Literary Road Trip Finds a New Home!

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Jenn

I’m excited to announce that Jenn’s Bookshelves is the new home of Literary Road Trip!  Literary Road Trip was developed by the creative genius of Michelle from Galleysmith! When Michelle announced she was looking for a new home for this great initiative, it didn’t take long for me to decide to take it on.  I myself have been working to spotlight Virginia authors in my Virginia is…for Book Lovers feature which I hope to focus on even more this year!

For those new to Literary Road Trip, simply put it is a way for bloggers to showcase local authors.  You can do it through book reviews, author interviews or guest posts, you name it.

For those signed up as a road trip participant, I do encourage you to continue to participate in this project.  I, as Michelle did, will post a Road Trip Map every two weeks, navigating the stops bloggers have made.

I’ve created a Literary Road Trip page. This page lists all the current participants and a list of frequently asked questions.  This is also where participants should post links to their Road Trip Spots.

New to Literary Road Trip and interested in signing up?  Please fill out the form below and I’ll add you to the list!

I’m excited about this new adventure! Stay tuned for giveaways and other exciting activities!

Posted in Literary Road Trip | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Tales of a (Formerly) Reluctant Reader: The Tighty Whitey Spider by Kenn Nesbitt

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Jenn

  • Reading level: Ages 9-12
  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky; Pap/Com edition (April 1, 2010)
  • ISBN-10: 1402238339
  • Source: Publisher

Summary: a collection of over dozens of humorous and outrageous poems about animals!

The portion of this review listed in italics was written by my oldest son, John, as part of his “Tales of a Formerly Reluctant Reader” feature.  All the ideas and comments are his own. My review follows his.

John’s Review: When my mom told me that we were going to read a book of poems before I went to bed, I wasn’t very excited.  Poems are about love and stuff like that, things I totally don’t want to read about!  But then my mom told me they were different kinds of poems.  I didn’t believe her until I saw the cover of the book.  A spider…in underwear?!  I had to read this!

The Tighty Whitey Spider: And More Wacky Animal Poems I Totally Made Up is the funniest book of poems I have EVER read.  Kenn Nesbitt, the author, is so crazy!  The poems aren’t dull and boring, they are full of action and fun.  A few of my favorites include I Bought a New Tank for My Goldfish and My Hamster Has a Skateboard.   If all poetry was this exciting, I’d definitely read more!

My review: What can I say? Anything that gets my son excited about reading poetry has to be good!  John was very skeptical when I told him about the book but instantly opened up after seeing the cover and reading the first two poems.  They are full of wit and fun, I was honestly laughing a bit myself.  There are several poems that should be read to the tune of popular children’s songs  nursery rhymes.  Those were a real hit! Let’s face it, little boys like it when they think they’re making fun of another song or rhyme!

The only thing I should mention is that some of the poems are a little on the crude side and do discuss bodily functions.  Nothing totally off the wall or completely repulsive. Just something I thought worth mentioning. Still this book is still worth checking out!  Exclusive audio is available online, including Kenn singing and reading many of these hilarious poems!

I’m excited to announce a special feature to celebrate National Poetry Month: Followers of Jenn’s Bookshelves can download/view online Kenn’s previous book, My Hippo Has the Hiccups for free at www.zinio.com/KennNesbitt until April 30th!

Following  is a list of other blogs participating in the National Poetry Month 2010 Blog Tour for the next few weeks.  The tour runs all month and covers a wide range of poetry subjects, be sure to check them out! For a complete listing of blogs participating in the tour, please check out Savvy Verse & Wit.

April 1:  Savvy Verse & Wit Welcome Post, Maw Books showcases her old poetry, Semicolon‘s Favorite Classic Poems Survey

April 2:  Diary of an Eccentric on Emily Dickinson, 32 Poems Interview with Geoffrey Brock

April 3:  Regular Rumination on poet Claudia Emerson

April 4:  Indextrous Reader interviews poetry publisher Brick Books

April 5:   West of Mars introduces the Roadie Poet

April 6:  Janel’s Jumble showcases Estrella Azul, The Betty and Boo Chronicles showcases Poems from the Women’s Movement

