Media Fast

The summer church camp I am going to this year asks that everyone does a Media Fast for two week prior to going to camp, giving up all TV, computer, and secular music. Because of this I will not be posting for three weeks. I will still be reading plenty of books, but the reviews will have to wait until I get back from camp. See you in three weeks!

Poem of the week

Please Listen

When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving me advice
you have not done waht I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don't take or do,--Just hear me.

--Unknown

Wildwood Dancing

Wildwood Dancing is a retelling of the fairy tale 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'. There are only five sisters in this version, but any more would end up being too complicated. Each sister has a completely different character than the other.
--Tati is busy being in love
--Jena is trying to get back everything that is rightfully hers
--Iulia is trying to grow up, maybe a little too fast
--Paula is the one who has responsibility thrust upon her when her elder sisters neglect their work
--Stella does not understand everything that is happening, and is a bit confused by it all.

The only thing that bugged me was that the story is set in Romania, so all the characters and places have Romanian names- and pronunciations. There is an index in the back, but I felt that it took away from the actual story to have to stop reading and look things up every couple of seconds. As you continue reading, though, you either learn the correct pronunciations, or, like me, make up some of them.

Prepare yourself for forbidden love, greedy cousins, magic enchantments, secret passages, and a loyal pet frog.

The Penderwicks

Mr. Penderwick and his four daughters usually rent a house on Cape Cod for the summer. This year their plans are altered because the house has been sold, and all the other houses are booked. They come across another house, though, and have somewhere new to spend their summer. While at the beautiful estate called Arundel, the Penderwicks meet all kinds of unique people. The four girls, Rosalind, Jane, Skye, and Batty, and their friends come across some problems and must find ways to solve them- without running into Mrs. Tifton.

Overall, this was a pleasure to read. There is always something going on, but it is not too much. Birdsall has a wonderful talent to bring enough adventure to keep the reader interested in a condensed amount of time, while still keeping everything believable.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

Here are some quick notes about the second section in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens:

The second section in this book is titled Paradigms [pair-a-dimes]and principles. It is about statements and beliefs we have that are only half truths. These paradigms keep us from getting along with people. Usually, paradigms are not even true; they are assumptions.

This section also talks about what your life may be centered on, and how that effects how you live.

Here are two good quotes from the section:

If who I am is what I have and what I have is lost, then who am I?

-Anonymous

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you see the whole world.

-George Bernard Shaw, English playwright