Thing 5.2: Success with Downloadable Audiobooks!

When I tried this again today, there were titles available. Hooray! So I downloaded The Cat Ate My Gymsuit & listened to a few minutes of it.

I found the process a bit cumbersome, and the download took quite awhile. If one had ample time to allow for downloading, this would be a nice way to get free listening material for one's mp3 player. I'm not sure I'd ever use it to listen to a book just sitting in front of the computer though.

Thing 5.1: Punished for working ahead

Well, Roberta & I were trying to do the downloadable audio books assignment & unfortunately got stalled...our "digital bookshelves" were empty! Theoretically, there should be 5 titles available to choose from, but this is the message we got:

My Digital Bookshelf

You do not have any titles checked out at this time. Once you have checked out one or more titles, they will be available on this page for download for the duration of the lending period.

Perhaps the digital bookshelf elves are too busy right now...we'll try again later!

Mystery Books

I had another visit with my favorite St. Francis Xavier fourth graders today to promote mystery books. The kids were great--totally participatory and enthusiastic. Together we came up with a bunch of mystery series that we all liked: Nancy Drew (and the update on the "oldies", The Nancy Drew Notebooks), Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Bailey School Kids, A to Z Mysteries, and others. Below is the list of books I brought to promote.

The Sherlock Files: the 100 Year Old Secret by Tracy Barrett
American siblings transplanted to London by their parents learn that they are descendents of Sherlock Holmes & have inherited his unsolved cases.

Grooves: A Kind of Mystery by Kevin Brockmeier
Nerdy 7th grader Dwayne learns about record players in science class and starts experimenting on different surfaces, only to find his blue jeans contain a coded message for help! Could the greedy owner of the bluejeans factory be keeping his workers imprisoned?

The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse: A Chet Gecko Mystery by Bruce Hale
Chet is a 4th grader, a detective, and oh yeah, a gecko lizard. Hilarious spoofs on old "noir" detective stories with great humor & a fun cast of (reptilian) characters.

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson
Siblings, with the help of some ghostly relatives, help their great aunt and uncle jazz up their tourist attraction & solve the mystery of some missing rare white cattle. Good ghost/mystery combo.

Spider Kane and the Mystery at Jumbo Nightcrawler’s by Mary Pope Osborne
The author of The Magic Tree House series takes on mystery-solving insects with entertaining results. Spider Kane's character was inspired by an actual spider who frightened the author when she moved to a country cabin.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Classic, "Clue"-like whodunit from the 1970's. Mysterious millionaire Westing dies, leaving a motley crew of potential heirs, who have to solve clues to find out who gets the big money. So popular it inspired a movie and a website!

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan: An Enola Holmes Mystery by Nancy Springer
Another Sherlock Holmes spinoff: Enola is the younger sister of the great detective, who must struggle against Victorian restrictions on girls while she solves mysteries. Fun series!

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen by Wendelin Van Draanen
Contemporary series, featuring a feisty heroine with an overdramatic family life. In this one, Sammy takes on a mystery involving dead cats all over town and has to cope with finding out she's actually a year younger than she thought! (Thanks, alot, Mom!)

Thing 3 and Thing 4: Online Apps & Cooperative Web Spaces

Between Google Docs & wikis, I prefer wikis. I think wikis (at least pbwiki) are more intuitive & user-friendly. I can't see myself ever using Google Docs again, but I already manage wikis for two groups I'm involved in outside of work and love them! My favorite part of pbwiki is the automatic alert system; wiki users don't have to keep checking for changes since they get email alerts. In that respect, pbwiki's alot like Facebook, which also sends email notices when posts are made. Pretty nifty!

I'm going to the Hideout in Chicago tonight to hear a great local singer. Kelly Hogan has an unbelievable voice, both in range and power, and sings everything from jazz to country and beyond. If there were true justice in the world, SHE would be a star and Britney Spears would be waiting tables. But, c'est la vie!

Anyway--let me also plug the Hideout, a swell family-owned bar on Wabansia in Chicago. A bit out of the way, but worth the trip (and one place in the city where it's easy to park!) They do a summer blockparty to benefit literacy causes and also do some fun holiday programming for families---so other folks besides the over-21 crowd can come and have fun.

Winter Wonderland

I don't care what anyone says; I LIKE winter! Snow on December 1st was wonderful--the tree branches were frosted and beautiful. I can't wait to get to Fullersburg Woods and take a snowy hike! Today we're supposed to get more snow; my husband even got a memo at work that they might get out early! For 3 inches---come on! Where's that pioneer spirit? :)

Throw it out the window!

Okay, here's a fun made-up song I learned from my days of servitude as a Girl Scout leader. Take any nursery rhyme, sing the first part (to a logical break) & then add "throw it out the window" verses.

Here's an example:

Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds & whey
Along came a spider
And sat down beside her
And threw her out the window!
The window, the second story window
High low, low high
Throw her out the window!

Kids think this is a riot & it's a nice break from the usual sing-song stuff.
Happy singing!

Gobble Gobble Hey!

2 days--count 'em--until Thanksgiving Day.

