Chuckleberry Chutney

          Skip Hughes, a former president of Northeast Texas Writer's Organization, has a new book of poetry out this year. Chuckleberry Chutney. One poem, Is My To-It Really Round? made me laugh as I am the proverbial procrastinator he has so eloquently summed up.
          Skip's philosophy comes through loud and clear in his poem Love's Crucible. This poem stopped me in my tracks and made me think.
          On page 59 Between Black and White  is a poem we should all take to heart.  I really must write the final stanza.

We must yet strive to right the wrongs of now,
Let lie the dreadful sins of long ago.
To hate a fellow human is to bow
To hate of self, of all things here below.

Chuckleberry Chutney by Skip Hughes can be purchased from Amazon and would make a nice gift for the poetry lover.

Merry Christmas to all and may 2017 be a blessed year for each of us.

    

In reviewing some of my clippings I found the information below and want to share it with everyone interested in our children's and grandchildren's education. I especially like the reference to Rip Van Winkle.  If you are interested in this book, Becoming Brilliant ,you can see and purchase it from Amazon



Becoming Brilliant by

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff  and Kathy HirshPasek

Golinkoff: We live in a crazy time, and parents are very worried about their children's futures. They're getting all kinds of messages about children having to score at the top level on some test. The irony is, kids could score at the top and still not succeed at finding great employment or becoming a great person.
Hirsh-Pasek: If Rip Van Winkle came back, there's only one institution he would recognize: "Oh! That's a school. Kids are still sitting in rows, still listening to the font of wisdom at the front of the classroom."
We're training kids to do what computers do, which is spit back facts. And computers are always going to be better than human beings at that. But what they're not going to be better at is being social, navigating relationships, being citizens in a community. So we need to change the whole definition of what success in school, and out of school, means.

THEY CALL ME AVENGED
         by Cyndi Lord
      This is Ms. Lord's third book in this series and puts into words and mental pictures what many animal lovers think they would like to see happen to those who mistreat, neglect, or intentionally harm defenseless animals in their care.
      Ms. Lord reveals how trauma in a young child's life can have long lasting, debilitating consequences in the person's adult life.
      Sandy, a determined and sometimes foolhardy detective, searches for two missing children. Intuition and a listening ear leads this young woman into a maze of lies and dangerous contacts.
       This is a powerful book revealing the depth of some people's cruelty to animals and children and the consequences of the mental scars people carry into adulthood.
       This book is available on Amazon  THEY CALL ME AVENGED

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

    

       In her novel, Wonder, Ms. Palacio created a character in August that most kids and adults can identify with, maybe not physically, but emotionally. Most of us have felt unattractive, left out, ignored, the butt of jokes, etc. at sometime in our lives. This was a constant feeling for August.

       August tells his story in first person. In the first chapter August describes himself as ordinary in the fact that he likes to ride his bike, eat ice cream, and feel ordinary.  He then goes on to say, “But … ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds.”  He says later, “I won’t describe what I look like.  Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

       Because of his physical condition from the time of birth, August was unable to attend school. He was home schooled instead.  When he was in fifth grade, his mother decided it is time for him to break into the real world of children, the school classroom filled with, “ordinary” kids.  It was a terrifying challenge for August, but off to school he went.

        The academics was a piece of cake for the most part.  The social encounters were many and truly mountainous. We sometimes judge a book by its cover.  Regrettably, we often judge a person by their appearance. And so it was with August.

The Kill Switch

The Kill Switch is a well written novel as are all of James Rollins works. Tucker, the man hired to spirit one of two scientists out of Russia, is a tough, kick a _ _ , no nonsense man full of  amazing resources. Kane, his faithful four-legged partner, is an outstanding character all by himself. The enemy seems to anticipate each move Tucker and his group make as they move toward the border.  There is a leak of information somewhere, and it is a direct threat to his mission as well as his life. He is understandably suspicious of everyone he comes in contact with but has to trust someone. The cost in life as well as money is high if he makes the wrong choice.

WARNING: The prologue is gruesome, and I was sorely tempted to skip most if not all of it. No matter how stomach turning, however, it is crucial to understanding the end of the novel. This novel is not for the faint of heart but a page turner for those who enjoy detailed blood and guts adventure.

Note: I was interested to learn in the author's notes at the end of the story that Kane is modeled after real war dogs, especially one named Chaser, "a border collie who understood over a thousand words including grammatical structure."

