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I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

Oct12

I, Emma Freke pushes some of my buttons: homeschooling, family reunions, community. So let’s take them one at a time.

Homeschooling: Emma Freke, age twelve, has a mom, Donatella, who acts about fourteen. When Donatella decides to give Emma the birthday present of being homeschooled, the result is not pretty. Homeschooling is not a choice between child neglect and authoritarian scheduling in a school-like environment. It really is possible to have children who are free to learn at their own pace and even choose many of their own areas of study and who are also required to to be responsible and work at their education. And most people like Donatella don’t last long at homeschooling, which is what happens in the book. I also didn’t like the implication that people tend to homeschool in order to use their children as free labor as Donatella does when she leaves Emma to tend the bead shop. I know lots of homeschooling families, and none of them have their children at home in order to enslave them to the family’s business.

Family reunions: Emma attends a family reunion in Wisconsin in order to get away from her negligent, selfish mother and to meet the extended family of the father she’s never met. The entire Freke family is about as dysfunctional in the direction of controlling and domineering as Emma’s mom is in the opposite direction. In fact, The Freke family is so uptight and scheduled that they’re borderline unbelievable. Again, family is not usually a choice between a mother who’s so permissive that she should be hauled in for child neglect and a father’s family that’s so authoritarian that rebellion is the only option for anyone with a sense of self at all.

Community: The theme of the book is finding home, finding the place where you can fit in and feel accepted and loved for yourself. Emma, with her strange name and her height (six feet tall at age 12) and her advanced intellectual abilities and her odd family, doesn’t fit in anywhere. She’s not only a Freke, but she feels like a freak. And don’t we all sometimes? Especially young teens? This aspect of the story really communicated to me, and I felt as if the target audience, middle school readers, would identify, too.

I’m not sure about the portrayal of homeschooling as an alternate lifestyle for neglectful parents nor about the family reunion that’s too structured to be true, but the story transcends these lapses. The supporting cast in the book, Donatella, Aunt Pat Freke, Nonno, Emma’s grandfather, and others, all tend toward caricature. However, Emma Freke is a great character, and she deserves the happy ending that she gets at the end of the story.

I, Emma Freke is nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the the Middle Grade Fiction category.

No and Me by Delphine de Vigan

Oct7

I got an ARC of this YA novel, originally published in French, several months ago, but I’m just now getting around to reading it. The atmosphere and feel of the story was very European, very French. It’s a story about a thirteen year old, intellectually gifted girl named Lou Bertignac and her friendship with a homeless eighteen year old girl, No. (I must admit that I originally pictured No as Vietnamese or at least Asian because the name sounded Southeast Asian to me, but No is later described as dark-haired and pale-skinned, typical French. No is short for Nolwenn.)

The gist of the story is that Lou tries to “save” No, to give her a home, help her to become self-supporting, be her friend, improve her life. The plot reminded me of a book I plan to read that was being touted in Eldest Daughter’s church when I visited her in Nashville, When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. I haven’t read this nonfiction title yet, but I am well aware that helping people who are homeless or mired in poverty isn’t a straightforward or uncomplicated matter simply of finding them a job and a place to live. In No and Me, Lou finds out that helping No isn’t easy, and although Lou never gives up hope and tries to walk alongside No even when No herself is choosing to engage in self-destructive behavior, the story is realistic in showing that persistence and dedication may not always be enough.

No and Me was the Winner of the 2008 Prix de Libraries (Booksellers’ Prize) in France, and the translation is, as far as I can tell, well done. The ending of the novel was somewhat ambiguous, in keeping with the tone of the entire book. Teens who are interested in helping the homeless or who want insight into European culture and issues would appreciate this look at homelessness in France and one girl’s attempt to do her part to make a difference.

No and Me by Delphine de Vigan from George Miller on Vimeo.

Sunday Salon: 20 Examples That Feed My Fascinations

Jun26

The Sunday Salon.comLast week, I gave you a list of 52 things that fascinate me. This week I’m going to list some specific examples of the stuff that fascinates and gives joy and makes me think.

1. Crayola Monologues: I found this video in a list at First Things.

2. Carol at Magistra Mater recommends five five-star books. Carol’s entire blog is fascinating. She says, “My goal is to make my home a light, a sanctuary, a dwelling filled with the aroma of good things, a place where friends and family can flourish.” Carol reads and writes and makes bread and best of all, she thinks. Lovely.

