The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Are you a Shakespeare fan? If the answer is yes, than you must read this book.

Holling Hoodhood (not Hood, but no one can seem to understand that), is your average seventh grader. He has a business-driven father, a mother, a sister who is a flower child involved in the hippie movement, a perfect house, a bully out to get him, a girl who has had a crush on him since the third grade, and a teacher who hates his guts. Or so he thinks. It's the middle of the Vietnam War, and Holling's personal opinion is that there are much better things to do than read Shakespeare every Wednesday. And *gasp* at home!!!

This book is good. It is split up into months of the school year. Each month, Holling's teacher, Mrs. Baker, has him read a different play by Shakespeare. So, every chapter has sort of a theme of a different play. The plays are, in order, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (to Holling's chagrin), Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing. Holling has an eternally hilarious narrative voice, and I was laughing almost every page!!

I was assigned to read the Tempest in school at the same time I read The Wednesday Wars. This, I believe is a good practice. I have not read any of the other plays except for Romeo and Juliet. There's enough description of the plays in the book to help you understand what's going on in the story, but not enough to ruin the play. I suggest that you try to read all the plays mentioned above.

I give this book 4½ stars. There is no language, sexual content (two kisses implied), or violence (a kid almost gets hit by a bus). There is smoking, but it is done by the older bully and the mother, and it is sort of just skimmed over. I am suggesting this book for over twelve, because of the deepness of some of the stories, the serious points when the Vietnam War is mentioned, and a higher vocabulary. All the same, if you are a parent looking for a book to read with a younger child, totally pick this book up. It's a good introduction to Shakespeare, and, who knows? Maybe your kid(s) will be inspired to pick up Shakespeare.


Love,

AJ

A Poem to You From Annabelle

Hello all!

Okay, so this is not usually something that I post on our blog, but since the weather has been so nice here where I reside, I decided to present to your attention, a poem.

A Prayer In Spring

By Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill. 


Happy Springtime!!

AJ

A Word From Annabelle.....Literally

Hello, friends!! Greetings from the land of libraries and cyberspace! I shall have to invent an official name for it at some point, but not today!

I have a rather fascinating word for you today. Interestingly enough, the meaning is almost exactly what you would think of when you see it on a page. I discovered the word in my history textbook a few months ago. Ironic, isn't it? Instead of only history, I learned some vocabulary, as well.

bathetic |bəˈTHetik| adjectiveproducing an unintentional effect of anticlimax: the movie manages to be poignant without becoming bathetic.

Isn't it lovely?

AJ

Annabelle Says 4/16

Greetings! to use Amber's favorite form of hello! I'm back in the world, and am here to give you a monthly quote. I hope to start posting monthly again, and hopefully weekly. However, the quotes will stay monthly. Anyway, enough technical gobbledygook! Here you are, my cyber friends, and I hope that this quote can inspire you to be who you are!!

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

                       - Rob Siltanen


I find that quote to be very inspiring. I hope that you do, as well! Have a good day!!


AJ

Anybody Want Some Literary Humor?

If you've never read Dickens, I am sorry. But this is true.

I found this on a website called http://wronghands1.com. It is filled with the most hilarious cartoons ever.



Love,

AJ

Hello!

I perused the blog this cold winter's night, and saw Amber's post from October. I slap myself in the face for neglecting you all for so long! My sincere apologies, and I hope that you all forgive me.

For my returning post, I have chosen quote, taken from the foreword of the book that I am reading for school right now, Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl. The foreword is by the author and I found a quote within that I believe is inspirational enough for our blog.

"Pearls rarely turn up in oysters served to you on a plate; you have to dive for them."

- Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki

Greetings Again!

After a long and uncalled-for hiatus, I, Amber Shipp am once again in the world of the Internet to speak to you about the beauty of books, and words, and quotes and such!

Today I have for you a wonderful word.

OVERMORROW
Noun
The day after or over Tomorrow.

Isn't that amazing?  It's a word that I needed all my life yet knew not that I did.
Anyway, please return to your lives, and have fun doing that. And use this word. Yes.


~ Amber Shipp