Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year 2013

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With All My Best Wishes For An Amazingly 

Happy New Year!!!

 

Thank you all for visiting my blog, reading, commenting and your continued blogger friendship and support. 

All my best to the phenomenal authors who write books that inspire me.

Happy New Year to all the publishers who send me so many wonderful books to feed my passion.   

 

  With gratitude and thanks.....I am truly blessed!

 

© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2013].



 

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

THIS IS NOT MY HAT, by Jon Klassen

  
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THIS IS NOT MY HAT
by Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press, 
October 9, 2012
978-0763655990
40 pages, Age: 4+





 






Another winner from Jon Klassen has delighted my classes.  THIS IS NOT MY HAT, is a eye catching picture book about a little fish takes a perfectly sized hat for his own head from a rather larger sleeping fish  Swimming around as he tries to escape the little fish believes he has the perfect solution to hide from the big fish.  Does he keep his little hat? Readers will be on edge trying to figure out what happens at the end. The story provides a perfect opportunity to ponder a moral question. 


Jon Klassen won a Geisel Honor Award from the ALA in 2012, and the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award for I WANT MY HAT BACKEven before Klassen's awards were announced my students wanted to share I WANT MY HAT BACK over and over. They were enchanted by bear, little rabbit and friends in this story.  

I was therefore, overjoyed to receive a copy of THIS IS NOT MY HAT by the publisherI knew immediately it would be well received. At storytime, my students lit up when they saw the cover, with obvious recall to his first book.  You will find that children want to read these two books over and over. They act it out and are able to recall details with little prompting. 

THIS IS NOT MY HAT is adorable and children love how the little fish boldly takes what doesn't belong to him, even though it appears to be an ideal fitHis seemingly careless attitude will end with a comical chuckle.  THIS IS NOT MY HAT stole the hearts of my listeners and the reader as well.  Don't miss it!!


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].
 
 

Sunday, December 23, 2012

December 24th Candles for Sandy Hook Event

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 Those of you on Facebook may have already seen this page. The link is here

http://www.facebook.com/events/528473403829415/ 

I hope you will join me and the thousands already who have accepted to participate in this memorial for the victims and families of Sandy Hook, Newtown, CT.   Peace and Love, Wisteria



 
© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].

Saturday, December 22, 2012

The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier

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The Last Runaway 
Tracy Chevalier 
Dutton Adult (2013),  
Hardcover ISBN 0525952993 
320 pages 
$26.95/$28.50CAN








Tracy Chevalier is a familiar author to me.  Girl With a Pearl Earring still stands out as one of my favorite historical fiction selections. The Last Runaway takes place prior to the American Civil War in the border state of Ohio. Honor Bright left her homeland of England to travel with her sister Grace to America.  Shortly after their arrival Grace dies leaving Honor in a tenuous position regarding her future. Honor Bright is a Quaker and  holds dear the tenets of her religion. She values honesty and abhors slavery.  She marries Jack Haymaker, a dairy farmer and moves in with him, along with his sister and mother. Honor finds herself in a perfect position to help runaways who travel along the Underground Railroad. The Haymaker family pretend not to notice Honor's small contributions of assistance until one day they forbid her to continue. Honor Bright is forced to make difficult decisions that cause great internal conflict and reflection.

The character of Honor Bright is eerily familiar as if this writer were in her shoes in a previous life. Belle, a milliner is spunky and frank and her friendship with Honor is genuine. More than once she manages to surprise Honor with her prowess with a shotgun.  The importance of quilting and hatting in America, women's roles, Quakers and The Underground Railroad, particularly the ramifications of the Fugitive Slave Act in Ohio provided Chevalier with background to write this beautiful and inspiring novel. An author's note of interest Ms. Chevalier learned to quilt in order to write The Last Runaway.  I’m sure a gratifying p
erk she had not anticipated. 

Disclosure: A copy of this book was received as an ARC from the publisher. This review is my candid and unbiased opinion. 


© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012].  





 
 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan..Countdown to Release

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My endorsement....

Cathy Marie is the author of When the Falls Stood Still, a remarkably memorable and haunting novel that still resonates with me today. Now The Painted Girls will be released in the US on 1/10/13.  It was released this week in Canada. Preorder your copy. 
A definite choice to fulfill your holiday wish lists with those newly acquired gift certificates. :)

The Painted Girls-Press Release

A heartrending, gripping novel set in belle époque Paris and inspired by the real-life model for Degas’s Little Dancer Aged 14 and by the era's most famous criminal trials. Following their father’s sudden death, the Van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where she will be trained to enter the famous Ballet and meet Edgar Degas. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds employment—and the love of a dangerous young man—as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s Naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir. Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change,The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.” Learn more.

Cathy's Home Page



The Painted Girls Banner



© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012]. 

Destiny, Rewritten, by Kathyrn Fitzmaurice

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So excited to share this trailer about the book Destiny Rewritten by one of my favorite children's authors.... Kathyrn Fitzmaurice. The book is due out in March, so keep an eye out for it.  Visit her homepage at: http://kathrynfitzmaurice.com/books/




© [Wisteria Leigh] and [Bookworm's Dinner], [2008-2012]. 



 

Honoring Sandy Hook's Angels



 

Honoring Sandy Hook's Angels
    

Saturday, December 15, 2012