I Love Fairy Tales!!

MY WEIRD SCHOOL Series Recap Starring Dan Gutman

I Have A Dream!

"They were each born with the gift of gospel

Martin's voice kept people in their seats, but also sent their praises soaring

Mahalia's voice was brass-and-butter - strong and smooth at the same time

With Martin's sermons and Mahalia's songs, folks were free to shout, to sing their joy"

Martin and Mahalia

By Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

Maryland Black-Eye Susan Nominee

2014-2015

Martin Luther King Jr. grew up listening to his father's sermons. He had the gift to lift people from  their seats and set them soaring. Mahalia Jackson was born with the gift of gospel and through her powerful voice, her songs lifted people to soar just as high. "Martin and Mahalia: His Words, Her Song" follows these two inspirations throughout their lives until they meet at one pivotal point in history. On 28 August 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Mahalia Jackson told Martin Luther King Jr. to tell the people about his "dream". Martin abandoned the speech he had prepared and told the people about his dream. That "dream" will forever will in history and one day will be realized by all. 

It's Chili!!!

It's chili outside!! Okay fine! It's CHILLY! The one thing crock pots love to cuddle up with is a nice filling of chili. It's warm and cozy on these cold, Winter days. What goes great with chili besides sour cream and shredded cheese? A book, of course!! That's the best part about books...they go with everything!! Here are a couple of recommendations! Bon appetite! 

Chili-Chili-Chin-Chin

By Belle Yang

Armadilly Chili

By Helen Kettleman and Will Terry

2015 Reading Challenge - January

A BOOK WITH MORE THAN 500 PAGES

• Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia
• The Pillars of the Earth By Ken Follett
• The Host By Stephanie Meyer
• Eragon By Christopher Paolini

** These are just a few ideas. I've always wanted to read "Beautiful Creatures". I have it on my Kindle and read the first chapter, but had to stop to read something else. It came out as a movie in 2013. There are 3 books that make up the series: "Beautiful Darkness", "Beautiful Chaos" and "Beautiful Redemption". I don't believe that these last 3 are movies. "Eragon" is kinda cool in the fact that it was written by a 15 year old! I remember when the book first came out!

A CLASSIC ROMANCE

• Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen
• Withering Heights By Emily Bronte
• Little Women By Louis May Alcott
• The Notebook By Nicholas Sparks

** I'm not into romance, but I love the classics and truly believe that every teen should read at least one classic. The way they write, the way they use and choose words and the tone, morals and values that are portrayed, I feel, can still be relevant today. My favorite from this group? "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. One of my all-time favorite books!

A BOOK THAT BECAME A MOVIE

• The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins
• Divergent By Veronica Roth
• Water For Elephants By Sara Gruen
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pant By Ann Brashares

** This isn't a hard task. There are so many books that are being made into a movie. The sad part is that the books are SO MUCH better!!! There are some books, especially the series, that there is way too much detail and background in the book for the movie to portray. Sadly, drama sometimes takes the place of truth and bits and pieces are included to sensationalize the movie to get folks to come see it. "Divergent" is one of my favorites and although it was similar to The Hunger Games (as most dystopia novels are), I don't think that it was AS violent. It did have some aggressive parts, but not as gory as "The Hunger Games".

A BOOK THAT WAS PUBLISHED THIS YEAR

• All The Bright Places By Jennifer Niven (5 Jan)
• Audacity By Melanie Crowder (8 Jan)
• Fairest By Marissa Meyer (27 Jan)
• The Ghosts of Heaven By Marcus Sedgwick (6 Jan)

** Kinda unfair since this is only January, but I see it as a challenge!! Some of these looked really good. "Fairest" was fairy tale-ish and "The Ghosts of Heaven" seemed pretty good.

Well, that's the challenge and a few ideas for the month. Enjoy!!!

2015 Reading Challenge

I was stalking around on Facebook the other day and found a Reading Challenge for 2015! I looked over the list and thought that it had some really good ideas. My next thought was...hey!!...my Edgewater Book blog readers would LOVE it!! I believe that there is a total of 50 ideas so I'm going to highlight 5 per month. Now I know January is halfway over. Can you believe it?!?! But I'll give out the challenges for the month and just expect everyone to finish by the 31st. Okay? Ha!

Feel free to post in the comments about what you read and if you liked it or not!!

Dragons For Kids

Dragons are great for guarding things that are valuable like gold, diamonds and CHILDREN! Jean E. Pendziwol's series of books about dragons and safety are wonderful ways to introduce children to tough subjects like fire safety, stranger safety, water safety and dealing with bullies. At the beginning of every summer when my own kids where younger, we would read these books and talk about the subjects. I would answer any questions they would have and we would run drills. The books were great starting blocks. They are fun and informative. I highly recommend these books for children of all ages really!

No Dragons for Tea

Once Upon a Dragon

A Treasure at Sea for Dragon and Me

The Tale of Sir Dragon