Po(sey) Sessions

In 2009 I want to keep better record of the books I am reading. My hope is to keep updating this list throughout the year. Thanks to J. Kaye for hosting this challenge. Please click on the picture above to be taken to the page to sign up to participate. I am not officially joining this challenge because I am not following the guidelines. I am concerned with when I finish a book and not with when I started it. This challenge officially cannot include any books started in 2008 and my list will have several of those. 1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo 2. Katie and Kimble: A Ghost Story by Linda Thieman 3. The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key 4. The Hunger Games by Susan Collins 5. Perfect on Paper by Maria Murnane 6. Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman (audio) 7. Unwind by Neal Shusterman 8. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (audio) 9. Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra 10. The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren by Wendy Toliver 11. The year of secret assignments by Jaclyn ...

Walk Two Moons is the Newbery winning book by Sharon Creech. The storyline is composed of three different time periods in Sal's life. The novel weaves these narratives together; one is reaching towards the future, one is the recent past, and the third connects to events in the more distant past. Sal is moving forward on a cross-country road trip with her grandparents on her way to see her mother. Along the way she tells stories of her new friend in the town she recently moved to, these connect back to deeper memories of her childhood. While the book deals with a lot of dark themes, it is more concered with the reality of life rather than being a menacing tragedy. The novel explores how we all have struggles in our lives. One of the moments in that book that explores some themes is when the class reads and tries to understand a poem. "Mr. Birkway read a poem by Longfellow: "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls." The way Mr. Birkway read this poem, you oculd hear the tide ...

Midnight Swing ( from Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Away ) When I can't fall asleep I sneak out to the yard and climb onto the swing that's attached to a branch of sweet scented pine. As I glide though the night and I hang back my head I see stars and a moon that's following me through the evergreen trees. And I fly on my swing through the midnight ice cold as the swirling white clouds of my own frozen breath brush my tingling cheeks. And my nightgown wafts up and my hair billows out as I float through the air and there's only the sound of the dark whooshing past. And my thought drift to you on a day long ago when my legs were too short so you helped me climb up and you taught me to pump. ---Sonya Sones

This is the exact imaginary, figurative gold star that was actually awarded to me in real time by the spectacular Neal Shusterman!! (After I demanded he do so.) (How I love those that bend to my will!) How did I earn this gold star? Besides by sheer force of will? Well, it ends up that one of my favorite books that I have read in the past year written by one of my favorite authors that I have discovered in the past year is being released in paperback. And much like my desperate plea for this hard earned gold star, Neal issues his own plea. Tell ten people about the impending release so he can put his son through college! :D So, now I told you and you need to go tell ten people. Then maybe you will get a gold star too. But not this one. This one is mine. NO TOUCHING. This one was virtually presented to me by one of my favorite authors and you can't have it. Of course I didn't gush all over him about how much I think he is a genius. And also I do feel kind of stupid after pr...

I may have said it, but even then it was a lie. You want to know why? Because you don’t crawl out of bed in the morning jumping like a Mexican bean to wake me up and make me happy. No, only an Arabica bean can do that. This doesn’t mean that I love you any less. This means that I really really really really really really really really really really resent that my coffee maker isn’t working. It is long gone. Dead and gone. And there were some tears when I walked up to the machine and flipped the button. The red button glowed letting me know that my bliss would soon be here. I made the mistake of walking away and when I came back? Nothing had happen! Had I forgotten the water again? Nope. Glowing red light? Check. Coffee grounds? Check. I shake the machine a little. Nothing happens. I tap it. Nothing. I ever so gently bang it against the counter like the caffeine crazed woman I am. Still no coffee. This was days ago. Days and days ago. And now…. I can only think of one thin...

"We spent a month reading poetry from the Harlem Renaissance in our English class. Then Mr. Ward--that's our teacher--asked us to write an essay about it. Make sense to you? Me neither. I mean, what's the point of studying poetry and then writing essays ? So I wrote a whole bunch of poems instead. They weren't too shabby, considering I'd only done a few rap pieces before. My favorite was about Langston Hughes." Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, Page 2. When Wesley "Bad Boy" Boone turns in poetry instead of an essay the teacher asks him to read one of his poems out loud. More and more students want to share the poems they have written until Mr. Ward decides to institute and "Open Mic Friday" for some of the class sessions. The Harlem Renaissance was about embracing the artistic and intellectual changes in the African American culture in the 1920s and 1930s focusing on blending the historical experiences of black America with the risin...

I, Too. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.