Poetry Friday: Dear Hot Dog

 

You squat on the table
with your big mouth
wide-open
full of nothing
but light.
You look up begging,
and I let loose
an avalanche
of crunchy flakes
crashing down
to fill you.
You gurgle happily
as I pour in milk
and introduce
my spoon.
“We’ve met,” you say.
“The spoon and I
have fallen in love,
and after breakfast
we’re running away!”

I continue in my effort to inject poetry into our lives. I thought a great place to start would be the Cybils shortlist.  This selection by Mordicai Gerstein has been a joy all week. The poems are all about ordinary everyday things but with some kind of twist or perspective that makes the ordinary seem extraordinary. They boys really enjoyed taking turns reading the poems outloud and trying to guess what the subject was. (The poem above is an ode to a bowl.)

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Hey, Jim Hill!

Read Aloud Thursday: Owl Moon

This week for kindergarten David and I are spending time with one of our favorite Five in a Row books, this 1998 Caldecott winner by Jane Yolen. This book is one of those great children’s books that are beautifully written and really appealing to kids. A young girl and her father go for a walk in the woods for her first trip owling. Yolen perfectly captures the excitement of a small child out for a grownup adventure with her father and the beauty of the still woods.

I reviewed this new book by Jim Arnosky last week as it’s on the non-fiction Cybils shortlist but it’s good enough to mention twice. I knew my boys would love this one and I was right. They discovered it in the book basket on their own and have enjoyed looking at it together, on their own and with me. John even got it out to read sections to his grandparents on the phone ( thank goodness for patient grandparents).

The other book we’ve enjoyed many readings of this week is this one by Narelle Oliver. A screech owl goes out hunting for food for its babies but on each page the prey camouflages itself. Each two page layout is a seek and find for the camouflaged animals. The drawings are wonderfully detailed. The owl does finally catch one of the other animals, which I suppose could be disturbing to some kids. It’s presented in a matter of fact, low key way. My kids were fine with it, we’ve always handled death in nature as just a fact of nature. The owl isn’t mean it’s just acting like an owl. I find my kids understand that idea well from an early age. This was a great book for all three of my kids, the boys in particular loved competing with each other to spot the animals on each page first.

We’ve also read some fiction books about owls. Martin Waddell’s Owl Babies is one of my favorite picture books so we had to go back and re-read it. Three owl babies are left home alone when their mother goes out hunting. They anxiously await her return.  The charm is in the interplay between the owl siblings, with the oldest trying hard to be brave and the youngest repeating the refrain “I want my Mommy.” It’s a very sweet book that all my kids have enjoyed. They still all like revisiting it but it’s best for the very young. We’ve also enjoyed Hoot by Jane Hissey and The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson.

This book by Greg Foley is a celebration of imagination reminiscent of Harold and his famous crayon.  Willoughby is a small boy afraid of the dark who is worried when the moon disappears. Imagine his excitement to find a giant snail and the moon in his closet. The snail has lost his silver ball and needs Willoughby’s help to find it. Don’t try and make sense of that story. Just trust me, it works well. The illustrations are all in black and silver ink and are stunning. We read the first Willoughby book last year which is also a beautifully illustrated ode to childhood imagination.

And finally, would any homeschooling study of owls be complete without the dissection of an owl pellet? No. No it wouldn’t. We’ll be doing the dissection on Friday but I’ve taken a look already at this new resource I ordered. We’ve done the owl pellet before but this book comes with a pellet and a very nice little book on owls that I think will make the dissection that much more worthwhile.

Be sure to stop by Hope is the Word for more Read Aloud Thursday!

Too cool not to share

 

Sent to me by my juggling husband.

 

 

 

You’ve probably already seen this but it’s relatively new to me. I was never a big Queen or Freddie Mercury fan, but I am a big fan of Downhere. More specifically of their song How Many Kings?  and I think Marc Martel is freakishly good in this audition to be the lead singer of a new Queen tribute band. (He won the competition.)

 

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.

I saw this poem first on Mother Reader. The full version, found here, is awesome geeky fun.

Thoughts on Book Awards (and stuff)

I intended today to write a post about the ALA awards that were announced yesterday. But today was one of those days where life interfered with blogging. As I write that I realize it sounds a bit pompous. Sort of, “Oh, I’m just too busy and important for this little blogging thing.” Which is not what I mean. Neither do I mean that my real life interfered with blogging as I hate the pretension that blogging is somehow fake or less worthy than other endeavors. I guess what I mean is just that it was a day where a lot of other pursuits took my attention and distracted me from this particular pursuit.

