Stars: ***1/2

I’m not sure what to say about this book. The full title is You Are Your Child’s First Teacher: What Parents Can Do With and For Their Children from Birth to Age Six. I picked it up because I figured it would help me in my early homeschooling. Here’s a little from the back of the book:

Back on August 22 I reported on two parenting books aimed at what the authors termed "spirited" and "strong-willed" children.

Stars: ****

I received this book from Multnomah Books and I wanted to review it for Mother’s Day but I didn’t get to finish it in time.
Rattled is a Christian Parenting book for soon-to-be-moms and new-moms. I’m not Christian but I can’t say no to a parenting book so I wanted to take a look at this. Have survived two baby’s first years I feel I am qualified to determine if this book would be helpful to a new mom. Certainly, as a mom of 4, Trish Berg is qualified to write a book about parenting.

For frazzled parents who can't get through to The Nanny but need help yesterday, best-selling media family psychologist Kevin Leman has a brand-new parent-help book out, Have a New Kid by Friday: How to Change Your Child's Attitude, Behavior & Character in 5 Days, which promises improvement by next week..

I received this book to review along with two giveaway copies. Details on giveaway at end of the review!

Stars: ****

From February 1 to July 14, 2008 I'll be re-reading some books I loved as a child. I'll be reading the first 3 for sure and the last 3 are extras. My list is as follows:

Ramona The Pest by Beverly Cleary
Babysitter's Club: Kristy and the Worst Kid Ever by Ann M. Martin
The Overnight by R.L. Stine
Good Work, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
A Light in the Attic by Dennis Lee
Encylopedia Brown by Donald Sobal

Stars: **** This book was read for the Jewish Literature Challenge.
Basic storyline is a child who has a well-loved blue blankie. It gets so worn out that the mom says it has to go but Grandpa makes it into a coat. Then it wears out and mom says it has to go and Grandpa saves it once again by making it into a vest. This continues all the way to a button. Although I’ve seen this idea before (can't find the name of the book. This one was read and I think a bathrobe first,) this one is nicely written with beautiful illustrations. Also if you look closely, at the bottom of the page mice are shown in the space below the house and they are using the scraps cut off the blankie/coat/vest etc… to make their own clothes. By the end of the book. All the mice are clothed in blue.

Stars: *****

I received this book for review. It was also read for the Pub in 08 and In Their Shoes challenge.

I'm at a meeting of grantees of a federal initiative called the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. This program, administered by the Center for Mental Health Services, aims at strengthening capacity within the U.S. to provide treatment to children who have suffered psychological trauma -- and no, it's not principally about drugs, but about evidence based counseling.

Stars: ****

This book was read for the Celebrate the Author challenge.

I remember reading one of two books by Beverly Cleary as a child but I didn’t read them as much as other kids. I had never read this one.

It is a really cute story of Socks the cat from a few weeks after he’s born when he’s being sold on throughout the first few years of his life. The story is told by Socks himself, so we get a picture of what cats may think, or at least would think if their brains worked like ours.

Socks is happy with his life until his new family brings home a wriggling bundle wrapped in blankets and soon his life is turned upside down. Socks isn’t the favourite anymore, what’s he to do?

I really enjoyed hearing the story from Socks point of view, very creative. Everything he said seemed believable. It was what I would expect my cat to say. I can see why this is a favourite of children.

I came into London today to talk on a local radio show about my book. It was a very strange thing to do. Not only sitting in a dark booth at BBC studios infront of a console with such a bewildering array of buttons and dials that it looked like we were about to take off, but just the talking about the book at all. Writing it was bad enough. It is definitely not a comfortable thing to publicise. I have been psyching myself up for it for weeks, though I was very glad to get it over and done with today, particulary given the cold I have. But the presenter's reaction was so lovely, and in a way unexpected. I assumed like most people his interest would be in the homelessness bit and how I wrote the blog. He did talk about the shame and secrecy of homelessness, and how it had been for me living in the car for those nine months, but he focussed mostly on the earlier part of the book — on some of the childhood stuff.

It's the end of November, I can hardly believe it. Where has this year gone?

