What have I read?

Posted on this blog are two nice reading lists: one is arranged by the alphabet, the other just a hodge-podge of books I have eyed, but not read. Let's see how I have done since making those lists.

From the alphabet list, I have read:
As I Lay Dying
Dracula
Kidnapped
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
1984
Smilla's Sense of Snow
The World According to Garp
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The problem is that I read all of the above years ago and not one since I posted this list. Tsk-tsk!

Second list, or My Very Ambitious TBR list:
Vincent de Paul  http://www.amazon.com/review/R17EE11X86WSQS/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
The German Mujahid
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2SG0HJ31GG0D6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
The Giver
http://www.amazon.com/review/RF3300V629Z30/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Imperium (at the bottom of this page is a book jacket. Please click on it for a my review.

I haven't done any better, except that I read ALL of these since posting the list. I will do better now that I have called my attention to my own reading lists. Let's call them:
Judy's Summer Reading Lists!

Early morning hydrangeas!

Books picked up at a warehouse sale!

Summer reading lists. Find one almost anywhere. As a librarian I look for lists to recommend to my patrons, in this case, middle school students. As today is the last day of school, I will have a little stack of these titles in bookmark form for each student to pick up . Even if they don't find them during the summer, the books will be displayed for their perusal come August. Call it Back-to-School Reading List then!

Oh, I bought these at a Scholastic warehouse sale at half-price, or less. They're trying to lessen their inventory; I'm trying to update mine. It's a perfect match!

1. Sasquatch, Roland Smith: recommended by Booklist, School Library Journal, and ALA
2. Sky High: Mission One, A. J. Butcher
3. Firegirl, Tony Abbott: Golden Kite Award Book (Link: http://www.scbwi.org/Pages.aspx/Golden-Kite-Award
4. Magic Can Be Murder, Vivian Vandi Veldi: A VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Book of the Year
5. The Christopher Killer: A Forensic Mystery, Alane Ferguson: An Edgar Award Nominee
6. The Wild Girls, Pat Murphy: Winner of the Christopher Award
7. Cat Magic, Holly Webb
8. Dog Magic, Holly Webb (If I include cats, I must include dogs!)

For more lists and awards, please click on this link:

http://us.macmillan.com/MacmillanSite/categories/Childrens/AmericanLibraryAssociation/ALA100BestBooksforTeens

Blueberries!! Blackberries!!

This is information taken  directly from the internet. Last summer my family and I enjoyed picking our own blueberries and blackberries so much that I returned twice more to have more in the freezer! Take an ice chest, stop when you get hot, cool off, then return to the fields! Just moderate your activity with the weather temperature.

DESOTO Parish: Shuqalak Farms - blueberries and blackberries

Gravel Pointe Road, Frierson, LA, Phone: 318-797-8273. Email: williamburris@bellsouth.net. Open: 7 days a week from 7 am to 7 pm from June to July 15th. Directions: I-49 South Exit 186,Left Hwy175 North 2 miles Turn Right on Gravel Point Road. Turn right at Shuqualak Farms.

A visitor writes: "This is a family owned farm. We pick blueberries and blackberries here every year. You have the option to pick or they pick for a few dollars more a gallon. They clean and bag the berries for you. It is a wonder [sic] experience for the kids." (ADDED: June 20, 2008) (UPDATED: May 27, 2009)

 Hillcrest Blueberry Farm
Note: I just added (June 13, 2014) this next farm--Hillcrest Blueberry Farm, located a mile south of Gloster, La. and 15 miles (20 minutes) south of Shreveport.  Take I-49 S from Shreveport toward Alexandria, take exit 186 for La 175 toward Kingston, turn right at LA 175, turn right at La 5, turn left at Ferguson Rd, then voila! on the right is the farm!
 
