7 Quick Takes Friday

--- 1 ---

Baby J is the host of her own reality show, "So You Think You Can Stand."

Ridiculous.  I don't know why she ends up sideways.  I swear I'll move to WordPress soon.  Any Blogger bloggers who can help?

--- 2 ---

The rink is pretty much done.  But the weather is gorgeous!  I do not recall such a temperate and SUNNY February!  I saw a 5 followed by, not preceded by an 0 on my car's temp gauge today.

And this one too!  Anyway, this is my beautiful dogwood tree that gives color year round as you can see.
My dear friend, Churchlady helped me landscape my front yard. 

--- 3 ---

I've had lots of great responses to my Great Lunch Makeover post yesterday, but several of them were Facebook comments.  I'll try to copy and paste those in my combox later this long and lovely weekend.

--- 4 ---

Just for fun:  Downton Abbey Paper Dolls!  But they don't have the "tuxedo people that live in the basement."

--- 5 ---

My last three quick takes are three book reviews.  They are all "girl" books.  Sorry, boys.  I'll read for you soon, I promise.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai – I think this was on the Newbery list this year.  1975, Saigon, a girl and her family make the tough choice to leave Viet Nam and become refugees in America.  Told in free verse.  Beautiful.  She gets bullied when she starts school in Alabama but learns some Bruce Lee moves from her older brother.

--- 6 ---

A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler – Kessler wrote the Emily Windsnap series which  I haven’t read.  This book is about a girl on vacation at her family’s time share condo.  They come the same week every year. She has a 6 year old brother and her mom is 8 mos. pregnant, which I think is very cool. Her best friend’s family also comes to the same condo village for the same week each year.  She discovers (to her dismay) that when she takes the newly-repaired, antique elevator up to her friend’s condo on the second floor, she has been transported one year forward in time.  One year in the future, tragedy has struck and everyone is affected.  Can she go back in time to fix everything?

--- 7 ---

Right now, I'm reading Gail Carson Levine's latest, A Tale of Two Castles.  So far, so great!  Young, poor girl from the boonies makes her way to the big city of Two Castles to become apprenticed as a "mansioner" or actor.  She finds out that free apprenticeships for the poor are illegal now.  With nowhere to go, no money and no food, she finds herself taking a position as the assistant to the city's only dragon.  Her task, to go undercover as a kitchen maid in one of the two castles, the one that happens to belong to the city's only ogre, and uncover who wants to kill the ogre and why.  This book reminds me of the Dragon Slippers series by Jessica Day George and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede (Dealing with Dragons, etc.). 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!