There was a lot of birdwatching. There was a morning teatime. And an afternoon teatime. With lots of reading at both. We read poetry and books about owls and books about Benjamin Franklin.

There was some discussion of factors and prime numbers. There was less school than planned since it was an unusually warm January day and I wanted to let the kids spend a lot of time outdoors.

I kept thinking I’d have time to sit down and write. But there was bread to bake. And some unexpected laundry to do due to spilled hot chocolate on “pink blanky” during teatime number one and a great deal of mud from the outdoors adventures. There was some painting to do in the guest bedroom we are in the process of renovating/redecorating.

There were altogether too many emails to write. And a fair number of phone calls for work.

Then after dinner and bathtime there was more laundry from a vomiting child. (Who is now snug in bed sleeping.) And of course more books to read.

I sit here wondering why I even still feel compelled to write this post. Do I think that there are readers who are waiting with bated breath for my thoughts on the ALA awards? No. I could easily choose to do something else with these few spare minutes. Some might saw something more worthwhile. The truth is that I enjoy this time and this endeavor. It’s slightly therapeutic. Or cathartic. It’s worth my time.

So…the ALA awards. The winner of the 2012 Caldecott is A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka, a book I haven’t read. I have read the three Caldecott Honor Books: Blackout, Grandpa Green and Me…Jane and liked them all, especially Grandpa Green. The winner of the 2012 Newbery is a book I haven’t even heard of, Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. One thing that pleased me was that the books all seem more like things kids would actually like than just books adults think are really great and that kids should like. Dead End in Norvelt sounds kind of wacky but intriguing enough that I put it on hold at our library. The other two Newbery Honor Books sound more to me like beautiful books that adults think kids should like. One, Inside Out and Back Again, sounds like something I would really like but I’m not sure about kids, at least my particular kids. I should probably be careful about making those assumptions though. I remember thinking the same thing about Good Masters, Sweet Ladies! when it won the Newbery but then being really surprised at how much John enjoyed reading it together. Good books are good books for a reason.

I’ve been more aware of book awards this season between the Cybils and now the ALA awards (there are many more ALA award categories that you can see at their website). I’ve come away with two impressions. One is that there are an awfully lot of great books out there for kids and young adults. It’s amazing to me how little overlap there is between the Cybils shortlist and the Caldecott winners. And I know there are a lot of other awards I don’t know about and that probably chose different top books. I think this says more about the quality of children’s literature than any lack of consensus in the kid lit community. Second, I’m struck by how subjective it is to pick a “best” of anything, much less a book. There is great depth and wide variety in the field. I do wonder how the judges choose. Is it more important to write a book that kids love or one that somehow is innovative and pushes the boundaries? How do you define excellence other than “I know it when I see it”?” It’s an interesting process that I wish I knew more about.

However, regardless of whatever other choices the ALA judges made they made the absolute best choice for the Edwards lifetime achievement award. They gave it to Susan Cooper who is the author of The Dark is Rising series my all time favorite series from childhood. To let you know both how much I love these books and what a book geek I am I’ll tell you that we went on our honeymoon to Cornwall because of them. So in my mind the ALA awards were right on the money this year.

 

 

Two Mysteries

This was the second book I’ve read by Laura Lippman, who I believe is best known for her Tess Monaghan detective series. I haven’t read those but have enjoyed the books I have read by her, both of which are difficult to classify. Not really a mystery, more like a thriller but more psychological than something with a lot of action. This book, like her other one I read, asks difficult ethical questions. In this book, four childhood friends are brought together again after the death (a questionable suicide vs. accident) of the fifth member of their group. From the beginning, it is clear that some terrible secret is haunting all of them and has impacted each of their lives differently. The book is told from multiple perspectives and in both the present and as flashbacks. I don’t dislike this style, but it has begun to feel a little overused to me. It used to be a non-linear story with multiple perspectives was cutting-edge. Now it’s kind of ho-hum. However, Lippman is a good writer and is able to flesh out each character. The ending felt a bit disappointing to me. Since it’s a thriller, I don’t want to give anything away, but my main disappointment was in feeling that the characters didn’t really grow or change during the story.

