The End is Near!

The end of summer vacation that is. Gone are the days of sleeping until noon. Gone are the days of watching soaps all day and eating bon-bons. Wait! That wasn't my summer.

Anyway, it is time to get ready for the first days of school. One very important decision for educators to make is what to read to their class. Choice Literacy has developed a list of worthy titles. Thank you to A Year of Reading for sharing.

What Happened to Cass McBride

What an absolutely brilliant book by Gail Giles! What Happened to Cass McBride is one of those books that grips the reader from the beginning and never lets go.

Cass McBride, a popular high school student, goes to bed one night and when she wakes up she is no longer in her bed. She has been buried alive. Who did this to her? Why?

I was left with one burning question as I read this book, and on the off chance that Ms. Giles would be reading this I just have to ask...What the heck is dry thirty?

Done, done, and done

Yippeee! I am officially finished with my master's degree. I submitted my last assignment today and then did a very happy dance around the house with my kids. Two years ago I started the adventure, and now I am done. Wow. I can't believe I did it. Now who's up for celebrating?

Lawn Boy

Today I read Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen. Interesting story about a 12 year-old boy who gets an old lawnmower from his Grandmother on his birthday. Paulsen includes witty chapter titles to accompany his creative characters. My favorite being Joseph Powdermilk, the rather large, rather strong boxer the young man just happens to begin sponsering with his lawn mowing earnings. While the story was enjoyable, I felt that I learned waaaaay more about stocks and business than necessary. However some young business minded reader will really enjoy the story.

Who's gonna win?

Elizabeth Bird over at A Fuse #8 Production posts her predictions for possible Caldecott and Newbery Award winners for this year. Unfortunately since I have been living life under a rock...ahem...I mean finishing up my Masters degree...I do not have any titles thus far to add to the list. In fact, I am still wading through last year's winners. Alas, there is light at the end of the tunnel. My last assignment will be submitted by the end of the day and I will be doing the very, very happy dance.

HP7

I am finished...Oddly enough I thought that I would be depressed and saddened when I finished the book, but I'm not. I read the last few pages, closed the book and sighed deeply and suddenly it felt like this huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I'll admit, there were points during my reading where I was angry and dissapointed with some of my favorite characters.

That said, I could see there being additional books added to the series-written from the point of view of other characters.

The very first thing I did after finishing the book was to go and read the J.K. Rowling interview with hopes of gaining a sense of understanding about some of the events in the books.

Then I went back to read a bunch of the blog posts that I had tagged, but didn't want to read until I was done. A Fuse #8 Production has yet to disappoint me. Check this out, these two HP readers read and blogged back and forth. I found their post very illuminating since the book is fresh in my mind.

I can't wait!

I know this is old news, but still The Golden Compass Movie is going to be awesome. I actually just listened to the full cast audio version. This was the first time that I experienced a full cast audio title. It was excellentl. I got so drawn into the story that I had to also borrow a copy of the book from the library so that I could read ahead when I wasn't listening to the audio. I have since encouraged my non-reader husband to pick up the book. He may get to it once he puts down HP7.