Annabelle Says.....Again!! 6/15

Okay, so I've already posted a quote for this month. But I have two very good reasons to post again.

1) I just found another amazing quote.

2) Amber will be gone for two weeks. Therefore, I am "filling in" for her. In the broadest possible sense.

Okay, here it is. The quote you've been waiting for!


"We have eyes, and we're looking at stuff all the time, all day long. And I just think that whatever our eyes touch should be beautiful, tasteful, appealing, and important."

                                       - Eric Carle


Yeah. THAT Eric Carle. Beautiful quote.




Annabelle J.

Annabelle Says 6/15

Hello all,

Before I present you with my quote for this month, I would like to make a small note.

Friends in cyberspace, we appreciate your patronage to our blog. However, we need to know your thoughts as well, so that we can make our blog better. Also, this blog was created for us to share books that are little known with other people, and we would love to know if you read it, and how you like it. There's more than one way to read a book, you know, and if you read it differently than we did, we want to know! So please, comment, comment, comment. Even though I am asking you to please comment, I must also ask that you keep you comments clean and blog-related, for your safety and the safety of others. Thank you.

And out of that slightly more solemn note, here is my quote for this month!!

"My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid."

                       -Joan Bauer, Rules of the Road


Ah, one of my favorites,


Love,


AJ

The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall

 Okay, this book is amazing. Absolutely awesome. If you like The Lord of The Rings or the Chronicles of Narnia, this is definitely the book for you.

The Minnipins have lived in the Land Between the Mountains for eight hundred and eighty years, ever since the hero Gammage led them through a passage that has long since filled in.

But the old legends have become simply wisps of memory, and the Minnipins have forgotten their ancient heritage. Four hundred years after Gaammage led the Minnipins to their home, Fooley the Magnificent went on his famous balloon ride to the Land beyond the Mountains, and brought back amazing things. Four hundred MORE years later, Fooley's descendants have become the Periods, an elite group of people who control the village of Slipper-On-The Water.


Slipper-On-The-Water is the best, the most uniform and the prettiest of all the twelve villages in the Land Between the Mountains. Everybody says so. Except for Them. They are Walter the Earl, Curley Green, Gummy the Poet, and Muggles. In the course of events, these four, plus the village money keeper, Mingy, are outlawed from the village and go to live near one of the mountains (Frostbite or Snowdrift, I can't remember which). But they soon discover that the Hairless Ones, who played the Minnipins in the time of Gammage, have returned.

And They are the only ones who can stop them.

I suggest this book for all ages, and grownups, too. It's a great family read, and has no real violence and absolutely no language.


5 BIG HUGE STARS!!!!!

Enjoy,


AJ

Annabelle Says - 5/15

I love this next quote. I think that it really applies to Christianity and God driving the devil away from his children.


“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”


                - Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches






Love it! And I know that Amber and GiGi will probably have a compelling comment or two, so I direct your attention to the comments box. If there is empty space there, please don't hesitate to write your own compelling comment.


Love, 

AJ

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

Okay, this may be one of the greatest books about growing up that I have ever read.

Jenna Boller is a salesperson at Gladstone's Shoes, a chain of shoe stores known for quality and fair pricing. She likes to sell shoes, and she's good at selling shoes. However, her father struggles with alcohol addiction, and when he comes around to the store one day, Jenna is mortified beyond her sixteen years.
So when Madeline Gladstone, the president of Gladstone's, asks Jenna to be her driver for the summer, Jenna leaps at the chance. They take an unforgettable journey from Chicago to Dallas, and Jenna learns a lot more about driving, selling shoes, and life than she ever expected to know.

I highly suggest this book for anyone who can read chapter books. My mother read it to my sisters and I when I was in fourth grade, and I read it over again right after she finished it. It's a tale of growing up and growing strong. Jenna's voice is highly unique and funny. There is no swearing, inappropriate behavior or references to any. There is some mild emotional turmoil, as Jenna struggles with her father's addiction, her beloved grandmother's Alzheimer's, and the death of a father figure. But don't let that stop you from reading this book. I would give it six stars, but I only have 5 to spare. It's a great family read-aloud, or a book to read in your free time.

"I wrote "never punch a man who's chewing tobacco." I think that at the very least this should be a bumper sticker, but I'm not sure what any of this has to do with selling shoes."

""I still feel like he's with me, in every store Floyd and I opened. When I was a child, I'd wonder why in the world did I have a father so all-fired fixated on shoes?" She [Mrs. Gladstone] opened her hands,  grinning. "Sure made me think about selling them a little different."
I looked down. I always wondered why I had a father who was a drunk.
I haven't figured that one out yet."

-Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer (words in brackets are mine)


Love,

AJ

A Word from Annabelle.....Literally

I think that the pun in the title is appropriate. I digress.


zhoosh |ˈZHo͝oSHʒʊʃ| (also zhush, zhuzh |ˈZHo͝oZH| ) verb [ with obj. ] informal make more exciting, lively, or attractive: the bag is a cool but economical way to zhoosh upmany an outfit.


................ <-- That would be my silence. It is a silence which is comprised of amusement, surprise, and pure gaping mouth. It is owing to the fact that I never thought that 'zhoosh' was a word. I guess I was ... wrong, and I shall attempt to use this word in the future (though I can't imagine how).

AJ 

Quote, Unquote

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them.” 

~ Ender, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.