elfchild's not 75...just 50...for 2011

I'm new here. I was poking through my LT account and discovered that I only read 17 books last year (for me...I read dozens if not hundreds of picture books to my children as well as a small pile of short chapter books to the elder one). This is in stark contrast to 72 the year before and 172 in 2008. A second child and a cross-country move will do that to one I suppose but no wonder I was cranky.

My goal for this year is to get back to an average of one book a week for myself. Daughter is 5 now and chapter books are a regular part of her read aloud routine so I explore some chapter books and younger middle grade books for read alouds for her in my reading (not to mention there is a lot of good kid lit out there, some of which I missed as a kid and some of which is newer) but I used to have a much wider and deeper range of stuff on my nightstand and would like to revive that habit.

I actually started off in the 50 Book Challenge group and then as I read through the threads I realized how little commentary there was and that I was looking for conversation...so I came here instead.

Read in January (3 for me; 1 for G):
Fast Ships, Black Sails
The Lightning Thief
Spider Bones

Catwings - read aloud. I originally read this a couple of years ago but I like the quartet

Read in February (5 for me; 5? for G):
Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy - in progress
The Sea of Monsters
Victory of Eagles
Zel
Witch World though mine was collected in Gates to the Witch World

Martin Bridge: Ready for Takeoff! - listened to family read aloud
Sweet Pea's Precious Promise - a pre-read to see if I was willing to read this series aloud. I am.

Boo's Dinosaur - read aloud. Not something I would pick out simply for myself but I did enjoy it and have requested the sequel. We shall be looking for more of Betsy Byars' short chapter books (I didn't know she wrote any prior to the librarian recommending this one for our dinosaurs themed read)
Stuart Little - in progress...(current father-daughter bedtime chapter book)
Boo's Surprise
Poppy's Perfect Home

read in March (15 for me; 11 for G...many more in progress):
The End of the Road
A Share in Death
The Kill Artist
The Lightning Thief: the graphic novel
The Titan's Curse
Ceremony in Death
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 - loved this one
Storm Cycle
Sisters on the Case
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 - read aloud but I loved it
Soulless
Fer-de-Lance
Borderline
The Dragon Book: Magical Tales...
Rapunzel's Revenge
Songs of Love and Death - in progress
Just So Stories - in progress. We started listening to the Tantor version (read by Shelly Frasier) but we also just got the Barry Moser illustrated version out of the library and I have no doubt that we shall both read and listen over the next month until they are due
Sense and Sensibility - in progress

Spring Story
Marigold and the Feather of Hope, the Journey Begins - pre-read of a potential fairy book read aloud. I won't be introducing this until she can read it herself and may let her discover it herself.

Dinosaurs Before Dark
Inspector Hopper and Inspector Hopper's Mystery Year yes, they are easy readers, but surprisingly engaging ones
Strawberry's New Friend
The World According to Humphrey
Little Horse
Candytuft's Enchanting Treats
The Houdini Box - worth revisiting when she is a bit older and interested in magic and magicians
Owly Volume 1: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer - nearly wordless graphic novel...read together
43215::Dinotopia: a land apart from time - in progress family read
11113553::Little Horse on His Own

Read in April (6 for me; 4 for G):
96135::The Capture
36181::The City of Ember
10172860::Dark Emperor - I pulled this for me because it won a Newbery Honor this year but G liked it too so I'm counting it for both of us
4290062::The Dark is Rising
5260060::Foundation
Just So Stories
Joyful Noise - in progress, pulled as a read aloud for G but I'm liking it too.
10143974::Twilight's Dawn
The Daughter of Time
Dragon Quintet - in progress
Greenwitch - in progress
The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society - in progress

Mouse and Mole: A Winter Wonderland - short chapter book, read together
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Rain or Shine - G read
Rapunzel's Revenge - mother-daughter read aloud
The Acorn Quest - read aloud
The Knight at Dawn - in progress
Owly
Gruffen - in progress, family read aloud
Friendship According to Humphrey - in progress on audio

Welcome! I too am wary about hitting my 75 book goal, but everyone here is very friendly and with no pressure! Good luck!

Welcome! We are indeed pretty loose with the numbers. Feel free to also list your chapter books and such. At least one other is doing it, and several of our members are teachers, etc. that regularly exchange info on books for younger readers.

I got off to a bit of a slow start, but read in January were:
Fast Ships, Black Sails
The Lightning Thief and
Spider Bones

Fast Ships, Black Sails came up when I did an author search for Naomi Novik in the library catalog. It turned out to be a pirate anthology with strong fantasy themes. I was particularly fond of "Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette and I wish I had kept better notes on which stories (and authors) I particularly enjoyed as anthologies are always a nice way to learn about new (to me) writers.

I've been meaning to read Percy Jackson for a while now and finally got around to it because the movie came out (I'm one of those who likes to read the book first). It was a fun read that made me realize how long it has been since I have read mythology and I look forward to the next book. I think that I was expecting something longer and more involved (like Septimus Heap or Bartimaeus) and it turned out to be lighter and more humorous than I was expecting...more like Artemis Fowl. I think that reading (or re-reading) some relatively recent books to film will actually be a recurring theme this year.

I've enjoyed Kathy Reichs since a friend suggested her to me, though I've felt like her last couple of offerings were not as strong as earlier ones.

Thank you for the welcome.

I have been mixed about whether or not I log chapter books in my own library. I tend to do so if I am reading them myself, but tend not to if I am just reading them aloud. I'm delighted to see that there is a picture book thread since I read aloud hundreds of picture books a year (daughter's library...now children's library...has nearly 3300 books logged in not quite 4 years)

Earlier this month I read:
Over Sea, Under Stone because fantasy fan though I am I never managed to get around to reading The Dark is Rising sequence and it is long past time to fix that.

Currently I am in the middle of The Dragon Book: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy (full title used because otherwise the Touchstone would not come up) though I tend not to read anthologies straight through and will probably start one of the books in the TBR pile.

Other books on the nightstand include:
Victory of Eagles which I actually have listened to part of on audio last year but will probably start over
Zel, a YA Rapunzel variant which came up when I was mining the library catalog for Rapunzel picture books to read to the daughter before letting her watch Tangled
The Sea of Monsters
The Thief Lord which I have checked out of the library before and not gotten to before it was due back. I liked the Inkworld books - I wanted to love Inkheart but it fell short of my expectations and I've had a similar reaction to other Cornelia Funke books - the premise is great and I want to adore the book and instead I just like it.
Best Food Writing 2009
The Story of the Treasure Seekers because I have never read any E. Nesbit and
Enna Burning I read and enjoyed The Goose Girl a couple of years ago and am finally getting back to the series (trilogy?)

My TBR pile is always subject to change, to books becoming due at the library before I manage to get to them, and to my whims discovering other more compelling reads. I've actually been poking through the oldest part of my reading diary to see what intrigued me 4 years ago that I never got to, or was distracted from, to see if anything appeals to me now.

I'm following you. We have over 40 books in common and I'm pretty sure I'll see more than one interesting book from you. The Thief Lord is very different from other books by her. For one thing, it's not fantasy, or I don't think it is. It's been ages since I last read it.

From one Marie to another, welcome! :)

Welcome! I need to get to Enna Burning, as well. I loved Goose Girl and enjoyed her stand alones, The Princess Academy and The Book of a Thousand Days. I think they're up to four books now in the Bayern series. I just wish they had kept the illustrated covers instead of the more "photograph" style. The old ones were so pretty.

Got you starred. I'm always interested in picture books and middle-grade stuff.

We reading The Story of Snow: The science of winter's wonder which has beautiful pictures of snow crystals; plus a bunch of books on the ancient Greeks.

Tanglewood> I explored a bunch of middle grade series a couple years ago but then we had a New Baby coupled with a Big Move and I am only just returning to that list. I'm looking forward to it.

PamFamilyLibrary> You might be interested in browsing the kidlets' library (was daughters, now both children):
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/elfschild
I have catalogued virtually every book I've read to her since she was 18 months old (nearly 4 years now and nearly 3300 books). I'm awful about writing and posting reviews but if you check the comments there is often a proto-review. I'm really hoping that participation here will help me get better about writing up my thoughts on books as then I might actually try blogging about them.

Husband is currently reading aloud the magnificently illustrated Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine as the chapter book portion of daughter's bedtime stories. Daughter is enjoying it immensely though husband was concerned that there was a lot of tension in the book ("one disaster after another" was his description). I read it a couple of years ago and a copy had been sitting in a box in my closet waiting until she was old enough since then (it was a Christmas present last year) - she leans toward the sensitive side and most Disney animation is still too much for her though she loves the Tinkerbell movies, many of the Pixar films and the less surreal Miyazaki. The sequel is also in said 'future present' box and I expect to purchase the third book one of these days as well.

We recently mined the library catalog for every picture book version of Rapunzel that they have and her favorite is Rapunzel: the Graphic Novel which has nice illustrations but a too-spare story lacking character development for my taste. I prefer Trina Schart Hyman's illustrations in Barbara Rogansky's retelling of Rapunzel or Paul O. Zelinsky's Rapunzel though that version feels more appropriate for a somewhat older child. Yes, the plan is to rent Tangled once it appears on dvd.

Dragonfreak> Please don't get me wrong, I like Cornelia Funke. I've read her picture books to my daughter and Igraine the Brave will probably get read aloud sometime in the next year or two. But the premise of Inkheart - someone who could read characters out of (and into) books - was *wonderful* and the curse on book thieves at the beginning of Chapter 5...if I loaned my books out I would have bookplates made with this quote (which appears to be from apocryphal as there is no monastery in San Pedro though I found another version and include both):

For him that Stealeth a Book from this Library,
Let it change into a Serpent in his hand & rend him.
Let him be struck with Palsy, & all his Members blasted.
Let him languish in Pain crying aloud for Mercy,
Let there be no Surcease to his Agony till he sink to Dissolution.
Let Bookworms gnaw his Entrails in token of the Worm that dieth not,
When at last he goeth to his final Punishment,
Let the flames of hell consume him for ever & aye.

For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain, crying aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to this agony till he sing in dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails and when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him forever.

–Anonymous curse on book thieves from the monastery of San Pedro, Barcelona, Spain

I was *hugely* disappointed when we took the audiobook out of the library and discovered that the reader DO NOT BOTHER to read the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. One might even say appalled.

I hope you continue to enjoy the Percy Jackson series. I was hooked after the first one and now cannot wait for the other Rick Riordan books to come out!

I'm very much looking forward to reading more Percy Jackson. The Sea of Monsters is sitting right under Victory of Eagles on my nightstand and I actually have the audiobook out of the library as well. One of the things I love about unabridged audio is that one can seamlessly move back and forth between the paper book and the audio version. I used to listen in the car when I lived in LA and had a long commute but I am much more distractible in the house so I have fallen out of the habit.

Well, that and the 5-year-old is and has been listening so during the day I must select things accordingly. She loves the David Benedictus dramatizations of Tigger Comes to the Forest et. al., which are slightly rearranged, nearly unabridged tellings of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner but we've tried A Bear Called Paddington several times now, both with me reading and Stephen Fry and though she says she likes the first chapter, she doesn't want to listen to a second (that is also true of us reading Pooh, actually...which is not really surprising - the language is beautiful, but complicated for 4 or 5). Eventually, I hope as I adored those books. Sharon Creech's Love That Dog and Hate That Cat went over well during road trips last year and I will probably try Ramona the Pest as she really liked Beezus and Ramona and her father did not and would be most grateful to avoid reading the rest of the series.

For some reason I don't have The Sea of Monsters. I know I lent it to somebody.....but that's the last I remembered seeing it........

