September 26, 2010

Nancy Drew



I remember the first time I pick up a Nancy Drew book. I though it was amazing a girl could do so much! Of course I was about 11 at the time, and had been reading the Hardy Boys. Most of the neighborhood I lived in had boys my age the girls were 4-5 years younger then I was.

Nancy Drew 56: The Thirteenth Pearl: The Thirteenth Pearl


Nancy is asked to locate a stolen necklace of unusual value, Nancy soon discovers that strange and dangerous people are responsible for the theft.



Pearl necklaces are beautiful and having one of value was out of my realm of understanding, but encountering a thief had me looking under my bed as I read. My grandparents never locked the doors of their home. After reading this book I asked them to start locking their doors. It took a week to find the key and by then I was not so spooked when I stayed with them.


Nancy Drew 04: The Mystery at Lilac Inn (Nancy Drew Mystery)



Nancy finds herself in danger when she tries to solve the mystery of the old inn, believed to be jinxed.

I always liked the name of the inn, is sounded much more romantic than the Buckeye Hotel my great aunt used to own. Imagine being able to explore the Inn, I was never allowed out of the common areas until we spent the night. Then I was put in the room under the staircase. The twin bed was tucked under the stairs and had a bookshelf against the wall. I discovered Agatha Christie that night!



Nancy Drew 02: The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew Mystery)


Teenage detective Nancy Drew uses her courage and powers of deduction to solve the mysterious happenings in an old stone mansion.
Here the idea of a stone Mansion with a hidden staircase intrigued me. Most of the homes I saw at the time were brick or wood frame and much to small to be considered mansions. Most of the homes did good to have one tiny bathroom. Ours you could wash your hands while sitting on the commode, just think a staircase bigger than our bathroom.

September 25, 2010

Learning to Play



Joust for Fun by Edith J. S. Doherty, Louise C. Evans


Imagination is the name of the game. All children need to spend time imagining, playing dress up, running outside, and reading.


Without imagination we would never have achieved going to the moon, telephones, airplanes or cell phones. What would our live be like without the dreamers who invented these items?

I have had the honor of calling an inventor friend. He created the Liquid Crystal Display. His name James Fergason! I know he enjoyed reading Science Fiction among other things; he and his wife also encouraged their children and grandchildren to Play!

Can you remember the last time you Played with your children? A simple card table or two chairs with a sheet over it becomes a “Fort”. One evening a week, turn off the TV and play a game together.

Off the Wall Mad Libs by Roger Price, Leonard Stern

How about in the car? Do you talk to your children or encourage them to pay attention to the road? Teach them to read a map? Sing or do tongue twisters? Twister of Twists, a Tangler of Tongues by Alvin Schwartz

A writer needs imagination also. Could you write a book? How about your child? I have 250 Juvenile Books on line at the moment and more on the way. Most are $0.99!


Take time to read and Play.

September 8, 2010

For the Love of Romance

Summer is almost over and along with it the days spent on the beach. Being a blond who burns easily I do not spend to many daylight hours laying on a beach. On Sanibel, if you walk in the early morning, you will find many shells. In the evening nothing is better than putting you feet up with a book after dinner. I enjoy a drink make, blend Cranberry Pomegranate Juice and ice, then top with seltzer water. These Philsners make a excellent presentation, for company I will add a mint leaf on top.

Now for a book?

I can recommend

Die for Me: Vartanian Family # 1 by Karen Rose


COME TO ME

The first victim is found in a snow-covered Philadelphia field. Detective Vito Ciccotelli enlists the aid of archaeologist Sophie Johannsen to determine exactly what lies beneath the frozen ground. Despite years of unearthing things long buried, nothing can prepare Sophie for the matrix of graves dug with chilling precision. The victims buried there haunt her. But the empty graves terrify her-the killer isn't done yet.

SCREAM FOR ME

He is cold and calculating, the master of a twisted game. Even with Vito and Sophie hot on his trail, he will not stop. One more empty grave must be filled, and one last scream must be heard-the scream of an archaeologist who is too close for comfort and too near to resist...

DIE FOR ME


Anther book I can recommend.

A Kiss to Remember by Teresa Medeiros


AWAKENED BY A KISS

Laura Fairleigh needs a husband. If she is to keep a roof over her siblings' heads, the prim rector's daughter must wed by her twenty-first birthday. When she finds a mysterious stranger with the face of an angel and the body of Adonis unconscious in the forest and with no memory of his name or his past, she decides to claim him for her own. Little does she know that her fallen angel is really the devil in disguise.

Sterling Harlow, the notorious rakehell known as the "Devil of Devonbrooke," awakens to the enchanting kiss of a lovely young woman who informs him he is her long-lost betrothed. With her sun-kissed cheeks and smattering of freckles, she looks every inch the innocent, but her curves possess a woman's allure. When she assures him he is the perfect gentleman, he wonders if he's lost his wits as well as his memory. He would have sworn he was not a man to be satisfied with mere kisses-especially from lips as sweet and luscious as Laura's.

