From the criticisms that I’ve read of the book and a discussion that we had at book club is the fact that the braille text is virtually unreadable as braille.  The raised dots simply are not raised high enough off of the paper.  I’d be curious to know if a blind individual could actually read the book.

But the book isn’t intended for the blind but rather those with sight and it’s very cool.  I enjoyed feeling the raised line art.  I knew what I was feeling for as I could see the image that the line art created but I would often close my eyes to see if I could figure out what I was feeling.

Thomas thinks that without the sun, water, doesn’t amount to much.
It has no color, no taste, no smell.
He says that green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that’s just been cut.
But black is the king of all the colors.  It is as soft as silk when his mother hugs him and her hair falls in his face.

How does one describe a color?  A very creative book that would be a welcome addition and a different type of reading experience for any children’s library.

Links of interest:  More book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Picture Book, approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Groundwood Books.   June 28, 2008.
Hardcover, 24 pages. ISBN 0888998732
The Black Book of Colors is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

June does go into a downward spiral but the book really begins as she’s starting to get on with her life by deciding to complete Marissa’s list of twenty things that she wanted to do before her next birthday.  A list which June found and took from Marissa’s purse the night of the accident.  Some of the things are seemingly silly, like go braless for a day or kiss a total stranger and others are more difficult like change somebody’s life and show your brother how grateful you are him.

The Next Thing On My List is June’s journey as she attempts to complete each item.  Along the way she finds romance, career fulfillment and how to live again.  It’s a fun, quick read that while it has a great message – live your life instead of watching somebody else live theirs – doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I did find some of the book unbelievable.  Like June’s relationship with Marissa’s brother, mother and grandmother.  I would think that it would be very awkward to be friendly with the person who killed their family member despite that it was an accident.  In the aftermath of the accident, they don’t take the time to find out more about each other or details about the accident, which I found odd.  When June comes back into their life with this list of Marissa’s they are curious of course but act as more casual bystanders.  I think something needed to be done slightly differently with that aspect of the book but what that solution is I honestly don’t know.

Overall, a quick read that doesn’t leave me feeling heavy afterwards.  And with some of the heavy hitting issues that I like to read about it’s nice every once in a while to read something that doesn’t get me down. It’s not a book that I’m running out and telling everybody that they HAVE to read it because it’s SO good but I enjoyed my time with it.

And of course, one can’t help thinking about their own life lists.  I’m a list maker.  My husband’s a list maker.  Making lists are just plain fun.   My lists would be different if I were to put time limits on them like one year, 5 years, 20 years or a lifetime.  So I came up with something that seemed reasonable for the next 10-15 years. And from the looks of it I need to also come by a cash load somehow as my list involves spending a lot of money!

• Go on a cruise.
• Vacation in Thailand.
• Take the Advanced Master Gardener class (a four year program).
• Read all the Newbery books.
• Remember every Birthday for a year.
• Decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees as a family.
• Take out my large 4×5 camera and start shooting again.
• Vacation with the family to Yellowstone, Redwoods, Southern Utah.
• Go to Disneyland and stay in a nice hotel instead of cheapest we can find.
• In fact, don’t let the cheapest always be the deciding factor.  Allow myself to treat myself well without feeling guilty about it.
• Buy a bed.
• Take family to Hawaii to visit the family.
• Have another baby (or two).
• Snorkel but be brave enough to go more than twenty feet out from the shore.
• Digitize all of my negatives.
• Get a massage.
• Go on an African safari.
• Do volunteer work in Africa.
• Get involved with helping refugees here.
• Go skinny dipping (yikes my parents & in-laws read my blog!)
• Book a flight last minute and just go!
• Take my boys fishing.
• Learn sign language.
• Cook a turkey.

Now, it’s your turn!  What are five things that you would like to do in the next ten years?  Spill it!

