Book Nook - Roald Dahl

When I was a kid, I loved Roald Dahl's books, particularly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Recently, I've been wanting to read longer stories to the Bachsters (instead of just picture books) so naturally, I've looked to some of Dahl's books because I know how magical they are for kids.

The first Roald Dahl selection I read to the Bachsters was my favorite, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  In the story, a young boy named Charlie Bucket dreams of winning one of 5 golden tickets to gain admission into the town's mysterious chocolate factory owned by the equally mysterious Willy Wonka.  Charlie's family is incredibly poor, so Charlie won't have many chances to try to win.  By a wonderful coincidence, or luck or magic or maybe even fate, Charlie finds a dollar bill beneath the snow.  He buys a chocolate bar at a nearby store and gobbles it down, as he is so starved.  And good thing his stomach is making the decisions right then, because after he buys a second chocolate bar, on a whim, things start to look up for Charlie.

The tour of the factory with Willy Wonka has many surprises in store for Charlie and the 4 other golden ticket winners (who are all spoiled and selfish - except for Charlie, of course).  One by one, the other children are kicked off the tour and then it's just Charlie (accompanied by his Grandpa) left.  Even more incredible surprises are yet in store for our hero.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read to the Bachsters, and they just loved it!  At one point in time, my oldest actually got up & started to dance a little jig, she was so excited by the story.  Every night, they beseeched, "one more chapter, please, pleeeaaase."  And the best part?  As soon as we finished the book, they wanted to start reading it again!

And of course, they read it themselves between our nightly readings:

 
Since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was such a success, I thought we'd try another Dahl favorite, James and the Giant Peach.

In the story, James Henry Trotter loses his parents in an unfortunate accident involving a rhinoceros.  He goes to live with his Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker.  These two women are terrible to James - "they were selfish and lazy and cruel, and right from the beginning they started beating poor James for almost no reason at all."  Despite his horrible circumstances, James manages to stay upbeat and hopeful, his only desire to go to the beach and play with other children.  One day, a mysterious man approaches James and gives him a bag of magical squiggly things (yeah, I had to have a conversation with the kids to never trust mysterious men, even though it works out ok in this story).  Anyway, James accidentally drops the bag under the peach tree, and magical things start to happen.  James finds himself on a wild adventure with a huge Ladybug, Old Green Grasshopper, Earthworm, Centipede, Spider, Glow Worm & Silk Worm, all on top of a ginormous peach.

The Bachsters loved this story as well.  Every night, I was bombarded with the request for one more chapter.  They were fascinated by the story of James and all his new, quirky friends and their adventures with the sharks and the Cloud Men and the new, foreign city.  The pace of the story was just right and Dahl's witty writing made us all want to stay up a little late, reading more.  The other day, my 5-year-old said, out of the blue,  "I love James and the Giant Peach."  We all agree!

If your kids are at the stage where they are ready for something lengthier than picture books, I recommend these stories by Roald Dahl.  They are beloved classics.

By the way, here is the link for my post on Fantastic Mr. Fox, also by Roald Dahl.

Cheryl

Forsythia

Three snows after the forsythia bloom

-Old Wives Tale

My neighbor told me that old wives tale the other day when we were outside chatting, and I really hope it's not true! 

Hope you are having a nice Spring-y weekend!

Cheryl

Knitting - Past, Present & Future

I haven't posted much about my knitting lately & one of the reasons for that is I've been in a knitting rut.  But in the last couple of days, I've been motivated to pick up the needles again & plow through some of my projects.

First, I wanted to share a project from the past.  I've been working on updating my Ravelry project page.  There are a bunch of finished projects that I want to post on my project page, but I just haven't put them on yet.  One of the reasons for this is that, for some crazy reason, I never photographed my Finished Objects in my early days of knitting.  I used to think that there was no reason to photograph them, they would always be hanging around the house, right?  Well, I've since come to my senses and now I photograph everything, usually over the course of 2 or 3 photoshoots!  I've gone from one extreme to the other!  But I now know that FOs get lost, or they are gifted to someone, or they look ragged over time.  So, now I'm prone to over-photographing them.