I have just finished reading Thunder Dog, a true story of a  blind man, his guide dog, and their escape from the 78th floor of the Twin Towers the day the terrorist struck, commonly known world-wide as 9-11.

Michael Hingson shares his and Roselle's, his guide dog, experiences  and impressions as they traveled down 78 stories of steps. Trapped in a stairwell with hundreds of others, Michael tells of the questions, fears, and comradeship of those fleeing the deathtrap of the mortally wounded building.

Woven into the story is information concerning the challenges of being blind in a sight oriented world. The author relates how he and others have overcome, or circumvented those obstacles and succeeded in careers alongside their sighted peers.

For those of you who remember Dr. James Robertson, the political science teacher at NTCC, you will see the similarity between the two men.

Toward the end of the book, Michael Hingson relates an event at an airport. People in line insisted on helping him go to the front of the line.  He was just as insistent that he would stand in line with everyone else, that he didn't need any special treatment.  He then went on to say he was waiting for the day when he needed to cut in line and someone said. "Hey. Who made you king?" At that point he would know that he was accepted as an equal member of society neither needing nor wanting special privileges.

This is a marvelous, inspiring book for any age group.

Last weekend I picked up several books at a used book store, one by the late Anne McCafferey titled Acorna The Unicorn Girl.  This is a wonderful read full of greed, mystery, good vs. evil, deception, and a cold blooded villain named, The Piper.

Three space miners rescue a space pod  with a child of unknown origin asleep in it. They play nursemaid to the youngling until they can get back to civilization. At that time all sorts of people want to keep the child, none of them with good intentions. The three miners, bent on saving their ward, must think fast and guess who to trust for help.

On a planet called Kezdet secret child labor are used in mines and factories. They are brutally beaten and starved while the elite of the planet ignore the conditions of the abused children, the source of their wealth. Acorna and others mount an attack on the status quo, but a mysterious someone called,  The Piper, is blocking all their efforts to rescue the children.

As usual, Anne McCafferey gives the reader a thrilling tale full of conflict and mind stimulating adventure. I can recommend this novel to anyone interested in science fiction and those readers willing to entertain visions of a possible life in space.

Santa Fe Dead

Santa Fe Dead by Stuart Woods is not a Who Dune It as our mother classified all such books where the reader guesses who the murderer is right up until the last page.  In Santa Fe Dead the reader knows who the murderer is from the first chapter.People are being knocked off all through the novel and the reader knows what will happen beforehand and who pulls the trigger. Even the detectives and the police know who the murders are.  The problem is proving it.  The reader, at lest this reader, frantically turned page after page sure the police or someone would step in and do something. Stuart Woods pulls it all together in a mind boggling climax. Even though Mr. Woods planted a seed several pages back, this reader forgot about it in the final maneuvering of the men hired to take care of the clever killer. This reader could have kicked herself for not anticipating the final killing on the last page. For lovers of fast, action based crime type novels, Santa Fe Dead is a must read.

I AM Number Four

Pittacus Lore, the author of I Am Number Four, has put together a thriller for all science fiction readers, especially daring youth ready to meet an over powering challenge. Lore has created well developed characters you might meet in any community or school, yet she makes the reader believe they are aliens from a distant planet, Lorien, hiding out in our world, hiding from those who are determined to destroy the last of their civilization and ours. Normal earthling teens are pulled into the aliens fight. It may be that the six remaining Loriens  and selected earth teens will be the ones that wake our world to the the dangers it is facing.
For science fiction fans I AM NUMBER FOUR is a must read.

The Girl on the Train

      The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins gets off to confusing start with the narrator imagining the names and lives of people she sees from the train as she rides each day to and from her make-believe job in a nearby city.

       Once the reader gets a grip on the pattern of Ms. Hwkins’ writing style and how she moves from one character’s view to another, the reader will find this novel fascinating.

       Rachel’s fear and depression works its way into the mind of the reader, letting her/him experience, as close as possible, the character’s pain and worry. Questions plague Rachel as she tries to remember how she was injured and why she has blood on her clothes.

       I can truthfully recommend this book, but be prepared to take notes, at least mentally, of who and what is happening in the first couple of chapters. The end knocked this reader for a loop. I just wasn’t prepared for it.