With My Reading Buddy #1

I mentioned in my very first post that I participate in a volunteer program through my work.  Once a week, we visit a local elementary school and meet with a reading buddy.  It’s a one-on-one meeting where they get to eat their lunch and we read to them.

I wanted to talk about the books I’ve read with my buddy, whom I’ll call A.  He is in second grade and a real cute kid.  He likes to talk about video games and his siblings, but I think he enjoys the one-on-one time we have.  He has a few older siblings and I get the feeling that he probably doesn’t read too much at home.  January is/was National Mentor Month (or something like that) and the program coordinator had the students color thank you cards for us and write a little message inside.  A wrote “Thank you for letting me choose my own books.”  At least, that’s what I think he wrote, it was a little hard to read his writing.

I let A pick a book to read and then we go to our assigned room to sit down so I can read and he can eat.  Because we only have a half hour to read, the books we read usually carry over at least into the next week, though we have had a few last 3 weeks (and some are read in one meeting or less).

Since the beginning of the year, which, if I recall correctly was sometime in October, we have read about a half-dozen books together.  He seems to really enjoy the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne.  Here are the books we’ve read (in the order we’ve read them).

      

     

        

I’m a stickler for order and whatnot, but A doesn’t seem to mind reading the Magic Tree House books out-of-order.  It bugged me slightly in the beginning, and I asked if he wanted to start with the first one, but he said no.  I think he said he had read it before.  (I hadn’t though ! hehe… and there is a theme that runs through them, they’re all connected, but oh well…it’s what A wants to do!)

This is the first year I’m participating in this program (because I wasn’t working at the company at the start of the previous school year).  This is also A’s first year in the program.  A few weeks ago he told me that he wanted to tell his mom he wanted to sign up for it again next year.  He also said “Wouldn’t it be funny if it was the next school year – like, the summer went by and it’s September again – and we got paired up with the same reading buddies?…They probably don’t do that.”  (in fact, they DO try to keep pairs together if both are participating the following year…however, I am a contractor at the company and my contract ends soon,  so unless my contract is extended or I get hired, I won’t be doing the program again.)

What are some books you liked as a child or read to your children?

Do you have any suggestions for books I can read with an 8-year-old boy?

REVIEW: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is the story of lower class flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her transformation into a “lady” of England.  Henry Higgins is a master of phonetics and can tell where a person comes from just by hearing a few spoken words.  He and an acquaintance, Mr. Pickering, decide to make a bet of whether Higgins can transform this low-class girl into a passable lady of speech and composure if not of actual means and station.

Overall, I thought these characters were pretty much one-dimensional.  I certainly did not enjoy the character of Higgins at all.  He struck me as an egocentric, “holier-than-thou” type person.   That he saw through everything and acted the same way to each person, not caring if it offended because it was how he treated everyone. Eliza and Mr. Pickering were more believable characters and I enjoyed them more.  Maybe I identified with Eliza more because she is a woman.

Generally speaking, the story itself was a light, airy one that provides entertainment more than anything else, I think.  Of course, Shaw’s feminism certainly plays a role in this story.   I’m glad the book ended the way it did and not necessarily what most readers would have thought or hoped for.   I don’t want to give it away in case any of you intend to read it.  But definitely post your thoughts and comments on it if you have any!

This was the first play I’ve read in a while.  I’ve determined that I enjoy reading plays because it is essentially all dialogue and the story seems to move much faster.  I’ve noticed that I tend to read them much faster as well.

After reading this (and reading the brief notes at the beginning of the book about Shaw), I am interested in reading more by Shaw.

Have you read Pygmalion or any other works by Shaw?  What do you think?  What do you recommend?

Rating Rubric

While reading other book blogs, I came upon this post which referenced another post about rating systems.  The rating rubric is based on a rubric system the author, Mandy, uses as a teacher.  When I read it, I thought of how my teachers would give me  a rubric when returning my paper to see where I needed to make improvements and where I was doing well.