Anyway, I've been meaning to add this little ladybug hat to my Ravelry page &  I finally did so today.  I made the hat in 2008 (I think.....I'm having a hard time remembering that exactly - nowadays, I take better project notes, too) for my daughter's birthday.  I've always loved the look of it & my DD loves it, too!  Here's the link to my project page if you're a Ravelry member, for more pics & notes.

Recently, I've had a project on the needles that has been there for a couple of months, just stagnating.  I realized that I would need to frog (knit speak for rip out) a great deal of work.  I was really procrastinating on frogging it, just to rebel against something that I really didn't want to do.  Finally I mustered up the courage and....made the Bach Girls rip it out for me!  Actually, they had a lot of fun doing it & it made the frogging less painful for me.

I'm happy to say that, despite the setback of the frogging, I'm back on track & making good progress! 

Finally, my future knitting project.  The yarn has been chosen (Cascade 220 - I love that yarn) and I've got it in balls, ready to go.  I've plotted my course of action.  I think the only thing that has been holding me back on this project is uncertainty about the colors (I couldn't figure out if those were just the right browns) but I think I've chosen the colors well & plan to cast on in the next couple of days.  I'm going to keep this one secret for a while, so I can't tell you any details, other than it's going to be so amazingly cool!  I can't wait to show you - and I will!!!  But for now, just a peek at the yarn:

I promise to keep you posted on all my knitting endeavors!

Cheryl

Book Nook - First Grave on the Right

Can't-Put-It-Down books are both a blessing and a curse.  Laundry sulks.  Tumbleweeds blow across a sink full of dirty dishes.  Toy Story 3 plays a great deal of the day.  And yet, there is an upside: a great book that you can devour in a short period of time.  Your household will thank you for that last detail.

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones is such a book.  A quick & fun read that will have you skirting all your responsibilities.  In the story, Private Investigator Charley Davidson is the actual grim reaper.  Newly departed souls need to go through her (she's beaming & sparkly in their eyes) in order to get through her portal to that great big party in the sky.  Actually, most dead people just go straight to the party; those that are murdered are especially in need of Charley's services.  This helps her Uncle Bob, detective for the Albuquerque Police Department, a great deal since she can actually talk to the murdered person and get all the details.  Charley and Uncle Bob are drawn into a case involving 3 murdered lawyers, a murdered informant, an innocent man in prison, his missing nephew & a slew of bad guys.  In the mix are some humans like Charley's maternal, caring assistant Cookie, who has the incredible talent of suspending disbelief; there are the dead, like Aunt Lillian who thinks she is making a mean cup of coffee; and then there's Reyes, a supernatural being who wisps in and out of Charley's life.

Reading this book, I couldn't help but think of the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlene Harris.  Let's look at some of the similarities, shall we?
-Both Charley and Sookie are real lookers, bosomy & have every non-related male wanting her
-Both are sassy, call-it-like-it-is, fearless to the point of stupidity, & compassionate
-Both Charley and Sookie have a supernatural talent (the former is able to see and talk to dead people and has the ability to take a beating better than the average human; the latter is telepathic and can heal faster than the average human - with some help from her vampire friends)
-Both endure repetitive butt-kickings that would send any other mortal to the hospital - or the morgue.  But they both wake up the next day, ready for more!
-Both have many steamy scenes with their supernatural paramours
-Both are involved in overly complicated plots
-Both tend bar (although in Charley's case, it's a mere mention in the story)
-In both stories, knitting proves to be a deadly hobby (although this happens later in the Sookie series)


I'll stop there.  You get the point how closely related these characters and books are.  Which, if you liked the Sookie Stackhouse series, you will probably really like this one, too.  However, these similarities drove me a little crazy after a while.  I really hope if Darynda Jones has a second book about Charley Davidson, it's not set in Dallas with Sookie (I mean Charley) and Bill (I mean Reyes) battling an anti-vampire cult (I mean an anti-grim reaper cult).  Just sayin'.

