Scholastic's 10 Most Influential books

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Read it. Cried. It changed my perspective.)
• The Holy Bible (Try to read it every day. It usually reads me.)
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (Started it in college. Pulled two all-nighters for the sixth and seventh.)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Read it while walking. It's the book that confirmed I love walking.)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Haven't read it. It's on my summer reading list.)
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Nope.)
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Nope. I've watched this though.)
• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (One of the world's greatest books. "And the tree was happy.")
• The Giver by Lois Lowry (One of the books on the Mary-and-Alyssa-Read-Aloud list. In fact, it's the first one we ever tackled.)
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (Of course I've read it. And E.B White helped me through college. S&W anyone?)

10 most influential books picked by kids

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (Nope.)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (Yes...a little disappointed with the climax but a great series.)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (Yup. Jeff Kinney gets middle schoolers.)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (I read this in Barnes & Noble in one sitting. I stood up and realized I had 103 fever. The book was such a page turner--although I don't really remember much of what I read now--I didn't realize I was getting sick.)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (I like the British title "Philosopher's Stone." A good listen on the audio version.)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (Nope.)
• Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (Nope.)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (Not yet.)
• The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan (Nope.)

http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/node/462

Mission Trips, International Ventures, and the Horse and His Boy

Here's to this year's International Ventures teams: East Africa, Paris, China, and Turkey.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr.com

The Horse and His Boy, Lewis's great story about two horses and their humans' flight through the desert, might as well be a guide book for mission trip teams. If you've ever been on an overseas trip, see if any of these sound familiar:

• Long, unpleasant travel time.
• An exploration of a strange city with the guarantee that someone's going to get lost in the crowd.
• Pride that gets bigger and bigger until everyone's squabbling.
• A rescue from the beasts that only come out at night (which in real life are scary men or giant bugs).
• A steady, peaceful female becomes the adopted Team Mom.
• Unexpected medical emergencies leave part of the team out of commission and the other part trudging on, burdened with the fear that they don't know what they're doing.
• People start coming into their own left and right.
• The climax. All hope is lost...the lions are about to tear the team apart. Then suddenly--out of nowhere--everyone realizes what they're afraid of is God pushing the team out of its comfort zone so it can face the real danger and achieve the greatest victory.

That pretty much covers it.

(Oh wait, one more: romance between the two people who were ready to kill each other during the first leg of the trip.) If you know the story, feel free to add comparisons I missed.

Soaring through a sunset

Anne and I are such kindred spirits:

Marilla Cuthbert: You set your heart too much on frivolous things and then crash down into despair when you don't get them.

Anne Shirley: I know. I can't help flying up on the wings of anticipation. It's as glorious as soaring through a sunset... almost pays for the thud.

Marilla Cuthbert: Well, maybe it does. But I'd rather walk calmly along and do without flying AND thud.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092571/quotes

Tangled

Photo courtesy of Disney.
Watch Tangled. Buy Tangled. Laugh as hard as I did at the scene where Rapunzel realizes with absolute joy and absolute horror that she's just left her safe world behind.

In Bible Study, we pushed our boundaries discussion to next week so we could watch the movie. Every so often, God lets his kids drop the formality and just have fun.

CNN reports on Japan's Disaster: for my Japanese readers

In this article, by CNN Wire Staff, witnesses describe the panic of the initial quake and the calm silence of its aftermath.

"This is my Father's world. Oh let me never forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet."

"This baby would be like that bright star shining in the sky that night. A Light to light up the whole world. Chasing away darkness. Helping people to see. And the darker the night got, the brighter the star would shine." --Jesus Storybook Bible, "The Light of the whole world"

"This is what people do when tragedy strikes--they sit." Lars and the Real Girl

I Fear

I fear I have to run away

for no one's treated me fair today.

I fear I'll have to live under a tree

and watch the branches sway.

I fear I'll have to fight a giant

(I'll have to fight him anyway).

I fear that then I'll go back home

and that is where I'll stay.

*My first poem. Unedited. Written at age 7.*

Aragorn and Eowyn Wait: Take 2

Getting through the wilderness is never easy, even if you know the happy ending.

The inevitable ending of Lord of the Rings: Aragorn will be king. Aragorn will marry Arwen. Arwen will survive her trial and not choose the path of safety. Eowyn will defeat the Nazgul.

The valley to get there: Aragorn doubts his strength to do what he must. Arwen may not survive the wait. Aragorn might love Eowyn because it is easier to see her than the memory of Arwen in the forest when he first knew she loved him. Eowyn may love Aragorn and lose the chance to stand.

These are two of my favorite fan videos from the movies. The first is by IloveDonQuixote and the music is My Immortal by Evanescence.

The embedding is decoded, but you can see it here.

The second is by Teresatesssa and the music is Nightwish.

Here's Aragorn Waits and here's Eowyn Waits

Courage, dear heart

Though there's room for improvement in the Narnia movies, I enjoyed watching the latest installment with a dear friend. Of course, the best thing to do before and after you see a movie based on a book is read the book. This is one of my all time favorite story moments, which is saying a lot. Narnia has been a part of my family as long as I can remember. When I was little, we even had a Narnia party after reading The Magician's Nephew...note the toffee tree.

Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting top and whispered, "Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now."

...

But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast [the albatross] had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart," and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face.

*Passage from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, HarperCollins 2010

Author-ity

The Author I love sits on a throne and does not move.

He has seen my life from its beginning–

it was and always is on his mind.

He combs the story like a mom her daughter's tangled hair.

He puts it far away to examine it in context,

holds it close to enhance the smallest detail,

and plays and replays greatest moments.

He does not grow tired of it...or me.

His stories make his heart race;

his children leave him speechless.

Gungor's album, Beautiful Things

Free to fail and imagine

If you have any doubt about why Jo Rowling's Harry Potter is a worldwide phenomenon, just watch her 2008 Harvard commencement address. Drawing from her failures, her friendships, and her observations of human empathy and cruelty, Rowling created a fictional world that sends shock waves through the non-fictional one. Behind the magic, there's power.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

A Very Serious Person

My two diplomas scare me (I have a high school one and a college one). They are supposed to signal my transformation into a very serious person. I don't feel like a very serious person. When I try hard to be one, I look ridiculous.

Fortunately, Beverly Cleary reminded me that I can be an unserious person without being an irresponsible one.

Interview before Drop Everything And Read day in 2006:

Barbara Lalicki (editor): Why do you think children like Ramona so much?

Beverly Cleary: Because she does not learn to be a better girl. I was so annoyed with the books in my childhood because children always learned to better children. And in my experience they didn't--they just grew. And so I started Ramona and she has never reformed. And she is really not a nutty child, despite the title of Ramona the Pest. Her intentions are good, but she has a lot of imagination, and things sometimes don't turn out the way she expected.