The train into NYC for SheStreams was early in the morning on Friday. I was tired, but the time to read a book was huge. The excitement of things to come and getting quiet time to read kept me awake I brought a book with me and sat plowing through pages.
I read a lot during the two and a half hours to the conference. Then, the activities of the weekend drained me. Coming home, I read a bit more, but before I knew it I could not keep my eyes focused on the words in front of me. It was nothing to do with the book and all to do with a weekend of little sleep. I dozed for a shot time and then pulled my computer out to get a little blogging done.
Now that I am back and getting energized, I can not wait to finish reading Envy, the first book in Gregg Olsen’s Empty Coffin Series. There are so many topics within the book that will be great to discuss thanks to cyber bullying being a part of the novel. Here is a teaser with the book trailer from Sterling Publishing:
More about the book:
Murder is such a dirty word… New York Times bestselling adult true crime author Gregg Olsen makes his YA debut with EMPTY COFFIN, a gripping new fiction series for teens based on ripped-from-the-headlines stories…with a paranormal touch. Crime lives–and dies–in the deceptively picture-perfect town of Port Gamble (aka “Empty Coffin”), Washington. Evil lurks and strange things happen–and 15-year-olds Hayley and Taylor Ryan secretly use their wits and their telepathic “twin-sense” to uncover the truth about the town’s victims and culprits.
Envy, the series debut, involves the mysterious death of the twins’ old friend, Katelyn. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Hayley and Taylor are determined to find out–and as they investigate, they stumble upon a dark truth that is far more disturbing than they ever could have imagined.
Based on the shocking true crime about cyber-bullying, Envy will take you to the edge–and push you right over.
On that note, I am off to find some time to catch back up and finish this book which has me on the edge of my seat. The frightening truth about online anonymity is exposed right from the start of this series.
Of course, since this is Tuesday Tales, I must ask the usual question. What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Sterling Publishing in order to facilitate a review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed are my own.
Have you ever had challah? You may not have had it plain, but chances are that you may have been served challah french toast. Here’s a slice of challah that we had while on the road the other day.
Each Friday at nursery school, JSL and his classmates celebrate Shabbat. We bring in money to donate to others, food for the food pantry, and they have a Shabbat table. Last week, JSL’s new class made a new tablecloth to place with each of their handprints and names for this year. In addition to this, a girl and boy are selected to be the Ima (mother) and Abba (father) to help do the Shabbat duties. On the first Friday, JSL was Abba and so thrilled to do this special task. This is what the table looked like last year:
Shabbat is special and thanks to this, we have a book that JSL received last year from Kar Ben Publishing.
It’s Challah Time! uses photos of preschool aged children in a classroom setting. Together, the children (with adult supervision) are making challah for their Shabbat celebration. The easy to follow steps and large clear photos take you along the journey of making a delicious challah of your own. As a child, my favorite part of making challah was getting the chance to braid the dough before it was baked in the oven.
The book also shows the kids participating in traditional Shabbat activities. They read stories together, sing with the Cantor, and set the Shabbat table to get ready for their weekly celebration. Then, they show the challah cover over their special bread, candles, and grape juice. When it is time to light the candles, all of the kids participate together and share the experience.
Celebrating Shabbat is important to keeping our Jewish traditions alive. It’s Challah Time! does a fantastic time of keeping this alive with kids and also shares a recipe at the end so you can make challah making memories at home with your children. I know this is a book that JSL and NHL will both enjoy and remember thanks to the fantastic preschool times they have had in their own classrooms and at home with our family.
Of course, since this is Tuesday Tales, I must ask the usual question. What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Kar-Ben Publishing in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own.
As the mother of two boys, we have a lot of cars in our house. I honestly think Hot Wheels could take over NHL and JSL’s room at times. I often laugh about what would happen if they came to life at night like the movie Toy Story. As NHL has grown up, he has wanted to try more tech savvy car items. At eight years old, NHL has received several remote control cars. Most of them have never worked well, or the remote antennae bend easily, and/or and it is dangerous around other children.
When Mom Select asked me to participate in a Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeders opportunity, I was intrigued. Imagine a remote control car that stores within the case that fits in the palm of an adult hand. There is no antennae, the car charges within the case, and it can be ready to go easily.