April 7:  Reading Frenzy features Edgar Allan Poe

April 8:  Books and Movies features Billy Collins

April 9:  Rhapsody in Books features W.B. Yeats

April 10:  Booking Mama will review Poetry Speaks Who I Am, Write Meg! features Kim Addonzinio

April 11:  Tea Leaves will review “Song of two worlds” by Alan Lightman

April 12:  Monniblog will highlight British Columbia, Canada, poets/poetry

April 13:  Life Is a Patchwork Quilt features poetry for the deaf

April 14:  SMS Book Reviews will surprise us with a poetry book review, Author Ru Freeman will talk about poetry’s cross-cultural presence, such as Palestinian poet Dharwish

April 15:  KCBooks will discuss Robert Frost’s The Outsider and how it impacted her.

April 16:  the life (and lies) of an inanimate flying object will review Poetry Speaks Who I Am and host a giveaway for 2 books

April 17:  She Is Too Fond of Books will review Tighty Whitey Spider, A Circle of Books will review a small illustrated Poetry anthology, Wordsworth The Eternal Romantic.


Posted in 8-12 years of age, Kid-lit, Kid-Lit/Middle Grade, Sourcebooks, Tales of A (Formerly) Reluctant Reader | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week?

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Jenn

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being reading, and the books to be finish this week. It was created by J.Kaye’s Book Blog, but is now being hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

Without Fail (Jack Reacher, No. 6) by Lee Child (audiobook)
At Witt’s End (Sadie Witt Mystery) by Beth Solheim
The Tighty Whitey Spider: And More Wacky Animal Poems I Totally Made Up by Kenn Nesbitt

Currently Reading

Veracity by Laura Bynum
Daughters of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt
Persuader: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child


Books to Complete This Week

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

What are you reading this week?

Posted in It's Monday What Are you Reading This Week | 13 Comments

Happy Easter 2010!

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Jenn

A belated Happy Easter to all those who celebrate!

We woke up early, we had a busy day planned! The Easter Bunny brought a lot of goodies for the boys!

The boys were thrilled to see them:

After a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, we packed up and drove to Old Town Alexandria, hopped on a water taxi, and took a nice boat ride to the National Harbor. Following are a few pictures from our outing:

The boys feed ducks while waiting to board the water taxi.

The boys standing in front of a gorgeous boat:

On board the water taxi, just waiting to push off:

Me, my youngest (Justin) and husband, John:

Husband and oldest son, John-John:

Me and Justin:

The Awakening, the sculpture by J. Seward Johnson resembling a giant man coming out of the ground:

The Peeps store!!

Afterward, we came home to a delicious Easter dinner, complete with ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli, yellow squash, and zucchini. We topped it all off with strawberry shortcakes for dessert.

We had a long, but rewarding and wonderful day. How did you spend your Easter?

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Library Loot: March 31 to April 6

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Jenn

 

library-loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

 Yay! This was my first trip to the library in three months!  Let me tell you, it was long over due (no pun intended)!

Here is what I got this week:

The Hollow by Jessica Verday
Anastasia’s Secret by Susanne Emily Dunlap
The Mark by Jen Nadol
Hunger by Michael Grant
The Agency: A Spy in the House by Ying Lee
All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab
The Twentieth Wife and The Feast of  Roses by Indu Sundaresan

Have you supported your local library this week? If so, what did you get?

Posted in Library Loot | 8 Comments

A Month in Review: March

Posted on April 2, 2010 by Jenn


I’m testing this whole monthly recap thing.  I think it’s a good way for me to take a step back and see what I’ve done for the previous month.  Hopefully you, my readers, will enjoy it as well.

Books Reviewed

  • At Witt’s End by Beth Solheim
  • Darling Jim by Christian Moerk
  • Pieces of Happily Ever After by Irene Zutell
  • Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
  • The Cold Room by J.T. Ellison
  • Echo Burning by Lee Child
  • Merlin’s Harp by Anne Eliot Crompton
  • Numbers by Rachel Ward
  • Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
  • Beautiful Dead by Eden Maguire

    • Total books read: 10

    Pick of the month: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

    Special Events

    My Blogiversary!

    I celebrated by two year blogiversary!  To celebrate, I answered your questions (Part 1 & Part 2) and offered a giveaway for the book of the winner’s choice!