I have been a long time fan of Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley novels. Over the past few years I’ve developed a sort of love-hate relationship with George’s books. I come back to these books as much for the recurring characters as for the mysteries themselves.  A few books ago she did something with one of the recurring characters that made me angry. None of the books since then has lived up to the promise of the earlier books. Part of this may be that I’m still bitter about the character, but I think it’s more that the tone of the books has changed. George has always dealt in the dark side of life but the last few books have seemed to deal only with the dark. Believing the Lie is more of a return to the earlier books of hers that I loved but it is still very dark.

In this book, Tommy Lynley, her aristocratic detective hero is asked to unofficially investigate a death that has been ruled accidental by a family member of the dead man. As he investigates what is possibly an accident and possibly a murder, he uncovers layer after layer of dysfunction and deceit within the dead man’s family and loved ones. Woven into the story are the stories surrounding many of George’s recurring characters: Lynley who is a grieving widow, Barbara Havers his slovenly sergeant, and Deborah and Simon St. James, friends of Lynley’s who assist him in the unofficial investigation. As I read the book, I realized that one of the things that has grown to annoy me about George is that she cannot or will not allow any of her characters to simply be happy. They all have tortured pasts. They all live in fear of some secret becoming known. They all act in ways that are sometimes just insensitive and sometimes unbelievably selfish. The amount of drama in these peoples lives is enough to power several soap opera scripts.

At first I thought that maybe I was being too hard on George. After all, these are mysteries. They are fiction. She is creating drama, making it interesting. Then I compared it to another mystery series I have come to really enjoy, the Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny. There are many differences between the two series, but I think one of the most important is that Penny allows her characters to grow and change and to be happy. Gamache is almost too perfect but for the most part he does the right thing. He has a happy marriage and children and grandchildren. Other characters in the Penny series also change over time. Their isn’t a sense that at every turn something horrible is about to happen to them. This is somewhat ironic since Penny, unlike George, writes in the tradition of all her books being about one village. This means that certain characters do discover bodies multiple times in their lives and one wonders just how many murders can occur in a sleepy little village. However, in their personal lives, Penny’s characters are nowhere near as tortured as George’s.

Still. The fact that George has created characters that I care enough about to be angry with her for how she treats them is evidence that she can write a good book. The past few years each book I read I think maybe this will be my last and that I’m done with the series. And then a new one comes out and I’m drawn back. I’ve heard that authors get tired of characters they create in series like this. I can see how that would happen. I think my disappointment with George is that it feels like she is taking the easy road and using the drama of dysfunction in place of real character development. I think what keeps me coming back is that I hope that one day she’ll create a happy ending of sorts for some of these people I’ve come to care about.

I was going to end there but I realized as I went back and re-read this post that perhaps what bothered me about Lippman’s book and what bothers me about George’s books is the same thing. Both are lacking in redemption. I’m ok with darkness but I there is something in me that longs for at least the possibility of light.

Another recent review of Believing the Lie at Semicolon. 

Our Week in Books

    

I saw Rhyming Dust Bunnies at Sugarcake Diary and thought it looked like something Ruth would like. I was right. She LOVES it. There isn’t much to this book, just four dust bunnies who love to rhyme. The dust bunnies are Ed, Ned, Ted and Bob. The bunnies are good at rhyming, except for Bob. But Bob’s the only one who notices the “Huge scary monster coming this way with a broom! ” Ruth likes this book so much she asks for multiple readings over and over. She gets it out of the basket and asks for “Read Bob!” She also is a huge fan these days of any of the If You Give books. This past week we’ve given a dog a donut and a cat a cupcake and a mouse a cookie and a moose a muffin and a pig a pancake.

  

 

Next week is Chinese New Year so for kindergarten David and I (and his brother and sister) have enjoyed a lot of dragon books and some books about the holiday itself. (2012 is the Year of the Dragon.) In Ute Krause’s book, Oscar has to figure out how to get himself out of a bad situation when he is sent to be the village sacrifice to the local dragon. He uses a combination of quick thinking, remembering his fairy tales and using his budding gifts as a chef to create fantastic dishes for the dragon to eat instead of him. This is one of those odd books that are just…well, odd. But it works well to make an enjoyable (if odd) story with detailed illustrations to accompany it. King Jack and the Dragon is a sweeter story more about the imagination than dragons. Jack, Zack and baby Caspar spend the day battling dragons in their castle only to have Jack left all alone at the end of the day (giants have come and taken Zack and Caspar away to bed). Jack finds himself confronting a giant four legged two headed beast. It’s not a bit scary and kids will see the “surprise ending” coming from a mile away. But that’s the charm. The illustrations are by Helen Oxenbury and are reminiscent of one of Ruth’s all time favorites, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Me and My Dragon is more of a mix of sweet and funny. A boy tells all the things he and his pet dragon would do. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and make this a fun read. To read about Chinese New Year itself, I turned to two of my go-to-authors for anything to do with China: Grace Lin and Ying Chang Compestine.

