Tag: Guest Blogger

Guest Post: Cherry Balls from Amy

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

Amy is another blogger I met at BEA and actually knew her by name from comments on the blog so it was so fun to meet her in person!  Amy reads so many wonderful books I have to be careful going to her blog because I tend to leave with a wish list!  😀

Sheila

First of all, thank you so much Sheila for asking me to write up a guest post. I hope you are having a wonderful time in Honduras and I’m glad I can do a little bit to help you out while you are there!
Christmas is seriously one of my favorite times of the year. I love picking out the perfect gift for people, I love the kindness of strangers, how so many people donate to charities and food banks to help others, I love the music, and ummm… I really really love the food!

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is my baking. I love taking a day or two to relax, play some Christmas music, and make treats that I can share with family and friends. And eat myself of course! And among all of my baking and treat making, my absolute favorite Christmas treat are Cherry Balls! They are delicious, and super easy to make.


Cherry Balls

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 1/2 cup fine coconut
2 tbsp cream or milk
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 package of baking cherries
1 package of flaked coconut

Mix the first ingredients well and place in the fridge until cold and hard. Use your hands to wrap each cherry in the mixture, and then roll in the coarse or flaked coconut.
Keep refrigerated.
Oh, and I recommend some Michael Buble and Amy Grant Christmas music to listen to while baking, of course. They are both pretty awesome 🙂
I’ve been lucky enough to have already done a lot of my baking this year. I know it is early, but I’ve had family visiting so I took a few days in mid-November to go out to my parents house and visit. While there, I did some of my baking.


I hope you all enjoy the Cherry Balls, and have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you again to Sheila for letting me share.
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Stop over to Amy’s blog to see what else she is up to these days at Amy Reads

Guest Post: A Christmas Memory

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Ryan and I connected a little over a year ago.  I believe he was a new blogger at the time and we just connected.   Last year he was my Review Swap Partner for Book Blogger Appreciation Week and I had a great time interviewing him.  Ryan used to live in Minnesota so we tend to talk about that and I just love reading his blog as he always has something interesting going on!

Sheila

Though I’m not quite sure why I’ve been thinking a lot about one certain Christmas from my childhood. It was the Christmas of 1985 and we had just moved back to Two Harbors, MN earlier that year. I think that Christmas will always stick in my head because that year did not start off very well.

We had been living in California previous too that and needless to say the experience wasn’t one to brag about, especially the last month or two. I’m not really clear on the details of what happened but long story short my mother ended up homeless with two little boys to take care of, I was only 8 at the time and my younger brother was 6. We stayed in a shelter for a few days, but this shelter only allowed people to stay for three days so after that we were sleeping on the streets. I don’t have a lot of memories swirling in my head about those days but one thing I do remember is this really small soul food restaurant that was owned by the sweetest woman in the world. I wish I could remember her name or even the name of the restaurant but she was good to us. She made sure we had something to eat and I can still remember the taste of her potato salad that had just a nice amount of barbecue sauce in it. It was so good my mouth is starting to get a little watery. It was also the first time I had ever had sweet potato pie or Big Red soda, both of which are two things I can still not truly live without.

I’m a little fuzzy on how long the street living lasted but I know it was for a few weeks at least. Eventually the people we had been living with found out what was going on and allowed my mom to move back in, which gave her the time to get a hold of my grandparents who got us back home to Two Harbors. The only other memory I really have of that time, the homeless part anyway since I have tons of memories of living in California that aren’t all that bad, was when we were in the shelter. I can remember sitting on the floor and watching The Land of the Lost on TV and for just a moment I was able to forget about the adult world around me that wasn’t making all that much sense.

We were back home in Two Harbors by that May and I don’t think I truly appreciated or realized the full extent of what we had lived through and escaped from. Looking back at it now, I’m amazed that my mom was able to stay sane through it all and always managed to find a way to provide for us. Once we were back in MN though I felt like all that was behind us and I’m not sure I really thought about it all that much for the next few years. I was able to go to school in clean clothes, sleep in a bed, eat all the food I could ever want and not gain an ounce from it (wish that was true now), but most of all I felt safe again. We didn’t live in a big house, it was a two-story apartment on the edge of town. But it was new and clean and it gave me the security I needed at the time. It also helped that my grandparents only lived about 5 blocks away.