Links of interest:  Jill Smolinksi website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Fiction, Chick-lit
Publisher: Three Rivers Press.  March 25, 2008
Paperback , 304 pages. ISBN 0307351297
The Next Thing On My List is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Anyways, in Goodnight Goon a little werewolf is having a hard time going to sleep.  He names the things in his room which includes pictures of martians taking over the moon, three little mummies rubbing their tummies, moans and groans, a skull, and a pot full of goo.  After he names them he says goodnight one by one to each of them. He puts the monsters under the bed (so clever) and ends by saying goodnight monsters everywhere.

This has potential to be a really, really cute book but the illustrations were just not doing it for me.  My kids weren’t crazy about it either but I only tried it once on them.  And well, sometimes, especially my kids, need to be exposed to a book more than once.  So, it doesn’t seem fair that I’m sharing their reaction after only one reading but to tell you the truth, they never picked it out of the pile on their own either.  It just couldn’t compete with Where’s My Mummy or Leonardo the Terrible Monster this week.

But overall, I think it’s worth taking a look at this Halloween picture book to discover if it will be a new classic in your home.  Because your kids just might love it.

Links of interest:  Michael Rex website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Picture Book, approx ages 4-8.
Publisher:  Putnam Juvenile.  August 14, 2008.
Hardcover, 32 pages.  ISBN 0399245340
Goodnight Goon is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Marcus is having a hard time both at home and in school.  Since the death of his sister, his father has moved out of the house and his mother is having a hard time just keeping it together.  Marcus has begun to fight at school and is headed down a road that will get him kicked out of school and his house and one that will be difficult to travel back from.

While at the park, he is challenged to a game of chess from C.M., a nickname that stands for Chess Man, Check Mate and Chess Master.  It is through their games together that Marcus begins to learn how to keep his own emotions in check and to always be looking at least three moves ahead – both on the chess board and in real life.

The dust jacket says, “Inspired by inner-city school chess enrichment programs, Chess Rumble explores the ways this strategic game empowers young people with the skills they need to anticipate and calculate their moves through life.”  This is a statement that I would completley agree with.  I do also agree with Ms. Yingling’s statement that the size and format (including page stock) of the book borders too closely of a picture book.  I just can’t see a teenage boy feeling cool touting this book around, if you know what I mean.

Chess Rumble is also told in verse, a format which I always enjoy. Overall, I liked Chess Rumble and found it well worth the read.  I just wonder if the same could be said of its intended audience.

Book trailer:

Links of interest:  G. Neri website, follow on Twitter, more book blogger reviews,
Genre:  Middle Grade Fiction, approx age 9-12.
Publisher:  Lee and Low Books.  November 8, 2007
Hardcover, 64 pages.  ISBN  1584302798
Chess Rumble is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Kabul Beauty School is the memoir of Deborah Rodriguez, a hairdresser, who shortly after 9/11 joined a humanitarian organization which ultimately took her to  Kabul, Afghanistan.  Leaving her two young sons with her mother (which was a huge discussion point in our book club – how does one just pick up and leave their family), and putting distance between herself and an abusive husband, Debbie soon found herself in a home with other humanitarian workers but unsure of exactly what role she was supposed to play.

After playing hairdresser to Westerners and a trip back to the U.S., Debbie sought sponsorship from beauty companies to start her own beauty training school for Afghan women.  In a country where women are undervalued, at the mercy of their husbands, rarely hold jobs, have little to no income, going to beauty school to train and open their own salons opens up opportunities and freedom previously unknown to them.  Debbie recounts the many girls and women that she became friends with and their heartbreaking stories.  She also shows how the beauty school was a much needed refuge and safe haven for the women where they could feel free to be themselves and free their inhibitions.  

To tell you the truth, I’m totally shocked that Debbie didn’t get herself killed while she was there.  She has a very loud, abrasive personality which in a country where women are not to draw attention to themselves, she was like a bull in a china shop.  I was surprised at what should have been a very tense political situation and a dangerous time in the country that she seemed to have very little fear or concern for her personal safety.  I’m sure she really did but it didnt feel that way in the writing.  She often yelled at the men, taunted her neighbors, and even once gave a ride to her arrested neighbor to the police station.  And she was the one pressing charges!  I couldn’t believe some of the things that she did.