    Adventures in Parenting

    A new feature on Jenn’s Bookshelves, created at the suggestion of Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog.  This month I discussed a wide range of things, including adolescent love and reluctant readers.  This is currently a weekly feature, but depending on how much material my boys give me, it may become bi-montly or monthly. Direct links to the posts are below.

    Introducing: Adventures in Parenting!
    Adventures in Parenting: Adolescent Love
    Adventures in Parenting: Relunctant Readers

    Current Giveaways

    Iron Man Super Hero Super Giveaway! (Ends Tuesday, April 6th)

    Upcoming Events!

    Dewey’s 24 Hour Read-a-thon!-April 10

    Have you signed up yet?  You can sign up to either be a reader or a cheerleader! This will be my third read-a-thon!  This year, I’ll be doing less reading and more cheering!  The read-a-thon is a great  community event; you get a chance to devote more time to reading and you can “meet” a ton of other bloggers!

    Ok, I think that wraps up my month.  So, what do you think?  Should I do monthly recaps? I’d love your comments and/or suggestions!

    Posted in Month in Review | 4 Comments

    Adventures in Parenting: Relunctant Readers

    Posted on April 1, 2010 by Jenn

     

    Today’s episode of Adventures in Parenting will take on a more serious note.  Those that know me well know how passionate I am about reading and about getting children excited about reading.  Why am I so passionate?  This  effort was largely due to my oldest son’s problems with reading. 

    We enrolled John-John in a private kindergarted at the age of six.  Our county doesn’t have all-day kindergarten and we thought this would be the best thing for John.  Also, he was a bit behind in reading and we thought he would get some more assistance with this in a smaller classroom.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  We knew at an early age that John had some attention and focus issues. The private school required that we get John tested for ADD before they would provide any extra assistance.  In the meantime, John was shutting down.  He detested reading.  It was a chore, a punishment almost.  

    We couldn’t bear to see John in this state any longer, so we moved him to public school midway through first grade, the best decision we’ve ever made.  While he was ultimately tested for and diagnosed with ADD, we did it of our own volition and were not pressured to do so. 

    Since John’s school is considered a Title 1 school, he receives a tremendous amount of extra help with his reading and he’s grown by leaps and bounds!  He now loves to read, and has reviewed a few books for this blog. One of the features of Jenn’s Bookshelves  is Tales of a (Formerly) Reluctant Reader, in which John reviews books “advertised” for reluctant readers and indicates whether or not they’ve passed his “test.”

    So, what’s the point of this post?  If you have a reluctant reader, don’t give up!  Here are a few tips I offer to parents of reluctant readers:

    • Don’t force your child to read. Doing so will make it seem like a chore or a punishment
    • Let them read what they want (within reason!).  A graphic novel is still a book!  Also, boys tend to enjoy reading more nonfiction than fiction. 
    • Find books about things they are interested in.  My son LOVES Star Wars, so we stocked up on books about the Star Wars movies and characters. DK Books has an outstanding line of books on Star Wars.
    • Does your child like a movie that was based on a book? Find that book, and read it along with him/her. 
    • READ TO YOUR CHILD!  John is now almost 11 years old, and I still read to him!  Talk about the book while you are reading it. Get your child to talk about the characters, how they make them feel. See if they can predict what is going to happen next.
    • Let your child see you reading!  If they see that you enjoy reading, they might be more inclined to do it!
    • Do they want to learn a new sport or activity? Find a book on that topic.  For example, John loves to do oragami.  So we went out and bought him a few books about the topic. Those books are now worn because he’s read them so many times!

    I could go on and on about this, but in order to keep brief I’ll stop here.  I’m always willing to answer questions from parents who have reluctant readers.  We’ve come across a great deal of books that engage reluctant readers, so don’t hesitate to contact me via my Contact form or by email at jennsbookshelf@gmail.com.  You can also catch me on Twitter as @jennsbookshelf!

    Posted in Adventures in Parenting | Tagged | 12 Comments

    Mini-Review: At Witt’s End by Beth Solheim

    Posted on April 1, 2010 by Jenn

  • Paperback: 282 pages
  • Publisher: Echelon Press (March 1, 2010)
  • ISBN-10: 159080662X
  • Source: Publisher

    • Sadie Witt and her sister Jane run Witt’s End Resort in Minnesota.  But Witt’s End isn’t your typical resort.  Cabin fourteen is always occupied by a few ghosts who have been unable to cross into the light due to unfinished business.  Sadie is their death coach and assists them in crossing over.  Crossers only have thirty days to cross before their spirits vanish.

