How well do you know these Irish cuties? I’m giving a list of ages and I want to see if you can match the actor to the correct age. If you throw in the actor’s name I’ll gie you extra points. I know it’s going to be tempting to cheat, resist!
No Googling or looking at otaher commenter answers. Yes, we’re going by the honor system 🙂Play every week or just one time, you are always welcome 🙂 It only takes once to be eligible for a prize.
Gage goes to school Monday-Thursday and mornings are a time he usually is willing and wanting to learn a little, so I decided to start doing a little state work each three-day weekend.
Exploring the States:West Virginia, the Mountain State. We start by reading through the book and then I chose some 5-10 minute activities over the three days. My goal is really just two activities for each of the three days and then two books, this one and one more picture book.
I was fighting off a cold last weekend so I was a little uninspired, but here’s what we did.
1. Traced the state map, marked the capital, and wrote West Virginia.
2. Colored and painted the very intricate state map.
3. Colored a picture of the state animal, the black bear.
4. Did you know that West Virginia is the only place you can find Cheat Salamanders? We watched this video on Canaan National Park and spotted the salamander and the train.
We read three great books.
5. Take Me Home, Country Roads. Adapted and Illustrated by Christopher Canyon. The cd with the song by John Denver was included. Loved being about to read the book and listen the music together. Excellent representation of the state.
6. Walter Dean Myers was born in West Virginia so we read Looking Like Me, written by him and illustrated by his son, Christopher. This book was excellent in content and busy with illustration. A great story that is sure to boost self-esteem. It’s all about embracing all of the different things that you are, in his case: brother, son, writer, city child, artist, dancer, talker, runner, dreamer. It then encourages you to look in a mirror and find all the things that you are. A great opportunity for me to help Gage realize who he is in all of his glory. Definitely one I’ll be buying.
7. We Are America also by Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers was a more traditional book that showcased some of America’s historical periods. This was a bit of a stretch for Gage because the pictures didn’t much interest him and the poetry was beyond his understanding, but amazingly he sat through half of it at the first reading and even asked a few questions. I think it would be a great book for him in a few years.
Keep sending me ideas for your state – especially book ideas!
I’ve always tried to attend author signings in the area but timing is a struggle. I decided to make more of an effort because I always enjoy them and I like to support the local book scene (yes, Cleveland has a book scene ;)). The Cuyahoga Public Library system is so good at bringing authors in to the libraries and last week I visited a branch 15 minutes away because I needed the time to myself (I could make up a better reason but honesty is okay here, right?) AND the local mystery-thriller looked just up my alley.
I haven’t read The Dead Key BUT D.M. Pulley (pen name) was so delightful at her first author talk that I am really looking forward to starting the book. I’m not sure how many people were there. When I sat down there were maybe 35 but who knows how many filtered in after that. She was so outgoing, well-spoken, and prepared that the audience was charmed. I heard more that one attendee say that it way the best author talk they had attended. Hm, a few highlights?
*She beat out 10,000 other writers for the top Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. The book took 8 months to write and almost 4 years to edit. She was at her uncle’s funeral when she found out she had won, surrounded by family.
*She graduated from Case Western Reserve University and went to work as an engineer, but she didn’t fit in with the culture at work. Her slides were fun 🙂
*She then went into forensic engineering, historical preservation. She showed some photos of her hanging from the highest buildings in Cleveland and I was impressed and frightened. My fear of high open spaces made me antsy just seeing them on-screen. She’s a gutsy woman with a very cool job.
*The book is based on her experience at an abandoned bank in downtown Cleveland. When she got to see the basement vault in 2001 there were safety deposit boxes, both hanging open and locked shut, and this was the spark that led her to write the book after having her second child.
*After she won the Amazon contest she was contacted by a local photographer who had taked pictures of the vault before renovation. One of those pictures was used for the cover and another is the one that Pulley said looked like what had been living in her mind all those years. A story waiting to be told.
*You can see pictures and more about the idea for the book here and see a short interview with her on the local news here.
I am really looking forward to reading the book and would highly recommend seeing her in person if you can. She’s smart woman who appreciates the opportunity she’s been given. Her local appearances are here but here’s the NPR link if you can’t make it to one.
Saturday is Pi Day so I thought I’d see if you could guess these Pi(e) titles. One doesn’t have pi(e) in the title but does have a great looking pie on the cover!
