#135
Title: Stormbreaker
Author: Anthony Horowitz
Narrated by: Nathaniel Parker
Genre: Kid Series
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, Support Your Local Library, Audiobook, Fall Into Reading, London Olympics
Rating: A
Date read: 10/24/10 - 10/30/10
Pub: 2001
CT #/hrs. : 3/ 4 3/4

Fast-paced, action packed, kid approved (and this adult, too)! The first in the Alex Rider series finds Alex an orphan of his Uncle Ian Rider who died in a car accident. Uncle Ian was a spy and Alex becomes one, too. His natural abilities and seeming love for adventure is the right combination that draws readers to this genre. Also to become a motion picture if not already. I’m hooked. It was fun, too, to check out this author’s website where he shares the latest book with his followers.

#134
Title: The Lace Reader
Author: Brunonia Barry
Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnaham
Genre: Fiction
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, Support Your Local Library, Audiobook, Fall Into Reading
Rating: C
Date read: 10/9/10 - 10/30/10
Pub: 2006
CD #/hrs. : 10/11+

Someone wrote on the back of the CD “Too much back & forth/reality vs. victim recollection vs. historic persecution. A joyless story.“ I couldn’t agree more. Set in Salem, Massachusetts our narrator admits that she doesn’t always tell the truth. By the time I got to the end of the story -- I realized that it was no fun to not know what was true & what wasn’t. Prior to the chapters, excerpts from The Lace Reader’s Guide seemed superfluous; actually the premise of lace reading didn’t work for me. Oh, well. I’m also going to miss my f2f group next Friday. I so love to gain a better appreciation of a book with the input of other readers.

#133
Title: Charlotte’s Web
Author: E. B. White
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Genre: Kid Chapter Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading, The 4 Month
Rating: B
Dates read: 10/15/10 -10/28/10
Pub. 1952

Precious story of a pig, a spider, other farmyard animals and a girl. Fern talks her father into keeping Wilbur, her pig and not killing him just because he’s the runt of the litter. Then Wilbur befriends Charlotte, the spider, who decides it’s her mission to save him from the slaughter. With the help of Templeton, the rat, Charlotte weaves words into her web that send a message of how great a pig Wilbur is. It’s only at the Fair that the story comes to a denouement -- one that you’ll want to experience for yourself -- and not be told by me!

#132
Title: Little Quack’s Bedtime
Author: Lauren Thompson
Pictures by: Derek Anderson
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B
Date read: 10/25/10
Pub. 2005

Little Quack and his four brothers and sisters are getting ready to bed down for the night. Their names are Widdle, Waddle, Piddle and Puddle. They all hear a different noise or see something that only their mother’s explanation will allow them, one by one, to fall asleep. The pictures are rich and colorful and give each duckling a distinct personality.

#131
Title: Little Quack’s Hide and Seek
Author: Lauren Thompson
Pictures by: Derek Anderson
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B+
Date read: 10/25/10
Pub. 2004

Porter kept asking where Mama Duck was throughout this book. Though the mama was nearby and sometimes partly in the picture Porter never wavered in her request. And true to the story Mama Duck and her brood of 5 came through. Across the bottom of the first few pages is a Count Along with the Quack - u - lator. To know what this is -- you’ll just have to read it.

#130
Title: When Sheep Sleep
Author: Laura Numeroff
Illustrator: David McPhail
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B+
Date read: 10/25/10
Pub. 2006

Porter is into sheep so this was right up her alley. When it’s hard to go to sleep most people count sheep but when sheep sleep what might they otherwise count? Would believe cats, birds, puppies and pigs to name a few? Endearing mildly describes the effect of the pictures and story of this fun book.

#129
Title: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
Author: Laura Numeroff
Illustrator: Felicia Bond
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B+
Date read: 10/25/10
Pub. 2008

Porter was intent on looking at the pictures in this book which will probably become a classic along with others by Numeroff and her illustrator Felicia Bond. The little girl and her cat adventure from the kitchen where kitty gets a cupcake all the way to the beach and other fun places until they’re back home. Delightful!

