Hirsche Family

I have gone against my normal routine and instead of waiting a week in between posts, this is my fourth entry for today. So scroll down and take a look. Two are Geddy related - one with pictures. And the other is book related - what else would it be?

Okay, here is another list of books I liked that I read last year. These are all children's novels (appropriate for kids 9-12). These are my top 25, I didn't know which five to cut to make it 20 so you get all 25. Again, they are in no particular order. If there are any listed as sequels, I do recommend reading them in order.

Children’s Novels
1. Savvy – Ingrid Law
2. The Diamond of Drury Lane & Cat Among the Pigeons – Julia Golding (first two of series)
3. The Girl Who Could Fly – Victoria Forester
4. The Resistance – Gemma Malley * (sequel to The Declaration)
5. The Ever-After Bird – Ann Rinaldi
6. Elissa’s Odyssey – Erica Verrillo * (sequel to Elissa’s Quest)
7. The Shadow Speaker – Nnedi Okorafur-Mbachu
8. Archie’s War – Marcia Williams
9. Shooting the Moon – Frances O’Roark Dowell
10. The Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama – Tish Cohen
11. Spacer and Rat – Margaret Bechard
12. The Princess and the Peabodys – Betty G. Birney
13. Out of the Shadows – Sarah Singleton
14. Northlander – Meg Burden
15. A Crooked Kind of Perfect – Linda Urban
16. Found – Margaret Peterson Haddix
17. Steel Trapp: The Challenge – Ridley Pearson
18. Puddlejumpers – Mark Jean
19. The Postcard – Tony Abbott
20. Saga – Conor Kostick * (sequel to Epic)
21. I.Q. Independence Hall – Roland Smith
22. The Sky Village – Monk & Nigel Ashland
23. Ellie McDoodle New Kid in School – Ruth McNally Barshaw (sequel to Ellie McDoodle Have Pen Will Travel)
24. The Maze of Bones – Rick Riordan (39 Clues)
25. The Mystery of the Martello Tower – Jennifer Lanthier

Geddy has saved this Superman tag for almost two years. My grandmother gave him a Superman folding chair when he was little. Once in awhile as a baby I would sit him in the chair just to show him. I had left the tag on for some reason. He grabbed it and pulled it off once. He seemed to like playing with it so I just stuck it in a box with all of his other cards and little papers he likes to sort through. Lately he has been bringing it to me and wanting it taped to his chest so he can be Superman.

He has many other superhero identities I will hopefully catch on camera to share with everyone. Spider-Man, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, and Indiana Jones, just to name a few. And I know Indiana Jones is not a superhero, but Geddy thinks he is.

Yesterday Geddy told me, "Mama we have too many books and comics in this house!" I looked at him and very seriously asked him, "Do you want me to throw some away?" He was close to tears and replied, "No! No! I LIKE too many books! I want some MORE books!"

Warning: This is not a Geddy related entry. As most of you reading this know, I am a children's librarian. I read lots and lots and lots of books. I have been wanting to start a second blog for my book reviews but I have been too busy (lazy) to do so. Maybe I will get around to it sometime this year. In the meantime I would like to share some of my favorites that I read during 2008. I intended to list my top 5 in several different categories. However, I couldn't narrow any down to just 5. So here, for part one, are my 20 favorite Young Adult/Teen novels that I read last year. They are not really in a specific order, just know that the first three are my very favorite. If you are reading this and could care less about Teen literature, then I apologize and will get more Geddy stuff on here soon.

1. Unwind – Neil Shusterman
2. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
3. Graceling – Kristin Cashore
4. Hush – Donna Jo Napoli
5. Sight – Adrienne Maria Vrettos
6. How the Hangman Lost his Heart – K. M. Grant
7. Jumper: Griffin’s Story – Steven Gould
8. Rhiannon – Vicki Grove
9. Wicked Lovely – Melissa Marr
10. The Red Necklace – Sally Gardner
11. The Melting of Maggie Bean – Tricia Rayburn
12. The Last of the High Kings – Kate Thompson *
13. The Dead and the Gone – Susan Beth Pfeffer *
14. The Juliet Club – Suzanne Harper
15. Ivy – Julie Hearn
16. Stolen – Vivian Vande Velde
17. The Summoning – Kelley Armstrong
18. The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary E. Pearson
19. Gone – Michael Grant
20. The Sky Inside – Clare B. Dunkle

* Not the first in a series, I do recommend you start at the beginning.

I am sorry it has taken me so long to put any pictures from our Christmas up. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted too. I didn't get any good ones of Grandpa Doug or Grandma Cheryl. I didn't have any of Uncle Steven either, he got a really cool camera for Christmas so I didn't bother having mine out much of the time he was there. Hopefully he got some good ones he can send me.

I also realize I am lacking a picture of Geddy with his other favorite present, the keyboard/drum set from Papa Bruce and Grandma Rayne. I do have video however, and that should be on this blog soon.

Sorry there are so many pictures, I just wanted to get them on here so I can move on with our blogging life.

The new look to my blog probably won't last. I really don't like the bleed-through of the trees in the background. It didn't look like that on the sample. Oh well, I am sick of playing with it now and will have to try again later.

Geddy wanted to make "Ginger Men" for Christmas. I have read him the story of "The Gingerbread Boy" several times and he was determined to make some himself.We gathered the ingredients. When it was time to add something I described the package to Geddy and he would hand it to me. Being a curious 2-year-old he would ask me "What is this?' with each item. I would tell him the name and let him feel the different textures of powders. He would then want to taste them. He didn't think much of any of the dry ingredients, except sugar of course. After sampling the nutmeg he said, "Ginger men taste good? Yucky no!" Which translates to "I thought Gingerbread Men tasted good, this is yucky!" So I told him to be patient and trust me, it would all be good when everything was mixed together and baked.

We survived the cold and snow of the Great White North! (Only to come home to even more snow, but not quite as cold!) We had a great time with friends and family. Pictures will be available soon. (I need to charge the battery and get them transferred to the computer).
Happy New Year to all!!!! (A direct quote from Geddy).