Anyway, I will say there were a couple more tiny things that bugged me about the book.  One, Jones' descriptions of heaven & hell are incredibly stereotypical.  I would have loved if the inventive idea of the female grim reaper had translated to the afterlife as well.  I would have loved to see something like "Beetlejuice" for instance.  But no, heaven in this book is a bright place above where you get to hang out with all your friends.  Hell is not as well defined, but there are gates, it's dark, down a tunnel and bad.

My second little nitpick is that Charley's character is bestowed with a lot of sass, but it ends up being too much of a good thing.  I found several instances where I was quickly trying to read through all the snide comments just to get back into the dialogue.  It was laid on a little too thick, especially in the first half of the book.

But I'm making it sound like I don't like the book & that's not true.  I really enjoyed it - it's a fast paced, funny, can't-put-it-down chick-lit read.  But now that I'm finished with the book & writing about it, I guess its flaws (and those neglected dishes) have come to my attention.

Cheryl

The search for salamanders continues

One of my photography goals this year is to get a good shot of a salamander.  This will be easier said than done, as they are shy, elusive, nocturnal amphibians.  Some kinds burrow deep in the ground for most of the year.  A few weeks ago, I attended a program about vernal pools (see the post here) and learned all about salamanders - and how difficult they can be to find!  But, I'm not ready to throw in the towel quite yet, so I attended a program yesterday at one of Columbus' Metro Parks in hopes of finding salamanders.

The Bachsters came with me & unfortunately, I forgot to bring them hats and gloves!  I was so concerned about the looming rain clouds that I didn't think about the temperature.  It was supposed to be in the 50s, but when we got to the park it was only in the low 40s.  The kids ended up taking turns wearing the only hat I brought....mine!  To make matters worse, my oldest daughter was complaining about her boots before we left, so I let her wear her school shoes.  Did I mention that this program took us off-trail to the park's vernal pool?  Cold and wet.  Yeah, I really earned the Mom Of The Year Award on this excursion!

The only salamander we saw all day was the captive one the park naturalist showed us before we left for the vernal pool:

  
Here's Little Dude, ready to embark on our adventure, not knowing the off-trail dangers that lie ahead (but looking a little apprehensive all the same):

I learned three important lesson from the program: first, off-trail + Bachsters just do not mix.  There were tons of logs, sticks, twig bushes & pools of water we had to cross.  But the most challenging part was the sticker-bushes - they were everywhere, blocking our path like a bouncer at an exclusive club.  Navigating through them at kid level took real maneuvering - the kids would often have to back up, and go around the sticky situation they walked into.  The other important lesson I learned  is that my Bachsters are real troopers.  They complained a little when we were off-trail, but mostly they were just focused on the task at hand: navigating to the vernal pool, then finding our way back out to the trail.  And no one asked me to carry them, which was shocking!  The third lesson learned: the promise of hot chocolate upon our safe return home was very motivating, indeed.

Because of the cold temperatures, our guide gave us the gloomy prediction of few amphibian sightings.  And she was right: no one in the group found a salamander and only one little wood frog was found hanging out under a log:

 
My 5-year old found a little snail on a log as we were leaving the vernal pool.  She was so thrilled to have found something, even though it wasn't the salamander that she was hoping for:

In all, it was cold.  It was wet.  It rained on us a little bit.  Little feet got water in their boots & shoes.  Little pants were poked by sticker bushes.  But my kids got to see a vernal pool and poke around in it.  They got to experience working their way though dense bushes and twigs, just like forests are in their natural state.  And making this Mama very proud, they revealed that they are open to new challenges that arise. 

And the hot chocolate that I promised them?  A very warm & satisfying end to our adventure.

