Vegetable Day

Today's my day to post over on Healthy Writers. The vegetable du jour is summer squash. What do you do with all that bounty?

Come on over and let me know about your gardens or cooking.

The Power of Talent

Short blog today; I'm going to let others do the talking for me.

One of the things I love about the internet is the opportunity to experience the talents of others in ways I'd never know otherwise.

You may have seen this video before, but I just discovered it yesterday. I'm in awe, first of the scope of the project, but more of the man himself and what it is in his character that gives him the idea to reach out like this and then the ability to make it work.




Don't you just want to dance?

I love the happy feeling I get watching this video.

If by chance you've never seen it before, you can find much more about the project at his website.



More on intriguing talents next week. :)

The Hunger Games

I was all set to post this blog about The Hunger Games trilogy today, but Susan beat me to it.
Come on over to her fabulous blog - Inkspells

No need for me to blog it when she's already started a discussion, right? Except I can't help it. I have to say something.

This series is AMAZING!

The reader in me is SO grateful to Suzanne Collins for a book that recaptures that "Don't talk to me, I'm reading" feeling. That "read under the covers with a flashlight" because I can't put it down feeling. That "need to recommend it to everyone you meet" feeling. Even that "need to blog about it even though someone else did" feeling. ;)

The writer in me wants to know WHY it works that way.

What amazes me about Hunger Games is that I can analyze it as a writer without losing any of the reading pleasure. That's rare for me.

I was discussing Hunger Games with a friend via email last night and she suggested that the writing puts her completely in the world of the story. I absolutely agree, but HOW and what else?


First of all, despite the subject matter which sounds harsh, The Hunger Games is extremely readable. You don't feel like you have to work at it; you're just absorbed into the story. You immediately want to root for Katniss against terrible odds because she's had such a hard life, she was so heroic in taking her sister's place, and she doesn't think of herself as anything extraordinary. Then there are all the little jabs of tension. In Book One, every time you get lulled into what is happening, there's a reminder of what's really ahead and how she can't trust anyone. By the time you get to the actual games, you're already completely captivated by the story. Forget putting it down then.


And of course there's the love triangle (verdict still out for me on that one).


Hunger Games reminds me of a cross between Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and the TV show JERICHO (that dystopian theme) with maybe a little Lord of the Flies influence. But it's so much more than that.

So have at it, if you will. Have you read The Hunger Games? What do you think makes it so compelling? And of course I have to ask, which team are you on?

Apparently I'm not alone in needing to discuss it - the Dear Author website had over 1000 comments! Dear Author is one of Scholastic's official District Blogs for this. So if you want (make that NEED) to discuss The Hunger Games more than just here or on Susan's blog, you can follow along on a different website each day up until the release. Each District has fabulous prizes to give away.


If you haven't read The Hunger Games and Chasing Fire yet, there's still time before the Mockingjay release next Tuesday (August 24th).



ETA: The teacher, writer and reader in me all love that there's so much excitement about this trilogy. Scholastic even has a countdown clock on the website.




If by chance you somehow missed all the hoopla about the trilogy this summer, just Google The Hunger Games, you'll get something like 7,290,000 results to choose from.