In praise of middle reader books

Have you ever compared a book that your child has read with a book from your own childhood that you read when you were your child's age? Well I have and I can tell you I can better understand the attraction my son's books have for him and the reason for his disdain when I mention the books I read as a child.

As you can see from my bookshelf, I have been reading quite a bit of books my older son is reading. He is 10 and we are reading books for the 9-12 age range.This means I've been through Harry Potter and working my way through Rick Riordon's Lightning Thief series, but I am still behind.

Lucas enjoys fantasy and the books are usually fast-paced, with traces of humour, and although they deal with good vs evil issues, generally the plots are simple and don't make me stay awake at night. I don't need adult thriller fiction to keep me interested, in fact, better not since some adult books are quite gory.

When I was growing up I read a ton of Enid Blyton, and my favourite series was The Secret Seven. So I KEPT MY BOOKS FROM WHEN I WAS 9, so I could bequeath them to my children, starting with Lucas. And I imagined the beatific smile that Lucas would grant me and the glow of gratitude at the wonderful gift I bestowed on him. You can imagine what I got instead.

When I compare the books, the pace of The Secret Seven was very sedate (I might even say slow), very simple plots, not a whole lot of characters. I am surprised by the complexity of children's books now and the amount of characters and interactions children keep in their heads. And, I will dare to say it. My books were simpler. Reflective of another era.

Week 20, Cycles 11,12 of 12: Not Happening

This week the oncologist felt that I had done enough chemo- I was not going to get Cycle 11 and Cycle 12. I've talked before about the effects of the chemo on my fingers, but you know it is a sad situation when you knot your pyjama bottoms and then can't untie it to go to the bathroom. No more chemotherapy for me. Yay? Yes, a bit of an anti-climax, but I still get to ring the "end-of-chemo" bell and get confetti thrown on me by my chemo nurses. My doctor also had in her hand the results of my post-chemotherapy MRI and it showed that there was a reduction in the tumour, it looked less dense than before and above all it looks like the volume of the tumour decreased by about 75%. Yay to that for sure! Considering I didn't feel that anything was changing I was very happy about the result. Next on my list: surgery. She said that although my blood counts are low in some areas, she felt that if I wanted to have surgery that day, I was well enough to do it. Me? We

Talking with Lucas on climate change

This is my post for Blog Action Day . This is an annual event where bloggers everywhere in the world post about the same issue on the same day to spark discussion around an issue of global importance. This is part of a conversation I had with my 8-year old. Mama : Do you know what climate change means? Lucas : I think it means when it is like 90F and it is hot. And the change? It's when in the daytime it might be 90F and sunny and hot, and then you go inside for dinner and then right after dinner and it might have dropped to 70F Well, yes it is that in a way. That describes what is happening in your area, but when people use the term "climate change" they really mean something more global, like affecting climate around the world Have you heard of the team "global warming"? What global warming is that it is made up of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and when they burn stuff the smoke releases CO2 and it's like a blanket covering the earth and if it k

Cancer by the numbers 2 of 4: That grocery bill

This is the second "Cancer by the Numbers" post, the first was about blood counts . We have been trying to eat organic fruits and vegetables as much as we can, to reduce the pesticide levels we injest. I will publish another post about cancer and food, but for now I thought I'd share the cost of organic vs not organic based on a quick poll of my local grocery (HEB). We had cut out meat prior to my diagnosis of cancer (ever since reading The China Study ) so perhaps the decline in spending in meat is offset by the more pricey organic items! The graph below shows the increase, as a percentage of the non-organic price, that I pay for common items that I buy. While the actual dollar amounts may not be significant individually, I can tell you that I really feel it on my grocery bill when I buy blueberries! If you feel you want to buy organic, but want to spend the dollars on those items where it makes a difference, take a look at the Environmental Working

Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

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