3. What if the problem of evil isn’t a problem at all? by Christopher Benson at Mere Orthodoxy This brief article speaks to my fascination with God’s providence and with apologetics in general. What if evil in the world provides the only context from which we can talk about the goodness and mercy of God?

4. I already tweeted this link, and probably everyone has seen it. But since I am a fan of all things Lewisian, here’s a link to the first trailer for the new Narnia movie, due out in December, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. If they don’t showcase the meaning of Eustace’s dragon transformation and his healing, I’m out of patience with these movie interpreters of Lewis’s wonderful stories.

5. Carrie hosts The Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge at Reading to Know. This challenge supports my love of all things Lewisian.

6. Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books, and Me shares her list of things she loves, a Bliss List. She loves Celtic Women, and John Denver and teacups and reading on rainy days. So do I.

7. Some others are calling their similar lists Book Hooks, a list of things, people, places, ideas that catch their interest and make them want to read more.
Word Lily likes books about spies and detectives, other cultures and languages, and convents/cloistered life, among other things.
Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness likes reimagined fairy tales and multiple narrators.
Ms Bookish has 20 hooks that will make her pick up a book, including bookstores and “a Cinderella angle.”
Stella Matutina loves New Orleans and the French Revolution.
Melissa at Book Nut: A few things that fascinate me.
Carol’s fascination list at Magistramater includes clerical life, conversions, and names. Me, too.
Do you have a list of fascinations, or book hooks, or a bliss list? Please share.

8. Heidi at SImple Homeschool lists picture books that take you around the world. I love exploring other cultures and places, and I like picture books. I’m working on a sequel to Picture Book Preschool, called Picture Book Around the World. I keep collecting titles, but I’m not finding the persistence and self-discipline to finish this project. Anyone want to give me a kick in the pants? Or more suggestions for picture books that explore other lands?

9. The 2010 Bad Poetry Contest at Chip’s Blog. These are some seriously BAD poems. I don’t know how the judges managed to choose the worst of the worst.

10. To feed my Shakespearean muse (and to get the bad poetry taste off of my palate), I turn to this brand new version of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.

11. “Mpower Pictures (“The Stoning of Soraya M.”) and Beloved Pictures are teaming to co-produce C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novel The Great Divorce. Veteran producer and Mpower CEO Steve McEveety will lead the production team. Childrens’ book author N.D. Wilson (Leepike Ridge, 100 Cupboards) is attached to write.” I told you I’m a C.S. Lewis fan, and I’m rather impressed with Mr. Wilson’s oeuvre so far, too.

12. This project ties in to my love of community and outside-the-box, but I have practical questions. Doesn’t it ever rain in New York? How can pianos stay outside in the weather and remain playable?

13. Hmmmm. My teens watch Glee, and I’m wondering how this new character for next season will work out. Probably very badly, but we’ll hope for the best.

14. Speaking of love, courtship and marriage, there’s an op-ed in Newsweek (June 11, 2010) about how marriage is outdated and unnecessary. Albert Mohler comments on this idea from a Christian perspective. Could it be that instead of gay “marriage” what we’ll eventually evolve to is no marriage for anyone other than Christians who still in their dinosauric way see the value and sanctity of such a union?

15. Mockingbird by Katharine Erskine. Small World says: “If you liked the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, you will love Mockingbird.”

16. Prepare to Die: A Princess Bride quiz by David K. Israel.

17. I could have used this advice about making a youtube video embed show up as a simple audio file last year when I was counting down the hymns. Some of the video is annoying or unnecessary.

18. Tim Hawkins: I Don’t Drink Beer. Someone asked The Headmistress what she thought about drinking alcohol, and then later I saw a video by Christian comedian Tim Hawkins. This song explains exactly why I don’t drink beer, right down to the nauseous.

19. Your Book as a Database by Chris Kubica. I’m not sure I understand completely, but it’s definitely mind-expanding.

20. “Social science may suggest that kids drain their parents’ happiness, but there’s evidence that good parenting is less work and more fun than people think. Bryan Caplan makes the case for having more children.” The economic and long term benefits of having more children.

Sunday Salon: 52 Things That Fascinate Me

Jun20

The Sunday Salon.comColleen at Chasing Ray wrote this post about the the places, people, and ideas that fascinate her and infuse her writing. She got the idea, in turn, from this post on writing by author Kelly Link.

