Needles and Pens

The Book Awards Reading Challenge has come to an end, and I thought I should fess up and post my results: I didn't make it -- but I didn't totally blow it either. :-D Of my original twelve challenge books, I read and reviewed the following: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - Newbery Award 1978 Holes by Louis Sachar - Newbery Award 1999 Mariner's Compass by Earlene Fowler - Agatha Award 1999 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - Pulitzer Prize 1940 The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo - Newbery Award 2004 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech - Newbery Award 1995 I also read the following, but never got around to reviewing (and since I likely never will, I loved them both and want to see the movies now): The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Pulitzer Prize 1983 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Pulitzer Prize 1961 So that leaves four challenge books unread, for now at least. It was a lot of fun attempting the challenge. I read some fantastic books that I ot...

The Grapes of Wrath By John Steinbeck © 1939 Published by Penguin Books Ltd. 1940 Pulitzer Prize Winner The Grapes of Wrath , by John Steinbeck, is the story of the Joad family – tenant farmers from Oklahoma – and their migration to California to escape the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Through excellent characterization and a compelling storyline, the reader becomes a part of the Joad family, feeling their excitement and apprehension, the family bonds, their grief, despair and sadness, and their undying spirit to survive and prosper. Among the Joads' personal journey, Steinbeck has woven short, descriptive chapters that portray the bigger picture of the great migration and a changing America. The family farm is becoming a thing of the past. Tractors and big business are taking over in search of bigger profits, and the families that have eked out an existence on these small farms are no longer needed or wanted. They are pushed out of their homes, one by one. Large farms i...

By Earlene Fowler © 1999 Published by Penguin Books Ltd. 1999 Agatha Award Winner It’s been awhile since I’ve read anything for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. In fact, I had almost decided to give up on the challenge altogether, but then I came across one of my picks during a recent trip to the bookstore and decided to get back on track. Seven more books to read by June 30... Not usually a reader of mysteries, I only included Agatha-winner, Mariner’s Compass , on my book list because of the title, assuming it might have something to do with one of my favorite hobbies, quilting. In the process, I think I’ve discovered a new favorite author in Earlene Fowler. Mariner’s Compass is one in a series of mysteries involving Benni Harper, an ex-cowgirl, folk-art expert, and yes, quilter, who apparently finds herself in unusual situations on a regular basis. The story opens with Benni discovering she has inherited the estate of one Jacob Chandler, a man she has never heard of or met. The o...

Haven't posted in a few days, and I even missed Wordless Wednesday yesterday, but I have managed to tick a few items off of my to-do list this week: * Balanced my checkbook, got caught up on bills and started my ledger for tracking income and expenses. Made my first weekly deposit into a Christmas savings account. This is a first! * Mailed off my daughter's broken camera for repair, a camera that has been sitting in its box for several months now -- and it's a better camera than my own! She got a new camera for Christmas, so I may be keeping this one. * Finally wrote a review for my last Book Awards Reading Challenge book, Holes , which I actually read long before Christmas. I really need to get going on this, if I'm going to meet the challenge by June! * Stuck with the diet and exercise program. Trying not to obsess! lol * Finished my nine-patch blocks for my next Quilts with Love quilt, and started setting them together. I have a huge box of 4-1/2" squares th...

Holes By Louis Sachar © 1998 Published by Scholastic, Inc. 1999 Newbery Medal winner Holes is the story of young Stanley Yelnats and a generations-old family curse. As the story opens, things look grim for Stanley. Convicted of a crime he did not commit, Stanley is sentenced to serve time at Camp Green Lake, a camp for bad boys. “Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. “It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather! “He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather…” Camp Green Lake didn’t sound so bad. After all, Stanley had never been to camp before. But Stanley soon finds that, “there is no lake at Camp Green Lake.” Instead, there are endless stretches of desert, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and deadly yellow-spotted lizards. The Warden and camp staff a...

Bridge to Terabithia By Katherine Paterson © 1977 Published by HarperCollins 1978 Newbery Medal winner As one of the few who had never read the book OR seen the movie, reading Bridge to Terabithia , by Katherine Paterson, was not what I had expected. I had seen the movie trailers with the fantasy monsters and the children in historical garb, so I assumed it was a fantasy story. Actually, it’s a real-life story about two kids with fantastic imaginations. Jess Aarons has a hard time fitting in. He’s the only boy in his family, stuck between four sisters. He desperately wants his parents’ acceptance, but never quite seems to measure up. He has a talent for art, which is considered a waste of time by his rural farm family. Deep down, he’d really like to make his father proud, and as the story begins, Jess has big plans to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. He spends his whole summer training for the race on that first day back at school, imagining all the while how it would feel whe...

Walk Two Moons By Sharon Creech © 1994 Published by Scholastic Inc. 1995 Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons is the story of 13-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle (most people call her “Sal”) and her trip across the country, from Ohio to Idaho, with her Gram and Gramps. But this is no ordinary vacation. Sal’s mother has gone to “find herself,” and Sal hopes to bring her back home. Her biggest worry is that they won’t get there in time for her mother’s birthday. Somehow, she feels that will make a difference. Along the way, Gram asks Sal to tell a story. “Salamanca, why don’t you entertain us?” “What sort of thing did you have in mind?” Gramps said, “How about a story? Spin us a yarn.” I certainly do know heaps of stories, but I learned most of them from Gramps. Gram suggested I tell one about my mother. That I could not do. I had just reached the point where I could stop thinking about her every minute of every day. Gramps said, “Well then, what about your friends? You got any tales to te...

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread By Kate DiCamillo Illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering First edition 2003 published by Candlewick Press 2004 Newbery Medal Thanks to a wonderful fourth grade teacher who reads this book aloud to her class each year, The Tale of Despereaux is a favorite of my two youngest children. It made my daughter’s birthday wish list three years ago, and recently my son joined in the chorus of, “Mom, you HAVE to read Despereaux!” Finally, I have. Despereaux is the youngest in the Tilling family, a disappointingly small, weak, sickly mouse, born – much to his family’s dismay – with his eyes open. “This is the last,” proclaimed Antoinette from her bed. “I will have no more mice babies. They are hard on my beauty. They ruin, for me, my looks. This is the last one. No more.” “The last one,” said the father. “And he’ll be dead soon. He can’t live. Not with his eyes open like that.” But reader, he did live. Thi...

My kids were back to school today after a four-day weekend, and I was left to bask in golden silence. Ahh… I had big plans for the day, but it's amazing how quickly six uninterrupted hours of peace and quiet fly by -- and funny how little I managed to get done in that time. Nevertheless, this morning I learned about the Book Awards Reading Challenge -- just the thing to get me going on that “someday I’ll read it” list. I’ve made a tentative list of my twelve book picks for the challenge (listed below right), and I tried to select recipients of a variety of awards, including a few Pulitzers. But I have to admit, the books I most look forward to reading are the Newberys – awarded annually “to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” More than half of my choices are Newbery winners. Call it research for my children’s writing (besides, I really like reading children’s books!) My other accomplishment today was listing a few items for sale ...