#128
Title: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Author: Virginia Lee Burton
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B+
Date read: 10/25/10
Pub. 1939

This book Porter pulled off the shelf of the kid library books without really looking at it. When we got it home and were reading it I discovered it’s a classic and was published the year her grandpa was her age. We didn’t quite finish it at first but managed just before she went to bed. It’s a timeless story of a hard-working man and his trusty steam shovel named Mary Ann and how they kept working even when steam had been replaced with more modern equipment.

#127
Title: At Home in Mitford
Author: Jan Karon
Narrated by: Dean Jones, Pat Star, Betsy Blair, Paul Freeman and David Suchet
Genre: Fiction
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, Support Your Local Library, Audiobook, Fall Into Reading, The 4 Month,
Rating: B+
Date read: 10/16/10 - 10/24/10
Pub: 2003
CT #/hrs. : 6/6.5

I loved the way this story was told as a Focus on the Family Radio Theatre where every character has his or her own voice. Dean Jones played Father Tim, the main character. Set in the fictitious southern town of Mitford, the Lord’s Chapel, an Episcopalian church is the setting of the stories surrounding the town’s residents. Characters like Dooley, an eleven year old boy who comes to live with Father Tim and learns much from the pastor with a huge heart; Cynthia, Father Tim’s new next door neighbor who asks him to go steady; Puny, Father Tim’s housekeeper, who cooks, cleans and generally keeps him organized -- all make the town complete and complement each other. Even Barnabas, the barking dog who wins both Tim and Dooley’s hearts. I’m looking forward to more stories by Karon, hopefully in the form of theatre of the mind.

#126
Title: What’s the Matter, Bunny Blue?
Author: Nicola Smee
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B
Date read: 10/18/10
Pub. 2010

Porter looked intently at the picture’s of the blue bunny who has lost his granny! He meets a lot of animals before the end of the book, animals like an alligator, duck, bee, bear, fox, and tiger. They each ask Bunny a question to that reveals a clue about granny bunny. Another “feel good” story!

#125
Title: Santa’s Snow Cat
Author: Sue Stainton
Illustrator: Anne Mortimer
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B
Date read: 10/18/10
Pub. 2001

Porter loved the white kitty and kissed and petted it throughout the story. Seems like snow cat fell out of Santa’s sleigh and got lost and kept running into Santas who weren’t HER Santa. Of course, it has a happy ending.

#124
Title: I Love Animals
Author: Flora McDonnell
Genre: Kid Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading
Rating: B
Date read: 10/18/10
Pub. 1994

Porter wanted to read this gem more than once. No wonder! Large colorful animals decorate this picture book like hens, a pony, a dog, cat and kittens, a goat, a donkey and a cow to name a few. At the end they all gather round the little girl (who Porter said was her)!

#123
Title: Everything is Illuminated
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Narrated by: Jeff Woodman & Scott Shina
Genre: Fiction
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, Support Your Local Library, Audiobook, Fall Into Reading, 1% Well-Read, Around the World in 80 Books, London Olympics, Fill in the Gaps
Rating: B
Date read: 9/30/10 - 10/16/10
Pub: 2002
Digital Recording/Hours: 11 ¾ hours

This book is told from two viewpoints - one of the author and one of the author’s interpreter. As USA Today reports - “A hilarious yet heartbreaking tale of family and discovery.” And that it is. Alex is the tall, Ukranian who is Jonathan’s interpreter. They journey to discover Augustine, a woman who supposedly saved Jonathan’s grandfather from dying in a Nazi war camp. Along the way, there is much history from the 18th to the 20th century. Along with them is the grandfather and Alex’s little brother Igor and his dog Sammy Davis Jr. Junior. Before the story is through we’ve visited each generation of Foer’s family since 1791 and learned all the details of their sex lives and war atrocities they were involved in and come away with the feeling of knowing the character intimately. Looking forward to another Foer book.

