- I am where I am today because of the decisions I made yesterday. I will be where I will be tomorrow because of the decisions I make today.
- Stop thinking about what is holding you back...start thinking about what will move you forward.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Thoughts from Relief Society Lesson
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Chapter Books from the Symposium
What follows is information about the four chapter books I read for the Symposium on Books for Young Readers held in July 2009. I hope you'll find something here that you or your children/grandchildren will enjoy! I especially enjoyed Dragon Slippers and The Boy Who Dared.
The Boy Who Dared
The Boy Who Dared, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Scholastic Press, New York, 2008, p. 202.
Book Summary: In October 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübner, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.
This was a moving story. I wasn’t sure it was one I wanted to read. I really don’t like stories about World War II and the atrocities that went on. I did a pretty thorough scan of the book before deciding to read it. I knew the end from the beginning and could tell that the story was going to be gently told and it was.
What Bartoletti really brought out in telling Helmuth’s story is that one person can make a difference. One person can be noble and save others. Each person can face death with bravery and a sense of self-worth. Helmuth knew the German people were being lied to. He thought it was important to let them know. When he was caught, then it was important to him to save his friends and to make sure they didn’t have to suffer what he was going to suffer. And he succeeded in saving them from death. They still had to serve prison sentences, but they survived and were able to move to the United States after the war and live long lives.
Bartoletti also shares a brief historical time line that helps put perspective on the events related in the book.
Book Summary: In October 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hübner, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.This was a moving story. I wasn’t sure it was one I wanted to read. I really don’t like stories about World War II and the atrocities that went on. I did a pretty thorough scan of the book before deciding to read it. I knew the end from the beginning and could tell that the story was going to be gently told and it was.
What Bartoletti really brought out in telling Helmuth’s story is that one person can make a difference. One person can be noble and save others. Each person can face death with bravery and a sense of self-worth. Helmuth knew the German people were being lied to. He thought it was important to let them know. When he was caught, then it was important to him to save his friends and to make sure they didn’t have to suffer what he was going to suffer. And he succeeded in saving them from death. They still had to serve prison sentences, but they survived and were able to move to the United States after the war and live long lives.
Bartoletti also shares a brief historical time line that helps put perspective on the events related in the book.
Notes from a Liar and her Dog
Notes from a Liar and her Dog, Gennifer Choldenko, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2001, p. 216. Chapter book.
Book Summary: Eleven-year-old Ant, stuck in a family that she does not like, copes by pretending that her “real” parents are coming to rescue her, by loving her dog Pistachio, by volunteering at the zoo, and by telling lies.
I have to say, I did not like this book most of the way through it. I found Ant (Antonia) to be a real whiner. But I was comparing her life to mine and later I decided that wasn’t quite a fair comparison. When I was in the sixth and seventh grades I moved and changed schools six times! That was in the day before cell phones, computers, and the Internet. When I left friends behind, our only hope was to keep in touch writing letters. But most of the time, our friendships just came to an end.* My dad was in the Air Force and we didn’t have any choice about making those moves. That’s where Ant and I are different. Her father seemed to get bored with his job and then quit and move on. And I couldn’t understand why he’d move the whole family when he’d be gone for a month at a time anyway. And then there was Ant’s relationship with her mother. No one was happy there. At least, she was open to the suggestions made by the art teacher, Just Carol. Finally, Ant and her mom really talked and came to an understanding about each other. They discovered that they had more in common than they thought and that they could get along. They even worked things out so the dad wouldn’t uproot their family again.
*Since originally writing this summary, I've joined the Facebook crowd and found my best friends from the 9th grade! Technology is amazing!
