Weekly Low Down on Kids Books – Math Adventures
Title: Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
Author: Cindy Neuschwander
Illustrator: Wayne Geehan
I think everyone who has talked to me for longer than a minute and a half about children’s books knows how much I adore Brian P. Cleary
So a two year old who still stumbles through her ABC song, can only manage some really intense stripes when writing, and can only identify circles and triangles isn’t really ready for a book about circumferences, diameters, the concept of a radius, parallelograms, diamonds, and all that, but that’s when it is perfect to start reading these stories. By the time she needs the information, I want the stories thoroughly engrained in her mind.
Sir Cumference is a knight, married to Lady Di of Ameter, father of a short-stack son named Radius. With their help, King Arthur is able to come up with a plan to keep his knights on their best behavior as they discuss the well-being of Camelot. Add to the cast of characters a carpenter named Geo of Metry, the books instill all the basic concepts of geometry in the disguise of some exciting fake King Arthur folklore. Start reading the books to your kid from birth through early elementary school and you’ve got one math savvy child without even trying. As a home school mom with a serious distaste for math, I want my kid to enjoy it and make her life a lot easier than mine was by the time her high school curriculum comes along.
For slightly older kids, I’d say ages 5-10, the book easily lends itself to hands on activities. Paper projects, baking projects, even wood working if you were bold and wanted to make an actual play table, the story takes you step by step through cutting a rectangle down into all the various shapes. And, of course, it’s a series. Click the Sir Cumference link to purchase from Amazon. Click the collection image to go to another blogger’s reviews.
Other Sir Cumference
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
Sir Cumference and All the King’s Tens
Sir Cumference and the Viking’s Map
Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter
Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland
Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
(As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
Young Adult
Confession:
I have an illness. I see an indie film and no matter how awful it looks, I feel the urge to give it a shot. It’s an indie film, which to me means it’s an underdog, and who knows, what if it’s a hidden gem of awesomeness?
Take that and a love for authors, books, stories about authors of books, and Charlize Theron in all her hotness – how could I pass up Young Adult on Netflix? I just couldn’t.
Oh dear God, give me that hour and thirty-three minutes of my life back.
That’s not fair, the movie is good for what it is. It is well done. It has a bit of wit to it. The director of photography did this brilliant thing with a cassette tape and player and the beginning that I totally loved.
But I really don’t think it is possible for a character to stress me out anymore than Mavis Gary just managed. I mean seriously, what was wrong with that crazy lady?! Everything! That’s what!
She is an alcoholic who drinks way too much diet coke first thing in the morning – out of the bottle. She is chronically unsatisfied, sleeps around, divorced, 37, at the tale end of writing glory (she was a ghost writer of a young adult series that is a few years past its prime selling years), and oh yeah the most important part: she’s chasing down her married ex-boyfriend who just had a baby with his wife. It’s a pretty ballsy role for Theron, and she pulls it off brilliantly; I just want to strangle the whole demented story, if strangling a story could ever be possible.
The best part, the part that does make the movie worth a damn, is Patton Oswalt. I sort of love him. A lot. He is an awesome supporting actor that shows up in everything, but I know him best as Joel Mynor in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. He is Mavis’ voice of reason in this little fiasco of a man hunt/coming of age story. Can you call it a coming of age story if the protagonist is 37? I think not, but I promise you, it fits. And in the end when the Patton Oswalt’s on-screen sister asks to go back to the Mini-Apple with Mavis, I desperately wanted her to say ‘Can’t I’m taking your super awesome brother.’ Of course, that didn’t happen because despite the Esmeralda/Quasimodo dynamic, Young Adult’s own Quasimodo character was way to good for the likes of the star beauty.
Oh dear God give me that hour and thirty three minutes of my life back – except don’t. Even though it was kind of painful to watch, it resonates a bit. Check it out. Let me know what you make of it.
Poetry Nights at Half Price Books
Make time in your life this Spring for student led Poetry Nights at Half Price Books in Humble.
The Prominence League
Title: The Prominence League
Author: C. David Cannon
Publisher: Lucid Books
Genre: Young Adult
Length: 197 pages
C. David Cannon is friendly, jovial even. I don’t know if he is like this all the time or if he was just on a high from his first official book signing, but I would consider him quite pleasant.
