Wow…this book i have to say made a huge impact on me. I started this book late last night and read it from page to page (all 290 of them) today until i finished it. It was a roller coaster ride of connecting one emotional experience to another for me.
This book is about a 12 year old girl who is Waiting For Normal. She is living with her mother, Denise; her biological father died when she was a three year old girl.
Her biological grandfather (whom Denise hates) and her ex- step-father Dwight, bind together to protect Addie from her mother’s inability to parent in a healthy way. Dwight became a huge part of her life. Dwight and her mother had two other young girls together; but, when their marriage came apart he took the young girls to live with him.
He wanted Addie as well…but, he had no legal rights to her. He wasn’t her father in the eyes of the law. Addie’s mother has some real problems. She caused them to loose their home by mismanaging their money; she didn’t pay her mortgage or many of her other bills. She spends tons of money for office supplies when she doesn’t have an office job.
Denise puts too much responsibility on Addie. She teaches Addie to hide their circumstances from those in a position to help her. She doesn’t keep enough food in the trailer. She is obsessive about chatting on the computer; and she is obsessed with a television show. Denise keeps her three children a secret from her new boyfriend. She also is newly pregnant. Addie keeps all of her mother’s secrets from those who need to know to help Addie; much to her own detriment.
Dwight comes to the rescue and allows them to live in a small trailer in a broken down part of town. He comes to check up on Addie as often as he can; he lives quite a distance out of town due to his job in construction. He loves her as deeply as he loves his biological girls. He tries to put up safety nets as best he can; for when her mother fails her again. Denise fails Addie often.
Addie’s mother Denise is not a very consistent parent; she is all or nothing in everything she does. Addie loves her mother; but, she is often left alone while her mother is out making a business plan. It never amounts to much except that Addie is left alone to feed and clothe herself. Addie develops friendships with a couple of people who run a local convience store across the city lot.
Addie becomes their hero as the lady owner, her name is Soula , is sick with cancer. She takes Addie under her wing when she is able and is a surrogate aunty. She entertains Addie, and encourages her as well as keeps an eye on her.
Addie fears the protective services workers as her mother has failed her before. Addie’s mother very much sounds like someone with a personality disorder or maybe someone afflicted with bi-polar/manic/depressive disorder. She isn’t able to meet the needs of any of her children; yet she finds ways to meet her own needs without burdening herself with day to day care of her 12 yr old child who she treats as an adult equal.
It all blows up in the end…twisting and turning…this family drama. By the end of the book…i am weeping with sorrow, and joy. I am truly moved, as Addie’s story touches the parts of my heart that allowed me to foster parent many children like Addie for over 19 years of my own life.
My heart hurts for the brokeness of the family that Addie longed for and needed. My mind tried to find ways to comfort and fix her life circumstances and in the end… I resigned myself to read the pages before me, until Addie’s life was resolved in a way i could live with. 
She is a survivor and an overcomer in all the ways that count; and she does those things without loosing her ability to love.
Waiting for Normal is a very good book for a young person to read no matter their own family circumstances! This book was published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. It was copyrighted in 2008. The author is : Leslie Connor
Water Power is another title from the Energy For The Future And Global Warming series. This book was written by Andrew Solway and illustrated by Stefan Chabluk. It was copyrighted in 2008 and published by Gareth Stevens Publishing. The subject of this book is about one of the most basic sources of life; and yet, it is also one of the most abused sources.
Since the beginning of time, man has tried to learn to use water to make life easier. There are those who waste water without giving it a thought and yet, as climate changes affect our lives daily, we must learn how to best use what we have been blessed with in the least damaging way possible.
Water Power is a great energy source. When that source is harnessed in the right way it is powerful and can be made eco friendly. Water is used to heat and to cool homes and businesses. Water is used to generate electricity. Vehicles are being designed to partially run on the power of water instead of fossil fuels. With the idea that fossil fuels wont last forever; engineers are getting creative figuring out ways to make better use of oceans, rivers, lakes and resevoirs.
From days past, humans have realized the brillance of using the movement of water to power machinery. Water wheels were used to power grind stones to grind up grains between the stones using the motion of the water to turn the wheels.
This book is a small history lesson, blending the beginnings of knowlege in the areas of inventing different ways to power our world. As the world population grows, our need for more energy increases every day. We must create more energy while doing as little damage to our planet as possible; it is wise to use green ideas when we can.
There are some great pictures and charts included on these pages which shows the force that can be achieved by simply focussing on the most prescious resource we have…water.
