Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn

Although this is on our State Children's Choice Awards for next year, I read this because one of my friends said, "You have to read this. It's creepy." She's now reading it at recess time with her fourth graders who want to and they are loving it.

Seriously. I met Mary Downing Hahn briefly at the autograph session when she won our state award for The Old Willis Place. She is this little petite older lady with gorgeous flowing script. How can these creepy stories come out of a sweet person like that?! I think this story is scarier than the Old Willis Place. I might have to make it an optional book with my 4th and 5th graders next year, as I can see some being too scared when reading it. It's a pretty typical ghost story, and fairly obvious to us adults what's going on, but it might be too much for some students. Still, the voice Downing gives her characters strikes a chord, even with us adults.

I also got a few new books in the mail. They are going to be on the book fair, so I got some to preview and book talk before the fair. I picked up Margaret Peterson Haddix's new book "Found: The Missing - Book 1". I didn't get very far yet, but dang...I didn't need to. The first ten pages made me think the kids are going to gobble this one up. I'll tell you more about it when I finish.

Other than that, I've been terribly busy. Most of my reading has been magazine and scrapbooking things. Although, I did leisurely read some books from an older series called Myth-O-Mania. Very light-hearted reading, but I had one from the series and never read anymore. I found them at the public library a few weeks ago.

I will check back later when I've read more of "Found"!