By Christmas time things were really looking up, though we were still poor as could be, my mom did everything she could to make sure we had a fantastic Christmas. I remember the three of us cutting snowflakes out of writing paper and taping them on all the windows, not that we didn’t have enough real snow outside. It was so much fun and something I still do, though we don’t tape them up. They are used to decorate the fridge now. We hung Christmas lights on all the windows and put up the biggest tree we could find and put all the Christmas decorations it could handle on it. My favorite were these icicle lights and a circus elephant that made me smile every time I glanced it on the tree. My mom was and probably still is a lover of all things garland and tinsel so the tree was decked out in all the metallic shimmer your eyes would ever want to see. Add on the homemade popcorn and cranberry strings and that poor tree probably wanted to fall down from all the weight.

The presents that year still stick in my head as the greatest of the great. It was the year I got my first Agatha Christie books, the puzzle of outer space, and the Dayton Hudson Santa Bear I so desperately wanted. I know that some of them either came from my grandparents (their old Atari system that was like gold to me) or the Salvation Army (the orange clip on tie she got me so I could wear it to church with our neighbors). No matter where they came from though I knew she put thought and love into them and she fought tooth and nail to give us a Christmas we would never forget. She did the best she could that year and I love her for it still.

Why this Christmas really sticks in my memory is because of one night and how that night still resonates within me. I can still remember that while I was home by myself, my mom and brother were at a neighbors, I was sitting in a chair by that overly laden Christmas tree. I had just turned off most of the lights in the house and I was listening to the Chipmunks Christmas album while I was reading a book. It was snowing outside and I remember watching the snow fall in the back yard which overlooked the woods and I’m not sure I have ever felt that at peace or that right with the world. I know those are heavy things for a 9 year old (I had a birthday in August) to be thinking, but looking back on it, I think they are the right words to use. I felt so secure in that moment that I think it instilled a love of all things Christmas in me that would last me the rest of my life. No matter what is going on in my life, the bills that need to be paid, the car that needs to be replaced (not right now thankfully), or all the other stresses that keep us up some nights; Christmas seems to brush them all to the side. The joy and love that this season embodies makes me feel like that 9 year old again, safe and secure and sure that nothing bad is going to happen to me. That no matter what I’ve had to deal with over the past year, Christmas is the time to let it all go and know that everything is right with the world, even if it’s only for a month.

I would like to thank Sheila for the opportunity to share this memory with you, though to be honest this wasn’t what I was going to do the post about. When I first sat down to write I was going to do a post about my favorite Christmas songs but for some reason I felt the need to share this story and I hope you enjoyed it. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas filled with all the love and laughter your hearts can handle.

Read more of what Ryan has to say at his blog, Wordsmithonia

Guest Post: Baking Traditions With Kim

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

I met Kim when I was looking for roommates for BEA this past year.  She and comes from our neighboring state of Wisconsin and runs an amazing blog over at Sophisticated Dorkiness (I know… love the name right?) I was able to connect with her again at the Twin Cities Expo in September.

Sheila

 

This is the traditional group of bakers that came to our house. My mom, Annette, is fifth from the left (bending down, with a baby over her head), and my aunt, Anita, is behind her to the right, holding the baby.

 

 

One of my very favorite Christmas cookies actually has very little to do with Christmas, and remains a holiday tradition only because I stubbornly resist tearing them apart.

Every year for about as long as I can remember, my mom has hosted an annual Christmas Cookie Bake right around the beginning of December. About 20 women come to our house on a Saturday afternoon and bake hundreds and hundreds of cookies, then do a gift and cookie exchange from the baked goods. Seeing all those cookies spread out on three different giant tables has always been one of the most decadent memories from my childhood.

 

This is, from left to right, my friend Kristi, me, my sister Jenny, and my friend Michelle, helping out. I think this is one of the first years we were old enough to help with the baking. Check out my rockin' overalls and sweet bangs. Way awesome! We may actually be making Hershey Kiss Cookies, it's hard to tell.

When I was about nine, my aunt came with a recipe for a new cookie that changed my world, simply called the Hershey Kiss Cookie. When you combine Hershey’s Kisses, mini-chocolate chips, sugar, butter, and some other ingredients, how can you go wrong?