His book, on the other hand, is not jovial. Instead, it’s a social commentary on freedom, discussed in the form of a dystopian fiction piece. ‘Ah, yes, a dystopian society young adult novel… you’re a sucker for those,’ I can hear the blogosphere groan. I AM! I am a sucker for those, because they’re inevitably so darn good!
“I think to myself that I am tired of being a captive. I am tired of living under their tyrannical guidelines, being monitored every minute, and rationed food and resources. I finally admit to myself that the President was right. I have been caught up in the adventure, and cannot turn back now.”
Like Carriane, you’ll get caught up in the adventure too, and you won’t want to turn back.
Fans of Invitation to the Game
The Prominence League, though a completely different story with a totally different style, continuously reminded me of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Those are values you expect to find in a Chinese man who fled to France in the 80’s to publish copies of his own illegal work, but not in a fifth grade teacher in suburbia. For that, I find Cannon refreshing.
At the Half Price Books Humble book signing, Cannon told a story about his fifth grade class and how he read chapters to his students. He talked of a running joke they had together about how often a character passed out at the end of each segment. If the book has one flaw, it would be that Carriane McAdams does indeed have a hard time getting from chapter to chapter while remaining conscious. Summoning my middle-grade self, however, I found I enjoyed the game of ‘how does she get conked out this time?’ It gave the book an interactive air and kept it from feeling too dark.
I would have liked to see the book about a 50 pages longer, develop Carriane’s relationship with her own environment and Caleb prior to his disappearing act and her re-education. I would have liked to see her spend more time in training, get a better understanding of what that training feels like to the characters, but wrap up the novel exactly the same. There is nothing wrong with how Cannon handled his story, it is highly entertaining, and I think it would make a strong impact on a young reader. The opening just moved more quickly than I would have liked, which is probably the same quality that makes it perfect for intermediate readers – he gets right to the point. Cannon’s book would be a great gift for enticing kids to love the written word.
The Prominence League Two and Three are yet to come. When they do, I would be psyched to purchase a Prominence League Omnibus complete with all three books in one volume… hint, hint to the marketing department at Lucid Books.
An Evening for Journaling
Journaling at Half Price Books in Humble
Have you always wanted to keep a journal but couldn’t seem to get started? Your HPB in Humble will introduce you to the art of journaling. On Thursday, January 10 at 7 pm use your personal unique style to create your own pages, write your story and use your words as art. The first five attendees will receive free blank journals.
A Tidbit from Miss Golightly
If these images don’t put you in the mood to read Lord of the Rings, I don’t know what would.
Miss Golightly at Muir Woods National Monument.
When We’re Not Reading… We’re Happy in the Heights!
A short car ride to a friend’s house and the kiddo and I find we have all of the Heights at our fingertips… or our toes, rather, as we don’t walk with our hands. My favorite part of the drive is passing those town homes pictured above – they remind me of Full House.
I love the Heights. There’s always something new to discover, and today we stumbled across Sparrow and the Nest, a little art boutique off Studewood.
Undaunted by a two year old waltzing in amongst their treasures, the people (Andrew and Stephanie) are really nice and took the kiddo to the back and let her play with markers while my best friend browsed the shop. I came away with a priceless masterpiece from my offspring, while the bestie picked out a gorgeous bookmark. We were on our way to get coffee at Antidote, so we didn’t stay long.
As their website says, Sparrow and the Nest is really best experienced in person, there’s so much to see that I just couldn’t capture on camera. Lots of tiny origami in frames and on pins, teensy handcrafted things you won’t find anywhere else, and all of it so beautiful. Cool pieces of furniture, paintings, quilts… the shop is as good as visiting an art museum, better actually because you can take the stuff home if you’ve got the cash.
I’m not the best photographer, but I took some pictures to share anyway.
Book Love Art for I Was Told There’d Be Cake
Quoting I Was Told There’d Be Cake
Photograph by AK Klemm
A Tidbit from Miss Golightly
Bliss for Booknerds
Photograph by JJ Golightly
This gray San Francisco morning features a cappuccino, a Spanish manchego mushroom tart w/toasted sesame seeds and chives, and Coffee with Oscar Wilde. Bliss!
— at Four Barrel Coffee.
Anakalian Whims 