This is Normal (apparently)

Sometimes everything works. Every now and then we have a day - or a few days in a row even! - where everything just flows. There are no meltdowns, no raised voices, no tears or tantrums. There is no reason to tear out my hair or wish human ears came with a volume control.
Sometimes, every now and then, I feel like a good mum. Like we've figured it out. Like we are winning.

And then there are the other days.
The days where nothing works.
The days where we are like kittens in a bag, scratching at each other. The days where if it's not one kid crying/shouting/fighting/whingeing, it's another. Scrapping and answering back. Needling each other. Melting down over the littlest things. I should be bald by now with the frequency of these days.

[ CONTINUE READING.......]

How I Turned my Reluctant Readers into Book Lovers

Hi, my name is a Mrs Readalot and I'm a bookaholic. I gave birth to three energetic offspring who rarely sat still long enough to pick up a book. Not one of them showed any librarian tendencies. All of them were Reluctant Readers. It fair broke my heart, I tell you.
I've known since my youngest days the magic of books.
Books contain worlds. They expand our horizons. They let us inside other people's heads. Reading fiction even helps develop empathy (and combats narcissism).

"A recent study found that reading fiction helps people improve their empathy, because it encourages them to place themselves in others’ lives and understand their actions. In that way, reading is like traveling — with your mind." (Source)

For all these reasons and more I was desperate for my children to love books, I wanted them to enjoy rainy evenings snuggled in bed with a good book, nodding off to sleep as the rain pitterpatters on the roof and the book grows heavy in their hands, their eyelids droop and they slip into dreamland...

[ CONTINUE READING.......]

School Holiday Fun: The Book Party (with free printables)

Any excuse for a party, I say, and School Holidays is reason enough.
It's become a bit of a habit, throwing an impromptu party-for-no-reason when school is out; a chance to gather friends, and kids-of-friends, eat food and drink coffee. We've had themeless parties-for-no-reason, a Lego party, garden parties and last school holidays, Book Club: Kids Edition.
This led me naturally to the idea of throwing a Book-themed party this time. Invite the kids to dress up, and the mums to bring book-themed food. What could be simpler, right?

I have to admit, I had fun coming up with the ideas, and was pleasantly surprised how fun and easy this theme was. It might be that I went a little overboard...? (No, surely not, Simoney! that doesn't sound like you at all, did I hear you say...)


The Book Party Decor was super easy. I used what I have plenty of,  i.e. books of all shapes and sizes. My best bit of inspiration was trying out the idea of books as bunting. I tied up some strands of (strong) string, hung up a range of small books and VOILA! Book bunting...






For the table, I laid out thin paper-backed picture books and covered them with a $2 white plastic tablecover. Too easy, and cute.

The food was the fun part. To make sure that nobody missed the book-association, I made little labels...

The labels were made ahead of time: black paper stuck onto old business cards, with a mini picture of the relevant book stuck on it. I wrote the food's title with chalk and then sprayed each one with hairpsray, so the chalk didn't smudge. (Mini Book cover printable is at the bottom of this post)







But what you really want to see is the food, right??!

MR HAPPY COOKIES (from Mr Men books): plain packet biscuits topped with circles of rolled out yellow fondant; the face drawn on with chocolate squeeze-tube icing.
TRUFFULA TREES CUPCAKES (from The Lorax): a squirt of green buttercream on a choclate cupcake, topped with a wafer tube and a ball of candy floss (held in with a toothpick)
OREO SPIDERS (from Charlotte's Web): Oreo cookies split in half, with slivers of licorice poked in for legs; the Oreo gets sandwiched back together and squirty tube icing eyes applied
CHEESE TOUCH CHEESE N CRACKERS (from Diary of a Wimpy Kid): cheese and crackers!
MAX'S JELLY BOATS (from Where the Wild Things Are): blueberry jelly set in cups; a mandarin segment spiked through with a toothpick and a paper triangle.
CATERPILLAR GRAPE SKEWERS (from The Very Hungry Caterpillar): green and red grapes, on a skewer
SCRAMBLED SNAKE (from The Gruffalo): Home Brand Sour Worms
RINGS (from Lord of the Rings): Burger Rings! (could also use Cheezels)
EDMUNDS TURKISH DELIGHT (from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe): Turkish Delight. From a packet.

[books and christmas lights provided a cute background for the food on my hutch dresser]

There were so many bookish food ideas, most of them so simple (and I've always wanted to try making these Truffula cupcakes). I collected all the ideas I found on a Pinterest Board if you need more inspiration...