What I decided to do was to sit down and, very quickly, make a list of things that I most liked in other people’s fiction — these could be thematic, character driven, very general or very specific. I found that when I started this list, it began to incorporate ideas and items which I was inventing as I went along.

I like this sort of exercise, even though I’m not an author, maybe a writer, but not an author. Anyway, these are the themes and things that fascinate me:

1. Community. Communities. How a subculture develops around a shared interest like bicycling or collecting butterflies or playing Scrabble (Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis) or any other random interest. How those communities work and how they coalesce. What the rules are. How they resolve conflict.

2. Education, particularly homeschooling and education/growing up outside the box. Educational freedom and the limits to that freedom. Unschooling.

3. Insanity, mental illness, and mental differences and disabilities. Everything from schizophrenia to autism to deafness and blindness and how those affect perceptions and ideas. Where do we draw the line between insanity and eccentricity? How does blindness affect the way a person thinks about the world?

4. Religious cults and religions other than Christianity. How do these groups answer the Big Questions of life?

5. Eccentric people, collectors, people who live outside the box. How and why do they do it?

6. Old houses full of old stuff.

7. The Civil War. Not so much the war as the time period and the rationalizations and reasons people gave for their actions. The relationships between masters and slaves. The ambivalence in the North about black people in general and especially enslaved black people.

8. Historical Christianity: Celtic Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Nestorians, Coptic Christians, other groups that developed their own cultures around the message of Jesus Christ.

9. Idealism. Don Quixote tilting at windmills and dreaming the impossible dream.

10. Broken relationships. Scarlet and Rhett. Arthur and Guinevere. Can broken relationships be mended? How? How well? Will the cracks always show? Do we need to be broken to be rebuilt into something stronger and more lasting?

11. Wordplay. For example, Alice in Wonderland or the novels of P.G. Wodehouse. I wish I could write like Lewis Carroll or like Wodehouse or even Norton Juster (The Phantom Tollbooth).

12. Anorexia, cutting, alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, self-destructive tendencies in general. This one may not be a very healthy fascination, but it goes back to #3. How do people go “off track,” and how do they return? Where is the line between healthy and unhealthy, between repression, balance, and dissolution, between normal and abnormal?

13. Secret passageways. Secret rooms. Hidden or isolated cottages. Hermits. Aloneness.

14. Small town communities and cloistered communities. Again back to the community. How does a community form? How does it sustain itself? What happens when there are conflicts and broken relationships within the community?

15. Genius. Intelligence. What is intelligence? What can it do, and what are its limits? The Wise Fool.

16. Con artists and liars. A long, elaborate con. Ethical dilemmas like when is it wrong to tell the truth? Is it OK to lie when the Nazis ask if you have Jews hidden in your house? Isn’t a murder mystery the unravelling of an intricate con game? The Great Imposter.

17. Old photographs.

18. Names and naming. What names mean. The origins of certain names. What naming someone does for that person. Nicknames.

19. Biblical allusions.

20. Shakespeare. Not the man so much because we don’t really know that much about him. Bit I’m fascinated by the plays themselves, what they mean, the characters, the relationships, the words Shakespeare used, the intricate design of the plots.

21. Alternate societies and worlds. (Going back to #1) How a world works, what the rules are, what’s different from our society, how one constructs a Narnia or Lilliput or Middle Earth.

22. Aphorisms. How they contain meaning, how they become cliches, how to restate old cliches and give them new meaning.

23. Sports, particularly baseball but other sports too, used as a metaphor for life.

24. Prodigals and how they return home. What makes them come back? How does a person repent?

25. Medieval and Renaissance British history. This interest could be extended to Europe as a whole, but mostly I’m an Anglophile.

26. King Arthur. Knights. Chivalry.

27. Byzantium. Constantinople. Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

28. Autumn is much more interesting than any other season.

29. Race and racial tension. Not so much white people versus black people, but what causes racial divides in the first place. What makes us decide that some people who look a certain way or have a certain ethnic heritage are so different as to be non-human? How do we reconcile ethnic and racial groups who despise one another? How can we see our own prejudices?

30. Matchmaking. How a couple comes together and how they stay together. Not so much romance, but rather the rules and mechanics of how two people are bound together in marriage. How does this cultural community do wedding? Courtship. Arranged marriage. Polygamy. Monogamy.