No googling or looking at other commenter answers. Yes, we’re going by the honor system 🙂Play every week or just one time, you are always welcome 🙂 It only takes once to be eligible for a prize.
Leave your guesses as a comment 🙂
1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Bradley
2. Tibetan Peach Pie – Robbins
3. The Apple Tree – Hall
4. Sneaky Pie for President – Brown
5. The Actor and the Housewife – Hale
6. Peach Pies and Alibis – Adams
7. Life of Pi – Martel
8. Ugly Pie – Solomon
9. Blackberry Pir Murder – Fluke
10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society – Shaffer and Barrows
It’s October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree… and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store.
When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.
It was Garden Spells, Allen’s debut book, where we first met the Waverley sisters, Claire and Sydney. Garden Spells is also where I fell in love with Allen’s light, magical touch. I didn’t want the book to end. It was so easy to read, an enchanting southern town full of enchanted people and I felt that same warmth this time around too. As much as I really like Allen’s other books, and I’ve read them all, it’s the Waverley’s from Bascom, North Carolina that really make me happy. I want a magic apple tree and a special gift, I guess. Who doesn’t?
Ten years after Garden Spells the sisters and their Aunt Evanelle find themselves settled into relationships and trying to find their way, especially Claire. Claire is questioning her gift and the way that she’s using it, so she is ripe for someone to come along and shake her faith. And he does.
I love that Sydney’s daughter, Bay, is a major part of this story, coming into her own as one of the mysterious Waverley women. She’s 15 and knows her gift, only it has only made her high school experience miserable. I love how she is willing to be different at such a young age.
I really can’t recommend these books enough. You could easily start with this one, but if you read Garden Spells first you’ll get so much more out of it. I’m not usually one that enjoys sequels of favorite books, but this one satisfied me and I am only hoping for more!
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
1. The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley – I picked this one up at the author’s first book talk yesterday and she was fantastic. More on the talk later this week.
2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Grand Prize and Mystery & Thriller Fiction Winner
It’s 1998, and for years the old First Bank of Cleveland has sat abandoned, perfectly preserved, its secrets only speculated on by the outside world.
Twenty years before, amid strange staff disappearances and allegations of fraud, panicked investors sold Cleveland’s largest bank in the middle of the night, locking out customers and employees, and thwarting a looming federal investigation. In the confusion that followed, the keys to the vault’s safe-deposit boxes were lost.
Lilith is the daughter of the sixth Duke of Radnor. She is one of the most beautiful young women in London and engaged to the city’s most eligible bachelor. She is also a witch.
When her father dies, her hapless brother Freddie takes the title. But it is Lilith, instructed in the art of necromancy, who inherits their father’s role as Head Witch of the Lazarus Coven. And it is Lilith who must face the threat of the Sentinels, a powerful group of sorcerers intent on reclaiming the Elixir from the coven’s guardianship for their own dark purposes. Lilith knows the Lazarus creed: secrecy and silence. To abandon either would put both the coven and all she holds dear in grave danger. She has spent her life honoring it, right down to her charming fiancé and fellow witch, Viscount Louis Harcourt.
Gage goes to school Monday-Thursday and mornings are a time he usually is willing and wanting to learn a little, so I decided to start doing a little state work each three-day weekend.
Exploring the States:Pennsylvania, the Keystone State. I decided to use this series I found at the library. We start by reading through the book and then I chose some things to do 5-10 minute activities over the three days. My goal is really just two activities for each of the three days and then two books, this one and one more picture book.
Here’s what we did
1. Trace the state map, marked the capital,painted it, and wrote Pennsylvania. He hates to write and this week’s long state name made his unhappy and stubborn.
2. Colored and painted the very intricate state map.
3. Used glitter glue to color the state flower, mountain laurel.
4. The book featured the Crayola Experience and factory in Easton so we did a Crayola project.
Took the paper off broken crayons (took longer than I thought it would), mixed the colors in different muffin cups, put in the oven at 300 for about 10 minutes, pull them out one by one and drop the flimsy one all over the floor, put in the freezer, pull them out and you got some very cool looking crayon pellets. Inspired by this pin.
Our Pennsylvania Punxsutawney Phil activities (because he was featured in the book).
