The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Genre: Children's
Rating: 4 of 5

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is the winner of the Newbery Medal Award for 2009. It is a children's book, but I would say don't let your younger children read it. I would say no younger than 10 or 11. The reason for this is it is a little bit darker. It starts out with an assassin named Jack who is sent to murder an entire family, except the baby boy escapes death by walking out of his house and into a graveyard. The ghosts of the family beg the graveyard ghosts to protect him. So the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Owens claim his as their son. Since they don't know his name, they call him Nobody Owens. Silas becomes his guardian, as he is more living than dead. Bod, as he is called, is given the Freedom of the Graveyard. It gives him the power to see in the dark, walk through things, and even become invisible while he is in the graveyard. Of course, he can also see and talk to all the inhabitants of the Graveyard.

Bod grows up in the graveyard, but he has very little contact with anyone but ghosts. He wants to have living friends and go to school. Many things he wants to do, but can't because the man Jack is still out there trying to find him. You might think there is not much to do in a graveyard, but believe me, Bod still manages to get into plenty of trouble.

I listened to the audio version of this book. I liked it well enough. In the beginning I thought the plot was rather odd, but soon things started getting more interesting. Neil Gaiman did the narration, and I think it added a lot. He did such a wonderful job, and it made the book better for me. Many times I shy away from audio books, because I can't stand the narration. However, I would highly recommend the audio version on this one. I did happen to see the illustrations as well. To me they were different than most illustrations. Something about them stuck out to me in a good way. However, I didn't much care for the facial features. Everyone looked very skeletal. I decided it must have been in theme with the graveyard setting.

Since this book has some darker themes it made me think about how it might affect a younger child. Do you think assassins and death themes are too scary for children around ages 8-10? Were there any books that scared you when you were younger? I can't think of any I was particularly frightened of at that age, but then I mostly read books like The Babysitter's Club.

This blog is claimed!!

I am claiming this blog on Technorati. It might actually work. uami856wrg

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

Genre: Children's Classic
Rating: 5 of 5

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott is the sequel to Little Women. It follows the story of Jo Bhaer and the adventures of the boys and girls she teaches at Plumfield. Other than a few appearances from Amy and Teddy, we don't really see anymore of the March family. The story, however, is really focused on the children, and the lessons learned throughout the book.

One lesson in particular, reminded me of the Atonement of Christ in taking the world's sins upon himself. When one little boy, Ned, was prone to lying, Father Bhaer found a way to cure him of this. Whenever Ned was caught in a lie, Ned would have to give the whip to Father Bhaer. Essentially, Father Bhaer was taking the punishment for Ned's sin. Ned was particularly good at not lying, but eventually he slipped. The scene where he had to deliver the whips was pretty heart-wrenching to me. Most likely because of what it alluded too.

I rather enjoyed this book, and even more so than Little Women. Each of the children had their own foibles and triumphs. Even though some of them were little stinkers, it was good to see them overcome their weaknesses. I especially loved the way Jo and Father Bhaer cared about each and every one of their pupils and tried all they could to teach them. They always did so in as loving manner as possible. It was a good reminder to me of how I should be teaching my own boy.

The next book in the trilogy is Jo's Boys. I am looking forward to reading that one.
I read this book as part of a Classics Challenge.

UV Skinz Giveaway

It's Monday (and by that I mean it's Tuesday but the giveaway started on Monday), and that means there is a giveaway on Supermom Central. Just head on over there to enter to win something from UV Skinz.

Test Post 2

Sorry, for the test post. I fixed the color to match my blog.

I'm still working on my blog

This is a test post to see the new signature I created. How does it look??

My Layout Doesn't Work

For some reason my new layout that I have been slaving over isn't working on Internet Explorer. I use Firefox and everything looks fine. So I am wondering what the deal is? My favicon doesn't show up either.

So here is my question. What browser do you use, and what do you see when you're on my blog?
I guess I may have to rethink this. Thanks for the help.

Bloggiesta Update #2 and Wrap-Up

Day #2
Bloggiesta Mini Challenges:

The Book Lady's Blog - Cleaning up your feed reader; I organized all my blogs into folders, and caught up on reading posts. Yeah! The easiest thing to accomplish so far today.

Beth Fish Reads - Write a post and save is for a rainy day. I wrote a list post for this challenge.

Jill from Fizzy Thoughts - Leave comments on 10 new blogs. I have been leaving comments since the beginning of the Bloggiesta on many new blogs. I didn't keep track though.

Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile - List your blog on a directory. I am already a part of Book Blogs Ning. I also submitted my blog for BBAW.

Emily's Reading Room - Set up a Google Alert. I set an alert for Haiku Amy.

