What We're Reading: Tracy

Pumpkins, by Ken Robbins.

Simple text and crisp photographs reveal the life cycle of pumpkins, from seeds to jack o' lanterns. Especially intriguing are images of giant pumpkins so large they are lifted by forklifts! Children will enjoy sharing this book with their favorite grownups before taking a trip themselves to a local pumpkin patch.

What We're Reading: Tracy

A Vampire Is Coming To Dinner! Ten Rules to Follow, by Pamela Jane.

What would you do if you knew a vampire was coming to dinner? The boy in this story sets a series of clever traps based on ten things he knows about vampires (like their inability to cross running water and their dislike of garlic.) Contemporary illustrations and a ghoulish color palette make this a hip choice for Halloween.

What We're Watching: Cathy

The Conspirator

This is the story of of the trial of Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) who was accused of being part of the conspiracy to kill president Lincoln. She is defended, reluctantly at first, by Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) who was a Union war hero. Aiken is at first certain of her guilt, but that slowly changes to uncertainty and he fights for her right to get a fair trial, thwarted by the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline) who believes he is justified in doing anything that will preserve the Union - even possibly convicting innocent people. All of the performances are excellent and the costuming and lighting are wonderful. You really feel that you've been given a window back to that time and place. Robert Redford (director) and the American Film Company are planning on more films of this sort and I can't wait.

Highly recommended.

What We're Reading: Edward

"Larry Bond's Red Dragon Rising: Edge of War"


by Larry Bond


Those of you who read the first part of the "Red Dragon Rising" series, will remember that scientist Josh MacArthur witnessed the Chinese invasion of Vietnam.The United States is trying to covertly get him out of the country and to help the Vietnamese. A female CIA agent and a SEAL TEAM join forces to get Josh to safety. Their journey from Hanoi to Saigon finds them avoiding both the Vietnamese army and Josh's Chinese nemesis from the first book. But nothing is easy in a country paralyzed by war. Both an Army Major and a Navy Captain use the newest technology to support the aims of the President. But will it be enough to stop the Chinese?
Can't wait for the next part of the story!

What We're Reading: Tracy

I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett.

Great Britain has long produced some of the finest fantasy writers in the world of books. One of my modern favorites is Terry Pratchett, who was recently knighted by the Queen for his "services to literature."

Pratchett's classic fantasy series Discworld is at once original, literate, moving, thoughtful, irreverent, and hilariously funny.
Pratchett has done an equally fine job with his youth series set in the same universe, the Tiffany Aching Adventures.

Tiffany Aching is a young witch charged with caring for the inhabitants of the Chalk, a region reminiscent of southeast England, complete with loads of sheep, colorful villagers, a beneficent Baron, and a fairy mound, or, rather, a Feegle mound. (Those are Feegles on the book cover.) In this, the fourth novel of her adventures, Tiffany must handle the mundane problems of her steading (everything from sick sheep to social work) while trying to defeat a more sinister dilemma: the coming of the Cunning Man, the ghost of a witch hunter who reappears with despairing regularity over the centuries, poisoning the minds of the people and stirring up witch hunting fevers.

Best read in order, the other Tiffany Aching books are:

The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky
Wintersmith

What We're Reading: Edward

"Pericles Commission"


by Gary Corby


In 461 B.C., democracy is coming to Athens through the work of Ephialtes. Nicolaos, the older brother of Socrates, is walking near the base of the Acropolis. Suddenly, the body of Ephialtes, pierced with an arrow, falls to his feet. Soon Pericles arrives and commissions Nicoloas to find the murderer of his colleague.While trying to find the murderer, Nicolaos is followed, beaten up, offered a good job, and almost killed. He interviews all the famous people of the time. He is smitten by Diotima, the daughter of Ephialtes and a hetaera. Together they work to solve the murder. Meanwhile all of Athens is in turmoil. Will the newly founded democracy be crushed by the ruling Areopagus? Nicolaos hopes that he can solve the murder and become an important man in Athens.
Hopefully, the start of an interesting historical series.

What We're Reading: Tracy

Boo! by Joe Fenton.

Luminous ghosts seem to float across the pages of this wordless story. The lack of text encourages young readers to study the illustrations: what are the ghosts doing? What will happen next? Careful observation will reveal the plot (a ghostly costume competition) just before the clever ending. Boo!