Newbery Update

So, in case you were wondering, I'm making good headway on my Newbery Award Reading List. Since September 1, 2008, I've read (drumroll please)....49 Newbery Award Winners! I started with 2007, and I've made my way back to 1944. I've missed some in between because they've been checked out of the library (you'll notice that the difference between 2007 & 1944 is not 49), or because the library doesn't have a circulating copy. But I'm working with the inter-library loan and we should be able to work that out.
Anyway, so far favorites are:
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

A few not-so-favorites:
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson
M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton

But overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by how great the books are! They're tough to put down. Some of the not-so-favorites had rather adult themes about them, particularly, "Jacob Have I Loved", which bordered on the inappropriate. I have a friend at church who is reading the Newberys with her kids, and I advised her to really check that one out before reading it aloud.

If you're looking for a new path to pursue in your reading, I highly recommend the Newbery list. There's a lot of creativity and variety in them, and the stories are interesting and generally uplifting.

Debate

So, a month ago I was really excited for the vice presidential debate. And then last night when it came on, I was mostly just bummed about having to wait another week to watch the Office. I watched a few minutes of the debate and then got bored, believe it or not. I am ready to vote, I am ready for the "politicing" to be over, I am just tired. I'm excited to see how our country will change following this election, but I am also fairly confident that the change will not be the great and monumental transformation that both parties have promised, so mostly I'm just ready to stop with the talking and start with the voting. :) And while I do have convictions regarding my vote and who I would prefer to see in the White House, I just can't seem to justify the time and frustration that this campaign has caused for myself and others. I have had people who I love and care about completely ignore me during this campaign because of my lack of passion for one candidate or another, I have been called an idiot because of choices I make and how they influence the way I vote. It's also been very clearly implied that because I am voting the way I feel called, I am not a very good follower of Jesus. So I'm pretty much ready to just vote and have it over with. After all, there's going to be slander and party politics as much after this election as before, regardless which candidate is selected by the American people, which makes it difficult for me to get incredibly excited about watching two candidates battle it out behind a podium for 90 minutes.
That all said, I will definitely read the transcript of the debate because 1)I do think it's important to be up-to-date on what's going on and 2) for some reason, written word makes my skin crawl less. :)
I would love to sit down with Sarah Palin and talk about her family, her faith, how she makes her marriage work, and swap recipes (and hopefully acquire some ways to prepare moose). I would love to sit down with Joe Biden and talk about growing up in PA and Delaware and our mutual love of sports. I just don't feel like listening to them talk about foreign policy right now.
So instead, I turned my volume off and read my latest Newbery Award Winner. Ahh, kid's books.