Dork Diaries - Tales of a Not-So-Popular Popstar

My daughters LOVE these books.  When the new one was recently released they begged me to buy it on the release day - lucky for them Costco had it.  Since they love them so much I figured I should I should read one and see what all the excitement was about. Also, technically my daughters are on the young side to read these books (9 and 7 years old) and I when I heard them talking about the main characters crush I figured I should see how far things went with this crush.  I asked them which one was their favorite and they agreed on this one.

Anyway, very quick read since it is written as a diary and includes lots of pictures.  Overall it was a lot of fun.  The main character - self proclaimed dork is Nikki.  She attends a private middle school in Westchester New York.  Her family is not well off, she attends the school because she got a scholarship - her Dad is the exterminator for the school.  She is terrified that anyone at the school will find out her secret including her two BFFs - Chloe and Zoey.  The main mean girl is Mackenzie who does anything and everything she can to humiliate Nikki.  To her credit Nikki does stand up for herself sometimes and fires some zingers right back at Mackenzie.  

There is a talent show happening at the school and the main prize is a scholarship to the school.  Nikki believes that she lost her scholarship due to a letter she got from the school canceling her Dad's contract and revoking her scholarship. She's terrified to tell her parents so is determined to win the scholarship instead.  After a few setbacks due to Mackenzie she gets a band together and they come up with a song that they are proud of.  

I can see why my daughters like these books. Aside from my kids using a few too many OMGs in their regular vocabulary, there was nothing inappropriate for them to read.  Also while Nikki is a self-proclaimed dork it's not something she's ashamed of.  She is who she is.  She knows she'll never be one of the CCPs (cute and cool people) but doesn't really seem to mind, which is a nice change.  So many other books for this age focus on wanting to/needing to be popular (or at least they did when I was in middle school - when I was admittedly a dorky bookworm who wished I was more popular)

Police Department

Yesterday Little Reader had a Brownie field trip to our local police department. Since it was just going to be about an hour long, it wasn't worth going home and coming back so I stayed for the tour and brought Little Hugger and Little Man with me. They were all very excited about it.

We started in the roll call room where the officers start their shift being updated on anything that happened since they were last working.

Then, we saw different areas of the office - the main control of the building and computers that update them on any major events happening nearby or elsewhere in the country that could effect us. They are constantly monitoring the Weather Channel in order to be prepared for severe weather and related emergencies.  We had a tornado warning this past weekend and the girls all thought it was cool that the officer giving the tour was the one who had sounded the alarm we had all heard - but were a little disappointed that he wouldn't sound it while we were there.

We saw the evidence lockers, report writing area, sargeants desks (which also had the 10 most wanted pictures posted).

We went down to the garage and got to see the squad cars. There was an officer getting ready to go out on patrol so he turned on his lights for the kids and let them see his bullet proof vest (and a couple got to try it on).

The next to last stop was the holding area - aka the jail. It's down in the basement level and was a concrete walled room with 6 cells and one group holding area, a DUI processing area, and a room for interviews. There was a big desk in the middle for the officers. The kids all got to go in one of the cells, and after checking if they wanted him to, he closed the door to the cell, and turned off the lights so they could see what it felt like to be locked in. Lots of shrieking little girls.

He had been joking through a lot of the tour, but at this point sat them all down and very seriously said that today was the only day he wanted to see them there. If you break the law and get arrested you could get kicked out of college, lose your job, etc. At that point he answered questions

Little Reader had a couple
- what is the most common crime they see there? Retail theft
- are there more men who go to jail than women? Almost 50/50 but slight edge to the men
- could they meet the police dog? Nope, she was out on patrol.

He also made an important point that kids should never approach or try to pet a police dog, as they are extremely protective and on guard at almost all times.  He also mentioned that these dogs are so smart that one way that the K9 officer lets the dog know whether it's time to work or if they're off duty is how they let them out of the car.  If they are let out of the front passenger side door, it's time to go to work.  If they are let out the back door, their shift is over and they can relax.  I don't know if that's standard procedure but thought that was pretty cool. 

