WWRW: The Good, the Bad, and the May Link-Up

Did you miss me on A Seeking Heart with Allison Gingras this past Monday?

No worries. You can still listen to us discuss turkey bacon, tiaras, and technology by clicking here.

I've read lots of fiction for kids this past month, and quite honestly, not much of it is worth recommending.

This is what you do want to read:

Popular: How a Geek in Pearls Discovered the Secret to Confidence by Maya Van Wagenen.

Maya discovers a vintage book on popularity written in the 1950s and puts each chapter to the test in her 8th grade year at a public middle school in Brownsville, Texas. This book is NON-fiction. An actual 8th grader did things like wear a girdle, put vaseline on her eyelids, and sport a hat and gloves.

Maya is terrific writer, especially because at this time she is only fifteen. I hear that her book might be made into a movie. The chutzpah she had to do what she did...I have to say I really admire her.

Brownsville middle school is not a G rated place. Pregnant seventh graders, drug-sniffing dogs, in-school lock-downs are routine. This book is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Does Maya become popular? It's hard to say. The conclusions she comes to in her year-long experiment are incredibly insightful and can be applied to all ages. Maya is one "swell" kid.

It's no secret that we are bigtime John Flanagan fans over here. I recently re-read the first of the Brotherband Chronicles, The Outcasts. I remember being underwhelmed the first time around but now that I own an autographed copy of Book 5 (squee!) I began again.

Now I remember! I was frustrated that a plot twist in the last chapter or two chops off the story in media res.

This time however I was able to dive right into The Invaders: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 2. Hal and his seafaring friends are still on a long term quest, but I feel more settled now that Book 2 ended on a more positive note.I even got Book 3 from the library, because I must follow this until the end.

For all of you die-hard Ranger's Apprentice fans, Hal and Thorn are like Will and Halt. But with boats. Lots of boats and no horses.

Now for the rest or What Not to Read. I'm not going to bother making Amazon links for these, because they're just not worth my time or yours.

Masterminds by Gordon Korman. Meh. Kids in a seemingly perfect town learn that they are clones in a social experiment (The Truman Show?), and that their "parents" have lied to them their entire lives.

Very angst. Many hurts. Much unhappy with the grown-ups.

Also, the book is one big set-up for a series so the ending is really just the beginning and you know how I get irritated by that. Of all the books that I'm down on, this one is the least objectionable. I was annoyed by it, that's all.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson is about a girl, her quirky family, and the hotel they run in NYC. Could be fun and cute except that on page 1 we learn that it's Scarlett's fifteenth birthday. In the next few chapters, she falls in love with her college age brother's friend. Can you say statutory rape? Also her brother, the 19 or 20 something one is getting involved with one of the guests. A guest who is easily in her 50s. Hello Mrs. Robinson. Ew. I didn't finish it.

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is about a girl with a clubfoot in England at the start of World War II. She is abused by her single mother, escapes the apartment she has been confined to her entire life, and gets relocated with other evacuees (including her brother) in rural Kent. In Kent, she finds acceptance and love in the home of her host.

Two problems.

First of all, I have read this book before. Different title. Boy child abused by his single mother, evacuated to rural England, rehabilitated by his host. It was called Goodnight Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian. Both books are terribly tragic. The abuse story-lines are hard to stomach.

Secondly, in The War That Saved My Life, the woman who takes in the disabled girl and her brother is quite clearly a lesbian. She has suffered depression since the death of her lover. Taking in and caring for two evacuated, underfed, and disadvantaged children pulls her out of self-absorption and despondency.

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles. I want to like this book. The story of two special-ed high school graduates getting a home together and starting their adult lives is touching.

Let me just mention a few of the troubling topics.

Gang rape.

That's probably enough but there's more.

More rape.
And violence.
And abuse.

It was very painful to read.

Yes, the two mentally disabled young women become friends and find support and get their lives in order. But in a kids' book?!

Ok. I can't end on that note so let me direct your attention to my Instagram feed.

La, la, la, la, la...happy happy joy joy! That's Jill reading Perfect Square by Michael Hall.

Looking for picture books? I read far too many to review so I take pictures of the good ones and use the hashtag #housewifespicepicturebooks.

The collection grows every day. Jill is insatiable and my library has no limit on check-outs. Take a gander at the bounty of beautiful books that are actually appropriate for children!

*deep cleansing breaths*

That's better.

Now link up your book reports! I mean book reviews. Here's hoping your reads have been more peace filled than mine. This link up will be open til around May 30th. Perfect for the procrastinating reader.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Five of Our Current Favorites

I'm baaack.  Today anyway.  One day at a time.  Minute by minute.

1.  America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution Volume 2 is bringing sanity and deliciousness to our dinner table, with lots of "open, dump, walk away" recipes that I can manage in the 3.2 minutes Polly will stay in the Bumpo.

