Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

My sister-in-law, Sarah, introduced me to this delightful book. I hadn't heard of the title, but she fondly remembered it from childhood. She was thoughtful enough to send Lillian and Lucas a copy for Valentine's Day. Lillian and I read it twice the night we got it. Lillian loved the silly story and I enjoyed the illustrations. It is about a town called Chewsandswallow where the townspeople get their breakfast, lunch, and dinner from the sky. Life is simple until the fickle weather starts sending hurricanes of rolls, giant pancakes that flatten the school, and meatballs big enough to crush houses. The people must find away to stop the "weather" or leave their town forever. Fun, fun story!

While researching online, I discovered that a computer animated video version will be released in Sept. 2009. Also, there are lesson plans for teaching weather.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

original copyright: 1978

sequel: Pickles for/to Pittsburgh

Modern Day Fairy Tale

Beastly by Alex Flinn is a modern day Beauty and the Beast from the point of view of Beast, aka Kyle Kingsbury. Kyle is a snooty rich kid who attends a prep school in NYC. He and his friends would never think of spending time with someone who was "ugly." At a school dance, Kyle gives an imperfect rose to the plain girl taking tickets at the door and his life changes forever. Later that night, a witch named Kendra visits him and turns him into a beast. Kyle has 2 years to find someone to love him as he is or he will remain a beast forever.

If you like fairy tales, you will like this book. I am a bigger fan of Alex Flinn's other books. In fact, I teach Breathing Underwater in 8th grade English. Each of her books deals with a pertinent social issue facing teens today. Some books have mild language but nothing more than the average teen hears on a daily basis. Pull off your prude panties to read Breathing Underwater!

Books I've Read Lately

As always, I'm knee deep in young adult literture. 2 of my recent favorites are from Catherine Gilbert Murdock. The voice of the main character, D.J., is strong and true. In Dairy Queen, D.J. is the only girl in a family of athletic boys. While she is no wimp, she has been the "responsible" one able to take over the family dairy farm after her dad had hip surgery. D.J. has to struggle with her love of the farm, her resentment towards her father, and an annoying boy named Brian who happens to be from a rival town. When a close family friend sends Brian to the Schwenk Farm for some lessons in hard work and responsibility, D.J. is the one stuck with the teaching. What unfolds is way more than you'd expect. To continue the life of D.J. and her family, check out the sequel, Off Season.

By the way, all pictures are courtesy of Amazon. Head over there and check out the reviews before you decide to buy or rent.


I did venture out to adult books *gasp* with the reading of To My Dearest Friends by Patricia Volk. This was a spontaneous grab at the library and it proved enjoyable.

Review“To My Dearest Friends has an irresistible premise: Two weeks after Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Bloom dies, her lawyer calls her two best friends, Alice Vogel and Nanny Wunderlich, to his office. Why? Because Bobbi has given them keys to a safety deposit box. And now the lawyer has a letter for them from Bobbi. Alice and Nanny–who have nothing in common but their friendship with the deceased–go to the bank. In the box, they find another letter. A love letter. To Bobbi. Undated. With no further instructions. . . . Obviously, Alice and Nanny can’t agree what to do next. But in the course of not agreeing they have reasons to get together. And we get two treats along the way: wonderfully sharp dialogue and observations, and a quick but deep look into the lives of two New York women. . . . I hoovered this book in an evening. . . . How does it turn out? With a fantastic surprise. . . . To My Dearest Friends is an addictive urban adventure story. Nancy Drew for the post-menopausal. Chick-lit for grown-up chicks. And, just maybe, the first novel about New York women to ring a bell for readers in the ‘burbs since The Devil Wore Prada. You don’t have to be 50-plus to enjoy To My Dearest Friends. Or even a woman. You just have to like ‘smart.’”–Jesse Kornbluth, HeadButler.com


My family thanks me for finishing this next book because most of them were ignored while I was reading it. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was gripping, disturbing, and too close to reality. However, the story was impossible to put down and I devoured the pages, determined to know the ending. As I turned the last few pages, I started to realize there was no way the book could end this simply and, of course, it couldn't. I understand this is to be a trilogy. The 2nd book is available for pre-order on Amazon.

How can I explain the plot? I guess I will say picture a North America in the distant future. It 's hard to tell how far because, and this is the the disturbing part, it could be closer than we think. In this new North America, there are 13 Districts controlled by 1 capital.

(from Entertainment Weekly)
As negative Utopias go, Suzanne Collins has created a dilly. The United States is gone. North America has become Panem, a TV-dominated dictatorship run from a city called the Capitol. The rest of Panem is divided into 12 Districts (the former 13th had the bad judgment to revolt and no longer exists). The yearly highlight in this nightmare world is the Hunger Games, a bloodthirsty reality TV show in which 24 teenagers chosen by lottery two from each District fight each other in a desolate environment called the ''arena.'' The winner gets a life of ease; the losers get death. The only ''unspoken rule'' is that you can't eat the dead contestants. Let's see the makers of the movie version try to get a PG-13 on this baby.

I have only muddied the waters as to what this book is about but I will say it is worth your read even if the plot does have striking similarity to other books (1984, Animal Farm, "The Lottery")