So after seeing that Mandy created a rating rubric for fiction, I couldn’t resist using it against the books I have already read for 2012.  From now on, I will use the rubric to rate my reads.  I will post the rating next to the title on the main list of books I read this year.

Thanks for sharing your find, Jessica, @ Shhh…Mommy’s Blogging…!

And thank you Mandy @ Bork Adventures, for creating the Rubric!

 

REVIEW: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Told from the point of view of Jim Hawkins, Treasure Island is about sailing on the high seas in search of buried treasure.  Jim recounts the tale of meeting an old pirate, Billy Bones, who stayed at his parents’ inn and getting dragged into pirate affairs.  When Billy Bones dies, Jim is sent on a quest to go after treasure left on an undisclosed island which  Jim refers to as the “Isle of Treasure” and “Treasure Island”.  The crew selected for the expedition turns out to be an unsavory bunch of characters who have other ideas for this treasure hunt.

The reader follows Jim along for a pirate adventure rife with mutiny, battles, and treasure hunting.

This is the first book by Robert Louis Stevenson that I’ve read. I enjoyed it for the most part. There were times where the language and pirate-speak kind of made me zone out but overall I thought it was a good story.   It was fast-paced.  The description wasn’t overly done but there was enough to help me see the events unfolding.  (Though I do tend to have problems with imaging spaces and sizes, so I probably didn’t image the Hispaniola in its appropriate size.)  I tend to prefer description like this where there is more action to follow.  I find that if there is too much description in a novel, especially when there is an event happening in a very short amount of time, the story slows down too much.  I would definitely read another book by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Have any of you read this or any other books by Robert Louis Stevenson?  What are your thoughts?

REVIEW: When the Wind Blows by James Patterson

When the Wind Blows is one of James Patterson’s earlier novels (published in 1998).

It is set in Colorado where a lone FBI agent Kit Harrison and local veterinarian Frannie O’Neill are hurled into an unbelievable (but real) nightmare that could threaten the lives of many people, especially those of children. They meet an extraordinary young girl with an incredible ability who is connected to an underground lab performing illegal experiments of an inconceivable nature. People continue to turn up murdered. Knowing what is going on could be a death sentence to Kit and Frannie.

I found this novel to be a bit more “elementary” than others of his that I have read. However, it is at least the 30th Patterson book I’ve read. I’ve read all of the Alex Cross series, Women’s Murder Club series, Michael Bennett series, and other random non-series novels. Most of these books were written after When the Wind Blows so a lot of time, practice, and books have occurred since this novel debuted. The characters didn’t seem to be fully developed and the story line moved very quickly, almost a little too quickly. I enjoyed the story, nonetheless, but would have enjoyed more character development and a slightly more drawn-out story line; the action only occurred over a few days. Patterson’s research seemed to be pretty solid and even the way he describes the labs and the scientific atmosphere certainly makes what happens seem possible – scary, but possible.

I have always enjoyed Patterson’s style in the form of the short chapters that make you want to keep reading. So what if his books have 100+ chapters? Most of them are 1-3 pages long. And at the end of most of these chapters, there is a mini cliff-hanger that makes you want to continue reading. I catch myself looking at the last sentences when I realize I am at the end of the chapter to see if it’s something that will “force” me to keep going, or if it is alright to stop at that place for the time being. In fact, sometimes I feel like I am spoiled by this format. (When I read other books with really long chapters I like to think back to a Patterson book with the super short ones.) When I finished this book, I hadn’t even intended to finish it then. I said to myself “When I finish Chapter 80 I’ll close the book and go to bed.” Then it was “OK, when it’s 10pm.” And of course, I ended up finishing the book just before 11:30pm…

REVIEW: V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

V is for Vengeance is Sue Grafton’s 22nd novel in her Kinsey Millhone series.  I like to refer to them as the “Alphabet Books.”  It is pretty clever to have each title go with a letter of the alphabet.  And the word associated with the letter is usually the theme or plot of the novel.  It makes you wonder how many different situations one main character can encounter without the story lines getting stale.  So far, Sue Grafton has avoided that.

