Why the Encyclopedia is so handy

I cannot tell you how many of the Encyclopedia Brown books I read. I can tell you I enjoyed him so much that my mom and dad paid for me to attend a workshop with him in Pensacola, Florida when I was in seventh grade.

What was it I liked about the Boy Detective? I would say mostly it was because he was a boy detective. His dad, the Chief of Police for the Idaville Police Department, sometimes gets stumped on cases and brings his son in, how cool is that?

So, why did I start reading Sobol's books? Well my sister Shannon introduced me to them. Encyclopedia Brown helped me start quizzing myself while reading. Trying to see the clues that Encyclopedia saw, trying to beat the story to the punch line, sometimes I was right, a lot of the time I was wrong. It was fun :) Maybe I should introduce some of these short stories to my students and see how they like them. Compare and contrast it to some of Roald Dahl's short stories, like the one where the wife kills her detective husband with a leg of lamb and then feeds the weapon to the police force. What was the name of that story? I am going to have to find it for the class, I believe its in the book, "The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl."

Check These Out

At the top left of this page you will find three blogs I linked. Here is my brief recap of what is happening. Three students are on an exchange program to Keene College in New Hampshire. They start blogging, talking of similar things happening but from different points of view. On top of being from the UK, they also have an outsiders perspective on our country. I am really enjoying the anthropological/sociological nature of the journals. Plus they also have a Poisonwood Bible or The Sound and the Fury type feel to them, a mutiple narrator story.

The blogs follow Hellen, Emmah, and Sarah. Emmah keeps mashing her words, it sometimes makes me laugh in the midst of reading her pages, like when referring to a school bus she says, "Cheese Bus," and not "Cheese Wagon." Sarah seems to be haphazardly out to do things, or at least puts her page out on her terms, new favorite term is, "wicked cool." Can you blame her? The New England saying did basically launch Jimmy Fallon's career on SNL. Then there is Hellen, or Princess Hellen, as her handle states, she was the first to devote herself to the blog. I would compare Hellen to Darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle, she is appreciating one culture for what it is, and not judging it... yet.

Both Hellen and Emmah are religious and are struggling with their devotion to God in the New World. Once again, devotion is not the fitting word, they are both quite devoted... maybe struggling with their belief? (Help me define what I'm trying to say.) Sarah is not religious, but she is trying to support her friends in their time of need.

Another fun part to the blogs are the comments. It seems that the three girls have created a system of support for themselves (the blog) and because it is publicly viewed their families have become a web of support, for each of them as well. But the comments are also fun because the girls get called out for spelling american, requests are made for comparison, etc.

All in all its a fun read, so check it out.

Wow that's a good book!

In the retelling of the Ender's Game series to you I got so excited I had to read the book again... in case you might not know, I loved it yet again! It is such a good book! An anonymous poster commented on the political nature of the books, the parrallel between our factual terroism and the book's big fear of the Buggers. I had never though of it that way, but you I can see where you are coming from. I will be checking out Speaker for the Dead, shortly.

Speaker for the Dead's focus is on Ender as he is still dealing with his slaying of an entire species, the Bugger's, while trying to be a Speaker at someone elses death in a newly established colony. What I like most about the book is that Ender has been struggling with his killing of the buggers for his 15 to 20 years since leaving Eros. Due to relativity, and travel at the speed of light, 200 years later the rest of the humanity feels that Ender is not a hero, but a brash, unstable person. His name is considered a curse, but who made it that way? Ender did, with the publishing of his book, "Speaker for the Dead." Tell me that does not sound good! Layers upon layers of story weaving!

Tara, you mention reading Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild a few months ago, do you remember the images that affected you most? I have two, the first is the image Krakauer draws when he tells the reader about McCandless canoeing down the Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico in an aluminum canoe, with a bag of rice!? And the other is the image of McCandless's old car baking in Death Valley (I think), left abandoned. I don't know what to think of the kid but instead feel the need to quote Mr. T, "I pitty da fool!" And one last favor, what books are you reading now?

Amy informed us that Outside magazine had a breif article on the Into the Wild crew 10 years later. The first two articles on the linked page speak directly to the 1996 tragedy.

And then Steven commented, I think reading is addictive, and no matter what type it is, it fuels the desire to keep reading. So I recommend picking up a magazine, a piece of classic literature, a new novel, the newspaper, or just read Lee's blog... to keep the fires burning. Thanks for putting me on your list of things to read, I appreciate that.

Jas, its great to see you stopped by! My sister, Shannon was telling me of a Card book I need to read, Empire. Have you read it? And if so what did you think? Has anyone else read it? Please tell me about if you have! I deffinitely need to read more by Durrell, do you have more that you'd recomend?

So the next book, oh yes! How many of you read Encyclopedia Brown? That's right, the boy detective will be here next!