(In case you were confused, this cookie is not the sugar/peanut butter cookie rolled in sugar then planted with a Hershey Kiss in the middle, often called “Peanut Butter Blossoms.” The cookies I am in love with are far superior.)

I’m not sure what it is about Hershey Kiss Cookies that as captured my heart and taste buds — I just love them so much I’ve been known to sneak them away from the family cookie stash to keep them for myself, and feel seriously dejected when no one makes them around Christmas.

That’s pretty irrational, for a lot of reasons. First of all, the recipe is really simple. The only tedious part is unwrapping the dozens and dozens of Kisses you need, but with a group it’s a lot of fun. Second, there’s nothing about these cookies that make them a “Christmas only” recipe like Gingerbread Men. They’re chocolate wrapped in modified chocolate chip cookie dough — perfect any time of the year.

I tried making them out of season once, I think in the summer when I was craving them too much to wait six more months. But they just weren’t the same. Something about baking and cooking with family and friends has imprinted these cookies with the holidays, and I just can’t eat them any other season.

I’ve never actually taken a photo of these cookies myself, but they look basically like these from the Hershey’s website (minus the frosting drizzle, I am not that fancy). However, DO NOT use the Hershey recipe — the one I got from my aunt, shared below, is far superior.

 


Hershey Kiss Cookies

1 cup butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup mini chocolate chip morsels
14 oz bag Hershey’s kisses

Cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar.  Add vanilla.  Add mini morsels. Stir in flour. Take approximately 1 tsp of dough and wrap around 1 kiss.  Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

 

Check in on Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

Guest Post: Cole Family Christmas

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

I met Heather at BEA this past May of 2010 and I just thought she was a brilliant book gal!  I loved talking book clubs with her as we are both in a long standing book club and I enjoyed sharing ideas to make our club reviews more involved.

Sheila


I’m so glad Sheila gave me the chance to post at her blog because now I can tell all of you about a wonderful Christmas book you’ve probably never heard of.

The Cole Family Christmas is a children’s book about one Christmas in the real life Cole family, circa 1920. Papa Cole is a miner in the mountains of Kentucky. He and Mama Cole have 9 children, ranging in age from 1-year-old to 18 years old. The family isn’t rich by any stretch of the word but they do have enough, and that’s really all they need.

This particular Christmas Mama and Papa tell the children they can write to Santa and ask for one special thing from the Wish Book (aka the big catalog). However, just a few days before Christmas, a huge snowstorm blows in. Will Papa make it home from his extra shift at the mine? Will Santa be able to make it with their special gifts? And how can the children make amends for breaking one of Mama’s treasured possessions? What will this Christmas be like for the Coles?

I love this book! It is a wonderful tale of family love and it is well worth reading, both for adults and for children.

One thing that makes this book extra special to me is the relationship between the authors. Hazel Cole Kendle is the youngest of the Cole children and the only surviving one as well. Jennifer Liu Bryan is married to Hazel’s grandson. Jennifer wrote the book based on stories Hazel and her siblings told over the years. What a wonderful collaboration between generations!

If you are familiar with my blog (Age 30+ … A Lifetime of Books) you know that I have a great relationship with my grandparents. What you may not know is that I write down all the stories they tell me in the hope that one day I can compile them into an informal book for the rest of the family to enjoy. Knowing what I do about the authors of this book made me love it even more, and inspired me to keep doing what I’m doing with MY grandparents.

I have to add that I loved the illustrations by Jennifer Julich. Not being an artsy person I don’t really know how to describe them except to say that they conveyed the characters in a realistic but still fun way. They are perfect for this book.

To learn more about this wonderful book you can check out The Cole Family Christmas website.

Are there any Christmas books you love that no one else seems to have heard of?  Please share them in the comments!

Stop in and see Heather at Age 30+ A Lifetime Of Books

 

Guest Post: Holidays Happen…. “Weather” We Are Ready or Not

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

Reagan is a fellow Minnesotan and has been my roommate for BEA and for the Twin Cities Book Expo.  She’s funny, a teacher…. oh – and she is my roommate for BEA 2011 as well!

Sheila

 

Christmas, and many other winter holidays, in the Midwest is always “hit and miss.” It always arrives of course, but due to the fast-changing weather, traditions are a bit hard to keep.

