My darling son, Shawn, brought me an early Christmas present the other day. How cool is that? My husband had taken the kids up to the school for the Santa Shop. If you are not familiar with this concept, a fund raiser retailer comes in to the school and sets up a shop full of inexpensive and varied items, so that the kids can easily shop for their loved ones. The shopping gets done all in one place, and the gifts are easy for a child’s budget to accommodate. It’s a really neat program.

Another thing happened to be going on that night at school, as well. The library was giving away books. Did someone say giving away books? I am so there! Well, I wasn’t - but, my boy was looking out for me! He brought me home a great book to read, and a very important one, at that! He brought me “The Long Black Schooner” by Emma Gelders Sterne. It is the story that prompted the movie, “Amistad”. I haven’t seen the movie, but, I am so excited to read the book. I think it will be a much more enriching experience to read the story first. That is how it usually is for me. The subtitle is “The Voyage of the Amistad” and the book was also later renamed to “The Slave Ship”. So the book kind of has three titles. Isn’t that weird?

Here’s a picture of my copy:

The round thing coming off the top of it is my booklight. I love that thing! My dad bought it for me last summer and it is the nicest one I’ve ever had - it rocks!

There is one about Shawn bringing me a book that is heartwrenching - if you’re a bookworm, that is. Do you know why the library was giving away their books? They were giving them away because they are…..eeks…..”discards“. Yes, discards. Isn’t that the saddest thing you’ve ever heard anyone say in reference to books? It’s even stamped inside the front of the book:

Ugh. So sad. Shawn said they were going to throw away whatever books they had left over. I’m hoping and praying his information is wrong - surely it must be, right? We have a brand new thrift store in town that would probably love them! I’ll have to ask the librarians about that, I’m sure the child was wrong.

I’m also sure, however, that the child was sweet - to think of me. And to bring me such a historically important book. When your child loves books enough to give you back books in return, then you know your book circle has come full circle. And that life is good.

Yes, I’m silly and sappy when I talk about books.

Halloween is sneaking up on us - it’s just around the corner! I can’t believe that! This year is just flying right past us! But, oh how I love Halloween! My daughter and her friends just put up all of our decorations yesterday. And we’ve been discussing costumes, and plans for the magical, spooky, creepy evening! Last year we definitely all had a blast! Our whole family just loves Halloween and I know that we will have so much fun this year, too!

And then it will be over. Just like that. And then we’re in the last inning stretch towards Christmas. Christmas? Already? Wow!

Yep, Christmas will be upon us - I think, in just over a week. You see, once Halloween is over, then it’s all about Christmas. Sure, we’ve got Thanksgiving first, but, that is really just Christmas’ appetizer. (As well as time for Mrs. Lisa to rant on and on about how Columbus did NOT discover America!)
When my brothers and I were kids, I know this will come as a big surprise to you but, one of my very favorite, most-coveted Christmas gifts was my gift certificate to Taylor’s Bookstore. (Which isn’t even around anymore.) It was always in my stocking, and I would search and dig in there until I found that wonderful brown envelope! And then the day would come when Mom would take us all to Taylor’s and OH! how I loved that day! We would all go our separate ways to our favorite sections in the store and I was just in Hog Heaven! I suppose you might want to call it Book Heaven!
There was another favorite gift that we would often receive, though. And that is RC cars. Each year, they were newer, faster, stronger, bigger, etc and we were always so excited to try them out! We would go across the street to the elementary school and try out our new cars in the driveway or on those long sidewalks or even in the parking lot. And there were always neighbors there with their new RC cars, as well! It was so much fun!

My mom and my sister-in-law sent the kids my very favorite gifts ever - yep! Books!

What better gift can there possibly be?
One of the books that Shawn got was called, The Black Tattoo.

I haven’t read the book, yet - but, it looks really neat!

And he really enjoyed it. And the part that has me so jazzed?

The cover! Yes, the cover! You open it up and it is a huge poster - merging the arts, you gotta love that!

That’s right!

…sent me a holiday card!

And I love it! Well, any bookworm would - it is so cute!

You can check it out here:

Season’s Readings!

Awesome! I wish I could’ve pasted it here, it is so cute!

Oh well - ya’ll just go look! Ok? And make sure you have your speakers turned on!

And then…

GO READ A BOOK!

I have spoken here before about Squidoo

A wonderfully fun and inspiring and educational in many ways place on the web full of user-generated pages called ‘lenses’.

Veering a bit off course…here are my Christmas lenses - they do still need a little work:

Kids Love Christmas

and

Kids Love Christmas Crafts

Anyway, back to my topic at hand, I’ve stumbled across a really fun lens that I wanted to tell you about.

Take this sentence, from one of the modules:

“It wasn’t until later in life that I fell in love with the tantalizing texture of language and the sounds words make when jumbled around like jelly beans in all sorts of crazy colorful patterns.”

Now what true bookworm wouldn’t just love a sentence like that, I tell you!

His lens is all about rhyming - and having fun doing it!

Here is a lovely introductory sentence he’s written about his lens:

“Rhyme is a gift of youthfulness, a gift of joy, even a gift of passion… so Step into the Land of Rhyme Time and let your Imagination run Wild!”

And the really cool thing is that he is donating all of the proceeds from this lens to Room to Read!

“Room to Read partners with local communities throughout the developing world to establish schools, libraries, and other educational infrastructure.” …Now that’s cool!

So go on - step on in! Go there now! You’ll be glad you did!

Rhyme Time on Squidoo

And then, of course, don’t forget to…

GO READ A BOOK!