome neatly wrapped in cellophane.
I am the All-American boy,Certified as fit for joy,Elected (best of all the breed)Hairline most likely to recede.My parchment scroll to verifyIs stamped in gold and [...]

Happy Thanksgiving from Farm School

and O. Henry:
There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Bless the day. President Roosevelt gives it [...]

Science books and Cybils nominations

Nominations for the Cybils close tonight at midnight.
If you’re stuck for some science books in the nonfiction category, Susan at Chicken Spaghetti has a nifty post with the science book prize shortlist for the 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science Subaru Science Books and Films Online Prizes. I know the Gregor [...]

One more day

to submit your Cybils nominations for your favorite children’s books of 2007. You can nominate one title in each category, including Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction. And then you have the rest of the day free to truss the turkey and pie the pumpkin…

School canceled, on account of

snow and hunting.
We were surprised Sunday by a goodly snowfall overnight, and then a bit more Sunday night. Enough for the kids to make this before lunchtime yesterday,

It doubles as a (very) small sledding hill.
Last night the temperature dropped down to about -20C (just below 0F), the coldest weather so far this season; winter [...]

Review: We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin

We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustinby Larry Dane Brimner48 pages; for ages 8 and up Calkins Creek BooksAvailable from Amazon.com or your local bookstore (BookSense) (Cybils affiliate links) or in Canada at ChaptersReview copy from the publisher
We Are One is the handsome new photobiography of Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), the American pacifist and [...]

CYBILS: Five days left…

…to nominate your favorite Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction book published in 2007. I know some of you are busy polishing the silverware and preparing the nut cups for Thanksgiving next week, but please consider taking a break to give the nod to your favorite book.
Some titles still awaiting nomination:
The Voyage of the Beetle: A [...]

Home schooling for homebodies

It’s hard to home school when you’re not home much. I wrote last week that “I’m hoping to get back into a homebody routine again, with plenty of time for schooling at home (instead of out and about schooling, as we’ve been doing)”. With various lessons, rehearsals, and meetings (usually mine) occupying our [...]

Poetry Friday: Choosing laughter

I’ve always liked the idea of Barbara Howes’s “carnival hour” so much better than the “arsenic hour” I started hearing about when my three were tots. As the Poetry Foundation’s wonderful online biography notes, Miss Howes’s “verses paint a world of family, natural surroundings, and the wisdom inherent in natural inclinations” (emphasis mine).

Early Supper
by [...]

Busy again

I’m hoping to get back into a homebody routine again, with plenty of time for schooling at home (instead of out and about schooling, as we’ve been doing) and possibly even some blogging.
One of Tom’s uncles died earlier in the week, after a long, long illness. The funeral was Friday. The kids also had [...]

Remembrance Day 2007

Leslie Coulson (1889-1916), a Reuters correspondent for London’s Morning Post, volunteered for the Royal Fusiliers within a month of the outbreak of World War I. On Christmas Eve, 1914, he sailed for Malta on a troop ship, never to return to England.
He survived a bout of the mumps (which inspired his first war poem, [...]

Poetry Friday: Remembrance Day edition

I was going through One Hundred Years of Poetry for Children the other week, and in the section on “War”, I came across the old Rudyard Kipling poem “My Boy Jack”, which I thought I would use this week, about his heartbreaking search for his only son who was lost in action at the [...]

Cybils middle grade/young adult nonfiction nominations to date

The list of Cybils nominees so far for this year’s best middle grade/young adult nonfiction books (all titles pending copyright date verification). Nominations close Wednesday, November 21.
**Most of the links below each book are for Cybils affiliated programs (note that BookSense works only for the US, not Canada); many thanks for supporting the Cybils.
1607: [...]

Still searching for danger

From the editorial pages of today’s New York Times:
Childhood for Dummies
Nostalgic parents who made a best seller of a faux-1920s rough-and-tumble manual, “The Dangerous Book for Boys,” may soon do the same with its just-published companion, “The Daring Book for Girls.” …
Having read both books, we can assure you that very, very little in them [...]