Hello Book Bums families!
We hope our local friends are staying warm in the cold and snowy weather. This week in the newsletter we share some suggestions for cozy reading as well as Christmas card ideas and some seasonal punctuation tips. From Jane Austen to Santa there's something good inside.
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Word of the Week
serendipity (ser-en-dip-i-tee) noun/person, place, or thing - happy chance, finding good things by accident
We went to the mall to enjoy the decorations, but by serendipity I saw a great gift for my friend..
Literary Calendar
- December 16 is the birthday of Jane Austen.
- This year, fans are celebrating what would be the author's 250th birthday.
- If you are interested in a little Jane Austen enrichment, consider these two podcasts: A Jane Austen Year takes you through one calendar year at Chawton House, and Jane Austen's Paper Trail considers Austen's life and novels through thematic lenses like friendship and politics.
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book!
-Jane Austen
From our Bookshelves
“Everyone wants to be remembered.”
I have truly enjoyed reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It was a delightful surprise, as I knew nearly nothing about it when I purchased it on Kindle.
I chuckled as I began reading. The author, like me, uses lots of commas.
This was my bedtime book. I read it only in the evenings as I drifted off to sleep . . . And I loved it!
I looked forward to reading each night. It wasn’t so thrilling that it kept me reading for hours on end. It was just enough intrigue to look forward to—with nuggets of pure splendor sprinkled in here and there. You should know that it’s nearly 450 pages long, so it requires some dedication, but I believe it’s worth your time.
The story is set in France, and it’s the 1800s. Addie LaRue is a young woman who feels trapped in a world where marriage is an expectation regardless of love. In desperation, Addie prays to the gods and strikes a deal with a shadowy figure who helps her escape her impending wedding, grants her immortality (for Addie wants to live—not go through the motions in a loveless marriage and slog through a life she has never wanted), but curses her to a life where no one remembers her. She is forever forgotten the moment she slips from a person’s sight.
I don’t believe that synopsis would have made me want to read the book. It’s more than that.
I read quite a few reviews after having read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Some people adored it—so much so that many have read it more than one time. Others vehemently disliked it. They say they tried to like it, but they could not. It’s true that those who did not like it are greatly outnumbered. On Amazon, only 17% of readers gave it fewer than five stars.
Though the book is categorized as Young Adult Fantasy, some call it historical fiction. It’s not very heavy on historic events, though it does remind the reader how women were (or weren’t) regarded throughout history.
One reviewer shared that reading this book upon the approaching new year will set his year up to be a great one. I’d agree.
This is not a page turner. It’s a book to be savored. You’ll have your favorite parts, parts you don’t love so much, but you’ll think about life a little differently should you decide to give this one a try. I think you should.
Note: If you or someone you love tends to have difficulty sleeping, a Kindle might be a great gift idea. Just the minor movement of reaching up to turn off my bedside lamp was enough to get me out of sleep mode and could result in many hours of not being able to fall asleep. My Kindle (Paperwhite) has been a game changer because now, when my eyelids begin to feel heavy, I just click the button at the bottom and drift off to sleep. Crazy, huh?
Tips for Families
So many of us love to decorate for the holidays, and our homes are fairly bursting with all things cozy. Mugs of hot chocolate are continually making appearances, and I just thought that would make for a wonderful family read-a-thon. Everyone gets a new book, favorite snacks, and perfect snuggle spot and the read-a-thon begins!
If you’ve got little ones, try loading up a laundry basket with books, a snuggly blanket, and a lovey to help kids enjoy book after book!
Tips for Raising Readers and Writers
If you’re like me and you’re not good about sending Christmas cards, challenge yourself and/or your kids to email a holiday message to everyone you would have sent a card to if you had an abundance of time, beautiful cards already on hand, and plenty of stamps at the ready.
I know. I know. It’s not the same. But it’s something. And it could get your kids to do some writing.
I mean, honestly, so many cards have no writing on them at all anyway. They’re gorgeous photos that I truly treasure, but they don’t do much to promote writing.
All you have to do is divvy up email addresses and have everyone in the family commit to take care of at least one holiday email message.
Try challenging everyone to say "Merry Christmas!" in a fun, unexpected way.
You can use some of these ideas or create some of your own.
Sleigh all day!
Have a holly jolly Christmas!
Snow much love,
Merry Everything & Happy Always!
Three Practical Grammar Tips, Holiday Edition
Which one is correctly written?
The festive phrase Season’s Greetings means “the greetings of the season” so it should always have an apostrophe.
Note that Christmas should always be capitalized because it’s a proper noun, but merry should be capitalized only when it comes at the beginning of a sentence. You could correctly write “Merry Christmas to all!” or “We wish you a merry Christmas.”
’Tis is a contraction, and it needs to have an apostrophe just like any other contraction. The same applies for ’twas (the past tense of ’tis). Note that because the apostrophe is taking the place of an omitted letter that would have begun the word, the apostrophe should face left. ’Tis an important spelling rule to remember!
Wordology Workshop
- The Latin root div means to separate or split apart.
- You will find it in many math words such as division, dividend, and divisor.
- It also appears in common English words like diverge, indivisible, diversity, and divorce.
- Did you notice another div word in this week's newsletter?
News from Book Bums
Book Bums will try to maintain as many working hours as possible so we can get as many of our students as possible on track by the end of the school year, however we will be closed on December 24th and December 25th, and December 31st and January 1st.
If you need to miss your session across the holidays, please talk with your tutor about canceling and/or rescheduling your session.
If your tutor is unable to make a session but you’re available, Dr. Christy will be on hand to fill in some sessions.
We’re also trying to get at least one Handwriting Workshop in over the holiday break from school.
Tips for Teachers
I was listening to a podcast where the podcasting educators were lamenting about early childhood teachers who say they dislike teaching reading.
I get it that there is a lot of “new” stuff being thrown at teachers, and it’s not fun trying to figure out the latest curriculum purchased without your input and far too little training. It’s really tough.
But the consensus on the podcast was for teachers to “fake it” with their students.
I’m here to tell you that it cannot be done. Kids are so much smarter than that. They absolutely know when we’re faking. We’re not fooling anyone. And since when did lying to kids become recommended behavior?
Here’s the better solution: If you’re not enjoying your literacy instruction, make it something you enjoy.
It’s okay to admit that you’re still learning, and that you’re not going to get it all right, and that it’s not easy to teach what you have not yet mastered yourself.
Do you know what that means? It means you truly get how many of your students are feeling and that can certainly make you a better teacher.
However, you must make your literacy instruction something you enjoy. When you find a way to make it something you truly look forward to, your students will look forward to it too.
Just for Fun
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