I was also shocked when she agreed to be married in an arranged marriage to an Afghan whom she couldn’t even talk to because they spoke a different language.  And he already had another wife.  She was shocked that this other wife became pregnant with his child while she was married to him.  Somebody at our book club mentioned that one reason she left the country was because her husband was going to kidnap her son for and hold him for ransom (more details).  At this point, I’d definitely think that the different culture thing didn’t work out for them.  Can you just imagine sitting down to lunch with this author?  The stories she could tell!

Kabul Beauty School could have been edited better.  It felt as though she just sat down and began a rambling of her experience in Afghanistan, breaking off here and there to tell different stories or backgrounds.  But luckily, those stories were fascinating.  I particularly liked hearing about the women she taught and would like to have heard their voices even more.  From the woman whom Debbie helped fake her virginity, to the 12 year-old used to pay off her families debt, her crazy housekeeper who seemed to be on drugs half the time, to the woman who continued her training despite the beatings from her Taliban husband; these are the stories that I wanted to read about.   From what I understand, many of these girls are now in danger because of this book.  You can read more about that in this NPR article and you can watch Rodriguez talk about her book as well.

Overall, I liked this memoir.  It’s not the best that I’ve read but it is fascinating to learn about the Afghan women and the steps that they are taking to gain back their personal freedoms.

The reason that I was initially holding off on reading The Hunger Games was because of the brief synopsis:  a girl fights for her life while on a reality TV show.  Yeah, I don’t think so.  Not my type of book.  Reading about reality TV?  Not my thing.  And it’s considered science fiction?  Another strike.  But it simply could not be ignored.

Briefly stated, The Hunger Games takes place in an undetermined time in the future.  America as we know it has been completely destroyed and in its place is the capital and twelve districts.  There used to be thirteen districts and during an uprising, the thirteenth was destroyed.  Each year, as a reminder to its tributes of the power and will of the capital, two tributes, one boy and one girl, are chosen from each districts and forced to participate in The Hunger Games, a televised event in an outdoor arena where only one tribute can bring home honor to his or her district.  To win means killing all of your opponents.  To lose means that you’re dead.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss’s younger sister is chosen as tribute and in a moment of bravery Katniss volunteers to go in her stead.  Her district hasn’t won the game in decades and she knows that she has little chance of winning.  But that’s not going to stop her from using her bow and arrow skill to have her coming out on top.  But things get complicated when the other tribute in her district is Peeta, the bakers son whom she knows from school and once gave her starving family an act of kindness by giving them bread.  Not only must Katniss and Peeta kill and stay alive from the other 23 tributes, they must square off against each other, not easy to do when they have such mixed feelings for each other.

The Hunger Games book trailer:

Really exciting stuff.  Seriously.  Like stay up until three in the morning exciting.  You can’t stop thinking about it.  AND it’s going to be made into a movie!  AND Suzanne Collins is writing the screenplay.  I can not wait for both the movie and the sequel, Catching Fire, which comes out in September.  Reviewers are going to be scrambling for ARC’s for this one.  *cough,I want, I want, I want, cough*

Hunger Games totally lives up to the hype.  It’s fun, it’s different.  Just make sure you have plenty of time to read it because you’ll want to read it in one or two sittings.

Suzanne Collins website.

My three year old picked up this book a lot while I had it sitting around.  He liked the purple dinosaur and I think he may have even called him Barney.  But he’s not Barney, he’s Jellaby, a purple creature whom Portia has found out in the woods.  He’s lost and Portia takes him in.  It reminds me of Mary Had a Little Lamb because Jellaby follows Portia to school.   And she has a friend Jason who always wears orange (the only other color besides purple in the book).

So yeah.  It’s been at least a month since I read the book and to tell you the truth that’s about all I remember, so I’m not sure what that says.  I think young readers will probably like it.  My three year-old liked looking at the photos.

