Spring Snow and Historical Newbery Winners

Ack, it's just wrong to have 8 inches of snow on the ground the day before Easter. Above you see the view from our back yard before we got dumped upon. Yes, it is dark. March really isn't the best month in Michigan.

I'm still reading a lot of children's historical fiction - it is surprisingly good. Here are links to Newbery Project reviews of The Whipping Boy, by Sid Fleischman, The Midwife's Apprentice, by Karen Cushman, and Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry.

We're on a bit of a Lowry kick here - after reading The Giver with my 11-year-old, we went on to Gathering Blue and just started Messenger. I think Number the Stars is my favorite so far, though my son just ordered Gossamer from the latest Scholastic Books flier from school, so we'll have to see how that stacks up. She really is an amazing writer, and one that I missed by not reading much recent children's literature before this.

Spring and Books and Stuff

You have to wonder what kind of a person Googles "What is actual life?". And when you use google as a verb, do you capitalize it? Are all the people Googling "imponderabilia" looking for me, or are they just stymied by the word?

My kids played outside for two hours after school today. They drew on the driveway with chalk. Amazingly, my son managed to cover most of his clothes in chalk dust. He had spots of it in the middle of his back. I could tell the splotches lower on his back were from putting his hands on his back, just above his waist, but I'm not quite sure how he managed to get the chalk between his shoulderblades. I don't think he was rolling on his back in the driveway.

And I finally saw a robin. Maybe - just maybe - spring really is coming.

I've been reading all kinds of fun stuff, but nothing that I love or hate enough to blog about. Except for two more Newbery winners: The Giver, the 1994 winner by Lois Lowry (and guess what? I even liked the cover), and Roller Skates, by Ruth Sawyer, which won the award in 1937.