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NEW, AMAZING YA Book Blog...Check It Out!

2011-05-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

As if I didn't have enough on my plate (hey, I guess my kids can skip a few dinners this month, right?!), I've launched a new young adult book blog fueled entirely by middle school writing. My students are a talented bunch of kiddos, and they've written exceptional book reviews throughout this year. I couldn't let their impressive writings go to waste, so I've decided to post their reviews on a new book blog titled On the Middle Shelf. I'm also going to be teaching classes of Gifted & Talented students next year, and I hope to add music reviews, movie critiques and the random musings of 7th and 8th grade students (yikes!). Add our blog to your frequently visited sites, and I promise you will find all kinds of interesting information to keep you entertained!

Our Hunger Games Fame Continues!

2011-05-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

I've been a very bad blog host lately, and I'm hoping that this summer I can spend more time discussing and rehashing all of the things going on in pop culture on this blog. Until that time, I will leave you with just a few minor updates on our Hunger Games fame. We were guests on the Tuesday, April 26th show of the Blog Talk Radio program, Hunger Games Fireside Chat. Gary Ross may be extremely busy casting his movie (which I definitely have opinions on, but don't have time to post and share tonight), but 8th graders don't seem to comprehend that he just might be too busy to hop on a plane, fly to Lubbock, and hang out with them for a few days. My students as EVERYDAY if he's coming. It never gets old. ;) To tide them over until his arrival or the premiere of the movie, we've been giving interviews. Here is our latest interview with HG Fireside Chat:

Pretty awesome youtube title, don't cha think? :) If you are a fan of the movie and books, you definitely need to subscribe to this podcast. The show is chock full of great information about the upcoming movie, and has interesting discussions about the books and characters.

We also had a pretty cool interview run in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and then the same article run again in the Amarillo Globe-News:

Here are a few of the pictures they took of my class the day Joe Gulick (Reporter for the AJ) had the pleasure to talk to my class. The class he interviewed is mostly composed of ornery, smart boys ( a lethal combination in middle school). They had great fun yanking his chain and telling him whoppers. I had to constantly say, "Please do not write that down," to Mr. Gulick repeatedly. The little turds are letting fame go to their heads. :)

GARY ROSS KNOWS MY NAME!

2011-01-11T21:22:00.000-08:00

Here is our local Fox News 34 covering our big brush with Hollywood and The Hunger Games!

To say we are excited that the local news media was able to actually TALK to Gary Ross, would be a gross understatement. Here's to hoping he can visit our school (and cast us as extras in the movie...just a suggestion.).

Gary Ross, Director of 'The Hunger Games' Gives My Students a SHOUT OUT!

2011-01-07T19:17:00.001-08:00

If you are a Hunger Games fan, then you know who Gary Ross is, right? The guy who has the future of the franchise in his hands is sorta well-known around this blog . He has the power to take this book to premiere status, and everyone in Hunger Games Land has an opinion of what the movie should and should NOT contain.

My students LOVE & ADORE this novel, and also have very strong opinions about the movie. Never mind the fact that they are 13 and 14 years of age, they have specific and ENLIGHTENING expectations of what they want this movie to look like and contain. Many people believe 8th graders do not have coherent thoughts, but I'll be the first to go to bat for them - they are INTELLIGENT little humans!

Before our Thanksgiving break, I decided to mirror something that I had witnessed in the "Making of The Outsiders" documentary I viewed two years ago. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is a gritty story of teens and their "real" problems - a story that had nothing to do with "Sally Sue's First Spring Dance". It was nothing like the adolescent literature that was on bookshelves in the late 60's. Word of mouth from teen readers fueled the sales of Hinton's groundbreaking work. A group of middle school students in Fresno, California were so passionate about the novel, their librarian encouraged them to write a famous director and beg him or her to make this novel into a movie. The students chose to send their letters to Francis Ford Coppola, the director of the Godfather films. Coppola states in the documentary that he was impressed with the students opinions and heart-felt pleas to turn this book they loved into a movie. Simply put, the cult-classic film, The Outsiders was created because STUDENTS put pen to paper and voiced their opinions.

Hell hath no fury like an 8th grader scorned! Don't let us down, Gary!

I hoped my opinionated students could repeat history, and write letters that would influence the director of THEIR beloved novel, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Ross having recently been named the film's director, it was the perfect time for student to send voice their opinions to the man in charge of it all. Taking the opportunity to teach proper letter format, I had my students HAND WRITE their letters on our school letterhead. They could say whatever they felt in the letter (and trust me, they didn't hold back), but they couldn't be insulting or stupid (even though I'm afraid several of those letters leaned toward the latter:).

Before writing, we created a "non-negotiables" list of book components that HAD to be in the film, and also discussed faux pas we didn't want repeated in HG, that we'd noticed in other films based on books. From there, they crafted their letters with much thought and calculation. Then came my contribution to the assignment: finding a DAD-GUM MAILING ADDRESS FOR GARY ROSS. I Googled my little heart out, and nearly gave up on finding a legitimate address to mail our package of letters. I finally found the main headquarters of Lionsgate Entertainment in California, and the address seemed to be my best bet. Skeptical that THE Gary Ross would ever get his hands on my students' meticulously crafted letters, I dropped the package in the mail, and hoped for the best.

Upon returning from Christmas break this week, my students had asked a few times if I'd heard anything about our letters, but I think they all thought I was a dork for even mailing them...Gary

Ross couldn't possibly receive OUR letters out of tons of fan mail he must receive on a daily basis, could he? The IMPOSSIBLE seemingly happened when I was given a phone message from Entertainment Weekly reporter, Karen Valby. She left the inquiry with our school secretary, who delivered the message to our assistant principal, who then finally gave it to me Thursday morning. After reading the message that stated "reporter for Entertainment Weekly who wants to talk to teacher about student letters to Hunger Games director", I nearly stroked out in the main hallway of our school. Have you ever had a moment in which you want to scream, "No bleepin' WAY!". Well, it's really hard to have that "moment" when in front of your boss! I was so excited, I was sweating like a truck driver and trembling like a 6th grader on their first day of junior high!

Look for the interview (mentioning my FRENSHIP MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS) in the January 14th issue of Entertainment Weekly!

I took a moment to collect myself so this Entertainment Weekly reporter wouldn't think I was a nut job, and give her call. After sweating through a greeting with Karen Valby, and hoping to goodness this wasn't a sick joke orchestrated by one of my ornery students, I was pleased to hear the good news. According to Valby, she had recently interviewed Gary Ross, and he had told her about letters he'd received from a group of 8th graders at Frenship Middle School near Lubbock. (Thank the Lord for campus letterhead, or she wouldn't of had a contact number for our school!) Ross went on to share his opinions of the students passionate responses, and even said he was "dying to go to this school"! I'm sure I said something during our phone conversation, but all I remember doing was sweating...PROFUSELY, and possibly SQUEEEEEEing in my pants a little. Valby also graciously offered to send me copies of the January 14th edition of the mag.

After hanging up with her, I proceeded to run around the school (in heels, mind you) and blubber my crazy news to students, fellow teachers, custodian, random-parent-in-the-hallway, librarian, and some little 6th grade kid I didn't even know. I wouldn't have students for another half hour, and I had to tell SOMEBODY! (I think I even called every member of my immediate family, since they are privy to my Hunger Games addiction.) It was one of the most exciting moments of my life (minus the birth of my daughters, and marrying my husband...blah, blah, blah...you know what I'm talking about!). Knowing that something GREAT was happening to my students filled me with an indescribable JOY. A memory was being made for these kiddos, and perhaps trust in the world being built in them - maybe knowing Gary Ross read their letters would teach them that they ARE NOT insignificant in the world. On a grander scale, perhaps they will realize after this cool occurrence that writing a letter or voicing an opinion is worth the effort. I'm cheesy, I know, but it was a very AWESOME moment in the life of this teacher! Very Hallmark/Lifetime movie-esque, and something I had to share!

Here is a snippet of the article from the Entertainment Weekly website:

“I’m so touched by the humanity of Katniss,” Ross tells EW. “As much as the firestorm or the final action sequences are incredibly riveting and enormous, it’s the relationships in the books that are the most moving to me.” That’s good news for fans of the book from Lubbock, Texas. Upon news that Ross had taken the helm, an 8th grade reading teacher from Lubbock’s Frenship Middle School instructed her 134 students to each pen letters to the director with advice on how to best nail the film. “So many of them wrote ‘Listen, I know this is an action movie and I can’t wait to see the action but please don’t lose the heart of the story,’” relays Ross. CAUTION! STOP! FAT SPOILER ALERT! “The death of Rue is mentioned by every kid who reads the book.”

One Frenship boy pleaded for Megan Fox in the role of Katniss, a perhaps misguided request at least partially driven by hormones. Ross and Jacobson will soon be heading into casting meetings, and they understand the growing clamoring for a relative unknown in the main role. “I don’t think she should be famous,” says Jacobson. “I think that fans want Katniss to belong to them and I understand that. And I think that sometimes with people who have a strong other identity — as a celebrity or as a well known other character — you feel like that person doesn’t belong to you and I think that’s what fans are looking for.” Ross promises that casting announcements will come soon, as the film hopes to go into production in the late spring.

Please, no ridiculous comments about how "Megan Fox is all wrong for Katniss"...WE KNOW THAT! The reference to that particular 8th grade letter was meant as a joke. That student is a silly, witty, goofball and mentioned to Ross that imagining Katniss as Megan Fox made the book all the more interesting. (Ahhhhhhh...8th grade boys and their awkward hormones.) To say my students were excited about Gary Ross reading their letters would be a gross understatement! They were floored, over-the-moon, giddy as school girls (well, half of them ARE school girls), and were pretty much planning their trip to Hollywood to meet the cast, crew, and Gary Ross. (And that one young man was still holding out hope of meeting Megan Fox.) I had to remind them that Ross said he WANTED to meet them, but we would never know if that statement would actually come to fruition. Either way, we are BEYOND EXCITED about THE Gary Ross reading our "helpful" and opinionated Hunger Games movie letters! For more scoop from Gary and a few more references to my students letters, purchase your copy of the January 14th edition of Entertainment Weekly PRONTO, amigo!

EW's Open Letter to Soon-to-be Hunger Games Director, Gary Ross

2010-11-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

As a fan of The Hunger Games, I'm more than nervous about what the Hollywood scene will do to this movie. I've seen through the first Twilight film how they can totally twist the book into something that it's not (hello, Twilight the action film? Uh, no, thanks!). According to Entertainment Weekly, Gary Ross will most likely be the director of the film I'm waiting on pins and needles to be made. Can we get a cast list for crying out loud? Hire the dang director and let's get this show on the road!

Darren Franich, a columnist for EW has concerns about the movie that he shares in his open letter to Gary Ross that I've copied for you below. After reading his letter, now I have even more stuff to worry about. I agree with Franich, though. Read the book meticulously, Mr. Ross. METICULOUSLY. Talk to Suzanne Collins. Jump inside her brain. Do NOT try to stamp YOUR "artistic" vision on this and turn it into a pop-culture disaster like Twilight. Granted, those movies have made mega-money, but true fans were sorely dissappointed. Stick to Collins's vision for this movie, and we will all leave you alone. That is all...;)

From Entertainment Weekly "Shelf Life" blog:

Dear Gary Ross:
According to Variety, you’re all-but-officially the director of the Hunger Games movie. Congratulations! You haven’t directed a movie in seven years — Seabiscuit, saw it– and now you’re at the center of the next big young-adult franchise. Hooray! Now, I hope you won’t mind, but I have one minor request: Please, please, please, please, don’t make The Hunger Games gritty. Don’t shoot the movie with handheld cameras. Don’t bleach all the color out of the film stock until everything looks like rusted Depression-era gunmetal. Don’t forget: Katniss Everdeen is not Jason Bourne.

Now, I’m no snob. Gritty can be cool. Heck, calling a movie “gritty” used to be a compliment. Saving Private Ryan, The Lord of the Rings, and The Bourne Identity all took sainted genres known for glossy excess — the war film, the fantasy epic, the espionage thriller — and smeared them in mud. Actors spoke every line in an angry whisper. The color scheme was monochromatic, mostly hovering between comatose-blue and industrial-gray. It was awesome…for awhile. But now, “gritty” is everywhere. We’ve seen the Gritty James Bond movie, the Gritty Superhero movie, the Gritty Twilight movie, the Gritty Terminator movie. We’ve seen Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, the single muddiest movie ever made.

I understand the impulse to go gritty with Hunger Games. It’s post-apocalyptic, like Children of Men and all the real-world scenes in The Matrix. Katniss lives in District 12, a coal-mining town that reads like a Soviet hellhole. The latter half of the book is one extended action sequence — sound like it demands the extreme-close-up/shaky-cam tension of a Bourne film, right?

Wrong. Reading Hunger Games, you’re struck by just how vivid and alive the forest is. It’s Katniss’ escape from drudgery, the one place she can really feel alive. Listen to her describe the valley outside of District 12: “teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish iridescent in the sunlight.” That’s sounds more like the Technicolor-organic wilderness of Avatar than the dark, shadowy woods of Twilight. Conversely, the Capitol reads like a fascist version of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek: too bright, too colorful, overpopulated with highly-caffeinated supermodels. But again, no gritty here.

Mr. Ross, Hunger Games has an instantly exciting storyline, and I have to believe that even a lame treatment of the book will result in a pulse-pounding action movie. But just because ugly things happen in Hunger Games doesn’t mean the film should look ugly. Heck, making Hunger Games gritty is the equivalent of adding a CGI stormcloud over President Snow’s head and adding explanatory subtitles to every scene: “VIOLENCE IS WRONG. DON’T DO FASCISM.”

Don’t make things too easy for the audience. Don’t forget about Suzanne Collins’ biting satirical edge, or her beautifully expansive vision of the world outside the fence. Don’t be afraid to unleash your inner Paul Verhoeven, or your inner Terrence Malick. Don’t go gritty. Hunger Games fans (and people who suffer from motion sickness) will thank you.

Sincerely,

Darren J. Franich, anti-grit crusader and self-described Hunger Games expert

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

2010-11-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Oh, man....are you in for a treat! I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore is the quintacenstial teen sci-fi hit of 2010. I know I'm not known for my analysis of literary classics, but my mantra is that "reading should be fun." Yes, a very complicated and deep mantra, but I'm not a big believer in only reading crap that is written for book snobs. I like to be entertained when I read, and this book definitely fits the bill for entertainment value! From what I've read about the book, it was totally written just so they could make an interesting movie about it, but whoever they hired to write the book was a great writer. No lie. Usually ghost writers for big-budget books or celebrity-written novels seem to blow (Hello, L.A. Candy?), but the fictional Pittacus Lore is worth the money Disney paid him or her to write the novel. I totally bought in the the marketing scheme...count me in for the next in the series, please!

So how did I get hooked on this pop-culture series? Every month, I copy the book review section from Justine Magazine (our school library has a subscription to this publication). If you aren't familiar with their SPARK book club, then you need to be. This magazine reviews teen fiction on a monthly basis and it usually has reviews written by teen readers. We like to read these book reviews because they really do "SPARK" interest in books. I have my students circle and discuss the top two books off of the reviews that they would like to read most. If I have enough money left in my class budget, I buy the books they voted as the most interesting. I usually can't keep these books on my shelves for the duration of the year. However, after my classes read the review page that contained I am Number Four and voted that book (as well as The Body Finder) as a book they would like to read, I discovered I didn't have enough school funds to buy the book. Books are to me what shoes are to other women: I can't say no to a good pair. I bought both books the other day and devoured I am Number Four in two days.

Nine Lorien children were sent to planet Earth in the midst of a full-scale attack by the evil and Mogadarian race. They plan to strip Lorien of it's natural resources and wipe out the Lorien population in the process. The plan is for the Lorien children to hide out on Earth, and wait for their Legacies (or superhuman talents) to grow and develop so they can come together to fight the Mogadarians for control of their homeland. A special Lorien charm protects the children when they arrive on Earth. Each is numbered, and each must live seperately from the other nine with their protector, or Cepan, or the charm will not work. The only way the Mogadarian can kill the Lorien teens is in the order that they were numbered. The nine children live in hiding on Earth, but the Mogadarians have discovered that they are on our planet and begin hunting them one by one. The first three are dead. Our narrator is number four. He knows that he is next and he also is aware that the Mogadarians have other reasons for being on Earth besides just hunting down the Lorien teens. Can the remaining six Loriens develop their Legacies and fight the Mogadarians before Earth as we know it is lost? You try starting this book tonight and see if YOU can put it down...not so easy, people!

What is also cool about this book is that it already has a movie coming out in February. Alex Pettyfer plays John, or Number Four. He is also the actor that many are lobbying for him to nab the role of Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games movie. He's quite literally the hottie in the trailer. The chick from Glee plays Number Four's love interest, Sarah, in the movie. Check out the trailer below and then go buy the book. It's awesome!

Bloodline by Kate Cary

2010-11-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Kate Cary's contribution to the teen vampire phenomenon with her novel, Bloodline, will leave readers with a true definition of what an evil vampire should be, and they definitely do not sparkle in Cary's adaptation! As a sort of sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Cary tells a majority of the Bloodline tale through the journal of John Shaw. Recovering from wounds sustained in World War I, Shaw has vivid flashbacks and nightmares of his time in the trenches. The horrors he witnessed are not only from enemies encountered on the battlefield. A majority of his shocking visions are memories of watching his commanding officer, Quincy Harker perform superhuman, impossible feats and although John blames his memories on the side effects of trench fever, he's almost certain that he witnessed Harker drink the blood of their battle enemies. John doesn't want to face the evil truth behind his commanding officer's abilities, but when Quincey Harker shows up to check on John in his England hospital, John must question who his commanding officer truly is. Harker also begins to show interest in John's younger sister, Lucy, and this recent infatuation which makes knowing the truth of Harker's origins all the more imperative to John. He begins researching Harker's bloodline, and makes chilling discoveries about the war hero and himself.

Fans of Bram Stoker's classic will love the writing style of Kate Cary. She mimics the era of writing that encompassed the Gothic literature movement in the late 1800s. Telling the story through the journal entries and letters of different characters was also interesting, but at times kept the story from flowing as easy as it would have if the novel was told from third person POV, and interspersed with journal entries.

Descriptions of the vampire castle and the Transylvania vamps were truly chilling. Cary is a master of imagery when it came to her descriptions of the castle and the dark, shadowy chambers of the castle. I found myself unable to read this novel at night, for fear of Mina, Quincey, and the other vampires watching me from the shadows! There were a few scenes that intertwined blood lust and actual sexual desire that may be too much for teen readers. I would definitely say that grades 8-12 should be the target age-rage for this novel. Any younger might find the scenes from World War I and the Transylvania castle too graphic and gory. Teen vampire enthusiasts also need to take heed: Quincey Harker is NOT Edward Cullen's long-lost cousin. The Harker vampires embrace evil, blood lust, and find human life worthless.This chilling read will definitely leave you searching for the sequel, Bloodline Book Two: Reckoning.

Hunger Games Projects

2010-10-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Oops! We did it again...My fellow 8th grade Reading teacher and I dressed up as Katniss for "Twin Day" during our Red Ribbon Week festivities. Other than a few students asking if we were Pocahontas, it was a huge success!