Also, I just started reading the Temeraire series, and I absolutely loved His Majesty's Dragon, only first in the series that I rated a five star. But I didn't like the sequel Throne of Jade that much, but not too much that I don't hate the series, and how can I with a dragon like Temeraire?

Also, I know my sister read both Love that Dog and Hate that Cat recently. I skimmed it one day and they seem........well actually I forgot. But isn't there a lot of poetry involved?

There is a lot of poetry involved, some of it quite wonderful. The books are actually a lot shorter than they look because the word density is not very high (we took the audio out of the library because it was only a single disc for each book and I thought my 4-year-old could listen to that much...and I was right, she's asked to listen to them again).

I don't loan books any more, except to a very few people. It makes me too upset to not get them back or to get them back in poor condition...but I am a collector in addition to being a reader. Oh, and I keep a lending copy of Tigana because it is one of my favorite books. I'm actually on my 4th lending copy.

Temeraire is wonderful, isn't he? I just read Vici to my husband last night (it's in The Dragon Book: Magical Tales... and realized that it could well be a prequel story to the Temeraire books. Somehow that did not occur to me the first time I read it...it means I might have to buy a copy of The Dragon Book.

Welcome to the group! It looks like you have made a good beginning on your reading year!

Thank you for the welcome, Stasia. I actually feel a little bit behind since it is mid-February and I have only completed 4 books but I am hoping that having others to talk to about books will get me going again. Of course, I spent the last 2 days poking around assorted threads here instead of actually reading...I really must get into the habit of putting an audiobook on whilst I am doing that.

I completely understand getting sucked into reading the threads to find new books instead of actually reading!

It's good to know that I am not alone in getting sucked into the threads here.

It occurs to me that I should probably come up with a list of audiobooks that I can play during the day when the 5-year-old is listening. She likes the Charlotte's Web movie so that is a possibility as is Ramona the Pest since she enjoyed the first book. Stuart Little is on the bedtime stories reading list and her father has never read it so I want to leave that one for him.

>#21 I LOVED reading all those books when I was growing up! I have rather fond memories of hanging out on super comfy cushions in a quiet corner of the library and reading those wonderful books - a must for every book loving child! :)

#22> I loved them too and I look forward to sharing them with my kids. I have no doubt that there will be some that they return to over and over again as we did. My husband missed a *surprising* amount of kid lit and I am having as much fun introducing him to stuff he missed as a child as I am figuring out what next to read aloud to her.

They just finished Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg last night and will probably do 2 or 3 shorter chapter books before starting Stuart Little. I think we have Martin Bridge: Ready for Takeoff! and The Littles to the Rescue

OK, catching up here. Doing this out of order.

>21 elfchild: I used to read the Ramona/Beezus/Ribsy/Henry series when I was young, so I can imagine her liking them. And also, I did not know Stuart Little was a book. I know they're movies, but not books.

>17 elfchild: I can't resist a book called The Dragon Book........

I forgot. Last month I also read Catwings aloud to the daughter. I read it a couple of years ago when a good friend told me that those were the first real chapter books (as opposed to readers with controlled vocabulary) that her youngest daughter treasured. It's the first of a quartet of books about a litter of cats that were born with have wings. I've come to discover that there aren't all that many of these "transitional books" (books closer to 100 pages than 200 with a fair number of illustrations that are not readers with restricted vocabulary) and I'm always looking for others. I've heard good things about Toys Go Out but decided it was too long for her last fall and didn't actually read it myself. I plan on adding that to the to be read aloud pile shortly.

Marie, if you can get the The Boxcar Children books on audio, those are great to listen to. My girls loved those when they were younger. I know that the books were available in audio at one time, but am not sure if they still are.

Oh, don't miss Toys Go Out! It's one of our all-time favorite read aloud. I think we actually read it twice. Toy Dance Party is wonderful as well.

I loved The Boxcar Children when I was a kid, Stasia. That was the book that taught me to not judge a book by it's cover...the school library copy had no dj and was plain brown (it might have had a small graphic on the cover, I don't remember). I don't think they had many in the series because I did not realize it was a long running series until years later.

Finding the audio is kind of hit and miss. The new library system is not nearly as large nor as well funded as the ones we left - probably one of the few things I miss about Los Angeles (we had library cards for 4 different library systems and visited 3 of them weekly).

#27> We won't miss it. When I got it out last year it seemed like too few pictures and longish chapters for her at that time but I think it will work now. It will probably be the next longer book after Stuart Little. Our library sent an oversized "read aloud" edition of Stuart Little and I think it's going to be great to curl up in our armchair with it.

I was tired of running out of queue space at the library so I got the 20-month-old a library card today. We now have, either in hand or requested, all of the 2010 CYBILs finalists for fiction picture books and easy readers (well, in some cases we have the first books of a series whose current book is a finalist) as well as the very short list of 2010 Caldecott books. None of these count as books for me but that's OK. It's got me poking through the Caldecott list again.

#28: Well, I wish you luck in finding the Boxcar Children books in audio form. I purchased the ones we had from a company called Books on Tape. They have a website here: http://www.booksontape.com/ if you want to search around some.

#12,

Oooh, love the list. Especially as out of the all the books we both have we only have 81 in common. (Leaves lots of room for exploration!)

And we've been through quite a few Rapunzel's ourself :)

#31> You may want to check out the kids' library. My elder one is approaching 5-and-a-half but we've been doing chapter books for a few years now (in addition to tons of picture books):

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/elfschild

Hey that's kind of neat. It's like what why some parents would set up a Facebook account for their baby children as online photo albums.

I started G's account when she was 18 months old and have tracked everything we've read since then. I find it interesting that we own about 10% of the books and have another 10% marked "wishlist" but the remaining 80% is just there (not that there aren't some non-wishlist books that I would pick up if I came across them cheaply at a garage sale or something).

Hi elfchild. Just reading your entire thread in one go (please excuse!)...

Firstly, I say definitely count the chapter books if you're enjoying them too / haven't read them yourself before / would have re-read them yourself at some point and just happen to be choosing to do it aloud in the presence of a 5 year old! A lot of people here (myself included when I get a few moments peace to actually enjoy them) count audiobooks towards my total. I reckon read-alouds are a lot like audiobooks except slightly more demanding (and rewarding, of course. I never yet came across a CD player that hugged me when I'd finished a story and announced "Thank you. I love you!") I personally have no shame whatsoever in listing A Bear Called Paddington alongside War and Peace in my 75 for the year ;-)

#15: Our Kidlet loves Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear. We have the Stephen Fry CDs of Paddington and the Alan Bennett readings of Winnie the Pooh. Superb stuff. I know where your husband is coming from with the Ramona series though. I guess if you grew up with it, there's a certain amount of nostalgia there that just carries you through them, but I found them quite annoying (same goes for the Boxcar Children I'm afraid). Blame my British childhood! I can sit through an obscene number of Enid Blyton books without so much as flinching even though they're complete formulaic gubbins that makes Nancy Drew look inspired! My husband used to read Kidlet-directed books at bedtime but soon jettisoned that for books of his own choosing. She has been recently been enjoying The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I was surprised to find she actually enjoyed The Hobbit and is now managing to follow The Lord of the Rings. DH messaged me from work the other day to ask if there was a free wall space 35" by 52" in Kidlet's room. It would appear he wants to install a map of Middle Earth on her wall for her as she's been asking about where the characters are each night "Is this the forest Bilbo went through?" etc.

#12: I'll have to check out Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg. I just bought In the Realm of the Never Fairies as a little Valentines gift for Kidlet (who loves the Tinkerbell movies almost as much as she loves Star Wars) and she was absolutely blown away by it (she adored all the illustrations). Her reaction was: "I love you soooo much mom. I just don't think I could ever say thank you enough!" Result!

#35...an equally lengthy response...

You are right that no cd player ever gave one a response like that. I'll keep your suggestion in mind. I do enjoy some of our read alouds quite a bit and very often when I am pre-reading to test out a new book I'll just read the first book in a series myself before reading the series aloud.

Alan Bennett??? I don't know that one. We've heard Jim Broadbent (good), Peter Dennis (much better) and the BBC dramatization (Dame Judi Dench among others) which is my daughter's favorite. I know of a reading by Charles Kuralt (sp?) which I understand to be inferior to Broadbent and am unaware of ever being released on cd. I love Fry's Paddington and dearly wish that someday I will have the chance to get some of his Harry Potter books.

Some series are definitely more formulaic than others. I did not read Ramona as a kid and can see both how annoying she is and why they appeal to my daughter. Luckily they are popular enough to be available on audio at the library so my husband need not suffer through more of them. I've not read any Enid Blyton nor E Nesbit though I am aware of both authors and have some Nesbit on my list for this year.

I am the library goer in this house (once a week with 3 library cards in my possession) so I get to choose the chapter books. We are moving to beginning bedtime stories with a chapter book in the living room (basically a family reading time) so everyone gets to lisen. This evening he completed Martin Bridge: Ready for Takeoff! which was nice. Each of the 3 chapters was its own story, rather like Paddinton or Pooh...which is wonderful for bridging into longer books. Husband would really like to try The Hobbit but I've convinced him to hold off until next summer, which will give them plenty of time to enjoy and discuss it before the movie comes out. I think installing a map of Middle Earth sounds wonderful.

Gail Carson Levine's Fairy books are wonderful. New books seldom get such magnificent illustrations any more. There are three of them now. I believe that the first one predated the first Tinkerbell movie but I'm not sure by how much (that is, at what point of development they were in with the movie)

Star Wars is a big deal in our house too (though we haven't introduced the daughter to them yet)...my husband's name is Luke and he vividly remembers going to see the first film in the theatre several times with his mom. His ability to quote from the original 3 movies frightens me.

oooohhhhhhh!! I *love* Star Wars! I cannot wait to introduce them to my son in a few years! I have this old birthday card that plays the Imperial March when you open it and he loves to walk around the house opening it and marching to the music.

That's so cool.

Daughter's summary of Star Wars Episode IV: "Luke destroyed the bad planet!"
Her Review: "That was a good one."

I've been debating other fairy books to read aloud and tried one of the Flower Fairy Friends chapter books today. Sweet Pea's Precious Promise was sweet, but not as sickening as the title makes one fear. I suspect I will be reading it and others aloud as I come across them.

If your daughter is into fairies right now, you might also consider Andrew Lang's Fairy Books: The Pink Fairy Book, The Blue Fairy Book, etc. There are 12 in all. I have not read them yet, but have seen them mentioned on the threads on occasion.

The hardly classics, Dave and La-la enjoyed the "Rainbow Magic: Rainbow Fairy" books. Light fair but an engaging series.

#40> Thank you for reminding me about Andrew Lang's Fairy books - they are actually fairy tale collections. I suspect that the language is probably beyond a 5-year-old but I might pull one out of the library to double check.

#41> My friends with kids somewhat older than mine were split on the series. One read the first series aloud to her kids but declared the other series to be 'read themselves' because 'the plots were all identical'. Another liked them better than the Disney Fairies chapter books, but I suspect she was not reading them aloud. I'd tentatively categorized them as something I might introduce her to read herself by reading aloud the first one but I haven't actually read any of them myself yet.

Currently we have The World According to Humphrey playing in the background while the 5-year-old draws. Humphrey is a hamster, the class pet, and it's an engaging listen.

We did read them aloud (actually my husband did), but only the Rainbow series.

What I found on starting the 'Jewel' series (?) was that the writing was not as good; though it could have been the repetitive elements as well.

Thing about that, as I'm sure you know, is that some children looove the familiar elements. And I assume that's why that particular 'brand' of fairy books is popular.

#42: You are welcome. If they prove to be beyond a 5-year-old's ken, then the books can be kept in mind for later.