Other questions
- when was there last someone in jail? someone had been in there that morning
- how long do they stay? usually no more than 48-72 hours  If they aren't released at that point, they get sent to Cook County
- what do they get to eat?  Breakfast is a bagel and milk, hamburger and water for lunch and dinner

Little Hugger had brought her Book About Me and was very excited to get the officer's autograph, and he happily gave it.  I was surprised that a lot of the other kids and parents had never seen it before.  I had one growing up and gave them to each of my kids as pre-school graduation gifts.  If you have young grade schoolers check it out, they're fun books.

We ended the tour in their break room for a snack (leftover s'more fixings from our campout). Each of the kids got a goodie bag to bring home - a coloring book, pencil, police badge sticker, and a ring that says Texting Kills.  My kids didn't really understand what they meant as they didn't make the connection with texting and driving until I explained it.

One last thing that I hadn't realized is that if you are going out of town, you can notify the police and they will add a driveby of your house to their usual patrols for the duration of your absence.  We have an alarm system and always let our immediate neighbors know we're going to be gone so probably would never need it, but still that's a nice option I was never aware of.

All the kids had a great time, and all the officers we met were very friendly and eager to talk to the kids.  If you have a scout group or other group of kids that you're planning an outing for I'd definitely recommend checking with your local police department.  

Page It Forward 2.0 Book Drive

This week the United Way of Lake County kicked off their second annual summer long Page it Forward Book Drive. Last year they were able to collect over 154,000 books for kids from low-income families. 
United Way of Lake County’s kindergarten readiness assessment of incoming kindergartners’ skills in Waukegan found that 76 percent of Waukegan 6-year-olds had no knowledge of books.  I don't really know what they mean by no knowledge of books.  Does that mean that they never read/touched a book/ had a story read to them?  Whatever it means, it's depressing. 

We've read to all our kids pretty much from Day One.  They each have a ton of books on their bookshelves and we go to the library about once a month.  As bloggy Moms we all appreciate the written word, so it's fair to assume that you all read to/provide books for your kids.


This year's goal is 200,000 books.  


We recently went through my kids book shelves and of the books they have we found about 30 that they were willing to part with. Now I just have to figure out when I'm going to drop them off. It's only about a half hour drive for me to any of the locations, but I just want to combine it with something else.

If you are in the Chicagoland area, please consider going through your kids' old books and see if you can find a few to donate. There are dropoff locations all around Lake County, check the website for listing
United Way website. If not, please like their FB page.  Every like gets a donation from their corporate sponsor.  You can also text a $10 donation. All the details are listed on the website and FB page

Book Drive

Last summer my kids and I donated some books to the Page It Forward 2011 book drive. Up until then, I'd never heard of a book drive and I naively assumed all kids had access to books.

Now my daughters' school is running a week long book drive for the same organization - Bernie's Book Bank. According to the literature they came home with, in a low-income area there are on average 1 book per 300 kids. That would mean 2 books for my daughters' entire school. Among the 3 kids' bookshelves in our house we must have hundreds of books and make trips to the library monthly (on top of the weekly trips my daughters take to the school library). I can't even guess how many books my kids have read at this point, but among the 3 of them, I'd guess it's in the 1000s. The school's goal is to collect 3000 books over the course of the week - an average of 5 books per student. Next weeks weekly project happens to be organizing the kids bookshelves, but I already had my son look at his bookshelf and he found 9 books to donate.

If you have any gently used books that your kids have outgrown please donate them to Bernie's Book Bank or a similar organization (I'm sure there are others around the country). Check out this promotional video from Bernie's for more info on how this works.

As bloggers we all appreciate the written word and I would assume you all share this love with your children. Please help spread the joy of a book with those who can't afford to buy their own or don't have access to a library, supporting book banks like Bernie's or find a book drive in your area.

Art Institute

On Good Friday I took the kids to the Art Institute. My daughter recently finished reading the Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone.  It's a book about kids who find a special passage that takes them inside the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute.  She loved the book as it was very similar in style to the Magic Tree House series that she recently completed.  She was a little disappointed to learn that currently there is only one other book from the series currently in print. Hopefully I can find other similar series to keep her interested while until more of these books come out. 

