Favorite Authors

Two of my favorite authors were in Phoenix yesterday to autograph books and visit with their fans.  I went with my friend Sandi and her daughter, Clarcy. 

The authors are Sarah M. Eden and Julianne Donaldson. What gracious and entertaining ladies! It was great fun to discuss books we love and get the scoop on upcoming stories. The characters in Sarah's books intertwine and know each other. Sometimes characters for future books are mentioned or make an appearance in an earlier book as a clue to what is coming. In addition to writing stories about all the siblings in a family, Sarah writes about many of their friends' stories, as well. Hearing which characters have their own stories coming up was exciting! We also talked about the motivations of some of the characters, when family secrets will be revealed (hint: It wasn't last night, darn it!), and whose stories are next in line. It was fun to do more than speculate about what could happen next.

Julianne (Julie), Clarcy, Sarah

I used to work with Sarah's husband when they lived in the Valley. Her parents have been seminary teachers to my two older daughters.  The added bonus is that her parents were at the book signing so we got to visit with them for a while, too.  They are some of the nicest people on the planet!

Ginny and Steve

 

Our stake had youth conference this weekend so although Clarcy's younger sister is a huge fan she was unable to attend.  We knew that Abby would be sad to have missed a photo opportunity with the authors.  The authors jokingly expressed shock that Abby chose youth conference over them. Julie grabbed a pen and paper and wrote a note to Abby:

Doesn't she look sad?

"Abby, how could you?"

 

Sarah also wrote a note.

 

"Priorities, Abby. Priorities!"

Favorite authors vs. youth conference. Tough choices! ha ha

 

After the authors left, we browsed through the Barnes and Noble store. It is HUGE! It must be three times the size of the one near our house. I could easily spend a lot of money in that store!  I love books and in five more weeks I will be free to read anything I want (instead of textbooks!). Yahoo!!

 

It was a fun girls' night out and a nice break from studying.

Doctor Who Meets Harry Potter

Our family has recently discovered the BBC television series Doctor Who.  We have enjoyed watching the show about a time traveling alien and his companions.

Our new obsession is touching aspects of our daily lives.  The girls quote things the Doctor says.  We created a DIY card for our Apples to Apples game about the TARDIS, the Doctor's time machine.

In seminary this morning, one of Emily's friends created a paper TARDIS.  He did a pretty good job!

While waiting for their ride from seminary to school, the kids remembered that Harry Potter used portkeys to travel from one place to another.  For you non-Harry Potter fans, portkeys are ordinary items that are enchanted to allow nearly instant travel over long distances. All you have to do is touch it and the portkey will take you to the new destination.  What better portkey (travel device) than a TARDIS (time machine)???   They hoped it would take them to school.....

I hear it didn't work very well.  Perhaps they need more practice casting enchantments?  Or maybe you have to ride IN the TARDIS before it works?

Buying Happiness

A Reading Heritage

My grandparents and my parents are all avid readers.  When I was little, I remember Mom taking us to the public library regularlly.  We loved books!

However, when I was about Megan's age, maybe a little younger, I was still more interested in picture books than chapter books.  For my birthday or Christmas that year I received two copies of Little House on the Prairie.  I was SO disappointed!  Ha Ha   My wise mother decided to challenge me to see which of us could read the book fastest.  While I wasn't very excited about reading the book, I was quite determined that my mother was not going to read it faster than me.  I finished the book in something like 2-3 days.  (It was Christmas break, so I had plenty of time to read.)  My mom is a fast reader, but she was working so I won.  I borrowed every Laura Ingalls Wilder book the public library had and I have been reading ever since.

Our blogging challenge topic for this week has created some discussion in our home about books. Although I posted earlier this week about picture books, we moved on to discussing our favorite chapter books.

Some of my favorite chapter books growing up were:

A young boy has an accident while playing with his friends and goes blind.  The book tells how he adjusted to being blind and how he learned to use a seeing eye dog.  I must have read this book 20 times!

Heather read it a couple years ago and really enjoyed it, too.

This story about a young boy and his dogs was one of my all-time favorites.  I cried every time I read it.

During one of my college creative writing classes, author Orson Scott Card came to visit and talk to us.  I had never heard of him so I went out and bought this book.  I read it several times and borrowed some other books by the same author from friends who were appalled that I had never read any of his books. 

