Flora and Ulysses is now a Newberry Medal Winner!

Wow!  What a coincidence! I blogged about Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures today, and it was just awarded the Newberry Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Children's Literature!  That's as good as it gets in Kid Lit.

Click here to read my review of Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

Make sure you check out the entire list of 2014 ALA award winning books.  You're sure to find something to love!

Click here to see the complete list of winners.

Distracted by Flora and Ulysses

Holy unanticipated occurrences!  Last week I was distracted from a good book (Peter and the Starcatchers) by a better book.  Okay, it wasn't unanticipated because it happens to me quite often, but that is Flora Buckman's favorite line from her favorite comic, which guides her when she discovers a squirrel with super powers.  Yes, you read that right.  A squirrel with super powers.  Bet you didn't anticipate that, did you!

In Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures there are many unanticipated occurrences and it all begins with a vacuum cleaner, a squirrel and a natural born cynic named Flora.  There is a wacky cast of characters including a self absorbed romance writer, an air head neighbor, an emotionally traumatized great-nephew next door and a sad, sad father.  They all tip toe right up to the line of being too wacky but only cross the line a little and in such silly ways I loved them for it.  In fact, I won't even try to give you a plot synopsis because honestly, it's a simple and predictable plot but a joy to read and discover on your own.

Kate DiCamillo books are always wonderful read alouds, but this one is just BEGGING for a dramatic reading.  I gave it to my brilliant eight year old for Christmas and we've had a terrific time either reading alone or together.  This is a great book for sitting close on the sofa so you can both see the pictures but leave plenty of room for dramatic gestures which you'll probably find necessary as you read.    The illuminations (illustrations) are basic yet expressive and they really enhance the humor.  Honestly, it's hard to capture the funny wonderfulness of Flora and Ulysses in a review.  You have to read it for yourself.  :)

Click here to learn more about Flora and Ulysses.

A Collection of Books about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights era.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and February is Black History Month. This is a natural time to focus on learning about our country 's Civil Rights movement. Because the Civil Rights era wasn't part of my mandated curriculum during my time as a teacher, I didn't really have time to delve into the subject. However, I do think it's a very important time in our history and found ways to incorporate it using children's books. At various times I used each of these titles in my classroom. Now as a SAHM I keep many of them on my kids' shelves. They have been good conversation starters and give my kids a window into a period of time that seems ancient. Of course there are many, many other wonderful books I have overlooked. If you have a favorite, please share it in the comments (or on Facebook, or twitter, or pinterest).

Click here to view my book list.

Share Books Sunday Two-fer Edition

It's #ShareBooksSunday! What are you reading today? My daughter stole my book last week, so I'm just now getting to read The Wednesday Wars (which I'm completely in love with) even though I shared it already. I also started reading Peter And The Starcatcher. While not as good as the play - which knocked my socks off at the Utah Shakespeare Festival last summer - it's still pretty entertaining and I will recommend it to my kids. 

Learn more about these books here and here.

#ShareBooksSunday - The Wednesday Wars Edition

Today is #ShareBooksSunday!  I'm curious about what you're reading.

I just picked up The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.  I've heard of this book here and there over the last few years but one of my friends from high school (who is a teacher) recently listed it as one of her top 10 favorite books.  I decided I need to read it, so here I am!  I'm only a few pages in, which means I don't have an opinion yet, but when I finish it I'll be sure top post a short review here.

Click here to learn more about The Wednesday Wars.

I'd love to know what you're reading!  You can comment here or look Lost Cat Books up on Facebook or simply send a tweet with the tag #ShareBooksSunday.

Share Books Sunday Week 2

It's Share Book Sunday!  What are you reading today?

I'm reading Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow.  So far I think it's excellent, but I've only read about a dozen pages.  I originally bought this book for my husband on a recommendation from Neil Gaiman.  My husband loved it, so I bought it for my brother.  He reads A LOT, and I usually like his recommendations so when he told me it was one of the best books he'd ever read I knew I had to read it, too.