For instance, for Thanksgiving this year Dan and I were supposed to travel to Northern Minnesota (about a 7 hour drive). On Wednesday school was dismissed early due to freezing rain and poor weather conditions. Northern Minnesota was also blessed with 10 inches of snow on Wednesday night. For obvious reasons, we did not make it to Bemidji for Thanksgiving; if we weren’t battling ice, we’d have been battling snow.
 

Ice, Ice, Baby


Traditions in the Midwest, especially when dependent on weather, are hard to keep. When Sheila asked me to write a post about Christmas traditions, I really struggled with ideas. It’s been several years since I’ve had a “planned” Christmas. Last year the weather was so bad across the Dakotas, my family and I were snowed in for three days in Bemidji. The year before that we made it to Watertown, SD, for Christmas Eve but the weather was too bad on Christmas Day to travel further west for Christmas with my Mom’s side.


When you live in the Midwest, you learn not to plan ahead or get too invested in those plans.  🙂
This year Dan works Christmas Eve (the night shift) and on Christmas Day we “plan” to drive to Bismarck, ND (again, about 7 hours) and spend a few days with Dan’s family – weather pending. We will see what happens. 🙂
One thing I have learned: always be prepared with a great book. Last year my book of choice while being snowed in was Courtney Summers’ “Cracked Up to Be.” This year I have a whole list of books needing to be read, but especially Lauren Oliver’s “Delirium” (2/2/11).
Stop by and see Reagan (and occasionally Dan too!) at Miss Remmer’s Reviews

Guest Post: Traditions by Alyce

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Have you met the amazing Alyce?  I remember when I first found Alyce’s blog and I  loved how her sidebar says “Alyce (rhymes with peace)… I think of that whenever  I stop by her blog and it makes me smile.  🙂

Sheila


 

Alyce and her family

The Christmas tradition that stands out the most in my memory from childhood is that of retrieving boxes of ornaments from the attic and decorating the house.  But the first thing that my mom would do prior to decorating was reach into our cabinet and pull out all of our holiday records and stack them up next to the record player.  There was a lot of Christmas music there, and I know that we did listen to most of the records, but the only one that I remember; the one that got the most play time, was the Elvis Christmas album.  I have so many good memories of dancing around the house and putting up decorations with Elvis singing in the background.

Prepping the tree

During those first few years of marriage the memories of Christmases blur together, in part because we always celebrated at our parents’ houses.  When we had our kids, however, we wanted to create our own family traditions and I couldn’t resist incorporating Elvis Christmas tunes into our holiday.  So now, each Christmas when my kids get ready to decorate the tree they are accompanied by “Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me” and “If Every Day Was Like Christmas,” among others.  I will be curious to see if those songs will bring back nostalgic memories for them someday when they are older, or if they just melt into the background of Christmas memories.  If there’s one thing I know it’s that nostalgia is different for everyone, and the best we can do is create a lot of fun memories and then wait to see which ones are treasured most by those we love.

I know that making Christmas cookies is a family tradition for many people, but it was not something I remember doing often when I was growing up, so I was excited to make it into a yearly event with my kids.  Every year, at some point during the two-week break from school I get out the cookie press and make dozens of butter cookies.  Most years I buy the boys each a tube of frosting and a large bag of mini-M&Ms to decorate a plate of their own cookies.  Last year though, I discovered that the butter cookies taste even better (at least to me)  if they are made with colored sugar sprinkles  instead of being slathered with frosting and piled high with candy.

Below is the recipe that I like the best for butter cookies (which this recipe calls shortbread cookies).  I think calling them butter cookies makes more sense; after all they are made with a pound of butter!

Shortbread Cookies

1 lb butter
1 cup sifted icing sugar
3 cups sifted flour
½ cup cornstarch

Cream butter, add sugar & gradually add flour & cornstarch sifted together. Whip mixture until fluffy & mixture breaks or looks curdled. Drop by teaspoons or put through cookie press onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 300F until light golden brown (about 20 minutes).

Check out Alyce At Home With Books.

Guest Post: Holiday Tour Of France

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

I found Esme over a year ago when I was blog hopping one day and discovered this book reviewer and food lover.  Her book reviews drew me in and then her food pictures and recipes held me there.  I was like a kid in a candy store and I told her I had to start limiting my visits to her blog because it made me hungry!  Who knew that this original connection with this California blogger would eventually put us together as roommates at BEA.  (Yes, another roommate!)  😀 You are also soon to discover… she is handy with a camera too!