Chiggers is about a group of girls who go to summer camp.  It’s the same camp that Abby goes to every summer and she’s excited.  But her excitement ends when her friend Rose is to busy being a cabin assistant to hang out with her, her friends talk behind her back and everybody thinks that the cabinmate she gets along best with is annoying.  Throw in some lightening strikes, romantic love interest, and elfish daydreams and there you go.

Honestly, this graphic novel was confusing. I could not keep the characters straight and by the end of the book I still didn’t know who was talking (my children’s lit book club members all said the same thing).  I really didn’t care for the illustrations.  They would have been fine if only there wasn’t really ugly lines under all the characters eyes.  Case in point:  page 81 rhrough 85.  Yeah, I know they are supposed to be tired but still these panels ruined whatever redeeming qualities the other panels had.

I honestly don’t know what the appeal of Chiggers is to the actual intended audience, young adult girls, but this mama just didn’t get it.  And I even went to girl’s camp four years in a row as a teen.  What can I say, I just can’t like everything I read.

Hope Larson website.

Meanwhile, Ellie, a Philadelphia defense attorney, finds herself unhappy with her career and love relationship.  She escapes to the quiet town of Paradise, Pennsylvania to visit her aunt to sort it all out.  Her peace doesn’t last long as she finds herself not only defending Katie, but also acting as her guardian by living with her 24/7 on the family dairy farm.

Taking on this case is a challenge.  Ellie finds herself defending a client who doesn’t want to be be defended.  The Amish ways of justice are very different and Katie and Ellie have a rough go of it.  Katie can’t remember what happened and whenever she does, it’s just incriminating.  Ellie finds that preparing a court case on a dairy farm isn’t easy especially when she is without electricity, laptop or a phone.

Plain Truth is a love story, psychological drama, and courtroom suspense.  This being the fourth Jodi Picoult book that I’ve read in the last year further solidifies my thoughts that Picoult has found a formula that obviously works well for her.  I did feel as though everything that happened in Plain Truth has happened before.  We have the troubled teenager, crime, courtroom drama, medical mystery, woman lawyer, her love interest.  I felt any character could have easily been any character from another book.  I did pick up on the twist ending, as there was one sentence about two thirds of the way through the book where I realized “whodunit.”

As a mother, Plain Truth wasn’t fun to read.  We are talking about somebody who smothers a newborn.  But I was engrossed and kept turning the pages for more.  I was never at a loss for interest.  I enjoyed exploring the Amish culture and the questions that she raised about forgiveness, peace, and justice.  Everybody at my neighborhood book club did enjoy it a lot more than I did however.  I think if I hadn’t read any of her other books I would have enjoyed it more.  Does that make sense?

I still want to read My Sister’s Keeper, which I understand is a must read.  And it sits here staring at me from my bookshelf right now.   Other books I’ve reviewed are Nineteen Minutes, Change of Heart, and Tenth Circle.  Jodi Picoult’s next book Handle With Care will be released on March 3rd.  I hope to attend a book signing at Kings English Bookshop on March 25th to hear her give a reading.  Visit Jodi Picoult’s website to see if she’s on tour near you.

From the publisher:

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can’t seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse — Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy’s mom finds out, she knows it’s time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he’ll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon, a mystery unfolds and together with his friends — one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena — Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.

Fun book.  And a very creative way to teach Greek mythology.  If I had tried to learn how all the gods were related to each other by reading this book, rather than studying charts I probably would have had a lot more interest in the Greek mythology unit in school.  The story was very fast moving.  There was never a lack of adventure, nor humor in The Lightning Thief.  A great series for all ages.

I’m sure I’ll pick up the other books in the series at some point, although I admit that I need a little break from Greek gods for just a moment.  I’m looking forward to the movie that is coming out early 2010 directed by Chris Columbus.

Listen to the first chapter of The Lightening Thief as read by Rick Riordan.  Visit Rick Riordan’s website and blog. The other books in the series are The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and book five coming out in May of this year is The Last Olympian.