I decided that I wanted to log the number of pages read too since I read short books too and it will seem like I read more than I did. My review lists also don't include all the picture books I read.

The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz (thumbed through, not cover to cover)
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (192)
Booked to Die by John Dunning (317)
The Biography of Bananas by Rachel Eagen(32)
Bananas! by Jacqueline Farmer (32)
Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh (388)
Death in Kingsport by Curtis Parkinson (315)
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (272)
Through a Brief Darkness by Richard Peck (142)
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (192)
For Parents Only by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa Rice (179)
A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck(148)
Strays Like Us by Richard Peck (155)
The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning (362)

Total: 14 Books
Fiction: 10

I'm starting to see the following expression used more and more in various publications these days, particularly by journalists:

Searching for X on Google produces Y results in Z seconds.

If you haven't seen this before, let me give you a couple of examples:

From Law.com:

Online virtual worlds are wildly popular, attracting millions of people every day, and a recent Google search for MMORPG yielded approximately 32 million results.

From the Toronto Star:

Partner new Blue Jay shortstop David Eckstein and the word "scrappy" and a Google search will advise you of some 5,300 possibilities. In just 0.38 seconds, too.

From Jose Canseco's new steroid book, Vindicated:

Put in 'Alex Rodriguez' and 'infidelity' and you'll get like fifty thousand hits.

The gist I guess is that there is supposed to be some correlation between X and Y.

In a wordless picture book sure to please devotees of the I Spy genre, Jennifer Armstrong has luckily teamed up with Caldecott Medalist David Smalls to create a hilarious chain reaction street saga.

Stars: *****

I received this book for review from Annick Press. Although it’s not by the same author, it’s similar to Cheetah Cubs and Beetle Grubs and Naturally Wild Musicians. This book shows us the past and ancient past of six modern animals: Dragonflies, Crocodiles, Camels, Sloths, Armadillos and Beavers. It covers the first known type of that animal, how it evolved into what it is now and why it may have changed. The book also explains how ancient time is explained (Mesozoic era, Precambrian eon, Pleistocene epoch, cretaceous period etc….

Collected by Zora Neale Hurston, Adapted and Illustrated by Christopher Myers
Stars: **

This book was read for the Zora Neale Hurston Challenge.

Perhaps I just don’t understand the point of this book but I didn’t like it at all. It is very weird. I don’t mind the whole tall tales part (“I once knew a man so big….”) but the text is written like they spoke way back when, with improper English. I understand keeping it that way for historical fiction but reading this book just hurt my head. For example:

“That drives over me. I know a man so big that when he went to whip his boy, the boy runned under his stomach and stayed hid under there six months.”

“That man was so black till he could spit ink.”

There were one or two that didn’t even make sense to me. NOT Recommended

Stars: ****1/2I read this book for the Celebrate the Author challenge and the Reading My Name challenge.

Celebrate the Author Note:
Dr. Seuss is one of my favourite children’s authors so I didn’t want to cheat and just re-read some of his books that I’ve read a million times. So I decided I’d read a few of this books I haven’t read yet as well as a book about his life.

This book is a Children’s Non-Fiction book about he early life of Dr. Seuss, before he was known as that. It explains who he was as a boy and how he came to be an author and artist. The story itself is written like a picture book and ends when he is 22 and his writing life is taking off. After that is an explanation of how he came up with the idea for some of his books as well as information on his life after 22 such as when he was married and how The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham were the result of bets by his publisher.

Lately my favorite non-dairy frozen treat is a simple frozen fruit sorbet: I push frozen bananas, pineapple, and strawberries through my Champion Juicer, and out comes perfect, creamy sorbet with no added sugar.

We only have less than two weeks to plan a Valentine's Day menu! But don't panic. Rachael Ray has put together some Valentine's Day menus that even a rookie chef can make. We always stay home for V-day because really, how can you have a romantic dinner when the restuarant is packed and the waiters are all stressed out from the crowds?

