Tops and Bottoms

Tops and Bottoms adapted and illustrated by Janet Stevens

Bear was lazy.  He had money and land but cared about neither.  All he wanted was sleep.  Hare was a hard worker but had lost everything to tortoise in a bet.  He needed to take care of his large family....so he made a deal with bear.  Hare would do all the work to grow some crops on bear's land.  Bear got to choose if he wanted to keep the tops or bottoms.  Hare was clever in his planting though.  Bear always got the raw end of the deal and hare had plenty to feed his family. 

This is one of the cutest books.   I like how the book needs to be turned sideways to show the tall pictures of the crops.  The pictures are great and the story line is a wonderful lesson about doing your own work and not expecting others to take care of business for you.  Cute, cute, cute!

my BIG DOG

my BIG DOG
by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel...
This is the cutest book!  It is about a cat named Merl.  He is the kinda cat who is stuck in his ways and likes it that way.  The sofa is his, the chair is his, the dish is his...and he likes it that way.  His world is turned upside town when a puppy is brought home.  He is sloppy, drooly, wiggly and clumsy.  Merl decides to leave and find a better place to live.  Unfortunately he doesn't like any of the other homes he visits.  Finally the BIG DOG picks Merl up and brings him back home.  The BIG DOG misses, needs and likes Merl.  Maybe Merl can live with this...maybe.

I loved this book!  It is told with the voice of the cat.  He seems so real.  Cats are so temperamental and this book portrays that perfectly.  The grass really isn't greener on the other side and this book is perfect for that lesson!

Just sayin...

OK, I just have to put this out there.  I was the kid who bought the fancy diary with the lock and the key, and I would find a great spot to hide the key.  I would write it in the first couple days and then I would never use it again, forget where I hid the key, and then throw the dumb thing away.  Blogging to me is like the diary.  I remember, do some, and then forget to do it again.  By the time I remember, I have forgotten the password and it takes me half an hour to get into the thing, then I am out of time, and can't post. 

Just had to put that out there.

It's Perfectly Normal

OK, so being very open as I am, I liked this book.  It is very explicit which I think is great.  I have the philosophy...if my kids don't learn it from me, they are going to learn it wrong from someone else.  So...I would rather have them learn it the right way from me.  I have told both my kiddos 12, and 14 EVERYTHING.  I grew up in a very strict home where we didn't talk about anything.  Not even a girl "becoming a woman".  (I don't know what I should post on here so I won't be specific).  My kids know it all.  Even their friends come to me and ask me thinks which is great.  I had a group of 6 girls and 1 boy come to me and we sat at the kindergarten tables and did their sex ed homework together.  They would ask me questions in small group that they were way to embarrassed to ask in their classroom.  It was great.  ( I also had 5 of them in my Kindergarten class, so kind of like old times.)  I would rather them learn it from me--not that I am an expert--but I know how it is, and I know what it is like to be naive.  I went to college and didn't know what sex was.  NOT GOOD!  I survived, but would have been much better if I had known, not have gotten myself into some situations if I had known more.  This book is like a dictionary for kids to understand what sex is and all that goes along with it. 

Tales of Outer Surburbia

I loved this book!  I had to read it all in one sitting.  It was so completely random.  It kind of reminded me of my daughter.  Some of the off the wall things she says I just have to blink my eyes and think...'what'?  She loves the saying "I'm not as random as you think I salad."  That sums up Katie.  It also sums up this book!  I loved the first story the best about the water buffalo.  There really is no meaning to it, the only thing I could get out of it would be that everything will work itself out in time.  Everyone followed the way the buffalo pointed.  And finally they got to where they were going.  But there really is not a connection that I found any way between the short stories.  But I did enjoy this one quite a bit!

Smokin' Sixteen

Today I read Janet Evanovich, Smokin' Sixteen.  Loved it to say the least.  It is not on the booklist, but needed to read an old favorite over Thanksgiving.  For some reason Stephanie Plum sucks me in and I can't stop until there is not more.  Ranger and Morelli kind of remind me of Edward and Jacob for Bella in the beginning of the Twilight series.  Who should be chosen?  Morelli?  Stable, good job, great guy.  or Ranger?  Not stable, great job, great guy, mysterious.  The seventeenth book came out last week, I can't wait to check it out from the library.  :)

Twilight The graphic novel...

I will just begin with wierd...