Many of my favorite books now are books I have read with my children.  My sister's kids and my best friend's kids often read the same books and then we discuss them.  Some of books I like are:

     - No Talking by Andrew Clements

     - Frindle by Andrew Clements

     - Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

     - Everything I have read by Rick Riordan 

     - Adventurers Wanted 1: Slathbog's Gold by ML Forman (book 2 comes out in February 2011!)

     - The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

     - The Work and The Glory series by Gerald N. Lund

     - Charly by Jack Weyland

Megan is still at the point that I was when I got my Little House books for Christmas.  She LOVES to have me read to her, but she isn't so excited about reading to herself.  Many of her favorite books are still picture books.  Her chapter book list is below:

     - Tardy Boys series by Todd Strasser

     - Island of the Blue Dolpins by Scott O'Dell

     - Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder 

Emily loves book series more than one-shot stories.  Her favorites include:

     - Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull

     - 13th Reality series by James Dasher

     - Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis

     - Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

     - Tennis Shoes Adventure Series by Chris Heimerdinger

     - Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

     - Adventurers Wanted series by ML Forman

Heather is an avid reader, too.  In fact, many times I have had to take her book away from her to get her to do other things, like homework and sleep.  She also loves book series.  Some of her favorites are below:

     - Tennis Shoes Adventure Series by Chris Heimerdinger

       (She read all 10 books in two weeks last summer!)

     - Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

     - Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
     - Big Red series by Jim Kjelgaard
     - Sister Grimm series by Michael Buckley
     - Anything by Andrew Clements
       (He single-handedly got Heather hooked on reading)
     - White Fang by Jack London

What are some of your favorite books?  We'd love to find some new series or authors to follow.

Tawny Scrawny Lion

Blog Challenge: 

What was your favorite book as a child? Why?

I don't remember having a specific "favorite" book when I was growing up, but I do remember being excited to share many of my favorite picture books with my own children.  One of the books we all love is Tawny Scrawny Lion, by Kathryn Jackson. 

The hungry lion eats the animals so no one wants to get close to him and be his friend.  He is always hungry and always scrawny because he has to run and run to catch his food.  Then he meets a sympathetic rabbit and his life changes.  It is a great story about friendship and overcoming differences. 

Some other books my children and I love that you might like:

Megan's favorite book

Chester the Raccoon is nervous about going to school for the first time until his mother shares the secret of the Kissing Hand with him.

Heather's favorite book

Stellaluna cannot figure out why she doesn't quite fit in with the other children in her family.  Similar to The Ugly Duckling story but with birds and bats.

Emily's favorite book

Imagine waking up and finding that things in your house and your town are out of the ordinary.  Emily loved to search for all the wacky, unusual things on each page.  

Our family favorite

Stephanie gets very frustrated when everyone at school copies her hairstyles, even the teachers!

Another family favorite

Blue Kangaroo is Lily's best friend.  Then she gets excited about new toys and forgets about him.  Would Lily even notice if he was gone?

Our favorite line:  Goo goo, boo gangaloo!

Series favorite

Nate the Great solves mysteries in his neighborhood with the help of his dog, Sludge, and a stack of pancakes.  These are beginning chapter books.

Good Is Always Good

One of my favorite family memories took place a few years ago. We had some kind of family gathering at my parents’ home that included my sister’s family, too. At some point my mom turned on an Elvis Presley CD. Mom and Dad started dancing around the living room. Before long, EVERYONE was dancing around, the music had been turned up, and we were all singing along. It was so much fun! Good music is always good. The same can be said for a good movie or a good book. Some of my children’s all-time favorite movies were made before they were born and some of their all-time favorite picture books are the same ones I read as a child. If a movie or a book is good, it will always be good.

I recently started attending college again. I am taking an Introduction to Law class. One of the concepts we discussed involved this idea of good is always good. Natural laws are those that are universally accepted as being good. For example, everyone knows that it is good not to kill someone else, not to steal someone else’s property, and to have freedom from oppression. These laws use common sense and an inborn feeling of what is right and what is wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes people ignore this inborn moral compass so positive, or written, laws are created to remind everyone what is good. Positive laws usually have a consequence tied to them. People who obey natural and positive laws are generally happier than people who ignore them. They also have more freedoms than the people who disobey the laws and must face the consequences of their choices.

This concept was not new to me. I have heard it all my life as I have studied the gospel. Everyone is born with the Light of Christ to help us recognize what is good. Because some people ignore their internal moral compass, the Lord has written down His commandments, or rules, for us to follow. These commandments remind us what is good and often have consequences attached to them. People who disobey commandments often find their choices limited by the consequences of their decisions. They are often unhappy and frustrated with the direction their lives have taken. People who make good choices are generally happier.