This is my copy.  I flagged every recipe that did not require prep work.

To be honest, the most prep work required is microwaving chopped onions and garlic before adding to the slow cooker.  So for normal people not holding high-need babies, it's totally do-able.

Every recipe we've tried so far has been a hit.  Welllllll, I liked the Spiced Tenderloin with Quinoa. The minions ate it, and proclaimed it "interesting." It's the first time these gringos have had anything flavored with garam masala.

Monday, we had the Chicken Pomodoro.  To. Die. For.  Definitely making a double batch of that next time.

We've also made the Chicken Adobo, the Chicken Tomatillo Chile (yum!), and Thursday, I'm making Easy Beef Stew.

November + Polar Vortex = Comfort Foods

2.

Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox is Jill's current favorite.

"Harriet Harris is a pesky child."

Jill snuggles up to me as I read this book daily. She looks up at me meaningfully when Harriet makes mess after mess.

She smiles knowingly when I read, "Her mother didn't like to yell, so instead she said, "Harriet, my darling child. Harriet, you'll drive me wild."

Yup. It's like a day in my life right there on the printed page.

3.

A Life of Our Lord for Children by Marigold Hunt is a family read-aloud for the RC Connecting with History course we are using here at St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want To Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too.

And it's really interesting.  Basically, Hunt re-tells the Gospels with a linear timeline, while including all the background info about Jewish and Roman life of the period.  I enjoy reading it, while Edmund enjoys listening.  I'm even picking up a few new facts. Learn something new everyday!

When we finish A Life of Our Lord for Children, we'll continue with Hunt's The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children

4.

I began Dear Mr. Knightley: A Novel by Katherine Reay, but kept "misplacing" the book, only to find my high school girls were much further along in it than I was.

So I did what any kind and generous parent would do.  I read the ending, and then handed it over.

Dear Mr. Knightley: A Novel is an ideal book for the young adult reader.  Set in modern times, with a "Daddy Long-legs" type plot, Reay's novel is sweet without being saccharine, and relevant without being raunchy.

I predicted (quite accurately) the entire plot and ending, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment in seeing the protagonist live happily ever after.

5.

I read Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy  by Rumer Godden at least fifteen years ago, and I'm re-reading it for Micaela's Stella Maris online book club.

It's like a completely different novel this time around.

Lise Fanshawe, brothel manager goes to prison for a crime passionnel.  From prison, she enters religious life.  From one enclosure to another.  She finds her freedom behind the walls of a convent.

There is so much to think about in this book.  I am avidly looking forward to discussing Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy with the others who have read it.  You've got time.  Come on! Play along!

Yeah.  I would NOT let my high schoolers read this one.  It's gritty.  She's a prostitute. But it's not graphic.

When I was telling Patrick about it (He lets me "tell" him my books, God made him just for me.), he said that this sounded like a book that I would hate.  And it does.  But like I said, gritty, not graphic.

Since I've been MIA for so long, I'm not going to host a link-up, but rather add this post to Jenna's Five Favorites party.

WWRW and My Five Favorites Mason Jar Edition

It's been a crazy week here.  I can honestly say the only books I've read this week are picture books for Jill and a free e-book on my Kindle. I downloaded Salads To Go last November, but it sure came in handy this first week of school.

This little e-book has great recipes for mason jar salads, using international flavors to add variety.  As you know, I'm always on a quest to change up the lunchbox scene, trying to avoid the mundane square sandwich.

I've got three girls in high school this year.  (Need any drama?  I'm sure I'll have extra.) We whipped up some mason jar salads for day 2 of school.

I used a Salads To Go recipe for vinaigrette, then we layered red peppers, tomatoes, avocado, chicken, mozzarella (cut-up string cheese), and baby spinach.  The after-school verdict was "delicious" and "maybe a little too much food" for my skinny Spaniard.

The one key point missing from Salads To Go was what size jar to get.  Pinterest led me to this article that revealed the magic size is a quart jar.

I picked up 12 jars for $10 and change and Walmart. Ball mason jars are BPA free and dishwasher safe, not to mention a lot cheaper than the Pyrex my kids (and spouse) been losing at school (and work) for years.

That's my first favorite.

2.

At Peter's graduation party, I used half pint sized jars, $.50 boxes of Crayolas, and all those school pictures I've been collecting over the years for table decor.  We covered the tables with brown craft paper, and the kids, teens, and even the odd adult took advantage.

3.  

I used pint-sized jars, raffia, and Gerber daisies from Costco for centerpieces for Polly's baptism.  Her real name means daisy.  Get it?  Daisies?

4. 

I found this Mason Jar Flower Frog at my local gardening store, but you can get them from Amazon too.

I just stuck a few cosmos from the garden in there.  I'm going to be growing a lot more cosmos next year, they did much better than my marigolds.