We got a big pile of dinosaur books out of the library (with more requested) this weekend and when I open Dinosaurs Before Dark, one of the pages in Chapter 2 is half missing (literally) ...so we read Boo's Dinosaur instead. Over the past couple of weeks Daughter and I have worked up to alternating between her reading an easy reader (or a chapter of one) followed by my reading a picture book or a chapter so I got a lot of mileage out of 6 very short chapters and Daughter has a great sense of accomplishment.

#43> Sounds like the sort of series I wouldn't mind introducing her to later when she's ready to read it independently, but perhaps not something I want to feel roped into reading aloud. I will definitely pre-read the first book at some point.

#44> Oh, absolutely. I have a long and evolving list of books that I want to read aloud (or have her father read aloud) over the coming months and years. The data say that comprehension precedes production until about 8th grade so I've no intention of ceasing with reading aloud before then...if ever.

The other night I read Naomi Novik's story Vici from The Dragon Book aloud to my husband.

I just wanted to pipe in on the Andrew Lang Fairy Tale books. I have the first seven and you would need to read them aloud to your five year old. Some of them would still be too hard for her to follow I think, but I imagine most she could. They are wonderful books and some editions of the books have beautiful illustrations. I'd recommend getting them used so they'd have the color plates (several publishers have done them) instead of the new ones by Dover.

A nice one for her now might be The Golden Book of Fairy Tales (Golden Classics) by Adrienne Segur. This is the closest to my childhood favorite, which I still have, The Giant All-Color Book of Fairy Tales: 50 Best Loved Stories by Jane Carruth. My poor dad always had to read the 20pg long "The Wild Swans" to me because my mom refused after the fifth time I made her read it to me :)

#47> Thank you. I will probably just wait to read the Lang. I am fond of fairy tales and have no doubt we will revisit them many times. We currently have Cooper Edens' Princess Stories: A Classic Illustrated Edition out of the library and that also has language aimed at much older than 5. It will give me time to find nice used copies with the color plates.

Thank you also for your collection recommendations.

Stayed up too late finishing Victory of Eagles. I plan to read one of my Rapunzel books next.

Finished Zel the night before last. I liked the concept (I love fairy tales) and the different perspectives but found the writing choppy at times. Mother was twisted and sad. I would read more Donna Jo Napoli but am not racing out to get another one immediately.

Thursday is library day in our house. We're one of two people that still has a box behind the circulation desk (our branch has gone to self check out and picking up ones own holds off of a wall of shelves) and today we had completely overflowed the banker's box and I literally had more books than I could carry...which made getting to the car with a 5-year-old and a 20-month-old rather a challenge. I anticipate reading most every moment my children are sleeping over the next few weeks.

Husband and I are watching Michael Palin's Pole to Pole right now and the episode on the Mediterranean makes me want to read Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. These might be re-reads but it has been decades since I have read Agatha Christie. Good thing that next month is Mystery March.

Just popping over to say hello! My toddler is 2 years old, and a boy, so we can't weigh in with any fairy book suggestions, I'm afraid; though my 7 year-old and I are slowly working through Peter Pan as bedtime reading (which we haven't managed in a while, however)

Welcome aboard! You have an impressive list of books already.

#50: Sorry, I just had to laugh at your overflowing library box as I pictured you struggling to the car with the 20 month-old perched on top of the box, books wedged under your chin and armpits and the 5 year-old weaving in and out of your legs doing her best to trip you up :-) Reminds me of how I have left various book fairs over the years! As it happens, I am currently pondering how I'm going to manage at our library book fair next month. It has, in the past, always started on a Saturday. This year, however, they're starting on a Friday morning. This creates two problems: 1. Kidlet will be at school on the Friday morning in question and she is now talking about wagging school that day so that she can sneak off to the book fair instead - I guess cutting class to attend a book fair is a lot better than cutting class to smoke cigarettes behind the bike sheds or hang around town drinking alcopops but it's still not ideal! 2. I won't have access to the car that day so I'm starting to plan my 'getting the boxes home' strategy. Right now I'm contemplating a contraption made up of the old double stroller, kickplate on the back and a tub of bungy cords! I may or may not need to secure Kidlet's skateboard to that too. We'll see...

Thought you guys could use something like this:

My mom restricted me to as many library books as I could carry. I sometimes wished for longer arms as I would toddle out of the library with books balanced in a pile on my fingertips and under my chin.

>55 Morphidae: that's my rule as well -- as many as you can carry. My girls painted their own canvas library bags, and it's amazing how much they can carry!

#55: That's when you start wishing you had arms like Mr Tickle :-)

>57 verdelambton: Heh. By the time I got out to the car, sometimes they felt like that.

#55> That was the rule when I was growing up and it was indeed amazing what I could carry. Problem is, *I'm* now the mom and I'm the one with the overflowing holds

I actually had to make two trips in order to do it safely and was very grateful that the parking spot we'd gotten was directly across from the library door (and in the shade) so I could leave a pile of books in the entry while I carted kids to car.

#54> that has crossed my mind. Remembering my backpack would help. We're permitted a maximum of 25 holds per card and now that half of G's are little readers that really ought to be manageable.

#53> They keep the box. I had 3 bags with me but that was not quite enough. I'll have to find my library sale back which is bigger that my usual library book bag and keep it in the car.

#52> Todder is 20 months and a boy. It's an interesting adventure as he is currently vehicle mad.

For myself I am a little more than 3/4 through Witch World. Daughter was excited about the Academy Awards last night and kept popping up until I turned them off and she exhausted herself with a fit begging me to turn them back on and let her watch. sigh.

I've finished reading Boo's Surprise and we shall definitely look for more of Betsy Byars' short chapter books. We've read 4 chapters of Poppy's Perfect Home and I have the first book in another fairy series to try. I'm actually surprised and pleased by the language level in the Flower Fairies Friends chapter books and suspect it might be why they aren't as well known here.

In dinosaur news we have read a pile of books - fiction, non-fiction, even some easy readers that G could read herself. And yes, Boo's Surprise was another dinosaur book itself.

#59 - Your boy sounds like he is just about the exact same age as my boy who will be 20 months in just a few short days!

#61> How very cool. I hope we find lots of books to recommend to one another for the wee ones!

In reading news, I finished Witch World late on the 28th then continued reading in The Dragon Book. I have 3 or 4 stories to go but have successfully renewed the book and will probably leaf them in when I need a break from reading mysteries. There is still a lot of fantasy on my shelf from my over-enthusiasm for Fantasy February.

Last night I started reading Sisters on the Case and I am eyeing the The End of the Road for my first Mystery March novel though I will probably read Songs of Love and Death simultaneously since it is new and likely that someone else will recall it from my hands. I've had a fondness for anthologies since Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthologies introduced me to so many authors and now I almost always some sort of collection of shorts in progress.

For daughter read alouds, we have completed Poppy's Perfect Home and have finally gotten started Dinosaurs Before Dark. I say finally because we began it last week only to discover that most of a page of Chapter 2 was missing and because our dinosaur themed reading has been inspired by this book even though we'd yet to read it.

ETA: We started listening to 70731106::Just So Stories on our way home from the library yesterday. I'd forgotten just how wonderful Kipling's use of language is.

Reminder to self to read Rapunzel's Revenge which will complete most of the Rapunzel books at the library other than those in assorted fairy tale collections.

I'm going to take a page from Dragonfreak's thread and review stories as I read them...I carved out time this afternoon to read the first story in Songs of Love and Death which is Love Hurts by Jim Butcher. I've heard of Butcher but haven't read him before. I definitely need to read more Butcher even if vampires are not my usual thing.

Love Hurts is a Dresden Files story and for one not familiar with the series, there's clearly stuff that's happened before though Butcher gives the reader all the information necessary for following the story. Three apparent suicide pacts in 2 weeks seems like too much of a coincidence and wizard Harry Dresden is called in to figure out if there is magic involved in the deaths. An entertaining read (4 stars).

I like it when people review the books they read. Granted I skim a lot and will only comment if it looks really interesting or I have or wanted to read it.

Also what exactly are the Dresden Files. I know I could like look it up, but I would rather someone to actually tell me without looking it up. Are they like fantasy/mystery/crime scene books or what?

#67> I too appreciate reviews and I am hopeful that participation here will help me get better about writing them. I often jot notes in the Comments section but rarely turn them into real reviews.

As for the Dresden Files - the only Jim Butcher I have read is this one short story. I gather that it is detective fiction set in modern day Chicago with vampires and wizards and perhaps other fantastic elements. The protagonist, Harry Dresden, is both a wizard and a PI. I suspect you would do well to ask on the fantasy thread or perhaps Mystery March perhaps someone who has actually read more will comment. I can tell you that several sources that I trust have recommended Jim Butcher and I intend to read more of his work, both The Dresden Files and his fantasy series.

Maybe I should ask other people. Wait a minute, I do remeber seeing a thread for that on the group Fantasy Fans month ago. Maybe I should look at it. Usually for me a good review that I wrote is one that the book makes, because I can explain why I love or hate it. So Book + Thinking = Satisfied Review.

Be sure to get back to The Dark is Rising series soon. The second book of the series is one of my "perfect" books--such great story.

I totally agree with Roni. The Dark is Rising is a really good series! I actually prefer it to the Percy Jackson series (not meaning to step on any Percy fans out there) but I found the plots a lot more intricate and less predictable.

The Dark is Rising is on my nightstand now but since it is now Mystery March I plan to at least alternate between mysteries and fantasy reads. It would astonish me greatly if The Dark is Rising sequence is not far superior to Percy Jackson - which is a fun ride so far (2 book into the series) but I expect more of something that has made it to classic status.

Thursday is library day here. I used most of my browsing time to try some easy readers that looked intriguing (that might be translated as 'had art I liked and appeared to be within the length that the daughter has been reading successfully'). Among the hold requests that came through were a couple of the graphic novels I decided to try to sample for G: Owly, which turns out to be nearly wordless and Mouse Guard which I knew to expect to read aloud but that an Amazon reviewer that I trust said reminded her of Brambly Hedge and Redwall, both favorites of mine in different ways.

I've added The Dark is Rising series to my ever-growing TBR. I'm sure one day I'll get to it!

#74> I'm glad that I finally have. I enjoyed Over Sea, Under Stone even though folks seem to think it's the weakest book and it was written for a somewhat younger audience than the rest.

We read the first chapter of Mouse Guard as part of the bedtime stories (currently that's usually 2-3 picture books, plus a reader or picture book that she reads to us and a chapter of something longer). We're hooked. Definitely shades of Redwall.

I love the Mouse Guard series! The illustrations are so wonderful.

#76> Yes, they are. I think this one is actually going on the wishlist for our own copy...and likely the sequel and anthology of which I am aware. Are there more? or is it just the 3 so far?

That's all that's out right now. Either later this year or early next, a prequel The Black Axe is coming out.

#78> thank you for the info. Chapter 2 went over just as well as Chapter 1. We've decided that this is the mother-daughter bedtime chapter book, preserving Stuart Little for her father. She spent a great deal of time poring over the pictures this afternoon.

I managed to flitter away my evening reading assorted blogs and threads but not any books. Tomorrow I shall endeavor to work on some of the "in progress" things and go through some of the coming due picture books with one final read before they are returned...

We finished Dinosaurs Before Dark this afternoon and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I was a little disappointed that so many of the sentences were actually phrases and that many of the paragraphs were a single sentence long, but it was OK. I think we'll continue with other dinosaur books for awhile before investigating knights and medieval times, especially since there are probably fewer titles available for that (oh...but I can try reading her Igraine the Brave!)