Book Summary: Eleven-year-old Ant, stuck in a family that she does not like, copes by pretending that her “real” parents are coming to rescue her, by loving her dog Pistachio, by volunteering at the zoo, and by telling lies.I have to say, I did not like this book most of the way through it. I found Ant (Antonia) to be a real whiner. But I was comparing her life to mine and later I decided that wasn’t quite a fair comparison. When I was in the sixth and seventh grades I moved and changed schools six times! That was in the day before cell phones, computers, and the Internet. When I left friends behind, our only hope was to keep in touch writing letters. But most of the time, our friendships just came to an end.* My dad was in the Air Force and we didn’t have any choice about making those moves. That’s where Ant and I are different. Her father seemed to get bored with his job and then quit and move on. And I couldn’t understand why he’d move the whole family when he’d be gone for a month at a time anyway. And then there was Ant’s relationship with her mother. No one was happy there. At least, she was open to the suggestions made by the art teacher, Just Carol. Finally, Ant and her mom really talked and came to an understanding about each other. They discovered that they had more in common than they thought and that they could get along. They even worked things out so the dad wouldn’t uproot their family again.
*Since originally writing this summary, I've joined the Facebook crowd and found my best friends from the 9th grade! Technology is amazing!
Dragon Slippers
Dragon Slippers, Jessica Day George, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Holtzbrinck Publishers, New York, 2007, p. 321. Chapter book.
Book Summary: Orphaned after a fever epidemic, Creel befriends a dragon and unknowingly inherits an object that can either save or destroy her kingdom.
Creel is offered up to a dragon in the hope that a young nobleman would rescue her and take her for his wife without her having a dowry. As it turns out, the dragon, Theoradus doesn’t want to fight the nobleman. Creel offers to get the young man out of the way in exchange for something from his horde. She assumes he collects gold (don’t all dragons?), but it turns out he collects shoes of all kinds. Creel selects some beautiful blue slippers, talks the young nobleman into going home, and sets herself on her journey to the King’s Seat where she will work in embroidery until she’s able to open her own dress shop.
Along the way, she is rescued by another dragon, Shardas, who lets her live with him for awhile to sew samples of her work. He collects stained glass windows and Creel’s embroidery work is inspired by the glass designs. In the King’s Seat Creel meets the king’s younger son, Luka, who helps her find a place to stay the night. Her hostess helps her find a place of employment the very next day.
In the story that follows, Creel discovers her slippers have powers over the dragons. When they are stolen away by the foreign princess (Amalia) who is to marry the king’s older son, the story escalates with the royal family seeking to destroy the dragons, or at least take the power away from Amalia. Many lives are lost among the humans and the dragons. Through Creel’s valiant efforts, the kingdom is saved and Amalia perishes in the Boiling Sea. It seems that Shardas has also perished in the sea.
The king offers Creel the chance to marry the crown prince, but she refuses and requests to have her own shop instead. (She is also far more interested in Luka, anyway.) A year later, after the kingdom has gone through some serious rebuilding, Luka comes to Creel and tells her that a stained glass window has been stolen from a chapel, then off they go dragon hunting!
I really enjoyed this story because it was always full of hope. Things got challenging and uncomfortable, but everyone put forth their best efforts to resolve their troubles in a good way.
Book Summary: Orphaned after a fever epidemic, Creel befriends a dragon and unknowingly inherits an object that can either save or destroy her kingdom.Creel is offered up to a dragon in the hope that a young nobleman would rescue her and take her for his wife without her having a dowry. As it turns out, the dragon, Theoradus doesn’t want to fight the nobleman. Creel offers to get the young man out of the way in exchange for something from his horde. She assumes he collects gold (don’t all dragons?), but it turns out he collects shoes of all kinds. Creel selects some beautiful blue slippers, talks the young nobleman into going home, and sets herself on her journey to the King’s Seat where she will work in embroidery until she’s able to open her own dress shop.
Along the way, she is rescued by another dragon, Shardas, who lets her live with him for awhile to sew samples of her work. He collects stained glass windows and Creel’s embroidery work is inspired by the glass designs. In the King’s Seat Creel meets the king’s younger son, Luka, who helps her find a place to stay the night. Her hostess helps her find a place of employment the very next day.