5.  

The last way I like to use mason jars is for my favorite beverage.  Unsweetened iced tea.  Made with Lipton.  I'm not fancy.

Anyhoo.  I'm linking this link-up with Heather.  

Also, Micaela is going to link-up a new and fabulous on-line book club today!  Please check it out, I'm in it. You should be too.

An InLinkz Link-up

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: I, Emma Freke

Illinois gives out the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Award to "the author of the book voted most outstanding by students in grades four through eight in participating Illinois schools."

Every year, I look forward to reading all of the nominees.  They are by and large well-written books, destined to become classics.

This past week I read I, Emma Freke, a 2014 nominee by Elizabeth Atkinson, which I enjoyed but have conflicted feelings when it comes to recommending it to children.

Emma's mother did not say her name out loud before she bestowed her with a name that sounds awfully like "Am a freak."   That's just one of Emma's problems.

She has no friends at school.

She's 11 years old but very tall and thin for 6th grade.

She is nothing like her short, buxom, vibrant, extroverted, dark-haired, Italian mother, Donatella.

Her mother has never told her who her father is.

Her mom is a serial dater.  When her mother's latest boyfriend discovers that Emma is not some college kid working at the family owned "Freke Beads and More" but is actually Donatella's daughter, he-gone.

Donatella frequently stays out late into the night on her "dates" and forgets to wake up and open the shop. Emma picks up all the slack.

Emma does have one best friend, Penelope from across the street.  Penelope was adopted by the "two gray moms" from Liberia.  Homosexuality is never mentioned.  In fact the two gray moms are never actually in the story, just referred to.

Emma's mother gives her one real birthday present for the first time ever, a book entitled How to Learn at Home the Cosmic Way: Levels 6-12 (published 1978), and tells Emma that she never has to go back to school.  She will be homeschooled at the library by her Italian grandfather (Nonno) and work in the shop in the afternoons.  Donatella "says" that she's taken care of everything.

When Nonno refuses to go to the library (too many unmarried women), Emma goes alone and inadvertently tips off a suspicious librarian who in turn calls the school.

The suspicious librarian is one very cool chick named Stevie, and Stevie ends up being Emma's school-appointed tutor for the remaining few weeks of school.

Meanwhile, Penelope suggests to Emma that maybe she is adopted too, and she has list of convincing reasons.  Emma confronts Donatella with this hypothesis.  Donatella reveals that Emma is indeed the daughter of the long-gone ex-huband, Walter Freke. They divorced a year before Emma was born, but apparently he came back for one last "visit."

Donatella gives Emma an invitation to the annual Freke family reunion in Wisconsin, that recently came in the mail and together they make plans for Emma to fly to WI by herself, with all of her camping equipment, to find the family where she will (hopefully) fit in.

The Freke family pronounces the name "Frecky."  Emma does find friends and cousins and physical similarities with the Freke side, but she also learns that too much structure and control is just as bad as too little.   She comes home with a new-found appreciation of Donatella's loving if lax ways.

Penelope gets exactly what she wants for her tenth birthday, a surprise trip to Liberia, and a new baby sister. In a downright adorable scene, Penelope reveals her "present" to Emma and explains that she was allowed to choose the baby's middle name, Emma.

It is hard not to like I, Emma Freke.  I love Emma and sympathized with her problems. I adore her spunky and wise friends, Penelope and Stevie the librarian teacher.  But Donatella's philandering and somewhat dishonest ways make it impossible for me to recommend this book for middle-schoolers.  I would not hesitate to let my high-schoolers read it, but not many high-schoolers are interested in a book about 11 and 12 year old kids.

Sharing this with the Marvelous Middle Grade Monday folks.

Sheenazing Nomination and What We're Reading Wednesday

I'm not a recipient, but I couldn't find an official nominee button.

Some kind person or persons thought enough of this bad blog to nominate Housewifespice in the category of Smartest Blog. 

Yippee!

You can go over here to vote, but seeing as how I'm up against some big time blogheads, I'm not expecting to win.  Hey, just to be in the same ballpark as Simcha Fischer, Jen Fulwiler, and Aunt Leila and her daughters is huge. 

Done voting?

Good.

I fell down my icy front steps Sunday afternoon, on my way to a happy hour of all things.  I spent the rest of my evening icing my swollen knee with various bags of frozen vegetables and sitting on a heating pad for my tailbone.  It was a total wipeout.

Having just finished, The Wizard Heir (see below), I tearfully asked the Chef to bring me any other book from the library bag.  Doesn't everybody have a library bag?  Stuffed to overflowing with treasures that will only cost a fraction in fines what my bookstore bill might have been?  It lives in the front hall, or in any other season, the front hall closet?  No?  It's the latest thing in decorating.