Cheryl

Book Nook - Life of Pi

Life of Pi written by Yann Martel.

Wow!  I just finished reading this book and it is amazing.  I loved it!  It's smart, profound, witty, surprising.  It's the kind of book you think about long after you've set it down.  It's the kind of book that makes you want to re-read it immediately.  It's the kind of book that turns your reading experience upside down.  It's the kind of book that is open to many interpretations.  It's the kind of book that makes you grateful for life & what you may have in life.  It's the kind of book that makes you question everything.

Yes.........it's that good.

Please don't read anything about this book, if you are unfamiliar with it.  I will try to reveal nothing in my write up.  I think this one is best approached as a clean slate.  Allow yourself to be placed on the journey by the author.  The character's surprises will be your surprises.  His grief, hardships, joy and experiences will be yours, too.

I will tell you as much as is written on the back cover.  Pi Patel is a 16 year old boy who is the only survivor of a cargo ship sinking in the Pacific Ocean.  He is on a lifeboat with a 450 pound Bengal tiger (his family owned a zoo in Ponticherry, India and were in the process of moving to Canada when the ship sank).  That's all the information about the story I will give!

But I will tell you that Pi is an incredible narrator.  He is genuine, warm and truthful.  He is humble.  His ordeal at sea is an engrossing read and you will feel that you are right there with him.  I read my book on CD and the reader is also excellent.  When Pi says he can't go on talking about another character, it's too hard for him, the narrator on the CD audibly tears up.  I'm sure reading the paper version of the book is very satisfying, but I believe that listening to it on CD really enhanced the overall experience for me.  Pi is right there in the room with you - I had to set my knitting down on several occasions to give him my full attention.

One thing I would like to mention is that there are a couple of disturbing scenes.  So if you've got little ones, don't listen to the book on CD around them!  As I knew nothing about the book going in, I was caught off guard by these scenes, but they are integral to the story.

What I've written here really doesn't do the novel justice.  In fact, I've painted a picture of doom and gloom.  But it's really the opposite - Pi is such a personable character who has a wonderful way of looking and things and describing things, you can't help but connect with him.  To paraphrase one scene, he describes the sharks that regularly visit his raft as curmudgeonly old friends who wouldn't admit they liked him even though they always came around to visit.  It's a real testament to Yann Martel's talent as a writer that I love Pi so much - he is truly alive, as if he's really the one telling the story.  Martel is out of the scene all together.

There is one more thing I want to add & I hesitate to do so because it is really my only critique of the novel: it starts out slow.  I have had my copy of the book from the library for 2 or 3 months now because I just couldn't get into the story.  Give it time & stick with it.  The beginning chapters are quite mundane (even though we are getting to know Pi and his life and views) but perhaps that's the point: just when things seem pretty boring in life, a tragic event can happen to turn our world upside down.  And what we wouldn't give to be back in our normal houses and our normal lives, when we are lost at sea.

Cheryl

Earth Hour

This evening, the Bachsters and I participated in Earth Hour, where you turn off all your lights for one hour to "take a stand against global climate change."  We actually did it a couple of years back too & when I logged on to our computer this morning and saw that the annual event was tonight, well, we just had to participate!

We did ours a little early since I didn't want to put the kids to bed by candlelight.  We lit tons of candles (with our creme brulee torch!) and sat by the candles & played & talked.  It was really fun!

We also had fun-with-low-light-photography.....I told the Bachsters to move around & I would try to take a "ghost" shot.  This picture was the girls' favorite - they couldn't stop laughing when they saw it.  Rainbow Heads is what they called it - quite descriptive!

It's really amazing how one room lit only by candlelight brings everyone together in a dark house.  And once everything is turned off (TVs, computers, phones...) we come together as a family & just enjoy each other's company.  Along with the environmental aspects of it, Earth Hour should be an every day occurrence just for the fact that it makes for good family fun!

Cheryl