In the Interest of Sanity

I have not posted in SO long and I know that has been so troublesome and sad for so many.
Not.
Thing is, I had shingles.
IN MY MOUTH!
I am so glad it was shingles.  I had no clue what the pain could have been.  When the ER doc told me shingles, I was actually so relieved!
Also I have been preaching a lot, and even did that while I was shingled, and so that was the priority.  So in the interest of my sanity, I am going to make this post all about the millions of Boxcar Children books I read while shingled. 
And I think I  might be done with them.
I do have to say that I enjoy them now!
The last ones I reviewed were books 1-10. 
I have completed the first 24 now! 
And if you look, I actually gave some 3 star reviews.  The Mystery of the Hidden Painting and The Old Motel Mystery and Benny Uncovers a Mystery and The Tree House Mystery! 
I appreciated the differences in how "Indian" language changed...now specific tribes are mentioned, instead of this general term. 

Not a Waste

Do you remember this song?   That is a great song!  And Moon Base Alpha was a great series.  I think it might be over, which is kinda cool because it started strong and ended strong!  And the one in the middle was great, too!

Do You Have a Book About a Shrunken Head?

Before there were ways to track calls so easily, I admit I did my share of (hopefully) harmless prank calling.  Not too many and just people I knew and most of the time I would reveal myself before hanging up, or at least the next day.  One time my brother and I pranked the local library- where I worked.  For some reason my brother did the talked and sing-songily asked, "Do you have a book (two beats) about a shrunken head?"  I wonder if he remembers that.  I wonder why I do!
In any case, when I saw that The Shrunken Head was a book by Lauren Oliver, whose books I have enjoyed a great deal, was available for a listen, I borrowed it!  Visiting her website just now, I see I am quite behind with her new offerings!  That is the price I pay for usually only listening now.  This is the first in a series called The Curiosity House,  I had creepy feelings about reading it.  The whole exploitation of "freaks" idea was nagging at me throughout most of it.  And I read this, regarding AHS: Freak Show, which I very much enjoyed.  Which led me to this.   Which led me to this.
So this was a tricky book.  However, there was nothing offensive in that the characters all were described in respectful ways.   It just didn't quite grab me.

Is He Spaced Out?

I remember when I was a little girl, my daddy took me-  no, no, that's the Peggy Lee song.
I remember when I was little girl my family visited Quebec City.  We did a horse and carriage ride and the guy who drove the horses asked in a super-French accent, "Is he spaced out?" about my brother, who was not a fan of talking to strangers.  It really upset him.  And it was weird to hear "spaced out" in a French accent!  Anyway, that is neither here nor there and no big deal and kinda funny now.  But every time I hear or see "spaced out" I think of that time.
Spaced Out is the second book in the Moon Base Alpha series and I just loved it.  And I love this series.  And I wish Stuart Gibbs's other books were available through the library eaudio apps.
AND I just got what the cover means!  So funny!  Another really good mystery and just good in general.

Murder in Space!

Kids at one of the libraries where I work LOVE Stuart Gibbs' books.  They look so good!  And I have wanted to read them for so long!  But it's the old eye thing...so when I found Space Case, the first in the Moon Alpha Base series available on audio, I was super excited!
This was a really fun book!  And interesting!  It is science fiction, but not too far in the future that the future looks unrecognizable.  That is the kind of science fiction that I like.
There is a good mystery here and the main character is very likable.  Also, the supporting characters are good, too and I am looking forward to seeing how this series develops as it goes along.  I am so glad I had a listen!