He brought me Girls Don't Fly by Kristen Chandler.  I'm always saying that the age of the reader should be equal to or greater than the age of the protagonist, and Myra is a senior in high school just shy of her eighteenth birthday.

The good stuff:  Scholastic underachiever, Myra, goes all out for a scholarship to study wildlife in the Galapagos Islands.  Lots of beautiful island imagery, and neato factoids about flightless cormorants.  She loves her sibs, from pregnant, single older sis to the four younger brothers she is always tending, and they love her too.  She tells an on-going fairy tale/pirate story to her brothers, chronicling her obstacles as she tries to win the scholarship.  She is hurt by the nasty rumor that pretty boy, Eric, dumped her "because she couldn't keep her shirt on,"  but the truth is he dumped her because she would NOT sleep with him.  Yay!  Teen chastity! 

The bad stuff:  That's not to say that she's against pre-marital sex, she just didn't want to have it with him.  Her parents are very anti-religion.  Set in Salt Lake City, there's lots of instances to poke fun at this.  "At my school we had to dance a Bible's distance apart."  "I've never read the Bible." 

All in all, it was better than I expected.  I'd give it a C and I'd let high school seniors read it.  Plus, it kept my mind off my injuries until Downton came on.  I was so disappointed that Isobel wasn't the principle who died.  And what's with all of the bloggers hating on Bates?  Aside, from trying to purge his hairy bedroom scene from my mind, he's still one of my faves.  Remember first season Bates? 

Okay, Angela, I read Insurgent by Veronica Roth and I'm still not feeling the love.  Tried to quit halfway through, but I had not replenished my library bag at that time. So I offered it up suffered through.  Too many characters, and I don't like any of them.  More violence, more snogging, more saving-all-of-the-plot-related-action-for-the-last-100-pages or so.

I know many sci-fi and Hunger Games fans love this trilogy.  I'm just not that into it.  It's less sexy than it's predecessor, and there's a smidgen of forgiveness plus an ounce of guilt.  I'd let Susan read this one, except I won't let her read Divergent.  Do I have to read the third one?  What's it called again?  Regurgitate?

 Here's one that I wouldn't have read if Angela and Isabel hadn't told me to, and unlike the last one, I really liked The Whisper by Emma Clayton.  All of my hang-ups and issues in the first episode, The Roar, were more than compensated for in The Whisper.  

I just wish there was more balance between the two.  In The Roar, it's all doom and gloom, totally hopeless, super-powerful bad guys with no way to take them down.  In The Whisper, from page one, the good guys are winning and they keep winning the whole book through.  Sure, things look a little precarious here and there, but our hero children definitely have the upper hand the entire time.  Maybe these books should be combined under one title and jacket. 

Remember a few weeks ago, when I gave thumbs up to The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima, well this week, Lucy insisted I read the sequel, The Wizard Heir.  I had to vociferously stop her from giving me spoilers before she finished and forked it over.  It was very hard for her not to give stuff away.  She liked it even better than the first one, and I have to agree.

The good stuff:  Main character, Seph (Joseph) McCauley is great, and he's Catholic.  He attends Mass and prefers the Latin rite.  At one point, he is accused of practicing occult magic, but he says, "I'm Catholic and I wouldn't do that."  Boo-yah!

The bad stuff:  Seph is tortured with nightmares by the evil headmaster.  He is tempted with drugs and alcohol from the headmaster's henchmen.  But he never accepts.  Because he's awesome.  And Catholic.  Did I mention that he's a practicing Catholic?  Shown in a good light?  Just want to get that out there.

Lucy finally finished The Dragon Heir.  Too late, I already started Chima's other series, The Seven Realms:  The Demon King.  No demons in sight so far.  Demonai is the name of one of the Native American-ish clans struggling to balance power with the wizard race.  It's shaping up verrry nicely, more on this next week.

The Chef's new favorite book is I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.  I had gone to the library to get this year's Caldecotts, Newberys, and the newly announced Caudills.  Jon Klassen is the winner of this year's Caldecott for his book, This Is Not My Hat, but that was checked out.  So I settled for another one by him.

The text is in different colors for the different characters, which makes using funny voices when you read that much easier.  When the Chef reads it, the main character, a bear who has lost his hat, has a deep baritone and a slight lisp.  The turtle sounds Italian, and the armadillo could be Hispanic.  Every character has a unique and hilarious voice. 

Of course when I read it, the bear is a very frustrated female. 

Either way, the Chef was near tears while reading this very funny story with a surprise ending, and the rest of us were in stitches.  I'm not quite sure what was funnier, the way he read it, or the way Baby J faked laughter on every page.  She squinches up her eyes, and sounds like she's wheezing.  Also, ridiculously funny.

I can't wait to read the award winner.

If you go to my library, and you're looking for the newest award winners and nominees, I'll return them in three weeks.