#122
Title: Stuart Little
Author: E. B. White
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Genre: Kid Chapter Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading, The 4 Month
Rating: B
Dates read: 10/10/10 -10/14/10
Pub. 1945

Sweet story of a mouse, the child of a human couple who is very self-reliant and does just about everything from driving a car to writing letters. This story is older than I am, yet timeless. It’ll be fun to read to Porter in a few years. The pen and ink sketches of Garth Williams are adorable and richly done.

#121
Title: Utahraptor
Author: Don Lessem
Illustrator: Donna Braginetz
Genre: Juvenile Non-fiction (567.97)
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library, Fall into Reading, The 4 Month
Rating: B
Dates read: 10/9/10 -10/10/10
Pub. 1996

While this is a juvenile book and the pictures are fun to look at, I didn’t read it with Porter because of the content which I felt was beyond her. Utahraptor is one of the newest finds by paleontologist, Dr. James Kirkland. He and his family were driving through southern Utah and stopped for lunch at Moab. Jim visited the rock shop next door. He chatted with a shop worker, Robert Gaston, who had unearthed some armor plates from an anklyosaur. Jim too had a collection of bones from this dinosaur and Jim asked if they could work together. So they did and in the process another co-worker came upon a curved claw of a meat-eating dinosaur. It was twice as long as the claws of any known raptor. Through a process, Dr. Kirkland found more bones and pieced together what he named as Utahraptor, meaning Utah Thief. Though found in Utah Doctor Jim determined that it had roamed the Earth in the early Cretaceous period when these kinds of dinosaurs might have lived all over the Northern Hemisphere. Lessem has done a number of books on various dinosaurs and when Porter is a bit older in a year or so we’ll read more by this author.

#120
Title: Baby Bill and Little Lil
Author: Sue Heap
Genre: Kids Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B
Date read: 10/10/10
Pub. 1998

A fun book that includes the title characters together with Sam, Sue and Sid Sheep, Dilly Dog and Clive Cat. Baby Bill wants a pet fishy so he and Little Lil set off down the hill to go fishing. Along the way they meet up with the other guys and pick up speed the farther down the hill they get. All of a sudden they’re at the bottom on the hill at the seashore. And Baby Bill discovers he’s lost his bucket! What to do? Read the story to find out what happens next. Porter wanted me to read the story again.

#119
Title: Xylophone Music from Ghana
Authors: Trevor Wiggins and Joseph Kobom
Genre: Non-fiction (786.843)
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, A-Z, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B
Date read: 9/7/10 - 10/9/10
Pub. 1992

I had no idea what a real xylophone was until I read this book. I remember, instead, the one I used to play as a kid, one that had a traditional scale and was hit with small batons. Now, wow! Known as the gyil, the xylophone in Ghana is played mainly in the Upper West region of the country by people speaking the Dagaare and Sisaala languages. Building a xylophone is specialized and they are made from seasoned mahogany. When it comes to playing the instrument, the player sits on a low stool and uses beaters which are held between the first and second fingers of each hand. Xylophone music from Ghana is pentatonic in nature and pitch, meaning it’s comprised of a five tone musical scale.

Much of the book is devoted to musical pieces written in both traditional music notation as well as the Time Unit Box System (TUBS), a system unique to playing the xylophone, which is a numbering method for learning the music. Transcriptions of xylophone music show what was taught to Wiggins by Kobom. The basic patterns have a number of fairly standard variations which may, interestingly enough, differ between performances.

I chose this book to help me complete the A-Z challenge.

#118
Title: Betrayed
Author: P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast
Read by: Edwina Wren
Genre: Childrens Series
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, Support Your Local Library, Audiobook, Fall Into Reading
Rating: B
Date read: 9/24/10 - 10/8/10
Pub: 2008
Cds/Hours: 8/9 hours, 52 min.

In the second of the House of Night series we find Zoey, now the leader of the Dark Daughters, betrayed. It’s not only Zoey though who’s compromised but the community itself when Detective Marks tries to get to the bottom of the murders he thinks were committed by the House of Night vampires. Cast does a great job of storytelling with attention to detail.

