We’ve been listening to Crunch, in the car, for weeks – and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s also made both of us wish we had bicycles. We might just have to get a couple for Christmas. (Not that we can ride them at Christmas. Gah! But at least we’ll be prepared when the gas stops flowing…)
There was one tiny little problem with Crunch – the kids were too good. Even when they were fighting with each other (which was rare) they were just too perfect.
People in my house kept asking me if I was reading a book about a hippo. Or why I was reading a book about a hippo. Or why was that hippo DEAD? I don’t think I’ve gotten as many questions about a book, from a cover, in ages. Which means – Belly Up had an excellent cover.
These discussions also led me to realize I don’t read many middle grade mysteries. It’s always scifi/fantasy. Or relationship-y stuff.
Belly Up was good and deserved a place on the Cybils shortlist. A little slow to start but I really liked Teddy and I liked that he was an animal expert and adults should listen to kids more often.
I knew going in that I Now Pronounce You Someone Else was not going to be my favorite YA book on the shortlist. And as expected, I did not love it. But – I did not hate it nearly as much as I thought. There was good stuff in there. Some pretty funny parts. Some very sweet parts. Some sad parts. Some serious anger-inducing parts.
Not bad for a book about a teen girl who plans to get married in order to get the life and family she didn’t have.
I Now Pronounce You Someone Else Read More »
I’m digging into the poetry category and back into the YA category from the Cybils shortlist. I’m nonplussed about both categories so far, which is troubling.
First, Split. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it. Christian seemed wrong to me but not as wrong as both Miriam and Dakota seemed. The women in Jace’s new life seemed almost too perfect and too good, though the author tried to make sure that we understood neither was like Jace’s mom or like Lauren. Still. I don’t know. Miriam before she got to know about all of Jace’s problems seemed a little over the top, then once she found out the entire story, she seemed to willing to dig her heels in for the long haul. It just seemed – backwards and not as realistic as I’d hoped. The most troubling thing here – this was the YA winner. Darn. Maybe it’s just me?
Then Ubiquitous – great title for a children’s poetry book. Nice pictures. Good idea. The poetry left me bored while I enjoyed the facts about all of the ubiquitous creatures. For a poetry book, the poetry shouldn’t leave you bored. Kids have a hard enough time getting in to poetry to start with.
Next comes Scarum Fair – loved it. Loved the artwork. Loved the poetry. Loved the idea. Not for kids who scare easily but for kids who like ghoulish make believe – fabulous. Love, love, love.
Three Cybils – One Yay! One Nay! One In Between! Read More »
I was not sure I’d like How to Be An American Housewife but I did. I liked it a lot. What’s surprising is that I even liked the ending. (I would also like to read a handbook “like” the one Shoko used to help her learn how to be an American Housewife.)
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It’s wrong of me to sit here thinking about how I might convince Duncan to bark. Just once. But I’ll admit it. I’ve thought about trying it (sort of how you might think of ways to corrupt an angelic three year old by teaching her to say bullshit…) A dog that doesn’t bark is weird. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. I like it a lot. I’d like it better if I knew she could bark and was simply choosing not to. Which could be possible. She’s a very good dog, after all. Still. I just don’t know. And it’s weird.
And very unlike all of the other dogs I’ve had.
Hell. This dog slept through the dude cutting the grass today. When she finally realized he was here, she went to the porch and just looked at him and looked at me. And that was that.
What kind of dog does that? (Not TW’s mom’s dog, that’s for sure.)
In the morning, she goes out for her sniff (yes she’s really just sniffing the bush), waits til I fix her breakfast – though she is happy to lick the dog and cat food can while I fix it (and my coffee). She wolfs down her breakfast, drinks most of her water, grabs her tin cans and licks those for a bit and only if I say “Duncan, let’s go outside” and walk to the back door does she think about peeing.
Weird dog. I wonder if I can get her to pee on the floor, too. (Kidding, just kidding. Sort of.)
When she carries in the paper or the mail she doesn’t even really slobber on it very much (though on Sunday she did get the Smartsource a little drooly which was weird because she hadn’t drooled on any other piece of mail and hasn’t since. Maybe she was just really excited about the coupons?)
What kind of dog carries in the mail or the paper and doesn’t drool on it?
She doesn’t beg for food, though she will happily come and take it if you offer it to her.
She stands at the open door and waits for you to tell her she can go.