Sheila

Hello, I am Esme from Chocolate and Croissants.  It is an honor for me to be guest posting at Book Journey.  Today I am going to take you to one of my favorite places France, as we tour the Christmas markets.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

This time of the year, Christmas markets can be found along the French-German border.  Given the tumultuous history this area has experienced changing hands between the French and the Germans the food is a beautiful mixture of both French and German cuisine. While each market enjoys it’s own potpourri of decorations, vendors and food, the baked goods reflect the history of the area.

A few years ago, I took the TGV train from Paris to Strasbourg.  Strasbourg home to the printing press was my gateway to a world of epicurean delights and Christmas treasures.


The largest market in Strasbourg could be found in the main square.  All the buildings were decorated with Christmas tinsel and holiday cheer.

From Strasbourg I had a rental car and drove through the French countryside visiting little villages.

These Christmas loaves are full of dried fruit, nuts and a healthy dose of liquor.  Each village had baked Christmas goods different from other villages.  By the time I left, my bags were packed with cakes and cookies to bring back home with me.

Of course, everyone should enjoy a chocolate Santa.

Of course, one must try marrons glace (glazed chestnuts).  Did I? No, I must confess I do not like chestnuts, but I think I really missed out.

Joyeaux Noel and Merry Christmas and be good you never know where Santa may be.


Stop in and bring your appetite at Chocolates and Croissants!

Women In Leadership Month

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

I was recently given the opportunity to read and reaview Dawn McCoys book, Leadership Building Blocks.  I am a person who loves to always be sharpening skills and learning new ways to improve on what I am doing.  I really enjoyed Dawn’s book and took notes on parts of the book that I have been applying to my work environment as well as to teams I have the pleasure of working with.

Thank you Dawn for a book now sits in my office along with other books on leadership and skills I hold with great value.

Celebrate Women in Leadership Series
 with Dawn McCoy

During the month of March 2010, Dawn McCoy, author of Leadership Building Blocks will highlight great women in leadership during Women’s History Month.

Sheila: Thank you for allowing me to be a guest blogger today at Book Journey. Today, in the Celebrate Women in Leadership series, I want to highlight Anne Frank.

Annelies Marie better known as “Anne” Frank is one the most renowned Jewish victims of the Holocaust. She is not remembered for her death but more for the exceptional quality of her writing in her diary, The Diary of Anne Frank that has become one of the world’s most widely read books.

She was born in Frankfurt, Germany and lived most of her life near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary which documents her experiences hiding during the World Ward II German occupation of the Netherlands. In later years, her diary would be translated into fifty-five languages and would sell more than twenty million copies.

Anne and her family were trapped in Amsterdam due to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands around 1940. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, her family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of her father Otto Frank‘s office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

What I most admire about Anne Frank and her writings is that she was simultaneously candid and courageous. Not only did she provide us with the context of historical events but also an understanding of Europe during the Nazi occupation and subsequent Holocaust that impacted thousands.

Here are some of Frank’s most poignant excerpts:

On life: “Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year old school girl. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I feel like writing.”

On self-fulfillment: Happiness….that’s something you can’t achieve by taking the easy way out. Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy.”

On legacy: “I shall not remain insignificant I shall work in the world for mankind. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living, even after my death.”

On balance: “Beauty remains, even in misfortune. If you just look for it, you discover more and more happiness and regain your balance.”

TOUR GIVEAWAY: Blog visitors who leave comments  OR radio callers with questions for Dawn are eligible to win an autographed copy of Leadership Building Block and a copy of the Effective Community Engagement CD.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dawn McCoy is author of Leadership Building Blocks: An Insider’s Guide to Success. As one of the youngest elected African-American elected to the Sacramento City Unified School Board, McCoy shares seven leadership fundamentals in her book. Inspiring readers to be top in their field, Dawn shares her insights based upon twenty years serving as a nonprofit and government executive.

A motivational speaker, coach, and founder of Flourish Leadership Group, a leadership development and communications firm, Dawn is dedicated to transforming ordinary people into extraordinary leaders. In recent years, she has worked with organizations to develop their vision and create phenomenal results. Dawn has worked with hundreds of individuals to help them capture their spirit of leadership and truly become the effective leaders they were meant to be.