Cliff-Hanger Sans a Cliff-Hanger

In the traditional sense.  Though there were unanswered questions even after Cliff-Hanger, the third book in the Mysteries in Our National Parks series ended.  These books were published by the National Geographic Society.   There is another National Park Mystery series.  I have not read any in that series.  I read this one because in July I am going to Mesa Verde National Park and I am quite excited!  I have only been to one other National Park and that is Acadia.  I have been to a National Historic Site!  I talked about that here.
This book was very good.  Not only did I learn about the park but it also had a good story running along with it.  The series features a brother and a sister, Jack and Ashley, whose mom works for the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole and is often called to places when there are wildlife problems and concerns.  In this book there is a cougar that has attacked a little book in the park.  This is weird because, while it can happen, it is pretty rare.  In the meantime, Jack's family offers emergency foster care and is fostering a 13 year old girl.  She plays Jack like a fine violin.  It is a really well written mystery, I think.  The cover is terrible, of course.  And it is a bit dated, but not too much.  It's hard with technology changing so much.  Totally worth the read.  Totally.  Now I am reading the first one!

Put up 11 fingers

I do this preschool math class, right?  And we do the numbers 0-10 and once as a joke I asked them to put up eleven fingers.

A very smart four year old held up her two pointer fingers, each to look like a one and held them side by side, so she did put 11 in the air.

It was awesome!

And very smart!

Eleven is by Patricia Reilly Giff who has written some super-popular first reader series like The Kids of Polk Street School and Polka Dot Private Eye.

This a mystery book about a boy, age eleven, who discovers something that makes him question his past.  It is a really good little mystery and moves very quickly.

I tried

Greenglass House has been getting Newbery buzz.  I have little doubt that it will win.  I didn't like it at all.  It just seems to be the safe Newbery choice.  I tried three times to read this.  I ended up buying the audio book just so I could get through it.  Even on 3x speed, it took 467 hours.
This book has been compared to other books I just couldn't get through, like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Westing Game.  So if you liked those books,  you may very well like Greenglass House.  I tried and tried, I did finish it but it was rough going.

Greetings! It's the SIXTH book and still just as awesome!

Olive, Seymour, Iggy, they are all back.  And there aren't enough good words in the world to describe how wonderful 43 Old Cemetery Road is.  These books are always, always a hit.  The three friends are now writing greeting cards for sticky situations, which is hilarious.  And there is a husband-wife team of robbers on the lose.  Fanastic.  Hilarious.  Wonderful.  Read them in order though, for maximum awesomeness!  Greetings from the Graveyard is another winner!

Good Stuff, as Always

Closed for the Season is a book I have always recommended.  I know I read it when it first came out and I needed to read it again because it must have been a really busy time in my life and I had forgotten about the details.  I don't think that I've ever read a book by Mary Downing Hahn that disappointed.  She is just a really great writer.
There isn't a ghost in this book, but it is plenty scary and has real-world scares in it too, like domestic abuse.
This is a great mystery story centered in an abandoned amusement park and a small town with secrets!  Logan and Arthur are determined to find the killer of the woman who used to live in Logan's house.

Presently Joe exclaimed, "Swell!"

The Hardy Boys.  I never read them when I was a kid, though I had lots of their books.  The covers looked so cool and the titles of the mysteries were very intriguing.  I just couldn't get into them.  This week though, I needed an audio book and thought since I had given Nancy Drew a try, why not try The Tower Treasure, number one in the Hardy Boys.

The Hardy Boys are an American institution.  Created by a book packager, the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1927 they are still around today.  Comic books, tv shows, games, they have it all.   It is pretty interesting to read the ethnic and gender stereotypes in the book, even though the book was rewritten in 1958, they still exist.  The son of a building contractor, and loud and boisterous, jolly friend of Joe and Frank is Italian.  The serious and studious boy is Jewish.  The women don't do anything but look very pretty and make delicious picnic baskets for the men.  It is pretty annoying but insightful into the way things used to be and how life is getting better in some ways, since you don't have those kinds of stereotyping in most books today.

The mystery itself was ok.  I won't read another one, but I am glad that I experienced it.  

Mary Downing Hahn IS Scary!

