Author: Cindy

Fourth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge

Posted on by Cindy


I recently saw this posted and had to check it out, Mother Reader (Pam)is hosting this great 48 Hour Book Challenge. This is the fourth year.

Its happening the weekend of June 5th. If you are interested you can check out Mother Reader’s blog for details and you can sign up there as well. I know I won’t be able to stay awake and will end up sleeping and having to do things during the weekend but I thought I would commit to giving as much as I possibly can. I am going to start the Friday the 5th at 7am and I will wrap it up on Monday the 8th at 7am.

I have several YA books that I have received and/or borrowed from the library that I will be reading that weekend and I think they will fit in perfectly for this book challenge. I have been thinking about it and for every book I read I will be making a donation to a local volunteer organization called Born to Read.

Born to Read provides training, books and support to child care workers, volunteers and parents. The Volunteers work to ensure that children have books and are being read to aloud from an early age and that they begin school excited about books and are ready to learn.

Research has shown that children who participate in reading activities for at least 15 minutes each day from birth will succeed in school with higher levels of language development, personal, social and conceptual growth.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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Happy Victoria Day

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Here in Canada its Victoria Day. The only exception is that here in Quebec its called Patriots’ National Day. We are a special province that likes to do things differently as you may have noticed.

National Patriots’ Day (in French: Journée nationale des Patriotes) is a statutory holiday observed annually in the Canadian province of Quebec, on the Monday preceding 25 May. The holiday was instated by the Government of Quebec in 2003, according to the then Premier of Quebec Bernard Landry: “to underline the importance of the struggle of the patriots of 1837 – 1838 for the national recognition of our people, for its political liberty and to obtain a democratic system of government.” Before 2003, the Monday preceding 25 May of each year was the Fête de Dollard, a commemoration initiated in the 1920s to coincide with Victoria Day, which is a federal holiday occurring annually on the same date.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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Bradley McGogg The Very Fine Frog Review

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PUB DATE: March 2009

Thanks to Tundra Books and Sylvia for sending this book to us.

This was another cute book that Michael enjoyed listening too.

The book is about a lazy frog named Bradley who lives in log. This has been the frogs home since he was a polliwog. One hot summer day Bradley looks in the mirror to see he is wasting away. He is hungry. He went to his cupboard but there was no food. He has no idea where the food all went.

He decided that he has new neighbors that he should meet and he decides he will ask them for food. The first person he sees is Miss Mouse. He asks her for food and says he will pay her tomorrow. They go into the house and all she has is cheese with chives and peppercorn and rye crackers. Bradley is disgusted by what he sees and leaves. The next neighbor he meets his Herr Bear and Herr Hare. The offer Bradley carrots in honey. Of course Bradley doesn’t like that either. Bradley spot a cow and was watching her eat the grass. He walked right by without stopping. He goes back home hungry. When he enters his house he is happy there is all kinds of bugs. A frogs favorite food. He feasted on bugs whiling thinking about the strange things the animals ate.

Michael actually thought that the other animals are pretty good stuff and that the frog ate gross things and that he would be disgusted to eat bugs.

If you would like to order a copy for yourself you can go here to order it http://www.tundrabooks.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780887768644

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

A Wizard in Love Review

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PUB DATE: Feb 2009

AGE RANGE: 4 and up

Thanks to Tundra Books and Sylvia for sending this book to us.

This is a cute book that we both loved reading together. The story was really cute and the illustrations were well done.

The story is about Hector a retired wizard. He is living happily in a run down house at the end of the forest. He is a lazy wizard who naps and stays away from contact with people except his cat Poison. When they aren’t napping they are watching tv and eating cookies.

Then one morning everything comes to a halt when a noisy neighbor moves in next door. He pulls open the shutters and sees that the house across the street is all spruced up. He goes over and peeks into the window. He spots a beautiful woman singing as she plays the piano. This makes Hector angry.

Hector rushes back home to his attic for his magic spell book. Hector and Poison cook an “evil cake” to get rid of her. The cake looks really gross in the picture. Hector arranges the cake on a platter and he picks a handful of flesh eating flowers.