Read more about The Long Tomorrow here.

Get your bedtime stories ready!

Click here to view a list of our bedtime stories.

It's National Sleep Day!  Of course you can't sleep without a bed time story.  I love bedtime stories, both with my kids and for myself.  My husband grumbles about the hour plus I spend getting the kids to bed at night, but I just love spending that time reading with them. I get to spend real time with them, sharing something I love with each one.  I usually read a separate story to each child, and I mostly let them choose the book.  I sometimes get tired of reading Magic Tree House or Rainbow Fairies books, but that's when I step in and say "I have a really good choice I want to read and when it's over you can choose the next book."

Right now I'm reading chapter books with my girls, and picture books with my son.  Actually, to be honest about last night, my eight year old read several books to my five year old.  She is an excellent reader - there's really nothing she's incapable of reading now - but she's decided she only wants to read aloud to people who are younger than her.  More directly, she doesn't want to read aloud to me.   The teacher in me knows it's still important for her fluency to read aloud though, so rather than letting her slide or fighting her over it, I ask her to read to her brother several times a week.  Last night she read the excellently hilarious Knuffle Bunny series, as well as several other wonderfully fun books from Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggy series.  She read for well over half an hour and her brother went to bed a happy boy.

When it was her turn for a story, I continued reading Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George.  We've been reading it for a few weeks now because between a vacation, two family birthdays and the holiday's, our bedtime stories have been unfortunately intermittent.  She's really enjoying the story of a magical castle and an attempted coup.  It's more of a real older kid book than she normally chooses (even though she reads on almost a 5th grade level, she's been choosing Junie B. Jones type books lately), so it's refreshing for me to read something with actual plot twists and intrigue.

For my 11 year old I continued reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  We started reading the Harry Potter books together when she was six, and at first we read one every summer.  Of course we reread the previous books before starting the new one, but at this point it means we're reading Harry Potter almost year round.  Neither of us is complaining though.  They are such rich, enjoyable stories, it's a great way to relax together at the end of the day.  (She is also a voracious reader and reads several other books on her own all the time.)

My own bedtime story was again Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half.  This is the perfect book if you only have snippets of time to read.  It's actually a collection of funny vignettes that are just right to read before I finally crawl between the sheets.  I look forward to having a bit more time to read more of it today.  Having a little chuckle throughout the day is always a good thing.

I hope you all have a good bedtime story, especially for today!

Lois Lowry's Brilliance

I truly love this quote from Lois Lowry's Newberry Award acceptance speech.  I grew up on a very rural farm, but my mind has travelled the world through books.  I found ideas that were foreign to my family or school experience.  I have been enriched in ways I can't even begin to count because of books. My world is a better place because I am a reader.

Click here to learn more about Lois Lowry.

Welcome to the Future?

Happy New Year!  It's 2014, and I woke thinking of all the dystopic futures writers like to imagine.  There is no shortage of books about perfect societies that are formed some time in humanity's future, but of course some are more memorable than others.  The series that sprang to mind this morning was Lois Lowry's The Giver Quartet.

Click here to learn more about The Giver

I hesitate to tell even a bit of the details of these books because the revelation of secrets is so key to their stories. Suffice it to say Lowry uses these stories to examine the idea that people may sacrifice their humanity for safety's sake. Choice for security. Is the danger that comes with freedom worth it?  The Giver (and it's three accompanying books) are not for very young readers, but as a teacher I used them with my sixth graders and would find them generally appropriate for 4th grade on up if accompanied by discussion opportunities. They are a great springboard into conversations about liberty vs. safety and sacrificing self for society. Of course I also recommend them to adult readers because they are excellently written and thought provoking on a whole new level in a more mature mind.  Though written as companion books, each one is satisfying on it's own.  You can find links for all four books in the series below.