Of the readers G has been reading, she was particularly charmed by Inspector Hopper which was easier for her than Dirk Bones and the Haunted House. Doug Cushman may be joining Cynthia Rylant on our list of authors who can actually make an easy reader with interesting characters and plot.

We've restricted ourself to a single chapter of Mouse Guard per night and have thus just finished Chapter 4. We definitely need our own copy! On her own, she has also perused Owly Volume 1 and My Neighbor Totoro: film comic

The Medieval/Dark Ages are my favorite period in time, no competition. And I like the real and mythical versions of them too. My friend read Igraine the Brave when we were both on a Cornilia Funke reading spree, but I haven't read it.

#81> It's a favorite time period here too. My husband and I both used to play in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) which is a medieval reenactment group. I read Igraine the Brave a few years ago and liked it. It's nice to have a strong heroine and we've always told our daughter that in our house, princesses wield their own swords.

Great saying that is. It goes against the sexist theory that women can't do anything.

Tell me more about the SCA. Sounds pretty cool.

The second story in Songs of Love and Death is The Marrying Maid by Jo Beverley who is one of my favorite historical romance authors. The story is set in 1758, late in the reign of George II and combines fantasy elements (the realms of faerie) with romance...Rob Loxleigh knows his destined bride the moment he lays eyes on her but Martha, daughter of a canon, wants nothing to do with him...which is unfortunate for him since his life and the lives of all his relations depend on him finding and marrying his marrying made before his 25th birthday. Not her best, but still amusing. (3 stars)

I read a whole book last night. Time was, before children, this was a frequent occurrence...but not lately. In The End of the Road, Maxie McNabb and her dachshund Stretch stay home in Homer, Alaska for the winter instead of RVing somewhere in the lower 48 as they have for the previous 3 mysteries. By chance, Maxie meets a stranger to town, gives him a lift to his motel due to rain and invites him to dinner with friends. The next day, he turns up dead in his motel room, an apparent suicide...or is it. We meet old friends in this one (Maxie takes a few chapters to visit musher Jessie Arnold and her boyfriend Alaska Trooper Alex Jensen) before the twists are resolved. (3.5 stars)

#83> The SCA is a medieval reenactment society that started off in Berkeley, CA and is now worldwide. Historically it covers anywhere that used the sword up through 1600 (some people stretch that through the end of the reign of Elizabeth I) though it did initially have an Anglo-European bent. The US is divided geographically into 7 kingdoms, I think, and in most of them, the King reigns for 6 months (except in the West, the original kingdom, where the reign is 4 months). Kings win that position by fighting and winning a Crown Tournament which makes them a Crown Prince for the remainder of the current reign (thus assuring that one cannot be King continuously). Crown Tournaments are heavy weapons tourneys - fought with rattan weapons in armor. Anyone who has been king (or queen...fighters fight for someone who shares their reign) once is known afterward as Count, twice or more and they are Dukes.

There is good and bad to the SCA, as with any group or club. They can be remarkably strict about some things (selecting a name and a coat of arms, for example) and in other ways they forget entirely about authenticity (Kings were not selected by tournament and knights needed to provide their own horse where in the SCA few of them even know how to ride) but it can be a lot of fun with the right group and one can actually learn a lot about the period if one puts in a little effort.

Interesting.

After The End of the Road, I read Deborah Crombie's first Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery, A Share in Death which I very much enjoyed. This one did not remind me so strongly of Elizabeth George as Necessary As Blood which I received as an ER book a little over a year ago but I enjoyed it very much. It's nice to have a new series to work through.

Currently I'm in the middle of The Kill Artist. I read part of a later Gabriel Allon book a few years ago but put it down because I wanted to read the series in order.

Mystery March has made me aware of just how spotty my 'classic' mystery reading has been so I've requested Whose Body? (because I have never read any Dorothy Sayers) and have the first Nero Wolfe mystery, Fer-de-Lance on my nightstand. I read a bunch of Rex Stout as well as many Poirot mysteries, years ago, but am not sure I remember any specifics at this point so I shall start at the beginning (though I am given to understand that they really don't need to be read in order, unlike some series)

ETA: fixed touchstones

I've decided that I've had enough of dinosaurs for now so it's on to The Magic Tree House Book #2 ... The Knight at Dawn. As expected, this is *much* more manageable than dinosaurs.

I've read at some point or another all of The Magic Tree House books from book 1 to....30-something? And also some of the special ones, and I remember almost all of them. My favorite one happens to be a camelot one, special book, not really important to the developemnt to the series. In fact, each book is a member of a set of four books, which each book has a challenge and Jack and Annie solve the puzzle or riddle or person in need and the end of every fourth book.

I'm really behind on your thread, but thought I'd at least drop by and say hi and try to keep up from this point, if at all possible!

#90> I did not realize they were quartets. I guess that is why the audiobooks are published that way...good to know, thank you! I have mixed feelings about the series. They border on what I would call a junk series, but her basic facts are good and she clearly draws kids in so I am trying to make use of that in a positive way with my daughter. It seems to be working. I think I've got 75 books tagged dinosaurs in her library at this point and there's still several that we haven't gotten to yet. I'm sure that we'll revisit that theme again sometime.

#91> Good to see you Ilana. Thanks for dropping by!

Haha I loooved dinosaurs when I was a kid. I doubt I had that many different books - I tended to reread even then. Talk about repetitive for my parents ;)

I know my mom was a fan of the Magic Tree House books when she was a first grade teacher, she read a lot of them aloud to her class. I'm not familiar with them other than that, though.

#93> My daughter does not own that many dinosaur books either. We are big library users.

I'm taking a brief break from mysteries and reading The Titan's Curse. I also started listening to Sense and Sensibility

My son when he get older, I assume will probably love dinosaurs as all other little boys seem to and I guess it doesn't help that his room is plastered with dinosaur stickers. :)

S&S is probably my favourite of the Austen books and I just finished The Titan's Curse last month. Hope you enjoy both of them!

#95> Most little boys seem to love dinosaurs at some point. Mine is currently car crazy but he's also not yet 2. I am looking forward to both reads. I'm a little more than 1/3 of the way through The Titan's Curse and enjoying it. I do wish that I remembered the myths to which they are making reference. Another thing for the TBR pile :)

I had to bring my computer in to the Apple Store today so we had an unexpected library stop.

I discovered Jill Barklem's Brambly Hedge books when I was living in Japan many years ago. This evening I read Spring Story to my daughter who is not as taken with it as I was. I hope she'll take another look at it herself and enjoy the pictures, which still delight me.

With the new haul from the library I started pre-reading Marigold and the Feather of Hope, the Journey Begins which does not seem awful (it's a fairy chapter book). I also could not resist starting The Lightning Thief graphic novel which is nice, but lacks the humor of the book.

Yes cars are a big hit as well. My 4 year old nephew is obsessed with Cars the movie. We could literally watch it all day long and I don't think he would bat an eye. :) My little one on the other had would cry everytime we go for a walk and a car drives by! That and the rustling of bags makes for one sensitive little boy. :/

WillWill likes his cars too (20 months). Since we live at boarding school, during breaks there is a looooooooooonng hall for him to play on and we have those shake-n-go cars so we play with them up and down the hall. All this talk of Riordan's books is making me want to read them again!

I finished The Lightning Thief: the graphic novel last night. I enjoyed it but I'm glad that I read the novel first. The graphic novel kind of skips along the surface.

#98> I'm not sure if T has seen Cars yet or not. He's been car obsessed since he learned the word a few months ago. Anything with wheels is CAR! I hope that your little one overcomes his dislike of noisy things soon. I sympathize with the rustling bag noise - that kind of thing drives me mad when I am headachy.

#99> T and WillWill really are close in age, aren't they (T will be 21 months next week). I'm not sure what a shake-n-go car is but I can imagine how much fun long hallways must be for playing with vehicles (and balls too I would guess). I will definitely revisit Percy Jackson and the Olympians in a few years when it's time to read the aloud to G!

I've just realized that I've hit a dozen books for me, which is not quite a book a week...a good rate for hitting my goal of 50 (especially if I finish some of the in progress things this week). This is a happy thing since I am trying to correct the lack of reading I experienced last year.

Oh my little brother used to love Cars. It was good the first 10 times I watched it, getting old the 25th time, and by the 50th I was ready to watch something else. But it could be worse. He watched Finding Nemo three or four times for five months. And I couldn't turn it off or so God help me.

They are also making a Cars 2.

Double post. Sorry.

We are big Pixar fans here. Pixar and Miyazaki actually...we are missing a great many of the classic Disney animated features because G was just too sensitive until quite recently but she seems to be ready now so I am digging through and looking for the stories upon which the movies are based.

Personally, I don't like Pixar because it's too much like disney, and I don't like disney, because of the fact it's G, and that means everything is all...well you know. Plus Pixar and Disney movies get really old really fast, and those are the ones my brother liked/likes the most, so that doesn't help either. I like a few disney classics like Herculeas, but no much other. Just a personal opinion.

#105> I have always loved Disney animation but I can understand wanting something that isn't G-rated. At the moment, however, I am the parent of a 5-and-a-half-year-old and a not quite 21-month-old so I've years yet of stuff that is tame enough for them without being too boring. The TV only goes on in the (late) afternoon and not every day (rarely two consecutive days in fact...with the possible exception of a 20 minute short while I am cooking dinner) so I am not inundated with seeing things over and over again ad infinitum. Currently the shorts are Flintstones/Jetsons via Netflix and Meerkat Manor on demand. Never watched Hercules. Got upset about The Lion King (which is a good film but is most definitely thieved from Kimba the White Lion), really annoyed with The Little Mermaid and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and stopped watching Disney with the exception of Pixar.

#100 - T and WillWill are *very* close in age. He was 20 months on the 5th of this month. Congrats on hitting a dozen books!

On the TV discussion, we usually let WillWill watching Elmo's World in the morning. Although he also really likes the opening number from the Muppet Show which we have on dvd. And recently I found on youtube a video of Elmo and India Aria (sp?) doing the ABCs and he is in *love* with it! I'm not sure he has the stamina for a full length movie. He's just a little too active right now. But he does love to read!

#107> 23rd is the magic day here :-) Thank you. It feels good to be reading again.

I went to graduate school in Ithaca, which doesn't have TV unless you pay for cable so I am in the habit of using mine as a vcr (now dvd/blu-ray) box. It just doesn't occur to me to turn it on. T sees more TV than G did at this age because she wants to watch stuff. Favorites here are Kipper, Pingu and Shaun the Sheep. We tried the Muppet Show a couple of times over the past 2 years but it didn't interest her...it might now, she's started enjoying the Muppet movies. I *should* remember to put on Sesame Street - the cable has it on demand.

We finished listening to The World According to Humphrey this morning. It was entertaining - a hamster's eye view of a middle grade classroom and the humans he interacts with during fall term (grade unspecified but 'subtracting fractions' was mentioned so I'm thinking 5th grade?). Humphrey goes home with a kid each weekend so he's exposed to lots of different situations, foods and social interactions. We'll definitely continue reading the series though I'm not sure that I would seek it out if I didn't have a young child.

ETA: We've also started Little Horse by Betsy Byars. It's a little longer and heavier than the 2 books about Boo and her dinosaurs with very short chapters. We've agreed that 3 chapters for 1 book that G reads is fair. I should note that the second Inspector Hopper reader, Inspector Hopper's Mystery Year was just as delightful as the first one. G doesn't often pull out a reader to read on her own (mostly she looks at picture books), but she has with both of these. Pish and Posh Wish for Fairy Wings was another successful reader read for her if only because she was not intimidated by the growing amount of text on the page. I didn't realize it was the second of 2 books and have requested the first one from the library.

