Top 100 Books - How'd we do?

Last week, I took the kids to the school Scholastic Book Fair and did my usual semi-annual griping about how the books and junk that they sell at the fair are all just that...junk.  Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy I am as a 36 year old parent of 3.  I need to really think back to when I was in elementary school and could pick out any book I wanted from the book fair...I think sometimes for the kids is more about the freedom to choose their book, than actually looking for fine literary work.  That being said, I'd love to see a shift to some less-commercialized book choices.  I can help influence that a little bit this summer with our library book choices.  In the mean time, here's the NEA's list of top 100 books...I've colored the ones we've read.  

The following list was compiled from an online survey in 2007. Parents and teachers will find it useful in selecting quality literature for children. 

1. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White 
2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 
3. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
   
4. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss 
5. Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown 
6. I Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch 
7. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
   
8. Oh! The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss 
   
9. The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
   
10. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg 
11. Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner 
12. Thank You Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco 
13. The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss 
14. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
    
15. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
    
16. The Mitten by Jan Brett 
    
17. Crunching Carrots, Not Candy by Judy Slack
    
18. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willlems 
    
19. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling 
20. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
    
21. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst 
22. Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman 
23. Corduroy by Don Freeman 
24. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
    
25. Stellaluna by Janell Cannon 
    
26. Tacky the Penquin by Helen Lester
    
27. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
    
28. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams 
29. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. 
30. Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin 
31. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
    
32. Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
    
33. Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
    
34. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
    
35. Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey 
36. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 
37. Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini
    
38. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper 
    
39. The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone 
40. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
    
41. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon 
42. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett 
43. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
    
44. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
    
45. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
    
46. Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann 
47. Olivia by Ian Falconer 
    
48. The BFG by Roald Dahl
    
49. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn 
50. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
    
51. The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
    
52. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle 
53. Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel 
54. A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
    
55. Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
    
56. Bunnicula by James Howe
    
57. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
    
58. Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom DeLuise
    
59. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
    
60. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
    
61. Frederick by Leo Lionni 
62. Frindle by Andrew Clements
    
63. Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel 
64. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney 
65. Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen
    
66. Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion 
    
67. Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss 
    
68. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss 
69. I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
    
70. Is Your Mama A Llama? by Deborah Guarino 
71. Jan Brett’s books 
    
72. Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin Jr.
    
73. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
    
74. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton 
75. Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
    
76. My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
    
77. My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
    
78. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
    
79. No David! by David Shannon 
    
80. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss 
81. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
    
82. Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch
    
83. Swimmy by Leo Lionni
    
84. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
    
85. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Warner
    
86. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
    
87. The Empty Pot by Demi
    
88. The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop
    
89. The Giver by Lois Lowr
    
90. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle 
    
91. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
    
92. The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown
    
93. The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements
    
94. The Napping House by Audrey Wood
    
95. The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
    
96. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
    
97. The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
    
98. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
    
99. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
    
100. The Wide-Mouthed Frog: A Pop-Up Book by Keith Faulkner 

Wow, overall, not too bad...we are big on reading around here.  And now I leave you with some pictures from the luau-themed book fair...

Owlapalooza!

 A week ago on Friday night, Megan and Daniel invited me into Megan's room where they were having worship.  They were having a sing-a-long.

They can be best-buds sometimes.

 The next morning, Keith went up to the church to do his thing with the Children's Welcome Center and the kids and I went up to their school for the annual Owlapalooza festival.  This festival raises money for science and technology programs for the school.

 Daniel soaking one of the Kindergarten teachers.  Daniel thought it was so fun!

 Joshua's turn, he did  not soak the teacher.

 After golfing, the kids decided to check out the bouncy houses.  Joshua and Megan raced each other in the obstacle course.

 Daniel as the king of the world!

 There were a bunch of fun carnival games set up.  The kids loved playing them!

 Joshua wasn't feeling his best (he ran away to vomit, which necessitated us leaving to go home).

 Daniel is fiercely competitive.

 Megan was having a blast.  We ran into her teacher there and her teacher praised Megan on how much she's grown academically since the school year began!

 In the shade of the PE court, the Music Teacher had the kids demonstrate some of the folk dancing they have learned this year.  So cute!

 Megan standing there by herself, telling me to come dance with her.  And so, I gave the camera to Joshua to hold and I went to learn the folk dance with Megan.

The songs and dancing were so cute.  I think that rhythmic movement is so important to children throughout their day to center their thoughts, that I love that the music teacher has the children marching and clapping and square dancing...and it's so cute to watch!

It's official - I'm a Grad School Student!

