so i’m working the crosswalk at church – one of my third grade kids walks up – no Bible – but a warriors book – i told him to beware – there was a disturbed girl who loved nothing but loki and warriors – he seemed to take heed…

“flush” – a re-read – the good thing is i can use red herring with the sixth grade now as a lit term – the bad news is that flush is at best a fourth grade book – just ridiculously easy – and i’ll have plenty of kids who won’t read any of those books – sigh…

“the wells bequest” – good news for master victoria – i ordered two copies of the second/companion book to grimm – it read fine – but it was a troubling book if you put thought into it – like using a time machine to stop a death ray gun that a boy wants to use because he can’t have the time machine and go back and make everything cool with his girl – plus, the items were supposed to be no big deal in grimm – but obviously, time machine and death ray, they are in wells

“positive” – knocked out my first HS BOB – I doubt they love it – it was a biography – but i thought it was a book every educator should read – the story of an HIV positive girl who was bullied terribly in middle school – it was horrible what teachers and other people did to her – it’s a reminder that if we’d all take a minute to consider what we say and do, the world could be a better place

anyone watching the special olympics world games??? those athletes are awesome

mafeld

my how the blog has died…

“my eight world cups” – absolutely loved this book – the story of soccer in my lifetime – i grew up playing the sport – i followed the national team before anyone seemed to care – so i loved reading about things i knew about – and getting a fuller story – like how in 1996, they removed the hedges at georgia and told the people that there was a parasite – which wasn’t true – but they thought the college football people would go crazy about it

“the pedestriennes” – 140 years ago, there were these women that did endurance walking – walking for six days – walking for a month – the writer tracked down their untold story – it was pretty cool

happy band camp – may all your lockers be bottom lockers – wait, i think i have that wrong…

mafeld

of course, the answer is yes – i know it’ll be tough, but stay indoors and watch for mayfield appearances from media days on espn’s sec network – i’ll try and wear my great plaid pants in order to stick out…

“touchdown tony” – this will be a great book to go with the movie coming out this fall about b’ham integration – woodlawn – this is about one of the central characters – tony nathan – great book about the city’s history

“a year in the life of a complete and total genius” – probably setting up to be a series – a seventh grader with a major writing assignment – brings up the question: what do you do in a book when you feel like there’s been a major injustice created? that is, the situation in the book is resolved, but not the way you thought it should be – i had the same problem with the “lamar” book for BOB years ago

“throwback” – former major league player complains about how everyone else plays the game – but himself – it wasn’t the best…

“long walk to water” – it had been several years since i’d read it – so i needed a reread – still good – still took, like a couple of hours – i will try very hard not to go off on the next sixth grade parent that tells me how “tough” it was to do summer reading…

“grimm legacy” – this book wasn’t nearly as good as i thought it was – my apologies:) but the whole coupling off at the end was very predictable – i really didn’t like the use of magic in the book – like, it didn’t make sense that these objects had been around forever – and yet no one knew about them – except this creepy old guy that developed a plan to sneak them out – over time – with replicas – from another object he stole – just a lot of logic leaps that seemed convenient – that said, i can teach red herring to sixth grade now – and i’ll read the sequel – so it could’ve been worse

one week to registration – yeah:)

mafeld

ran in atlanta yesterday – actually, got a bit of hypothermia waiting for my mom to finish – it was that overcast – and that rainy – but still,  a lot of fun – they gave away baseball cards at the braves tent at the expo – yeah!!!

“strong inside” – must read for billy before he leaves for college at vandy – the story of perry wallace – the first african-american to play in the SEC – wallace is an amazing person – and he has a wonderful story – to go through what he went through without lingering bitterness – to forgive others, it’s just amazing – but it’s also just a very sad book – that he was forced to go alone so many trials

“brady v. manning” – comparison book about the two QBs – which one is better???

“anne of avenlea” – anne of green gables is the classic – i didn’t realize there was a series – but i give myself props for reading and enjoying this book – there’s an element of me that just thinks my grandmother would’ve loved reading this book as a child – would’ve loved it as an adult – and so sometimes, that can be enough reason to enjoy a book that maybe isn’t in your target range

hope everyone enjoyed fireworks

mafeld