We've had extra library trips for the past 2-3 weeks now and books have been piling up so last night I went through with a fairly ruthless eye to get the less interesting stuff entered in her LT account and returned to the library. My husband has agreed to drop them in the slot on his way home today and if I am equally diligent today we just might get the pile back to something more reasonable.

We tried the on demand Sesame Street, but the problem was that WillWill only wanted Elmo's World. So we had to fast-forward through the whole episode and the on demand fast forward was too slow and he would get cranky. Now we record it and I'm able to cue up "Melmo" in about 30 seconds! We do watch Thomas the Train on demand though!

#110> 30 seconds is an eternity when one is one or two.

I finished The Titan's Curse this evening. I'm looking forward to the next one but shall be disciplined and not put it on my library queue until the end of the month as I want to get back to mysteries. Since I found Ceremony in Death at a used bookstore last weekend I am happily reacquainting myself with Eve Dallas. I hope to read a few more mysteries before the month is out and my plan is to alternate between sampling authors new to me and ones I've read before but not so recently.

The Percy Jackson series is really good isn't it? It is one of my favorite books. There is also a movie based on The Lightning Theif and it's really good.......if you haven't read the book.

#113 - I second you're assessment of The Lightning Thief movie!

It was actually the movie coming out that inspired me to finally read the book. I am one of those who likes to read the book first. I did enjoy the movie though I like the books better.

>97 elfchild: I love the Brambly Hedge books! Hope your daughter takes to them.

>155 elfchild: Yeah, the books are always better. But my favorite parts in the movie is when they get to the Hotel and it starts playing Poker Face by Lady Ga Ga and when Grover sounds like a goat, but they messed up the ending so much, they can't make the sequels. Along with that, they had the pearls already with them, they didn't have to go across the country to get them (although it does make more sense of why they will fall for the traps) and they Hydra wasn't until the second book. That part they totally made up. Also, Annabeth isn't a blond.

Just taking stock of what I have out so I don't lose track of the mysteries. I was rather over enthusiastic about requesting fantasy books for February. For that matter, there are probably more mysteries there than I can complete this month

currently reading:
Ceremony in Death - Eve Dallas #5
Sisters on the Case - mystery anthology by women authors, in progress

The Dragon Book: Magical Tales... - still working on this. have a few stories to go
Songs of Love and Death - in progress
Just So Stories - in progress. We started listening to the Tantor version (read by Shelly Frasier) but we also just got the Barry Moser illustrated version out of the library and I have no doubt that we shall both read and listen over the next month until they are due
Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 - in progress - we just haven;t had time to pore over the sketches at the end together...we're done with the story. sequel requested.
Sense and Sensibility - in progress

mysteries and thrillers on the nightstand:
Dropped Dead Stitch - Knitting mystery #7.
French Pressed - Coffeehouse mystery #6. Library does not have #5
Dark Summer - tangentially related to Eve Duncan series.
Borderline - Anna Pigeon #15
Fer-de-Lance - Nero Wolfe #1. I read a bunch of Nero Wolfe in middle and high school but I am not sure I have read this one and thought it might be nice to start at the beginning (though the introduction assures me that it doesn't matter in which order these are read)
Whose Body? - Lord Peter Wimsey #1 - never read Sayers. nor Marsh nor Allington. nor Miss Marple. At some point I should revisit Hammett (whom I loved in high school) and do the same sort of exploration of Chandler and MacDonald
Soulless - lent to me by a friend
Living Dead in Dallas - Sookie Stackhouse #2, lent by the same friend

requested:
A Mortal Bane
Death by Darjeerling - Tea Shop Mystery #1 - I read one of these, an early one in the series but I cannot remember which, several years ago (pre-LibraryThing so more than 4 years ago) but since I now live in Charleston...
The Daughter of Time
The Tidal Poole - Elizabeth I mysteries #2 - read the first one 3 or 4 years ago after I read all of Fiona Buckley's Ursula Blanchard mysteries
The Serpents's Tale - Adelia Aguilar #2

Since I was 'caught up' on my very favorite mystery authors I've been using Mystery March for a combination of returning to authors that I read but haven't in a couple of years (this would include JA Jance, Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini, Sue Grafton whom I don't like as much as I like Sara Paretsky, Linda Barnes and Robert B Parker), trying some new (to me) authors and revisiting some that I haven't read in 20 years or more (Christie's Poirot and Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe...Lawrence Block).

Daughter expressed a preference for picture books yesterday though we did begin Candytuft's Enchanting Treats toward the end of the afternoon. We made a nice dent in the dinosaur books we had yet to get to and are ruthlessly culling the shelves of those we think are less than wonderful to make room for knights as The Knight at Dawn has arrived. There are not *nearly* so many books about knights as there are about dinosaurs, especially if one eliminates Jedi knights, the Dark Knight and the ones about dragons to concentrate on more medieval stories.

We've also read a couple of the stories in Tinkerbell and the Wings of Rani which is the second Disney Fairies graphic novel (the only one our library has at current). G loves the Disney Fairies but I felt like the story was too short and yet the vocabulary and font size made too difficult for G to manage without frustration. I must try to get to Owly and/or Babymouse this week.

grrr...touchstones are failing. I'll edit later

Just finished Ceremony in Death, the 5th Eve Dallas book. The book opens with Eve attending the funeral of Frank Wojinski, the cop who helped train her. Shortly thereafter she's pulled into the chief's office and given the task of investigating whether or not Frank was dirty as some evidence of that surfaced shortly before his death. As Eve investigates she finds indications that Frank may in fact have been murdered by a group of Satanists...only how does she find the evidence to prove that. I like the Eve Dallas books and this one is no exception. Robb has set them in the near future (2058) so that she can play around a little bit with technology without worrying about setting up a vastly different society.

I'm debating between Borderline and Soulless as my next read

I loved Soulless - one of my best reads this year.

#121> High praise indeed, Morphy. It's definitely one I want to get to this month.

I just read the cover blurb for Dropped Dead Stitch and realized that I very definitely read this one...which means that I actually failed to log it last year. oh my! This brings my book count to 18 for 2010 and has me wondering what else I forgot to log.

Daughter occupied herself with Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 among other books during the Toddler's nap, allowing me the very precious opportunity to read the last 75 pages of Ceremony in Death. So this evening we not only continued reading the current Flower Fairy chapter book, but we also began Mouse Guard. Once again, we are both sucked into the story.

I ended up reading a few more stories in Sisters on the Case and taking enough time to browse the end offerings in Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 to call it completed before choosing Storm Cycle as my next read. It's an improbable adventure/thriller like much of Johansen's work for the past couple of decades, but a fun ride nonetheless.

We're winding down the dinosaurs theme now and gearing up for knights and the middle ages (avoiding the more fantasy themed books involving dragons and Merlin as magician though not ruthlessly so). Mouse Guard actually rather fits in with that theme. Egypt and Pirates will follow.

Like many 5-year-olds, G is a bit fairy mad so I've been working our way through some short chapter books. Currently we've been reading the Flower Fairies chapter books as I am able to find them (our library does not catalogue juvenile paperbacks so they are catch as catch can). I've no real interest in reading Daisy Meadows aloud but have heard good things about the Disney Fairies chapter books so we might take a look at some of those next. I do need to finish the first Fairy Chronicles book, which I started pre-reading - my initial impression is that it is acceptable.

We both enjoyed reading about Rapunzel and I will continue the book to film theme. Working both backward and forward in the Disney cannon we should have The Frog Prince and Winnie-the-Pooh (along with The House at Pooh Corner and Return to the Hundred Acre Wood since the upcoming Pooh film draws from all three) coming up, probably along with Beauty and the Beast, which film she has expressed an interest in trying again.

Toys Go Out, The Mouse and the Motorcycle and My Father's Dragon are on the list for reading aloud along with more Littles and possibly more Julian stories though chapter books related to our themed reading may also get interspersed.

ETA: fixed touchstones

I just keep thinking how good your kids have it with the books...

#125> I hope that they will think so as well. I love books and I love to read and I very much want them to share in that. I feel like I am succeeding so far...the toddler (21 months) loves to flip through books even is he is a bit squirmy about being read to for much more than one or two.

>#125 I totally understand what you mean about wanting to pass on that love of books to our kids. We incorporate bedtime stories for my little guy since he was born but of course it's all really short since he is only 6 months. At around what age would you say that they actually can sit and enjoy/understand the whole process? Right now I don't think he understands that I am trying to read him the story so he just squirms and squirms and at times I find it rather disheartening...

>126 elfchild: When I was a child, my mom read to me every night along with my siblings. Not so much as you do probably, but it was more or less my favorite time of the day.

#127> I think that it varies from child to child. T is 21 months and loves to flip through books but is just as likely to squirm and want whatever book we are not reading at bedtime. We usually try for 3 board books, ending with Goodnight Moon which is a favorite. But sometimes it is just one and sometimes I just recite Goodnight Moon which I have memorized. His sister, OTOH, would sit in my lap and listen to books until I was hoarse by that age. For both children, around 5 months of age they started to really enjoy rhyming books. Don't lose heart. If he is very squirmy you might let him play on the floor while you read...T sometimes likes to flip through a different board book while I am reading (and sometimes he flips through the one I am reading and I don't worry about story, I just read the words on whatever page is available).

#128> The bedtime story ritual is pretty important here as well. We are moving toward a family story time downstairs so we can all enjoy whatever chapter book is being read aloud. My husband is a bit of a mutant and managed to miss a lot of children's literature so I am having as much fun educating HIM on what he missed (currently he's reading Stuart Little aloud and it's his first time meeting Stuart). I don't remember my parents reading to me, though I do remember reading to my younger sister and I was an absurdly early reader.

Welcome elfchild! I'm new to LT as well. You are right that you'll find great conversation here at 75 : ).

>129 elfchild: I wish my father read to me. I definately did not get his reading genes. I don't think he ever read. I don't know. I probably will never. At least, I hope not...but enough of that.

I love reading to little kids. It's so easy to do. There are a couple of rules.

1. Always read with enthusiasm.
2. Be patient with them.
3. Laugh. Even if it's a fake laugh, they probably can't tell the difference.

These rules come naturally to me which is why little kids love me reading.

#131> Although I do not remember my father reading aloud, he most definitely is a reader and is the one who took me to the library every week (until I was old enough to go by myself). Great rules for reading to/with kids!

#130> thank you for the welcome. The conversation is wonderful here at 75! It's great to meet so many fellow readers. I'm sure that my reading tastes will be expanded.

#127 & 129 - WillWill will just sit and "read" on his own for quite a while sometimes. He knows where his books are and will just pull out whatever he wants and sit and flip through the pages and sometimes recognize the things on the page. Whenever it is really quiet around the house, the first place I look is around his book-bin.

We also read three books before bedtime and always recite Goodnight Moon as one of us puts him in his crib! I love reading to WillWill and my rule is that I will always read to him whenever he brings me a book (unless I'm cooking and something needs my immediate attention).

#134> Until the second came along I too would stop virtually anything to read to G. It's been harder for the past couple of years but we are learning to manage and we have a couple of afternoons that the toddler's naptime is dedicated to reading with one another. G would also flip though books for 30 or 40 minutes at a time. I have a vivid memory of her standing forlornly in front of the bookcase and staring up at the top shelf when she entered the tearing pages phase and I had to put the library books safely out of reach. It did not take her many months to learn to be careful, and to learn to bring books with torn pages to me to mend.

I completed Storm Cycle last night. It was what I was expecting, improbable, high adventure/thriller with a bit of romance and characters that were more sketched out that thoroughly developed but nonetheless entertaining if you are willing to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. It has, however, inspired me to put The Crocodile on the Sandbank, the first Amelia Peabody mystery, on my TBR list.