Visit Dawn online at FlourishLeadership.com.

Read an excerpt online and visit the tour schedule at http://bit.ly/LeadershipBuildingBlocks.

Feddie Girl by Nona David

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments


Carlotta Ikedi (A.k.a Feddie Girl) has never liked school. Not in California. Not in Oklahoma. When her exasperated parents ship her off to boarding school–in West Africa–Carlotta faces a life, culture, and existence unlike anything she’s ever known.

School rules and regulations, rising bell, lights-out, manual labor, inspections, dining time, prefects, punishments, mean bunkmates, and visiting days–it’s all here. But author Nona David takes Carlotta’s story a step further when her adventure’s lead to unfortunate incidents that threaten to drive her American family into the clutches of infidelity and organized crime.

Boarding school doesn’t get any better than this…

For those who have experienced the boarding school life, the adventures of Feddie Girl will bring those memories crashing back… For anyone else, get ready to see the world as Feddie Girl.

◊     ◊     ◊     ◊    ◊     ◊     ◊     ◊     ◊     ◊

I am hearing wonderful things about this book which has sat on my TBR shelf way too long.  With time commitments pressing in on me I called in a little help from a friend of mine to assist in reviewing a few books.  Camryn is the daughter of my good friend Heidi, and Camryn, like her mother – loves to read.

Camryn, at ten years old, excels in her class in reading and writing.   She truly has a way with words and I am hoping one of these days she will let me help her get started with a little blogging world of her own.  🙂 So, I would like to now welcome Camryn, and her wonderful raving review of Feddie Girl.

I personally enjoyed Feddie Girl by Nona David.  This book was full of twists, turns, and unexpected moments!

The story is about a teenager going to a private all-girls school in Nigeria.  She meets new people and discovers that this boarding school is quite strict, including chores and a lot of homework.

As the story continues, she learns that life is not a fairy tale and it takes work to keep it going steady.  When something totally horrible happens, she is determined to make the person that caused it suffer.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys suspense and stories of hardships that make people see things in a new way.

Nona David currently lives with her husband in Cincinatti, Ohio.  She has a passions for foreign cultures and zeal to visit new places, learn new languages, and experience new things.  Her background, friends, and experiences in Nigeria, West AFrica is the major influence of her debut novel, Feddie Girl.

Nona loves to read and believes every reading experience should be fun and exciting. Her target audience is mainly females between the ages of 13-55; and anyone who simply enjoys reading quality fiction.

With FEDDIE GIRL, Nona wants to offer readers a different kind of reading experience by introducing them to foreign adventures and cultures. FEDDIE GIRL offers a unique and toe-curling story that is exciting, witty, adventurous, and humor-filled. FEDDIE GIRL is a sizzle, a keep-sake, an info pack, and a memory nudge that will transport readers into the foreign cultures of Nigeria and keep them turning the pages and yearning for more.


SOLD OUT!!! And The Feddie Gist Continues…

For those of you who couldn’t grab copies before it sold out, you may still be able to get the emergency copies kept on reserve by the Publisher for situations such as these. (Price $19.99; Only at the publisher’s website. Not available anywhere else! https://bernardbooks.com)

Personally, I think the book sounds fantastic!  Thank you to Camryn for taking the time to read and love this book!

UPDATE:  The wonderful bloggers at My Book Buds have a copy of this book available to the first person who emails them (within the US) with their address.  Email is:   info(at)mybookbuds.com

This book was offered for review by Bernard Books


Guest Blogger Review: The Rights Of The Reader by Daniel Pennac

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Recently I had the opportunity to chat a bit with Kath from Insert Suitably Snappy Title Here.  We were discussing her post on the the book, The Rights Of The Reader.  Of course, it was the title that drew me in….   Here is a bit of our discussion, followed by Kath’s review.


Kath, how long have you been blogging?

Kath: I have been blogging for almost 4 years now. My blog started off as a way of finding my writing style but has

 

aa
Meet Kath!

grown and developed into a book blog. Which is not surprising, given that I’m a complete book nut.

 



Hmmmm…. a complete book nut huh?  I would know nothing about that….LOL.   What do you find most enjoyable about blogging?