It's been a LONG time since I've posted, but teaching seems to hinder my ability to blog on a regular basis. (Curse you, real world!) Teaching is what actually leads me to this post - my students' amazing work on our recent Hunger Games projects. I usually wait to teach the novel at the end of the year, but decided that it would be best to have my students excited about reading at the BEGINNING of the year. A no brainer, right? Shifting my curriculum around just might be the best thing I've done in terms of doing what is best for my students. We finished the novel this week and MANY have already consumed Catching Fire and are halfway through Mockingjay. Thank you, Suzanne Collins for enabling my students to find pleasure in reading. Who woulda thunk it? I love seeing my 8th graders grappling for books and begging to borrow copies of my novels. It's like they've just discovered how pleasurable reading can be and are making up for lost time. Moments like these are what make teaching such a blessing!

I couldn't ruin their excitement for the novel and tarnishing this pleasurable experience with a stale, pointless, multiple choice test. Last year we created HUNGER GAMES FAN T-Shirts as part of our final exam (which we will do again before our Hunger Games Arena Competition, but that is another post). This year students could work in a group (no larger than four members) and choose from the following options:

1. Gadgets of the Capitol - Many gizmos and gadgets are referred to in the pages of The Hunger Games. Select one or many of the gadgets you found interesting or worthy of further exploration. Create a commercial or advertisement for the gadget in which you give a description and function of the item.

***I had three funny, creative, and down-right exceptional commercials submitted by students for this area of study. A group used the box that Katniss places her hand on to dry and part her hair. Using a wig, they cut from a boy with wet hair placing his hand on the box, to the same boy with a ridiculous wig on his head. "The Helping Hand Hair Genie" was a fabulous commercial! I will post it when (and if) I can obtain parent permission...it's too amazing not to share!

2. Cinna's Creations - Cinna was Katniss's stylist who helped to make her a memorable contender before the start of the Games. Recreate Cinna's fashions through drawings, fabric, or any other medium you desire. Be sure to include a description from the text when you present each outfit. Here are a few grainy pictures of a PHENOMENAL project sumitted by my 8th graders:

Using doll clothing patterns and their combined sewing/painting skills, this group went ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty.

This dress was HAND PAINTED by a student to mimic the flames described on Katniss's interview gown.

Katniss's opening ceremonies costume. Using the doll and putting her in the costumes of the opening ceremonies seemed somewhat symbolic to me. These characters in the books are just children; children being paraded around the Capitol for mere entertainment value.

3. Muttations - The Capitol used the genetically altered DNA of animals and humans to create MUTTATIONS. Select one or all of the muttations mentioned in The Hunger Games and create an informative poster, or you can even create a model of the mutt. You must have a description of the muttation from the text and describe what role the mutt had in the novel. (For example, the mockingjay was a symbolic to Katniss because the bird reminded her of her father.)

This is the wolf mutt, GLIMMER! Notice the green eyes and the jewel inlaid District 1 on her collar? Not what I would call a cuddly creature!

4. The Arena - Recreate the Arena by drawing a map, creating a scale model, or through computer animation and graphics. Select a certain area of the arena (like the Cornucopia), or create the ENTIRE domain of Katniss and Peeta's suffering! Include textual descriptions and do your best to stick to the novel's depictions of the Arena.

Model of the Cornucopia created by a FABULOUS group of students in my class this year. Check out the attention to detail!

The Cornucopia and it's mini-supplies.

See all of the tiny tributes poised on their metal plates? Such effort put in to this project!

Hey, That's ME!

2010-10-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

Do ya'll remember when I dressed as Katniss last April to introduce The Hunger Games to my class? My husband told me those pictures I posted would come back one day to haunt me...

He was RIGHT! HA! One of my students told me yesterday, "Hey, Mrs. Hart, I saw you on a Hunger Games blog this weekend!" It made me kind of nervous; not knowing for sure what the internet site the kid was talking about (Hey, now! Get your mind out of the gutter...that's not why I was nervous!). After finding the link, I thought it was pretty cool that my Katniss costume from last year made it onto a Hunger Games fan blog. Myhungergames.com is a pretty cool fan site for the series if you haven't checked it out already! Above, you will find my picture featured in a post covering Hunger Games Halloween costume ideas (Uh..I'm the one on the right. I refuse to dress like Effie! Ha!). Happy Hunger Games!

'A Northern Light' by Jennifer Donnelly

2010-09-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

In my quest to purchase individual titles for my classroom library, author Jennifer Donnelly's A Northern Light kept popping up as a recommendation. Winner of The Carnegie Medal, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and A Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, 'A Northern Light' needn't earn my seal of approval to be deemed a worthy teen read, yet I was eager to put my two cents in to the pot! I love turn-of-the-century novels and devoured the book in the car ride to and from Dallas.

After the death of her mother, Mattie, the eldest Gokey daughter is expected to help her father run the family farm. Not an easy task in itself, never mind the three younger sisters she must also tend to and manage. Burdened with the workload of the farm and her family, Mattie's dream of going to college in New York City at Barnard College seems impossible. That is, until her charismatic and feminist teacher Miss Wilcox enables Mattie to land a full scholarship by submitting Mattie's short stories to the college admissions board. However, Mattie still refuses to believe that obtaining her dream is possible, especially when at every turn someone is telling her that women do not belong in college and that an education is worthless and a waste of resources and precious time.

"It's not pride I'm feeling. It's another sin. Worse than all the other ones, which are immediate, violent and hot. This one sits inside you quietly and eats you from the inside out like the trichina worms the pigs get. It's the Eight Deadly Sin. The one God left out.
Hope."

Eager to earn money for college and to help her family's struggling farm, Mattie takes a summer

job at the Glenmore - where she meets hotel guest Grace Brown, whose only interaction with Mattie is to ask her to burn a bundle of letters to her lover. After Grace's lifeless body is fished from the waters surrounding the Glenmore, Mattie hesitantly begins reading the letters that not only foreshadow Grace's demise, but oddly parallel the taxing life decisions Mattie is refusing to face.

Jennifer Donnelly and her gift for character development is remarkable. Even characters that only exist in Mattie Gokey's memories are exquisite. In her longing for her mother who died of breast cancer only a year before, was so easy for me (or anyone who has endured the hell that is cancer) to identify with Mattie's pain and suffering.

“I remembered her singing as she cooked. And standing downstairs in the root cellar in November, smiling at all the food she'd put up. I remember how she made us fancy braided hairdos and how she trudged through the winter fields on snowshoes to bring Emmie Hubbard's kids a pot of stew. I tried very hard to remember only the good things about my mama. To remember her the way she was before she got sick. I wished I could cut the rest out of me the way the doctor tried to cut the cancer out of her, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I struggled to keep my last images of her at bay, they came anyway."

Mattie's memories of her mother and the warmth that her house once shared are palatable...I feel as if I know Mattie's mother, and her father is just as well-developed. Her sisters, friends, uncles, teacher, neighbors - each are critical pieces to the development of the plot and are so rich and dimensional, I would readily a novel written from the perspectives of each.
The murder-mystery surrounding Grace Brown is actually the least interesting sub-plot binding this novel together; this statement is meant as a complement to Donnely's writing. She's developed a cast of characters whose ordinary lives and struggles are just as gut-wrenching and page-turning as an action-packed murder mystery.

I loved, loved, loved the ending and how the plot was parceled neatly its well-wrapped package. Endings that tie to the beginnings always do me in...I love the small revelations I have during the moments after the last line of such books are read. Jennifer Donnelly did that for me, and that's why I'm giving this book a ten out ten stars and an exuberant "thumbs up".

Katniss Everdeen: Leading Lady in Teen Fiction

2010-09-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

Image by:

© 2010 skellingt0n: Fan imagining of a
The Hunger Games movie poster (DeviantArt)
Isn't this fan-made movie poster AWESOME??? Notice how Katniss and I are mirroring poses in my costume pic. Ha!

If you've frequented my blog, you know that all things concerning The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins dominates most of my posts. I can't help it. I LOVE the book and series, and I'm estatic that I can teach the novel to my junior high students! Today in class we were discussing Katniss and her character traits, and I off-handedly mentioned that she was my favorite female character in teen fiction. My students didn't miss a beat and decided to turn the tables on their teacher, asking, "What makes Katniss your favorite?" Here's a David Letterman-style top ten list detailing why Miss Everdeen is beating out her teen ficiton counterparts for Top Teen Heroine (in my mind):

*drumroll, please...............*

10. She's a bad Mamma-Jamma. Do you want to mess with a chick who can shoot a squirrel through its eye from fifty meters away? I think not.

9. She can sleep in a tree. Who can do that? Seriously?

8. Raw rabbit meat and pine bark: it's whats for dinner!

7. She is literally "The Girl on Fire".

6. Boys do not define her - they fight over her! (And...they are HOT BOYS...who bake...and kill things. ;)

5. Haymitch is her homeboy.

4. She refrains from punching Effie in the face throughout the duration of the trilogy.

3. Pig. Apple. Arrow. 'Nuff said!

2. Peeta loves her. I love what Peeta loves!

1. She could kick the snot out of Bella Swan. (We know I love Twilight, but you have to admit, Bella is one whiney chick!)

Picture by graysee at deviantart.com

"YOU Cast THE HUNGER GAMES"...Does E.W. Read My Blog?

2010-09-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

It's very egotistical of me to think that, but it could happen...right? After coming across this article in Entertainment Weekly, I was pleasantly surprised to find many of the actors and actresses that we've been discussing (errrr, DEBATING! ) gracing the pages of my favorite magazine. For a chance to vote on your pick, click on the picture below. The article is VERY interesting for those of you who are as invested in this series as much as I am!

According to Entertainment Weekly, here are their top contenders for the main roles in the flilm...

~KATNISS~

WINNER!
Kaya Scodelario (39% of the vote)
Best Known For: Britain's Skins, Clash of the Titans

RUNNER-UP
Alexandra Daddario (19%)
Best known for: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

~PEETA~

WINNER!
Hunter Parrish (40%)

Best Known For: Weeds

RUNNER-UP

Alex Pettyfer (22%)

Best Known For: 2011's Beastly

~GALE~

WINNER!
Gaspard Ulliel (40%)
Best Known For: playing the young Hannibal Lector in Hannibal Rising

RUNNER-UP
Drew Roy (38%)
Best Known For: iCarly, Hannah Montana

~EFFIE TRINKET~

WINNER!
Kristen Chenoweth (51%)
Best Known For: Pushing Daisies, Broadway's Wicked

RUNNER-UP
Emily Blunt (15%)
Best Known For: The Devil Wears Prada and The Young Victoria

~HAYMITCH ABERNATHY~

WINNER!
Hugh Laurie (37%)
Best Known For: House

RUNNER-UP
Robert Downey Jr. (36%)
Best Known For: Iron Man

Alli Shearmur from Lionsgate is listening to the fans and is quoted in the article as saying that "some of the actresses who fans have identified as the best potential Katniss are being considered." Smart move,Lionsgate! Movie makers should know how opinionated and passionate fans of a book can be when their beloved characters are going to be projected onto the big screen. Here's to hoping they make the right choice...we can't find out the official cast list soon enough!

Robert Pattinson in Lubbock, TX...and I Missed It

2010-09-09T18:30:00.001-07:00

The events from the morning of Tuesday, September 7th will be forever seared into my memory. No, a relative didn't die and I didn't win any money. Babies weren't born and promotions weren't given. You would think that a memorable morning would consist of one of these life-changing events, but my memorable morning consisted of me MISSING ROBERT PATTINSON ON MY FREAKIN' DOORSTEP. Okay, so I'm dipping into my hyperbole pool, but I did practically miss the only chance I will ever have to see The Precious in the flesh. Let me break down this soul-crushing morning for you:

1. I wake up on Tuesday morning at 6:00am, ready to start back to work after a long weekend. Boo.

2. Pour myself a cup of joe and play with my phone while I wait for the sweet nectar that is my morning cup to take effect.

3. I quickly see that blasted red bubble alerting me to the fact that I have 800 missed calls and 1000 missed texts...okay, more exaggeration, but I had a crap-ton of ignored calls and texts.

4. Assuming that either A.) a loved one has died, or B.) I've forgotten to do or be somewhere really important. I click on my missed texts first.

5. Text from my friend that reads: "Um. Robert Pattinson is here. Like, HERE. IN LUBBOCK. RIGHT NOW. ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE. HERE. IN. LUBBOCK. CALL ME!"

6. I nearly drop my cup of coffee in the process of scrambling to read the rest of my texts and listen to my voicemails - and (to my horror) all confirm the first text. I still didn't believe it.

7. Thinking that my friends have a sick and twisted sense of humor, I do what any of us would do in this situation and get on Facebook to check the validity of said texts/voicemails.

8. I find more pleas and entreaties for me to get out of bed and get my ass to Crickets Bar & Grill, a college sports bar near Texas Tech University across town...AS IN THE TOWN WHERE I CURRENTLY RESIDE.

9. I then find these pictures taken by my friend's camera phone and other phones in the vicinity:

This first picture I see is so grainy, I almost breathe a sigh of relief. It can't be RPatz. It's more likely Jesus enjoying a beer in a Lubbock bar, than the likes of Robert Pattinson, right? At least that's what I continued to tell myself until I saw these beautiful images...

The sexy smirk. The rumpled shirt. The insane beard that is hiding my jaw porn...yep, it's The Precious.

How can someone be sexy while texting? Robert Pattinson can!

Holy cow! Like a knife to the heart! In a bar mere miles from my home! Oh, why can't I be drinking on a random Monday evening? Curse you, husband, children and career! ;)

Lucky hoochies. And to quote Tessie Hutchinson, "It isn't fair! It isn't right"...and then, they were upon her.

This experience proves to me that God has a sick sense of humor. Why in the world would he send the only celebrity who actually causes me to swoon to my craptastic town? Nothing ever happens in Lubbock! Nothing besides football, drinking, and the occasional City Council skirmish...events that are equal parts boring and in no way pique my interest! The only celebrity we've ever had step foot in our city limits is that blasted Matthew McConaughey, and I can't like him because he's a Longhorn fan. That's against all of the blood oaths I took when I graduated from Texas Tech University. Something like "thou shalt not covet an attractive celebrity who has the audacity to wear a burnt orange leather coat." Honestly. He wears a burnt orange leather coat to Longhorn games. I don't care how attractive you are. It's never good form to insult a cow by dying his poor cowhide burnt orange. Anywhooooo, I digress....

Back to The Precious. Turning off my ringer at night cost me the chance to hang out with my celebrity crush. My husband even felt sorry for me. I would've taken him to a bar to catch a glimpse of Angelina Jolie. She's on his list, just like RPatz is on mine. He understood the horrific feelings of loss I was experiencing and actually offered to take me around town to troll random hotel lobbies in the hopes I would bump in to him. Sweet offer, but I didn't want to miss reporting to work. I was secretly banking on the possibility that Oprah was hiding in my classroom, (cameras ready to surprise me) with Robert Pattinson at her side, eager to tell me what an awesome teacher I am. Unbeknownst to me, (I was praying) some sweet, former student had sent in a request for me (thier favorite teacher) to meet my favorite fictional character; and Oprah, being the sweet lady that she is, read the heart-wrenching profession of educational excellence and came to Lubbock to bestow the gift that is The Precious upon me in person! Whew!

After succumbing to the fact that I missed my one and only chance to meet such a lovely hunk of man, I quizzed my friend who was able to make it into Cricket's Bar & Grill before the wolves descended. I asked him how Rob behaved in the bar...could you smell him? Was he as dreamy in person as he is in front of the camera? Here is the short q & a with my buddy, who was able to live the dream for me - if only for a few minutes:

Me: Was he (Rob) interacting with the people in the bar or keeping to his table of friends? Did you get to actually sit in the bar?

Buddy: He was personable...texted a lot...smiled...laughed when his friends were singing karaoke. Hearty laugh, head thrown back. I was inches from him when he went to the potty.

Me: Did he speak? DETAILS!

Buddy: He nodded and said hello and I almost wet myself. I think I may have giggled.

Me: Oh, heck, I would've! I'm too polite to bother a celebrity. Why?? I wouldn't have had the guts to interrupt his night to ask for a pic or an autograph!

Buddy: Our friend did, but he politely declined...you could tell he was just wanting a break, a beer, some laughs, but he smiled and didn't get ornery.

I can picture beautiful Rob, tossing his head back to let loose a hearty laugh. Can't you? I would've even loved to have been his waitress that night, but I can tell those chicks probably annoyed the tar out of him. Check out this video from our local news to confirm my theory here.

ARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH.....TO BE IN THAT BAR!

No such luck. Sorry I missed you, Rob. Like two ships, passing in the night...

Lionsgate and the Katniss Question

2010-09-04T20:09:00.001-07:00

Is Chloe Moretz Katniss Everdeen?

The USA Today reported on Wednesday that there is a bit of buzz surrounding the Lionsgate casting of Katniss Everdeen for The Hunger Games movie. Apparently, actress Chloe Moretz is said to be on the top of a very short list for nabbing the role of the tough heroine. Who is Chloe Moretz, you may ask? Her most recent works include Kick-Ass and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Chloe is only 13 years old, and in my humble opinion, looks more like Prim than Katniss, if we are going on looks alone, which I know shouldn't be what gets her the job - looks. I do know for a fact that her acting skills are noteworthy, and Perri Nemiroff gives her a huge thumbs up for the part in his article, "Daring to Dream: Casting 'The Hunger Games' Movie". He makes some great suggestions for our beloved character's parts. Check out his article for more!

If this movie sucks because they can't hold casting auditions and hire an actress that fits the physical traits of the character and can actually act, then I don't want them to even bother with production. (And if I hear Kristen Stewart's name mentioned for this role one more time, I just might hurl. She is NOT Katniss and I don't think anything Twilight-related should be thrust upon this stand-alone series. This article describing the brew-haha around casting/making The Hunger Games movie even goes as far to call THG The Next Twilight. Ugh. Although a great article and interview with producer Nina Jacobson, enough with the Twilight comparisons!) Do your homework, Lionsgate and GET THIS RIGHT.
So... just in case the casting directors of The Hunger Games need a bit of help, let me give them a slew of character traits mentioned in the book. In fact, take out a sheet of paper, directors, and let's make a t-chart for our lovely Ms. Everdeen, shall we? (We do this in my classroom while studying the novel, and it will serve as a valuable exercise for you, too, my dear casting directors.)Notice I even provide you with page numbers to Suzanne Collins's descriptions in the book. THE BOOK should be the golden standard here when referencing traits, shouldn't it? After all, those of us who will be in line with tickets in hand to see your production will be dedicated fans of the series. PLEASE attempt to have some regard and respect for Collins's vision of the character, Katniss Everdeen. This movie will be an epic fail if Katniss is miscast, but no pressure, huh?

In other Hunger Games movie news, the final round of directors are also rumored to be vying to take the helm of this much-anticipated movie. Sara Gundell from Examiner.com reports that David Slade, Gary Ross and Sam Mendes are named as the top three directors for the job. I've obviously heard of David Slade (director of Eclipse) and have enjoyed many Sam Mendes films (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road). Ross is behind the film Pleasantville (amongst others), but Pleasantville being the only one I really recognized and a film that is one of my cinema favorites! Surprisingly, I do not have an educated opinion for my Lionsgate friends as to who should be the director. It sounds like the three that are leading the crowd are more than qualified for the job.

So there you have it, Hunger Games fans, a bit of news on the film all of us are chomping at the bit to see...LET'S GET GOING, LIONSGATE! Call me if you need a consultant to quote book passages and such!

Click HERE to vote for The Hunger Games movie cast - a poll created by Entertainment Weekly.

Re-Reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

2010-08-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

My students favorite phrase to say that they think will get them out of work in my classroom is, "But I already read that!" For some reason, students think that it is taboo to reread a novel or short story. Why? Don't we watch our favorite movies over and over again? Do we listen to songs we like the first time around a few more times? OF COURSE! You can derive the same pleasure from rereading a favorite book! (Don't tell anyone, but I've reread the entire Twilight series at least five times. I KNOW!) It's starting to be the same way with Suzanne Collins's addicting series. I teach the first book, so I hear the same chapters repeated six times a day, but IT NEVER GETS OLD! When Katniss is running from the Cornicopia for the first time, my heart quickens and my palms sweat...even if I'd just read that scene to my students the period before!

That brings me to rereading the second book, Catching Fire. When I was first able to lay hands on it, I DEVOURED it. I had to know what would happen to the characters I had come to know and love. When I devour a book, I tend to skip over stuff. My eyes skim the lines with anticipation, and I end up missing out on little details. I'm only through the first two chapters and I'm noticing all kinds of stuff I didn't the first go around. Has anyone else had this experience? I'm planning on chronicling my eye-opening discoveries in a post I'll publish the day before Mockingjay is released! Any tidbits you guys would like to alert me to while I'm rereading? Feel free to leave me a comment!

Totally off the subject, but check out this pic of actress, Kaya Scodelario I found on the Twilightlexicon blog. They were discussing who should play Katniss (aren't all of us?), and a fan recommended her. Add some tan-in-a-can, and I think she looks PERFECT if we are judging by looks alone.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2010-08-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

I will admit that my love of all things Robert Pattinson is what enticed me to read this novel that I've skimmed over, but never purchased . After seeing a few screen shots of the movie that is currently in production, I decided I wanted to know more about Rob's character, Jacob Jankowski. He's uber hot in these pics. Can you blame me? There are so many more fabulous pictures @ http://waterforelephantsfilm.com/ Oh, my. Suspenders never looked so good!

Reading the book with the mental images of Rob as Jacob might have made the book better for me than if I'd read it before movie production began. Call me shallow and a petty, but I thoroughly enjoyed the entire novel because of Rob and let's not forget the fabulous writing of Sara Gruen. I can't imagine the effort and research it took to know so much about the Depression era circus business. Gruen creates a seamless world of circus life that was engrossing and real. I'm hoping the movie can recreate the amazing imagery Gruen supplied producers with, and from looking at the movie stills, I'm seeing that they may be on the right track. I also love the juxtaposition of narration between old Jacob and young Jacob. It reminds me of The Notebook, but with less Alzheimer's and more elephants.

Gruen begins the novel with a 90 year old (or 93 year old....he's not quiet sure. What do a few years matter when he's already this old, he wanders?) Jacob. He's lonely and stuck in a nursing home, with ample time to reflect upon his life. The arrival of a traveling circus in the adjacent lot next to his nursing home stirs memories of his young-adult life. Jacob begins the long and mysterious track down memory lane, and his involvement with a traveling circus in the 1930s....

Jacob Jankowski is days away from completing his degree in veterinary medicine at Cornell University when he receives heartbreaking news about his parents. This news rattles him to the core, and sends him in a tailspin that leads him to the moving train of the Benzini Brothers Circus. Hoping aboard the train with only the clothes on his back, Jacob leaves behind everything and everyone he has ever known. His almost-degree in veterinary medicine makes him a perfect candidate to care for the rare and exotic animals on the tour, yet also separates him from the other working-class men he is surrounded by.

Immediately enamored by the beautiful and talented horse trainer and performer, Marlena, Jacob decides to stay on with the circus. Never mind that Marlena is married to the paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer, August. A man who immediately identifies Jacob as a threat, and has no qualms about getting rid of the new vet.

The gritty, often terrifying world of the Benzini Brothers Circus is the most unique and rare settings of any novel I've read this year. Water for Elephants is a brilliant novel, and will hopefully be complemented by an equally spectacular movie!

Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim

2010-08-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

Nina is an American born Pakistani-Muslim girl doing her best to fit in to her suburban town. Never mind the fact that she was born and raised in Deer Hook, her ethnicity and religion separate her from her predominately white friends. Nina is a hysterical narrator, who keeps the reader thoroughly entertained with her humorous outlook on her situation. Any teenager could relate to her plight and perhaps find humor in their own situation after reading Skunk Girl. An entertaining addition to my teen fiction collection!

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

2010-08-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

I love reading books that make me angry. It's either this side effect or the other that makes a book golden in my eyes: angry vs. blissfully happy. Great books stir emotions in their reader, and The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams did that for me. I read with rapt attention and disgust. Yes, disgust. Read the rest of my review to understand why...

Thirteen year old Kyra lives a quiet, simple life with her 19 brothers and sisters, her father, and his three wives. (Yes. She is one of 19...and I thought I got the short end of the stick being the middle child of three girls. No complaints here!) As a member of the polygamist cult, The Chosen Ones, Kyra lives in isolation with her people; only learning about the outside world through the books she sneaks into the compound from the nearest town's mobile library. (She likes to go for walks around the dirt roads surrounding the compound, and happens to encounter the County Mobile Library on one of her walks. She sneaks the books into the compound in her dress to read at night.) Reading these forbidden books has planted seeds of doubt in Kyra's mind about the preachings of Prophet Childs - the iron-fisted leader of The Chosen Ones, who claims to have a direct line of communication with Jesus himself. Prophet Childs has forbidden books and travel to the nearby town, warning the cult members that only the devil and his evil can be found outside the chainlink fences of the compound.

Kyra shares the secret of her books with another compound teen, Joshua. Through their secret meetings and discussion of books they become much more than friends and develop feelings for each other that also break the boundaries established by Prophet Childs. When the Prophet proclaims that he had a vision of Kyra marrying her 60 year old uncle, Hyrum, Kyra's world is tossed asunder. Is the world she lives within her books and in secret meetings with Joshua the right path to follow? Should she risk it all (and the possible safety of the family she loves dearly) to avoid marrying her cruel and aged uncle? Did I mention Uncle Hyrum is 60 and Kyra is 13. THIRTEEN! Yuck.

I read this novel in the span of two evenings - biting my fingernails and holding my breath with every turn of the page. I've always been curious about the lifestyle one must lead to be a part of a polygamist community, but I never really ventured what it must be like for the children who are brought up to know nothing but this lifestyle. I love how Williams uses books as Kyra's escape from the Compound. The view they give her of the outside world is what opens the window in Kyra's mind that her way of life might not be the only way to find fufillment and rightousness. This novel is by far and away one of the best teen reads of the summer!

My Top Teen Reads!

2010-07-29T07:54:00.001-07:00

Teen fiction is my profession (I teach 8th grade Reading), so I make it part of my job to read as much of it as I can. Thanks to my blog follower, Ashley, I've made a list of teen fiction reads that you must get your hands on this year! This list is pretty diverse and spans many different time periods and styles of writing. If you click on the picture, it will take you to a full review of the novel. I couldn't rank these in a "top ten list", because so many of them are equal stand outs in my mind. Read them and decide for yourself which is your favorite! Enjoy!

LINGER by Maggie Stiefvater

2010-07-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for this book, ever since I read the last page of Maggie Stiefvater's first novel in this series, Shiver. Teen fiction is saturated with crap at the moment, and Stiefvater's elegant writing and style are a much-needed respite from the junk! Although the tale centers around the trials and tribulations of life as a werewolf, don't bother to make comparisons to that other popular series with buff guys shedding their skins for wolf pelts. (What was the name of that series again??? ;)
In Shiver, we were introduced to Grace Brisbane; a responsible, attractive and lonely teenage girl. Her parents are flightly ding-bats who seem to forget they have a daughter - often coming home at odd hours of the night and often leaving her to take care of herself. Her parents lackadaisical attitude toward caring for Grace is what set the chain of events in motion to tie her to the pack of Mercy Falls wolves that roamed freely in the forests behind her home. Grace was pulled from her tire swing and attacked by a pack of wolves when she was younger, only to be seemingly saved by wolf with mesmerizing yellow eyes. Grace finds an injured Sam in these same forests who also possesses the same yellow eyes as her wolf. As Sam and Grace's relationship develops, Grace is introduced to a world she didn't know existed in her own backyard; humans shifting in to wolves each time the seasons change to cooler weather. Most of Shiver is spent trying to find a way to keep Sam human, and to stop him from shifting in to a werewolf so he and Grace can be together. The two also wonder and theorize why Grace's bites from her previous wolf attack never caused her to shift. Sam's heartbreaking past and the mysteries surrounding the origin of the wolves is also explored and further explained in LINGER.

LINGER continues the love story of Grace and Sam, who are still uncertain if the "cure" they found for Sam will actually stick. Although Sam is seemingly comfortable in his human form, and finally embracing the possibility of a long future with Grace, it is Grace who is beginning to feel changes bubbling beneath the surface of her human skin. Will Sam's cure be forever? Who are the new wolves, and what will their presence mean to the future of the pack? These LINGERing questions are what shape the second novel and make it a sequel as equally enthralling as its predecessor.

Stiefvater's talent for story telling is just as mesmerizing in LINGER as it was in SHIVER.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

2010-07-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tired of vampires? They ARE everywhere, but give Cronin's The Passage a shot before you say you've read enough about blood suckers! The plot is complex, and I'm lazy, so here's the synopsis from Publisher's Weekly:

Fans of vampire fiction who are bored by the endless hordes of sensitive, misunderstood Byronesque bloodsuckers will revel in Cronin’s engrossingly horrific account of a post-apocalyptic America overrun by the gruesome reality behind the wish-fulfillment fantasies. When a secret project to create a super-soldier backfires, a virus leads to a plague of vampiric revenants that wipes out most of the population. One of the few bands of survivors is the Colony, a FEMA-established island of safety bunkered behind massive banks of lights that repel the “virals,” or “dracs”--but a small group realizes that the aging technological defenses will soon fail. When members of the Colony find a young girl, Amy, living outside their enclave, they realize that Amy shares the virals’ agelessness, but not the virals’ mindless hunger, and they embark on a search to find answers to her condition. PEN/Hemingway Award--winner Cronin (The Summer Guest) uses a number of tropes that may be overly familiar to genre fans, but he manages to engage the reader with a sweeping epic style. The first of a proposed trilogy, it’s already under development by director Ripley Scott and the subject of much publicity buzz (Retail Nation, Mar. 15). (June)

It's a hefty read (over 750 pages and set at 10pt font!), but man, it was a riveting novel! The virals reminded me of the creepy antogonists of the Will Smith movie, I am Legend, and I found myself unable to go outside at night for fear of being ripped open from mouth to crotch. Scary stuff, The Passage! These infected humans of Cronin's tale do not sparkle and are not the stuff of romance novels. I love dystopian fiction...take The Forrest of Hands and Teeth, mix it with Stephen King's The Stand, and you have a tiny taste of what The Passage holds for you! I can't wait to see what Cronin does with the second and third books in this trilogy. There's also talk of a movie already in the works for The Passage, so no, folks, vampires (of all shapes, sizes and temperments) are here to stay! Yikes!

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

2010-07-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Teen fiction is one of the few genres turning a profit in the publishing world. How shocking that many "adult" fiction authors are now penning teen fiction! Candace Bushnell, one of the founding fathers (er, mothers?) of the chick lit movement, and author of the popular Sex and the City novels, has recently released the first installment in her new teen series The Carrie Diaries. Based on the the teen years of her Sex and the City heroine, Carrie Bradshaw, the Carrie Diaries gives us a glimpse in to the awkward pubescent days of Miss B. Even though I wouldn't say the Carrie Diaries is as good as the SATC novels, it is a great start to what I'm sure is to be an even better sequel....that is, if there is a sequel, which there better be!

The novel is set in the early 70s, a time period ingenious to my mother's generation, and a decade I know relatively little about, other than the stories my mother and father have shared about their high school days. Come to think of it, my mom would probably love this book. I'm sure many of the pop culture references and clothing labels were lost on me, but I bet my mom could easily relate. Absent are the cell phones, computers, and fast-paced existence most teenagers are accustomed to today. Teens in Carrie's world take smoke breaks in between classes (the teachers are probably too busy enjoying a smoke to notice the teens puffing away in the bathroom), hang out at burger joints, and drive around in their old, clunker cars for fun. Although Carrie's boredom with small town living is palpable (the reader is bored right along with her for some of the scenes), this boredom is necessary for you to feel her anxiousness to make something more of her life. You can practically FEEL her restlessness to leave the safety of her tiny town and you find yourself cheering her on when she shares her dreams of becoming a writer in New York...a dream her family and friends just don't quite understand.

Carrie is beginning her Senior year at Castlebury High, located in a small, upper-middle class town in Connecticut. Even though Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda are no where to be found (she's yet to meet them, you see), you can easily identify with her group of life-long girlfriends, Lali, Maggie and The Mouse, or Roberta if you're calling her by her God-given name. There's also the new guy that enters onto the scene; Sebastian Kidd. Hot, rebellious, and of course, the guy Carrie can't get off her mind. Bushnell does a fabulous job transporting the reader back to high school. Even though you know Carrie shouldn't be so self-conscious and stupid about her decisions concerning boys, she acts just like most of us gals did in high school. These self-deprecating moments are what she will grow and learn from in the SATC books. We can see the strong and successful woman Carrie will become, learning and growing in the Carrie Diaries. I seriously hope that Bushnell is considering continuing the series. I can't wait to see how Carrie struggles in New York, and it will be fun to live vicariously through her first days as a new writer. If you are looking for an honest, funny and endearing coming-of-age story about one of chick lit's favorite characters, then The Carrie Diaries will be an entertaining journey down memory lane. No zit cream required. :)

Eclipse Clip - "You'll Always be my Bella"

2010-06-18T07:42:00.001-07:00

I can't wait for this movie! This recently released clip makes me tingly all over! Edward...Yum!

Wanna Review Eclipse the Novel Before the Movie?

2010-06-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Then join our Facebook fan page! Go to this link: ECLIPSE GROUP REREAD. If you will "LIKE" the page or subscribe to the page's "Notes" you can receive instant update for each chapter I post. I also have discussion questions at the end of each post I would like your input on, and would appreciate your feedback. You don't have to actually reread each chapter. We just want you discussing your opinions about the book! This also gives us something to do before the big premiere on June 30th! So join our page and DISCUSS burning questions about your favorite (or at least it's my favorite) book in the Twilight Saga! Here is a sample of some of our recent "discussions" over Chapter 1 & 2 of the novel:

Chapter 1 & 2 Discussion Questions

1. Did you like Jacob before New Moon? Did your feelings for him change after the movie?

2. Were you ever "boyfriend obsessed" like Bella? I know you probably didn't have a bf that had a "face any male model would sale his soul" for, but did you at least obsessively spend too much time with your guy/gal?

AWESOME Eclipse Clip Mash Up!

2010-06-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

This video compiles most of the Eclipse clips (say that five times!), and it is GREAT! I hadn't seen a few of these, so it's quite a treat for those of us hungering for June 30th to hurry up and get here! I think this movie will ROCK! Go to this website to see a high-quality version of the video below:

Fan of 'The Hunger Games'? Check Out More of Our Fan T-Shirts!

2010-06-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I'm a HUGE, GINORMOUS fan of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I teach it, I dress like Katniss in my spare time, and I've personally converted many, many 8th graders to the dark side! I LOVE THIS BOOK, and I hope my students continue to spread the word...I think the popularity of this book is definitely 'Catching Fire'...har, har, har! Instead of a final exam over The Hunger Games, my students were required to design a fan t-shirt based on their favorite characters, scenes, or memorable quotes from the novel. I was blown away by the variety and quality of the designs. My room will probably be forever covered in fabric paint, but it was well-worth the mess. The students wore their t-shirt on our field trip to Barnes & Noble, where they participated in a scavenger hunt that the winner won a copy of Catching Fire, the second book in Suzanne Collins's series. I'm planning on hosting a Mockingjay party on August 24th at Barnes & Noble. I hope to have tons of freshman returning to B&N to purchase the third book...let's hope they aren't "too cool" by August 24th for their 8th grade Reading teacher! ;)

This young man is CONVINCED that Megan Fox should play the part of Katniss. Ugh.

I love this kid. When a gal doesn't mind having the word "pus" on her shirt, you know she's a keeper!

A Peeta fan, apparently!

Simple, but cool shirts!

"Loverboy" is Peeta...I thought that was clever and cute! "Cinna Told Me to Wear This Shirt" was more than likely 'borrowed' from another fan t-shirt site.

Hmmmm....how do I explain this set of shirts? I can't. They were made by 8TH GRADE BOYS. Does that help at all??? LOL!

'The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner' by Stephenie Meyer

2010-06-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

I wasn't expecting fantastic revelations while reading 'The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner', the recently released novella by Stephenie Meyer. Like my fellow Twitarded bloggers, Bree Tanner is the very LAST character I would think of when it comes to wanting to know more about my Twilight friends. I felt the same way as I was reading 'TSSLBT'. Why do I care about Bree? Shoot, if anyone had to tell the story, why not tell it from Riley's perspective and give us a bit more of the seedy relationship he had going on with the red-headed vixen, Victoria? Bree's undeveloped relationship with Diego was somewhat boring, and the story didn't really give me much more than I already knew.

However, what it DID give me, is some hope that Stephenie is working on continuing the Twilight Saga as I type this review. Freaky Fred is coming back. Let's just hope that it's not an entire "spin-off" series involving JUST Freaky Fred. Although Fred is pretty Freaky (and has the gift of repulsiveness?), I'm afraid that Stephenie would be missing what her entire fan base craves, and it's not more about Bree, Riley, Freaky Fred, or an entire series about Mike and Jessica or some other character I could give a hoot about. Let Freaky Fred be a friend of the Cullens and maybe be a "manny" for Reneseme. I don't care what you do with Freaky Fred, Steph, but PLEASE DON'T GIVE US AN ENTIRE NOVELLA ABOUT A VAMPIRE I'M NOT INVESTED IN. I would, however, read an entire series about Jake and Reneseme, even though just reading the name "Reneseme" makes me wanna hurl. The fact that Taylor Lautner has replaced the annoying, unattractive Jacob I initially imagined, I'm all for a series about Mr. Abs. So what did you think about 'The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner'? Where you disappointed Danny, D.J., Stephanie and Michelle didn't make an appearance? If you didn't get that joke, you are too young to be my friend. :)

'Impossible' by Nancy Werlin

2010-05-19T16:26:00.000-07:00

Crud! I guess my original review of the book never posted. I swear the night I wrote it, appeared on the "preview post"....now you will never know the witty and carefully crafted commentary I had over 'Impossible' by Nancy Werlin! So now you will get my It's-eleven-o'clock-and-I'm-too-tired-to-be-creative commentary on the novel. Hold on to your knickers...here goes nothin'!

Lucy Scarborough comes from a long line of women who have been cursed with madness and hysteria. The condition has began with every single Scarborough woman has been deemed "insane in the membrane" soon after giving birth to a baby girl; a baby conceived against their will with a malicious, evil Elfin Knight. Now before you say, "Whoa, I do not read books that contain elves who take advantage of young girls!", just hear me out. Although this curse thing that is the fulcrum of Werlin's plot is a little weird, the curse and Lucy attempting to break it before the birth of her own illegitimate, conceived against her will daughter is born. Whew! Can Lucy break the curse that has plagued her family for centuries? How does the Simon and Garfunkle song "Scarborough Fair" offer clues to unraveling the mystery that will soon plunge Lucy into inescapable madness? (I'll be honest. I had to YouTube the song to know what the heck they were talking about.) Lucy must also resolve her feelings for her best friend Zach, who has become MORE than a friend and is now an ally in her quest to break this centuries-old curse! 'Impossible' is a FANTASTIC novel, and is not only critically acclaimed, but LENZILIKESIT approved! If that makes much of a difference to you....;)

Hunger Games Fan T-Shirts

2010-05-19T10:14:00.001-07:00

My students just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and are in the process of making their very own fan t-shirts. Check out a few of their designs. I'll be sure to post more as they finish them! We also made a few designs on cafepress.com. Check them out at this link:http://shops.cafepress.com/MrsHartsTees

a href="http://blogpress.w18.net/photos/10/05/19/962.jpg">

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

2010-05-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

The bad boy - aren't MOST girls attracted to him at some point in their teen lives? I know I've had run-ins with a few, but nothing like what Brittany Ellis experiences with Alex Fuentes in Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles! I'd seen this book in Barnes & Noble several times and didn't even think about picking it up, due to the cover art. I don't know why, but it reminded me of a bad romance novel cover, even though the girl isn't wearing a bodice and the boy has his shirt on....it still threw me! Even though you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I find myself doing that time and time again, and I've found that the saying still rings true - especially with Simone Elkeles book.

YA Reads had a raving review for Perfect Chemistry, and they usually don't steer my wrong, so I gave the book a shot. Here is a summary of the novel from the Perfect Chemistry website, which has all kinds of information and cool stuff associated with the hot & steamy book:

At Fairfield High, everyone knows that south siders and north siders aren’t exactly compatible elements. So when cheerleader Brittany Ellis and gang member Alex Fuentes are forced to be lab partners, the results are bound to be explosive.

Neither teen is prepared for the most surprising chemical reaction of all – love. Can they break through the stereotypes and misconceptions that threaten to keep them apart?

The whole good-girl-hooks-up-with-bad-boy is a plot line I didn't even know I was intrigued by until I started reading the novel. Even though I can't put it on my shelves to share with my 8th graders (there's too much cursing and sexual situations for middle schoolers), I enjoyed the novel and the gritty realism of Alex's home life. Teaching in a school for six years that was predominately Hispanic in race exposed me to so much of what this book shares. Alex's homelife, sadly, isn't a rarity in big cities. So many young men live this life and do not survive their teen years to understand the gravity of the mistakes they make during that time. I found myself cheering for Alex and for him to overcome his gang ties. Elkeles must have done some extensive research on gang initiation and rituals, because so many of the facts Alex shares with Brittany are what I've heard from my former students. Students who would realize that joining a gang was a bad idea when they were thirteen, find themselves stuck in the gang at seventeen because they see no way out of the situation without suffering the same fate as Alex. Heartbreaking!

Brittany's homelife may also seem perfect to her peers, but Elkeles also does a fabulous job of peeling the onion that is Brittany's life one translucent layer at a time. I felt Brittany's love for her disables sister, Shelley, her frustration with her frou-frou parents, and understood her need to make her image at school squeaky clean and perfect. The characters in Perfect Chemistry are dynamic and well-developed, and even though the dialogue at times was cheesy, and seemed to have forced and awkward sprinklings of Spanish, the book was a fabulous read. I devoured it in one day, and I'm itching to get to the book store to purchase The Rules of Attraction, the sequel to Perfect Chemistry. LOVED THIS BOOK!

The Hunger Games Movie Cast - Haymitch Abernathy

2010-04-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

My 8th grade classes are reading The Hunger Games this six weeks, and we've been working on visualization. As a part of that process, I'm having them visualize characters according to their traits supplied by the author. However, we are also creating a "Dream Cast" that we would like to see in The Hunger Games movie. A lot of you have criticized my Dream Cast for The Hunger Games movie that my students came up with last year, so I'm sure you will have a lot to say about this years suggestions! Keep in mind that teens do not have any desire to visualize "unknown actors" for this movie. They like big-name stars because it is much easier for them to see the characters in their mind, versus simply creating new person in their head.

This brings me to their first suggestion for our 2010 The Hunger Games Dream Cast - Will Smith for Haymitch Abernathy. Before you say, "heck no, Haymitch is supposed to be white", keep in mind that Suzanne Collins only describes him a few times in The Hunger Games as being "a paunchy, middle-aged man". I don't have my Catching Fire book here to directly quote the other description of Haymitch I remember, but I do recall her mentioning something about him having an athletic figure. That by looking at him, you can tell that he was a strong young man during his time in The Games. So I ask you, why NOT Will Smith? Will is in his early forties, and for some, that is considered "middle aged", especially if you live in The Seam. He played a harsh, yet somehow lovable drunk in Hancock, and I think would be a great addition to The Hunger Games movie by bringing star power AND credibility to the storyline. Smith is traditionally known to pick quality roles, so his selection of the role of Haymitch would greatly tout the script and film as being one of quality. Just think about it for awhile...picture Will as Haymitch, loud, drunk, and troubled. It COULD HAPPEN!

See how Will has naturally graying hair in this picture? With the proper wardrobe and makeup, he could easily be Haymitch. He might have to lay off the weights for a few months, but he could be a perfect Haymitch if you gave him a chance!

Click HERE to see The Hunger Games cast list chosen by Entertainment Weekly fans!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater...A New Favorite on My Teen Fiction List!

2010-04-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

As a young girl, Grace was drug from her backyard tire swing by a hungry pack of wolves into the cold depths of the forest. All she remembers from surviving that attack are the beautiful yellow eyes of one wolf, who seemed to rescue her from the hungry pack. Grace is mesmerized by the wolves that live in the forest behind her home, and looks forward to winter each year so she can see the enchanting yellow eyes of HER wolf, who lingers near the treeline, always protectively watching over her.

After the wolves are deemed responsible for the death of a local teen, citizens attempt to exterminate the species from the area woods. Grace is racked with worry and grief that her wolf will be shot in the crossfires. She attempts to find her wolf during the hunting expedition, and instead, finds naked and injured Sam - a boy her age who has the same enchanting yellow eyes of her wolf. The connection between herself and Sam is unmistakable, and Grace can't deny the possibility that this beautiful young man and her protective wolf are one in the same.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is by far the BEST teen fiction book I've read in 2010. Sam and Grace's connection to one another is mysterious and heart breaking, and I haven't felt such longing and empathy for two characters since Bella and Edward. I'm doing my best not to compare it to Twilight, but the parrallels are too obvious NOT to acknowledge. Of course there's werewolves, but the similiar conflicts that exist for both sets of main characters are easily compared.

Maggie Stiefvater does an excellent job of bringing complexity and layers to Sam and Grace that are lacking in Twilight. Not that Stephenie Meyer didn't create dynamic characters in her works...she did, but often the problems were sugar-coated. For example, Grace, like Bella, is often left to take care of herself. Her parents are flighty and selfish and she is constantly the "adult" in the household - cooking dinner, washing clothes, cleaning up. Sam points out what Grace already knows - that this is not normal and good parenting behavior, and we get to see Grace acknowledge her anger towards her mother and father and their lack of parental skill. Anger that Bella never recognizes or acknowledges towards Rene.

Sam also has demons in his closet that are put under the microscope - problems that Edward also posessed but never addressed or felt anger. Why did Carlisle sign up a teenage boy for a life he knew was complex and oftentimes filled with tragedy? Sam asks the same question of his maker, Beck, who purposely changed Sam because he was lonely in his werewolf life. Even though Sam loves Beck like a father, he also has to come to terms with the fact that the "father" he loves dearly is also responsible for stealing a normal life from Sam.

To me, Twilight comparisons are complimentary to this book because Shiver evoked the same emotions in me that my initial reading of Twilight did. It's been only 24 hours since I finished the novel and I'm still thinking about Sam and Grace! What will happen in the second book, and counting down the days to its release. I'm definitely a Shiver fan and think that this series will be a huge success in the years to come because of its QUALITY. The first book has already been picked up for a movie by Unique Features. Maggie Stiefvater is a truly gifted writer and each of you should give this novel a chance and see for yourself what a fantastic world Stiefvater has created! The next book in the trilogy, Linger, is expected to hit shelves July 20th. Get on board The Wolves of Mercy Falls fanwagon!

Eclipse Pics From Walmart New Moon DVD

2010-04-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

The Walmart version of the New Moon DVD apparently features the stills from Eclipse I've posted below. I wouldn't know, because I bought the TARGET version of New Moon and would be crucified if I bought yet another version of New Moon. (The iTunes version I also own, but don't tell Donnie!) Enjoy the pics! June 30th is going to be an awesome day in Twilight history!

Why the long face, Alice? Could an army of newborn vampires making their way to Forks be the reason you are so sad?
Outdoor wear for fighting newbies!

Bella's wig is awesome.

Riley. Pissed.

Riley turning into a vamp, perhaps?

Serious Riley.

Hot, scowling Jake.

Riley and Bree Tanner...apparently we will know more about her on June 5th!

But They're NOT Dating...

2010-04-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Rob and Kristen photographed arriving in London on Tuesday, and check out their matching shoes! How cute is that? Rob is looking hot, as usual. They are both so young, but I really think they make an adorable couple. ;)

Photoshop my face on Kristen's, and there you have it...BLISS!
I seriously used to have a pair of black Adidas in 8th grade. Not sure if they were the Sambas, but they were all grungy and cool. I also listened to Pearl Jam and Nirvana religiously, but washed my hair daily. I wasn't that committed to the grunge movement.

Heidi Montag...Sad, Sad, Sad!

2010-04-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

Heidi BEFORE plastic surgery dominated her life... Heidi after she had her infamous "ten procedures in a day".

Before Lauren Conrad left The Hills, I was a big fan of the show. Before Heidi became a fame-whore, she was one of my favorite characters. I thought she was spunky and ornery and seemed like she knew how to have fun. Of course the "Spencer Plotline" changed both Heidi and the show and I had to stop watching it. It was too sickening (whether a real or fake storyline) to watch a girl radically change herself for a jerk. I'm sure if someone followed me around with a camera during my dating days they would have felt the same way. I dated some real doosies and even chose said douche bags over my good friends. We've all been Heidi a time or two in our lives, so I can't judge her for choosing her man over her friends. It happens to the best of us. However, I find it truly disturbing what the girl is now doing to her body. I'm not blaming Spencer or even want to act like I know what is going on in that relationship, because who am I to judge relationships when I have my track record? Yet it's hard to miss the changes taking place in Heidi. Her plastic surgery is just plain sad. What is she doing to her beautiful face and body?

She's scary to look at, and I'm wondering if her desire to have a baby in the last episodes of The Hills was just a contrived storyline. Do plastic surgeons tell girls what happens to their boobs after they have babies? When your milk drops, your boobies TRIPLE IN SIZE, and that happens whether you choose to breast feed or not. The milk comes anyway, and it affects your boobs by stretching and engorging them to capacity. Her poor chest will be so PAINFUL after having a baby because it looks like the skin in her chest area is already stretched to capacity. Good luck having babies, Heidi. You may have already done much more damage to yourself than mother nature ever could've!

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games is in the Building!

2010-04-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

Katniss Everdeen, ready to entice young minds to read The Hunger Games and LIKE IT!

Perhaps the Capitol loaned Katniss Everdeen an iPhone for the day? Ha! Love that my bathroom mirror is dirty. My husband was too embarassed for me to take my picture. He's no Peeta!
How do you make a Katniss Everdeen costume, you ask? My mother made the tunic out of a men's shirt and I paired it with leggings and my Uggs. The wig was loaned to me from a friend, but I put a headband around the front because the wig had some crazy bangs going on! The bow and arrow are from Walmart.

Katniss Everdeen made an appearance in my classroom this week for our introduction to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I had so much fun dressing up like Katniss, but the wig was a bit itchy! My students think I've lost my mind, but I really think (and hope) that showing up to class as Miss Everdeen, District 12 Tribute, piqued their interest in the novel. They certainly have been paying attention, but maybe my threat to shoot them with my fake arrows if they nod off is the reason! Anywhoooo, here's my Katniss Everdeen costume!

'The Forest of Hands and Teeth' by Carrie Ryan

2010-04-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan is officially on my "must read" teen fiction list. I can't wait to go to school on Monday and "Book Talk" this novel with my 8th graders! It took all of two days; reading the book during every spare moment I could find, even taking it in my purse so I could read at stop lights, but I managed to finish The Forest of Hands and Teeth without having a heart attack! This book is one of the best teen fiction novels I've read in a long time, and I'm not the only one who thinks it's a great read.

A New York Times Best Seller

A Junior Library Guild selection

An ALA Best Books for Young Adults selection

Named to the 2010 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age List

A Borders Original Voices finalist

#4 on the IndieBound Kids' Indie Next List for Spring 2009

A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book

Selected for the 2010-2011 Texas Library Association TAYSHAS High School Reading list

So yeah, this book is definitely a must-read and you don't have to take MY word for it, obviously! The book is post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel with zombies, romance, and nail biting suspense. If you loved The Hunger Games, (but with zombies called The Consecrated) then this book should be right up your alley. ON the author's site, they also mention that the book has been opted for a movie by Seven Star Pictures, and will supposedly star "an A-List actress"...I wonder who could play Mary? I'm hoping the movie is really being made, but I'm not sure how it can keep a PG-13 rating, given the fact that there's quite a bit of blood and gore going on in certain parts. The book is so creepy, which a great reason why it will make a cool movie! Here's a synopsis from author Carrie Ryan's website:

In Mary's world, there are simple truths.

The Sisterhood always knows best.

The Guardians will protect and serve.

The Unconsecrated will never relent.

And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?
Ryan's companion to the book The Dead-Tossed Waves is also on shelves and has already had great reviews. I ordered my copy today and can't wait to start it! There's a third book in the works, as well, but I'm not sure about the expected release date of that one, nor do I know the title. Check out the book trailer for the Forest of Hands and Teeth for some enticing visuals!

Behind the Scenes and Sneak Peak of Eclipse!

2010-04-02T21:53:00.001-07:00

Watch this video more than once and you can see so much stuff that the stills and movie poster don't offer! What I'm getting from this behind-the-scenes portion of the video is that David Slade is dark, but is taking Eclipse to the level it needs to be...an army of newborn vampires just wouldn't fit in to a cheery meadow scene, now would they? Eclipse looks to be fast-paced and full of action, which after making it through New Moon, I think the fans are looking forward to the change of pace. I have high hopes for you, Mr. Slade - don't let me down!

I loved Chris Weitz's adaptation of New Moon, but let's be honest and say that he had the hardest material to work with - breakup bullcrap. Miserable, twitchy Bella just isn't what we love about the Twilight Saga. Gasping, greasy-haired, "I have a hole in my chest! A big gaping hole in my chest! Bella is why New Moon isn't a fan favorite and Eclipse is. Forlorn, screaming-like-she's-being-murdered-in-her-sleep-Bella is also why I find myself watching the first fifteen minutes of New Moon and then skipping to Italy. Watching New Moon takes me all of thirty minutes, people, and possibly another half and hour longer, depending on how much time I have to watch and rewind Edward strutting through the school parking lot.

So after the trial that was New Moon, I'm all for action as long as Slade doesn't cut the romance and Edward-sleeping-over and vice-a-versa scenes with Bella. Catherine Hardwick focused on action only, and to me, that's what made Twilight a theatrical failure for fans of the first book. The first book will always be my favorite, and I tolerate the movie, but Twilight in the hands of Chris Weitz would of been something to write home about! If Summit gave him the dough to remake Twilight, would you pay to see his version in theaters?

EW Gives 'The Last Song' a "B"....What the Heck?

2010-03-31T20:20:00.000-07:00

I say "what the heck" because I'm shocked! I figured that since Mylie Cyrus was starring in the flick, the critics would have no mercy on her movie adaptation of Nicholas Spark's best-selling novel. I'm so eager for Friday so I can feast my eyes on Liam! I'm not looking forward to the snot fest that is sure to ensue after the plot begins to develop. Lisa Schwarzbaum reviewed 'The Last Song' and she typically doesn't like a dang thing that I do, so I'm skeptical now that she's basically telling me that it's good. Here is her full review from Entertainment Weekly:

If you know anything in advance about The Last Song, you know that it stars Miley Cyrus. You also probably have an opinion about her. She is, after all, the formidably successful teen Disney Channel hatchling who heads a global pop culture empire that now stretches from Hannah Montana mania to a line of Walmart clothing. But in order to get the most out of The Last Song, it's best to tune out your awareness of Cyrus' celebrity. Or the fact that this mild, girl-oriented tearjerker has been written specifically for the young star to expand her thespian range, in a story machine-welded by indefatigable best-seller churner Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook) and coscreenwriter Jeff Van Wie.

So forget all that. Just know that The Last Song stars a dark-haired up-and-comer in the role of a sullen teenage girl named Ronnie. Ronnie and her kid brother have come from New York City to spend a summer in an atmospheric Southern beach town with their divorced father. (Likable-dad player Greg Kinnear plays Dad.) Ronnie's relationship with her father is pretty awful, but their communication gets better after she meets a nice, cute guy named Will (Liam Hemsworth), whose niceness makes Ronnie nicer, too. And that's good, because before this melodrama comes to its sand-and-surf conclusion, Ronnie, Dad, Will, and just about every single resident of this atmospheric Southern beach town will experience character-building challenges and heartrending sadnesses. These are guaranteed to result in tears, for the sad fictional people on screen as well as for the satisfied real people watching in movie theaters.

And here's the revelation: Miley Cyrus is a really interesting movie star in the making, with an intriguing echo-of-foghorn speaking voice, and a scuffed-up tomboyish physicality (in the Kristen Stewart mode) that sets her apart from daintier girls in her celebrity class. As Ronnie, turning moods on a dime the way girls her age do, Cyrus sustains a perfectly believable demonstration of post-high-school, precollege female longing. She shows anger, vulnerability, defensiveness. And she anchors a serviceable idealized drama about how a loving relationship between a father and daughter paves the way for that lucky daughter to one day find adult love. B

More Eclipse Movie Stills...

2010-03-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

Fight scene! What's with the zipper jackets? Is this what you wear to kick newborn vampire ass if you're a Cullen? Are they shooting a Gap commercial afterwards? What the hell is going on with Jasper's wavy mane?
Learning the legend of the Quiluetes and wasting her precious time with Jacob, when she could be leg hitchin' Edward.
Is Jacob looking a little pastey to anyone else? THE WIG still pisses me off, but Edward's v-neck is fits nicely!

New Eclipse Paperback Book Covers!

2010-03-31T17:27:00.000-07:00

I obviously have a love affair with books, so the release of these new paperback covers for Eclipse are like a new pair of Manolo's to some of you! I have a copy of every New Moon and Twilight covers...my excuse is that I teach 8th grade Reading and can use them in my classroom, but even if I didn't teach, I would buy them! Check out these cool images of Bella, Edward, and Jake. Pretty cool.

Edward is the apple of her eye, I guess?
I like this one! Bella is lookin' hot, and I like the dueling hot boys in the background.

New Novella from Stephanie Meyer!

2010-03-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

Stephenie Meyer must know that my birthday is June 6th, because she's releasing her new novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner the day before my big 30th birthday! I predict this isn't the last book released by Meyer in the upcoming year. Even though she has be quoted numerous times as "taking time off", writers NEVER quit writing. I bet she has a few more books up her sleeve and will release one this time next year and another during the release of Breaking Dawn, which hasn't even begun filming. Twilight Saga fans know Bree Tanner as the newborn vampire spared by the Cullens after they defeated Victoria's newborn army. She was spared, but the "Volturi don't give second chances" and she was killed by Felix for violating vampire laws. Here is an excerpt from MTV.com's coverage of the new novella! I can't wait to devour it!

An “Eclipse” Exclusive:
If you’ve only been watching the “Twilight” movies or read the first two books, don’t be shocked that you have no idea who Bree Tanner is. In fact, don’t be upset if you read “Eclipse” and still have no idea who she is. Tanner is a character introduced a startlingly short amount of time before she dies in “Eclipse” and could be considered (to everyone except Stephenie Meyer) to be a throwaway character.

A Short Life:
Tanner is only introduced 10 pages before she is killed off in Victoria’s war against the Cullens and the Quileute werewolf tribe. However, of all the newborn vampires discussed in “Eclipse,” Tanner was one of the few to be named and introduced to the readers. Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long after she was turned into a vampire for her to meet her end … again.

Dramatic Death Scene:
It turns out Tanner isn’t the best newborn vampire among them all, and she isn’t a big fan of killing innocents and drinking their blood. She tries to join forces with the Cullen clan and adapt to their “vegetarian vampire” lifestyle, but ends up being killed by Felix on the orders of Jane, a member of the Volturi guard (played by Dakota Fanning in the film), in the final battle.

Newborn Vampires:
A big part of the story in “Eclipse” surrounds the bad-girl vampire Victoria creating an army of newborn vampires in the Seattle area so she can wage war on Edward Cullen, who killed her beau James way back in “Twilight.” When a vampire is first created, it is at its strongest, so Victoria went around recklessly creating vampires so she could have an extremely powerful army behind her. Tanner was just one of the fatalities.

Seattle:
The trouble with the first-person perspective of “The Twilight Saga” is that the reader can’t read what is happening firsthand beyond what Bella Swan sees with her own eyes. Much like “Midnight Sun” gave (some) of the details behind what happened elsewhere in “Twilight,” “The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner” will show what happened in Seattle with Victoria during “Eclipse.” But since much of “Eclipse” is devoted to the characters wondering what exactly was going on in Seattle, seeing it through the eyes of a secondary character like Tanner is a smart companion piece to the book.

Unseen First Life:
Unfortunately for Tanner, the world will never know what happened to her before she became a vampire. She was introduced into “Eclipse” after she was a newborn and “The Short Second Life” will start off the same way. There is a chance of flashbacks telling about her life before becoming a vampire, but the way Meyer described the novella on her Web site made it seem as though Tanner was the narrator solely so the reader could see what went on in Seattle, not to learn her past.

In The Movies:
“Eclipse” director David Slade at least had more of a heads-up than fans and retailers did about “The Short Second Life,” and he cast 14-year-old Jodelle Ferland in the role. Slade and Ferland, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard (Victoria) and Xavier Samuel (Riley), were given advance copies of the book to read so they could have a complete knowledge of what went on in Seattle for the film.

The Last Song Author Featurette - Check Out Will! Hot!

2010-03-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

A group of my 8th grade girls and I are going to see this film on Friday. I'm excited to see if it remains true to the novel, and for some odd reason, Greg Kinnear reminds me of my own father. I'm sure I'll be bawling like a big ole' baby by the end of this thing, but I really do love the story. If you come from a home with divorced parents, you can easily identify with Ronnie's plight. I also love that Will's character is a hottie. Can't wait to see the volleyball scenes, that's for sure! I particularly love the scene in this featurette where he is hosing off Ronnie after a day of mudding. Oh my!

This video just has a few more scrumptious shots of Liam Hemsworth. Mylie is a lucky girl!

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks...Oh, Yeah, and My Hatred of Book Snobs!

2010-03-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I by day, I'm an 8th grade Reading teacher. Hence, the innumerable teen fiction reviews and Twilight-obsessed posts - 8th grade girls are to blame for my love of Edward Cullen! I had two students basically force me to read Twilight, and I will be forever grateful for their insistence. When my students ask me to read something, I obliged because throughout the school year they are reading works per my request. I have a group of girls that have become Nicholas Sparks addicts. I don't usually purchase Sparks books for my classroom because of the "adult" situations that sometimes crop up, (hello, did anyone read the scene in which Ally and Noah reunited from The Notebook? Too HOT for teens!) but this group have been buying their own copies and reading them during our independent reading time. These girlies challenged me to read The Last Song, so picked up a copy and did so over the weekend.

As for my review of the book, I enjoyed the story and can appreciate why my teens love it so much. It's a story about discovering true love, mending bridges with parents, and understanding why family and love is the only thing that matters in this world. It also helps that Mylie Cyrus is staring in the movie version of the book, which I think is the main reason many of my girls picked it up. No matter what turned them on to the book, I'm just excited that they are reading and sharing their opinions about what they read with one another. The story is simple and oh, so sad, but I love any book that makes my students discuss and rehash.

This brings me to my second point I'd like to discuss in this post: Book Snobs. I've talked about Book Snobs before in my posts concerning Twilight and books that aren't considered "good literature" by the elitist Book Snobs. What is a Book Snob, you may ask? Well, if you're a BS, you slam all mass-market fiction and label most best-selling authors as "crappy writers" or producers of works with "no literary value". Book Snobs insult, degrade, and rarely promote any book that isn't labeled a classic or a work that has won literary awards. Book Snobs usually have never written a novel, and if you are a Book Snob critic who is also an author, more than likely that author has only written works that are research-based or non-fiction. I rarely hear authors of fiction slam other authors of fiction because, well, they have first-hand knowledge of how hard it is to produce but how very EASY it is to critique. What makes my blood boil more than anything is when Book Snobs are TEACHERS who openly share their opinions of books that are not "worthy" to read with their students.

While browsing Barnes & Noble last night, I picked up an educational text written for teachers of literacy. Granted, this book wasn't written by a well-known author in my field, but what this author said about mass-market fiction really upset me because her opinion is being openly shared in schools everywhere. In her defense, I will totally butcher the quote that infuriated me since I do not have the book in front of me to directly quote what she said about popular books. The statement said something to the effect of "I read excerpts from mass-market books written by authors like Nora Roberts and James Patterson, so students can see how these books are not well-written." First of all, middle school students are smart and intuitive. They are not going to disagree with their teacher's opinion if they realize the intended result of the presented lesson should be them agreeing that the writing being shared is "bad". Just like adults in a room full of Book Snobs, most of us are non-confrontational and will keep our mouths shut if a Book Snob is slamming a book we happened to enjoy. Teens are no different than adults in that regard, and if their teacher is telling them that a book is poorly written then they will agree. Teens don't like to appear stupid to their peers or teachers, because the figure, what do I know about well-written books compared to their teacher who has her degree and has read tons of books?

The literary expert author also went on to slam authors (that I grew up LOVING) like John Grisham and Michael Crichton (God rest his soul). This slamming of entertaining and popular fiction just BUGS me. Why in the world would you make teens feel that only dumb people read mass-market fiction. Why would you slam a book that they might have enjoyed? I just don't GET IT. I've experienced this backlash of popular fiction after I began sharing my love of Twilight with other teachers in my field of study. I was completely appalled when some teachers told me that they think the book is "crap" and would never promote that "type of reading" to their students. WHHHHAAAATTTTT? You would possibly demean and slam the only book one of your students might have enjoyed? What does that tell a student? It tells them that they are a horrible judge of literature and maybe that this reading thing just isn't for them if they only book they like is "crap."

Book Snobs are a group of people I hate with a passion because they turn people off to reading. If you genuinely think that only good books were written 100 years ago, or to have subject matter that doesn't deal with love, science fiction, or humor, then Book Snob, you suck! Keep your sucky opinion to your sucky self and stop telling my students (and myself) that they suck because they like stuff that you feel sucks. I've read tons of literary classics (most English majors are required to do so), and I have many favorites in that genre that I come back to time and time again. I will read literary award winning works, and find the value in them, but most of them are hell to get through and are not books that I gravitate towards and end up loving and recommending. The Last Song might not be nominated for any literary awards, but it is keeping my 8th graders noses in books, which in itself is a huge accomplishment and doesn't SUCK by my students' standards.

Oh, and here's to hoping The Last Song movie doesn't suck! The trailer made me cry (because I know the ending) and I will probably being seeing it with a slew of 8th grade girls! Bring on the tissues!

REMEMBER ME? Uh, Heck Yeah!

2010-03-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

I'm just going to say that Entertainment Weekly is on crack for giving Remember Me (the new flick with Robert Pattinson) a grade of D-. I was blown away by the movie, and didn't expect such depth and drama out of a film I was only going to see because of the eye candy. I'm not going to go into plot too much because I might spoil the dramatic ending of the flick, but Rob plays Tyler Hawkins, a guy battling several demons - mainly the loss of his beloved brother to suicide and his work-a-holic father who neglects him. He orchestrates a "chance" meeting with an attractive blonde from one of his classes, who also happens to be the daughter of the cop who through Tyler in jail after a bar brawl. Tyler doesn't expect to fall in love with Ally, but soon finds he can't control his heart, no matter how burdened and messed up it may be.

Even though my love for Pattinson was cemented with his New Moon appearance, I saw him in a totally different light in Remember Me. He is a good actor...no, check that, a great actor and it's sad that he won't get the credit he deserves because he was in a pop culture phenomenon movie. I see him having to travel the long, difficult road that Leonardo Dicaprio had to endure after his role in Titanic. If I do recall, Leo wasn't taken seriously as an actor for quite sometime after his Titanic success (no pun intended).

This film was surprisingly well-written, full of delicious scenes (Rob plays the bad boy SO WELL), and had some extremely heart-tugging, tear-jerking moments that left such an impression on me that I'm still mulling them over long after leaving the theater. I'm not sure teeny-boppers will understand the importance and poignancy of the ending, but Remember Me is a great film to see over your Spring Break if you want to be pleasantly surprised. LOVED IT, LOVED IT, LOVED IT....and hated to see it end. You'll know what I mean after you see it. Trust me.

FULL ECLIPSE TRAILER!

2010-03-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

Oh, Edward. How I wish to see you on the big screen in June. *SIGH* Enjoy the full 1:33 of Edward, Bella's nappy wig, and of course, Jacob with his shirt off...he's legal now, ladies, so I can finally say "Yummy!" without feeling like a totaly creep! ;)

ECLIPSE 10 SECOND TEASE!

2010-03-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

I've already ranted about Bella's wig, so I won't go there, but OMG! I'm so freakin' ready for this movie! I'll have to admit, I'm rereading Eclipse for the fifth or six time right now (I've lost count), and it is still my favorite of the four. What I'm getting this time around is what a brat Bella can be, and I didn't really pick up on that too much before. I know people (feminists and such) are annoyed by Edward telling her what to do, but she really does treat him like total crap in parts of Eclipse. I'm TEAM EDWARD all the way, so I know I don't share her fondness for book-Jake. However, I do have a certain soft spot for Mr. Lautner. I wonder if I will be cheering Bella on (in the movie version of Eclipse) to sneak out to see Jake. The book Jake (in my head) still isn't as hot as Taylor. I'm not sure why I can't MAKE book Jake as hot as movie Jake, but it's like the image I created for Jake the first time I read the series is seared into my brain. I can't shake the annoying Jacob I'd conjured up during my first read through. It sucks. I would much rather picture Taylor Lautner trying to put the moves on Bella then the Sophomore-esque Jacob I'm projecting. I read Eclipse and think Bella's big ole' idiot for being "torn" between the two. June 30th can not get here soon enough! Tear me in two, boys!

Perfect for a Chai Latte

2010-03-04T09:05:00.001-08:00

United Supermarkets carries the Silk brand of almond milk that I've been using to make my tea lattes. I'm not good with dairy, and this almond milk is a delicious and low calorie alternative. The vanilla kind is even yummier than the original, so look for it if you are a fan of that flavor. Almond milk has tons of nutrients that are heart-healthy, so for those of you who attempt to "eat clean", this stuff is awesome!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Awkward Family Photos Blog...LMAO!

2010-03-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

As if the peopleofwalmart.com didn't give me enough to laugh at, now the blog, http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ is killing me each night! The picture above is just a small tidbit of the plethora of awkwardness this site has to offer.

Robert Pattinson, How Do I Love Thee?

2010-03-01T19:50:00.001-08:00

You can sling me over your shoulder anytime, Rob....

NEW MOON Deleted Scene!

2010-02-27T21:03:00.001-08:00

How many of you are ready for the New Moon DVD release? Stupid question! Target recently released this deleted scene to promote it's DVD release of New Moon in March. I'm stoked about the special features and CAN NOT wait until March. Do you know how many release dates I'm anxiously awaiting? I guess that just means I have MANY interests, right?

Mockingjay is Too Many Months Away!

2010-02-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

Alright, forgive my cheesiness, but it really is too many months away for me to endure without complaint! At least the New Moon DVD release in March and the Eclipse release in June will pacify me for awhile. I also think the new seasons of Glee and True Blood will be starting soon, so I'll have plenty to keep me occupied. However, I can't help but anxiously wonder what will happen to my beloved Peeta. My students will begin reading The Hunger Games in March and I'm sure I'll have a slew of fans to read Catching Fire and discuss with me Peeta's fate before school is out in May! What would really satisfy me about the world that is Panem, District 12, and The Capitol would be some FREAKIN' HUNGER GAMES MOVIE NEWS! What the heck? Why NOTHING?! I know I've posed this question before, but it really is ANNOYING, the utter lack of information for this project. At least we now know the new title for the third book, MOCKINGJAY, and have a cover to drool over until August 24th. Let me know if you hear anything about the movie, peeps!

A few tidbits from Publisher's Weekly about the third (and final) installment in the awesome Hunger Games series:

Anticipation—and speculation—have been building ever since fans closed the page on the cliffhanger ending of Catching Fire, the second in Suzanne Collins’s bestselling Hunger Games trilogy. What will happen in book three? And what will it be called? Though the plot twists are top-secret, the book’s title has just been revealed by Scholastic: Mockingjay. It will have a one-day laydown date of August 24, 2010, and a first printing of 750,000 copies. (The cover, and title, refer to the hybrid birds that are an important symbol—of hope and rebellion—throughout the books; the mockingjay appears on the jacket art for all three volumes in the series.)

Scholastic will not be distributing advance copies of Mockingjay, though it did create ARCs for the first two volumes. (In keeping with the embargo, media outlets won’t be receiving the book in advance either.) According to a Scholastic spokesperson, because this book, which concludes the series, is so highly anticipated, the publisher wanted to give fans the chance to discover the ending at the same time and prevent spoilers."

Argh! It's hard to wish for August 24th to get here already (because I will be wishing away my summer break), but I need to know! This is about as bad as waiting on Breaking Dawn...let's just hope Mockingjay won't let me down like that little doosey of a final installment did! Oy Vey!

Must-See Movie: SHUTTER ISLAND

2010-02-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

The previews for Leonardo Dicaprio's new movie, Shutter Island, in no way made me want to see the production. I'm a huge chicken and scary films are not my forte. My husband is a fan of Dicaprio and wanted to see it Saturday evening, so being the good wife that I am, I begrudgingly agreed to accompany him. I can't tell you very much about the film without screwing up what makes the movie AMAZING, but let's just say that the previews do not do this film justice. IT WAS MIND-BENDING AND, AND, AND.....JUST WOW!!! If you have the chance to see the film, take it. Trust me...it's that good!

ANTICANCER by David Servan-Schreiber

2010-02-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

Cancer scares the crap out of me. Both of my maternal grandparents died from this terrible disease and my fraternal grandmother is currently battling cancer as I type. It's a disease that effects all of us in some way, either through people that we know enduring the illness, or God forbid, we face the disease ourselves someday. According to the statistics on the role genetics plays in certain cancers, I SHOULD be scared but I'm doing what I can to ease my fear of CANCER. Even though I'm known for my fondness of fiction and teen literature, I love reading nonfiction, particularly in the categories of health, fitness and medicine. While browsing through my mother-ship, Barnes & Noble, I picked up David Servan-Schreiber's book, ANTICANCER,the 2nd version and 2010 re-print of the 2008 original. I found myself sitting in the aisle, reading his work for nearly an hour before I gave in and bought the book! (My butt was going numb, so it was either by the book or give the old lady reading the Paula Dean cookbook the evil eye until she forfeited her comfy chair.)

What drew me in to Schreiber's work (a dedicated scientist and doctor) wasn't his premise (that diet can affect cancer cells) or his credentials, but the fact that he himself had been diagnosed with BRAIN CANCER fifteen years ago and is currently cancer-free. A feat he attributes to the diet and other methods detailed in the book.

David Servan-Schreiber, post surgery at the age of 31

BRAIN CANCER is a bitch. Sorry to put it bluntly, but it is a very deadly cancer. I know this from personal experience. My Nana, Mary, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor during my seventh grade year and passed away by November of my 8th grade year. To say it was a traumatic event for my family would be a gross understatement. The operation and treatment of brain tumors and cancer is barbaric and extremely painful for the patient to endure. Just knowing that Schreiber was able to overcome the odds and THRIVE for the past fifteen years was is an outstanding accomplishment in my eyes. I HAD TO READ MORE about this scientist and his findings. Finishing the book, I've vowed to completely change my diet and outlook on food. Food should be the "medicine" we give our body to function and flourish, not a means of entertainment or an outlet for stress relief. If you want to know what "super foods" help your body to fend-off cancer, and you want to pack your lunch with them each day, then checking out ANTICANCER is what you need to do NOW to protect yourself and your family.

David Servan-Schreiber today and cancer-free

The book doesn't claim to be the CURE for cancer, but the methodology behind it is sound and backed with Schreiber's own scientific findings. Cancer isn't a disease that discriminates, but I do want to give my body (the only body God will provide me this go-around) with the best defenses against this horrible disease.

ECLIPSE Movie Stills!!!!

2010-02-14T18:07:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful Valentine's Day gift...Eclipse movie stills! I wasn't expecting to see anything from Eclipse for at least a couple of months, but this just might get me through until a trailer finally emerges. Even though I'm not disappointed in the images (enthused is more like it) I have a few beefs about certain aspects of the wardrobe and makeup. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. KStew's Wig - nearly as bad as Jacob's Twilight wig. Why in the HELL did she chop her real hair for The Runaways? The 80's mullet is easily found in every Halloween costume shop, but long Bella hair is hard enough to duplicate with extensions and down-right IMPOSSIBLE with a wig. The wig sucks. I'm sure this is the best Eclipse makeup and wardrobe could do with KStew's mutilated mane, courtesy of The Runaways. WTF.
2. I Will Miss Rachelle Lefevre - the images of the supposedly "new and improved" Victoria are not holding a candle to Lefevre's Victoria. Bryce Dallas Howard is going to have to pull out all of the stops to impress me, and so far, the curly-ass wig isn't cutting the mustard.
3. Edward & THE Bed - This isn't a beef...this is a "Hell Yeah!" for Eclipse fans. We all know about the wrought-iron bed in Eclipse. No, nothing R-rated went on (Steph isn't a fan fiction author), but A LOT went down dialogue-wise in the scene. Terms of marriage were established and big events discussed. They better leave EVERY MORSEL of the scene from the book in the movie. Every word. Every kiss. EVERYTHING!

We know where this is going...nowhere, but we can enjoy it while it lasts. THE BED SCENE with too much conversation, but hey, I'm looking forward to it!

Grabby Edward, take one.

Bryce Dallas Howard, you better not screw this up! No pressure, though. Do vampires get perms?

Just a hunch, but I don't think there's much acting going on in this still. You don't eat face when you act....just sayin'

Edward is lookin' good. Still not over the wig. WHYYYYYYY????

Edward is grabby, take two. I like it.

You can grope my muffin-top anytime, Edward. Anytime. It looks like you also have a bit of light reading going on over in this corner.

The wig doesn't look too bad in this scene, but the image of Rob on a bed is distracting me. Helloooooooo, biceps.

Yum. (Rob, not Kristen's nappy wig.)

If you look really quickly, it looks like he's making out with Jacob. I'm sorry, but I hate Bella's wig. I'll just focus on Rob's mouth.....there, that's better.

Another beef I didn't mention? Bella's skinny jeans. I hate them. I don't know why, but I do? Is it ironic that something labeled as being "skinny" makes people (who actually ARE skinny) look not so skinny?

Click on this one and when it enlarges you can see Bella's engagement ring! Awe! How cute!

Maybe we should print these images and make a flip book?

Edward. June 30th. Too long.

Take IT OFF! TAKE IT OFF! Nothing like wearing a flannel shirt to turn on your man!

I wish I knew how to photo shop better than a preschooler...I would totally but myself in KStew's spot...sans crappy wig.

'Bloodroot' by Amy Greene

2010-02-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry to my regular fans who come to this site everyday. I've been M.I.A. lately, due to the craziness that is my job. The Spring semester always kills me for some reason, but I'm starting to pull my head above the water and will do a better job of updating! Speaking of updates, I've actually been reading BOOKS again. I know, craziness! I'm wierd and go through reading "spurts" that I can't explain. I'll go two weeks without touching one and then read three books in that same amount of time. My brain has been sluggish lately and I need a book that would lube the gears a bit more than my regular brand of teen fiction has been. I always try to stick to teen fiction during the school year so I can help my 8th graders find books they enjoy, but I needed a book with a bit more depth this go around. Everyone knows my love for Entertainment Weekly magazine, and I read a great review for the new novel, Bloodroot by Amy Greene.

Bloodroot is a perfect storm of literary devices and imaginative writing. Amy Greene may be a new novelist, but you can't tell from her debut novel. Using the perspectives of SIX different characters, Greene manages to conjure a consuming and devastating love story that kept me thinking for days about it's characters after reading the last delectable page. I know a book is good stuff if I'm running through the plot in my head while doing my grocery shopping or vacuuming my carpet!

This may be a story about love, but it is not LOVABLE or a tale that makes you feel warm and gushy inside. The synopsis from Barnes and Noble does a better job of giving you insight into what the book is about:

Told in a kaleidoscope of voices, Bloodroot is at once a moving exploration of familial love and the story of an incendiary romance that consumes everyone in its path: Myra Lamb, a wild young girl with mysterious "haint" blue eyes who grows up on remote Bloodroot Mountain; her grandmother, Byrdie Lamb, who protects Myra fiercely and passes down "the touch" that bewitches people and animals alike; the neighbor boy who longs for Myra but is destined never to have her; Myra's children, who must reckon with all that they have inherited from their mother; and John Odom, the young man who tries to tame Myra and meets with disaster.

The love between Myra and John is a consuming one, and usually those relationships that consume us, destroy us.

Twilight Graphic Novel!

2010-01-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

The artwork by Young Kim is beautiful!

I LOVE graphic novels. Maybe my Archie Comics collection in elementary school started me on the path to graphic novels, but I love how they tell a story with art and words combined. I have many students that live for graphic novels and rarely read anything else. When my Entertainment Weekly featured the cover and a few pages of the Twilight graphic novel, which will be released March 16th, I hadn't heard a thing about the project and was very excited by the beautiful pictures by artist, Young Kim. Stephenie also reveals that she worked very closely with Kim, who drew the pictures true to Stephenie's imagined vision of the characters. Here is a snippet of the EW interview with Meyer, but click on the cover above to read the accompanying article.

The text of your original novel is boiled down so carefully that it doesn’t feel like anything is missing. Were you the one who did that?

I was definitely involved. I didn’t do the original “script” for the book, so to speak. But when I got the dialogue with the images, I did a lot of tinkering. In a couple of places, I asked for missing scenes to be inserted. For example, the conversation in the car that Bella and Edward have after she faints in Biology.

How does the feeling of reading the graphic novel compare to that of reading the original? Does it bring something new to the experience for you?

For me, it takes me back to the days when I was writing Twilight. It’s been a while since I was really able to read Twilight; there is so much baggage attached to that book for me now. It seems like all I can see are the mistakes in the writing. Reading Young’s version brought me back to the feeling I had when I was writing and it was just me and the characters again. I love that. I thank her for it.

When this project is done, are you done with Twilight?

I can’t say that I am done with Twilight forever. I’m not working on anything new Twilight-related now, and probably not for a while. But there’s still a possibility that I’ll go back and close some of the open doors.

Even though these images supposedly mirror Stephenie's imagined Edward, I think Robert Pattinson is a much better and hotter Edward than this Ken Doll-lookin' EC.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

2010-01-26T17:57:00.000-08:00

6th Grader Percy Jackson has had a rough childhood. Trouble has followed him to every school he's ever attended, and his dyslexia and ADHD haven't helped matters, either. Percy has never understood why he can see things other can't see and why when he's angry, he can do things that "normal" kids can't do...things that usually involve water. He finally feels like he may have found a place at his current boarding school, until a field trip goes awry and a Percy battles for his life and discovers his hidden lineage in the process. As a half-blood, or son of a Greek god, Percy must find his way to Half-blood Hill camp and learn what the gods have in store for him.

I saw the trailer for the new movie during the previews for New Moon, and I knew I needed to read the books. Not only have my 8th grade boys latched on to the series, but our school librarian has been pushing the Reading teachers to read Riordan's popular series. Action-packed and chock-full of Greek mythology references, I am very excited about this book. For one, I love having a series I can recommend to my students (especially boys), and two, I have to teach Greek mythology starting next year. This novel will be and excellent way to introduce Greek mythology, and the new movie will only help fuel interest in the series. I'm a bit concerned about them changing Percy in the movie from a 6th grader to a high school student, but we shall see if that altercation affects the plot of the movie. I'm hoping studio execs aren't tampering with a good thing by changing his age. Lord knows having Harry Potter in the movie version of the book remain young worked out well for that cinema series. I do know that the book is a worthy read, so if you want an imaginative and fast-paced series to dive into, then Riordan's series is worth a shot.

'Her Fearful Symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger

2010-01-17T16:51:00.000-08:00

If I had to make a list of books that I would bring with me to a deserted island, Audrey Niffenegger's first novel, The Time Traveler's Wife would be on that list. So when Niffenegger's (say that last name five times) second novel hit the shelves, I had to read it! I usually don't read reviews of books I've been dying to read, but I broke my rule and read the New York Times Review of Her Fearful Symmetry and it was quite positive and stoked my fire for Niffenegger even more...but don't run to your local bookstore to pick up HFS just yet.

I found the first fourth of the novel intriguing because I enjoy shifts in perspective by authors, and the novel shifted through a gamut of interesting characters. Mirror twins (meaning twins that are exact replicas of one another, but mirror images) Valentina and Julia inherit a London flat from their deceased Aunt, Elspeth. Elspeth and their mother, Edwina were also twins but hadn't spoken to one another in over twenty years due to the twins mother running off and marrying Elspeth's fiance, Jack. The terms of Elspeth's will state that the girls must live in the flat for one year before selling it, and both are up to the task since they've had a difficult time finding their niche in life. It also helps that Elspeth's ghost is still haunting the flat, and that her younger lover Robert occupies the flat above hers. There's also an OCD neighbor, Martin, who enjoys scrubbing things with industrial strength bleach and hasn't left his flat in years. You would think all of these factors would add up for a quite riveting novel, right? Right?

Ugh. No. Niffenegger displayed much knowledge about London's Highgate Cemetery, but let her plot take such crazy twists and turns that I would've much rather read Robert's lengthy thesis about Highgate. I understood why Valentina might feel trapped by her twin identity, but the lengths she went to escape Julia were absurd. It was dreary, slow, dull and completely far-fetched in the buildup and outcome, don't get me started on the ending. All of that craziness just to end the book like that, Audrey? Seriously? I was so pissed after that last page. I understand the irony behind it, but it was MADDENING. Anyhow, I suffered through Her Fearful Symmetry just to realize there was absolutely NO SYMMETRY IN PLOT or believability. INCONGRUITY RUN AMOK!

Now if you haven't read Niffenegger's first, DO IT! It's a great book and might've set up Niffenegger for failure from jumpstreet. I'm not sure how you equal or out-do this novel.

My Sore Ass Says It's a Keeper

2010-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

I blogged the other day about one of my many New Year's resolutions (yes, I'm one of THOSE people), to steal Jennifer Aniston's delicious body. I do not bat for the other team, but I can appreciate another woman who has it going on, and Aniston is the #1 celeb body in my book. Aniston is a know follower of yoga and her trainer Mandy Ingber is partly responsible for Jen's enviable bod. I've done the workout three times and I'm sore in places I've never felt soreness before, but not a crippling, I-can't-sit-down-to-pee-without-crying-out-in-agony type of soreness. (Weight-lifting routines create that type of god-awful soreness for me. Ugh.) My inner thighs, abs, butt (every muscle in my gluteous maximus, thank you very much) and my arms and triceps were deliciously sore. Soreness tells me that my body is changing, and that is good because all of those tender areas NEED TO CHANGE before summer gets here. My plan is to do the workout four times a week and to do cardio every weekday in the afternoons. I've been waking up at 5:30 and it actually hasn't been too rough on me. The yoga wakes me up and I like how Mandy isn't a weird chanter and doesn't try to jazz you up, either. She's funny and very laid-back with a mantra that I don't mind chanting when I'm feeling the burn! Her person mantra that we chant during leg exercises is "I have a great ass, I have a great ass," and I'm hoping that's working! Time will tell, but my 30th is quickly approaching and I MUST get to work! Give the DVD a try if you want a challenging yoga workout, and want a booty like Jen Aniston's....that side effect is still yet to be determined!

RENE + ESME = Too Many Freakin' Syllables

2010-01-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

It's not earth-shattering news about Breaking Dawn, but hey, at least it's something. The L.A. Times interviewed producer of the Twilight Saga, Wyck Godfrey and shed a teeny bit of light on the character that has most of us fans puzzled: RENESMEE, the inter-species offspring of Bells and EC. Will Renesmee be freakishly CGI'd to the point of giving us all creepy-kid nightmares, or will she look sweet and kissable like the pictures I found (made by fans, not myself) below? Read the article for more BREAKING DAWN movie dish, and enjoy the cuddly pictures of the youngest Cullen.

Not quite sure, but I don't think Renesmee's birth video will be making onto A BABY STORY anytime soon. Talk about "bloody show"!

From the LA Times:

Wyck Godfrey, the producer of all the films in the “Twilight” saga, admits that the creative team still doesn’t know how they’ll handle the character in the “Breaking Dawn” movie, but said that the plan is absolutely for the production to go forward — as either one or two installments — with an eye toward beginning to shoot in Vancouver this fall. All three stars are signed for “Breaking Dawn,” he said, meaning that Stewart and Pattinson will be dealing with the joys and woes of interspecies parenting and newly minted heartthrob Taylor Lautner will return as often-shirtless shape-shifter Jacob Black. "My Daddy is hotter than YOUR Daddy."

At the moment, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who’s penned all the “Twilight” movies, is working on the “Breaking Dawn” script(s). “It’s a work in process,” Godfrey said in an interview Friday. “The issue [of whether there will be one or two movies] is not going to be resolved until we get the full treatment and see whether it’s organic. If it’s not organic, I don’t think it will be done, and if it is, it will be. It really has to do with how much level of detail from the books there is, with all of these new vampires that appear in ‘Breaking Dawn,’ the whole section about Jacob… It’s a very long single movie if it does become a single movie.”

Although there’s been a great deal of online chatter about whether Chris Weitz, director of the second and most recent movie, “New Moon,” would return to helm “Breaking Dawn,” Godfrey downplayed that possibility, saying, “I think everyone would be happy and excited if he came back, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

He and the other principals are formulating a list of potential directors, “but right now,” Godfrey said, “we’re just focused on the treatment and getting that right. At that point, we’re going to see who’s available and who’s appropriate. It’s such a complicated book because you have the emotions and the intensity of the love story — so you need somebody who’s just a wonderful director of actors — and yet it’s really complicated from an action and visual effects standpoint. They’ve got to have both tools in their kit.”
Wyck Godfrey, one of the Twilight producers, had a bit to say about the final installment in the series, Breaking Dawn. Even though Eclipse is slated to release June 30, production has yet to begin on BD. Wyck spoke with the LA Times and attempted to answer the questions that all of us Twilight fans have had on our brain, "What in the heck will they do with RENESMEE?" Just saying her name is a mouthful of unwanted syllabals waiting to gag me at any moment. I found a few cute fan-made pictures that seem to resemble the interspecies tot to some degree.

A visual effects background might be particularly helpful when it comes to dealing with the character of Renesmee.

“I keep having visions of ‘[The Curious Case of] Benjamin Button’ in my head,” Godfrey said, referring to David Fincher’s Oscar-nominated 2008 fantasy about a man who becomes physically younger as he ages. “It’s certainly going to be visual effects in some capacity along with an actor. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being a full CG creation, but it also may be a human shot on a soundstage that then is used to shrink down. I don’t know. We need a director. When we get a director, that director will need to come with a point of view of how they want to tackle it.”

The third movie in the series, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” is due in theaters June 30.

Rob, Kristen, Jacob and Awkward Silences

2010-01-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

This is an extended version of the Jimmy Kimmel Live interview with the stars of New Moon. I know it is old, but I just got around to watching it, so cut me some slack. For some reason I dread watching interviews with Kristen Stewart AND Robert Pattinson in them together. They may have chemistry on screen, but during interviews there is so much awkwardness...I feel like that time I rented The Forty Year Old Virgin, not really knowing what the movie was about, and watched it with my mother. Awkward.

This is Sad...

2010-01-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

This is a very recent picture of stylist, Rachel Zoe. She's often been scrutinized for her thin frame, but has consistently denied rumors of an eating disorder. What I'm wondering is how in the heck does her husband not see that she has a problem and DO SOMETHING? My husband would start cramming Crisco down my gullett or commit me to a clinic until I understood that I needed to eat.

Rachel is obviously in denial, and has been quoted many times in the media defending her boney bod: "We've had Audrey Hepburn, we've had Twiggy, we've had Veruschka, we've had Kate Moss," she said. "I'm trying to figure out why I am to blame for skinniness.

"Truthfully, I've never seen myself as being too thin," she adds. "Sometimes I'll look at photos and be like, 'Oh, that's not a good look.' But generally speaking, I'm not too thin."

Honey, when we can see your STERNUM, you are indeed too thin.

Say Hello to My Little Frie-aaand!

2010-01-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Those of you who grew up with me and know my background will agree with me when I say that I've never been what one would consider a "spoiled little rich girl". I grew up in a trailer house for part of my adolescences for cripes sakes! However, since becoming a junior high teacher and rolling in the dough, I've moved up in the world. ;) I live in a home that doesn't have wheels, I drive a car that has never had a previous owner, and I now possess a REAL Coach handbag. Yes ladies, I own a purse that I did not purchase at Walmart, Target, or Kmart. The leather is real, the material supple and soft, and quite frankly, I'm loving this handbag almost as much as something I gave birth to (sarcasm, people) and let me tell you, it was a difficult delivery.

I lived up to my trailer park roots during the purchase of my new luxury item. The poor saleslady at Dillard's was very patient with my hillbilly-ass and didn't roll her eyes and sigh TOO much while I was swiping my three different gift cards, handing over a fifty dollar bill, and putting the remaining balance on my debit card! After enduring scathing glares from Elvira (do all Dillard's saleswomen have to spackle on so much make up?), I walked out of Dillard's as the proud owner of my very first Coach handbag.

It was a beautiful moment, but leave it to my husband to rain on my parade. He's always said that the reason he loves me so much is that I'm down-to-earth and not materialistic, so I guess my venture to the dark side annoyed him. He couldn't understand why anyone would pay so much for a purse when my Target bag "looked just like that expensive-ass bag you just bought." However, he shut his pie-hole after I told him that I would gladly return my bag and use only Target/Walmart accessories, if he would take back every dadgum, expensive golf club littering my garage and only use Walmart golf clubs from here on out! "Touche," he replied, "Touche."

The apple of my eye, the "Madison Op Art Sateen Claire"...isn't she beautiful?

I Was Having a Bad Day...

2010-01-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

So I posted this, and now I feel better! How many more days until Eclipse, already?! Geez, I need a Twilight fix, and I need it soon. I'm almost tempted to see if the local flea markets have a copy of New Moon yet. It's not like the movie industry would be losing money if I buy a pirated copy, because I will inevitably buy both the BlueRay and normal DVD versions of the film when it is released in February. It better be released in February! Shouldn't we have some sort of Eclipse trailer by now, or are we going to have to wait until the Spring for that, too? I'm so whiny about Twilight today, but some days I just miss it and need a dose of Edward, and I usually start to feel like that when my "real world" is sucking....like today!

The Baby-Sitters Club is Coming Back! Kristy, Maryanne, Claudia, and Stacey...Welcome Back Old Friends!

2010-01-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

You know you secretly wanted Claudia's awesome yellow jumpsuit and Stacey's fabulous tights.