31. Behind the scenes at any large organization or business or collective. How did the business get started? How does it work? What are they doing back there where we can’t see? Nonfiction books such as Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder or even The Way Things Work by David Macaulay. Fiction books like Hotel by Arthur Hailey or
Runaway Jury by John Grisham.

32. Communication. How babies and young children learn to talk and communicate. Helen Keller and other children with disabilities that interfere with their ability to communicate. How to overcome those disabilities.

33. Twins and triplets. I used to read a very old series of books from my library when I was a beginning reader about twins from different countries: The Dutch Twins, The French Twins, the Chinese Twins, etc.

34. Utopian communities. Dystopian cultures. How this works. What’s wrong in the dystopian community, and how do the characters in the book know it’s wrong if it’s all they’ve ever known?

35. Inventors and inventions. How do they think of such things as bicycles and butterfly bandages?

36. Obsessions and obsessive people. OCD. Monk.

37. Dreams and sleep. What really happens to us when we sleep? How is sleep different from losing consciousness or passing out? Why do we dream? What do dreams really mean?

38. Homemaking. How homemaking can be artistic and a service to those who live in the home. The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer.

39. Plagues. Holocausts. The end of the world. How will it end? With a bang or a whimper?

40. Teddy Roosevelt. Not Franklin, just Teddy.

41. Genealogy. Family history, especially my family history, but others, too, if they have stories to tell.

42. Winston Churchill.

43. Historical mysteries. What ever happened to Ambrose Bierce? Why did Agatha Christie disappear for a week while half of England searched for her? Who was Jack the Ripper?

44. People who do weird, uninhibited things like dance in the supermarket or paint their house dark purple with yellow flowers. I want to paint my front door red, and I want fire engine red counter tops in my kitchen.

45. C.S. Lewis.

46. Gender roles. How are men and women different? How are they the same?

47. The time period between World War I and World War II.

48. Secrets and hidden meanings. Puzzles. Word games. Codes and ciphers.

49. Adoption. Adoption across racial and ethnic lines. Cross-cultural adoption.

50. Artifacts from the 1930’s. Ball canning jars. Cigar boxes. Dial telephones. Old radios.

51. Word origins. Languages. Dead languages and how they died out.

52. Lists and list making.

I’m probably forgetting something that interests me very much, but these are some of my own obsessions. What are yours?

Comienza La Bloggiesta

Jun11

Let the Blog Party Begin!

blogiesta

Thanks to Natasha at Maw Books we all have this weekend about twice a year where we come together as book bloggers, eat nachos, and prettify our blogs. It’s called Bloggiesta.

I’m going to continue to update this post as I do things to make Semicolon more beautiful and useful to you throughout the weekend:

1. I applied with Chitika for advertising that supposedly only shows up when people come to the blog via a google search. Is this true? Anyone use this ad service and like it? Anyone not like it?

2. I’ve now written a review policy combined with a general information page. Will someone read it and tell me what you think?

3. With a little help from Bloggiesta partiers and from my Computer Guru Son, I fixed a whole bunch of links that were broken. Long story about how they got that way, but thanks to a “find and replace” wordpress plugin, I’m good to go.

4. I signed up with Google Analytics, but the information page says it may take 24 hours to start getting statistics. We’ll see how that goes. I may not really need another place to look at statistics other than Sitemeter.

An Interview with Melina of Reading Vacation

May26

Today for Armchair BEA, I have the privilege of interviewing Melina of the blog Reading Vacation. You should really take a look at her blog after reading the interview; it looks as if she has a long and fruitful blogging career ahead of her and lots of good books to recommend.

How did you start blogging? You have a lovely blog. How did you get it started and set up? Why?
I started writing book reviews on Glogster last September as part of a school project.I had such a good time, that I started my blog this March. Since I read so much, I thought a blog would be a creative way to share my love of reading with others.

Who are your favorite authors?
Scott Westerfeld, Julie Kagawa, Stephenie Meyer, Ally Carter, Rick Riordan, and so many more.

Have you always enjoyed reading?
Yes!

What’s the first book you ever remember reading for yourself? What did you think about it?
I remember reading the ENTIRE Rainbow Fairy series by Daisy Meadows. My mom bought them online from England.
I think those books played a big part in spurring my love of reading.

