A classic from my childhood! My parents had a copy but I couldn't find it so I had to resort to paying $5 for it on Thriftbooks! I also can't find theA classic from my childhood! My parents had a copy but I couldn't find it so I had to resort to paying $5 for it on Thriftbooks! I also can't find the follow up Chicken Scandal and Number Seven Rue Petite so I had to Hit Amazon to get a copy!
Growing up this was my exposure to French! I am certain my mom even read the names correctly, and the Bonjours and Monsieur were authentic! A fun story from my childhood and it fulfills my 2016 reading challenge of "Read a book you loved as a child"...more
4.25 stars This book is fantastic!! Loved it! Love the characters...and I am a sucker for a girl dressed as a boy, story with the girl rocking it. T 4.25 stars This book is fantastic!! Loved it! Love the characters...and I am a sucker for a girl dressed as a boy, story with the girl rocking it. This book is a series (Which I normally don't like) but I actually want to read the read of the series and not feel like i am obligated but interested! Best book I have read in a LONG time! Love Leigh, Love Jefferson, Love the characters! Fell in love with all of them. Would love to know if this is loosely based on a real person. I would guess there are a lot of amazing Gold Rush/pioneer stories! My people came from Illinois to Utah...so I felt a little similarity with California Gold Rushers and the pioneer struggles. I can drive across country in a day or so....it took them 9 months! We are so lucky!
Why I can't go to 5 stars...well, I am a recent Orphan, but my parents died of disease, not murder....my heart hurts for Leigh. 16 and left to make her way in the world. BRAVE GIRL! GREAT!!...more
YAY!! I got my Graphic Novel/Comic book requirement out of the way for the 2016 Reading Challenge! This was fun, colorful and made me smile! Fun one fYAY!! I got my Graphic Novel/Comic book requirement out of the way for the 2016 Reading Challenge! This was fun, colorful and made me smile! Fun one for 2nd or 3rd Grade readers! ...more
Puzzled by this book. The sister's witch takes a human child in exchange for the human taking her Brussels Sprouts and when the witch tries to give thPuzzled by this book. The sister's witch takes a human child in exchange for the human taking her Brussels Sprouts and when the witch tries to give the child back after she meet a mate who is a frog and kids give her warts, the neighbors had moved away. It makes me sad to think the humans forgot about their child so quickly. But Hepzibah is a good mother and tries to teach the child the best she can.
I like some of the fairy tale witch references (like Hansel and Gretel, and Sleeping Beauty) Over all not a bad one but not all the wonderful either! ...more
Some books you think "Not another...let's reinvent the wheel" but this one is a fun twist to an old story! The Buehner's are always fun, and now to goSome books you think "Not another...let's reinvent the wheel" but this one is a fun twist to an old story! The Buehner's are always fun, and now to go back and find all of the hidden pictures... that is a fun part of Buehner Books! ...more
You know those books you are required to read (for a reading challenge like I am) or for a book club, or school and you just grin and bear it to get tYou know those books you are required to read (for a reading challenge like I am) or for a book club, or school and you just grin and bear it to get through it because it is so agonizingly painful and boring.
Well, this book is NOT one of those for me. I rushed through it actually.
Pearl S Buck was the daughter of Missionaries in China during the early 1900s. She said she wrote what she knew, and China is what she knew. I am glad she did! Well written interesting book.
Wang Lung you hate him, you love him. He loves the earth. The Earth is the only thing that is tangible, can't be taken away. He was in love with the earth. He was a poor farmer. He lived and died by the land.
This book was an eye opening about a culture and a time in history I don't know much about. O- lan.. how to be married to such a women a such underappreciated women? Lucky. O-lan is the reason they had money. She stole a large jewel as they were fleeing the city the year they had to leave the land because of a famine. Wang Lung takes it and says she can keep the pearls, and then years down the road her demands the pearls for his concubine Lotus.
O-lan gave birth to children alone, and then got up made dinner. She also strapped the infant to her and she went to the fields after just a few days after giving birth. O-lan though described as not pretty and stupid (didn't talk much) I admire her. She is amazing. To put up with what she put up with. I actually think she is smart and wise.