#117
Title: Tinkers
Author: Paul Harding
Genre: Fiction
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, Read Your Own Book, You Set It Paperback, The 4 Month, Buy One Book & Read It
Rating: B
Date read: 8/28/10 - 10/8/10
Pub: 2009
Pages: 191

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Tinkers takes place in Maine and follows the life of George W. Crosby in retrospect as he lays dying. The story is not only one of George’s life but that of his father, a Methodist preacher who also has a story to tell. Rich in narrative, economical on dialogue yet equally engaging in each, Tinkers takes us through the poverty of George’s childhood, the soul of his family and ties it concisely together at the end.

#116
Title: I Love Cats
Author: Sue Stainton
Illustrator: Anne Mortimer
Genre: Kids Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B
Date read: 10/5/10
Pub. 2007

The pictures are so delightfully real that want to pet these sweet kittens. There are so many different types of cats - big, fat, scaredy, cool, spotty, purry, on your head, in your bed, giggly, flying, dancing, fiery, singing, winking, bubbly, hoppy tumbling, toffee -- you name it Stainton and Mortimer have come up with it and every single one is special. Porter loved them all.

#115
Title: Clip-Clop
Author: Nicola Smee
Genre: Kids Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B
Date read: 10/5/10
Pub. 2006

Everyone seems to want to ride the horse and Mr. Horse is more than happy to accommodate. Dog, duck, pig and cat are his riders and they go so fast they call out - “Whoa! Stop! We’re falling off!” Smee has a winner with this book and P and I will be looking for more by her.

#114
Title: Down in the Woods at Sleepytime
Author: Carole Lexa Schaefer
Illustrated by: Vanessa Cabban
Genre: Kids Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B
Date read: 10/5/10
Pub. 2000

I read this to Porter before her Tuesday nap after our return from Bible Study Fellowship. All the forest youngsters are getting ready to sleep and Schaefer and Cabban lead us from one animal mama and her babies to the next. We meet bears, bunnies, toads, and hedgehogs. Then Gramma Owl swishes in to hoot “Sweet dreams” to them all, a sweet sound to hear before drifting off to sleep.

#113
Title: The First Day of Winter
Author: Denise Fleming
Genre: Kids Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, The 2nd, PB&J, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B+
Date read: 10/4/10
Pub. 2005

What a fun book! It can be read and sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. A snowman experiences ten gifts from his best friend over ten days of standing in the snow and being admired by all who visit him. Porter was enthralled. I’m so glad she doesn’t mind my off-key singing whether in this story or when I sing her a bedtime lullaby.

#112
Title: Giddy-Up! Let’s Ride!
Author: Flora McDonnell
Genre: Kids Picture Book
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, PB&J, Support Your Local Library
Rating: B
Date read: 10/4/10
Pub. 2002

Porter loves horses and so enjoyed this book very much. McDonnell’s grandmother instilled in her a love of horses by riding on grandma’s knee and imagining herself on ponies, horses, donkeys and all sorts of other animals. She brings the vividness of these critters to the page to the delight of children of all ages. Some of the beasts shown are an elephant with a rajah that goes rumpetta trump rumpetta trump; a camel carrying a nomad who lolloppy-plod lolloppy-plod along. Great onomatopoeia!

#111
Title: John Wesley, a Biography
Author: Stephen Tomkins
Genre: Non-fiction
Challenges: Read & Review, New Author, Read Your Own Book, You Set It Paperback, The 4 Month, Genre
Rating: B
Date read: 7/18/10 - 9/30/10
Pub: 2003
Pages: 208

This book was written to acknowledge the tercentenary of the birth of Methodism’s founder and so came out in 2003. As I mentioned before my small group at church studied John Wesley and learned much about him -- that he was the last one out of his burning home when he was nine years old, attended Oxford College, married late in life and lived for most of the 18th century. The biography gives details not mentioned in our text book. For example, he didn’t do well in Georgia when he came to this country in 1738. He and his next youngest brother Charles had a falling out over whether people giving communion to the parishioners should be ordained. Another contention was that Wesley did not believe in predestination , a doctrine which says only those chosen by God can be saved, that the elect cannot lose their salvation, and that Christ died only for the elect. I enjoyed the book.