5.We read a book about Groundhog Day, made a craft and did a few papers matching objects with their shadows. He was very happy to have his picture taken 😉
6.(learning how to use the side of the chalk from dad)Tape his feet to the paper and attach a pipe cleaner to the back to help him stand and ta-da! It’s Punxsutawney Phil and his shadow. This pin was the inspiration.
7. Watched a video of Phil (he wasn’t all that impressed)
Keep sending me ideas for your state – especially book ideas!
Let’s see if you can guess these classics by their brief first lines. They are tough – good luck!
No googling or looking at other commenter answers. Yes, we’re going by the honor system 🙂Play every week or just one time, you are always welcome 🙂 It only takes once to be eligible for a prize.
1. ”It was a pleasure to burn.” Fahrenheit 451
2. “Howard Roark laughed.” Fountainhead
3. “It’s hard being left behind.” The Time Traveler’s Wife
4. “I am an invisible man.” Invisible Man
5. “Call me Ishmael.” Moby Dick
6. “A screaming comes across the sky.” Gravity’s Rainbow
7. “124 was spiteful.” Beloved
8. “All this happened, more or less.” Slaughterhouse-Five
9. ” I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.” I Capture the Castle
10. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” 1984
The Prophet. Finished 2-17-15, rating 4.5/5 stars, thriller, pub. 2012
Unabridged audio, 11 hours 50 minutes. Read by Robert Petkoff.
Adam Austin hasn’t spoken to his brother in years. When they were teenagers, their sister was abducted and murdered, and their devastated family never recovered. Now Adam keeps to himself, scraping by as a bail bondsman, working so close to the town’s criminal fringes that he sometimes seems a part of them. Kent Austin is the beloved coach of the local high school football team, a religious man and hero in the community. After years of near misses, Kent’s team has a shot at the state championship, a welcome point of pride in a town that has had its share of hardships. Just before playoffs begin, the town and the team are thrown into shock when horrifically, impossibly, another teenage girl is found murdered. As details emerge that connect the crime to the Austin brothers, the two must confront their buried rage and grief-and unite to stop a killer.
We get to know Adam from the very beginning and he was such a fascinating character. Haunted by his sister’s murder and fiercely protective, he is willing to cross every line that the law has placed in his way. Enter his brother, the football coach, the other side of the family tree is viewed as the local hero, an image he strives to cultivate every day. When the law seems unable to protect him he isn’t afraid to ask his big brother for help if though they’ve long been estranged.
This is an excellent thriller, especially if you love football and I do. The action centered around the high school football team and their quest for a state title, which includes a lot of play by play. It’s set in a small, Cleveland area town on Lake Erie and I knew this town even if it wasn’t real. This book felt like the character study of two brothers and one small Ohio town and I was drawn into the bleakness and pain as much as I was into the current bad guy running around town.
This was my first Koryta read and I can’t wait to read more. Any Koryta fans out there? What should I read next?
Gage goes to school Monday-Thursday and mornings are a time he usually is willing and wanting to learn a little, so I decided to start doing a little state work each three-day weekend. We, of course, started with Ohio.
I decided to use this new series I found at the library. We started by reading through the book and then I chose some things that were in there to do 5-10 minute activities over the three days. My goal is really just two activities for each of the three days and then two books, this one and one more picture book.
Here’s what we did
1. Traced the state and marked the capital with a star and added some glitter glue. Also wrote the name on the state.
2. Used the book to figure out how to color the state flag, the buckeyes, and state flower a red carnation.
3. Colored a guitar for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and marked it with a guitar sticker on the map.
4. Made the cutest little cardinal (state bird) that I found on Pinterest.
5. VIDEO-watched a video of Neil Armstrong (Ohioan) landing on the moon.
Related activity-We marked everyone’s height on the wall with a sticker and then used the tape measure to measure how high the giant was (he reached our ceiling!). This was a good estimating activity since my parents were here. We started by marking his height and then he had to guess who would be the next tallest each time.
Cutting, gluing.Tracing.Estimating and measuring.
History!
This weekend we’re working on Pennsylvania. If you have any books or fun activities to add for your state please me know! I am going to need new ideas 🙂
How well do you know these Irish cuties? I’m giving a list of ages and I want to see if you can match the actor to the correct age. If you throw in the actor’s name I’ll gie you extra points. I know it’s going to be tempting to cheat, resist!
Walter Dean Myers was born in West Virginia so we read 
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