The publishers website is as follows: http://www.garethstevens.com.
This book Step-by-Step Crafts for Summer written by Kathy Ross and illustrated by Jennifer Emery is the type of book i longed for as a child. The crafts are fun and easy to make. They are made with everyday items laying around the house; you dont have to go out and buy some expensive or hard to find items to make the projects.
There is a wonderful project that kids will absolutely love it is a covered/insulated water bottle. It is easily made from a discarded sock and some craft beads. The only suggestion i have for this project is to use plastic lanyard in place of the string that they suggest. I think it would be stronger and more supportive for carrying the water bottle when it was filled. This project and many of the others are easy to do with or without adult help.
The creativity in the book is wonderful and may trigger hours of busy time for kids with nothing but time on their hands this summer. I liked the project for gift giving as well. They have a wonderfully useful and fun gift to give away to a school graduate. It is a small film canister decorated to look like a graduate and it is filled when completed with quarters to be used like for laundry or something equally needed when the graduate goes off to college on their own for the first time!
I love that the illustrations are colorful and eye catching. Kids will make good use of this book giving parents some much needed down time during the summer. Parents will love having this book around for those moments when the comment ”there is NOTHING to do” is spoken.
This book was copyrighted in 2007 by Boyds Mills Press. Their website is: www.boydsmillspress.com.
Tsunamis, a book in the Natural Disasters series was published by Smart Apple Media. There are six books in the series. One subject for each book; they are as follows: Droughts, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Volcanoes: and again, the book we are discussing today is Tsunamis.
This book is filled with many colorful pictures, charts and illustrations. While the subject is about the destructive force of tsunamis…it takes special care to explain how a tsunami is formed; and about the care that has been taken to develop warning systems.
While a young child might find the pictures disturbing, of the damaged buildings and properties, there are no pictures of dead human bodies. Certainly the words discuss this great loss but the pictures have shown more of the damage in the areas of damage to inanimate objects.
For the child who reads, the book does well explaining how tsunamis are triggered. It explains the cause and effect of the earth’s shifting of it’s tectonic plates; or eruptions of underwater volcanoes, and of the power of an earthquake’s effect on the movement of the ocean’s water.
There is one picture that stands out, in my mind, of people standing on the beach where the water has receeded, staring out to sea; farther out there are two much larger ridges of waves crashing towards the humans as they realize the danger they are in. It is a strong visual of the human being’s fascination with the power of nature even when common sense says to flee.
Finally, there is an important passage about disaster relief and the high cost of rebuilding these communities. It communicates to the reader how important it is for nations to work together when disaster strikes.
Tsunamis was written by Louise Parks and it was published in 2008. The publisher has a couple of websites that can be visited. The first of the websites: http://www.macmillan.com.au/ and the other is http://www.macmillanlibrary.com.au/; macmillan is one of the best out there for publishing books kids want to read.
Fearless Living; Live Without Excuses and Love Without Regret is written by life/career coach Rhonda Britten. She is a former coach from the ground breaking television show Starting Over. That show was all about re-grouping from whatever starting point a person is at where they are experiencing difficulties in their life and taking charge by starting over.
This book explores a little background from Rhonda’s personal journey (such as witnessing and overcoming the murder/suicide of her parents) as well as outlinning the development of her program that she uses in her sucessful business of life/career coaching.
The book uses some of the cases with her clients for illustration as well as giving exercises on developing techniques for isolating the things that hold people back and using short little exercises teaching how to change the way a person views obstacles in their path.
I like the parts about teaching yourself to acknowledge the positive things about oneself and to be aware of negative self talk so that it can be overcome. We all can learn to improve those situations in our head that tell us that we just aren’t competent enough, or smart enough or deserving enough for all the good things in life that others seem to be enjoying with such relish!
I found the book to be personally challenging to me in problem areas that i deal with in my own life. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve their own circumstances.
It was copyrighted in 2001 and was published by Dutton, Penguin Group. You can see Rhonda’s website at: http://rhondabritten.com.
Pandora’s Daughter, written by Iris Johansen, has left me feeling as if i have committed gluttony of the written word. I have a love/sick addiction to her books. I pick it up and i don’t stop reading until i have consumed the whole book. By the time i am done reading, my eyes are blurry and i realize i have forgotten to eat or drink.
The book centers around a woman named Megan who is living the life of a doctor. She is having a little trouble keeping herself un-involved emotionally in her cases. She cares deeply; others find this troubling. One night driving home she is driven off of the road by a maniac.