I found out a few weeks ago that I got accepted into the graduate degree program that I applied to months ago.  I will be attending Frontier Nursing University and working towards a Master of Science in Nursing with a focus as a Certified Nurse Midwife and Women's Health Nurse Practitioner.  I'm not even going to attempt to reveal a graduation date - since I'm only going to be taking a couple of classes each semester.  

FNU is located in Kentucky, and even though it is a mostly distance-based learning program, I will have to travel back and forth to the school a couple of times.  The first of these trips is in just under a month.  In June, I'll be going to Hyden, Kentucky for 4 days to attend "Frontier Bound", the University's orientation program.

I've been taking a Statistics class for about a month now, and it's been a little bit of an adjustment returning to studying mode.

A Ray of Sunshine

Whew, what a week so far...

Sunday - Mom's memorial service

Monday - 1st Day of the FCAT for Joshua's grade

Tuesday - Finally went back to work after being off for almost 2 weeks

Wednesday - Attending the Children's Hospital memorial service honoring all of the children that passed away last year...oh my word...talk about heart-wrenching.

So today, Thursday, seemed like a good day to relax in the tub. My only problem is that our master bathroom has a shower only, and so that means taking a soak in the kids' bathroom. Which, well, unless I wanted to share a tub with 3 half-naked Barbies, and an assortment of little boats, meant I had to clean up the bathtub. After all that hard work, I opted to sit out in the sun with a good book instead of filling up the tub, but it was nice to hang out in the super-cheery kids' bathroom for a while.

Keep in mind, last summer, Keith told the kids they could pick the paint color for their bathroom...neither one of us expected that they would pick Home Depot Orange (I'm sure it's called something else, but really, at first it looked like I was going to be selling hardware out of their bathroom). The color has really grown on me, and everyone that comes to our house loves it (and our Yellow Submarine shower curtain).

Mom's Memorial Service

My mom's memorial service was on Sunday. It was a nice, small service, just what she would have wanted. These are the gorgeous flowers that our church sent to our house. Don't look too closely at that sink full of dirty dishes in the background...it had been a long, busy week.

While cleaning Mom's house, my sister and I came across Mom's old Salvation Army uniform. She was very active in the Salvation Army as a young person, which set the tone for her to continue to find ways to volunteer in the community no matter where she lived.

Mom's brother, Uncle Butch, sent a lovely arrangement that looked and smelled amazing.

Candy's girls, Amber and Alexis, helping to greet guests to the service.

My oldest niece, Mary, getting ready to play the horn for the service.

The girls playing a musical tribute...they are such mature young ladies.

Kindof blurry, but there's us three girls after the service was over. Candy (40) is the blonde, Pam (29) is in the middle and I'm on the end (36).

Adventurers Investiture 2012

Last Sabbath afternoon was Adventurers Induction. Which means that once again, Adventurers has come to an end for the academic year and the kids have all graduated to the next level.

Megan and one of her BFFs.
This is the second year that I've led out in Daniel's group, the Eager Beavers. I think the stress of Mom being sick, kids having Wednesday night homework, and no longer having a close-friend relationship with one of my co-leaders had really put a strain on my desire to lead-out again next year. I've decided for now to step down and let others lead. But we'll see where my heart is after a month or two of summertime.

Megan's group, the Sunbeams, saying the Pledge to the Christian Flag.

Joshua's group are the Builders.

The kids are really proud of their hard work. They love the trophies that they earned and their performance awards.

It was a fun year!

Lake Mary's Community Day

Catching up from Easter Weekend...

My mother passed away on Good Friday in the wee early hours of the morning and I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep at all that Thursday night into Friday morning. By Saturday, I was feeling pretty physically and emotionally exhausted. It was the Easter service at church, and I really didn't want to miss it. Keith was working in the Children's Welcome Center at church, and so I joined a friend and her husband in the sanctuary. We made plans to meet later at a park to play.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the park was having a free community event.

The Central Florida Zoo brought animals to check out.

The kids got to check out a fire engine and an ambulance.

Joshua and Bradley trying to take each other down.

We love bouncy houses! Daniel enjoyed coming down the bouncy slide.

More bouncy house fun!

Bradley and Joshua geared up to climb the rock wall.

Bradley and Megan...they have such a sweet friendship.

Joshua working his way up the rock wall.

Megan catching up to Joshua!

Mmmm....cotton candy. I thought it was funny that a huge bag of cotton candy only has 2 servings.

The kids were all tired and we crossed Lake Mary Blvd by way of the big bridge to head back to the minivan.

After trying unsuccessfully to get a picture of all the kids looking in the same direction, we decided to let everyone make a silly face. So fun!