To drink we had NIGHTLOCK BERRY PUNCH (from The Hunger Games) and LASHINGS OF GINGERBEER (from Famous Five; grab the free printable labels below).

There were no book games or activities (though I did briefly consider a Book Quiz); this is not a birthday party after all. It's a chance for the mummies to get together and drink coffee while the kids rampage through the house with their friends on a rainy day, where they might otherwise be stuck inside, bored.

Can you figure out who they are dressed up as???

So at out school holiday book party we ate book themed food, drank book themed drink, and hung out with our friends while the rain fell and the wind blew. It was loud. It was crazy. It was messy.

But it was so much better than being stuck inside on our own.

Have you ever thrown an impromptu party? You should try it sometime. It's fun.

FREE BOOK PARTY PRINTABLES
If you want to host your own Book Party, here are my printables to help you get started...
[Right click to save images to your computer then print, trim and use. Both are set up on an A4 page]

[mini book labels]

["lashings of gingerbeer" Famous Five soda bottle labels]

• More parties here on my Party Index Page

Mrs Readalot's Latest List of Books Worth Reading

First of all, let me just say that Mrs Readalot has read a bunch of books lately, but not all of them are worth recommending - or even mentioning. Some of those books are simply forgettable, others are difficult to remember. Either way they do not rate a place here on this list of Books Worth Reading.

We shall begin with a book (or rather "series of books") which piqued Mrs R's interest after she saw the movie trailer...

Here we have the Divergent series, by Veronica Roth, which has been made into an action packed movie (it's well worth seeing and/or taking your tween/teen to. Loads of action, an interesting plot, very clean and suitable for older kids who can handle fight scenes; Mrs R took Dash to it and he thoroughly enjoyed it, as did she. Dash will begin reading Divergent once he finishes Mockingjay, Book Three of the Hunger Games series).

"I wanted to read this book/series after I saw the movie trailer; the concept of the story really appealed to me and I had heard it compared to The Hunger Games, which I loved. Apparently "Tris" (Divergent's protagonist) will give Katniss a run for her money. Divergent is the new dystopian adventure with a strong female lead.
All true, indeed, at least as far as both series are dystopian YA novels with strong female lead characters, but there the similarity ends. The Divergent world is intriguing but nothing like the world of the Hunger Games; it's a place where people are categorised by their dominant characteristic and organised into "factions" (Dauntless/fearless; Abnegation/service; Candor/honesty; Erudite/knowledge and Amity/kindness). At age sixteen, each person undergoes an aptitude test to determine which of these factions whey will belong to for the rest of their lives. Our hero, Tris, has grown up in Abnegation, but her test results are inconclusive. She is "divergent", with aptitude for three factions, which for some reason makes her dangerous to those in control.

As the story unfolds throughout the three books we learn more about the reason for this society's strange system; it's not what you'd think.
I enjoyed this series all the way through (though I did get a little annoyed with Tris's internal dialogue at times)... but the ending? I hated the ending. At the end of Book Three I wanted to hunt down the author and slap her silly. What was she thinking???!!
I won't tell you why her ending left me annoyed and irritated because I hate spoilers and you really should read it for yourself because in spite of the annoying twist at the end the book did carry me on an adventure. It was original, the characters were believable, there was loads of action and plenty of nail-biting, page-turning moments. Just don't say I didn't warn you if/when you read this series about the less-than satisfactory last-minute twist. (Come back here and tell me what you thought). 
All in all, a worthwhile read, but in my humble opinion it doesn't come close to the awesomeness of the Hunger Games (and I reckon Katniss could take down Tris any day)."

MRS READALOT GIVES THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ♥♥♥♥♥

[Source]

Next we have Silver Linings Playbook, another book with a movie version (which Mrs Readalot loved). Mrs R had heard loads of people raving about the book ("it's even better than the film - and I LOVED the film" etc) so when she skipped the country for a week in Fiji, where she just knew there would be loads of reading-by-the-pool-time, she was desperate to get hold of this book. Eventually a kind friend came to the rescue and lent her her Kindle, which was loaded with dozens of books, including Silver Linings Playbook. Yippee!

"I started reading this on the plane, and I was instantly hooked. It helped that I could imagine the delicious Bradley Cooper as Pat, and the divine Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany. Those two are perfect for each other. So in my head, Bradley and Jennifer played out this story; a messed up obsessive guy (Pat) who has been in some kind of mental institution finally gets out and tries to return to life.

The book differs quite a bit from the movie, it has to be said. The crazy bet made by Pat's dad doesn't feature in the book at all; and we never get to meet Pat's wife either. I guess the book didn't need the extra drama and action, whereas the movie director might have felt more excitement was required.