After that, I read some more stories in Sisters on the Case then began Soulless. Thanks for the recommendation, Morphy! I'm enjoying it so far...

>135 elfchild: We also suffer from torn pages but it's hard to avoid since he just flails his arms around and is in the everything I touch I want to put in my mouth stage.. :/ That is probably why I love the cardboard books so much. They are so durable! Goodnight Moon seems to be a favourite. That is our bedtime book since its short and sweet and straight to the point since he doesn't know the difference yet. I look forward to the day that he will choose what books he wants to be read to him every night. :)

#137> Board books are great! G has been generous enough to allow most of hers to sit on T's shelf (though we are very clear that they are still *her* books) so he has an entire (short) shelf full of them. He does need some more that are all his though...perhaps for his birthday in a few months.

Ahh! I remember my Pat the Cat days well!

#139> Oddly enough, we have not done Pat the Bunny or Pat the Cat. We do like Matthew Van Fleet's manipulable books (in spite of their sometimes somewhat limited color palette) and have several of them. We're also fond of Sandra Boynton

I haven't read much the past few days. A few stories in Sisters on the Case, not loving Tanith Lee's contribution to The Dragon Book: Magical so not yet done with it (and I hate to give up on a short story), a chapter of Soulless but nothing completed. I actually had to return Songs of Love and Death before getting through all the stories and I plan to request it again after Mystery March is over.

G and I did complete Candytuft's Enchanting Treats this afternoon and she and her father started Dinotopia: a land apart from time last evening even though they have not yet finished Stuart Little (for various reasons storytime was downstairs last night). She and I are 2/3 of the way through Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 and looking forward to the next few evenings.

I completed Marigold and the Feather of Hope this evening. What initially seemed like a harmless but not spectacular book ended up feeling heavy handed...a newly minted fairy rescuing the Feather responsible for all hope in the world? I might be willing to introduce the first one to my daughter once she is capable of reading the series herself but I don't see the need to do so any earlier than that.

Looking over my library books I see that I have been equally over-ambitious about Mystery March as I was Fantasy February. Lucky for me, I don't expect to attempt immerse myself in Autism Awareness April the same way so I'll try to reduce my stack of books (though not the TBR list). It's *good* to be reading avidly again. THank you all!

Mouse Guard looks spiffy. I will look for that. :)

I've just checked out the Autism April thread, thanks for alerting me to it's existence. I think most of us are probably always over-ambitious about reading goals for any given month. I know I always have been, whether I've read 50 books or 5 in any given year. Now that I've joined the 75ers, my ambitions know no bounds, so I'm always having to re-think my priorities because, really, it's not about quantity, but at the same time, with so many great books out there, one can't help but want to devour them all.

#144> I hope that you enjoy it as much as we have!

#145> I'm glad to know I'm not the only over-ambitious one. I've particularly appreciated the monthly themed threads because it's allowed me to move out of my rut of reading the same old familiar authors, something that I think contributed to my reading so much less last year than is usual for me.

How could I forget?! Yesterday we read The Houdini Box which crosses the border between picture book and short novel in the same way that The Invention of Hugo Cabret did. It was a complete coincidence that yesterday was the 133rd (is my math right?) anniversary of his birth (thank you Google for the doodles to jog our memories of such things). G was surprised and sad that Houdini died during the course of the book and had I pre-read it, I probably would have saved it for somewhere between age 8 and 12 when she showed some interest in magic and magicians. We might, in fact, revisit it at that point.

I've reserved The Invention of Hugo Cabret from the library to read in April. I've heard so many great things about it that I can't wait for it. I already know I'll love it!

I posted a list of a good dozen or more books I was going to read for various challenges and I think I'll get three or four of them read.

Nope, don't understand being overly-ambitious at all.

*insert eye roll here*

It was a crazy weekend with first one then the other child succumbing to a low grade fever and general fussiness without getting seriously ill. I did manage to finish (finally!) Sisters on the Case and Soulless and though I flirted with the idea of returning to Valdemar, I ended up starting Fer-de-Lance, the first Nero Wolfe mystery. I'm guessing that may well be the last book I read this month though I hope to continue reading my overambitious pile of fantasy and mystery books through April. I read Tamora Pierce's offering in The Dragon Book and think I have just 2 stories left to finish.

With luck this evening I will have the time and energy to look over the table of contents of Sisters on the Case and make some notes about the stories I particularly liked.

Hang in there! It's never easy when the kidd-os aren't feeling well!

Daughter and I have completed Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 and started Little Horse on His Own. I also took a look at Mouse and Mole: A WInter Wonderland which we have been waiting for months for the library to process and think that we can do this as a read together book rather than a read aloud as we did the previous 4 in the series. Yeah for the progression of reading abilities!!

Sorry to hear about the sick kiddies! But still amazing that you are able to get some time to read. :) Hopefully they are on the mend soon.

#153> Thank you for the sympathy. Luckily they are not very sick, though that makes them rather needy. I am lucky that my kids go to bed early - 7pm for the toddler and 8pm for the 5-year-old. We have an open floor plan so the TV does not go on until they are soundly asleep...by which time I am often ensconced in a book.

less than 20 pages to go in my Nero Wolfe mystery and the toddler wakes up cranky. Still...I should have no problem finishing it this evening and might even be able to squeeze in another mystery before the end of March.

Daughter selected a Disney Princess eyeglass case for her new glasses (first glasses) which apparently started a discussion about favorite Disney princesses. Hers is currently Cinderella. My husband apparently told her that his favorites were Beauty and the Beast and Mulan so they decided to watch Mulan this afternoon and I promptly reserved all three of the books about the non-Disney Mulan. In the mean time, the Frog Prince books have started to filter in and daughter is very much enjoying the knight themed books.

I've thought about making a big long ambitious TBR list but am feeling guilty enough about not getting to The Story of the Treasure Seekers and The Thief Lord (yet again) before they had to be returned to the library. And I fear that several other books I took out for Fantasy February will also become due before I manage to get to them.

>140 elfchild: : Have you tried Spot the Dog books by Eric Hill for your toddler? They are clever little lift-the-flap books featuring a puppy dog, and sometimes his mum and dad. You can get them as board books or as paperbacks.

My 2 year old loves them, so I'm investing in new stories. Our copies handed down from my older kid are building up layers of tape!

#157> We have gotten them out of the library occasionally. The daughter enjoyed them but I got very tired of reading them over and over so have avoided actually purchasing any. I know what you mean about layers of repair. My daughter was actually very careful with books except for a reasonably brief page tearing period but the son is harder on them. I recently reattached the cover to his little board book copy of Goodnight Moon

#157 - I bet my toddler would like those books too! He *loves* dogs! It was his first word! Thanks for the suggestion!

Sick kidlets turned into sick me. Not very sick but decidedly not 100%. After watching much of the Top Chef marathon yesterday, I opted not to turn it back on to watch the finale (we turned it off for dinner and bedtime). Instead I finished Borderline and this morning I finished the last 2 stories in The Dragon Book: Magical Tales.... I shall definitely pick up a piece of fantasy next through reviews I have read suggest that the Valdemar book I have, Foundation, is very YA...more like the Owl trilogy (of which I was not very fond) than earlier work. alas.

coming due at the library:
The complete just so stories - audiobook
Out From Boneville - which I read a few years ago but took out again when I tried reading The Great Cow Race
Enna Burning
Poppy and Rye - middle grade anthropomorphic mice series
The Capture
The City of Ember
The Dark is Rising
How to Train Your Dragon - we loved the movie and I wanted to read the book, also to sort out whether it makes a good read aloud and for what age

I also loved the movie How to Train Your Dragon and am interested to know how the book is. I saw several books in the series the other day at the bookstore.

I've always wanted to read the How to Train Your Dragon books too, because the movie was so great, . According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Train_Your_Dragon#Differences_from_the_book ), the movie is totally different from the books, like immensly. Despite that, the author said that she loved the twist the producers gave it. I know somebody who does have the first book, though.

I have heard good things about the How to Train Your Dragon books and am looking forward to reading the first one. Books to Film (or TV series) is a recurring theme with our reading this year. We watched Mulan the other afternoon and I promptly requested all three of the non-Disney Mulan books. This afternoon we watched Night at the Museum which is apparently loosely based on a picture book that our library doesn't have.

Which reminds me...Rapunzel's Revenge has been on my night stand for awhile.

>164 elfchild: I'm not afraid of reading little kid's books. Not at all. In fact, some of the best books I ever read was for books for ages 9-12 and under. Those books, and I bet the book How to Train Your Dragon, remind me of when I was 4. You know what I remember when I was 4? Nothing. Nothing at all. They take me to a place where there was nothing bad in the world. Everything was peaceful, not a care in the world. Oh, what good world that would be!

>#154 I know how you feel about the TV. Gone were the days of watch whatever you wanted, at whatever time you wanted, at whatever volume you wanted. Since our baby sleeps upstairs and he too has an early BT - usually 7:30, me and my hubby are permanently hibernating in the basement of our house so as not to disturb him... :)

I am attempting (keyword here) to catch up on threads a bit, so I will just wave as I pass through :)

Welcome back, Stasia...I look forward to getting to know you!

I started The Capture last night and am enjoying it though given that it starts off with a kidnapping, I think it will not make it onto the read aloud list any time soon.

#165> I think that there are some great books written for the 9-12 crowd and I'm very much enjoying exploring stuff there trying to figure out what's OK to read to a 5-year-old and what requires more worldly knowledge or is just too tense.

#166> I know what you mean about disturbing the kids, even though once ours are asleep they are pretty hard to disturb. Of course, by that time we are often ensconced in other activities (which is good for my reading habit and less good for time together when kids are not about)

I just saw my connection, and I'm interested in the books you just added. You added The Fire Within, but I knew you read that, so that's not a big surprise, but you also added Divide by Elizabeth Kay. I read that very early this year, and it was great for the ages it was meant for. I mean, I've wanted to read those series for ages, and I just wish I read it earlier so I could appreciate it better.

#169> I haven't actually read either of those. They came up as recommendations because I read the first Guardians of Ga'hoole book so I put them on my To Read list. I'm always looking for good stuff to read aloud to G. The trick is finding stuff that is interesting without too much tension and scariness (I think that the kidnapping and brainwashing in Ga'hoole are too much for 5 and expect that when she is ready I will read the first book aloud and let her continue reading the series by herself)

>170 elfchild: Hmmm...I could have swore you read The Fire Within. It must've been someone else then that was reading it to their kids. Ugh, who could that have been? But both series is pretty good, but I think both are meant for a minimum age of 10. Very minimum. Especially The Last Dragon Chronicles, the one with The Fire Within, because some of the content may go over her head, especially since Chris D'Lacey starts to make the whole book religious. But there is books out there with all or most of the same dragons in chapter children's books. They're called The Dragons of Wayward Crescent starting with Gruffen, I think.

#171> No, it wasn't me...but I remember being present on the thread where it was discussed. Thank you for the younger reader recommendation! Our library has Gruffen and I have requested it. Our taste in books clearly overlaps so if you think of any other recommendations for the 2nd-4th grade crowd, do please think of me!

G's reading ability is coming along so steadily. Last month I read her Betsy Byars' short chapter book Little Horse and today when I picked up the sequel to continue it (we started it last week), she chimed in and took over. We ended up alternating pages.

>172 elfchild: Found it. It was on Nikki's thread (Menagerie). If I think of anything else, I'll be the first to alert you. All of us kids have amazing reading abilities at very young age. I hate to admit this, but I think my little brother has a better vocabulary and will soon be smarter than I am one day. My pride won't allow that.

