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Tuesday Tales – Reading Envy On The Train

Posted on September 27, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

The train into NYC for SheStreams was early in the morning on Friday. I was tired, but the time to read a book was huge. The excitement of things to come and getting quiet time to read kept me awake I brought a book with me and sat plowing through pages.

I read a lot during the two and a half hours to the conference. Then, the activities of the weekend drained me. Coming home, I read a bit more, but before I knew it I could not keep my eyes focused on the words in front of me. It was nothing to do with the book and all to do with a weekend of little sleep. I dozed for a shot time and then pulled my computer out to get a little blogging done.

Now that I am back and getting energized, I can not wait to finish reading Envy, the first book in Gregg Olsen’s Empty Coffin Series. There are so many topics within the book that will be great to discuss thanks to cyber bullying being a part of the novel. Here is a teaser with the book trailer from Sterling Publishing:

More about the book:

Murder is such a dirty word…
New York Times bestselling adult true crime author Gregg Olsen makes his YA debut with EMPTY COFFIN, a gripping new fiction series for teens based on ripped-from-the-headlines stories…with a paranormal touch.
Crime lives–and dies–in the deceptively picture-perfect town of Port Gamble (aka “Empty Coffin”), Washington. Evil lurks and strange things happen–and 15-year-olds Hayley and Taylor Ryan secretly use their wits and their telepathic “twin-sense” to uncover the truth about the town’s victims and culprits.

Envy, the series debut, involves the mysterious death of the twins’ old friend, Katelyn. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Hayley and Taylor are determined to find out–and as they investigate, they stumble upon a dark truth that is far more disturbing than they ever could have imagined.

Based on the shocking true crime about cyber-bullying, Envy will take you to the edge–and push you right over.

On that note, I am off to find some time to catch back up and finish this book which has me on the edge of my seat. The frightening truth about online anonymity is exposed right from the start of this series.

Of course, since this is Tuesday Tales, I must ask the usual question. What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Sterling Publishing in order to facilitate a review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed are my own.

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Tuesday Tales – It’s Challah Time!

Posted on September 20, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

Have you ever had challah? You may not have had it plain, but chances are that you may have been served challah french toast. Here’s a slice of challah that we had while on the road the other day.

Each Friday at nursery school, JSL and his classmates celebrate Shabbat. We bring in money to donate to others, food for the food pantry, and they have a Shabbat table. Last week, JSL’s new class made a new tablecloth to place with each of their handprints and names for this year. In addition to this, a girl and boy are selected to be the Ima (mother) and Abba (father) to help do the Shabbat duties. On the first Friday, JSL was Abba and so thrilled to do this special task. This is what the table looked like last year:

Shabbat is special and thanks to this, we have a book that JSL received last year from Kar Ben Publishing.

It’s Challah Time! uses photos of preschool aged children in a classroom setting. Together, the children (with adult supervision) are making challah for their Shabbat celebration. The easy to follow steps and large clear photos take you along the journey of making a delicious challah of your own. As a child, my favorite part of making challah was getting the chance to braid the dough before it was baked in the oven.

The book also shows the kids participating in traditional Shabbat activities. They read stories together, sing with the Cantor, and set the Shabbat table to get ready for their weekly celebration. Then, they show the challah cover over their special bread, candles, and grape juice. When it is time to light the candles, all of the kids participate together and share the experience.

Celebrating Shabbat is important to keeping our Jewish traditions alive. It’s Challah Time! does a fantastic time of keeping this alive with kids and also shares a recipe at the end so you can make challah making memories at home with your children. I know this is a book that JSL and NHL will both enjoy and remember thanks to the fantastic preschool times they have had in their own classrooms and at home with our family.

Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Kar-Ben Publishing in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own.

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Tuesday Tales – The Reading Ultimatum

Posted on September 13, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

We are now into the second week of school here. Over the summer, I made sure that NHL read books while playing outside, going to events at the library, and other items in the community. Of course, something else happened over the summer. My nearly eight year old son became a gamer. If we would allow him to spend the entire day playing Nintendo Wii and/or his Nintendo DS – he probably would.

This became worse after NHL’s birthday in mid August. You see, NHL received a game for his DS that he HAD to finish. Day and night we heard about this game on the bottom of the picture.

Yes, my kiddo was really into Harry Potter in this format. Of course, I am hoping that we can translate his intrigue of Snape, Voldemort, and Hermione into the books. I would love to read them with NHL since it has been a long time since I started the series.

Now that school is back in session, NHL’s time outside of school is limited. He has Hebrew School obligations that are also taking up two days a week. Thanks to this, reading seems to have taken a major step back. As a reading teacher, I am not happy with this. So last night, when NHL would not come up for air from his Nintendo DS, I came up with a new system. Once NHL is finished with his homework, has gotten some play time outside (or Wii Sports when it’s cold/rainy), he must read one of his books to earn gaming.