I've read a few MDH books and I always end up shivering and thinking, "Man...this is a creepy story!" and when I recommend them to kids I am always sure to ask if they mind getting creeped out, because even though MDH is a children's author, there is a lot of misery and mayhem in the books that I have read.    The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall is no exception.  I listened to this one on cd and it is narrated by Sarah Coomes and she does a terrific job.  I am not much for off-putting Briticisms and so at first I felt like Prof. Higgins wondering, "Why can't the English learn to speak!" but after awhile I was so caught up in the story and the way that Coomes read it that I forgot about it.  Also, she does a great job on the Uncle's voice!  The grammar of the servant girl, "Is her here?  Where is her?" reminded me of a foster "parent" I used to know.  This "parent" really talked that way and she had a master's degree which makes you wonder.  But after I put that out of my head, I was able to enjoy this story of Florence, a young orphan who lived in a orphanage until her Uncle sent for her to live at the family's estate, Crutchfield Hall.  The thing about Crutchfield Hall though, is that it is haunted by a NASTY ghost.  The ghost of Sophie, her twelve year old cousin who died in an accident the year before.  Sophie is ghastly and wants to cause serious harm to her brother.  She believes that if he dies, she will come back to life.  Great, great book.

Flipped!

That's what I did when I saw the released-this-week Phantom of the Post Office, 43 Old Cemetery Road #4 on the shelf!  I wanted to DEAR!  
In this episode the US Postmaster General is coming to Ghastly to shut down the post office and introduce VEXT Messaging.  With VEXT you get a veil that allows you to see the person with whom you are communicating, and watch movies, and style your hair, and do all sorts of things!  With VEXT also comes the end of not just letters, but the written word.  
Totally hilarious!  Can't wait for the next one!
This is such a smart and funny series by the talented Klise sisters!

I Don't Know...

I DO know that E.L. Konigsburg is a very well-respected and acclaimed author.  I do not know why The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World is just so...I don't know...disagreeable.  I've tried reading From the Mixed Up Files... and A View from Saturday but I couldn't get very far in either of them, but I know people love them.  I don't know any kids who love them, but a lot of adults do.  I DID love Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth when I was young, and I will read it again to see if I still do because I just don't know what is my deal with Konigsburg.  This book wasn't terrible, I just don't think it was interesting.  And I don't think that a kid would like it.  I don't even want to really write about it because I got so so sick of listening to it that I am just so tired of it.  It's the story of a kid who moves to Florida from NYC and befriends an old lady who is selling her house and the son of the woman who is handling her estate.  There's a lot of very interesting history here as the story weaves its way around and is tied to Sheboygan Wisconsin, the so-called Degenerate Art as proclaimed by Nazi dirtbags, and scumbag former Nazis like Ivan the Terrible and Kurt Waldheim.  So I liked the history, and I liked the adult characters of Mrs. Wilcox and Mrs. Vanderwal, and I liked Willie, the main character's friend.  But the main character himself, Amedeo, was kind of one dimensional.  It was just a weird book, I thought and I don't know how I could recommend it.

Dem Bones

So the thing is I don't know if I gave this a fair review or not because I had listened to it before, a long time ago when it first came out. Maybe listening to it again was just too much for me because it really isn't the most exciting book in the world. But it is not terrible.

Maze of Bones is the first book in the 39 Clues series. There's a whole new series now, of course, the Cahills vs. Vespers.

I listend to it on CD and the reading was really good. I liked the voices that the reader gave to the characters and I like Nellie and I like that the cat didn't get hurt! Will I continue to read or listen to more? I probably will. It is kinda cool that the books are written by different authors, so I will try out the second one and see what happens!

Say Uncle

Does anyone really say that? Does anyone say, "Say Uncle" to anyone? And if they do, does that other person really say "uncle" and if they do, does the person who says, "Say Uncle" really do whatever they are supposed to do, or stop doing whatever they are were doing? I just wondered. I have no opinion, I just wondered!
Lois Lowry has written a lot of books and I've read some of them. I remember reading A Summer to Die a few times when I was a kid and I read The Giver series, too. My most favorite Lowry book is The Willoughbys!
Us and Uncle Fraud is one that I checked out to read on my phone before I fall asleep, so it was kind of an afterthought, but I am glad that I read it, because it was a good little children's book.