I will be interested in seeing what you think of The Capture when you are finished with it, Marie. I watched the movie version.

#173> I know what you mean about early reading ability. I do not remember not being able to read...my mother claims that I started reading when I was 2-and-a-half and given that G knew most of the alphabet before she was 2 and most of the letter sound not long after, that seems possible. It very a *big* challenge not to push her when it seemed to me that she was on the brink of putting everything together for about 1 year and a half...but I wanted her to love books and reading, not make it a chore.

#174> I liked The Capture very much, Stasia. The author clearly did some research into owl behavior. I read somewhere that the movie was based on the first three books and I am very happy to continue reading before I watch it. What did you think of the movie? I remember seeing the previews but it seems to me that it disappeared from theatres very quickly which is often a bad sign.

I spent some time in Valdemar yesterday reading Foundation and then I fell asleep listening to The Dark is Rising so that the light didn;t disturb my husband who has an 8am class to teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This morning we are listening to Shelley Frazier read Just So Stories as I marvel once more at Kipling's language. I'm sure that some of the language is just washing over G, but she is getting the gist of the stories and liking them.

Hmmm...apparently I missed updating here. After reading The Capture I picked up The City of Ember. I enjoyed both (and both are book to film books)

Husband is still reading Stuart Little or Dinotopia: a land apart... (plus assorted picture books) to G depending on his mood and whether stories take place upstairs or down. Technically I think that we completed Little Horse on His Own in April rather than March but it's not important. What IS cool is that it started as a read aloud and ended as a read together. I'm very pleased about that because it means she is becoming less intimidated by pages more full of text.

I saw The City of Ember film last year and really enjoyed it, never knew it was a book. I love the way you do family reads, the best way to foster a book-worm child.

I looked into The City of Ember and you know, it kind of looks good. There was a review that said it reminded the person of Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, and I loved that series, except the very, very, very ending.

I neglected the threads for a couple of days to catch up on my reviews and now I'm already hopelessly behind! Thought I'd at least say hi!

#178> Good to know someone liked the film. I had never heard of it until I got it into my head to look for books made into films because I can usually get my husband to watch movies with me.

#179> I liked it enough to request the sequel, which Amazon reviews suggest is very different. With luck I'll get to the film soon. I've heard of Gregor the Overlander but I have not read it.

#180> I know what you mean. I've been concentrating on reading and trying to keep a sick household running and there were nearly 30 messages in your thread that I missed.

G and I read Mouse and Mole: A Winter Wonderland together. Mostly I was Mouse and she was Mole which meant we alternated our way through the first chapter, I read the second, we shared the 3rd and she read most of the 4th. Yeah G! Tonight I started reading her Rapunzel's Revenge. I plan to string it along a chapter a night as we did Mouse Guard.

>181 elfchild: You haven't read The Hunger Games either, right? Well the two books are by the same author. There is a couple of shared problems between the two series, but for the most part, very enjoyable and mildily gory and filled with death. If you like those kind of things, of course.

I enjoyed the film version of The Capture, Marie. Since I have not yet read the books, I am not sure how true to them the movie is.

I just watched The City of Ember last week and now have the 4 books in that series in the BlackHole. I hope to get to them soon.

#183> "very enjoyable and mildly gory and filled with death" Hmmm...I shall consider myself forewarned. I do not do horror AT ALL and have to pace dark, depressing, gory (any and all) books with lighter ones but if they are good I still (often) consider them worth it. I should note that I do not read Stephen King's at all because he is so good at being terrifying.

#184> I'm making use of the relatively new (at least to me) collections feature to make note of books that I want to read since the local library does not allow me to delay my own holds like my last library system did. I've still got a pile of mysteries from March and some fantasy and I always feel guilty about something sitting on my shelf for weeks then going back unread (THat just happened to Enna Burning.

Today's library haul (picture books not included):
Twilight's Dawn - new (and Morphy says final) Black Jewels book
Battle of the Labyrinth - Percy Jackson book 4.
Gruffen - potential read aloud (thanks Nathan)
The Journey - Guardians of Ga'hoole book 2

#185

I wouldn't necessarily call The Hunger Games gory. It's not gore in the sense that I would think of it anyway. Dark - yes, depictions of murders - yes, but none of it is particularly gruesome. Maybe I'm not as sensitive as some people but it is a YA novel so there is certainly nothing terrible.

Definitely worth the read though, I loved it.

#187> thank you.

On another note...there has been a lot of grumbling about the Newbery Committee choices of the current decade - I know that the descriptions have not made ME want to rush out and read them - but I just ran across this list ranking the Newbery Medal winners but how much an (admitedly biased) group of readers enjoyed reading them:

http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/children/newberyranking.html

Joyful Noise is on our TBR pile right now and I'm requesting Out of the Dust and The View from Saturday

It pleased me greatly to discover that I had to get down to #19 on Elizabeth Bird's Top 100 Picture Books poll before there was one I had not read to my daughter. I plan on checking the library for the ones we have missed:

#11: The Story of Ferdinand by Monroe Leaf, ill. Robert Lawson (1936)
#19: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (1982)
#22: The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone, ill. by Mike Smollin (1971)
#25: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (1942)
#29: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1969)
#31: No, David by David Shannon (1998)
#36: Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, ill. Lane Smith (1992)
#40: Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (1939)
#48: The Big Orange Splot, by Daniel Pinkwater (1977)
#50: Black and White by David Macaulay (1990)
#60: Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak (1962)
#63: Traction Man is Here!, by Mini Grey (2005)
#64: “I Can’t,” Said the Ant: A Second Book of Nonsense by Polly Cameron (1961)
#67: Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni (1959)
#68: The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2006)
#70: Miss Fanshawe and the Great Dragon Adventure by Sue Scullard (1986)
#72: The Little Brute Family by Russell Hoban, ill. Lilian Hoban (1966)
#76: Zoom at Sea by Tim Wynne-Jones, ill. Eric Beddows (1983)
#79: Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm, by Alice and Martin Provensen (1974)
#82: Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty (1973)
#86: Yoko by Rosemary Wells (1998)
#89: A Hole is to Dig: A First Book of First Definitions by Ruth Krauss, ill. Maurice Sendak (1952)
#90: Not a Box by Antoinette Portis (2006)
#91: Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With the Family Lazardo by William Joyce (1988)
#93: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (1964)
#99: Little Pea by Amy Krause Rosenthal, ill. by Jen Corace (2005)

ETA: full list here: http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2009/05/16/top-100-picture...

I did not fare as well off her Top 100 Children's book poll. Holes (#5) has been requested from the library. I've missed 4 others from the top 20, 1 and 2 halves more from the next 30 (I've read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but not Alice Through the Looking Glass and I'm actually in the middle of The Dark is Rising right now and I stopped counting here but I look forward to working down the list of what I've missed.

http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/04/13/the-top-100-chi...

I hadn't heard of The Dark is Rising before but it looks good. I am adding it to my list. Thanks!

#192> It's part of a quintet known as The Dark is Rising Sequence. The first book is Over Sea, Under Stone which I read a couple of months ago. If memory serves, The Dark is Rising (book 2) won a Newbery Honor and book 4, The Grey King, won the Newbery Medal. I am told that the 1st book is for a somewhat younger audience and not to give up there is one does not find it compelling, but I enjoyed it.

Tuesday and Thursdays are dedicated read-with-the-daughter-while-the-toddler-is-napping days but G requested reading today as well. Notable reads included Dark Emperor (yesterday) which is a picture book that received a Newbery Honor this year, Chess-Dream in a Garden which slipped in with our knights theme and 9957971::In the Ink Garden of Brother Theopane. Tonight at bedtime my husband and I read a few of the poems from Joyful Noise aloud to her and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I look forward to the remainder of that book! and it's companion, 597244::I am Phoenix which has just been requested from the library.

ETA: tried to fix touchstones. mixed success.

>186 elfchild: Well you are almost done with the Percy Jackson series. Good for you! And I hope you child loves Gruffen. I haven't read it, so I'm not sure what it's like.

>187 lunacat:-8 Ok, maybe vary mildly gory or not at all. I wasn't nescisarily talking about The Hunger Games though. Oh, wait yes I was. But yeah, very worth reading.

I'd say The Hunger Games isn't gory at all, considering it's filled with killing. And it's definitely not horror. And, again, considering there's so much murdering going on, and the whole dystopic angle, it's not at all depressing either.

#193 Thanks for clarifying - I will start with Over Sea,Under Stone first.

I frittered away a couple of hours on the computer without putting on an audiobook and then opted to begin reading Storm Front. This morning I think that I am going to try listening to The Dark is Rising to see if the kids will deal with it. Well, the 5-year-old...I don't think the 21-month-old cares yet.

#194, 195> Thanks to everyone who has commented on The Hunger Games. It's good to get different perspectives - especially Ilana's comment that it's definitely not horror and it's not depressing. I didn't mean to imply that I thought it was from the descriptors, but I thought I should be clear that I have a lot of trouble with horror and pretty much avoid the genre.

Playing The Dark is Rising this morning was moderately successful. The children did not seem to mind but it is easy to get distracted. I suspect that I will want to skim the chapter again so I can pay attention to the parts that I didn't quite catch. Still, I am grateful to be able to listen to something more interesting than The World According to Humphrey - which was entertaining (sufficiently entertaining that in a month or so we will probably listen to the sequel) but not the sort of things I'd choose to read for myself (nor something I care if I miss the details here and there).

>198 elfchild: Actually, I think 195 was some pretty strong sarcasm. The Hunger Games is gory and depressing. It's horrific though I wouldn't call it horror.

#199

I must be highly desensitised then. Although I wouldn't have thought so. I didn't find it gory really. Depressing perhaps, but not gory. I'd suggest that there are scenes of death and murder, but I wouldn't classify all murder or death as gory, and I wouldn't say this was. Nor horrific. Horrible, but to me there is a difference between horrific and horrible.

Again, it is written as a YA novel. So the deaths are of a level considered appropriate and usual for perhaps 12+ to be exposed to? There is no graphic gore, just some blood splashing around. It's the level of tension and psychological dread that I would think the more significant thing to put people off.

#199, #200> I am now confused. But that's OK. The Hunger Games isn't actually on my TBR list yet and it can stay that way a while longer. I concur with lunacat that something can be horrific without being horror (and if something is sufficiently horrific, I'm probably a lot less interested in reading it) but folks draw those lines in different places. I'm reminded of someone that I dated who drew the line between chivalry and chauvinism in a very different place than I did.

On another note. I read a pile of picture books and readers with the daughter this afternoon. We both adored Catherine Rayner's Ernest: The Moose Who Doesn't Fit which has been shortlisted for this year's Kate Greenaway Medal. It's a younger picture book though and she is most put out with me that I want to get it for her toddler brother. Currently she is partway through Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Rain or Shine and I am about halfway through reading The Acorn Quest aloud.

To me, the horror of The Hunger Games lies in the situation. I did not find the books to be gory at all, so in that sense, they are not books of horror to me. Does that make any sense, Marie?

I think so, Stasia. It sounds like something I ought to give a chance to sometime when I am in the right mood, but nothing I'm in a rush to go out and read. Unlike say, Dennis Lehane who sounds very good and also very much not for me right now.

Now that G is actually reading I wanted to make sure I could differentiate between the things I read aloud to her and the things she read herself so I created a separate collection for the latter and double checked everything tagged easy reader. She's actually read 103 of them herself. Wow.

