Free Books!!

Wow - never thought YOU could win books AND your library could win books with you!?!?! And all just for bragging about your favorite book!?!?! Well,you can.

Here's some info:

StoryTubes is here! From New York to California, kids in Grades 1-6 are talking up their favorite books. You can too!

Along with your parent or guardian, follow these simple steps:
Make a 2-minute video about your favorite book;
Upload the video to

YouTube; and
Come to this StoryTubes website and send in the link to your uploaded YouTube video using the online Contest Entry Form.

Beginning April 1, your video becomes part of a national contest!
Voting mania will then begin and happen each week in May! At the end of each week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books.

Four Video Categories:
Hair-Raising TalesFrom or For the HeartOf Heroes and HeroinesFacts, Fads and Phenoms
Tell the story about your favorite book today. When entering, please don’t use your last name in the video. Entries will be evaluated on creativity, content and performance.

For MORE - Go HERE.

Live Blogging

Well - my goal was to "live blog" everyday of PLA, but so far we have been keeping SO busy that that hasn't happened!!! So I'm trying to carve out some time here to post some thoughts - my day started off with a bang - I attended a workshop led by a fellow kidlit blogger - Adrienne - that was SO fun to meet a fellow blogger in real life!! AND she did a wonderful job with the workshop - how to work with homeschoolers in your library - near and dear to my heart. THEN - to add to my day - I got to hear a reader's theater with none other than: Avi, Brian Selznick, Sarah Weeks, and Pam Munoz Ryan. I am telling you - is there anything better!?!?! Lest you think it is all fun and no work - I am also learning SO much - watch out my little town - I am coming back with library ideas GALORE!!!

Sue and I posing with Baker and Taylor - I am telling you - we are meeting ALL the celebrities!!

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

Jordan Sonnenblick's Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie is Right up there at the top!!! I love to find a strong "guy book" and this is certainly one of them. Don't get me wrong - girls will love it too - but the main character is 13 year old, Steven. He goes through all the normal 8th grade stuff - girls, band - drums, and friends - but throw in there a 5 year old brother diagnosed with leukemia. The emotions are varied and oh-so-real - I just loved this one and am already scoping out another Sonnenblick novel to read. You can be sure I am selling this one to all my guy readers!!

Christmas In March

You know, tomorrow is March 25- maybe that is why my new box of books felt like Christmas time!!! I'd love to review each one but I am just pulling out a few of my favorites and highlighting them!!!!
Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri

My Life as a Chicken by Ellen A. Kelley

Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski


Wolf! Wolf! by John Rocco

Cottonball Colin by Jeanne Willis


Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic


What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas


Duck by Randy Cecil

Thank You

I just wanted to say a BIG Thank You to Kelley over at Caffeine Created Designs. I wanted something fun for my header that was book-related and SHE came up with this great book design. She said it "popped into my head yesterday when I remembered a Chinese proverb that I once read somewhere and wrote in my quote book…”A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket.” I just LOVED it and wanted to thank her publically - her work is wonderful and unique - she is SO good!!

So I took her design - made just for me - and I built my header and page. If you are reading this and want a blog makeover - feel free to contact me - I am doing blog makeovers as a fundaiser for our upcoming adoption. To learn more - go to Lady in Waiting Blog Designs.

Spring Reading Thing

Spring Reading Thing 2008 is ready to go!!!!
March 20 - June 19

Here's my list: (in no particular order)

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson
Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas
Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
From China With Love by Emily Buchanan
True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson

Spatulatta

Found this fun website -and I'm thinking others will find it neat too. Spatulatta is a website for cooking with kids. It's done by Scholastic and it's very good!! I think you will find lots of fun recipes to make while you are there! They even have a cookbook - AND you can order it signed!! I am telling you THIS mommy could use a website like this!!

One Whole and Perfect Day

Judith Clarke's One Whole and Perfect Day is BRILLIANT!!! I can not tell you how much I LOVED this book. It is one of those books where you are introduced to characters you think you will never see again - seemingly insignificant characters - and they just keep popping up throughout the book - tying it all together. I thought the book was wonderful - it hits the life of a teen girl - and yet gives hope through all of the struggles - struggles we all deal with living in families. Lily feels her family is just too eccentric to be normal and she wishes for just "One Whole and Perfect Day." I love the way the whole book is her search - just to have that one perfect day that no one can ruin. It doesn't even look possible, but is it!?!?! I have read some reviews that it ended a bit "pat" but I disagree - we have enough books out there with tragedy - I love to read one, once-in-awhile, that ends "perfect"!! I was hesitant to read this one, as sometimes Printz books aren't all I hope them to be, but this one was SUPERB!!! All I can say is, "Read It!!"

The Best Nest

Doris L. Mueller's The Best Nest - is SUPERB!!! Another Sylvan Dell book that makes top marks with me!! (And it isn't just because I am a bird lover either!!) Ever wondered why birds build their nests differently - well this book explains it! It is told in story format, so it's non-fiction learning with fiction story - I love that. The illustrations, by Sherry Neidigh, are beautiful - eye-catching pictures of birds and nests. AND the best part of a Sylvan Dell book?? All the parent/teacher helps in the back of the book - oh yes, and their magnificent website - see, I could just go on and on.

Green, Glass Sea

I just finished this book that I have wanted to read for ages!!! And I'm glad I finally read it - The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages is just wonderful!!! It is about two girls that spend a year in Los Alamos as their parents work on the "secret gadget" together - the "secret gadget" that will end World War II. Dewey is a wonderful character - she is a bright, mechanically-minded 10-year-old who gets along fine with adults and the scientists at the site, but is made fun of by girls her same age. When her father is sent away for work, Dewey moves in with Suze, another scientist's daugther, who detests her. This is one of the best parts of the book though as you see the two begin to draw closer. Their friendship is tender and will touch a chord with many kids.

Unexpectedly, Dewey's father is killed, and we spend the rest of the book finding out what will happen to Dewey. After the atomic bomb test succeeds, Dewey wonders what will become of her since all of the workers will move back home and now she has no father (and no mother as she left them years ago). This book is a great way for us to see the secretive scientific community of Los Alamos - and see it through the eyes of the kids that lived there. I did not know much about the atomic bomb project, and this book was a great way for me to learn about this period of history.

Don't miss this wonderful book - and I hear a sequel is in the works!!