She is successful in avoiding death; but, is deeply upset when she gets home to her Uncle. She later discovers that her whole life has been “constructed” by two men who set out to protect her from some evil men who have been on a mission to destroy her since she was a young woman.
Her memory has been put in storage for years. She has flashes of memory that confirm things she doesn’t want to admit… she hears voices. Megan finds out she is a Listener. The flashes of memory scare her. They also underscore that she and her mother have shared extra ordinary abilities; and, she is conflicted about being her mother’s daughter.
She disovers things, about the past and her mother, that she finds unbelievable. She discovers the meaning of Pandora’s Daughter as she leaves her profession temporarily to explore her family history.
There is an undercurrent of intrigue with the FBI, and, an international hitman is mixed into the story for good measure. There’s blood and gore; as well as some mystical mechanics of the mind. It is a typical Iris Johansen masterpiece. She makes us connect, with her characters, in such a way that is hard to say good bye to them.
The book was #1 on the New York Times Bestselling list. It was copyrighted in 2007 and was published by Johansen Publishing, LLP.
Ball Of Fire, written by Stefan Kanfer is a biography of Lucille Ball. She was best known as the female, comedian /lead actress of the famous, I Love Lucy, television show. Many know of her skills for comedy. Some know of her movie actress career before her entrance into millions of american homes through television. Few know of her successful, modeling career that came even before her film career.
As a star in television, she had an intense effect on the American families. She was accused of being communist and almost ended her career in Hollywood because of the accusations. She and Desi Arnaz were not a conventional married couple during the 1940′s. He was from Cuba and she was definately not from Cuba. She had a career when most women did not. They didn’t have children for many years. Their backgrounds were completely at odds; and, so it seemed were their versions of what a marriage should be.
Still, the combination of their skills,talents, and desires were to mix in such a successful way that their need to be together in life and in business could not be denied. Lucy trail-blaized the way for future, female comics. She was a wonder of entertainment with her innate sense of timing setting up gags in such a way to make the audience return week after week. She was able to use her mind, and her body to elicite laughs like no other female person during this time.
The book covers all of the difficulties and challenges such a clash of cultures, and expectations could produce. It also shows us, the behind the scenes of achievement and the cost that comes from being driven to be successful.
The personal side of their family is both intriguing and bittersweet. The many miscarriages; Desi’s love of family and yet his need to see women on the side, jealousies, professional/financial limitations, chance meetings with people who could and would influence their destinies, the birth of their children, the neglect of their children’s need for more time with their parents and the success of their television show and the Desilu Studio create so much drama it is amazing that even though they divorce and marry others…their love continues to endure their difficulties until death.
It was a little eye- opening to discover that the woman that we welcomed into our lives growing up wasn’t always zany and laughing. She could be moody and difficult. She was a complex woman dealing with many layers of success and dissapointments. She was a perfectionist who demanded total and complete obedience and yet was submissive in many ways to Desi and his controlling ways. In other aspects, she was unbending. It was often forgiven, as she was usually on the money with what she asked for regarding her show. She hated aging and was very unhappy professionally during her remaining years after the end of her show biz career.
The book is fascinating and definately worth the time it takes to read it from cover to cover. It was copyrighted in 2003 and was published by Alfred A. Knopf
Solar Power is a book in the series called Energy For The Future And Global Warming. It is awesome. I love, love, love this book. Yeah ok, it is an education book ..but it is in disquise as a fun book. It is hard cover and the pictures , diagrams and layouts in the book are cool.
The book starts off telling what energy and global warming are. It explains the power of the sun. Then, it discusses the carbon cycle and how that contributes to the problem of global warming. The book goes on to tell us all of the different ways that we can use solar power to make our lives easier and to make the earth a better place to live.
There are examples of what solar energy can do and all of the things in recent years that have utilized solar power to do wonderous things.
There are solar ovens made from glass, aluminum foil, wood and cardboard. Countries that have lost too much timber or never had it to begin with can still live wisely by learning to use such ovens to do their cooking…saving what lumber they do have to use for other more important uses. What a fun science project/experiment this would be for a middle school classroom!
It goes on to tell of solar telephones, cars, airplanes and even solar inventions that have been used to power space craft satellites and such. I can so see this book being used to do experiments that would interest children in the world around them.
This book was written by Anne Rooney with Suzy Gazlay, M.A. as a consultant. The book was copyrighted in 2008 and it was published by Gareth Stevens Publishing, a Weekly Reader Company. Their website is: www.garethstevens.com.