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

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

At first, the 96 chapters intimidated me, but as soon as I started reading the chapter breaks melted and I could not stop reading.

This story is set before 'Peter Pan', Peter has just recently gained his ability to fly and never grow old from a substance called 'starstuff'. Every so often starstuff falls from the sky, and many types of people and creatures are after its uncanny powers. Starstuff can do all sorts of things, many of its powers are not even known.

One set of creatures after the starstuff are called the Others. They are the 'bad guys' who will stop at nothing to acquire the power held by the starstuff. The Others have a creature on their side that is unlike anything. This creature calls himself Lord Ombra. When Lord Ombra touches a person's shadow the shadow goes to him, detaching from the person. One of the characters, Molly, says it this way: "there's a shadow man, I don't know how he does it, but somehow he takes people's shadows, and then he controls them."

Another set of people after the starstuff are the 'starchatchers'. These are the 'good guy's" who give the starstuff back to the sky. Molly and her parents are some of them. The starchatchers have been doing this for centuries; and the Others have been trying to prevent it for centuries.

*This book is a sequel to 'Peter and the Starcatchers,' a fact I didn't realize this until I had finished it. I believe that 'Peter and the Shadow Thieves' can be read alone, but would probably be better understood if read after its prequel.*

Here is a taste of the inside cover:

Peter leaves the relative safety of Mollusk Island- along with his trusted companion, Tinker Bell- for the dark and dangerous streets of London. On a difficult journey across the sea, he and Tink discover the mysterious and deadly Lord Ombra, who is intent on recovering the mission starstuff - a celestial dust that contains unimaginable powers. In London, Peter attempts to track down the indomitable Molly, hoping that together they can combat Ombra's determined forces. But London is not Mollusk Island; Peter is not he boy he used to be; and Lord Ombra- the Shadow Master- is unlike anything Peter, or the world, has ever seen.

There was one formatting issue that annoyed me. There are two, sometimes three, stories going on at the same time. As soon as some nerve-racking or cliff-hanger chapter finishes, the authors switch stories for a chapter or two. It was very annoying at first, but as the book went on it was evident that it helped the story. It really keeps you reading until the last page.

This book also has one of the best end-lines ever. It makes you smile as you close the book. The last sentence in the book is only two words, but it is the best ending the story could have gotten.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

This is the first How-To book I have read. At first I didn't think that it would do me any good to read this book, I thought my habits were already 'highly effective'. But once I started I realized how wrong I was. There is a quote at the beginning of the book that reads:

"If The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens doesn't help you, then you must have a perfect life already."

I didn't realize how right that was until I really began reading the book. I have not actually finished it, but I couldn't keep from posting about the book any longer, so I decided to give mini-reviews on each section/habit.

Get in the Habit

Sean Covey starts the book in a very friendly, open manner that has carried through the rest of the book. He tells you basically what to expect, and what not to expect. In this section Covey tells us what the 7 habits of highly effective teens are:

the 7 habits of highly effective teens

1: Be Proactive
Take responsibility for your life

2: Begin with he End in Mind
Define your mission and goals in mind

3: Put First Things First
Prioritize, and do the most important things first

4: Think Win-Win
Have an everyone-can-win attitude

5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Listen to people sincerely

6: Synergize
Work together to achieve more

7: Sharpen the Saw
Renew yourself regularly

These habits build on each other so that you cannot have habit 4 before you have mastered habit 3, 2, and 1. If you really think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Habit 1 is at the bottom, and habit 7 is at the top; you must use habit one as foundation, roots, for the rest of the habits.

The entire book is full of pictures, comics, quotes, stories, and lots more. One of the quotes Covey gives in this section about habits is from writer Samuel Smiles:

"Sow a thought, and you reap an act;
Sow an act, and you reap a habit;
Sow a habit, and you reap a character;
Sow a character, and you reap a destiny."

The writing is easy to understand, and presented in ways I have not commonly seen. I actually write in the margins and I have begun to change some of the ways I think. I agree with the quote above: you must have an absolutely perfect life (family, friends, school, church...) if this book does not help you in some way, shape or form.

Quote of the Week

"Do or do not do.
There is no try."

-Yoda, Jedi master