Did your parents read to you a lot when you were younger? If so, what books do you remember reading aloud with them?
Yes. They read a lot of fairy tales to me. Every day and every night.

My daughter Bethany is eleven. What one book do you suggest to her as a “can’t miss it” book?
I can’t name just one. Have Bethany check out my blog for ideas to see what may interest her.

Lots of LOST Thoughts; Probably More to Come

May24

Idol or icon?
LOST, Lord of the Rings, the books referenced in LOST, even the Bible itself can become idol rather than icon if we become enmeshed in the details of the stories or of the Word and never see through to the Author, to God Himself.

It is possible to find True Truth in LOST or in LOTR or in Kierkegaard or Augustine or in Matthew Henry’s commentaries, but if we look to any story or philosophical treatise or commentary as the Source of Ultimate Truth, that work of literature has become an idol rather an icon that points us to the Ultimate Truth of God in Christ Jesus. Stories and poetry, and in our culture movies and television, are powerful icons that can point us to the source—because in the end all Truth is God’s truth (which is NOT the same thing as saying all religions lead to the same Source).

Cuse and Lindelof (LOST producers) wisely refused to answer all the questions raised over the course of six seasons of LOST for at least two reasons. First of all they don’t have all the answers. LOST raised many philosophical questions for which the answers are incomplete in any story. Cuse and Lindelof and the writers of LOST are telling us, “LIFE/LOST is messy. We have faith that it does have meaning, but the whole thing is a group project. No man is an island. We live in community, whether we want to or not, and we work out our salvation in fear and in trembling and in community.”

Secondly, and related, the answers are not neat packages. Each answer leads to more questions. LOST is like life. Things happen that seem meaningless and even perverse, and only later on can we see the meaning and the reason. Other parts of life we never do understand. Perhaps those incomprehensible and seemingly random events (Jack getting pounded in Thailand, Walt’s special abilities) also have meaning, but it’s a meaning that we are unable to discern even from the vantage point of the future. Like Jack and Hurley and the rest of the LOSTies, we just have to muddle through, having faith that there is a light at the center of the universe and a place and time where all be made clear.

In the end the LOST writers, the story itself, came down on the side of faith. Granted, it was faith in anything or everything, Buddha or Jesus, take your pick. But that’s our culture. That’s the part of the story that’s misleading and untrue. Still, some of the themes were truth-filled. It does take a community to work through your issues and help you to become the person you were meant to be. Human beings do have choices, and choices do matter, even when it seems as if everything is predestined and predetermined. Forgiveness is important and healing. In one sense, what happened, happened. You can’t change the past. But in another sense, nothing is irreversible. Resurrection and redemption are possible. (“Christian Shepard? Are you kidding?”)

And faith is vital. Not faith in oneself, as was implied in certain lines of dialog in the season finale, but rather faith in a God who is there and who is weaving meaning into every single event and relationship of our lives. In fact, we have a God who is so much bigger than Jacob or Jack or the Island itself. We have a Savior who by His sacrifice on the cross gave meaning to all the little mirror sacrifices that we sometimes make for each other. Jack and Desmond and Charlie and Jin and even Kate were all little Christ-figures, icons for the true story of sacrifice and servanthood that is found in the Bible. If you’ve never read it and you’re looking for a story to fill the LOST void now that LOST is over, you might try the real thing. God’s story is as mysterious and profound and beautiful and iconic as LOST, and it’s completely True. Time to go further up and further in and enter the Door that is now open into the most exciting story of all.

Too Late, Baby

May17

I was reading this post by Doug McKelvey and the comments at The Rabbit Room about the depiction of grace in literature and art, and it led my thinking in a different direction. I started thinking not about grace, but about tragedy and the rejection of grace, redemption, and relationship. I began to think of all the stories, songs, and poetry that make me cry, that draw out my emotional response. Most of them have the theme of redemption not accepted, not pursued, or not completed.

I learned a long time ago that a classic dramatic tragedy ends with the hero’s death, usually as the result of some fatal flaw in his character. A comedy, however, ends with a wedding mirroring the marriage feast of the Lamb and the redemptive, resurrection reuniting of Christ with His church. In the marriage feast, all of the errors and mistakes and even sins of the characters are seen as comedy, errors that lead eventually (by the grace of God) to reconciliation and true relationship. Really, though, a story that ends in the death of the hero (and usually others) can be just a beginning, a first installment, that will ultimately end in resurrection. Or it can be a “too late” story in which the hero dies unredeemed and unrepentant. And a tragedy can end, not with literal death, but with the death of a relationship in a way that shows that it’s too late to resurrect or redeem the relationship. The latter story makes for the most heart-breaking ending. Truth is that it can be too late, too late to get forgiveness, too late to resurrect a broken life or a broken relationship, too late to live. And that is the essence of hell and tragedy.