It appears that the theme of the new year for me is to ponder the balance between following a schedule and allowing for more serendipity. We’re still not unschoolers but for us, we’ve had a much less structured week than usual, this time on purpose. Last week we had a bad week of school. There were many reasons for that, not the least of which we were coming off of three weeks of a lack of structure (holidays plus a sick week). The end of last week took us on a mini-vacation that was our Christmas present to the kids. I intentionally did less planning for this week and tried to recapture some of the reasons we homeschool in the first place: flexibility, a joy of learning, the fun of being together, time to pursue interests. One day started with John and I curled on the couch reading our respective books for a couple of hours. He has spent the week re-reading the Narnia books and re-reading some of the Andrew Lost series, a favorite of his a few years ago. I enjoy watching him re-read as I know the joy I get from revisiting old book friends.

We ended up having a math and science heavy week. Both boys are on geometry units in their respective math books (for David this means basic shapes, for John it’s angles and perimeter and area). I let them have some fun free play time with our geometric pattern blocks and intended to read them one book in the Sir Cumference series. They asked for more. And more. And before you knew it we had read through the 5 or 6 books we own. We’re continuing a study of Chemistry with all three of the books above. The Mystery of the Periodic Table is a fascinating book about the history behind the discovery and development of the periodic table. I was a Chemistry major in college and I’m learning a lot from it. Fizz, Bubble, and Flash is a fantastic combination of Chemistry experiments (using things around the home) and explanation of the elements. Just this morning we did a simple electrolysis experiment to separate hydrogen and oxygen in water and made homemade ice cream (showing the use of salt to make the ice water colder). The Basher science books are a resource I heard about first at I Capture the Rowhouse and they have been a great find for us, both boys love them. One of John’s friends was recently at our house, saw them and asked where I got them. He seemed a little jealous when I told him we used them for school.

Interestingly, we ended up doing about the same amount of formal school (spelling and grammar and the like) as we normally do. We just did it in a slightly more unorganized way. I’m still trying to figure out how to achieve a balance that works for me and my students so I’m sure you’ll hear more from me on this topic in the future.

This year I’m teaching a high school class on Human Anatomy and Physiology at our co-op. I’ve re-read and re-read these two favorites of mine by Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey. This Sunday I’m teaching the second of two classes on anatomy to our women’s Sunday School so I’ve pulled these out again. I first read these in high school and found them inspiring both in Brand’s amazing stories of his time as a missionary doctor in India and fascinating in his thoughts and devotions on human anatomy.  This week also brought us a classic homeschooling moment. My co-op class had a planned dissection of a cow’s eye so my co-teacher came over so that we could prepare. We decided to do the dissection first to be able to better walk the kids through it. Someone looking in our kitchen would have seen five kids (hers and mine) crowded around a table munching on oatmeal raisin cookies and watching their mothers cut apart a cow’s eye.

For read-alouds, David and I started Nim at Sea. We read Nim’s Island before Christmas which he loved and he is excited about this sequel.  John and I continue to be absorbed by the world of Redwall with Mattimeo. We had started Secrets at Sea while on our vacation so we are continuing it as well. I’m not sure the boys are enjoying it as much as me, but I am completely charmed by this world of mice (which reminds me in many ways of Downton Abbey, another current pleasure of mine).

The other books are what I’m reading on my own. I finished Believing the Lie, the latest in one of my favorite detective fiction series. Full review to come. I also started The Death of Adam by one of my favorite writers, Marilynne Robinson. The introduction alone was deep and thought-provoking. I’m very much looking forward to reading it but I think it’s one that needs to be read slowly and really mulled over. Finally, I got The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic out of the library for John along with a few other middle grade fantasy books. But first, influenced by the reviews at Semicolon and Hope is the Word,  I stole it for myself and I am loving it.

That’s our week in books. What are you reading at your house?

*I’m having some trouble manipulating images on my blog. I’m not very savvy at this kind of thing and I think I have it reasonably fixed but if this post looks wonky or hard to read on your server, I apologize. 