Our extended family has already had an "early bird" feast with nieces, nephews-in-law, new girlfriend (heaven help her), GREAT-nephew (yes, it's come to that), etc.

So it's my turn on Thursday....turkey, taters, veg, NO pie (brownies & ice cream--no holiday is complete w/o chocolate). As one of my late, lamented colleagues used to say: "It'll be a lovely holiday as long as the gin holds out!"

And after Thanksgiving, of course, comes the Retail Season, which we can all celebrate with crazy merriment in this year of tanking stocks and disappearing 401Ks. Okay, maybe not. But if you're in the mood, you can head to Kohls at 4 a.m. on Friday and drive yourself insane trying to find a sweater in your mom's size---which won't be there, because everyone else in the world wears her size too! I'll be thinking happy thoughts for you as I sleep off the turkey.

Thing 2: rEALLY sILLY sTUFF

rss feeds....hmmmm....

I think I subscribed....but I have quibbles....

1. In the written directions, the type is too small! I understand the saving paper/being green thing, but have pity on those of us with aging eyes.
2. Also in written directions: the orange icon called "posts" in the directions is called "feeds" on our screen, and is at the top right rather than the top left. This may be a peculiarity of our browser, but it's confusing.
3. I was never shown either option of "add to google" or "add to google reader", but when I logged onto google reader, all my little rss feeds were there, so I can only assume it worked.
3a. Okay, so now I realized (belatedly) that the "posts" doo-dad was on the techplay blog itself, and there too were "add to google" and "add to google reader."
4. I watched the video. It didn't really help.
5. So, now if I want to access these various feeds, I have to log onto google reader, right? The feeds don't magically appear in my email or my blog, correct?
5a. rss feeds seem a bit like much ado about nothing to me. I guess if I never got out of my computer bunker (kidding, here), rss feeds would be a good way to track the 10 zillion blogs etc. that I would follow if I led that isolated, oddball existence. But since I lead my oddball existence out in the world and am at a computer every day, just checking blogs I like seems easier. But, "whatevs", as the kids say...it's interesting!
6. Comments, corrections, etc. are most welcome.

Pajamarama

Last night I was invited to be a Guest Reader at the Congress Park School's Family Reading Night. Imagine, if you will, hordes of children, most under 5, running around a gym while wearing their footie pajamas! Teachers were in the spirit as well, sporting pajama pants (though I see those on the street sometimes, too!) Naturally, "Miss Kim" (my nom de guerre in libraryland) was in the groove too---I had my red bathrobe and fluffly leopard-print slippers. Stylin', no doubt! We read Grumpy Gloria, about a surly bulldog who will NOT be amused; Time for Bed, a fun pop-up book about a kid who stows EVERYTHING under his bed, and Bedtime for Little Monsters, a lift-the-flap book with fun different-colored monsters. And, NO, the last book was not a comment on my clientele! :) They were wild, woolly & delightful, as always.

Time for Grown-Ups

I read alot of "juvenile literature" (aka "kids' books") for my job and for school. (Quick aside: anyone other than me think the term "juvenile literature" is pejorative? Simultaneously damning: "juvenile" AND overly highbrow: "literature"! Just a thought.)
Anyway, I don't often read alot of "adult literature", or even adult nonsense. I seem to gravitate toward non-fiction these days (overbearing influence of graduate school, perhaps?)...
ANYWAY, let me recommend How to Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson (2005)--a devotional tract to the joys of idleness. I read it awhile back, so my memory isn't totally clear, but one essay I recall described "the loss of lunch". How true! When is the last time you took an ENTIRE hour for lunch?! Or even left your workplace for lunch? Hodgkinson has some interesting thoughts for those of us whose fondest wish is to simply RETIRE! Although, given the fact that he founded a magazine (The Idler, natch) and is the author of multiple books, I suspect Mr. H isn't quite the layabout he'd have us believe. Kind of like Martha Stewart, who whips up all those swell feasts and decorates her house to the Nth degree....never mentioning the small army of Stewart Slaves who actually make it all happen. It's magic!

Historical Fiction (and Non-Fiction) for Kids!

So I did a book talk yesterday for some semi-disinterested 4th graders. Eyes rolled and mouths yawned UNTIL I got to my final selection: Secrets of a Civil War Submarine by Sally Walker, which tells the story of the Hunley, a submarine created by Confederate forces during the Civil War. The Hunley was the first "secret weapon" sub to actually sink an enemy ship (in this case a Northern one.) Shortly after its success, the Hunley itself was sunk, and remained in Charleston Harbor for 100 years. Eventually the Hunley was raised, the bodies within it were exhumed and---this is the part that the kids loved---the restoration crew made molds of what the sailors' faces might have looked like. This book would be great fun for fans of forensic TV shows like CSI and Bones.

Other books I promoted were:

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
If You Please, President Lincoln by Harriette Robinet
Escape from War (My Side of the Story series) by James Riordan
Jackie and Me (Baseball Card Adventure series) by Dan Gutman
The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (Grace and Bruchac)

Some of this somewhat jaded group of 10 year olds seemed excited about at least a few of these titles!