Just one day in and NHL seems to get this new system. He woke up this morning and curled up on the couch with his book. Monday evening before heading to an appointment, he sat down with his Phineas and Ferb book and tallied up some more reading. Although early in the game, I do believe this may work well.

Have you ever had to do a reading system with your child to swap out for another item that they would prefer to do? I would love to hear any of your experiences.

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Tuesday Tales – Bad Kitty and the Reluctant Reader

Posted on August 30, 2011 12:00 am by Kileigh7

Tuesday Tales

I have a struggling, reluctant reader. He seems to have better things to do with his time than read a book. When it’s time to sit down and read a book, he will do things like

Announce it is time to have "Guinea pig time"
find one of our cats to go "love" (Read: maul.)
build with Legos
find my old Game Boy Advance and play a round of some random old game and ask me for tips.
Anything he can do to avoid reading a book. Of any kind.

So, thus far, my motto has been "If he’ll read it, I don’t care." And we have had very, very little luck picking a book that will keep him interested long enough to actually work on reading skills past looking at the pictures. A few months ago, I was at a book fair and came across a book that I had heard about and never really dug into. This was for no other reason than I had been reading other things. I found this:

I figured a cat that looked like one of ours, doing insane things would at least get the Shrimp’s attention.

WARNING TO ALL WHO HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK BEFORE please pre read this book, as you will not be able to share this book with your child without laughing hysterically .

The initial Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel is what seems like a simple ABC book where Bad Kitty runs out of her favorite foods and her owners try to feed her healthy foods. That goes nowhere well, as Bad Kitty does things that are just so naughty-like tip over her litter box in protest. This book had us in giggles until it hurt. Isaac tried to read some of the words himself without prompting, which was new to us! So, since this book was such a huge hit, I figured I’d try to find more in the same vein. Whoah. Wait. There are MORE in the Bad Kitty series? Wait. They are CHAPTER BOOKS?! Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Our next stop was at the library to test these out. We found this:

Isaac immediately asked to check it out and if we could read it when we got home. We read it through in a matter of two days. It was one of the most reading heavy weeks we’ve had since the real reading instruction started!

The book is picture heavy, yet still full of words that are decodable. The chapters are short, and have produced a serious sense of accomplishment with Isaac, because he can read two chapters in a night. Then, there’s the fun factor. The pictures and the type are just a real joy to read. They engaged Isaac quickly and kept him going through the book. He loved the search for Kitty to get her into the tub.

These books are my favorite for reluctant readers. The vocabulary is not intimidating, the pictures help when the reader is a bit lost in the emotion of the story, and Bad Kitty-she’s just funny. It is the only series of books that have us running back to the library for more.

Now, please excuse me. I need to go listen to Isaac read Bad Kitty Vs. Uncle Murray and try not to spit soda out of my nose and ruin the library book.

Check out the video trailer here for the series. Classic!

Laura is a mom, teacher, knitter and a former Disneyland (ANAHEIM!!) cast member with a penchant for Star Wars. She always wanted to be a Jedi when she grew up. Come visit her at My 3 Ring Circus of a Life, where she details all of the stuff she can’t make up.

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Tuesday Tales – Finding Time to Read

Posted on August 23, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

When I was teaching, I was always reading books. Time was spent keeping up on school related items, reading trade books that my students were interested in, and of course reading books for lesson planning. During that period of my life, I rarely had time to read books for pleasure. Yes, I enjoyed the books I was reading – but let’s be honest it was not my first choice.

From the moment my kids were born, books were a huge part of their lives. We have a rather large collection of books. There are books in the book case upstairs, books overflowing in the small book case in the boys room, books all over the living room, and a pile of books next to my bed. Yes, there is rarely a place you go in our house without seeing reading material of some kind.

NHL is now able to read books on his own. This summer was huge for him since he has learned to like tackling chapter books with independent reading. Of course, I can not read all of the books that he is, but try to catch up on some of them to be able to chat with him and ask questions. My dream is to begin a family read aloud of the Harry Potter series since NHL is getting into them. Although NHL loves to read, time becomes an issue. As school begins, time will be crunched even more. I believe once homework is accomplished, reading will be needed to earn time for gaming. I think I will be working on a chart to keep track of this since it will make more sense to him.

JSL adores sitting and “reading” books on his own. He loves to pull out a pile of picture books from our library and sit on the couch to have someone read to him. NHL, TechyDad, and I all read to him and he adores this special time with each of us. At 4, he really wants to learn to read and we are going to work on pre-reading skills at home in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks to reading with the kids so much, I still am balancing the art of reading books for me. During the day, it is hard with work that has to get done. At night, I find that if I settle into bed to read – sleep seems to catch me.

So fess up, how do you find time to read things that you enjoy?