It is the story of a man from when he gets married to when he dies. His life, his family, poverty, wealth, his wife, his concubine, His sons and his daughters...and the love he has for O-lan (yeah he loved her but wouldn't admit it...he was just a stupid man who culturally only thought of his wife as someone to bear him sons and to feed him.) O-lan loved him. She was a good an faithful wife and my heart hurt for her when Wang Lung brought home Lotus (the whore)
It intrigued me about this whole marriage, concubine thing. I had to look it up online to understand Chinese marriage of this time frame. I though monogamy was a given in any culture, but nope monogamy is only for poor men who can't afford another wife at the time. O-lan had born sons, she had done her job, and when Wang Lung was bored of her he went to the Tea House (whore house) and found Lotus. He liked her enough that he buys her and takes her as concubine but she is referred to as a wife. A lower wife than O-lan but a wife non the less.
The love he shows to his fool, the mentally retarded child , is sweet. In a time when girls were expendable, and a girl who is disabled, he still loves and protects her.
The knowledge that women are just things. Poor people sell their daughters as Slaves (O-lan for example) Wang Lung considered even selling his girl (the fool) for money though he realizes that he loves her and wants to protect her and a slave master would be cruel to her. That was just how it was. Girls are for sex and making babies. They have no worth. Their feet being bound is considered elegant and beautiful. A painful practice they considered dainty! ICK!
A society in whole that I am convinced is corrupt and backward. What are women's rights like in modern China....women are still the lesser being
I am the 3rd daughter, if I lived in Wang Lung Time in China, I would be the expendable daughter, my parents weren't rich so I would have been the one sold as a slave, being a slave could be as simple as serving a higher born lady to being a sex slave.
So, this book was very interesting. I would recommend it for a book club etc. I wouldn't have picked it up to read for pleasure, but it did have me hooked from the beginning. The fact that is was an Oprah book club list was almost a deterrent. I picked it because it was a Pulitzer Prizes Winner and it fulfills the 2016 reading challenge criteria .
Do I want to rush to the rest of the books in the series...no but I am glad to say I have read this. Well written, well rounded characters, interesting story!
There you go the longest review I have probably ever written...more
4.25 stars I really liked this book and nominated it for a 2018 Beehive Book Award Informational. I love the book and learning about each women scie 4.25 stars I really liked this book and nominated it for a 2018 Beehive Book Award Informational. I love the book and learning about each women scientist. Since this is being nominated for an award, I have to be little more critical than usual (and I can be pretty critical LOL)
I wish they had the traditional Jane Doe 1900-1983 Listed at the top. In the reading is says The year they were born and where but not more than that. I think this book is more of a jumping off to other books - kind of a beginning course in 50 women scientist. I am going to find more book because I want to learn more about some of these women. Birthday dates etc aren't important but for me interesting!
I like the colors but the small print was a little hard. I have great eye sight 20/20 no glasses or contacts and it seems small for even my good eye sight. I love the quotes and the little blurbs around the page. I like that it was limited to 1 page. I looks like a really fun sketch book, taking notes in a college class. This is going on the long list for 2018 Beehive Book awards, whether it makes the cut is up to about 20 librarians and the Utah Libray Patrons reading public thinks.
What I learned from the book is Women really do rule the world but men have just taken all the credit! ...more
2.25 Stars No secret that I am not a Dr Seuss Fan, I do recognize his contribution to literature. But for me, the I don't like made up words and the 2.25 Stars No secret that I am not a Dr Seuss Fan, I do recognize his contribution to literature. But for me, the I don't like made up words and the strange phrases..and I guess My imagination is too limited to or be able to Google Earth where the "Far Western Part of South-east North Dakota.." (yep mind blown) or where the country of "Motta-fa-Potta-fa-Pell" or capture a "Mulligatawny" but I am boring with no imagination.
This also fits my criteria for Banned/Challenged book as there is a reference to "helpers who all wear their eyes at a Slant" and there are 3 stereotypical Asian men. The Toronto Library had it challenged. They aren't banning it but not using it a story time or prompting it! Race is a sensitive subject but the book was written in the 1960s, and though it still isn't right, it needs to be questioned by current acceptable standards IMHO! (It is as bad as a racial slur that sounds like 'links' but lets not go there) The 5 Chinese Brothers published in 1938 is full of racial slurs and well, more violence than I am comfortable with ....but it could get past a publisher in 1938 with some sort of prejudice or naivete Can't we just be all of God children and love each other regardless of race, religion, color, creed...thank you!