    Recently, Sadie’s job hit a little close to home: a car accident took the lives of a family dear to the Witt’s, and good friends with Nan (owner of an onsite funeral home) and her son, Aanders.  Tim, the son of the family, has become a crosser, desperate to prove that his family’s death wasn’t an accident.

    Meanwhile, the Witt sisters risk losing the resort to Carl, the town’s deputy sheriff.  Carl believes the Witt property is on his family’s land and therefore belongs to him.  Paul, a wealthy businessman, is trying to convince Nan to marry him so he can take over the funeral parlor, which is on the Witt property.

    It certainly seems like a lot is going on in this cozy mystery, doesn’t it?  However, Solheim does an outstanding job of weaving the many storylines together into one cohesive plot.  The characters she has created are so full of depth and detail that they come alive (no pun intended!) on the pages.  Sadie is full of spunk and her gaudy outfits just add to her sparkling personality.Jennifer from Mrs. Q: Book Addict compares Sadie to Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series.  At Witt’s End will make you laugh and cry.  It’s a delightfully quick read but definitely has a lot wrapped up in it. Outwitted, the second book in the Sadie Witt mystery series, releases in 2011. I can’t wait to get my hands on it! Highly recommended!

    Other reviews of At Witt’s End:

    Mrs. Q: Book Addict

    Posted in Mystery/Suspense, Review | Tagged , | 5 Comments

    Review: Darling Jim by Christian Moerk

    Posted on March 31, 2010 by Jenn

    Hardcover: 320 pages
    Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (March 31, 2009)
    ISBN-10: 0805089470
    Source: Purchased

    Three women are found dead in a home in a Dublin suburb.  They are identified as Moira Hegarty and her two nieces, Fiona and Róisín Walsh.  It is soon discovered that Fiona and Róisín were held as captives by their aunt, apparently for many months.  There is evidence of a third person but the body is never recovered.  Moira was killed by her nieces during an escape attempt; one niece is found brutally murdered in an upstairs bedroom and the other is found in secluded room, both bodies indicate signs of starvation.  It isn’t until two diaries are discovered by a postal clerk that we learn the motive behind the murders, and the reason for the captivity.

    Darling Jim is a story told through journals.  Fiona Walsh herself describes a man named Jim, a handsome stranger who arrives in this small Irish town via a red motorcycle.  He travels through Ireland, telling a story of a young man is transformed into a wolf.  Women swoon in Jim’s presence, and it’s not long before Fiona falls for him.  They have one lustfull night together.  Afterward, Fiona can’t help but be jealous when she sees Jim going off  with another woman. She follows him and soon learns of his purpose in town.  While he’s off sleeping with the town’s women, his partner robs the women of their possessions. Women who discover his ploy are murdered.  It becomes evident to the Ward sisters that the magical fairy tale that Jim weaves is really a transcript of his own life.

    Darling Jim is definitely not a book for the faint of heart.  Within the first thirty pages, Moerk describes three very gruesome murders.  There are also scenes of other violent acts throughout the book.  While this is a very odd and creepy book, I do believe it is one that still deserves to be read.  I thoroughly enjoyed Moerk’s gothic style of writing, and his way of weaving fairy tales into the plot.  The descriptive writing grabbed my attention immediately and I was instantly absorbed in the story. The characters are developed through journal entries, telling their stories from the grave. While there are several subplots weaved throughout, I think Moerk did a very good job of tying them together and wrapping them up neatly at the end.

    While I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone due to the gruesome imagery, I would recommend it to fans of gothic fiction and horror.

    Check out these other reviews of Darling Jim:

    Presenting Lenore

    No More Grumpy Bookseller

    Posted in Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Review, Thriller | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

    Announcing: The Winner of Numbers by Rachel Ward

    Posted on March 30, 2010 by Jenn

    ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more

    Congratulations!  I’ll send your mailing address to the publicist, who will ship your book directly. 

    Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments