Battle of the Books is a competition they have at the boys' school for the intermediate level kids. The kids have most of the school year to read a list of books (there's about 20 on the list), the kids are put in teams and then they have sort of a Quiz Bowl-type of competition over the content of all the books. The librarian has read most of the books, but she asked another mom and I to help her finish up because she was worried she was going to run out of time. (I think the "battles" are in February.) So, I have been assigned Finest Kind. My job is to read the book and to make up about 25-30 questions about the book for the kids to answer during the battle. I am not too worried about it except that the questions have to follow a certain format. I am sure I will get the hang of it once I get on a roll. Maybe she'll even let me do another one if I don't mess this one up too badly. :)
The Tub People's Christmas is Colm's new favorite book. It is a cute book and (if I may put on my reading teacher hat for a moment) is a great book for kids to practice predicting.
My book club has picked Middlesex as our next read. I have heard it is very good. I am just waiting for it to come in from the library so I can get started, but first I need to finish the book I am currently reading.
This is the longest book I have read in a long time, but it was worth every second. The characters are amazing (some you will love, some you will pity, and there's at least one you won't like at all), the title is SO fitting and the last page affirms why Steinbeck is a literary legend.
Just when I thought we had read every Halloween book written within the last thirty years...Colm found another one. We went to a different library this week and they have some books we haven't read. Joy! This is his favorite one from this week.