"Challenged, but retained at the Vancouver, Canada, Public Library (2014) despite a line in the poem about helpers who “all wear their eyes at a slant,” accompanied by illustrations that are racial stereotypes of Asians. The book is often credited with the first printed modern English use of the word “nerd” in a sentence. The library will no longer read it at storytime or promote it other than as resource material in a study of how the portrayal of other cultures has changed over time." https://www.ila.org/initiatives/banne......more
A good simple easy reader. Actually for me, an adult, WAYYYY tooo much rhyming (insert silent scream!!) This book was banned or challenged because it A good simple easy reader. Actually for me, an adult, WAYYYY tooo much rhyming (insert silent scream!!) This book was banned or challenged because it encouraged violence to fathers. I see the point but.......really, get a life people! I am not a Huge Seuss Fan any ways so I could take it or leave it!
This fits the criteria of Banned or Challenged book. This is from https://www.ila.org/initiatives/banne... "Geisel, Theodor Seuss Hop on Pop: The Simplest Seuss for Youngest Use
Random House
Challenged, but retained at the Toronto, Canada, Public Library (2014) despite a patron’s concern that the book “encourages children to use violence against their fathers.” The patron requested that the library apologize to local fathers and pay damages resulting from the book’s message. Written in 1963, the classic children’s picture book ranked sixteenth on Publishers Weekly's 2001 list of the all-time best-selling hardcover books for children. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children.”...more
This fulfills my criteria of "A book that scares you" It doesn't really send me to a corner with my thumb in my mouth sort of scare but there is a batThis fulfills my criteria of "A book that scares you" It doesn't really send me to a corner with my thumb in my mouth sort of scare but there is a bat with it fangs out and it is a little creepy...mostly because to me bats are flying mice and I HATE mice!~
I have had a mother twice say she would like this and other books in the series removed from the library shelf. We can do that, but an autonomous not left on my desk doesn't help her cause. We have a form, "Dispute of Library materials" it goes to the director and then to the Library board. We don't censor. This is a k-3 book and should be in the k-3 section. I am not really into horror, and I don't like scary movies so this was as far as I was willing to go in the book that scares me criteria! ...more
This fulfills my "Antonym in the title of a book. This is a part of antonym series by Ms Salzmann. The pictures are good and the subject matter is cleThis fulfills my "Antonym in the title of a book. This is a part of antonym series by Ms Salzmann. The pictures are good and the subject matter is clear and concise. As a k-3 (maybe K-12) I couldn't tell you the different between antonyms, homophones or synonyms..so maybe if a teacher introduced this book I could have easily grasped the concept! ...more
I had a road trip this weekend so I got through this pretty fast, but I am confused, interested, confused, and intrigued... I hate trilogy you HAVE toI had a road trip this weekend so I got through this pretty fast, but I am confused, interested, confused, and intrigued... I hate trilogy you HAVE to read them all...this one leaves you hangings by a string with your teeth. It doesn't resolve anything.
I have a pretty good idea where it is going but AHHHHHHHH (Silent scream or real loud 2 year old temper tantrum scream...not sure) Off to be a part of Sapphire Blue.
This fulfills my reading challenge "Book translated from another language" so confused. This book is about England, London, Past and Present...but it was originally written in German...by a German...I guess German History isn't that interesting (Or perhaps not marketable because it is scary and a tad evil??)...more
I enjoy reading Deborah Hopkinson but I am always disappointed when I discover her books are fictionalized but based on true events ("The Great TroublI enjoy reading Deborah Hopkinson but I am always disappointed when I discover her books are fictionalized but based on true events ("The Great Trouble....A boy named Eel" is one of those). You learn to love these people. Oh well, most of the story is true, as there was no record of the events...the floating school was a true..it happened! Still an inspiring story, just wished all of the characters were real people, BUT they represent real people so I can live with itQ!...more