The Ugly Duckling

by Carol5 Comments
"The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen "The Ugly Duckling" story is one most of us know. A mother duck is sitting on her nest and all but one egg hatches. The ducklings are adorable, but the mother continues to sit on the last, largest egg, despite being told by another duck to leave it. Of course, the last egg hatches, and the young one is very large and doesn't look like the others, but he can swim and the mother declares "he is not so very ugly after all if you look at him properly." But his mother can't protect him from all the abuse he endures from the other farmyard animals and even the girl who feeds the poultry, so he runs away. One day he sees some beautiful white birds flying over head, but he does not interact with them. He is terrified by a hunter...
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Winners!

by Carol5 Comments
Congrats to the winners of Jordan by Susan Kearney. Karenk Beth Brenda B. Hill chey Jonnie H I'll be e-mailing all of you shortly. I'll just need your addresses to pass on to the publisher. I hope you enjoy the book. Update: One of the winners got her hands on a copy elsewhere, so a new winner was chosen. Congrats! Kate L...
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The River Kings’ Road by Liane Merciel

by Carol3 Comments
The River Kings' Road by Liane Mercel I just received this book in the mail and had to start ti. I love fantasy and this has all the elements I'm looking for. Here's what the dust jacket has to say. A thrilling new voice in fantasy makes an unforgettable debut with this "intriguingly twisted tale of treachery and magic" (New York Times bestselling author L. E. Modesitt, Jr.). Liane Merciel’s The River Kings’ Road takes us to a world of bitter enmity between kingdoms, divided loyalties between comrades, and an insidious magic that destroys everything it touches. . . . The wounded maidservant thrust the knotted blankets at him; instinctively, Brys stepped forward and caught the bundle before it fell. Then he glimpsed what lay inside and nearly dropped it himself. There was a baby in the blankets. A baby with a tear-swollen face red and round as a midsummer plum. A baby he...
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Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

by Carol8 Comments
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh (Suggested reading level: Grades 3-5) To be honest, I don't know if I read this as a child or not. I don't remember it, but that doesn't really mean anything one way or the other. My memory truly is terrible. So when I sat down to read this with Amber (10), I knew the basic plot, but that's about it. Harriet is an eleven year old girl whose ambition is to be a writer, but in the meantime she's a spy. She has a spy route staked out and she regularly writes down everything, good and bad, about the people around her, neighbors and friends. She keeps all her information in her precious notebook. She is encouraged by her nanny, Ole Golly. Ole Golly says there is as many ways to live as there are people on the earth and I shouldn't go round with blinders but should see every way I can. (pg. 32) Of course when Harriet...
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Dreaming

by Carol9 Comments
A flock of crows swooped down and ate the caterpillars that contained small bits of Siri. Then whales somehow managed to eat the crows. And the whales were swallowed up by volcanoes and suddenly Siri, or at least bits of Siri, was in every creature and every geological feature on Earth. It was one hell of a good finish.  (pg. 143, The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill) I just started this book, but I believe Siri's dreams, like the excerpt above are going to figure prominently in the story. In my own story, dreams don't have much of an impact. I remember few of my dreams and those that I do are either fairly random or I can easily tell what happened recently to prompt them. What about you? Do you have vivid dreams? Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. I cheated, but the rules are easy. Grab your current read, ...
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