When we took it out of the package, the first thing we did was take a photo to show how small the little Mustang is. Here it is compared to a quarter:
When I said that the remote could fit into an adult hand, I was not kidding. Everything packs up into this small and convenient size. It actually reminds me of the old style Nintendo controller from my childhood.
NHL had fun making an obstacle course for his Mustang. Here are the Mario Chess pieces being used in this unique way.
Although the package states that the Speeders are for ages 8 and up, JSL (4) had no problem using it. I would just keep him away from charging it on his own and make sure to help him take the car in and out of the case. As you will see, he loved it.
After quite a bit of use, the Speeder needed to be charged. Here it is getting some juice from the AA batteries that are within the case.
So, if you haven’t guessed it – we are big fans of the Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeders. The boys like racing it around and are having fun learning how to control them better. With a little practice, I can see more complex courses being set up to tackle.
Giveaway:
Thanks to Hot Wheels, one lucky reader will win their very own RC Nitro Speeder ($27.99). This would make a great gift for a special child in your life or to be a kid at heart and play.
Rules for Giveaway:
MAIN RULE – What car would you love to see as a Hot Wheels? Tell me the model, color, and anything else that would make it extra special for you.
The following Bonus Entries may also be done. Please be sure to leave separate comments for each that you complete below to make sure you get the right number of entries.
1 Bonus Entry – Tweet the following about the giveaway (May be done once a day): Win a Hot Wheels RC Nitro Speeder ($27.99) from @TheAngelForever and @Hot_Wheels http://bit.ly/nJzCaB #Giveaway #Win
2 Bonus Entries – Stop by The Angel Forever on Facebook to say hello and leave me a comment on a status message. Let me know you have done so here.
1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the month of August/September. Leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done twice per day.
3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and/or add me to your blogroll. Be sure to leave a link with the location.
1 Bonus Entry – Head over to TechyDad’s blog and enter any of his current giveaways.
To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today August 25, 2011 and ends at 10:59 EST on September 12, 2011. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.
Disclosure:I received a RC Nitro Speeders from Hot Wheels to facilitate this review for MomSelect. No other compensation was given and all opinions expressed in this review are my families feelings about the product.
Hi, TechyDad here. I’m guest-posting for today’s Tuesday Tales. And here’s one of the tales:
Once upon a time, there was an alien who took his pet bee on an airplane. They had received a post card from the alien’s good friend Bigfoot. They tried to find Bigfoot’s home but turned in the wrong direction and got lost. They looked all over and finally found the fountain in front of Bigfoot’s cave. They were just in time for his birthday party. The End.
No, this isn’t part of a great piece of literature. This is a story that I just made up. Don’t worry. I’m not reviewing my own stories. I’m reviewing *how* I made this story up. I used nine small dice called Rory’s Story Cubes.
Each die in the set has six sides like a normal die. Unlike normal die, though, there aren’t dots, but pictures. The goal is to make a story using the pictures that come up when you roll the die. You roll them all at once and try to come up with a story that fits. Alternatively, you can work with other people, rolling one die at a time and taking turns adding on to the story. Here is what I rolled that became the story above:
The genius here is that this prompts kids (and, let’s face it, grown ups) to exercise their imaginations. Each roll of the dice results in a different set of images. Since there are over 10 million possible combinations, you could play for years without repeating the same story twice. Even if you rolled the same images twice, a simple shift in the order you put them in or interpretation of the images can drastically change the story.
This can also be used to help kids practice their writing. As you saw above, my story wasn’t long. Less than 70 words (and I purposefully lengthened it). At this length, it shouldn’t intimidate early writers at all. A child could think up their story and practice writing it out with no problem. In fact, children might be more motivated to write their own stories than to write answers to questions or copy printed texts.
Since the use of these story cubes seems to be limited only by imagination, here’s a quick imagination exercise for all you readers. Look at this Rory’s Story Cubes dice roll:
Now, what story can you make up using these pictures? Leave your story in the comments below. Let’s see how many different stories we can get from the same nine images.
Want to see and hear what NHL thought of Rory’s Story Cubes? Head on over to TechyDad.com to see his video review.