I have been known to delve into literary greatness on this blog, but this post will take the cake. The Baby-Sitters Club was one of the very first series I ever owned and loved. I'm not kidding when I say I owned over a hundred of these books. (I think they stopped at 213 and were out of publication by 2000). Series creator, Ann M. Martin has written and Scholastic is releasing a prequel titled The Summer Before, along with the first two books in the series will be released in April. The New York Times reports that "Editors at Scholastic updated some of the references to technology and outdated fashions in the reissued books. So a “cassette player” has become “headphones” and a “perm” has become “an expensive hairstyle.” The graphics, cover art and packaging will also be updated. I'm so bummed that I sold my entire set in a garage sale when I was 14, because those books were too "babyish" for someone as cool as me at that age.

I had this book. Love the socks with the loafers, Stacey! And Kristy, your rolled up denim is FAB!

The Baby-Sitters Club series was definitely a catalyst that fueled my love of reading. Not only did I read the books, but my friends and I tried to start our own babysitting business in the fourth grade. We made posters and taped them up in my friend's parent's grocery store and were devastated that NO ONE called us on Thursday between 3:00 and 4:00 that first day. Why wouldn't you want a group of FOURTH GRADERS babysitting your kiddo? Ha!

After The Baby-Sitters Club, I moved on to other series, like R.L. Stine's Fear Street. I still have five or six of those books that my Mom socked away for me, and I have them on my shelves in my 8th grade Reading classroom. The kids still love them and are so mad when they realize that only a few are still in print. In 2008, Scholastic released some of Stine's Goosebumps series and had much success with them, but I'm still waiting on all of the titles below to be reprinted. I would love to read them again, for S & G!

Shea Cashmere Bubble Bath...OMG!

2010-01-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

I will make you linger in the tub for hours!

Click on me for a link to buy at Amazon!

Being a teacher, I get all kinds of sweet gifts from students for Christmas. I have a plethora of coffee mugs (6 this year), teacher ornaments (3 this year), and loads of candy and cocoa mix (too many to count). However, this year a truly awesome student of mine broke the mold. I received an assortment of Bath & Body Works goodies, and my favorite of all of them was the Shea Cashmere Bubble Bath. I've used the entire bottle in two weeks just because I love the smell and how soft it left my skin. My husband was a little worried that I was taking two or three hot baths a day (not only because I was bored, but I just wanted to smell that luscious bubbly goodness). I love the lotion, too, and trust me, I had to use it to replenish all of the moisture lost from the constant bathing, but the Bubble Bath is the bee's knees. Get it. Try it. Thank me later.

My New Year's Resolution - Steal Jennifer Aniston's Sick Body

2010-01-03T17:54:00.001-08:00

What?? You think you can snap your fingers and look like this?

Dream on, suckaaaaahs!

I might sound a little nutty to say that, but it's true. Jennifer Aniston has one of the best celebrity bodies around. She's not too skinny and she's not tricked out like a Playboy bunny with a pair of ginormous boobies or super fake skin and hair. She's lean, strong, and appears to be healthy. I know she's admitted to be a smoker, but her physique is what I'm basing my jealousy on, not her lung capacity. I'm not delusional. I know that working out and eating right are what stars are PAID to do, so they take that part of their job very seriously and hire the best personal trainers and dietitians to keep them in top form. Jennifer Aniston probably has every meal perfectly measured and analyzed for optimal nutrition, while I'm lucky to find enough milk to go with my cereal each morning.

Aniston's workouts include yoga and cardio, and her good friend and favorite yoga instructor, Mandy Ingber recently released her very own Yoga DVD workout. I'm sure you know what's coming next...I ordered it yesterday. Time will tell if this is the key to whipping my lack-luster physique into shape, but I'm well aware that only a good plastic surgeon can REALLY get me into Aniston-form! I'll let you know if the DVD workout is worth the dough!

Mandy says, "Click here, dreamers, for a link to my website and DVD."

AVATAR is Living Up to the Hype!

2010-01-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

I will be the first to admit that I love science fiction and fantasy story lines. Heck, I'll even fess up that one of my favorite t.v. shows when I was younger was Star Trek...yes, I'm a closet Trekkie! However, my former football player husband DOES NOT do Sci-fi. I think it is a cardinal rule for jocks or something. They take an oath in junior high before they are issued their first set of pads, promising to abstain from using their imaginations and brains for anything other than drawing up or analyzing football plays. However, since I can pretty much badger him into doing anything that I please, I forced him to see AVATAR with me...in 3D, no less! He had to sit in the theater with all of the other dorks AND wear Buddy Holly-esq glasses. I soooooo wanted to take a picture to commemorate the moment but he would've punched me in the throat, so I didn't dare.

Anywhoo, back to the lecture at hand, AVATAR was amazing; the creme de la creme of Sci-fi films. The computer animation was out-of-this-world, and it still boggles my mind that there are people in this world who can actually MAKE stuff like this. It is mind-blowing, and I totally understand how it took such a long time to make - I think it was eight years in the making, or something outrageous like that! The storyline obviously parallels many conflicts Americans have created in the past and currently: the taking of land and resources from native populations. It is a great testimony for peace and understanding in this time of war. Now before I nominate James Cameron for the Nobel Peace prize, I will admit that there was a bit of cheese involved in the the plot, but not necessarily Velveeta. It was cheesy, but more like an expensive cheese you purchase at the deli to have with your sort-of-expensive bottle of wine. If you do plan on seeing the flick, take my advice and see it in 3-D. It is well worth the extra dough and you won't even notice the dorkiness of the specs after the previews start to roll. Go see AVATAR, then join me in recycling or possibly donating funds to the Aborigines or to Rain forest kittens.

Being Robert Pattinson's Sister...

2009-12-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

has to suck. Not only is making out with him frowned upon, but I'm sure she has friends that want to hang out (or move in) with her, just to catch a glimpse of her gorgeous brother. However, what must stink the most is acknowledging the fact that your bro is prettier than you. It's okay, Lizzy. You would have to be Giselle or some other super-hot model-esque type to NOT have Rob eclipse you (pun intended) in the beauty department. The man isn't normal. He's downright pretty, so it's okay that you look a little trollish standing next to him...we all would!

Sex and the City 2 Trailer!

2009-12-29T17:52:00.000-08:00

I loved the first movie, and I hope the second is just as good. May 28th, 2010 is the release date, and I will be eagerly antcipating catching up with Charlotte, Carrie, Miranda and Samantha, but I certainly could do without any Miranda/Steve naked scenes. That was a little TOO much SATC for me!

Who Wants to Buy Me This Shirt for Christmas?

2009-12-21T03:36:00.001-08:00

The perfect shirt for me, the English major who sucks at Math! I wear a Women's size Medium, thank you very much! This site (http://www.mentalfloss.com/) has so many fun shirts, and I think I may be turning many of their images into classroom posters. It will at least require some of my 8th graders to look up the terms in order to get the joke. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Out, out, damned spot!" Ha, ha!

Perfect! This beats my "raining cats and dogs" example

Extreme exaggeration - hyperbole

Great vocabulary poster for our tone and mood words.

Nothing like beating a dead horse with this final shirt....

Reality Show to Begin Filming in 'Twilight' Hometown

2009-12-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

Forks, Washington is definitely on the map. If you haven't heard of this small, Washington town then you've been living under a rock. MTV reports:

"We already looked at how the franchise saved the small town from economic hardship. And documentary filmmakers recently turned their lenses on the logging community for the film "Twilight in Forks," which will be released on DVD alongside "New Moon." So it seems like the next logical step is a Forks reality show, right? Anyone?

A casting call has gone out for Forks residents (yes, you must permanently live in the town!) to try out for a proposed reality show, reports the Forks Forum."

There's no telling what the reality show will cover, but I know I would watch it. It may seem pathetic, but I'm very interested in visiting that area and would love learn more info about it! How about they host a reality show in which they plant Robert Pattinson in a remote part of the forests around Forks, and have rabid fans call upon their survival skills in their quest for RPatz? That might be too brutal and bloody for cable television!

Brittany Murphy Dead at 32

2009-12-20T17:47:00.001-08:00

Hollywood is losing young stars left and right. From Heath Ledger to DJ AM, it seems like every time you turn on your TV or computer, you are hearing about another star passing away. Brittany Murphy was in great movies like 'Clueless' and '8 Mile', but what is so sad about her passing is that we will never know what she would've accomplished down the road. I'm sure she had plenty of opportunities to add to her resume. I'm sure we will find out what caused her cardiac arrest, but until then, lets just wish her family our deepest condolences. I'm sure this Christmas will be most tragic and heartbreaking for them! Click on the pictures below for a link to Entertainment Weekly's photo montage of Brittany's most important roles.

Digital Books Can't Do This:

2009-12-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

Digital books are all the rage this holiday season, from the Sony Reader to Barnes & Noble's Nook - they are THE hot item for book lovers. I also have a digital reader that my husband scoured Lubbock for last year. He woke up every morning, calling Target to catch their next shipment of Readers that had been sold out for weeks and weeks. I love my Reader. It is slim and light weight and currently has over 300 titles in it. I can put it in my purse and read while waiting in the long check out lines at the grocery story, or while getting my oil changed.

However, that does not mean that I have given up paper books. I love the feel of the pages, the weight of a big book in my hands, and yes....even the smell of them is enjoyable. The reason I know that paper books will never be completely obsolete is because of the pictures I'm sharing with you below. It's been four years since my grandfather, Joe Mitchell passed away after battling cancer. Four years later, I still think about him every single day. The holidays make it doubly hard to not think about him. For Christmas it became a sort of tradition after I was in college to buy him books. You couldn't tell by looking at the big, burly man that he loved to read, but he did -especially Westerns and I would buy him three or four every year. When he passed, I didn't know what I wanted to take of his to remember him by. My mother took his rough flannel shirts that would scour my cheek when I would give him a hug, and my sisters each took things that meant something to them, but I took one book. One. It was the last Western that I bought him, and I don't know why I only took that book, because he had a huge collection by the time he died. I found out two days ago why I did pick that lone, solitary book.

I was pulling out books from my cabinet, in a vain attempt to organize my chaotic shelves and stumbled across that ONE book. Grief is a funny thing. It ebbs and flows like the tide and come crashing down on you like a tsunami. I sat there, with that book in my hand, piles of books and papers around me and began thumbing through the pages. I hadn't even opened his book until that moment. Inside, there was nothing that would matter to the casual observer that happened to pick it up in a used bookstore, but to me, those pages contained my Pawpaw. I found coffee stains, and greasy smears from his fingers and it brought me right back to his living room and I could see him laid back in his recliner, book propped up on his belly, probably snacking on Spanish peanuts and having him a cup o' joe while reading into the wee hours of the night. I stuck my nose deep into the pages and I could SMELL my grandparent's home. A smell that can't be described and can never be duplicated. I sat there for a long time, crying like a baby (much like I'm crying now as I type this) and it dawned on me the power that paper books can have. No digital book can imprint memory like a paper book can. How lucky am I that I have a tiny piece of my Pawpaw to keep on my shelf and visit whenever I feel the urge?

It doesn't look like much. It isn't even a hardback book and probably only cost me ten bucks whenever I bought it for him, but to me, it's priceless.

His coffee stains made me laugh out loud, then cry like a little girl. I guess my klutziness isn't all my own, eh, Joe?

Lily Collins as Katniss Everdeen?

2009-12-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

I may be fed to the Muttations for recommending this actress as Katniss, but I recently saw The Blind Side and thought that Lilly Collins did a fantastic job in that film. She is beautiful and striking, but also possesses the athletic build that would be needed to play Katniss Everdeen. I know that it is so difficult to cast Katniss because she is such a prominent figure in our minds. We have a certain image of Katniss and it will be EXTREMELY difficult to find an actress that fits the mold that millions of readers have structured. What do you think? Would Lily Collins make a great Katniss Everdeen? Yay or Nay?

**************************************************************
Remember the hoop-lah after Robert Pattinson was cast as Edward Cullen? I do! I was one of the naysayers but eventually learned to love Catherine Hardwick's choice for EC. I can't imagine anyone else as Edward, and would disown the franchise if they recast him for Breaking Dawn. So before you shoot me down, picture Lily Collins with a bow and arrow, dodging balls of flame and avoiding the deadly stings of trackerjackers!
Want to read more opinions for who should play Katniss? Check out this post!

'True Blood' Casts Were-panthers, wolves

2009-12-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

HBO's True Blood has recently cast the roles of Alcide and Crystal, both prominent -panther/wolf characters in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse Series books. This must mean that the new season will begin developing the story lines Harris explored within the Were world. I like how True Blood only uses certain aspects of Harris's plots because I found the books to be a bit underdeveloped. There was TOO MUCH going on within the books and so many opportunities to explore plots that were only touched upon and then left to wither and die. However, I do hope that this season will leave in the Sookie/Eric dynamic that is prevalent in the books. (Shower scene...HELLO???)

*Lindsay Pulsipher as Crystal

*Joe Manganiello as Alcide

"Books I Regret Reading" @ goodreads.com

2009-12-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

The Twilight hatred continues as it tops Good Reads blog post about the "terrible books you wasted your precious time reading". I however, found that many of my favorites (The Time Traveler's Wife, Middlesex, The Lovely Bones, Tess of D'Urbervilles) make the list! What does this say about my reading preferences if main stream society typically hates what I love?

Rob Patz 'Remember Me' Audition Tape

2009-12-19T08:09:00.000-08:00

The trailer for Robert Pattinson's soon-to-be released film Remember Me ran before the showing of New Moon. Rob looks amazing in the film and is playing a troubled man with daddy issues. I can't wait to see it! Check out Rob's audition tape:

Secrets from New Moon

2009-12-19T07:26:00.000-08:00

Chris Weitz shares little details he's put into the film in this slide show from Entertainment Weekly. I think I will be seeing the film for a FOURTH time this holiday season, just to see for myself if I can spot the secrets. Anyone want to join me?

This Post is for Twilight Fans 18 & Up!

2009-12-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

So we know that I'm a little kooky about Twilight, and I found my niche in the the blog Twitarded, because that is literally what I am about the series: Twitarded. It fits me so well. The gals that run the blog are witty as hell and cuss like sailors. They say all of the stuff I can't say on my blog because I review YA fiction, and guess what, that lures young adults to this sight. Oh, well, I can curse in my head all I want to, but typing it will just have to go to my friends at Twitarded.
Back to my point, I was reading their blog today (which has become a sort of indulgence for me) and commented on a recent post "Seven Deadly Sins of Twilight". If you haven't read this post by Jenny Jerkface, you need to do it...NOW! It totally described me during my Twilight-induced high after reading all of the saga books (excluding Breaking Dawn) during my Christmas break of 07'. I was a pathetic loser. It was literally like I was on drugs. All I thought about was Forks, Edward, Bella, and the Cullen clan. It made me remember all of the gooey feelings that come with first love and all that jazz. It made me want MORE! MORE! I tell you! I was also sort of depressed after finishing the books, because I didn't want my Edward Cullen experience to end. So I read them a SECOND time all within a week of finishing them. It was really *bleeping* pathetic. I experienced each and every sin mentioned in Jerface's post. All seven. Hard. As I totally diverge off of the intended path of this post, just know that I more than related to Jenny Jerface's experiences and felt compelled to leave a comment, which led me to a discovery that I shamefully admit is adding more fuel to my Twilight fire: FAN FICTION.

What is "fan fiction" you ask? Well, let me tell you that I had NO CLUE until I began reading the many posts that described how so many of Twitarded's fans have succumbed to Fan Fiction's sweet call. Fan Fiction is a website in which fans can submit their own fiction using the characters from Twilight. For example, if you wanted to know more about what happened during the honeymoon scenes of Breaking Dawn that Stephenie Meyer left to the imagination, then (lucky for you, and lucky for my lack-luster imagination) there are PLENTY of fan fiction posts that GO THERE. Oh, yes, they GO THERE AND EVERYWHERE else you can imagine. If you are ready to go down the sinful path that is fan fiction here are two resources to get you started. I'm like a vampire porn dealer now:
1. http://www.fanfiction.net/ - you must create an account, and then go to Jenny Jerkface's page to see a list of her favorite posts here:
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2102303/Jenny_Jerkface
2. Once you are hooked on the temptation that is fan fiction, try this saucy story that is pretty forkin' intense. Go to http://www.twilighted.net/, create an account and choose search, "NC-17 & Breaking Dawn" and it will take you to 'The Honeymoon'. Holy Cow, it is very DETAILED, and I am a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse books, so I didn't think any type of "vampire love" could embarass me. I was wrong. I'm thoroughly embarassed! Good luck getting out of your pjs and removing your laptop from your lust-filled face this weekend...hee, hee!

Jessica Simpson Dating Billy Corgan? Ewwwwwww....

2009-12-15T20:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Jessica Simpson,
Billy Corgan is old. And bald. And creepy looking. He reminds many of Uncle Fester's love child, so why in the world would someone who just finished up a fling with nappy Tila Tequila pique your interest? I know that breaking up with Tony Romo had to be hard, but honestly, he is laughing at you right now. This is not adequate rebound material. Is this the best you could scrounge up in Hollywood? Seriously, Jess? Seriously?

Sincerely,
Your Concerned Texas Fans...or those of us who sorta used to like you whenever you were with Nick Lachey and on Newlyweds, but we won't remind you of how royally you screwed that up.

Hunter Parrish as Peeta Mellark?

2009-12-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

I've blogged before about the frustrations I have with the lack of information out there concerning The Hunger Games movie. Why is Lionsgate holding out on us? Do they not realize that their is a huge fan base for this book that will double if they would only give us a little bit of information? Every soul that I have peddled this book on to loves it, and with the hype that is surrounding all things "teen" and especially teen fiction, why, oh, why are the marketing execs of this film not capitalizing on this wave of teen love? Anywhoooo, I digress. I meant to show you a few pictures of this hot actor, Hunter Parrish that has been seen on the HBO series Weeds. Don't you think he would make a swell Peeta? Peeta has to be hot, but not pretty boy hot. I think Hunter fits into both of these categories.

Please, Lionsgate, at least release a name or two of actors for Katniss, Peeta or Gale. Sheesh, even a name for Haymitch would at least give me something to mull over until the summer of 2010 rolls around.

Click HERE for a full list of casting suggestions! A great list of potential castings for you to critique...BE NICE! ;)

The Princess and the Frog

2009-12-13T18:13:00.001-08:00

My two daughters give me great excuses to see children's movies in the theater. I love Disney, and I've been a fan of Disney princess movies since I could walk. The Princess and the Frog was a beautiful and cute movie that both of my daughters (and myself) enjoyed. Read the review from EW's Lisa Schwarzbaum. She does a much better job of writing the review than I would!

Entertainment Weekly's Review of The Princess and the Frog (Give an "A" Grade)
Young viewers of The Princess and the Frog won't give a croak that the marvelous new   adventure from Walt Disney Animation Studios has been created using the same hand-drawn, 2-D techniques that entertained those viewers' Bambi-loving grandparents more than 65 years ago. But adults should: This old-fashioned charmer holds its own beside the motion-capture elegance of Disney's A Christmas Carol, the engrossing stop-motion universes of Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox, the CG-enhanced genius of Up, the wonder of 3-D technology, and, indeed, the unique, hand-drawn Japanese artistry of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo as the year's deepest, most affecting, and most inventive movies.