Kath: The thing I enjoy most about this blog is the fact that it has grown and developed with me. Now that I am in a position to spend more time on the things I love (reading and writing) I’ve really enjoyed making my blog into the sort of thing I’d always wanted to but never quite found the time to achieve.

 



Kath, why are you so excited about this book, Rights of the Reader?

Kath: The main thing that got me about this book is that it’s so true and so applicable. Right now, kids all over the world are learning to read and the accepted teaching methodologies risks turning a lot of kids off reading which is a huge loss not only to their lives but to the world. A more widely read population can only make for a better world, right? I also loved the way this book is written. Pennac uses the most gorgeous language to describe even the most ordinary situations which makes life sparkle.

It does sound interesting.  What are you hoping that people take away from this book?

Kath: I’m hoping that people will take away inspiration and understanding, as well as the tools to ensure that future generations love books as much as many of us have.

Thank you Kath for sharing your review here with us today.  Please be sure to stop by Kath’s blog at Insert Suitably Snappy Title Here and check out what else Kath is talking about!

Image credit: Here


aThe Rights of the Reader
By Daniel Pennac (Trans. Sarah Adams)
Published October 2006
Walker Books Limited
Cast your mind back. You’re seven years old and you’ve just got your very own library card. Surrounded by silence and the smell of words and promised adventures, you run giddily towards the children’s section. You run your hand over the shelves of books, some smooth, some bumpy, all tagged with some weird and unfathomable code. Before you know it, you’ve picked up something that has caught your attention and you’ve settled into the bright red beanbag for the long haul. You forget where you are, consumed by the voices and exploits of Asterix or the Famous Five and you can’t believe it’s time to go already when, an hour later, your Mum comes round the corner to find you.

Every week you come back and you always leave with a pile of books, one of which you’re usually half way through by the time you get home. The need to read consumes you: you sneak off to the toilet to get in a few pages, you read late at night with a torch under the bedcovers. You are, in fact, a veritable addict, looking feverishly along the shelves to find your next hit.

Then, somewhere along the line, something happens. Reading loses some of the joy it once held – it becomes, unthinkably, a chore. A task that has to be completed by next Monday, with an 800 word essay to boot. High school literature studies have come home to roost. English class is now peering over your shoulder, pointing out that you shouldn’t be reading that book, you should read this one, the required text. You know, the one sitting ominously on your desk, unreadable and daunting.

This is where the education system, according to Daniel Pennac, fails our kids. I recently read his amazing book The Rights of the Reader (translated by Sarah Adams) as part of a bookring through Bookcrossing and was very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting something completely different – a fun and lighthearted look at reading as a hobby – but was met with an entertaining and brilliantly written manifesto on the importance of teaching our future generations to love reading and not make it a “should” – a word sure to kill any desire to do something.

Pennac points out that as kids, we loved to hear stories and would beg our parents again and again to read us our favourite books. It is in this tradition of oral storytelling, he argues, that reading is based. It’s our desire to hear new stories and follow new heroes on new adventures that drives us from one finished book to the next new one. But as soon as interfere with our child’s relationship with books and we disturb the private “alchemist’s voice” in their minds, we start to suck their joy out of their reading experience. This, claims Pennac, is a crime of epic proportions. A relationship with books is one of the most consistent and satisfying ones that most people will have in their lives, after all.

The solution? Simple, claims Pennac. Take it back to the basics – oral storytelling. Read to those who have become disenchanted by the hard slog of required textbooks and compulsory reading. Re-introduce that spark. Draw them back in. Before you know it, they’ll have rediscovered that “alchemist’s voice” and they’ll be off in their own private world of books again.

This book was a really fascinating read for me as I recognised that I had suffered a period of book fatigue until pretty recently. As a kid, I was the one hiding under the sheets with a book and a torch. I read an insane amount of books from all sorts of genres, right up until the age of 15 – that’s when it started for me. Required reading to be completed within a ridiculously short period of time, essays to write and not to mention maths homework and geography study…. Luckily, I’ve rediscovered that old spark and have come back to the ranks of the voracious reader – one “right” at a time. If there’s anyone out there that has lost their spark, or knows someone who is struggling with reading – I highly recommend this book. It’ll surely help you bring them back from the brink of a world without books.