Chicxulub by T. Coraghessan Boyle

by Carol5 Comments
"Chicxulub" by T. Coraghessan Boyle I had no idea what "Chicxulub" referred to before reading this short story. As I learned, a six-mile-wide asteroid or comet slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, contributing to the dinosaurs' extinction and forming what is now known as the Chicxulub crater. In this amazing story, Boyle's narrator alternated between musing about meteors and describing a disaster that is occurring in the life of his family. This structure is really what made the story stand out for me. The thing that disturbs me about Chicxulub, aside from the fact that it erased the dinosaurs and wrought catastrophic and irreversible change, is the deeper implication that we, and all our works and worries and attachments, are so utterly inconsequential. The story begins with the narrator's daughter walking down a highway alone at night in the rain. Between the situation and the father's digressions on life-ending meteor impacts, the reader expects the worst. But...
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The Bug Scientists by Donna M. Jackson

by Carol3 Comments
The Bug Scientists by Donna M. Jackson Suggested reading level: Grades 3-6 If creepy, crawly things fascinate your kid, consider taking a look at this book. Amber (10) and I read it together and it was really quite interesting. We met several entomologists, bug scientists, and learned about their jobs and more about the creatures they love. Tom Turpin,whose picture is on the cover, is a professor at Purdue who tries to make bugs fun for his students and the community. He is even the ringmaster of the annual Bug Bowl, where activities include a Cricket-Spitting Contest. Valerie Cervenka uses the information bugs give her to help solve crimes in Minnestoa and Steven Kutcher directs bugs in movies, commercials and videos. We actually learned the most from the chapter on Ted Schult, a research entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution. He discusses how similar bugs and humans really are. His specialty is Attini ants, farmer ants who actually grow and tend fungus gardens. It's amazing. This...
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Game Night- Dominion: Seaside

by Carol2 Comments
Dominion: Seaside Designer: Donald X. Vaccarion Manufacturer: Rio Grande Games Year: 2009 Players 2-4 Time: 20-30 minutes Ages: 10 and up I've talked about Dominion a couple of times before, both the original and Intrigue. It's one of the games we play on a regular basis, but we've finally played the new Seaside expansion a few times. I think it's as good as the other two, although this one is a true expansion. It does not come with any treasure, victory or curse cards, so you must have one of the other editions. From Rio Grande Games: All you ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. And someone who knows how to steer ships using stars. You finally got some of those rivers you'd wanted, and they led to the sea. These are dangerous, pirate-infested waters, and you cautiously send rat-infested ships across them, to establish lucrative trade at far-off merchant-infested ports. First, you...
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The Princess and the Pea

by Carol11 Comments
"The Princess and the Pea" by Hans Christian Andersen Most of us have heard or seen versions of this fairy tale, called "The Real Princess" in the version of Andersen's Fairy Tales I read at Project Gutenberg. A prince wants to marry a princess and travels far and wide to find the perfect woman, but there is something wrong with each woman he meets. He can't be sure they are "real" princesses, so he returns to his castle alone. On a dark and stormy night, a young lady pounds on the door, stating she is a real princess. She is invited to stay the night, but the Queen-mother sets up a test to see if the woman truly is a "real" princess. The Queen-mother puts three peas under the twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds that the woman is to sleep on. As we all know, the princess does not sleep well. "I have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night through. I do not...
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Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

by Carol5 Comments
Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep Gin is an assassin. She makes that clear from the beginning of this book. She doesn't apologize, make excuses, she is who she is. She's a tough woman, strong mentally and physically, but like most flawed heroines, has a soft side, the side that is devastated when her handler and father-figure is killed. She is determined to find who did it and she will kill them and anyone who gets in her way. Gin took a while for me to warm up to. She's so determined to be emotionless, cold as ice, that she's hard to like at first. But she's a more complicated character than she first appears. She's a survivor, but one who believes in protecting her friends, one who keeps her word when she gives it. She's a Stone elemental, able to hear the vibrations in the rocks around her and manipulate the stones themselves, and has a touch of Ice magic that comes...
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The Problem Child by Michael Buckley

by Carol7 Comments
The Problem Child by Michael Buckley Suggested reading level: Ages 9-12 Amber (10) and I read this one together. It's the third in the Sisters Grimm series, about Sabrina and Daphne Grimm and the grandmother, Relda. They are fairy tale detectives who solve mysteries in and around Ferryport Landing, a town where a lot of Everafters, fairy tale folk, live. In this one, the bad guy is a psychotic Little Red Riding Hood who has a  pet Jabberwocky. Unfortunately the Jabberwocky takes Puck, Amber's favorite character, out of commission for most of the book. The girls also meet Uncle Jake, who no one in town aside from Granny Relda seems to remember. Sabrina is drawn to him and his unabashed use of magic. Sadly, he's addicted to the magic he uses and believes it's the answer to every difficulty. "You wouldn't believe the power! It's like a waterfall, like the sun. I'm bigger than life, bigger than even the most powerful Everafter. I'm the kind...
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