This is a simple story with flaps to show different words that end with "en". It is a fun approach to phonics that tells somewhat of an interesting story with a near endless number of "-en" words.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Ranger Rick: I Wish I Was a Polar Bear
How do polar bears live. How is their life different from our life? Polar bears tend to live a very isolated life in the cold north. This book has plenty of photographs showing the life of polar bears and their life, all from the perspective of a kid wishing they were a polar bear.
Windcatcher
A boy is off in Long Island Sound. There are rumours of a shipwreck with possible treasure. He is sailing around with relatives. He also runs into some other treasure hunters. He loses his boat and decides he will swim from island to island to make it back. However, he also loses his compass and map. He starts swimming and makes it almost to the first island when he loses his shoe. In diving into the water to find it, he also sees something which he initially thought were animal bones, but may be what he was hunting for. He makes his way to the island, but does not know where he is. He does find the boat, and decides to sail away in the dark. He has no idea where he is, but does find his way to the treasure hunters. It ends shortly after. It feels like an interesting half-story.
A Whale of a Tale: Mermaid Tales, Book 3
A school of mermaids are excited to see whales. However, one of the mermaids is afraid. They work to resolve it. There is also a bit on killer whales.
Ghostsmith: House of the Dead Duology
Ghostsmith: House of the Dead Duology by Nicki Pau Preto
There are revenants. They are bad. People are fighting bad guys while falling in love with others. This book goes on for a while. I could not focus on it.
The Circuit
When he was a young child, the author's family migrated from Mexico to the United States. They worked as migrant farm workers, traveling to various places in California to work the fields. The living condition ranged from very poor to acceptable. The migrants were all hard workers, but they would not put up with demeaning activities.
He had struggles with his upbringing. He would make friends, only to move away to a new location. He had very few possessions. This made it devastating when his 4-year old sister took some of the pennies from his collection to buy bubble gum. School was something that he found exciting. He had some teachers and administrators that were really looking out for him and his family and supporting him on the way. Alas, since they crossed the border illegally, they were always in fear of immigration authorities and were eventually caught up with them in the end. The book is an engaging look at the child's experience as a migrant farmworker.
Adventures of Buster Bear
Buster Bear and other animals have some adventures with each other. They are at the same time anthropomorphic and real animals.
Never Let a Unicorn Wear a Tutu!
A unicorn likes to have the girl do everything it does. However, the unicorn remains sad at the end. This is because the unicorn has a tutu and the girl doesn't. Once the girl has a tutu, the unicorn is happy. The illustrations have a great use of sketches with color that brings out this story of imaginative play.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Missing May
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
Some people live in rural West Virginia and go on some redneck adventures. They try to see a psychic, but she is dead. They long to visit the capitol. Money is in short supply. One guy has a near death experience. This all comes about from the life of the protagonist who was orphaned and was bounced around with different families. She settled on one but then there was a death. It is a case of "different" life.
Monday, June 23, 2025
Calvin Coconut: Rocket Ride
Calvin Coconut lives with his mom in Hawaii. He has not seen his dad in years. His father's music career has taken off. He now has a hit song and will come to tour in Hawaii. Calvin will get some front row tickets to share with his friends. The bully wants one of the tickets. There is also a girl who wore a shirt of his father's band before anybody knew Calvin was related. He decides to give the girl one ticket, but then renigs out of fear of the bully. He later gets an out by giving it to a girl that the bully liked and helping them to get together. He then gets his dad to give him backstage passes to take the girl he reneged on. The story takes numerous twists and turns. At times I felt like screaming out at thim for doing stupid things. Eventually he did make good decisions and everything worked out.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Random Acts of Kindness: 101 Stories of Compassion and Paying It Forward
The "Good Deeds" book is a short version of the Random Acts of Kindness book. It has a series of kindness stories, including many tear-jerkers. Sometimes people tell the stories of being helped, while other times they help others. Helping can be a true benefit of its own. (Though in a few you wonder if it did help.) There are also a few stories about help received from those who you would least suspect it. It does seem to be primarily from a middle-class suburban mindset, but there is a bit of variety in there.
Quigleys: Not for Sale
The Quigleys are short of money. The kids try to take things into their own hands and sale lots of things. However, when the parents find out about the things, they end up stopping it. (In some cases, the kids even have to get things back, often causing them to lose money.) At the end, the family's house is about to be sold. The kids honestly tell the prospective buyers about all the faults and potential issues with the sale and they back down. I liked this better than the first Quigley book.
Cinderella: A Royal Friend
Cinderella helps work with orphans. One girl accidentally ends up in a dressmaker area because everyone else thinks she belongs. She takes advantage of it at first, but later repents and still gets a dress in the end.
Mulan: Khan to the Rescue
Mulan's horse leads her to the apple tree where Mulan helps rescue grandma.
Aladdin: The Desert Race
Jasmine has a fast horse, but it will only go for her. The ruler wants Aladin to race instead. Aladdin gets genie to be the "horse". Jasmine races in disguise. Aladdin and Jasmine both beat the "bad guy". However, Aladin is disqualified. There are bits of humor, in this predictable knock off.
The Beasts We Bury
The Beasts We Bury by D. L. Taylor
The heroine of this fantasy has a special ability with animals, but the power is related to killing the animals. There is a boy involved. The leaders of kingdom are bad. There is a duel where somebody is killed. The heroes have values that respect life and don't like what the leaders do. They work to overcome the badness. It is all the typical young adult fantasy romance. The animal part is a little bit different. There is a funny part where the girl asks the boy if she can kill him. She doesn't want to really do that, but wants to come close to see if he can be summoned. In the end, there is a big battle where a guy splits into a bunch of parts to complete the battle. It sitll doesn't help.