If you haven’t read any of the “Alphabet Books” I definitely suggest starting them.  The first book is called A is for Alibi. (surprised?)

Set in the 1980s, the Alphabet books follow Kinsey Millhone (an ex-cop private investigator in Santa Teresa, California) and the cases she is hired to investigate, many of which are likely to get her killed.  Kinsey is immediately a likable character.  She is easy to relate to and really pops off the page.  She could be someone you meet walking down the street (though she isn’t the most social of people).  Her closest friend is her octogenarian neighbor and landlord Henry.

This installment starts 2 years before the main action occurs.  A recent college grad has a gambling problem and borrows money from a not-quite-legal businessman, loses all the money and can’t pay him back.

Fast forward to “present day” (April 1988) and we find our heroine doing a normal, everyday activity: shopping.  She sees a shoplifter and reports her.  Thus begins a wild ride of many loose ends and new pieces of information popping up in all directions.  What seemed to be an isolated shoplifting incident turns out to be part of a shoplifting ring set up across the country. We see points of view from a few different characters and I tried to figure out how it was all connected before it was revealed.  I didn’t figure out the full story, but I picked up little pieces here and there.  Of course, once it is all explained it makes so much sense.

One thing I like about this series is that Grafton has been able to keep it set in the 1980s.  She started the series then, so at that time the stories were taking place in present day.  However, time moved faster than Grafton could write.  But rather than have the story timeline move with real-time, she kept the novels in the 1980s. This is a good thing, because in today’s time Kinsey would be 61 and it would become somewhat unrealistic.  As far as I can tell, she has held true to the ’80s (no anachronisms that I’ve noticed…then again, I was 5 when the 80s ended).   But I have to continually remind myself: no cell phones!

Challenges, Challenges

I’m big on details.  A lot of people might call me too detail-oriented (I can manage to make a 5 minute story 15 minutes long…I like details, so I assume others will too….see, I just did it again!)  I like lists and order.

I’m taking part in 3 challenges: Back to the Classics, What’s In a Name?, and 50 States Challenge. Each challenge has a list of categories.

Let’s go back to my earlier statement about lists.   My goal was to read the books in the order of the categories. As I joined more challenges, I decided that I would read one book from each challenge (obviously, the first category for each challenge, and then go to the 2nd category…but I didn’t need to tell you that, did I?)

HOWEVER, I’m currently reading Moby Dick and it is taking longer to read than I thought…much longer.  Because I set the goal above, I also feel like the book is dragging even more since there are other books waiting for me to finish Moby Dick and I am excited to start them.

Then comes my issue with the 50 States Challenge: I haven’t found a book for each state yet. My personal goal of reading all new books (aka first reads for me) makes it harder for me to find books for these categories as well. How am I supposed to start reading for that challenge without books for the first few categories?!  Ahhhhhhhhhh!

So, I’m throwing out my OCD for details, lists, and order and I’m going to read multiple books at the same time (which is what I normally do when not reading for a challenge) and I’m just going to start with the first state for which I have already chosen a book.  <gulp>

This post alone should be a testament to my detail craziness.   Do I need to explain the way I’m reading for these challenges? Nope.  But I feel like I have to.

Just a quick post

I came across a blog post called “Date a Girl Who Reads”. I think everyone should check this out… it really sums us up quite well! Thanks to Gargi for posting it!

I Love Books

While browsing around the blogosphere I saw this post by Michelle at booksandboston about a website of pictures of bookshelves called Bookshelf Porn. It’s awesome. It has made me super jealous that I don’t have anything like what’s posted there. Also makes me want to use some of those designs in the future…

Here are a couple of my favorite photos:

makes me think of Belle in Beauty and the Beast

Happy reading