Some examples of too-lateness that make me want to cry:

“–I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it.
He was grave and silent, and then he said sombrely, I have only one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.”
~Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

“Scarlett, I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken pieces as long as I lived. . . . I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can’t. . . My dear, I don’t give a damn.” ~Rhett Butler in Gone With the WInd

Saddest movie. No one dies, but the movie is all about the death of relationship.

The king asked the Cushite, “Is the young man Absalom safe?”
The Cushite replied, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man.”
The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
~2 Samuel 18:32-33 (Saddest story in the Bible)

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. ~Romans 1:28-32.

It’s too late, baby, now it’s too late
Though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died and I can’t hide
And I just can’t fake it. ~Carole King

It’s not too late now. But someday it will be. Repent. Return. Believe. Love.

The alternative truly is tragedy and hell.

Idealistic Eighteen Year Old in Need of a Challenge

May6

So Drama Daughter, age eighteen, is not going away to college this fall as she had planned. You can read about her journey and dilemma here if you’re interested. Since her life has changed to unknown Plan B, she’s a little (LOT) unsure what to do with herself this summer and this fall. She has a job, and she’s taking classes at the local junior college, but she wants to do something new and exciting. I gave her this list of possibilities and thinking-starters a few weeks ago, but I don’t think any of them are what she has in mind.

1. Volunteer to lead Good News Clubs in our area. Training is in May.

2. Help with Missions Week at our church.

3. Work full time and save money for your car and college.

4. Volunteer somewhere.

5. Musical theater class at AD Players.

6. Summer internship at Houston’s First Baptist Church.

7. Visit your grandmother once a week and watch a movie together or go out to eat.

8. Volunteer at the Mission Centers of Houston.

9. Take a home economics course (at home) with Brown Bear Daughter.

10. Take a world religions course (at home) with Brown Bear Daughter.

11. Work to build a house with Habitat For Humanity.

12. Meals on Wheels program is in need of more volunteers to deliver meals Monday through Friday. Could you spare an hour during your week to bring food to someone in need? I

13. Study twentieth/twenty-first century drama with Mom.

14. Do an intensive reading project: see pages 9-11 of Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris.

15. Learn to cook.

16. Take a class at San Jacinto Junior College. (She’s already been dong this, but she still has some more basic classes to finish.)

17. Go visit your aunt in South Dakota.

18. Go visit Eldest Sister in Indiana.

19. Start a blog.

20. Write a book.

21. Meet with a Christian mentor weekly who will help you to grow as a Christian. (I could help you to find the right person.)

22. Be a mentor to a younger girl and meet together weekly to study the Bible and pray together.

23. Internship at Alley Theater. (She checked into this program, but it’s more appropriate for older, more experienced actors.)

24. Take a math class to prepare you for college algebra.

25. Maybe just do this: stop, talk to people, really listen, live now instead of waiting for the future event to make you happy. Serve God where you are.

These are mostly ideas for the summer, but none of them seem to be working out for her for one reason or another. One problem is that the above ideas represent the things that I’m interested in doing or seeing her do, not her own interests and desires. She’s been looking into Americorps, but I have some hesitation about sending her halfway across the country to take a job with no place to live and no assurance that she will like the job or the place. What she really wants to do is to go away, to try out a new place and develop her own independence. What I want is for her to be moderately safe while doing so.

Maybe the above ideas will be helpful to someone else. In the meantime, any suggestions? I’m going to link to whatever I find that’s helpful in this area below.

Melissa Wiley links to the story of a girl who followed her interests and got a scholarship to the University of VIrginia on the strength of her passion.

Susan WIse Bauer writes about her experience with planning her son’s “gap year” after high school. Unfortunately, these programs cost money that we don’t have.

12 Tips for New Bloggers, Especially Book Bloggers

Jan8

My sweet reader sister, Judy, just sent me this email:

I have decided to start a blog to review/discuss/recommend books. I have so many of my friends asking me what I am reading and what they should read on a particular subject. I think it could be beneficial for them and maybe others who stumble onto my blog.