Like I mentioned yesterday, my book club met on Wednesday. This time we discussed The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, a book inspired by the W.B. Yeats poem of the same title. Of course, I left my copy of the book at work so I don't have it with me to reference as I write this post (but, c'est la vie).

I have taken this negative meme from Dewey's blog. I thought I would give it a shot. My answers are not as good as hers! Feel free to do this meme and credit it to Dewey!

1. When you dislike a book, do you say so in your blog? Why or why not?

I do say so. As I spend a lot of time reading and analysing it, I do think I should mention the negative aspects too. However, I mention it why I did not like that particular book. There might be cultural reasons too. Some books simply do not work for me.

2. Do you temper your feelings about books you didn’t like, so as not to completely slam them? Why or why not?

Stars: **1/2

Willie’s Dad is a picture book for children who have parents in Prison. Willie is a five year old boy whose father has been in prison almost his whole life and who will be there until he’s a grown man. Willie and his Mother don’t visit his Father very often and when they do, they go with Duane, who is growing attached to Willie’s mom. His father makes a selfless decision and tells Duane to go ahead and marry the mother because Willie needs a dad and he’s a good man.

The story is pretty good and it’s nice to see a book for children on a subject not often seen. Unfortunately there are quite a few children who have a parent in prison and who could use this book.

I found this meme on negative reviews over at the hidden side of a leaf and thought it was interesting. Then I googled "grumpy" and found this grumpy cookie. Now that's what I call kismet.

But damn I could go for a grumpy cookie right about now. Hell, I'd even take a happy cookie.

1. When you dislike a book, do you say so in your blog? Why or why not?

Absolutely, because I believe that books – whether good or bad – should evoke a visceral reaction in the reader. The worst reaction I could have is one of total apathy. In fact, I’d have to say that some of my best reviews were for books I didn’t like.

2. Do you temper your feelings about books you didn’t like, so as not to completely slam them? Why or why not?

Trying to read, Child wiggles in my lap.

Me: Can you be good, please?

Child: I was good one day.

Me: One day? In your whole 5 years on this earth?

Child: Well, maybe two.

Stars: ****

I received this book for review from Multnomah in honour of Mother’s Day. I also decided to use it for my Themed Challenge and Pub 08.

This is the first time I’ve seen a self-help book that is for a specific generation. Technically I’m not a Gen Xer but I’m close enough that I was interested in what this had to say. According to the introduction, a Gen Xer was born from 1960-1980 and a Millennial was born from 1980-2000. I was born 1983 but my brother was born 1977.

Anyways, this book is also Christian Non-fiction so it covers the challenges and blessings of marriage for Generation X Christians. As I’ve stated before, I’m not Christian either but I am spiritual and believe in deity so I just took most of what was said about religion in a loose way to fit it to my needs. However there was one chapter that I just couldn’t agree with or fit to my life and it wasn’t the Church Service or Growing in God chapter. I will get to that but first, a synopsis of the chapters:

Your English teacher was right! Reading is good for you!

An NEA paper, "To Read or Not to Read," surveying 40 studies of child and adult reading, reports that reading for pleasure and personal interest has declined drastically over the past few years. Unlike the 2004 report, this study included literature, informational reading, periodicals, and internet reading and still found that the average adult spends only seven minutes reading anything by choice per day.

Stars: ***1/2

Summary: The only witness to a tragedy loses her memory and an innocent may be in prison for the crime. Whale Song asks the difficult questions: which is the higher morality - love or law?

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book other than there would be whales in it. The summary above comes from the back of the book and doesn't say much. I'll tell you a little more about the book so you can properly decide if it's your kind of book but don't worry, I'd never reveal too much or spoil and ending.

The main character is an 11 year old girl whose family moves to a small town where most of the inhabitants are Native Canadians. The book is Children's Fiction but for older children, say 12 and up. A large portion of the book has stories, myths and history of Native Canadians, specifically Huuayaht. I found this very interesting.

Stars: *****
I received a copy of this book to review from Tundra Books back in the Fall but it slipped into the back burner of books to read. Now that I’ve read it, I wish I had read it sooner! I'm counting it towards the Book Around the World challenge too.