Steak and Scallops is usually the menu of choice in our house (here's last year's). This year I'm looking to mix it up a bit, so I did a bit more searching than usual this year. It's gotta be something healthy and luxurious all at the same time. Let me know if you have any great ideas for me. In the meantime, check out these Valentine's Day menus from Rachael Ray:

Stars: ****

This book was read for the Four-Legged Friends challenge and the Fall Into Reading challenge. This book was read in November.

This is a tween novel, ages 9 and up about a boy who is thrown overboard of a ship to save his life and is washed up on an island full of dogs. The dogs were left behind by the former islanders. The dogs have split into two groups, with the more wild dogs called Fangoes by the sheep dogs. However it's been a while since people were on the island and most of the dogs don't remember humans. The boy, Jack, is the first human they've seen and he doesn't fit what they have heard about humans.

Stars: ***

I was sent this book to review from Annick Press and chose to read it during the read-a-thon.

I was excited to read it because I like explanations of how math is used in real life. However I was a little dissapointed, the whole idea was great, it wasn’t just non-fiction, it was fiction too as everything was told as a story. However the explanations weren't very simple and I was lost on a few of them and I’m an adult!

I stumbled upon this image on the web, and I thought it was very thought-provoking. It amazes me how young children begin to recognize labels and logos (called "environmental print" by educators) and use them to make choices. What would our lives be like without such brand knowledge?

Stars: ****

This book was read for the 2nds Challenge.

I chose this book because I had read Gone Forever and liked it so much, I wanted to try more Diane Fanning.

Stars: ****

I was sent this book to review by Annick Press.

It is a short children’s non-fiction book about the songs that animals sing. I was surprised to find out fruit flies, damselfish, mice and moths “sing” The book is divided into the ways music/song is used in animal kingdom such as recognition of family, attracting a mate, scaring away predators etc…. Colour photos are a great touch.

Photography by John Uher
Stars: *****
I received this cookbook for review. It was also read for the Soup's On Book Challenge. My dad’s family is Jewish and so we go to a Passover dinner, although it’s quite reformed. I’ve never brought a dish myself because I’m still a beginner cook and I wouldn’t have known where to begin to make a good Passover dish.

That’s where this cookbook comes in. The author has other books called Kosher by Design and so 130 recipes from these books have been adjusted for Passover and presented here along with 30 brand-new recipes and a few décor ideas.

We've gone BANANAS! First I went ape for this monkey bento container from Japan. Then when Mr. Monkey arrived he needed his very own banana napkin. You can see how things went from there...

The top container holds two Tofu Lettuce Cups -- gingery tofu, peanuts, coconut and lime juice wrapped in buttercrunch lettuce leaves.

Stars: **1/2

I read this book the last few days of October (I thought I'd already reviewed it) for an online group however I was counting it towards an extra R.I.P. II Challenge book as well.

Lots of people read this book for the RIP challenge but I seem to be the only one who didn't like it. I didn't like it for the same reason others liked it. It's too wordy for me. I don't like long, detailed descriptions. I like short and concise. For me, the plot got lost in the descriptions. Half the time I had no idea what was going on.

Stars: ****

I received this book to review from Tundra Books.

Summary: When 14 year old Neil’s uncle Chester dies, Neil is lonely. At his uncle’s cremation, he hears thumping in the coffin just as it’s put into the flames. Could Uncle Chester be alive? So Neil starts an investigation. A disembodied voice in an old stable tells him that Chester’s passing is not the only mysterious death in town, Neil along with his friend Graham work to get to the bottom of what’s happening.

Stars: ***1/2I read this book for the Four-Legged Friends and In Their Shoes challenges.

This book wasn’t exactly what I was imagining it to be. With a title of Dog Years and a genre of memoir, it was obvious it would be about someone’s life with dogs. However it’s more than that. It delves into the author’s life more than the average memoir and in fact, it’s labelled with a biography sticker at my library. The first 4 chapters I found quite dry and hard to follow. The antedotes about the dogs were interesting but he seemed to ramble on about his life and his view of life. From chapter 5 on however it got better. The stories got more interesting and I could tell there was a shift in style so that the story flowed easier.