Caddo Parish


Lenox Acres Blueberry Farm - blackberries, blueberries, restrooms

6501 Vardaman Road, Keithville, LA 71047. Phone: 318-925-8461. Alternate Phone: 318-286-9076. Email: lenoxsteve@bellsouth.net. Open: Tuesday to Saturday from 7 a;m to 11:am Evening pick Tuesday and Thursday only 5 pm to 8 pm Closed Sunday and Monday. Directions: Go south on Mansfield Road (Hwy 171) from the intersection with Bert Kouns Industrial Loop approximately 8.5 miles to a stoplight in Stonewall, La. Turn right on Stonewall Road and go west approximately 2.5 miles to intersection with Keithville-Keatchie Road Turn left and go south half mile to Vardaman Road. Turn right on Vardaman Road and go west 1.1 miles to entrance on left hand side of the road. Click here for a map and directions. Blueberries and Blackberries: June 1 to July 10. Payment: Cash, Check. (ADDED: June 08, 2009) (UPDATED: April 07, 2010)

Poverty Hollow Farms - blueberries, figs, http://www.pickyourown.org/LA.htm

9143 Crawford Road, Oil City, LA 71061. Phone: 318-995-7924. Alternate Phone: 318-995-7117. Email: mfhead@bellsouth.net. Open: Sunday through Saturday, 7am to dark. Directions: Highway 1 north & I-220 - north to "Y." Take left fork (Hwy 1) to Vivian & OIl City. Continue north until you CROSS Caddo Lake. At first blinking light make 45 degree right turn at La Highway 538. Continue north through Oil City. Turn right onto Crawford Road, continue 1/2 mile. Turn right into grey gravel driveway. Sign by road reads "Poverty Hollow Farms." Continue south on driveway. Pull in behind the green house. Click here for a map and directions. Blueberries: 01 June to 31 July, Figs: 15 July to 10 August. Payment: Cash, Check. (ADDED: July 24, 2009)

Endings have beginnings...

Carolina became a kindergarten graduate on Wednesday. She's ready for first grade. She's ready to open those books and start as an emergent reader. When she was two years old, she sat in her great-grandmother's lap and so plaintively asked: "When will I be able to read like Chelsea?" (her older sister). Carolina loves books. She loves stories, her favorite being "Three Little Pigs." You know how we all have that one fairy tale that excites our imagination in secret, mystical ways? That's Carolina's--three little pigs. What is her connection? Being thrown out? Having a wolf/monster at the door? Cooking/Defeating that wolf? For now, Carolina is set for summer and looks forward to first grade. First grade!

The wolves are back!

I've been in love with wolves for as long as I can remember, perhaps from childhood when I read Jack London. When I read a recent review of "Never Cry Wolf," by an Amazon friend, I had to respond with this newly acquired book in the school library where I work, "The Wolves Are Back," by another long-time wolf-lover, Jean Craighead George and illustrator, Wendell Minor. As a lovely touch, Minor declared his dedication to "All the people who made it possible for the wolves to return to Yellowstone."

On each page of script, the final sentence is: "The wolves are back!" On that first page the reader learns that the wolf pack has killed an elk. On the second page we learn that others also eat from that kill: ravens, a golden eagle, a grizzly bear, magpies, mice,and sexton beetles. "The valley was sharing food again. The wolves were back."

On the third page of script is the horrid back story. By 1926 there were no more wolves in the forty-eight states. Directors of the national parks had given the go-ahead for hunters and ranchers to kill every single wolf they saw. Reader, did you know that? (I'm assuming this is true.) Only gentle animals were allowed to roam in national parks: deer, elk, antelope.

By request from park visitors who wanted to hear the wolves howl, ten adult wolves were returned to Yellowstone in 1995. With them they caused the return of the Vesper sparrow. How? The elk herds had eaten all the grasses the bird needed for food and nesting. The wolves frightened the elk into the mountains, the grasses grew back, and the birds returned.

A similar occurrence with bison and flycatchers. When erosion stopped because grasses grew back, the beaver found willows to use to create dams and ponds and waterbirds and fish and frogs and dragonflies. The wolves thinned out the coyotes (do wolves eat coyotes?!), squirrels returned, badgers returned.

With grasses and ponds came flowers and bees and butterflies, hummingbirds.

"The wilderness is in balance again." Please ask why. Why? "The wolves are back."

If all this seems simplistic, please remember this is a children's story with information made approachable for children. Pleasing story and breathtaking artwork combined, children will love this book. I know because the classes I read to absolutely loved it, proving that romance with wolves extends beyond age barriers!

The illustrations are just as heart-inspiring and poetic as the script. I wish I could tell you what artistic technique Minor used, but I don't know what he used or how. Close examination shows individual hair strokes on the wolves and all the other animals. The variety of greens on the rolling hills and fields is simply breathtaking. Amazing!

Don't miss this beautiful book! It's not just for children!