Free Books from Conference

I haven’t posted all the free books I got at the International Literacy Association conference last month in NOLA. I bought a few books but this post is about two books I just read that are great for upper elementary through middle school readers.

Both have magic bookshops and strong girls as main characters.

Malamander reminded me of one of my childhood favorite books, Half Magic.Two orphans meet and have an adventure in a seaside town. There is a talking cat, a magic bookshop, and a scary, watery ghost. Some of the adults were helpful and others were menacing. There may be sequels.

The Bookshop Girl has an orphan who has been adopted and lives in a bookshop. There is a cat and a mystery. The main character doesn't know how to read even though she lives in a bookshop. The family wins a contest and move to a magnificent book emporium and the troubles begin.

I found lots of similarities in these two books. Both are good reads for boys and girls.

Memories of playtime

The other day when I visited mom she was looking at photos.

This one reminded her of the games her mother, Corona, taught them to play outside.

First, they used the steps to play 'Button, Button'.

They sat on the lowest step (first grade) and the 'teacher' passed a button secretly to one person.

Questions were asked and answered and they moved up the steps to second grade, third grade, etc. 

They used the sidewalk to play a tag type game called 'Devil in the ditch'.

The devil had to stay on the sidewalk and the others stood on each side of the walk in the grass.

They tried to cross the sidewalk without being caught by the devil.

If caught, that person became the devil.

In the summer they played board games on the porch. The concrete floor and short side walls were cool in the hot weather and gave some relief from the heat in the days before air conditioning.

In the photo above mom, Helen, is the baby sitting in Corona's lap. Her twin brother John is sitting beside the puppy and big sister Bettye. The laughing boy is Kenton and the boy next to him is Joe.

This must have been in early 1926 since baby Helen and baby John are sitting up without assistance. A close look at Corona may hint that Becky is expected in a few months.

Summer Reading - No List Required

Just looking at this blog I realized I did not post anything in May. It was a busy month.

Here are some of my recent book finishes.

The one on the left is about a librarian and the one on the right is about a book seller.

I recommend both.

A few years ago I printed a list of Susan Wittig Albert's books and set out to read them all.

Since then she has written two more. Her books are great reads. I like this series because she includes information about herbs and medicinal plants. 

May included retirement parties at Jun and Lifei's home and at MMS.

It is still hard to comprehend that I am retired.

ESL teacher friends gave me a gift card to a garden center.

I bought some plants for my doll bed planter and a bell for the yard.

Pottery cream and sugar bowl from teacher friends.

A gift card for Barnes and Noble from my hall mates.

I guess retirement will hit when the yellow buses start picking up kids in August.

Until then it feels like a regular summer break.

April Recap

First, what I have been reading this month.

Library Lover's Mystery by Jenn McKinlay.

I am enjoying these mysteries set in a coastal town in Connecticut.

Since the library did not have the whole series, I bought a couple of them in paperback.

I am almost finished with the next-to-last book.

I have 4 weeks left of school this year. Four weeks left of a teaching career that began in 1972.

The photo below is one group of my middle schoolers.

Sweet kids. 

Two more of my middle schoolers.

Soccer players headed to high school.

Don't you love my storage closet classroom?

Last week end I attended a festival at the Hindu temple.

My goal was to get a henna design.

I was first in line and here is my design.

This week end it is almost gone. I love the idea of a temporary work of art.

Here is another temporary work of art.

Beautiful peonies and dutch iris. Here today. Gone tomorrow.

What are you reading?

Red bud blooming

 Our red bud tree is blooming.

It isn’t very big but it does have lots of fuchsia buds.

It is my favorite tree.

 I remember planting one in our front yard when I was in 4 th or 5th grade.
Aunt Billie helped. The tree was just a twig. I hope this one will grow and continue 
giving bits of color to March.

A rainy week

Oops! I wrote my sewing content on the wrong blog.

I updated this on 'singreadsew' but will leave this one as a reminder to pay attention to what I'm doing.

It was a rainy week. At school the flu was going around but so far has not gotten me.

I needed a quick project. The mini quilt below was based on a mini I saw online.

I had a mini charm pack that I wanted to use as half square triangles.

The wolf was fussy cut from a fat quarter.

I'm calling this "The Gunniwolf" for a favorite story students like to act out.

Slowly making progress on the March Girl.

I can watch TV and stitch.

What have you been up to this week?

What I'm reading in February

Trying to get back to my stated purpose for this blog.

Here are two of my library books.

I just finished the Alex Cross book. Always an interesting read.

I only found one Grantchester Mystery in our library system. I really enjoy the show on PBS.

I'll let you know if the book is as good as the show.

This little Jade plant is going to be added to my succulent garden if it warms up this week end.

At one time I had a really big old Jade plant. Mr. M. gave this to me for Valentines.

My favorite flowers - the kind that are picked out of the yard.

Martin picked these at mom's house.

Sorry about the background clutter.

This is how we live.

What are you reading today?

What I'm reading since the holidays

Even though I haven't posted here since October, I have been reading lots of books.

Some are pictured below.

I read some adult John Grisham and then switched to his kid series.

There are only a few titles and they are all good. Similar to Hardy Boys but more interesting.

I recommend to any young adult reader of mysteries.

I bought the two books below when we were in NYC visiting the grandsons.

Set in the roaring twenties and written by a NYC resident, both are good reads with the same characters. They reminded me of the Australian Miss Fisher Mysteries.

For a final photo for this post - Paperwhites, also known as Narcissus.

Love how they look in the winter garden.

What are you reading today?