The thing I also noticed is that natural laws and commandments that are good don’t change with time. Good is always good. It is always good to be free from slavery and oppression. It is always good to respect the property and lives of others. It is always good to be morally clean. It is always good to love and serve others. It is always good to pray and to study the scriptures. All of these things that were good 100 years ago, or a 1,000 years ago are still good today. Good is always good.

I love it when my school work makes sense in the real world!

Book Worms

My friend Sandi and her family came over to bring Heather her birthday present. Their three children are all the same ages as my three children so we love getting together. The kids always act like they haven't seen each other for a year, even though they only live a half mile from our house.

Abby and Megan disappeared down the hall to play and talk. Heather opened her present while Jacob watched. But Emily and Clarcy were the most excited to see one another. Can't you tell? HA HA HA HA

Clarcy and Emily catching up with one another

Sandi, Rick and I were laughing because they talked about not seeing each other "for ages" and then sat down to read their respective books. THAT is what I call real friends. You don't have to make small talk. You just need to be together.

Is That A Dead Dog In Your Locker?

If you want to torture Megan, make her read. Megan is a good reader. She can sound out really big words and has a high reading level. However, she has always found reading to be a tedious and boring task. Since she is required to read 800 pages each school term, you can imagine the drama that ensues when I try to get her to read her assignments.

Her 5th grade teacher has been wonderful about trying to find ways to encourage Megan to read more. She got Megan to read every day for a week as a birthday gift to her. And she finally found a book that Megan couldn't wait to finish.

The book is about a girl who is dog-sitting and takes the dog to school with her. She and her friends have a tough time hiding the stinky dog in the school. Megan read it in a matter of days....instead of weeks for any other book the same size.

I am so proud of Megan for reading so quickly. And I am extremely thankful for a wonderful, loving teacher who kept trying until she found something that caught Megan's attention.

Percy Jackson

One of our newly discovered book series is being made into a movie! Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightening Thief will be released in February 2010. We are very excited.

My nephew Austin read the book first. He asked me to read it because he wanted someone to discuss it with him. It involves some Greek mythology and my sister knows I love mythology stories. Austin called me DAILY until I finished the book. Heather read it after me, followed by Emily, Grandpa, and then all of Austin's brothers. His mother and some of our friends eventually read it, too.

There are now five books in the series, so we are hoping this will be like Harry Potter and all the books will be made into movies. Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies, is also directing The Lightening Thief. We hope he is as faithful to the book with this movie as he was with the Harry Potter movies.

From the book we learn that the ancient Greek gods are still alive and well and living in America. They are also still having children with mortals. The half-bloods, or demigods, have life pretty tough because monsters and other mean creatures are drawn to them. Most of them eventually find their way to Camp Half-Blood in New York, where they learn survival skills for the outside world. Like Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter series, Camp Half-Blood is protected. The monsters cannot get in without an invitation.

Percy finds out that he is a demigod after some nasty experiences at school. He heads to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns some other interesting facts. Zeus and the other Olympian gods reside above the Empire State Building in New York City. Hades has taken up residence beneath Los Angeles. If you want to enter the Underworld, you must travel to LA first. Percy doesn't really want to enter the Underworld, but he has to go there in order to clear his name. He is being accused of stealing something from Zeus....and Zeus is not someone you want to upset. Good thing he has a few friends who volunteer to travel with him.

Check out a summary of the book or the cast list for the movie. Maybe we'll see you at the theater in February.

The Cousins

Back row: Sharilyn Dastas, Eric Gilvin, Stephanie Gilvin

Front row: Jacob Dastas, Jeremy Lashewich, Austin Lashewich, Michael Dastas

Some friends have asked for updated photos of my siblings. This is the first post relating to that.

My sister Sharilyn lives close by. My girls call her family simply "The Cousins." The Cousins call us "The Cousins," too. Amazingly, when we get together the kids all get along really well. Sharilyn's house is on the side of hill, so they explore and grand adventures together. We are so glad they live close.

Most recently, all of the kids have been reading the book series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians." There are five books so far, all about the Greek gods who now live in America. Hades and the Underworld are beneath Los Angeles. Olympus, home of the gods, is above the Empire State Building. Percy Jackson and the other children of the gods fight monsters and sometimes each other in their efforts to save the world. Very exciting stuff, to have kids your own age saving the world!

Jose and Sharilyn