I have a request: Could you give me hints and advice on what I should or shouldn’t do on my blog? It will be mostly books by Christian authors and links to blogs that either review books or discuss current events related to the books I read. I know the blog will probably evolve over time, but as for now, I want to share what I read with others and get suggestions from others as well. I would welcome ideas from a “veteran blogger”.

1. Get into a rhythm of regular posting: once a week, twice a week, five days a week, every day. It doesn’t matter how frequently you post, but it does matter that you post regularly so that people get used to checking to see what you have to say today or this week.

2. Focusing on one kind of book, one genre, is good. I don’t do it because I don’t focus my reading that way, but it is a good thing. The more people know what to expect the more likely they are to visit regularly. If you are writing a book blog, people expect most, if not all of your posts to be about books. Again, do as I say, not as I do.( I have my own reasons for posting about whatever I want to write about, and I don’t mind if I lose some readers along the way.)

3. Consider linking to book reviews of the same book by other bloggers. You can find those by using this focused Google Book Blogs Search Engine.
Be sure to list your blog at the Book Blogs Search Engine so that others who use that tool can find your reviews easily.

4. Write personal reviews. What I mean by that is: don’t try to sound like a professional book reviewer. I most enjoy the reviews that tell me what the book meant to the reader/blogger personally. What did the author make you think about? How did the book relate to your own life? What are some quotes that were meaningful to you? What made you laugh or cry? Tell me more than: “this was a great book.” But don’t include spoilers unless you warn me first. I don’t want to know the ending or the plot twists before I read the book.

5. Read other book blogs and comment on other book blogs and link to your favorites. In other words, participate in the book blogging community. Here are some places where you can begin to participate:

Saturday Review of Books at Semicolon
Weekly Geeks
Booking Through Thursday
Reading Challenges (Collected at A Novel Challenge)
The Classics Circuit
Book Blogging Events
Faith and Fiction Saturday at My Friend Amy

Don’t try to do everything. Pick a couple of events or memes or challenges, and do them well. Look around and see what suits you best.

6. Don’t worry about getting “free books” yet. Those will come eventually–if the whole publishing industry doesn’t transform itself into who-knows-what with the advent of e-books and such. Just stick to your original idea: read what you want to read, and share what you love with others in your blog posts. Probably, someone, somewhere will offer you a free book, or a gift book, or an advanced review copy of a book. Be careful what you accept and know what strings are attached. Only agree to review books that you want to read and that you can find time to read and review honestly.

7. Don’t make your reviews too long, and use pictures. Some reviewers can get away with long reviews, mostly because they’re better writers than I am. And they have a lot of good stuff to say. When I try to write long book reviews, I usually end up repeating myself. (This book was really, really good. Really.) Keep it medium short, longer than Twitter tweets and shorter than the novel itself or even a chapter of the novel. And use some kind of picture to break up the text. I use a lot of book covers from Amazon. That’s the main reason I’m an Amazon affiliate. (And if you link to Amazon, and get a few cents back, or any other sales scheme, you’re supposed to tell everyone that you do all the time as if they couldn’t figure it out.)

8. Title your book reviews with the title of the book and the author. This tip may seem self-evident, but it’s tempting to try to come up with catchy titles for books reviews. However, when someone searches for a review of X book on Google, they won’t be as likely to hit your blog if you called your review “A Look at the Newest Great American Novel” instead of X book by Z author.

9. Ask questions in your posts, and answer questions posed by your readers in the comments.

10. Always link to blog posts that you mention, bloggers who gave you ideas, bloggers who pointed out something interesting to you, bloggers who made you laugh, authors’ homepages, etc. Link-love is kind, encouraging, helpful to your readers, and it brings people back to your blog.

11. If you get nasty comments or spam comments, ignore/delete. Do not respond to people who say unkind things on your blog. Delete them, and go on. Life is too short.

12. Enjoy blogging. If you aren’t enjoying it, something is wrong. Figure out what’s wrong, and fix it. Or quit blogging. Don’t let anyone or anything steal your joy.

My sister’s brand, spanking new blog is called Carpe Libris: Seize the Book. Please do me a favor and go by and leave her a comment and a big welcome to the Blogosphere of Books and Readers.

Thanks.