I'm in the middle of Storm Front and I've fallen asleep to The Dark is Rising a few nights running now. I'm enjoying both, even if I have to backtrack each evening to figure out what I last remember hearing before drifting off...still, it's kind of nice being read to sleep. G and I have completed The Acorn Quest which was all right but nothing I'd rush out and recommend. We finally started The Knight at Dawn this afternoon.

current mother-daughter reading themes:
Knights and the Middle Ages (inspired by Magic Tree House #2)
The Frog Prince (inspired by The Princess and the Frog, which she saw last year)
Mulan - this one is actually nearly done since there were so few books to read
Beauty and the Beast - because G says she's ready to give the Disney another try
fairies - because the first feature film she really got into was Tinkerbell and I'm trying to make sure she is aware that there are many takes on fairies

I know what you mean about falling asleep and then having to backtrack. I've done that a few times myself. But I agree that it is nice to fall asleep listening to a good book.

I know you've moved on to other things, but I just want to say that there was no sarcasm intended in my comment about The Hunger Games. It's all a matter of perspective I guess and I agree with #200... that I might be desensitized, but more importantly, I've read (and see) so much worse that it all seems 'light' in comparison, even by YA standards.

eta: I'm thinking it would be fun having a month dedicated to Children's/YA literature and thought you'd probably be a taker. Zoe proposed "Juvenile/YA July" as a title. Neither of us likes the word 'Juvenile' much, but it does work... what say you?

#203: I am glad it made sense :)

206 Smiler - if The Hunger Games is light, I'm almost scared to know what your idea of a 'heavy' book is.

#206> I would absolutely be up for a juvenile/YA July! I can understand the mixed feelings about the word "juvenile"...I often wish there were better information about whether books might work as read alouds for 5-7 year olds or whether they are much more solidly middle grade but publishers tend to slap 9-12 on a wide range of chapter books like they indiscriminately label picture books 4-8.

Husband took daughter with him this afternoon and I listened to The Dark is Rising while puttering around doing household chores.

I finished The Dark is Rising last night and picked up Twilight's Dawn. Needless to say, I did not get to sleep at anything even resembling a decent hour. I'm most of the way through the second story and loving this book as much as I have the rest of the Black Jewels books.

I started reading Poppy and Rye a night or two ago but I've decided not to finish it. It's a fine animal fantasy, but I rather suspect that G will be ready to start listening to the Dimwood Forest books sometime in the next several months (as soon as she is able to cope with the idea of some characters dying) and I don't really see the need to read them twice so close together.

We've read several more chapters of The Knight at Dawn and tonight we started Gruffen since they finished Stuart Little last night. My husband found the ending rather dissatisfying ("it just...stops") and I will probably read it again myself as I find myself not remembering the story very well any more.

#208 I guess I wasn't clear, because I would definitely NOT qualify The Hunger Games as 'light' reading. What I mean is that all things considered (i.e. the dystopic theme, the violence and killing), it seems lighter than what one might expect.

I might be desensitized, but I've always actually been quite squeamish, so it's hard to say sometimes what I can and can't deal with. Usually though, books I consider 'Heavy' tend to be the ones where there's a lot of real psychological suffering and emotional pain. Those kinds of books can sometimes actually do damage if I read them when I'm feeling vulnerable. Ultimately, it's all a matter of perspective and very relative.

#209 Marie (yay, I know your name now thanks to Stasia!) my objection to the word 'juvenile' is of an entirely different order, since I don't have kids, too old to have them now, so rarely have to stop and consider age-appropriateness. I just find the word has negative connotations, probably because I tend to use it pejoratively when describing non-children who ought to know better, or entertainment of any kind that is an insult to intelligence, if you see what I mean.

That being said, I think we'll just go with that title anyway, since there's already a What We Are Reading Thread labeled that way. I'm thinking it's too early to start up the thread right now, so I'll probably put it up towards the end of May. What do you think?

#212> I never thought you were saying The Hunger Games was a light read and I appreciate the perspectives of everyone who has chimed in on the discussion. I tread lightly with both graphic violence (thus no horror films) and psychological thrillers because they tend to stay with me for a long time. So it is nice to be forewarned.

#213> As I was hitting "submit" it occurred to me that you might mean the negative/pejorative connotations associated with the word. I do know what you mean.

I concur that it's too early to start the thread. As I recall, the Mystery March thread got created a week to 10 days before the end of February and that worked out nicely. I doubt that I will stick entirely to J/YA reads during the month but I will plan on plenty - at least half of what I read (maybe more if I am clever about balancing books for younger and older kids)

I stayed up way too late again finishing Twilight's Dawn. Wow. She really did tie up everything...though maybe sometime in the future we will hear more about Surreal's daughter? One can hope. It would be sad to not have any more Black Jewels stories.

I'm debating between Whose Body? and A Mortal Bane for my next read and leaning toward the latter.

Touchstones have been extremely maddening. I think that when I am due for a new thread I shall create 2 or 3 placeholder messages so that each month has its own summary message.

>It would be sad to not have any more Black Jewels stories.

Agreed. See what I meant though? It really did feel like "The End."

Did you cry at the last story? I cried like a baby.

Oh yes, I cried. And I agree that it feels like "The End." I just hope that she finds other ways of giving us more stories in this world. someday.

I finished reading The Knight at Dawn to G this morning and we have started reading Toys Go Out. She was resistant at first, due to the sparseness of pictures, but I reminded her that there have been other books that she "was not sure about" that she ended up liking once she gave them a try (The Golly Sisters Go West fell into that category). She is completely delighted...as am I.

currently reading with G:
Dinotopia - father-daughter (with Mommy listening in) read aloud. Has kinda been on hold but we'll try to get back to it.
Joyful Noise - my husband and I try to read a few poems to her each evening but it's the end of term and he's missing bedtime more often than usual.
Gruffen - family read aloud
Toys Go Out - mother-daughter read aloud

TBR pile:
Igraine the Brave
Judy Moody
The Knight in the Golden Plain
A Bear Called Paddington

under consideration (and highly subject to change):
Winnie-the-Pooh/The House at Pooh Corner/ Return to the Hundred Acre Wood due to the Pooh movie coming out this summer
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Stink
Catwings Return
My Father's Dragon
Busybody Nora
Andrew Lost
The Magical Ms. Plum

I just love both Paddington Bear and Winnie the Pooh books. So does my 12 yr old even now. I didn't know they're doing a new Pooh movie though, will it be animated?

#219> Yes, it is a new animated film from Disney. Apparently, like the first one it is a series of stories and I have heard that they are including stories from Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. G has not quite been ready for the Pooh books though she has listened to parts of them (Milne's pair, not the Benedictus) on audio for up to an hour at a time. But she is only 5 and that will come in time, I am sure.

Re 'How to Train Your Dragon', when the film came out, we rushed out and bought the book, which I read with my then 6 year old, and we really liked it. When we saw the film, the premise had changed quite a bit, but we really liked the film, too.

Re sleeping babies, when my babies were born, the nurses in hospital told us not to be too quiet around them (don't turn down the TV volume all the way, for instance), or we'd have to tiptoe around them forever!

Sorry to be going back so far; school holidays, laryngitis and trying to catch up with reading.

#221> My husband and I loved the film and I look forward to the book. I thought there were some part of the film that were a little much for my 5-year-old, thus I want to pre-read the book before diving into it with her. We were offered similar advice about sleeping babies and have never insisted on silence, but the 5 year old will resist sleep if there is something very interesting going on so we try to keep it quiet until she's asleep. Both kids will sleep through normal conversation and background noise once they are asleep. I don't mind the comments on older posts...it's nice to know someone cares enough to back read and comment :-)

Daughter and I finished Toys Go Out and we both loved it enough to put it on our (her) wishlist. Progress was made on Gruffen this evening (a chapter each from me and Daddy) and now I am immersed in The Daughter of Time. I also have a fresh pile of mostly middle grade books to read.

This kind of discussion always makes me wonder how our brains and bodies work. I always had trouble falling asleep and sleeping through the night - as I recall, I didn't start sleeping through the night consistently until I was in high school, I just eventually stopped waking my parents up (to their relief, I'm sure).

I don't think it had to do with noise for me, though, because silence could be just as distracting as noise. I go through periods even now where I'll have a really hard time falling asleep, or I'll wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, for days on end.

Or periods like right now, where I keep waking up earlier and earlier (4am? really?), but I can probably blame meds for this one *sigh*

I read "How to Train ..." out loud, so we could get through it before we saw the film, and I tried to give the dragons an accent, to differentiate them from the humans. For some unknown reason, the only thing I could get consistently was an Italian accent; but that was one of the things my son remembered from our reading, and kept quoting.

#224> There are many theories about sleep and I am not sure any of them are considered definitive as yet. There are points in the sleep cycle where it is easier to wake someone than other points and some people are more prone to waking at that point than others. I know that I almost never sleep through the night, but that's not too disruptive as long as I'm able to get back to sleep (usually not a problem, but not always).

#225> I feel like I am not very good at creating and keeping track of different voices though my husband, who only hears me read aloud to our daughter intermittently, has commented that my reading has improved greatly over the past 5 years. I suppose this is not surprising when one has read literally thousands of books aloud. I am sure that I will make another attempt to read How to Train Your Dragon but am less sure whether I will manage to pre-read it before attempting it aloud (it was a victim of my being overambitious for Fantasy February). I do WANT to read it.

Popping in to say hello! Hope you're having a good evening/night!

#227> Nice to see you, Ilana. I have been reading books (well, book) and spending time with my husband rather than reading threads.

Made some progress in The Daughter of Time last night and started listening to Greenwitch today because I was home alone with the toddler and he doesn't mind what I listen to but I didn't think I had the attention for Sense and Sensibility. I suspect that this might inspire me to read more about the Princes in the Tower.

Earlier this week we started listening to Friendship According to Humphrey and sometime in the last couple of days I started Dragon Quintet as the book of shorts that I have going. I've only read the first story but I enjoyed it. I need to pick a new daytime chapter book to read...Judy Moody, The Prince of the Pond, Dog Diaries and The Night Fairy are all under consideration as I think my husband is interested in reading Igraine the Brave as a bedtime book.

I finished reading The Daughter of Time last night. I find myself curious about how much of the evidence presented is factual and how much is made up for the story. In any case, Tey's Alan Grant character makes a convincing argument for the Richard III's innocence in the disappearance of his nephews in the Tower. I expect that over time I shall read more on this topic.

After completing The Daughter of Time I stared at my TBR shelf and found myself vaguely dissatisfied with the choices. Apparently two months of reading mostly fantasy and mysteries has me wanting something else. I ended up starting The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society and requesting some other knitting/quilting fiction as it's been a couple of years since I read any.

I'm tired of Touchstones breaking in my summary. New thread is here:

ETA: embedded new thread link

Wow, elfchild. You got a drive-by flounce! LOL.

From our Terms of Use: "LibraryThing prohibits personal attacks on members." Please keep this in mind, all.

#232> I don't even have any idea who she is, Morph

I don't know where that came from. Let's forget it happened...Oh, look, it's an old thread. Who cares now?

LMAO! I was trying to make sense of what could possibly have provoked that person in your original message, but I guess... common sense doesn't really have anything to do with it. Sheesh.

I was trying to figure that out too. People these days, they're walking ticker bombs.

No, it was just someone flying into the threads making random vulgarities. We've flagged it--hopefully they'll get bored and leave. They hit a couple of other threads too. It happens. Usually teenagers.

Yep, a fifteen-year-old in this case.

If it becomes a problem across the group, I'll get in touch with The Powers That Be and see if we can get some action.

Thanks, Jim (and everyone else too). The first time she hit the thread (#190) it made no sense and I ignored it. The second time made as little sense but kind of creeped me out.

I emailed TPTB as soon as I saw it. That's why jbd1 popped in, I believe. That behavior is totally unacceptable.

Hi elfchild, are you ok?