I’m linking this post to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Stop by, it’s fun to get a glimpse into what’s going on in other people’s homeschools.

Read Aloud Thursday: Non-fiction Cybils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last post, I gave my thoughts on the Cybils fiction picture books shortlist. We’ve also been enjoying books from the Cybils non-fiction picture book list. As with the fiction list, the Cybils challenge has been a great way to sample some of the best in children’s literature.

Bring on the Birds by Susan Stockdale is a simple introduction to birds for the very young. The bright colors, realistic bold illustrations and rhyming text all work together to make a enjoyable read. At the end of the book, Stockdale includes brief thumbnail sketches identifying each bird and giving a bit of information on them. We really enjoyed this one the first time we read it and both David and Ruth have requested it over and over again since I checked it out again a few weeks ago.

Thunder Birds by Jim Arnosky is also a book about birds, but on a whole different level. I don’t think there’s anyone who does nature books for children better than Jim Arnosky and he’s created another masterpiece here with this book about birds of prey. I liked that the text is more personal in nature than some of his other books, with stories about birdwatching trips he and his wife have taken. The book includes absolutely gorgeous life size fold out pages of some of the birds. I haven’t had a chance to share it with my boys but both are fascinated by birds of prey and I anticipate that they will love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planting a Wild Garden by Kathryn Galbraith is a lovely book that shows all the different ways that seeds are distributed in the wild. On first glance it’s a relatively simple concept but on looking at it further there is a lot of information packed into relatively few words. The pencil and watercolor illustrations and the feel of the paper itself give the reader the feeling of reading a nature journal.

All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson is a brightly illustrated look at the water cycle. I liked that the illustrations themselves look like flowing water and reflect the text. However, I felt like the actual information was somewhat slim especially compared to the other books on the shortlist. I don’t think any of my kids actually learned anything new about the water cycle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins is an outstanding book. It looks at endangered animals and the different reasons why animals become endangered. I really liked that Jenkins addresses that these aren’t simple problems with simple solutions. The text is somewhat wordy but written in an engaging style and accompanied by incredible realistic illustrations by Vicky White. All three of my kids enjoyed this one at different levels. Ruth loved the pictures of the animals. John, my science guy, loved all the facts. And David, who doesn’t always like non-fiction, enjoyed the pictures and the way that Jenkins turns the discussion of endangered animals into something of a story.

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat by Carlyn Beccia is my pick to win this category. I reviewed this fascinating and funny look at weird but true medicine through history here. I probably am biased towards this book just because of the topic. How could I not pick the book that makes gross and bizarre medical cures accessible to kids as young as my five year old David (who begged to have this book read over and over)? I also loved the illustrations and the multiple choice quiz format. But I think I would also pick it as the winner because it’s really unusual as well as being really well done. I can’t think of another book like it for this age group.

The only book on the shortlist I haven’t been able to get my hands on is The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs by Sandra Markle. Our library has it but there are several people ahead of me on the hold list. We’ve read and enjoyed many other science books by Markle so I have high hopes that this one will also be excellent.

At this point, I pick I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat as the winner with Thunder Birds and Can We Save the Tiger? being close seconds.

And as always, stop by Hope is the Word for more Read Aloud Thursday!

Armchair Cybils: Fiction Picture Books Shortlist

As you know, I’ve been having fun playing along with Amy’s Armchair Cybils Challenge.  The shortlists came out Jan 1st and I’ve had a chance to read through the fiction and non-fiction picture book lists. Today, my thoughts on the fiction shortlist.

Me….Jane by Patrick McDonnell is a biography of Jane Goodall suited to preschoolers or younger elementary kids. I reviewed it in full here. I really liked the illustrations and McDonnell’s use of some of Goodall’s own artwork and notebook pages.

Blackout by John Rocco is a simple but well-done book about one family’s experiences during a major blackout. The cartoon-like layout and bold illustrations work well together. Reviewed in full here.

I Had a Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn is a sweet and charming book about the creative way a little girl and her mother handle her “favoritest” dress getting too small. Reviewed here, this was one that both Ruth and I loved.

Press Here by Hevre Tullet is a very clever concept. Each page has a simple direction for the reader to perform (press on the yellow dot, shake the book lightly, blow on the page) and when the page is turned something has changed. The yellow dot turns into a red dot or all the dots slide to one side of the page. It’s very simple but clever. Best for preschoolers.

Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan Shea is a fold it/pop up style of book in a question and answer format. Each page asks a question about what grows, “If a snakelet grows and becomes a snake, can a cupcake grow and become a cake?” It’s cute and probably also best for preschoolers. David (age 5) thought it was funny but he also  said it was “kind of for babies”.

The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett on first glance is a classic fairy tale-like story of a pig and a princess switched at birth. On second look it’s a funny and clever story with lots of tongue in cheek references to classic fairy tales. All four of us laughed a lot and enjoyed this one.

The only Cybil nominee I haven’t been able to read so far is I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. I’m on the hold list at the library. Based on the glowing reviews I’ve seen this one is quite likely to be the winner.

One of the most interesting things about the Armchair Cybils challenge for me has been thinking about what goes into judging books. The Cybils website doesn’t really talk about what criteria they use. The seven books on the shortlist are incredibly diverse, not to mention the hundreds nominated. How do you judge which is “best” between books like Press Here, which is inventive but really geared towards the very young and I Had a Favorite Dress which is not as creative but has a much more engaging story? I’m also not entirely sure why Me….Jane and Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? are classified as fiction. I think both of them, in particular Me…Jane would be better classified as non-fiction.

So, because I don’t really know how to objectively judge between these books if I was a judge I’d have to choose the ones that we liked the best. For us that would clearly be I Had a Favorite Dress or The Princess and the Pig.  I also like that both were story-driven. I like the inventiveness of picture books like Press Here but I feel the trend in picture books in the past few years has been toward the clever concept rather than the well-written story. I appreciate these two for the stories they tell.

Many of the books we liked the best weren’t chosen for the shortlist (Grandpa Green, Naamah and the Ark at Night, Doodleday). In the end, that doesn’t really matter because the best part of this challenge for me has been in discovering and reading a lot of great new books with my kids. Even though it’s a bit corny to say, it’s also true…we are the real winners here.

 

 

 

 

Scenes from a Shenandoah vacation

I Think I Love You

One night my college roommate sat straight up in bed and belted out:

I’m sleeping
And right in the middle of a good dream
When all at once I wake up
From something that keeps knockin’ at my brain.
Before I go insane
I hold my pillow to my head
And spring up in my bed
Screaming out the words I dread:
“I think I love you!”

I wasn’t quite of the David Cassidy generation. And neither was she, but she had grown up on Partridge Family reruns and this was one of her favorite songs. It became one of those running private jokes throughout college. Whenever one of us had a crush, the other one would end up singing this. So, when I first heard of this book I was attracted by the title alone. Then when I saw it was written by Allison Pearson, the author of I Don’t Know How She Does It., I knew I wanted to read it.

Pearson’s books are fluff but fantastic, funny fluff. She is a master of writing about fairly ordinary things and capturing the absurd humor in a lot of everyday life. The first half of this book takes place in 1974 Wales where Petra and Sharon are 13 yr old girls who are obsessive fans of David Cassidy. Their lives center around a scheme to attend one of Cassidy’s last concerts in London and their entry for the Ultimate David Cassidy Fan Quiz. Pearson beautifully captures the emotions of a 13 yr old girl who is part of  the popular crowd but only just. Petra longs to be included but knows that Gillian, their particular Queen Bee, could ruin her life at any moment. Petra and Sharon’s story is also alternated with that of Bill, a young twenty-something writer for the Ultimate David Cassidy Fan Magazine who reluctantly has become the voice of David. The second half of the book features an adult Petra who discovers that she and Sharon actually won that long-ago contest but never knew it. Petra, who is going through a divorce, recovering from the death of her own mother and struggling with her own 13 yr old daughter, calls the magazine to see if she can claim her prize: a trip for two to meet Cassidy. Twenty-fve years late she and Sharon travel to Las Vegas to finally meet their teenage idol.

Pearson explores the idea of celebrity and why we idolize stars but this book is more about basic human relationships than David Cassidy. The mother-daughter relationship. The husband-wife relationship. The first love relationship. The childhood best friend relationship. The relationships between women that can be supportive or catty. It’s very very funny but it’s also very real. Then ending is somewhat unbelievable but it’s what you want to happen and it’s unapologetically unbelievable so I just gave in to the ride and enjoyed it. My version of the book included at the end the transcript of an interview that Pearson did with David Cassidy that was apparently the inspiration for the book.

I Think I Love You probably won’t go on my end of the year best list but it was a good read. This isn’t really book candy and neither is it a big healthy salad. It’s more like a big delicious piece of chocolate cake. Yummy and satisfying.