Red Ted and the Lost Things

I first saw this book on the Graphic Classroom's site. I knew instantly that I would have to get my hands on this book.

It was such a cute little story, with beautifully done pictures!

One day Ted (the little bear) has been left behind by his owner. A police man puts Ted away with all the other lost items. Ted asks Mr. Crocodile where he is, and is told that is in the place for Lost Things. Ted though, is determined to find his owner agin and devises a plan. Of course Mr. Crocodile does not want to be left behind, so he joins Ted. On their journey, they befriend a cat who helps them located Ted's home.

I hope everyone gets a chance to read this to their young ones! It is such a cute story, and I wish I had a crocodile toy that looked exactly like the one in the story.

My son, who is almost 6 months would look at this book and listen as I read it to him. From what I gather he enjoyed it very much! Of course this book is for older children, the Graphic Classroom says between the ages of

"Rating: Emergent reader and older

Publisher’s Rating: Preschool and older" (Chris Wilson)

Red Ted and the Lost Things by Michael Rosen. Illustrated by Joel Stewart. Candlewick Press, 2009.

The Strangers Outside

Thank you so much to Vanessa Morgan for allowing me to read her short story The Strangers Outside!!

Can I just say that it was a wonderful thriller? Late last night when I was reading it, I totally began to get scared that I had to finish it this morning - and even in the bright hours of the day I was still scared.

It begins with two sisters, Jennifer and Louise, who are on their way to the beach resort. The resort is comprised of "independent structures connected to a large

parking lot by meandering pathways that shone white in the waning darkness. ‘Military

bunkers’ their grandmother used to call these brown houses with low flat ceilings. Even the

long, narrow gardens looked exactly alike." (Morgan p.9)

The girls begin to dance in excitement when suddenly Louise stops. There are strange men looking their way. Fear begins to make itself known, and Louise and Jennifer quickly go into the cottage. The strange men do not leave, and it is starting to get dark. When Jennifer goes to wash her face, a small problem arises - there is not any water! Louise quickly dashes out to the shed to turn on the water and has the prickly feeling of fear again. When she looks out into the falling darkness again she sees those strangers.

She runs back inside and tells Jennifer to hurry up. The strangers are getting closer to the house and Louise has no idea why. Suddenly they are knocking on her front door and peering in through the back sliding glass door. Louise has to decided then and there what to do. Does she fight or let herself be taken by these strangers from outside.

Even now, after reading the story, I cannot get the chill out of my spine!! When Ms. Morgan described their faces as being "lagers than they should be"(Morgan p.11) I could not help but picture these huge eyeless, noseless, mouthless blobs for faces. When they were at Louise's back door and the eyes started popping up I could not help but imagine them as RED CREEPY eyes! I'm glad it's still the day time!

I thoroughly enjoyed how she made the details vague enough to let your own imagination take over! I was slightly disappointed at the end. I got so caught up in the drama and suspense of the strangers and why there were there that the ending seemed to come too rapidly. It is probably my own taste. The story was wonderfully suspenseful and totally chilling!

The Strangers Outside by Vanessa Morgan. (c) 2010

Demon Possessed

NO! NO! NO! AND NO!!! WHY!

Ok. I absolutely HATE when I read a book out of series - the very first book I read and it's the WRONG NUMBER! UGH!

With that being said, I wasn't overly confused about the plot - which is either good or bad.

So, for those of you having read the books in order I'm sure the plot will make more sense to you than it did to me.

Megan Chase is a psychiatrist and is currently not happy with the meeting she's in. She is meeting with an FBI agent named Elizabeth Reid. Elizabeth is trying to get Megan to acknowledge, that Megan's boyfriend Greyson Dante (who also happens to be a head honcho in the Demon world) will be participating in a local meeting of all Demon Leaders (think The God Father). Megan pretends like she knows nothing.

Later that week Megan and her hot (he's a fire Demon) boyfriend Dante arrive at the hotel and buckle in for the extremely long week. It's all politics and schmoozing as each leader of the Demon branch try to vie for power. Everything seems to be going well until Agent Reid shows up and someone attacks Megan. Oh and she learns some bad news pertaining to her boyfriend. Can Megan cope with it all while saving herself and Agent Reid?

Hmm. As far as books go this one wasn't that interesting. I was so irritated by the constant use of similes that I wanted to burn the book, or throw it out the window! The ratio of similes to dialogue was 23094:2! It went something like this: Megan "I like cookies." Text "Megan liked cookies like a fat person loves cake. That is to say she loved them so much as if she couldn't live without them like a flower can't live without the sun. " (Gag!)

Irritating there right? Now IMAGINE 3/4 OF THE BOOK LIKE THAT! On top of that, I found Megan to be so whinny and WEAK! And I later found out she was like 5'9" and 104 lbs. Not that's to say there is a connection. BUT COME ON! I cannot stand weak women characters that are protagonist! I hate being type casted as a woman that can't do work because I have two X chromosomes and I need a big burly man to stack wood, or open the door for me. Thank you for the help but I can also do it. But Megan but all the hard work of feminist back like 499 years! (Ok, not that bad.)

