Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

Read any of these three books by Lisa Yee and you won't be dissapointed.
Millicent Min, Girl Genius - Stanford Wong Flunks Big-time -So Totally Emily Ebers
These books are telling some of the same stories but from different angles. I enjoyed them because I was taken back to being in middle school. The things that were important then are so trivial now. I got a good laugh or two or three... :)

School Library Journal (March 1, 2004)Gr 5-8:
Millie, an 11-year-old with a genius IQ, is taking a college poetry class and waiting for her high school senior year. Because she never hesitates to show how much she knows about a particular subject, her peers tend to stay away. Millie's social ineptitude is a cause of concern for her parents. Against her will, she is enrolled in summer volleyball and enlisted to tutor Stanford Wong, a friend of the family. Into this mix enters Emily, a volleyball teammate and typical preteen. The girls become friends but Millie neglects to tell Emily about her genius status. Eventually the truth surfaces and Emily feels betrayed. Millie thinks that Emily is angry because she is smart, never realizing that the betrayal comes from her lack of trust in their friendship. While some readers will have trouble identifying with Millie, her trials and tribulations result in a story that is both funny and heartwarming. A universal truth conveyed is that honesty and acceptance of oneself and of others requires a maturity measured not by IQ but by generosity of spirit.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Way We Work by David Macaulay

David Macaulay will be at Book smART on January 25. For ticket information go to DallasMuseumofArt/ALL or call 214-922-1818.

Booklist (October 15, 2008 (Vol. 105, No. 4))Grades 7-12:

Many years in the making, Macaulay’s latest work follows the same format as his groundbreaking best-seller, The Way Things Work (1988). Here, Macaulay shifts his focus from modern machinery to the infinitely more complex workings of the human body. The single, holistic subject makes this title far more ambitious than its predecessor, in which each spread was devoted to a particular device. In The Way We Work, every page builds on a previous spread: there is a clear progression from atom to whole organism, but in most cases, readers will need background context to orient themselves as they move through the anatomical subjects, which close with reproduction and birth. As with The Way Things Work, this book’s audience will include adults. In fact, older readers who have previously encountered the science concepts are likely to glean the most from the text’s brief, technical explanations; students seeking a basic understanding of topics such as cellular reproduction will find this much less accessible. As always, though, Macaulay’s artwork is a marvel. From microscopic views to head-to-toe, skeletal structures, the colored-pencil and watercolor images are filled with whimsy. Some pictures are visual metaphors: the respiratory system is shown as a giant, looping roller coaster, for example. Other touches are simply playful and wry: tourists ride a rubber raft through the small intestines; angels support strands of colon that frame a landscape reminiscent of a Renaissance masterpiece. The powerful, illuminating images will ignite curiosity and inspire awe over the magnificent connections that make up the human body.

Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

The author will be at

The Hockaday School

Hoblitzelle Auditorium

11600 Welch Road

Dallas, TX as part of Book smART on May 3. For tickets, go to the website DallasMuseumofArt.org/ALL or call 214-922-1818.

Booklist (February 1, 2008 (Vol. 104, No. 11))Grades 4-7:

Park, author of the Newbery-winning A Single Shard (2001), opens this thoroughly researched novel in Brooklyn with the 1951 baseball season half gone. Nine-year-old Maggie likes to hang out at the fire station, where she listens to Dodgers games with the firemen. The new guy, Jim, teaches Maggie how to score a game, and after Jim is drafted and sent to Korea, Maggie writes him letters. When she learns that he has been traumatized and sent home unresponsive and unable to function on his own, Maggie works on a plan to bring Jim back to himself and his old life. To her credit, Park doesn’t make Maggie’s goal seem easy or even realistic. The involving story spans several years with only a glimmer of hope for Jim’s recovery. Still, readers will find plenty to root for as they get to know determined, persistent Maggie, who feels that the first words she ever learned must have been “Wait till next year.”

Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner

I like any of the Skippyjon Jones books to read to my younger classes. The students really love these books. They are always on hold in the library. As soon as they are checked in, they get checked back out. The are like hotcakes. The author will be at the Dallas Museum of Art for Book smART on Friday, March 20, at 7:00PM. For tickets, go to the website DallasMuseumofArt.org/ALL or call 214-922-1818.

School Library Journal (January 1, 2004) Kinder- Grade 3:
This is a wildly wonderful book about a hyperactive kitten, Skippyjon Jones, whose head and ears are too big for his body, and whose imagination is too intense for his mama. According to her, he needs to do some serious thinking about what it means to be a Siamese cat instead of a bird (Skippyjon always wakes up and eats worms with his feathered friends). She sends him to his room, where he imagines he is a Chihuahua ("My name is Skippito Friskito./I fear not a single bandito"). Chock-full of rhyming chants and Spanish expressions, the feline's adventure as a doggy Zorro ends in chaos. His frazzled mother gives him a hug anyway and says, "Say good night, Skippyjon Jones." "Buenas noches, mis amigos," says the kitten, as he bounces on his bed all ready for another adventure. The buoyant and colorful cartoon illustrations match the exuberant text perfectly. Spanish-speaking children will be especially delighted by the words and humor; others may be a little bewildered by all of the foreign phrases and will need some explanation, but the story definitely has the potential of a fun read-aloud. A good multicultural offering.-Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Alice's adventures in Wonderland : a pop-up adaptation of Lewis Carroll's original tale by Robert Sabuda

This is a book for all ages! I knew of pop-up (paper engineered) books but didn't truly begin studying them until I was taking a children's liteature class in my master's program. I had a professor who collected pop-up books.

The history of pop-up books is very interesting. Check out this website for more information. http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/popup2/introduction.htm

Robert Sabuda will be at the Dallas Museum of Art for Book smART on May 31. For tickets, go to the website DallasMuseumofArt.org/ALL or call 214-922-1818 for tickets.

It is amazing how detailed some can be and Robert Sabuda is an excellent paper engineer. My favorite part of this book is the house of cards. I hope the whole family enjoys this book and then goes out and reads more pop-up books. Enjoy!


Horn Book (November/December, 2003):
Pop-up master Sabuda turns his craft to Carroll's classic tale, creating on each of six spreads an iconic tableau from the story: one spread opens to show a sulky Alice seated at a 3-D tea party with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the sleeping Dormouse, while opalescent silver teacups rise from the table; in another spread, Alice takes a swing at a rolling hedgehog with her pink flamingo croquet mallet. Small booklets to the side of the main image contain Carroll's text (necessarily abridged: the story moves at an over-fast pace but still manages to cohere) along with some pop-up surprises of their own. Devotees of the original art will applaud Sabuda's adoption of Tenniel's style even as he translates the characters and scenes into his own psychedelic color scheme. Devotees of pop-ups will admire the effects Sabuda achieves: Alice's neck growing out of the page, a baby whose face is replaced by that of a pig, a gardener painting a rose that changes from white to red. Foil accents light up the magenta, teal, and royal blue pages; every fur-bearing character is texturized with flocked paper. The only thing lacking is the Cheshire Cat, who emerges Sphinx-like from a tree but fails to vanish and leave his grin behind. A cunning addition to any Alice collection, this achievement in paper engineering will leave readers with an into-the-rabbit-hole sense of astonishment.

Finished reading TWILIGHT....finally!

I finished reading Twilight over the Christmas holiday. I thought I would get it done quickly but spent my evenings instead knitting Christmas presents that were not finished. Finally, on break, I was able to finish the first book. I truly enjoyed it even though it was not my usual "flavor" of reading. I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series. Of course, I am going to see the movie now but not until it comes out on DVD.