Still, for the greenest or the grayest in the audience, the inclusive story of a resourceful African-American girl in 1930s New Orleans who kisses a frog with unexpected, funny results is its own reward: This A-level, G-rated entertainment is a fresh twist on the classic fairy tale about a handsome prince temporarily out of commission due to a malicious magic spell, a royal catch requiring the smooch of the right kindhearted, risk-taking heroine to restore him to his waiting throne. (As an added benefit, the smoocher gets to stand alongside her royal as his princess.) Only this time, the kiss that the lovely heroine, Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), bestows on frog-bodied Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) backfires. He ends up in the same shape that he hopped into — and Tiana turns amphibian too. The patient, beautiful, hard- working, entrepreneurial young woman is particularly irked because she has no desire to be a princess at all; what she really wants to do is open her own restaurant.

Great swampy mess! The race to restore happily-ever-after order involves a jazz-loving alligator named Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley); Ray (Jim Cummings), a bebopping Cajun firefly; Dr. Facilier (Keith David), a shady New Orleans gent who dabbles in dark arts; and Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis), ancient royalty of the bayou magic world with the power to undo Dr. Facilier's treachery. And this being the Disney kingdom under the beneficent creative rule of veteran directors Ron Clements and John Musker (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin) and composer Randy Newman (Cars, Toy Story), the frolic also includes songs of gumption (''Almost There''), mischief (''Friends on the Other Side''), optimism (''When We're Human''), spiritual uplift (''Dig a Little Deeper''), and   the love of something up above — in this case, an evening star (''Ma Belle Evangeline'').

But while little kids laugh at the froggy humor (summed up in the excellent, repeated punchline ''that's not slime you are secreting — it's mucus!''), the firefly antics, and the cute sight of a fat alligator wailing on his trumpet like Louis Armstrong, adult viewers are rewarded with something more moving — a Proustian remembrance of the durable   power of Disney at its old-school best. The filmmakers trust in story over special effects, and character over celebrity voices (there are almost none here, save for a brief cameo by queen-of-all-she-surveys Oprah Winfrey as Tiana's saintly mother, Eudora). They steep the movie in colloquial American culture. They offer a sophisticated musical experience (ragtime, zydeco, gospel, Tin Pan Alley)   accessible even to the youngest ears. And in doing so, the creative team behind The Princess and the Frog upholds the great tradition of classic Disney animation.

The Princess and the Frog happens to introduce an African-American heroine, a Disney animation first. The story also   happens to be set in an idealized New Orleans of an earlier time, a city whose historic beauty and cultural importance will forever be   filtered by contemporary adults through grimmer awareness of the natural and man-made disasters of Hurricane Katrina. It's all the more effective, though, that this Big Easy of a movie needs no overt mention of Katrina to move our hearts, and inserts no overt lesson in the history of civil rights to distract from the groundbreaking matter-of-factness of Tiana's equality. What matters is that Tiana triumphs as both a girl and a frog, that dreams are fulfilled, wrongs are righted, love prevails, and music unites not only a princess and a frog but also kids and grown-ups. A

A CAKEWRECK of My Very Own...

2009-12-13T17:53:00.000-08:00

I don't consider myself a picky or high maintenance consumer. Actually, I'm more of a pushover. I once left a salon with the worst haircut known to man, near tears, and I told the chick who mutilated my hair that I liked it, just so I wouldn't hurt HER feelings. I'm a wuss about all things that involve me, but I've undergone a transformation since having my daughters and I actually take up for my kids. No, check that, I will mess a fool up for my children! I'm like a lioness, or whatever you call a big, bad mama lion. So when the United Bakery on 82nd and Frankford here in Lubbock, TX, tried to pass this craptastic cake off as what I ordered, I went ballistic! Does THIS PIECE OF CRAP look like the Emerald City to you? Our theme was the Wizard of Oz, yet this is more like the WIZARD OF BLOB. The crappy cake was free, but it didn't stop me from making a scene.

Seriously? It looks like a drunk munchkin decorated it. HORRIBLE.

The ONLY Skit Worth Watching From Lautner's SNL Performance

2009-12-13T17:45:00.000-08:00

I love Twilight, but I'm not that rabid of a fan to lie to my readers, so I will honest when I say that Taylor Lautner's performance on SNL wasn't as great as I thought it would be. Not because of Taylor per se, but because of the craptastic writing. I'm not sure who is writing the stuff at SNL lately, but it isn't as good as it used to be. SNL does have a tendency to go through slumps, but this slump has lasted entirely too long. Most of Taylor's stuff was "ehhhh" and there wasn't too much that made me laugh out loud. However, I did enjoy this skit, and of course, it involves Twilight.

Happy Birthday, Taylor Swift!

2009-12-13T17:39:00.000-08:00

Taylor turns the big 2-0 this year, and I guess I should be happy for her, but all she does is make me feel like a loser. When I was celebrating my 20th birthday, I was home for the summer after two years of college under my belt, and trying to round up buddies to go drinking. Just a tad different than what Taylor will be doing on her BD, I'm sure. Okay, I'm finished feeling sorry for myself...Happy Birthday, Taylor and please know that you are in good company. My youngest daughter shares a birthday with you!

'The Truth About Forever' by Sarah Dessen

2009-12-11T09:21:00.000-08:00

So I'm a few years behind on the phenomenon that is Sarah Dessen. She is one of the most popular YA Fiction authors and has several bestsellers on the shelves of your local bookstore. I was introduced to Sarah through reading her newest work, Along for the Ride and fell in love with her writing style and her ability to create dynamic characters. I've had Dessen novels on my shelves for several years, but have only had a few of my girls pick them up to read. I haven't promoted them very well, but that trend will soon change!

I took home her 2004 hit novel, The Truth About Forever over the weekend, and couldn't stop reading it! I've yet to read a book with so many thoroughly developed and lovable characters. If you love well-crafted love stories that lack the cheese factor, then give Sarah Dessen a try. Her books involve much more than teen romance, as they are true-to-form, coming-of-age novels that any of us who have passed through the awkward (and emotional) teen years can identify with and appreciate. Here is a synopsis of the novel from Sarah Dessen's website.

Sixteen-year-old Macy Queen is looking forward to a long, boring summer. Her boyfriend is going away. She's stuck with a dull-as-dishwater job at the library. And she'll spend all of her free time studying for the SATs or grieving silently with her mother over her father's recent unexpected death. But everything changes when Macy is corralled into helping out at one of her mother's open house events, and she meets the chaotic Wish Catering crew. Before long, Macy joins the Wish team. She loves everything about the work and the people. But the best thing about Wish is Wes—artistic,insightful, and understanding Wes—who gets Macy to look at life in awhole new way, and really start living it.

I can see why The Truth About Forever is an ALA 2005 Teen's Top Ten pick and the New York Public Library Book For the Teen Age 2005 . Check it out and see for yourself!

Taylor Lautner to Host SNL This Weekend!

2009-12-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been M.I.A. this week. I've been doing my job lately, I guess, and I haven't had the energy to blog. My students participated in my annual Greasers vs. Socs Relay Rumble this week, and at the end of both days, I was bushed! If you haven't read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, get on top of that, stat! We had a blast with the different challenges, and I would love to post pics of my students racing, but the different privacy laws I have to follow are a pain in the ass! Sorry. Anywhoo, I have great news to brighten your weekend! Taylor Lautner is hosting Saturday Night Live on the 13th. Not only do I get to enjoy celebrating my daughter's 4th birthday, but I will also have a night of Taylor and Twilight spoofs to look forward to this Saturday. Yippeeee!

Another Reason I Can't Help But to Like Taylor Swift...

2009-12-07T19:55:00.001-08:00

White girl can rap...sort of:

FORKS, Washington - 1000% Increase in Tourism...Ya Think Edward Has a Part in This?

2009-12-03T20:05:00.000-08:00

Um, I'm a little hesitant to admit around my husband that I would rather take a vacation to Forks, Washington, than to say, a beach some where. Silly, I know, but apparently, I'm not the only Twilight fan that wants to see the town where Bella and Edward's love blossomed under " a near constant cover of clouds" and rain. The UK Mail reports:

Forks, in Washington, is the setting for a story about the romance between vampire Edward Cullen - played by British actor Robert Pattinson - and Bella Swan - acted by Kristen Stewart.

The movies - based on a series of books by U.S. author Stephanie Meyer - have captured the collective imagination of film goers around the world, sending them to Forks in search of the reality behind the fiction.

There were more visitors during June and July than in the whole of 2008 - unsurprising as Twilight fans can fully immerse themselves in the town's association with the film's characters.
They can visit Bella's school, Dr Cullen's hospital, the police station and have their picture taken with the Forks sign.

Local shops sell 'Bella Burgers' and a Twilight-themed restaurant is set to open.
The coastal town of Port Angeles is where Bella and Edward enjoyed their first date at Bella Italia, fans can eat mushroom ravioli and drink a glass of blood-red 'Twilight wine', produced at a local winery.
There is also the opportunity to visit the Quileute Indian Reserve, home to Jacob.

At La Push, visitors can experience traditional Native American culture, listening to stories and taking part in activities which include drumming classes.

Forks has even created a Stephanie Meyer Day in honour of the author, which falls on the date of Bella’s birthday - September 12.

Tourists are not only attracted by the Twilight link - the Olympic Peninsula region is sandwiched between the Olympic mountains and Pacific Ocean.

It is an area of natural beauty, boasting saltwater shores, alpine meadows and lush valleys.
The peninsula is also home to the temperate Hoh Rainforest and thrill seekers can kayak or raft on the River Hoh.

I want to go! Who wants a Bella Burger and then drive on down to the Quileute Rez? As my fellow Twihards would say, I would be "squeeee"ing all over this town! Check out the "OFFICIAL" tourism page for Forks, Washington check out the Twilight tours the town offers, and other cool places you can visit.

As Eric would say, "La Push...it's La Push," and then I (er, I mean, Bella) would say "Okay I'll go if you'll stop saying that." Can't you just hear the waves rolling in?

Dr. Carlisle Cullen works here.

The now-famous and internationally known (on the microphone) Forks High School sign. Home of the Spartans (and the Cullens).

The people of Forks have a great sense of humor. This sign is in the parking lot of the Forks Hospital.

The face of Forks High School.

HUNGER GAMES NEWS! HUNGER GAMES NEWS!

2009-12-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

Anytime I search the web for more info on Suzanne Collin's addictive series, I hear nothin'. Crickets. Silence. Until today, when what to my wandering eyes did appear, but a little blurb, with hope in the New Year! Okay, poetry isn't my forte, but what I'm trying to say is that the THIRD BOOK in the series now has concrete release date! Whoot-whoot! Scheduled to release August 24th, 2010, we still have a few months to wait. Oh, what will happen to Peeta, Gale, and our beloved Katniss? I MUST KNOW NOW *head spins***eyes roll in back of head*** sorry, for a moment I lost my frickin' mind! I love this series! I'm so EAGER, ANXIOUS, NERVOUS, ZEALOUS, and twenty other adjectives that I can not think of about the release of the third installment. Let the countdown begin...over 8 months! 8 months! I will take a deep, cleansing breath, because I used to think the release of New Moon would never get here, but it came and went, and I will at least have Eclipse to get me through until August.

Barbie! Do You Recognize These Beauties, Girls of the 80's?

2009-12-03T19:02:00.001-08:00

While shopping for my daughter's Christmas toys last night, I saw this little beauty and squealed with delight:

BARBIE AND THE ROCKERS! I was five the Christmas Santa brought me this rockin' Barbie. Mattel now has a collection called "My Favorite Barbie" that highlights the most popular Barbies of each decade. I also found another favorite:

My husband didn't understand why I was gushing and jumping up and down in the aisle, but Barbies were the only toy I requested from the time I was five until I was twelve, then I still played with my little sister's Barbies for a few more years on the down low! Check out the Barbie and the Rockers commercial below. Ken's mullet is SEXAAYYYY!

Edward is a Stalker, Bella is a Wimp, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda!

2009-12-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sheesh. New Moon opened a whole new can of worms for the Twilight Saga by calling national attention to the books and their "anti-feminist plotlines". Entertainment Weekly seems to be beating the crap out of Stephenie Meyer this week! Check out this article about Edward and Bella's love having "all the earmarks of an abusive relationship as defined by a national domestic violence group". Sheesh. Some people are taking a FANTASY FICTION book way too seriously. Teen girls are not morons (well, don't get me wrong - there are a few dipsticks in the pan, but those gals don't read, anyways). I teach them EVERYDAY, and they know more than you might think. Girls can read a book and understand that the relationship portrayed by Bella and Edward is a fantasy. Trust me, because I have so many of my female students lamenting that they "will never find a guy like Edward", and I honestly tell them that (aside from the obvious vampire characteristics) his gallant behavior is very hard to find. I don't think I'm 100% feminist in everything that I do, but I'm a college educated woman who can take care of myself without a man. However, I LIKE for my husband to take care of me, to look after me, to protect me, and to be JEALOUS of other guys possibly giving me the eye every now and again. Edward is the man that girls crave to find because he does all of those things for Bella (and then some). That doesn't mean that girls honestly believe that they will find the same qualities in a real-life boyfriend. Have you hung out with teen boys lately? It will take you all of 30 seconds to realize that they are NOT EDWARD. Teen girls know that, and it pains them! Critics, let the Twilight scrutiny go. Why can't we all bask in the sparkly glow of Edward and the yummily-cut abs of Jacob, who btw, is not built like your typical teen boy, anyhow, so he should't be considered a "teen", per sey? Didn't he and Bella agree he was 32 or something? Game on!

Twilight Pisses People Off....

2009-12-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I regularly browse Entertainment Weekly's website and comment on the stuff I find interesting. However, I made a comment yesterday on an article that explored the novel Beautiful Creatures (I posted it on the blog here) and the article's author asked readers if we thought BC was the next Twilight. I'm copying and pasting the comments from the EW site so you can see my comment and then the aftermath of my opinion! Whoa! People are such jerks about this series. As my friend Rod said, "literature snobs" are such a-holes...note "James", "Kelsey" and "Anonymous" after my comment (Lenzi). I would like to take these book snobs and smack their dorky asses across their lemon-sucking faces. Just sayin'. They probably can't identify with teen love because they never experienced it in high school, what with their homeschooling and back acne. I need to chill out, but condescending nerds like that irritate the piss out of me!

Lenzi Mon 11/30/09 9:26 PMBeautiful Creatures is NOT the next Twilight Saga. It was okay, but not something that will spread like wildfire. The reason Twilight is so popular is because it is an enthralling read, and will leave you dopey and craving more. Beautiful Creatures did not do that for me. Lena and Ethan’s eternal love was not convincing…in fact, it seemed rather boring and way too much work. For all of the Twilight bashers, I’m not sure why such hatred and negativity exists for the series, but pull the cobb out of your butt. As a middle school reading teacher, I’m thankful for Stephenie Meyer. I have girls (and boys, too) that were not readers before being sucked into the Twilight Saga, that are now clamoring for more books. Twilight helped them figure out that reading can be fun and enjoyable. So stop raining on my middle schoolers parade!

James Mon 11/30/09 9:34 PMTwilight is crap.
Your middle schoolers should be reading something with a better plot, characters, themes, and writing.

anonymous Mon 11/30/09 10:05 PMI don’t know what the deal with English/Reading teachers thinking that gives them an edge on Twilight opinion, but if anything, that makes me think worse of your education if you think Twilight is “enthralling.” The literary equivalent of pop rocks and cola? Sure. “At least they’re reading”? Sure. “My opinion is better than yours because I teach it”? There are bad apples in every profession, dipstick, who’s to say you’re not one of them?

Sarah Mon 11/30/09 10:33 PMI don’t get why some people think that their OPINIONS are somehow “fact”. Everyone is entitled to love what they love, and hate what they hate. And I’m talking about both Twilight fans and non-Twilight fans. I’ve seen both sides act as though their opinions are “absolute truths”, which is ridiculous. They’re OPINIONS.

Kelsey Mon 11/30/09 11:47 PMI’m sorry, but isn’t it your job as a “middle-school reading teacher” to get kids interested in good literature? If you can’t make the material enticing and get your students to relate to it, then I’d say you’re probably not that great of a teacher. But hey, why get the kids to eat their veggies when it’s easier to be lazy and feed them french fries?

Jane Mon 11/30/09 9:39 PMI would hope there’s never another “twilight.”
Twilight is such an overhyped, piece of garbage.
HOWEVER, If there were a film company that would make another YA book , one that’s actually GOOD (like Harry Potter), into a movie, they could have a hit.
Or they could follow Twilight’s footsteps and promote the hell out of it until we’re all forced to succumb to the power of the teenyboppers.
I’m hoping that once the twilight movies end (2011!!),
That some new amazing YA Books will hit it big, and ones that actually deserve the praise.
Twilight just milks off of shirtless men and cheesy merchandise.

Click here to read the rest of the article and the comments. It is crazy how many people are out there that blatantly hate something that is doing a lot of good for my teen readers (and even for people who have been out of their teens for quite sometime)! I know many of my friends have started reading again because Stephenie Meyer showed them they can enjoy a book. I have literally HUNDREDS of students who regularly read because of Meyer's series. As for "Kelsey", who suggests I should be teaching them quality literature, has she ever tried to make a room full of hormonal 8th graders read Charles Dickens or Jane Austen??? Child, PLEASE! "JAMES", "ANONYMOUS" and "KELSEY" can suck a big, sparkly fat one!

Twitarded...Where Have You Been All My Life?

2009-11-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

I love Twitarded. It is a fan forum for Twilighters that are not in junior high or going through puberty. Today's post had me laughing until I wanted to hurl, so that's something I think I should share whenever possible. Check out this hilarious video that makes fun of Twilight, and will stay with you for days to come...

Warner Bros. Already Shopping 'Beautiful Creatures'?

2009-11-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

This article by Nicole Sperling of Entertainment Weekly's website is claiming that the book Beautiful Creatures that I reviewed HERE has it's movie rights optioned to Warner Brothers. Very interesting! It seems like movie studios are trying so hard to find the next Twilight, but I already told how I feel about that comparison in my review. You can't compare apples to oranges people! There will never be another Twilight Saga, that is of course, unless Stephanie Meyer plans on adding to the franchise. Oh, and Nicole, books have had "trailers" for quite some time now...how long have you been writing about literature for EW? Hmmm....

Warner Bros. on the hunt for the next 'Twilight': Is it 'Beautiful Creatures'?
by Nicole Sperling
Categories: Books, Deals, Film
Tomorrow marks the publication of Beautiful Creatures, a young adult novel from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl that centers on a mortal high school boy living in Gatlin, South Carolina and his love for a very strange girl with some mysterious powers. Her name is Lena Duchannes and she’s trying her best to conceal her powers. Sound intriguing? Well the publishing world has been very kind to Beautiful Creatures with glowing advance reviews. (Little, Brown, the publishers behind Twilight are behind this book.) Hollywood has also been interested in it for some time and the book’s rights have just been optioned by Warner Bros. for writer/director Richard LaGravenese (P.S. I Love You, Freedom Writers) to develop. Erwin Stoff (The Blind Side) is producing. The book doesn’t go on sale until tomorrow but Amazon and other booksellers have been offering pre-sales on it for some time. Here is the link to the book’s home page and its own trailer. (Who knew books had trailers?) So tell us readers, have you heard of this tale? Does it interest you?