As he attempts to uncover the truth before their wedding night, a kiss to remember ignites a passion neither of them will ever be able to forget....

Fairleigh Sisters - 1

September 7, 2010

The face of a book


Do you ever look at a book cover and just what to read it. This book cover the eyes just call to you.



I picked up this book and the cover just spoke to me, does it speak to you?

But what is it about?

Mary, 15 years old and an orphan, must flee into Sherwood Forest to avoid an arranged marriage. There her life truly begins, for she finds a community of heroic outlaws that includes a woman with seemingly magic healing powers and a young man who is bravely leading the fight against tyranny. This man is Robin Hood, and Mary will soon be known as Maid Marian, the green lady of the woods. An ALA Notable Book for Children. A "Booklist" Children's Editor's Choice.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-Mary de Holt, 15, runs away from her uncle's manor to avoid marrying the elderly widower he has chosen for her, and her nurse, Agnes, follows. They take refuge in the endless, forbidding forest, and Mary finds it teeming with life-wretched folk on the run, defrocked nuns, and a mysterious prophetess, among others. Local lore tells of a fearsome witch, the Forestwife, who in truth is a woman skilled in herbs and potions who provides assistance to all those desperate enough to seek it. Agnes and Mary find her, but too late; she has died, and they soon take over her role. As Mary becomes more self-sufficient and assimilated into the forest, Agnes renames her Marian. Agnes's son, an outlaw who comes to them for healing and returns their kindness with poached game and stolen goods, becomes Robin Hood. In the same way that Robin McKinley created real lives for Marian and Robin in The Outlaws of Sherwood (Greenwillow, 1988), Tomlinson uses imagined details and historical facts and settings to create a briefer, very different, but equally moving and believable story with a strong, competent heroine. In her afterword, she describes her research, the places and events linked to the legends, and the records concerning women's lives in medieval England. Plot elements involving the activities of King Richard the Lionhearted and his quarrelsome brother John give the story a place in time, while the occasional use of middle English words add to the ambiance.
Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-12. Using the Robin Hood legends as a springboard, Tomlinson heads deep into the heart of the forest; however, the hero of this story is not the prince of thieves, but Marian, who becomes the benevolent Green Lady of the forest. Rather than marry an elderly widower who stinks of ale, 15-year-old Marian runs away to join the forest folk, who live by their own rules. Among them is her former nurse, Agnes, whose common sense and prowess at healing have earned her the mantle of Forestwife--the wise woman people come to when they are in dire need. Agnes is also the mother of a young outlaw named Robert, whom Marian dislikes at first sight. Several recent novels, Frances Temple's The Ramsay Scallop (Booklist Books for Youth Top of the List 1994) and Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdie (Books for Youth Editors' Choice 1994), offer a view of the Middle Ages from the female perspective, but Tomlinson adds a dimension by primarily populating her world with women characters, including a band of renegade nuns. Cleverly, yet subtly, the author marks the extra burdens that women had to bear in a society that was fair to few of its subjects. But this is a very personal story as well, and a voyage of discovery for Marian, who finds the mother she thought was dead and a true love in Robert. In an ending that's underplayed, Marian must forfeit her wished-for role of wife to Robert for the role of Forestwife when Agnes dies. A rich, vibrant tale with an afterword that describes how various legends were braided into the story. Ilene Cooper --


Will you read this?


September 5, 2010

Anne of Green Gables

by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Anne of Green Gables series is one of the most popular series. as a young girl I never realized the series took place in Canada I pictured it taking place, just the next town over. Why were orphans put on trains? They were given a chance away from the cities where they might have ended up on the street.

Anne of Green Gables
Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her. This beloved novel about an 11-year-old orphan finding her place in the world has been adapted for a new generation. Readers will delight in Anne's adventures as they join this spirited and timeless heroine.

Anne of Avonlea
This wonderful book continues the story of young Anne Shirley, popular heroine and mischievous orphan, as she sets out on her teaching career in the town of Avonlea. First published in 1909, this is a beloved classic that continues to appeal to the dreams and aspirations of young people everywhere.


Anne of the Island
Third in the Anne of Green Gables series, it continues the story of Anne Shirley through four years of college. On her way toward graduation, Anne forges new relationships at school, while strengthening old friendships at home in Avonlea. Anne is now a 16-year-old teaching in the town of Avonlea.

Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They're known as the royal family of Summerside - and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty - and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her triumphs.

Anne's House of Dreams

Anne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbour... A new life means new problems to solve, new surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart - and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.

Anne of Ingleside
The childhood of Anne's own children growing up together on Prince Edward Island.



Rainbow Valley
Anne Shirley is grown up, has married her beloved Gilbert and now is the mother of six mischievous children. These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream of what will happen when the strangest family moves into an old nearby mansion. The Meredith clan is two boys and two girls, with minister father but no mother -- and a runaway girl named Mary Vance. Soon the Meredith kids join Anne's children in their private hideout to carry out their plans to save Mary from the orphanage, to help the lonely minister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster from the soup pot. There's always an adventure brewing in the sun-dappled world of Rainbow Valley