In the story that follows, Creel discovers her slippers have powers over the dragons. When they are stolen away by the foreign princess (Amalia) who is to marry the king’s older son, the story escalates with the royal family seeking to destroy the dragons, or at least take the power away from Amalia. Many lives are lost among the humans and the dragons. Through Creel’s valiant efforts, the kingdom is saved and Amalia perishes in the Boiling Sea. It seems that Shardas has also perished in the sea.
The king offers Creel the chance to marry the crown prince, but she refuses and requests to have her own shop instead. (She is also far more interested in Luka, anyway.) A year later, after the kingdom has gone through some serious rebuilding, Luka comes to Creel and tells her that a stained glass window has been stolen from a chapel, then off they go dragon hunting!
I really enjoyed this story because it was always full of hope. Things got challenging and uncomfortable, but everyone put forth their best efforts to resolve their troubles in a good way.
Keeping Score
Keeping Score, Linda Sue Park, Clarion Books, New York, 2008, p. 2006.
I am not a fan of baseball. I think golf and baseball have to be two of the most boring athletic events out there. However, I recently attended a brown bag luncheon where Vance Law, BYU head baseball coach, was the guest speaker, and decided I really shouldn’t be so hard on baseball. I think if you know the game it’s a lot more exciting than it seems. So when I was perusing the library shelves to pick a book authored by Linda Sue Park and saw that she’d written one about scoring baseball, I thought I had to try it out.
Obviously, the book is about more than just scoring baseball. It turns out that it’s a story about hope and friendship. Maggie-o loves baseball, loves the Dodgers (Dem Bums), loves scoring the games, and loves her new friend, Jim. Maggie’s dad is a fireman. He’s hired Jim and Jim is a Yankees fan. He’s as excited about scoring games as Maggie is. However, Jim is called up into the Army and goes to work with an ambulance crew at the front during the Korean War. He’s been writing home to Maggie on a regular basis and then suddenly stops. Maggie doesn’t know why, but continues to write Jim. Later she learns that Jim came home from Korea early and her dad just didn’t know how to tell her why. Jim isn’t talking about what happened and doesn’t want to interact with anyone.
Maggie works on plan after plan to help Jim feel better. Some plans fail totally and other plans have some degree of success. At the end of the book (several years have passed) we are able to see that Jim is finally making some progress and Maggie plans to continue scoring games, even though she’s headed into Junior High, as a way to keep close to Jim.
I am not a fan of baseball. I think golf and baseball have to be two of the most boring athletic events out there. However, I recently attended a brown bag luncheon where Vance Law, BYU head baseball coach, was the guest speaker, and decided I really shouldn’t be so hard on baseball. I think if you know the game it’s a lot more exciting than it seems. So when I was perusing the library shelves to pick a book authored by Linda Sue Park and saw that she’d written one about scoring baseball, I thought I had to try it out.Obviously, the book is about more than just scoring baseball. It turns out that it’s a story about hope and friendship. Maggie-o loves baseball, loves the Dodgers (Dem Bums), loves scoring the games, and loves her new friend, Jim. Maggie’s dad is a fireman. He’s hired Jim and Jim is a Yankees fan. He’s as excited about scoring games as Maggie is. However, Jim is called up into the Army and goes to work with an ambulance crew at the front during the Korean War. He’s been writing home to Maggie on a regular basis and then suddenly stops. Maggie doesn’t know why, but continues to write Jim. Later she learns that Jim came home from Korea early and her dad just didn’t know how to tell her why. Jim isn’t talking about what happened and doesn’t want to interact with anyone.
Maggie works on plan after plan to help Jim feel better. Some plans fail totally and other plans have some degree of success. At the end of the book (several years have passed) we are able to see that Jim is finally making some progress and Maggie plans to continue scoring games, even though she’s headed into Junior High, as a way to keep close to Jim.
Picture Books from the Symposium
What follows is information about the seven picture books I read for the Symposium on Books for Young Readers held in July 2009. I hope you'll find something here that you or your children/grandchildren will enjoy!
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