Books, Movies, and Chinese Food - Creating an Elevator Pitch. What do you think of mine? It is under my blog title.

I found some blogging buddies from My Friend Amy's challenge.

Other Bloggy Stuff:
I finally, finally got my favicon to work. This was a serious headache all day, but I finally found the perfect site to help me. It is called Blogger Buster, and it was a life saver. The cool thing about it was you don't need a web hosting site to add your favicon. If anyone using Blogger is having troubles with your favicon, click that link. I am serious. There were tons of helpful Blogger posts on there. I will be returning some day.

I re-did my template using my own background photo. Again, I used tips from Blogger Buster. I still need to work with it a little more, but for now it is passable. P.S. the photo I used is from my trip to Yellowstone National Park last year. The water from the hot pool really was that color blue. So awesome.

I tweeted some on Twitter, and made myself a new Twitter widget.

I also went around leaving comments blogs, but I did not keep track of how many. Oh well, it probably wasn't anything significant.

Sadly, I didn't get any more posts written, but I'm glad I got some of the other stuff done. It was needed.

Wrap-Up:
I had a hard time calculating how many hours I spent today, because all morning long I kept getting interrupted. I just didn't seem to get anything substantial accomplished until this evening. I am going to approximate between 5 and 5.5 hours for today. Adding to yesterday that makes a total of 14.5 Hours.

Goals Finished:
I finished all the mini challenges.
I posted two book reviews.
I made a gravatar and a favicon.
I started making labels for my posts.
I changed my blog template.
I wrote one back up post.
I re-wrote my About Me section.
I changed my Twitter widget.
I set up Feedburner.
I changed my name to Haiku Amy.
I set up a Haiku Amy email address.

Good Intentions:
I never made it back to Technorati, although I think this site was still giving people problems.
I didn't get around to adding meta tags to my blog.
I still want to tweek the template a little, but I'll get to that slowly. It's a big job.
I didn't quite get caught up on book reviews. I will work on those in the coming week.

I am exhausted, but I got a lot done. It was also fun meeting new bloggers and visiting your sites. I hope everyone had fun for Bloggiesta, because I sure did. I really learned a lot of stuff.
I want to say thanks Natasha from Maw Books for putting us up to this. I also want to thank the hosts of the mini challenges. They really did a great job. I hope I get to participate in Bloggiesta again in the future.

Bloggiesta Update #1

Is it a sad thing that my arm muscles are starting to ache? One might think I'd been on the computer all day. Total Hours spent: Approximately 9

I going to attempt to list the things I did for Bloggiesta today. I didn't keep great account of what articles I read or blogs I commented on, but here is the other stuff I attempted.

Mini Challenges: I looked at 6 of 12, and almost completed them too!
Ruth from Bookish Ruth - I analyzed my blog through Website Grader. My blog received a 67% rating and a reading level Primary. That sounds pretty good to me. I got some ideas there for increasing my rating.

Andrea from Book Blather - Read 5 articles from 27 Must Read Tips and Tutorials for Bloggers (I read 7)

1. How to Get Traffic to Your Blog
2. First, 10
3. 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
4. A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images
5. How to Start of Start Over Building Your Personal Brand
6. 10 Reasons Readers Don't Leave Comments
7. 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content

Michelle from GalleySmith - Learned about Anchor Text

Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? - Gravatars and Favicons. I signed up for a Gravatar, and yippee - It Works! I previously had a favicon, but for some unknown reason it isn't working anymore. Pain! Another roadbump, iconj has been mysteriously doing site maintenance all day today. I guess I'll tackle the favicon problem tomorrow.

Amy from My Friend Amy - Blog Buddies!! I read Find a blog buddy from Pro Blogger. I haven't yet found a blog buddy. I started this one kind of late and figured people would be sleeping. Anyone using Blogger want to be my blog buddy? Just thought I'd ask.

Jen from Devourer of Books - Updating Key Pages or Posts. I updated my About Me section on my blog. Then I started editing and cleaning up my posts. I did the mini-challenge requirement of 5 posts, but I want to eventually get through all of them. Don't worry, I don't have an exorberant amount.

Posts:
I posted a book review for Previously Engaged by Elodia Strain over on The Joy of Reading Book Blog. For those who don't know, I'm one of a group of authors there.

I scheduled a post for Saturday morning on The Joy of Reading Book Blog. That will be a book review of Fairest by Gail Carson Levine.

