Hurray For Our Young People

Twice in two weeks I have been privileged to discover young people out working along side our streets and on our school grounds. Three cheers for the kids and their sponsors!!!

Last week I passed a group from St. Michael's picking up trash along Florey and Choctaw Streets. I asked if I could take a picture of them and they agreed. Today I drove past P.E. Wallace School and saw a bunch of kids planting trees.  I had to stop, ask questions and take pictures.  I learned the group went to the Houston Zoo in April as part of an Earth Day Program.  Center Point Energy then gave them over one hundred Bottle Brush and Crape Myrtael trees to plant. I lucked out and caught the students in the act of finishing their planting on the school grounds along Choctaw Street.

I can image these same students twenty or thirty years from now stopping by Mt. Pleasant and pointing out the school they attended in 5th and 6th grade and showing them the very tree they planted May 5, 2017. They may also remember the crazy old lady that stopped to take their picture.

 

From Now On

       Ms. Royal has won me as a convert with her novel From Now On. 
Told in first person, Ms. Royal popped me, the reader, into a future time where I met groups of people living a way of life normally thought of as that lived in the Middle Ages. Knights, squires, castles, romance, and dungeons are all a part of this adventure. A secret few have control of time travel and have plans of their own for Manx Island, the site of this unusual tale.
      Erin is a strong, stubborn, woman determined to rescue Griffin, the man she loves, from the dungeon of a man trying to take over the island.
      I measure most of my science fiction books against Elizabeth Moon's novels.  This author is very close to Miss Moon's work.
      A phrase from Ms. Royal's novel captured my attention and I want to share it. 
"A new day begins, and it is one fresh with endless possibilities. Like a blank canvas it beckons, luring me to seize it with both hands and make it into something worthwhile, something memorable."
       The twist, turns, and ending of this novel make it a book I can heartily recommend to all readers looking for adventure via the printed page.

Life With Lily

     Life With Lily by Suzanne Woods and Mary Ann Kinsinger is a revealing book picturing the every day life of an eight year old girl growing up in an Amish home. While I'm not Amish and have no intention of joining an Amish community, I found that I envied the harmony, and support system in this home and community.
      Not everything was perfect. Lily manages to get into several jams thanks to a friend with interesting ideas and a persuasive tongue. While there is much support between different branches of the family and community, there are some that push their own beliefs onto others causing much discord. How mother and father handle the different crises' is revealing. We English               (everyone not Amish) can learn a lot from these people.
      I highly recommend Life With Lily for girls seven or eight years old through high school.  I also recommend this book for young adults considering marriage and having a family. In this time where stress, road rage, drugs, hate, and lying is becoming the norm, Life With Lily paints a different picture of family life, a better life if we English can adopt some of their attitudes and problem solving skills.
      Life With Lily can be purchased at Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Life+with+Lily
There are paper back and Kindle versions available.

Life With Lily

     Life With Lily by Suzanne Woods and Mary Ann Kinsinger is a revealing book picturing the every day life of an eight year old girl growing up in an Amish home. While I'm not Amish and have no intention of joining an Amish community, I found that I envied the harmony, and support system in this home and community.
      Not everything was perfect. Lily manages to get into several jams thanks to a friend with interesting ideas and a persuasive tongue. While there is much support between different branches of the family and community, there are some that push their own beliefs onto others causing much discord. How mother and father handle the different crises' is revealing. We English               (everyone not Amish) can learn a lot from these people.
      I highly recommend Life With Lily for girls seven or eight years old through high school.  I also recommend this book for young adults considering marriage and having a family. In this time where stress, road rage, drugs, hate, and lying is becoming the norm, Life With Lily paints a different picture of family life, a better life if we English can adopt some of their attitudes and problem solving skills.
      Life With Lily can be purchased at Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Life+with+Lily
There are paper back and Kindle versions available.

WHEN THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON

Last week, I Skyped with our eight-year-old granddaughter and asked about what book she was reading. She was excited about WHEN THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin. I checked it out of our library and read it so we could discuss the different scenes and share which ones we liked and disliked.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of a young girl dissatisfied with her and her parents' poor life and determined to do something about it.  Learning that she must ask The Old Man of the Moon why her village was so ugly and poor, Minli sets out on a journey and meets a dragon, a poor but happy young man, a king, and finally the Old Man of the Moon. She had two very important questions to ask the old man, but learned she could only ask one.  Would she ask a question that might benefit her and her family, or would she ask a questions that would help her friend?

This book is made up of 48 short chapters, each a story within itself dealing with Milin's journey, her parents' fears, and what they all learned about being happy.

I can truly recommend this book for any young girl eight years old or older.  I wish I could sit down with our granddaughter and discuss it chapter by chapter.  I hope parents and grandparents will consider doing this with their granddaughters.  For more information about Grace Lin, the author, check out her web site at www.gracelin.com

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.