Melissa Wiley's Blog, page 202

In Rolls April

What a great week.

My parents drove out from Colorado with my sweet almost-13-year-old niece. (Thanks, sis, for letting us borrow her.) We didn’t do anything big, just hung around the house mostly, spending time together. It was lovely. My mom and dad took the four big kids shopping for Easter clothes (woohoo!), took all the kids to the park, took the big girls swimming at the hotel pool—that kind of thing, mellow and close to home. As for me, I got to putter around the house with the baby during

TBR Pile Update

I haven’t made much of a dent in that stack of books.

14 books in the stack.

I’ve read three books since posting that picture—only one of them (The Sherwood Ring) was in the pile. And another of the three (The Plain Princess) was very short, a fairy tale really. (Sweet and pleasant, very similar to my favorite George MacDonald story, whose name I am suddenly blanking on. The one about the Wise Woman who takes in the spoiled princess and the arrogant shepherdess girl.) The third, The Polysyllabic S

It’s Here! 30 Poets/30 Days!

No foolin’—Gregory K. starts his month-long poetry fiesta with a bang: a brand-new, ne’er-before-seen poem by this country’s first Children’s Poet Laureate, the great Jack Prelutsky. You just gotta book on over and see!

Books Read in March

Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. (Blogged about Down & Out here.)
“The Sisters” by James Joyce.
Damosel: In Which the Lady of the Lake Renders a Frank and Often Startling Account of her Wondrous Life and Times by Stephanie Spinner.
The Film Club: A Memoir by David Gilmour.
Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde. (Notes.)
Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor by Mike Costa and Fiona Staples.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman. (Notes.)
Rules by Cynthia Lord. (Notes.)
The Plain Princ

Books Read in March

(Updated.)

Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. (Blogged about Down & Out here.)
“The Sisters” by James Joyce.
Damosel: In Which the Lady of the Lake Renders a Frank and Often Startling Account of her Wondrous Life and Times by Stephanie Spinner.
The Film Club: A Memoir by David Gilmour.
Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde. (Notes.)
Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor by Mike Costa and Fiona Staples.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman. (Notes.)
Rules by Cynthia Lord. (Notes.)
The P

Booknotes: The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope.

Is there anything more promising than a novel that opens with a young person traveling to a mysterious ancestral home for the first time? The Secret Garden, The Children of Green Knowe, The Little White Horse; even, if you stretch it a little, Emily of New Moon. Delicious books with perfectly delicious beginnings.

The Sherwood Ring is a book of this sort, and it’s one of the deliciousest. The very moment Jane finished reading it, she was imploring me to b

The Real Baby Doesn’t Like That

The answer to another of our bookquotes: Daisy Thinks She’s a Baby by Lisa Kopper.

Is this book still in print? Shoot, I just looked it up and it isn’t. Gahhh! This always happens. We love this book to pieces—almost literally; after thirteen years of heavy use by five children (so far—Huck isn’t quite there yet), our copy of this absolute peach of a book is looking a bit loveworn—and I go to rave about it on the blog and then I find out it isn’t in print anymore and used copies are selling for al

Book Quotes Revealed

Most of our book quotes were identified by readers in the comments. Only three stumped everyone, I think! I’ll save those for last.

“Reshpeckabiggle!”

Beth correctly recognized that as one of good old Puddleglum’s besotted mutterings during his brief unfortunate lapse in The Silver Chair. Scott does the best Puddleglum voice: sounds a bit like the narrator from Our Town. Ayup. Puddleglum is trying to defend his honor as a respectable marshwiggle. Nothing is ever “respectable” around here: it’s alw

Bookspotting

Some of the books I saw kids reading this week:

Doom Patrol (Showcase Presents comics collection)

By the Shores of Silver Lake

Little Town on the Prairie

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Dear Mr. Blueberry

Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill

Ramona’s World

Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster

Betsy and the Emperor

The Arrow Over the Door

Karen by Marie Killilea

I Think I’ll Keep Her

Jane asks, eagerly, how far I am in The Sherwood Ring.

“At the part where Barbara __________” (What, you think I’d give it away? Fie upon spoilers!)

I groan to indicate my state of suspense. This is a really gripping part of the book. All parts of this book have been gripping, but this is the grippingest so far.

“Oh, Mom!” cries Jane in sympathy.

And offers to babysit the little ones this morning so I can finish the book.

That’s my girl.

Answers to yesterday’s book quotes coming later. A lot of you ha