Right, back to the book. I loved Pat's "voice". My favourite books are the ones written in first-person. I feel like I get to know the characters better; I feel like I'm really inside the story because I'm inside their head. In this book, being inside Pat's head is an interesting experience. At first you have no clue what is going on, because Pat is in denial. He has no idea how long he's been "inside"; he doesn't know why he was there or why his wife left. Everything he does is with an aim to win her back. Poor Pat. I liked pat a lot.

There are a few choice words, but not heaps (for those who hate books full of profanity) and they do only feature where appropriate to the story.

So should you read this book? Yes. It's gritty, it's hopeful and it's funny/sad, just like the movie. Definitely glad I got to read this.

MRS READALOT GIVES SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK: ♥♥♥♥♥

Finally we have Winter of the World by Ken Follett (no movie version this time). Mrs R stumbled over this one on her friend's Kindle while in Fiji. She had read a couple of Ken's earlier books (Pillars of the Earth, World Without End) and mistakenly thought this was a continuation of that series, only to discover that she had landed slap-bang in the middle of a whole new series altogether. And what a series!

"One of my favourite eras for historical fiction is World War II, and after a moment of confusion at finding myself not in medieval England building cathedrals, but in Nazi Germany 1933, I was quickly drawn into this massive epic novel.
I thought I knew a lot about WWII and the Nazis, but oh boy, I learnt a few new things reading this book! Ken researches his books meticulously and tells the story through the eyes of various different families who are up close and personal with history in various corners of the world: Russia, Germany, England and the USA. In this book I learnt about the British Fascist movement (and how close they came to gaining dominance), the Nazi euthanasia programme, the Russian nuclear programme and Pearl Harbour, among many other things. What can I say? I loved it. And then I realised it was a series. Now I'm on the hunt for Book One, Fall of Giants (World War I and the Russian Revolution) to be followed by Book three, Edge of Eternity (due to be released in September 2014). Ah Ken, thanks for continuing my education about world history in such an enjoyable fashion. I love your work."

MRS READALOT GIVES WINTER OF THE WORLD: ♥♥♥♥♥

...................

Just one more little thing - a bonus tidbit for you.
I've been wanting my kids to read the Narnia books for themselves, like, forever, but have yet to persuade them to give those classic books a try (my absolute favourites growing up) so I decided to take matters into my own hands and start reading aloud to them on a regular basis.
I mean, I read a story to Scrag every night, but once the big kids could read for themselves I'd stopped reading to them. But guess what? They may be able to read chapter books themselves, but I have been surprised how much my big kids enjoy being read to. Reading a story aloud is an awesome way to finish the day.
It settles everyone down and is a wonderful way to calm down over-stimulated brains; plus it's so cosy next to the fire cuddled up on the couch on a rainy winter's night.

We began with The Silver Chair, as the kids have seen all the Narnia movies and The Silver Chair is the next part of the story. Having seen the movies they can imagine the characters and the setting, so that eases them right into imagining the story in their mind's eye. I've always particularly liked this book; there are giants, enchantments, a mystery and a dangerous quest - all the best elements for a great story.
The kids are loving it and really look forward to story time. We finally finished the first book on Saturday night, and now they are keen to move on to the next instalment, "The Last Battle".
After that, we'll try The Magicians Nephew; oh I just LOVE C.S. Lewis. Great stories for reading aloud.

More book reviews on Mrs Readalot's BookClub Page

Mrs Readalot's Dreams (of Gods and Monsters) Come True

When the most anticipated book in years landed on Mrs Readalot's doorstep she literally screamed. It was a happy shriek, followed by a happy dance, a ripping of packaging, a kissing of book and a waltz around the room.

Sometimes you find that rare series by a rare writer which combines all the elements for a fabulous escape into alternate realities.

Laini Taylor is that rare writer, The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is that rare series.
Deeply satisfying, grounded in gritty reality, populated with memorable characters, paced just right, it is filled with twists and turns, action, adventure, heartbreak, romance, mystery and magic. Fantasy that rises above its genre, books that demand to be read and re-read, handed on and recommended to all.

Mrs Readalot began with the first two books, recommended by a friend, devoured over the summer (in a matter of days, it must be said - good books don't last long around here).

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the first. Full of surprises. Addictive. More-ish. She read them on Kindle and was done in a little over a day, and was hungry for more. Thankfully Mrs Readalot had also downloaded Book Two - Days of Blood and Starlight. The first book finished, the second book was begun immediately.

