Review: Mockingjay

"What's with this book?" the checker at Target asked me, as he scanned Mockingjay and then bagged it for me. "Everybody's buying this book!"

I'd held off for six days. But I could not wait any longer. Within an hour, I'd bought it and had settled down nicely into chapter one.

I finished it nine days later. Yes, I could have dashed through it that night, but who really wants to finish that last, final book in the series?

So what do I think? Bottom line, thumbs up or thumbs down?

(I don't like spoilers, so I promise to give away none of the plot for the three of you out there who haven't yet read the book.)

Here goes. It's a safe bet I like the series or what I am I doing buying book three, right? So I like the series. And I thought book three was about as good as one and two.

But I want to say more than I like the series or that book three is about as good as one and two. This is what I want to say: The series made me think about our world and violence and tv and human nature. I'm glad it did. I'm hoping that all the kazillion kids reading this book are also thinking about our world and violence and tv and human nature. I'm pretty sure they are.

Because I'm a school librarian, I feel compelled to add that I honestly would not be crazy about my eight-year-old reading this series. It's violent. Read it first, mom.

If you want to read other reviews of Mockingjay, I've very nicely provided links below. And, if somehow I've skipped your review, feel free to add your link in the comments.

Read Sam, Read

A Life Bound by Books

Geek on the Brink

Dearest Dreams

Just Another Book Blog

Good Clean Reads

Chic Fit Geek

Ms. Martin Teaches Media

Emily's Reading Room

Candace's Book Blog

Nor Cal Book Blog

Top Ten Words I Love

Top Ten Words I Love

10. Serendipity
Life as play.

9. Paradox
All truth is paradoxical.
I don't know why.

8. Quirky
My real friends call me this,
not the harsher "crazy".

7. J'aime
In French, this is pronounced "jim" and means "I love".
My husband's name is Jim.
It is fun to say, "J'aime Jim." 

6. Zephyr
I like words that start with "z".

5. Whimsy
I wish we had more of this in life.
I wish we had more of this in algebra.

4. Czechoslovakia
I planned to name my two children
this and "Yugoslavia."
Sadly, I grew up
and named them Jon and Ben.

3. Maranatha
The beautiful word I use in silent prayer.
It means, "Come, Lord Jesus."

2. Books
Obviously.

1. Yes

Studies show that just hearing the word "yes"
makes people happy.

What are the Top Ten Words You Love?

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!


Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon!

This was the first event I participated in when I became a blogger and I've loved it so much that I've  participated every time, despite conflicts with conferences and torrential rains and wedding showers.

Here's what you need to know:

Date:  For 24 hours, beginning at 7 am Central Time on October 9th

Activity:  Read and blog, read and blog, read and blog

Prizes:  There will be a contest almost every hour. There will be many, many prizes.

Where to Sign Up:  24 Hour Readathon

For More Info:  Readathon FAQ

Are you signed up? No? What are you waiting for? Go sign up right now. I'll see you at the Readathon!

The Hop and FF: Bienvenido a Readerbuzz!

Bienvenido a Readerbuzz!

I am Debnance.

I love to read.

I especially love travel memoirs,

children's books, books about happiness,

creative nonfiction, and literary fiction.

I'd love to visit your blog.

If you like, follow me and leave a comment

and I will hop over and follow you.

I also invite you to:

Befriend me at Goodreads.

Follow me at Twitter.

Befriend me at Facebook.

And, the question of the week from the Hop is:

Do you judge a book by its cover?

And my response:

Yes.

I feel horrible admitting to this, but I do.

I judge a book by its cover.

How about you?

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Thank you to Sarah from Sarah Reads Too Much for this question.

Great Picture Books

I read 42 books today.

Picture books.

Good picture books. Great picture books.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a wonderful meme:  What are the ten books that you, as a teacher, could not teach without? I browsed the lists of the participants and then spent most of an evening requesting picture books from the public library.

Here's a photo selection of those I liked best and can't wait to read with the PreK-2nd graders at my school:

Here's a list:

Chalk by Bill Thomson

All Those Secrets of the World by Jane Yolen

Mouse Views: What the Class Pet Saw by Bruce McMillan

Goal! by Mina Javaherbin

Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts

Hero Cat by Eileen Spinelli

Whoever You Are by Mem Fox

Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! by Rosetta Stone

The Rainbabies by Laura Krauss Melmed

My People by Langston Hughes

My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman

We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past by Jacqueline Woodson

The Hard-Times Jar by Ethel Footman Smothers

Monkey With a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem by Curtis Monroe

Animal Colors by Beth Fielding

Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski

Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages by Marla Frazee

Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley

Tough Cookie by David Wisniewski

The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields

Posy by Linda Newbery and Catherine Rayner

One by Kathryn Otoshi

Now I'm off to order these for my own school library! Thank you, Read and Refine and Enjoy and Embrace Learning for this wonderful meme!

Top Ten Favorite Heroines

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!



Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!