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: Our son picked out Rory’s Story Cubes while shopping at a local book store. He thought they looked like fun and used a gift card that he had received for Passover to purchase it. All opinions are our own and no compensation was given. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale should you opt to buy Rory’s Story Cubes. Note from TheAngelForever – as a teacher this would be a great classroom gift to send to your child’s teacher.
The summer is coming and school is almost out in our area. Thanks to this, I am looking ahead to items to read with NHL. Many of the local libraries are sponsoring fun summer reading programs. Two years ago, NHL was really into it. He loved trying to read as much as possible and getting prizes. Last year, we were not as motivated.
The reality is that NHL loves to read, BUT (and it is a big one) he is not a fan of trying chapter books on his own. I have tried numerous books that I have from my teaching days, we have bought countless others, and even tried audio with some. NHL was nervous about the number of pages, lack of pictures, and concept of chapters. As a certified reading teacher, I was more interested that NHL was reading and was not going to fight him. The reality is that many picture books have higher levels of vocabulary and concepts within them.
A while back, I had heard about the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy. The books have three main characters that solve mysteries and each of the 26 books starts with letter of the alphabet. I really wanted to find something that would increase NHL’s independent reading confidence and that we could talk about when we read on our own. So, I bought the entire set from Scholastic Books. I was going to save them, but was too excited to show them to NHL.
More about the A to Z Mysteries:
Here is a great video of Ron Roy talking about the series from Random House Children’s Books. As you will see, the A to Z Mysteries have expanded to a new series called Calendar Mysteries:
My son decided to start with The Absent Author
About The Absent Author from Amazon: A is for author…. Dink writes to his favorite author, mystery writer Wallis Wallace, and invites him to visit Green Lawn. To Dink’s amazement, Wallace says he’ll come! But when the big day arrives, Wallace is nowhere to be found. The police think he just missed his plane, but Dink suspects foul play. It’s up to Dink and his two best friends, Josh and Ruth Rose, to find the famous writer–before it’s too late!
The Absent Author (A to Z Mysteries) – Written by Ron Roy – Illustrated by John Steven Gurney - Random House 1997 – $3.99 (paperback) – Ages 9-12 – 96 pages
What we think so far:
I think we have a winner! Yes, my second grader is reading a chapter book on his own. For the past few days, he asks to take The Absent Author to the couch, or does it on his own. While there, he will read a chapter or two. NHL smiles and laughs as he talks about reading the adventure of Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. While he was at school the other day, I pulled the book out to read the section that he was up to so NHL and I could chat about the books. The teacher in me drafted comprehension questions in my mind. I wanted to know about the characters, plot, and I also wanted to have him predict what would happen next.
After I picked NHL up from school, I told him I wanted to chat about The Absent Author. I think he was a bit surprised with my interest. He forgets from time to time that I am a teacher at heart. So we drove to our destination chatting about the book. I asked some pretty specific questions and he got them without flinching. Yes, my 7 year old son was really reading the books. I knew he was reading the books, but this involves more than just saying the words on the pages and flipping further along. NHL really got the point of the story. He recalled little items, figured out the game plan of the characters, and had his own theory on how the rest of the book would go. It was at this point that I told NHL I was so proud of him. He had overcome his fear of chapter books and was reading them!
Here is a look inside the book.
The use of note from Wallis Wallace takes away from the fact that the entire page is full of text. This is a subtle trick that kids never get, but works well. They love seeing an item that belongs to the characters and want to learn more. There are also illustrations from time to time that connect with the story. This is huge when you are trying to get a reluctant chapter book reader to become independent and try things on their own. While browsing Ron Roy’s website, I found his letter to parents. It really hit home with me. Roy not only wants to engage children in his books, but teach them to use their brains to solve problems with their friends. As a parent and teacher, I respect his philosophy and it makes me even more confident in my kids reading this series and others by Ron Roy.
Yes, I do believe that we have a reading project for the summer. NHL and I will be reading and doing projects as we move along with the A to Z Mysteries. I have a feeling we may also move onto the Capital Mysteries as well as the Calendar Mysteries.
Do you have something that you or your children plan to read this summer? I would love to know.
What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.
Disclosure: I purchased these books from a Scholastic Book order form that my son had sent home recently. One widget within the review is for my Amazon Affiliate where I will receive a percentage of money for the sale of the books should you opt to buy the book mentioned.