Hector heads across the street but Hector’s plan falls when the neighbor answers the door. Her name is Isobel and she has a beautiful voice. Her voice is described as “It was clear as water in a babbling brook and gay as a song of a bird.” Hector was no longer angry. He was in love.

It was great to see the change in the illustrations. At the beginning they were dark and Hector appeared dirty and grumpy and as the story went on the images got brighter and Hector appeared happy and clean looking.

If you would like to order the book you can go through here: http://www.tundrabooks.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780887769016

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

I love Chocolate Review

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PUB DATE: Feb 2009

I have to thank Tundra Books and Sylvia for sending this book to me.

I knew that Michael would love this book. I was right. Michael said the story is about him.

The book is about a little boy who loves chocolates and I mean he LOVES chocolate. The book talks about the different kinds of chocolate (milk, semi sweet)and the varities of chocolate (caramel, almond). Its mentioned that chocolate can make you feel better when you have a bad day or need cheering up. Chocolates are used in celebrations such as making a new friend, in love, when you get hurt or when you are sad. Isn’t that true? When we are sad that is the first thing most people go for and when we celebrate we use chocolate.

This is a great book that leads to discussions with your child. It asks what’s your chocolate eating style? Are you a dainty chocolate dabbler or a monster muncher? Are you a messy chocolate musher or a neat nibbler? It also asks how do you eat chocolate do you eat it by the handful or one at a time? Michael said he was a monster muncher and depending what kind of chocolate it is he will eat either by the handful or one at a time.

Our favorite part was “Why do I love chocolate? Because it makes my mouth happy, my tummy happy and my heart happy.”

The book is well written. The illustrations are done very well and there is alot of brown used I guess its to emphasis the chocolate theme.

The only thing after reading the book it makes you want some chocolate. So be warn before reading this book make sure you have some chocolate on hand.

When we opened the book we realized that the dust jacket had pictures on the back of the book. I am not sure if this is just a Tundra Book thing but I thought that was really cute thing to do.

For ordering you can go here: http://www.tundrabooks.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780887769122#desc

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

The Boy Who Loved Words Review

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PUB DATE: March 2006

This was on the new release section of our library. When I picked up the book I thought it might be a good book.

The age range is 4 to 8. Michael wasn’t sure about this book. He thought it was a little long for him. I could see about half way that he was loosing interest in the book. He asked alot of questions about the words that were used such as: predilection, exultant, melliflvous, djinn, and tintinnabulating and what they meant. At one point he looked at me and said “Mommy why can’t they just say that instead of using that word?”

Its a cute story about words. Selig (the boy in the story, with the nickname Wordsworth) collects words and writes them down. The words he collects are ones that stir his heart (Mama!) and ones that make him laugh (giggle). When he is faced with having too many words he wonders what to do with so many words? One night a djinn comes to him in a dream. The djinn tells Selig that he has to find his purpose and Selig decides to leave to find his purpose. He spends the night in a tree and is awaken to the sounds of his words. Its a poet who is stuck in writting a poem. Selig doesn’t realize it at first but his words have helped a poet find the perfect words for his poem (lozenge, lemon, and licorice). Selig figures it out, he discovers that his purpose is to spread the word to others. Selig begins to sprinkle, disburse, and broadcast them to people in need. In the end, years later when Selig is older and lonely Selig hears a marvelous sound in the breeze. He follows the sound and comes upon a young woman playing a lute. He asks her name, Melody. It was love at first listen.

So if one day you happen to think, write or even talk and that perfect word just happens to come to you just remember that Selig is near. If you happen to hum or suddenly burst into a song for no reason then perhaps Melody is near by too.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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Books Bought Meme #5

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This was the only book bought this week. Its technically a Mother’s Day gift. The reason I got the book is because the last week of May, Lori will be at a local bookstore promoting the book. I only dicovered this author about two – three weeks ago from Donna. She is a local author and this is her 5th young adult book she has written. Check back the last week of May when I will be doing a Lori Weber week. Filled with reviews of all the books, possible pictures and meeting her.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.