Bloggy Stuff:

1. I tried to register my blog with Technorati. That site was having problems. I guess I'll try that again later.
2. I set up Feedburner. I am a newbie at that. They have a lot of bells and whistles. Any tips on how to best utilize that would be helpful.
3. Started applying labels to my posts. Yuck, trying to categorize stuff is not my favorite thing. I think I'm about halfway done on that.
4. I shall now be known as Haiku Amy. Previously known as Amy Btw M, Amersmiller, or maybe any number of related names.
5. Set up a new e-mail address: haikuamy@gmail.com for bloggy related stuff

I think that is pretty much what I did today, other than tweeting and checking out other people's bloggiesta stuff.

I hope I have time for Bloggiesta tomorrow. I have a few more book reviews to do, and I'd like to work a little bit on my blog template. Those other 6 mini challenges are calling to me as well. Right now I am pooped. Well, it is 3:15 AM, so technically I am already at tomorrow as I've been calling it. I better go get some sleep. Happy Blogging!

The Bloggiesta - A Blog 48 Hr. Blog Challenge

I am joining the Bloggiesta, hosted by the Maw Books Blog. The challenge of the Bloggiesta is to work on improving blog layouts, catching up on posts, and any other bloggy related things. The Bloggiesta starts Friday the 19th at 8 am and finishes Sunday the 21st at 8 am.

Here are my tentative goals:

• Fix my Favicon (because really, what happened to that thing anyway?)
• Write review posts for all the books I have read recently
• Figure out how to make a gravatar
• Figure out a tag system
• Synchronize all my social network names...yeah, I've got an alias. So if I change my name on say...Twitter, I hope I don't confuse you all.
  
• Back up posts?? Maybe compose some haikus
• I'm not saying I'll mess with my blog template, but I am not 100% in love with it. I am also not sure on how to make my own. Maybe I'll just research that.
• Check out the Bloggiesta mini-challenges

So I guess I'll start with that. Who knows how long that will take, but it's a good start.

My Twilight Haiku Entry

About a month ago I entered a Twilight haiku contest hosted by the Casting Scoop blog. Well, my haiku didn't win, but I thought I would share it with y'all. To see the winning haiku go to the Casting Scoop blog.

Dew dropped blades soak through
A mumbled name causes doubt
Book in hand she sleeps

My haiku is inspired by the scene (from the book, not the movie) when Bella is reading in the back yard and she falls asleep. Also if you've read the partial Midnight Sun draft, it mentions Edward is watching Bella and listening to her talk in her sleep.

For some of my sillier Twilight haiku's click the links:
It's Dinnertime
Jacob Black
Awestruck
Obsession
Twilight
Need Some Motivation

And...don't forget the winner of my own Twilight haiku challenge, Sonora Rockmauve.
A Winner has been selected

Photo Link

It's What Fun Is

Hi folks. I realize it's been a little while since I posted anything. The thing is, I've been at Lagoon. For those of you who don't know, Lagoon is an amusement park. It is pretty fun for us crazy Utahans. I've spent my entire lifetime going there every summer. I even worked there for 3 summers, and if you would have asked me back then it was the most evil place on Earth. Not now though, oh no...it is happy, fun land now. A great place to take the kiddos when they are bored out of their gourd. Here is something I bet you didn't know. Lagoon boasts the 2nd biggest zoo in Utah. Ha ha ha. Oh, it just kills me, ya know? The Hogle Zoo is the biggest zoo in Utah. I don't believe there are any other zoos in Utah, but I may just be surprised to find out who brags the 3rd biggest zoo. I wonder who it could be? So anyway, if I'm absent from the world wide web this summer, chances are good that I'll be at Lagoon.


Another little known fact: These boats have been pulling the kiddos in a circle since 1963. I wonder what the oldest ride in the park is? *Edit* Hey, I found out the Carousel is the oldest ride in the park. Here is a link to Lagoon park history, if anyone is particularly interested. Where is your favorite amusement park?

Hot, swirling, fury
Every twist and turn makes ill
One whose stomach flops

What's for Lunch?

So here's the story. Yesterday afternoon, I hurriedly whipped up a batch of Hootenanny (German Pancakes) for lunch. I was in a hurry, because I had to go out visiting teaching but wanted to get lunch going for my family before I went. In my rush, I accidentally got eggshells in the batter, but didn't really notice until I was eating the leftovers today and crunched down on some. Needless to say I was grossed out. I had a bad lunch experience, and I'll tell ya, Hootenanny doesn't make for good leftovers anyway. Now I am feeling full of ickiness and just a little betrayed by my lunch choice. I think I need some cookies or something good to counteract the nastiness, or maybe I am just depressed and I want goodies. Hm, I can't really decide.

Have you ever eaten something that was less than appealing, and you had to eat something else to counteract the bad choice?

Lazy summer day
Barbecue grill stands nearby
Picnic foods for lunch