This week the topic is---Top Ten Favorite Heroines

(10) Charlotte in Charlotte's Web
Charlotte says, "Some pig." I say, "Some spider."

(9) Amazing Grace
Nothing stops Grace.

(8) The Little House by Virginia Burton
The Little House is a survivor.

(7) Fancy Nancy
She knows how to be fancy without spending a dime.

(6) Stargirl
Stargirl doesn't care what anyone else thinks.

(5) Precious Ramotswe in

No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
She's proud of her country and proud to be "traditionally built."

(4) Pippi Longstocking
What kid wouldn't want to live in a house all by yourself
and do whatever you want?

(3) Anne of Green Gables

Anne never means to cause trouble...

(2) Scarlett from Gone With the Wind

Scarlett is the one I want with me in our next hurricane.

And, finally,

(1) Meg from Wrinkle in Time, my all-time favorite heroine.

How tough it is to be smart in our world!

Who are your favorite book heroines?

The Three Musketeers

I finally finished it. Over seven hundred pages. And I finished it.

It was fantastic. Plots and schemes. Duels. Men thrown in prisons. Gambling. Sword play. Admirable women and treacherous women. Friendships among men. Loyalty. Struggles for power.

My favorite read of the year. Not sure anything else could even come close.

To be honest, that really surprises me. I never dreamed I would love The Three Musketeers like I do.

Ever read something you'd expected to hate but found yourself loving?

And tonight we hope to watch the 1948 movie version. Here's a clip:

Two awards this week:

Lovely and Versatile!  Thank you, my lovely and versatile fellow bloggers.

What is the Sunday Salon?

Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....


That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Join the Salon.

Book Blogger Hop: How I'd Like to Rate Books

 Let me introduce myself.

Bonjour! Enchanté!

I am Debnance at Readerbuzz.

I love to read.

I especially love travel memoirs,

children's books, books about happiness, 

creative nonfiction, and literary fiction.

 I'd love to visit your blog. If you like, follow me and leave a comment and I will hop over and follow you.

I also invite you to:

Befriend me at Goodreads.

Follow me at Twitter.

 Befriend me at Facebook. 

And, the question of the week from the Hop is:

Do you use a rating system for your reviews and if so, what is it and why?

I've been writing reviews of my books since 2003. I've always rated every book 0-10. But I've never used a rating system here at my blog. I want to use a rating system.

If I could, I would steal this rating system, created by Jan T. at her Yahoo group, happily_engaged_in_reading:

10 One of the best, worth adding to my permanent collection

9 Compelling, wonderful, should force strangers to read this

8 Very good, happy I read it

7 Quite good actually

6 Okay plus, good, but not so remarkable

5 Okay, pleasant enough but entirely forgettable

4 I read this under duress or a sense of obligation to the group

3 Why did I bother?

2 I read this only due to lack of nearby cereal boxes

1 Painful, but continued reading anyway

0 Despicable, vile; continued reading to burn off purgatory time

Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

This week the topic is---Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read

I pride myself on being a big reader of children's literature. A few years ago, I decided to try to read all the Newbery winners, and I easily did that in a year. Now I'm working on reading all the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. A bit daunting.

So I'm amending this list to make it the Top Ten Children's Books I Can't Believe I've Never Read. Here goes:

1. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
I am working on this one right now. I can't believe I've never read it. I honestly was not all that familiar with the plot.

2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
I love the idea behind this story. Who in their childhood hasn't dreamed of living on a deserted (or almost deserted) island?!

3. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
I'll say it like the children often say in my library when I show them a book and ask if they have read it: "No, but I saw the movie!" And, eek, that grates on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard.

4. Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
As a little girl, I loved the Edgar Eager books I found in my public library. I devoured them and, when I saw that Edgar Eager attributed his brilliant writing to having read the E. Nesbit books, looked and looked for E. Nesbit around my small town. In vain, however. I must read this book.

5. The School at the Châlet by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
I have a book friend who has long raved about these books. She even sent me two from the series. Have I read them? No, of course not.

6. Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
I can already hear the gasps of horror from those outside the US. No, I have not read Enid Blyton. There, I've said it. I can hardly believe it myself.

7. Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
Oh dear. Now I am in danger of having my children's librarian license revoked. Wait, though, I have read Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. But only that book in the seven book series. Nothing else.

8. Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
Not having read this one will get me in deep trouble here among Texas children's librarians. Let me say that I desperately want to read it. And I promise to read it soon. Is that better?

9. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

I'm afraid some are starting to throw tomatoes at me. "Children's librarian? Ha!" I can hear the snickers. But, people, let's look at the reality here. These are three separate books. And they are all BIG books. And, no, I haven't read any of them. No Jules Verne at all. Now I really feel bad. And not just because I'm covered in tomatoes.

10. The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon

Whatever you do, please do not tell my mom that I have not read these two series. My mom lived on Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as a girl. I cannot believe it myself, but I have never read any of the books in the series. Eek.

Well, as you can see, I need to get busy and read some books.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!


Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!