She does NOT walk on the left side like I was told she did but who the hell cares since she also doesn’t jerk my damn arm out of the socket when she’s on the leash.
When she’s in the car, she stays IN the back where she’s supposed to.
What the hell kind of dog does is this?
A mutant dog. She’s cute though. And I like her more than the dogs in Love at First Bark. If TW could find me a dog like Duncan… she could have a dog.
Dogs That Don’t Bark Read More »
This was not my favorite middle grade scifi/fantasy but it wasn’t bad either. I can see why Fever Crumb made it to the Cybils Shortlist but if there’s a sequel. London far in the future is kind of amusing, mostly because of the small twists language has taken. The only real problem with this book was that I didn’t end up loving Fever Crumb. I liked her well enough but I think I might have liked poor Charley better.
I knew I needed to rip some extra pages out of the book, in order to help take the stress off of the binding, and normally would have done that before any other step. But… ripping out pages was not something I could just sit down and do. Not even with this book that I’ve spent so many years hating.
I decided to started slowly. First strip the title. Then get some color on the pages. Make it less THAT book and more MY book. I think that was a smart idea because ripping out the pages was easy. Mindless. And, every now and then – I’ll admit it – fun.
As I ripped, I’d see words and phrases that ticked me off all over again. Altering book is exactly the right thing for me to do. I’m enjoying it. Every second of it. (And isn’t it funny that I’ve started this project during Banned Book Week?)
So here’s where I am now. The book has a new title. A little less than half of the pages have been ripped out, (I’ll be using some of these pages within the project), I’ve played with chalk, oil, acrylic, water color pencils and with gluing pages together. I’ve glued about ten pages together because I’m planning a cut out section (thus the mermaid in the shot above.) I think ten pages isn’t enough and I’ll probably have to glue another ten to get the look I want. For now, I’ve got it rubber banded to help keep the pages together as the glue dries. Tomorrow, I’ll see how it looks and glue some more… then it will be time for gesso – that will be awesome.
Altered Book Project – Step 3: Back Up Read More »
Michelle-belle is a big Kelly Cutrone fan. I can take her or leave her. I mean, she’s ok – smart, strong, talented. I like that. I just find her a little… much. I’m a fan of “freaks” and normal can be so boring – unless you’re part of a family full of freaks which means normal IS freaky. Heh.
The most interesting thing about Normal Gets You Nowhere is that it caused me to think of some really weird things like… how come there are no male supermodels? (patriarchy, duh) And just how do you define “supermodel”? (I spent a lot of time reading about supermodels last night just because of of Kelly Cutrone.) Also, might I suggest Kelly Cutrone check out Scarleteen for future reference or when a waiter’s daughter asks her how to give a handjob.
Normal Gets You Nowhere Read More »
I bought a bunch of new art supplies a year ago because I wanted to try and push myself into starting this project once and for all… and the supplies sat in a plastic bin on one of the Billy bookshelves right behind me all year long. Every now and then a kid would reach for the bin and I would use the Denise voice to get her to back off of my stuff.
When I opened the bin yesterday, I was surprised to see that I had not bought any watercolors. I had watercolor pencils (which are fabulous, of course) but no tube or cake watercolors. Disappointing. I poked around in Elly’s room to see if I could find a couple of tubes to borrow for a couple of days – no luck.
So, I started with what I have right now. Watercolor pencils and acrylics first. (Chalk and oils next, maybe.)
It’s been a very long time since I played with any craft supplies so all I did was splash and spread and get the feel of the paper with the brushes (and my fingers) and the products.
I did glue a couple of pages together to see if that’s going to be necessary more often than not. I used some weird scrapbooking glue stick – so far, it looks like the adhesive is going to hold up but we’ll see since I did use watercolor pencils on those pages and when you use watercolors… you use… water. (I know that shocks some of you.)
Notice the you can still see the original text underneath the watercolor pencil pages. That’s ok. The page isn’t done and I’ll want some text to be just barely visible so the message I’m hiding is obviously being hidden. That’s really part of the point of this particular altered book project – to get a glimpse of the “original message”. On some pages I’ll be manipulating the original message to tell the story I want to tell… but I’m getting ahead of myself, way ahead of myself.
At least I’ve started and it didn’t hurt a bit.
Altered Book Project — Step 2: Get Some Color on Some Pages Read More »