Bonesmith: House of the Dead Duology
Bonesmith: House of the Dead Duology by Nicki Pau Preto
These young adult fantasy books are all the same. A girl tries to come on her own, which means breaking with some tradition. There is a boy she falls in love, but there are great problems with it. Most of the time she is contemplating what she should do and how she should be change the course of history while being true to herself. But then the boys get in the way and some to muddle things up before being part of the solution. A bit of magic of some sort is sprinkled in. In this book there are undead. They must be disposed of so they don't come back and get in the way. The hero has to learn to get along with the boy so they can defeat the dark ones. The book goes on for way too long.
Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice
Take "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", and swap out the monkeys with penguins on ice and you have a great book, right? Uh, no. The rhyme is gone. The story here is just an exercise in having little penguins do cute snow things.
The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs
The original Magic School Bus books have a nice charm to them. The pages have a story that can be read along with a large number of additional written and illustrated details. In this one, the class goes to visit a dinosaur dig site. Then they travel back in time. They accidentally go too far, and end up seeing what the site looked like in various points in time. Finally they see where the maiasaura eggs are at the "end" of the dinosaur times. When they return to the present they are able to tell the excavation crew where to look. Then they return to school for parent day.
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Let Colleges Fail: The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education
Let Colleges Fail: The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education by Richard K. Vedder
Colleges tend to expose liberal ideologies, but institutionally they are extremely conservative. The organizational structure and institutions are very slow to change. Huge amounts of money flow through colleges with little validation of the value returned. Perhaps the only significant crack down has been on for-profit players. These players realized there was money to be made by making some small improvements. However, there is much more that needs to be done. The government provides fast subsidies through various routes. This may be justified for educating the populace and preparing people for careers. However, much of college is an early adulthood social experience. If government subsidizes this, should it also subsidize cruises and other social experiences for different populations? For education, the government has little validation of the value of a degree. The government may spend much more subsidizing a liberal arts degree at a low-tier private college than an engineering degree at a public university, despite the engineering degree enabling much greater career prospects. Schools are incentivized to invest more in "experience" rather than job prospects. College attendance costs have increased at a rate much greater than inflation. Colleges have significant facilities, much of which are highly underutilized. A dose of the free market may be best for colleges. The smaller schools could fail. Loans and other funding can be based on value returned. Innovation can be encouraged rather than letting accreditation bodies focus on sameness. (Why do all degrees take 4 years?) Universities are essentially government entities without regular elections. There are competing goals and missions. Improvements can be made, but will require some gradual approach.
Skating Showdown
A girl likes to ice skate. There is a big competition coming up and she is excited with her odds of winning. She is great at spins, but have trouble with jumps. She sees another girl that is great at jumps. This causes her to get flustered and she gets angry when the girl offers to help her. Finally they make peace and then do well on the competition. It is all very cliché.
Junie B. Jones Collection, Books 1-4
Junie B. Jones Collection, Books 1-4 by Barbara Park
The books in this collection:
#1: Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus:
#2: Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business:
#3: Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth
#4: Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying
Junie B. Jones is an opinionated young girl who is starting kindergarten. In the books she learns that things are a bit different when you start kindergarten. She interprets things a bit too literally. One day she really needs to go to the bathroom. It is an "emergency", so she pulls the fire alarm. When she gets a new baby brother, she hears grandma call him a cute little monkey and assumes that her brother really is a monkey - and has classmates pay her for the privilege of seeing the monkey brother. She also learns to not jump to conclusions. She sees her teacher eat a grape and assume she is a criminal that will go to jail. She tried to hide the secret, but accidentally blurts it out. Junie B. can be funny, but does get annoying.
Saturday, June 21, 2025
The Forest King's Daughter
The Forest King's Daughter by Elly Blake
All I remember is that this was a typical young adult fantasy romance. A ring has powers, so there must be some Tolkien influence as well. A girl has this ring. She is bound with it and has power. There is family drama. It goes on for a long time.
The Mystery in the Snow: The Boxcar Children Mysteries, Book 32
The Mystery in the Snow: The Boxcar Children Mysteries, Book 32 series created by Gertrude Chandler Warner
This Boxcar children book was a bit confusing. The kids were at a winter snow area where they compete in some games with other kids. However, all sorts of things go wrong and go missing. Through some sleuthing, they find the culprit. A kid that gets dropped off each year wants to spend time with his family instead. He had some elaborate plan to call off the games so he could spend time with family instead. It seems quite elaborate for a kid. It also feels like a very "rich kid" type of activity, yet the kids do not act like rich kids. It all makes it "weird".
The Mystery on the Train (The Boxcar Children Mysteries)
The Mystery on the Train (The Boxcar Children Mysteries) series created by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The children's aunt is taking them on a train ride from the east coast to San Francisco. They will spend some time there, then fly back. Before getting on the train, the see a teenager and a woman fight over an are portfolio. They later meet the girl. She seems to change details of her story each time. They learn that the portfolio is actually movie posters. Her relative that she is going to meet in California has promised the posters to somebody and is an scheme to steal them. They help rescue the posters and the girl decides she wants to go back to the east coast rather than spend time with relative in San Francisco. It is a decent kid sleuth story.
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