Summary: The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons, Fourteen-year-old Amrith is submerged in the cheerful, well-to-do lifestyle in which his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky have raised him. Still, Amrith can’t seem to shake the blurred memories of his life “before,” when his doting mother was still alive. School is out for the summer and Amrith’s holiday plans seem unpromising. Until, like and unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada, and his life suddenly becomes storm-tossed. Shakespeare’s Othello, with its powerful them of disastrous jealousy, plays in the backdrop of the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.

... or you can get an honest job.

One Jill P. Capuzzo reports on a proposal in New Jersey to require children who attend pre-school to get flu shots. If you have been a regular reader here, you can probably guess the next part of the story: an uprising of angry parents who claim that vaccinations will make their children autistic.

I essentially agree with Mr. G that Provigil doesn't really increase intelligence, it's actually a lot like the amphetamines that students take during exam week -- it creates a temporary state of hyperarousal which allows for intense concentration. But what if there was a treatment that could be given to children which would, in fact, cause them to have permanently enhanced mental capabilities?

Notice I didn't say, "make them more intelligent," because we already know that there isn't a single quality that's synonymous with intelligence. There are various capacities that don't necessarily go together. I would guess that John Coltrane had a reasonably high IQ but I really don't care. And Daniel Goleman's book Emotional Intelligence was very helpful to me in explicating the very different realms of intellectual and social competence.

Title: Babyproofing Your Marriage
Authors: Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O'Neill, and Julia Stone
ISBN: 978-0-06-117354-7
Publisher: Collins-An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublisher/2007
Pages: 273/Hardcover

I received this book fron Collins, which is a part of Harper Collins publisher for reading and reviewing.

The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing

I’ve tried to expose myself to some of Doris Lessing’s work, although the woman is so damned prolific that, despite thinking myself quite brilliant for choosing three of her works, I actually haven’t really read too much of her at all. I’ve chosen The Grass is Singing (1950), and The Fifth Child (1988), The Grandmothers (2003), so it’s a pretty good survey of her stuff.

Stars: ***1/2

I received this book for review from Annick Press. I am counting it towards the Great Canadian Book Challenge.

Summary: "Every kid is good at something. But imagine doing it so well that grown-ups flock to see you in action. Meet nine prodigies who were born with extraordinary gifts - and worked like demons at their passions. Phillis Wheatley, a black slave in colonial Boston, was 14 when her first poem was published. Stevie Wonder wowed audiences with his harmonica solos at the age of 12. And future film star Buster Keaton was hurtling through the air in a family stage act when he was only three. But the life of a wonder kid is not necessarily an easy one. Find out about how they were discovered, the struggles that shaped their lives and how their dazzling talents stunned the world.”

Title: For the Love of Rachel
Author: David Loewenstein
ISBN: 0979194342
Publisher: Enalan Communications
Pages: 147
Rating: High

Stars: ****

I received this book for review from Annick Press.

Summary: When Gus’s mom asks what he did at school today, he gives his usual reply: “Nothing.” But his soaking shoes and socks indicate otherwise. Mom pushes for details, so Gus begins a remarkable tale of a school gone wet.

This is a really cute story. Gus tells a whopper of a story as to why he's wet when he comes home. Very creative storytelling. After reading this with your child, you could have them come up with stories explaining how something happened and have them be as creative and wild as possible. You could always write it down for them.

I could see the author making more books like this with just a different explanation for something simple. *hint hint*

Stars: *** I received this book for review.

Summary: “Cats are full of excuses, so any human who happens to be owned by one should use this delightful comic collection to prepare for its sly explanations and justifications. A charmingly line-drawn, highly humorous, and personality-filled kitty presents all the reasons why “I can’t.” I’m shedding, I’m salivating, I’m kneading (but not needing) you, my ears are rotating. Or she can’t be bothered listening because she’s having an intense catnip experience. Cat lovers will recognize every funny scenario, and their pets will want to sneak a peak to discover new ideas!”

Although I’m not a big cartoon person, I have always lived with at least one cat and have always found the way they stare right through you when you ask something of them extremely hilarious so I had to review this book.