Oh man! How did I miss this!

I was so happy to rediscover 43 Old Cemetery Lane when I saw the third in the series, new at the library. I had totally forgotten about it, but I don't know how, I loved the first one! So last night I read the second one, Over My Dead Body and it was great!

Seymour Hope lives with ghost story writer I.B. Grumply and the ghost of Olive C. Spence at 43 Old Cemetery Lane. His parents, Les and Diane Hope abandoned him there to write a rip-off book on why only fools and children believe in ghosts. Well this guy, Dick Tater, finds out that Seymour is living without his real parents and he starts a big investigation. He also doesn't believe in Halloween or ghosts and thinks all books about ghost stories should be banned. Will Seymour and Olive and Iggy get to stay together??? A great little book in a great little series, written in letters and newspaper columns and ads. Great fun!

? ? ?

"What do the question marks mean?"

That's the question the Three Investigators always hear when they pass out their business cards proclaiming that Jupiter Jones, First Investigator: Pete Crenshaw, Second Investigator and Bob Andrews, Records and Research are ready to take on any kind of mystery you might have.

When I was a little girl, I loved these books so much. As I may have mentioned before, my father managed a Children's Palace and on payday he would always bring home books and The Three Investigators were one of my most favorite series. The stories are always introduced by Alfred Hitchcock and at the end of the books the boys usually hang out with him and fill him in on the details of their case. The guys live near Hollywood and their business meets in an abandoned mobile home, trailer kind of thing, which I thought was so awesome. The Magic Circle was one of my most favorite in the series because I liked the witchcraft aspect. It is a story about an reclusive old Hollywood movie actress who may or may not be involved in a witch's coven. Great stuff and I still found it enjoyable after all of these years. Turns out a few years ago, there were some Three Investigators movies that came out in countries other than the US. I would love to see one!

It's Been A While, how have you been?

It's really good, you know, to see you again.  This is one of the most beautiful songs ever.  And I think that Anne Murray's voice is perfect for it, like the one comment says at the bottom of the video.
Where have I been?  Well, I've been trying to do the nano!  So far I am all caught up and have been every day.  If I get behind, I know I will never finish.  Who knows if I will finish as it is, with more than a month to go.
One of the things I am finding that I don't enjoy about it, and this is probably more of a reflection on the poor way in which I manage my time, is that while I am writing, I am finding little time to read.  I am not even half way through Jekel Loves Hyde, which I am absolutely loving.  But I can't seem to find enough time to read it.  I don't want to blow through it quickly, because it is such a great book, so steady and slow, wins the race, I suppose.
I have been able to listen to books as I drive, however, being that I can't work on nano while I drive, so I can listen to audiobooks without guilt.
I just finished my first Mary Downing Hahn book, The Old Willis Place.   After reading it, I can see why so many kids love MDH.  I have heard her name mentioned as a favorite of so many kids over the years.  At first I thought I had the whole thing figured out and then I was like...no I guess not...but then I was thinking...well maybe....and then back again.
This is a great ghost story, just like it says on the cover.  Twelve year old Diana and her brother are prisoners of mysterious "rules" and are not able to make friends or tell anything of their home life.  Diana, wanting a friend so badly, breaks these rules and befriends the daughter of the care taker of a supposedly haunted house belonging to Old Mrs. Willis who died long ago.
Great cover on a great book!

Witchy Woman

Just finished rereading one of my most favorite books from childhood, What the Witch Left by Ruth Chew.  Who, I posted, left us earlier this year.
Katie has a drawer in her room containing items that belonged to a friend of the family whom some considered to be a witch.  These objects look quite ordinary:  a pair of boots, a robe, a pair of gloves, a mirror and a little tin box.  Each one, however, has magical powers.  Katie and her friend Louise mess around with each item with rather interesting results.  I especially love the details of the Thanksgiving play!  I always wanted to find a drawer with such hidden treasures.