But this was January. And it was months (three long months!) until April when Book Three was due to be published.

Mrs Readalot tried to slow down, tried to savour every page, chew over every twist and turn but all too soon it was over and the wait began.
April 8th, the day the world could finally learn the fate of Karou, Akiva, Ziri et al.

The days passed. Every so often Mrs Readalot did a mental tally and worked out how long was left to wait.
Until finally miracle of miracles, she was given the opportunity to get the final instalment ahead of time, straight from the publishers - O Happy day! This is why there was dancing.
Dreams do come true, and Dreams of Gods and Monsters was worth the wait.

In Mrs Readalot's own words:

I loved this book, I loved this series, I now love this author. Laini Taylor is a word-wizard. The worlds she created feel so real, so gritty I can almost taste the dust. Just when you think you know what it's all about, there's another layer revealed and everything comes clearer. Little details buried in the text were not throwaway loose threads but were keys to something deeper.
The worlds were not as we thought, there was more. Magic has a price, a terrible price.
And in Laini's hands, magic makes sense. It is the very fabric of the universe.

I love that there are no leaps of logic required here, no suspension of credibility. Laini makes magic possible; she makes other worlds likely.

This is why I love her.

She is clever enough to leave no loose ends while at the same timenot resorting to a sickly sweet Happily Ever After. There is instead: Satisfaction. Understanding. And Hope (which is after all the meaning of Karou's name).

Best of all this book leaves room for another series, while still satisfactorily concluding this one. Oh Laini, you are too awesome.

I won't tell you what happens because I hate spoilers, I won't give you many details because you need to read this for yourself. Really. You must.

So go. Now. Get this series. Get this book. You will love it I promise.

MRS READALOT RATES THIS BOOK: ♥♥♥♥♥

Who should read this book:

• people with awesome imaginations
• people who love action-love-alternatereality stories
• lovers of great writing
• people who like their magic a bit gritty
• people who love to sink their teeth into other worlds
• lovers of well-written fiction
• lovers of strong female protagonists
• people who love originality and adventure in their stories

Avoid this book if:

• You have no imagination, no sense of adventure, no love of magic, and your favourite author is Stephen Hawking.

................

Get Laini Taylor's books on Kindle

Get Laini Taylor Books on Book Depository (with free shipping worldwide)

MORE THOUGHTS ON THIS BOOK

Review by my friend Faery Sarah

Review by my friend Angela Noelle

More Mrs Readalot Book Reviews

A Real Life Book Club for Mrs Readalot (at last)

I have always wanted to be part of a Book Club, but somehow I have never been in the right place at the right time. I would listen enviously as other people talked about "their" book clubs, hoping, wishing someone would invite me to join... but no such luck. (They mustn't have realised what an asset I would be to a Book Club, what gems of insight I would offer, how fast I would gobble up every recommended tome).

So now I've gone and done it for myself - I've started my own Book Club.

Our first gathering was yesterday and I must say, it was lovely.
Really, really lovely. Truly enjoyable on every level.

Ours is not your usual Book Club. We don't all sign up to read the same book in a particular timeframe and then formally discuss it. Our Book Club is rather different.

We simply pool our books, name them, add them to the pot, then borrow whichever books on the pile take our fancy, to read at our own pace. Then we have coffee, eat, talk, laugh...

I love the informality of it. The way we can just hang out, connect, talk about books (or not) and pick up some great new reads with no pressure.

And I do so love to host. You know that about me, right? I love making the place feel welcoming (and pretty); I love to create an environment you can walk into and feel right at home in.
Plus, having people over forces me to do the dusting and vacuuming.

It helps that some of my favourite people are coming; they don't all know each other but they soon will. A latecoming friend popped her head around the door and said, "I can hear the laughter from down the driveway - that's a good sign!"
It is, isn't it?

The plan is this: every Thursday (starting next week) I will be ready at 11am with the giant pile of books and the Nespresso machine. Whoever wants can drop in, hang out, bring some treats (and books) to share. They can come every week if they want, or just when they want to swap a book or have nothing else on.

So if you're in Auckland, love books, are a wonderful person with sparkling humour and do NOT possess a PhD in literature you are welcome to add your books to the pile and come join us.

[two of my lovely friends posing for me "reading books at bookclub" ha!]

Or, if you live elsewhere but think this type of BookClub is right up your street, and would like to start something just like it in your corner of the world, I'll post my printable book labels and sign up sheets right below this.

There you have it: Mrs Readalot's Real life Book Club is now a reality *O Happy Day*

 

[FREE PRINTABLES: Click to view larger; right click to save to your computer then print and use]