Stars: ****1/2

I watch the cartoon every year and thought it was about time I read the book. I counted this as a R.I.P. II Challenge book. I actually read it a few days before Halloween just forgot to review it till now. Oops.

I enjoyed the book although I enjoyed the cartoon more. There were a few parts that were a little wordy for me, (apparently Bradbury's style.)

It's a great Halloween book for those 12 and up to learn about the history and customs of Halloween. Where trick-or-treating and costumes come from. Very educational.

Joy at Thoughts of Joy is hosting the Non-Fiction Five challenge again. I missed it the first time. It's supposed to encourage people to read more non-fiction but that's not really a problem for me as I read LOTS of non-fiction. I still want to participate though!

My list:
I Sleep At Red Lights: A True Story of Life after Triplets by Bruce StocklerSiblings Without Rilvary by Adele Faber and Elaine MazlishNibbles and Me by Elizabeth TaylorStolen Lives : Twenty years in a desert jail by Malika Oufkir and Michèle Fitoussi ; translated by RosSchwartz.Stick figure : a diary of my former self by Lori Gottlieb

Stars: *****

I recieved this book for review from Random House.
Wow. Received for review and I’m so glad. This is similar to A Far Cry From Home but mostly the story of one girl instead of many. I have not read Girlbomb which is the author’s story of herself homeless.

Stars: ****

Read for book group and for Children's Book Week

Good story, very literary, full of literary devices. It was a little too wordy for me. I prefer short and concise to long and detailed. It wasn’t too bad though and I just skipped a paragraph or two if it was too much for me.

I finished this challenge on time. I challenged myself to read 12 books and I finished them all.

I did make a goal to catch up on my reviews which I did but I'm behind again unfortunately. I had fun and hope to participate again next year.

You can see my list of books read here.

Stars: ***1/2

This book was read as part of the R.I.P. II challenge. It was an extra book.

I'm glad I got to this book. It was a good book, but I rated it 3 1/2 stars because it wasn't what I would want in a ghost-hunting manual. Most of it was about different kinds of ghosts and lots of case stories. Although I imagine you would need to know about types of ghosts to be a ghost-hunter I do think more information would be needed on actually looking for ghosts. There was a section on making and using some tools to find ghosts but there should have been much more. This book was more of a guide to types of ghosts.

Stars: ***

This is a cute book that tells a myth to explain why Blackmouth Monkeys sleep on thorns at the top of the trees.
The illustrations are different than most and the story was fun to read. For ages 2-5

I reviewed Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh a few weeks ago and I just got two more copies in the mail for a giveaway!

However it may take me a while to send them off as I need to pay for postage myself and it'll be expensive.

If you are interested in winning a copy, I have two to giveaway. To enter, sign the comments and either include your email or also send me an email so I have a way to contact you. Contest open to Canada/US only (unless you are willing to pay for postage yourself, sorry.)

Just a couple of days and we'll be into April. Where does the time go? I really need to read more. I haven't been doing much of that lately. Do you ever have times like that?

So, what's new:

-Ken Jennings has a blog? Who knew! He posted these gorgeous pics of a children's book themed border.

-Hey, Regency readers! Are you a Vulgarian? This quiz cracked me up. There's also a quiz: Are you a Regency Catch? For both sexes. I'm Jane Bennet.

-Winter vacation? This Etsy seller has a great crocheted bag for dragging your books to the beach.

Stars: *****

This book was read for the Celebrate the Author challenge and the Heart of a Child challenge.

So I read this when I was a child although I didn’t really remember much about it. What a cute little book! Just like how she captured the thoughts of Socks the cat in her book Socks, Beverly Cleary has captured the thoughts of a five year old rambunctious girl. I don’t remember much about being five but I’ve worked with five year olds and I do think that most of how Ramona behaves and what she thinks is consistent with a five year old. Ramona is what we are now calling a Spirited Child.