She couldn't get over the fact that Greyson lied to her about some b.s. relating to demon politics. SO WHAT. Talk about it like two grown adults and then either repair the relationship or move on! She reminded me of Bella Swan in Twilight which irritated me more because I found Bella to be vexing too.

I finished this book a week ago, and apparently I'm still upset by it. I'm actually glad I didn't read the other two books because I doubt I'd get that far in the series. The book finally got good in the last 50 pages which is sad because the book is 321 pages and which isn't saying much.

I'm curious to hear what others think of this book. Did you like it? If so what aspects? What did you think of the simile problem? Did it bother you? Did you notice?

Books in this series:

1) Personal Demons

2) Demon Inside

3) Demon Possessed

Demon Possessed by Stacia Kane. Pocket Books: New York (2010).

Dead Until Dark

FINALLY!!! I have been reading numerous books for school (Roman poets, Greek poets, books on WWI, WWII, Russian books, books on the Haitian Revolution - can you tell I'm going to major in history?) Well I finally got to read a book that wasn't mandatory! And I'm pretty proud of myself. I read the book in about 3 days! So without further ado here is the report!

Sookie Stackhouse lives in Bon Temps, La. She works as a waitress at the local bar. Everyone knows that she has a 'disability' and for the most part they treat her well. Obviously they think she's crazy. Vampires have just now become more main stream, and people are beginning to believe that the reason vampires are the way they are is because of a virus.

One night, while Sookie is working a man catches her attention. Pale with dark hair and eyes she is drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Soon they found out that the new stranger in town is Bill Compton a vampire returning to his old family estate. The town is enthralled to have a vampire amongst them. However, Bills arrival also marks the arrival of strange happenings.

Soon the town of Bon Temps has other worries on their minds. At least two of the women have been killed. They were known 'fang bangers' so Bill might have done a way with them. But they also were known 'associates' of Sookie's brother Jason. By 'associates' I mean 'bed associates'. What's worse is that Sookie might be next. Her grandmother was killed, along with her cat Tina. The police are looking real hard into Jason's files, but he couldn't of killed his grandmother? Sookie has to solve the mystery fast before her time is up and her number is picked.

This is probably a bad thing, but when I first read Sookie, I instantly thought of SNookie from Jersey Shore. I know, I know Jersey Shore is a corrosive show - but also a very funny one. Watching egotistical people act as if they weren't!

I really enjoyed the characters in the book. It's always fun (for me) to read about vampires when their description is the same but different. Like Bill, he was described as pale (duh) but there were no mentions of his powers (like descriptions of Jean-Paul in one of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels.) Furthermore Sookie wasn't a skinny little twig. She had some meat on her bones which was nice.

In closing - I didn't know that the True Blood series was based off this book series. I don't watch the show (I don't have a TV in my house). Although I'm not all together surprised seeing how now-a-days more and more TV shows and movies are based off of books. I'm not too happy with that.

Books in this series:

1. Dead Until Dark

2. Living Dead in Dallas

3. Club Dead

4. Dead to the World

5. Dead As a Doornail

6. Definitely Dead

7. Altogether Dead

8. From Dead to Worse

9. Dead And Gone

10. Dead In The Family

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. Ace Books NY (c) 2001

Napoleon: A life

I tried to find a photo of the book were it didn't have this irritating "look inside" but alas I could not.

I had to read this book for my class on the "history of Modern War and Society". Right away I loved the book. One of my favorite lines in the book is "more books and been written about Napoleon than anyone else - except for Christ". What is it that fascinates us about this little guy?

I enjoyed the books smooth transitions and wonderful information. I didn't feel like I had to labour to read it (as I did while reading Cheese and Worms)

Napoleon a Life by Paul Johnson

The Cheese and the Worms

This will be a quick post about the book (I have to go read the Iliad - which I should've finished Monday -oops).

The Cheese and the worms is written about a 15th Century miller in Italy during the time of the Inquisition. His name was Menocchio (well, nickname rather) and he was known for his radical thoughts and ideas. His fellow peers didn't hate him, but they also didn't agree with his brash outspoken ideas. When Menocchio is called to trial the inquisitors can't help but marvel at this man and his crazy ideas! The Virgin Mary isn't a virgin because she had a child? Say What???

The point of the book was to see how popular peasant thought intermixed with the religious beliefs and teachings of that time.

I would have to say the only negative thing about this book was his writing style. I hated it. It was too confusing for me - at one point it was in Menocchio's POV and then suddenly it was the inquisitors or suddenly Ginzburg was trying to relay information. I didn't like the flow at all.

Poor Menocchio, to be born at the wrong time with such radical ideas.

The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg

Update.

Hi guys!! My posts (for awhile) will be a bit sporadic. I recently had a little boy so sleep has been on the back burner, even reading too. I'll slowly be reading - although I'm trying to quickly read Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side before it's due on Monday - we shall see. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

This is my son :)