Each room is from a different time period and location (mostly American and Western Europe) with amazing details.  The exhibit is relatively kid friendly as the have a special step all along the exhibit room, so kids can stand up and peer in to the rooms.  My little guy had trouble seeing but I picked him up so he could look into the rooms as well.  His sisters spent a lot more time studying the details.  The details of the rooms really are amazing, and while there are no people in the rooms, you can almost imagine real people living in them.

After the Thorne Rooms we headed up to the Impressionist as my younger daughter wanted to see Seurat's La Grande Jatte - arguably one of the Art Institute's most famous works.  I've always loved this painting too, as I feel like every time I see it I discover something new (sometimes from eavesdropping on conversations of other people admiring it).  There are a couple of small studies in the same room that Seurat painted in preparation for the main piece and we had fun playing a version of can you find the differences?

After exploring some more we came across this painting.  It's called Fisherman's Cottage and was painted by a Norwegian artist named Harald Sohlberg.  I had never noticed it before, but for some reason this time it caught my eye.  I think it was mostly the light coming through the trees, similar to the photos I've been taking recently. It just looks so peaceful.  The picture I've posted really doesn't do it justice as photos of paintings with good lighting rarely do, but this one from the Art Institute website is certainly better than the one I took with my phone :)

At this point the kids were getting a bit antsy, so we went to the Family Room to play for a while before heading home.  We were there for about an hour putting together puzzles, reading books, building with blocks and playing some of the interactive art games on the computer.  Unfortunately there was no free craft to do that day (I think that may only be on weekends), but the kids didn't seem to notice.

All in all a good day.  I remember as a kid, my Mom often took my sister and I to some of the many wonderful art museums in and around New York.  At the time, I know we complained a lot, but over time we both developed an appreciation for art (and my sister ended up minoring in Art in college).  While I have never really studied art and don't have a real grasp of the different styles and who influenced who, I can still appreciate beauty and am trying to impart that on my children.  It helps that at the Art Institute admission for children is free and the recently opened Family Room gives them a place to get the wiggles out before/after an excursion of "Don't Touch".

I noticed that there is a Roy Lichtenstein exhibit coming in the summer, so want to head back downtown for that.  Taking the kids to temporary exhibits is always a little tougher as they tend to be more crowded, but I think they'll enjoy his style, and since most of his paintings are big, they'll still be able to see even if there are a ton of people..

Abe Lincoln at Last!

Admittedly it didn't take me long to read this, but I did enjoy it and understand why my daughter likes the series.

Jack and Annie are the main characters and they live in present day Pennsylvania. They have a Magic Tree House in their backyard that transports them to another time and place by their pointing at a picture of where they want to go in a book.

In this book they are on a mission to get a feather from Abraham Lincoln. They are transported to the Lincoln White House where they meet Lincoln's sons but are unable to get a to see the busy new President. They then use a magic potion to transport them back in time again where they meet a boy who calls himself Sam. (but really is Abe Lincoln as a young boy). He gives Jack and Annie a feather but they don't realize that Sam is actually Abe.

They are transported back to the White House and then do bump in to the President who remembers having met Jack & Annie when he was a boy, and explains that he was Sam, he just liked to play pranks on people. Realizing that they have accomplished their mission, they return home.

It was a quick read but well written. I like that these books teach kids about history in a fun way. In a relatively short book they touch on Lincoln's childhood in a log cabin, the fact that he's main task as President was to reunite the country, and a little on his personality as a prankster. Basically learning made fun. The Research Guides are available for to learn more about the topics covered in the book.

I just need to find a similar series of historical adventures for my voracious reader, since she has read all of these now. Any suggestions?

Page It Forward - Part II

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a book drive taking place near where I live called Page It Forward It's a book drive being organized by the United Way of Lake County, IL to get books to children here in Illinois who don't have access to books. According to a recent study 40% of 6 year olds in that area had never held a book or had a book read to them. I'm sure all you Mommy bloggers out there read regularly to your kids, can you imagine how different your kids would be without books? 

When we dropped off our books back then I was entered in to a raffle for a $50 gift card, and last week they called me to tell me I won.  I received the gift card over the weekend, and decided that the best way to use this free money is to Page It Forward again.  So I took the kids to Borders and had them each pick out books that they think kids their age would enjoy, and I picked a couple too. We got a total of 8 books - one of my favorite board books ever Hug by Jez Alborough a couple of Golden Books, a Dr. Seuss book, a chapter book (as this book drive is for kids up to 6th grade), and a couple more board books.  Now I just have to find the time to get back up to Lake County and drop them off.


And one last appeal to all of you.  Their goal is to collect 100,000 books by September.  I don't remember the exact date and I can't find it listed on their website. At this point they have collected about 37,494 books so obviously they have a ways to go.  I admit I'm not sure if all the sponsor donations are included in that number or if that will be tallied at the end, I think the latter is the case, but don't know for sure

At the very least I ask everyone to just go to Page It Forward Facebook page page and like the page - 1 book will be donated to a child at no cost to you. If you want to help more, sort through your kids books and drop them off at a drop box, or text a donation. All the details are on their site (check the link above).


Thank you

Bye Bye Borders

I went to Borders this weekend after getting an email from them that they are in fact all closing. Even though I'm not at all surprised, it makes me sad.  I know people aren't reading as much as they used to, and many of those who do read are now using Kindles and Nooks. I love to read but I don't often have the time, so end up only buying books a couple of times a year (often at Costco), and most of the kids books we borrow from the library.


I've always preferred Borders to Barnes & Noble but now with no independent bookstores in my town I guess that's where I'll have to go.  I occasionally order books from Amazon, but unless I specifically know what I want, I prefer to wander around seeing what catches my eye, and reading a few pages before committing.


So I picked up a few new things.... 

A friend had recommended The Roses by Leila Meacham, which is described as an epic story of an East Texas family.  One review calls it the new Gone with the Wind. Pretty high praise, and even if it doesn't live up to the hype I always love epic novels.

Lush Life by Richard Price was names as one of NYT's Top Ten books of the year.  The description on the back describes it as a "tale of two Lower East Sides: one a high-priced bohemia, the other a home to hardship, its residents pushed to the edges of the time-honored turf, when a cocky young hipster is shot to death by a street kid from the 'other' LES, the crime ripples through every stratum of the city in this brilliant and kaleidoscopic portrait of the 'new' New York."

I started reading one of my new books yesterday - The Piano Teacher by Janice Lee.  It's the story of a young British woman who moves to Hong Kong in 1952 with her new husband, and teaches piano to the young daughter of a wealthy Chinese family.  I haven't gotten very far in it yet, but am already enjoying it.

I picked up one movie.  The Fisher King with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges.  I only saw it once on my first date with my now husband.  The 20th anniversary of that date is coming up in September, so even though we usually don't do anything to celebrate that day anymore, I thought it would be kind of fun to watch it again.  I don't remember much about the movie, as I haven't watched it since that night.

Also to help keep the kids busy on our roadtrip, I got Madlibs for the girls, and a couple of new Virginia Lee Burton books for my son.  As I mentioned before he likes the construction part of the Little House, so I picked up Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow for him.  All of these books were only reduced by 10% and I'll probably go back as they start discounting more heavily.

I really am sad to see Borders close.  The selection was always good, their employees were always friendly and helpful, and I think they were one of the first to allow you to pre-reserve items on line to pick up in-store.  Key for busy parents everywhere:)

The little house

The little house is one of my all time favorite children's books. I remember reading it as a kid and as soon as my oldest daughter would sit still long enough to listen to a "long" story I got it for her. She loved it too.

Recently we were reading it again, and my son wasn't really paying attention. Then we got to the middle of the book, when the pretty countryside started getting roads. Then he got all excited because now there were pictures of dumptrucks and graders. As the story progressed he started pointing out the trolley cars, subway etc.
 
It's funny because all the times I had read it previously I was reading it from the house's point of view, and thought of it as a sweet story that a boy probably wouldn't really enjoy. It's not that it's a "girly" but I always read it from a more sentimental point of view. He went the other way with it and keyed in on the progress and construction side. It's even become a book that he likes to look at himself (although focusing on those middle pages). Once the house has been moved out if the city and into the countryside he loses interest again. Then again, that's part of what's great about books. Different people can get different things out of them, but enjoy them just the same.