Snowmen Feltboard

Here's a set of felt snowmen I put together. Easy and fun! I had a great time with these in storytime - this was before our "big snowstorm" this week. Most of the kids had not seen snow before, and had never made a snowman before. We talked about all the different colored hats. I really have the best job ever.

Here's the song we sang:

Five little snowmen riding on a sled

One fell off and bumped his head!

I called Frosty and Frosty said

"No more snowmen riding on a sled!”

Four little snowmen ....

End with: NO MORE snowmen RIDING on a SLED!

Top 10 Worlds I'd Never Want to Live In

This week's Top 10 Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is:
 Top Ten Worlds I'd Never Want To Live In.

Okay! Here are my top 10 places I'd give a big fat, "no" to. Ahem.

1. Westeros. I love high fantasy. I love magic and dragons. I love books with intricate world-building and lots of nations/cultures coming into conflict. So, I enjoyed the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. But, I would not want to live there. In making his series "realistic" by adding lots of death, rape, dismemberment, prostitution, muddy filth and general hardship, I know this isn't a world where I'd fit in.

2. Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Live in a world without feelings, where everyone has their emotions surgically removed? Boo! Thumbs down to that!

3. Tripods series by John Christopher. In this classic dystopian series, tripod aliens have taken over the Earth, forcing everyone to live with medieval level technology since that is all we are "responsible" enough to handle. Scary! No thanks!

4. Hytanica. In this fantasy trilogy by teen author Cayla Kluver, the country is run by a featherhead princess in love with a foreign mage prince. While she abandons her duties for true love, the country goes to pot.

5. The Giver by Louis Lowry. In this classic dystopian, everyone lives perfectly managed lives, and euthanasia/assisted suicide is perfectly cool. Feh. Do not want.

6. The Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. I loved to read this series, since it has a quasi-British feel and is chock full of strong heroines, but actually, I would not want to deal with some of the dangerously scary magic and undead spirits that Lirael has to handle in this book.

7. Thirsty by M.T. Anderson - This is a world that I would not want to live in because it is perfectly normal, boring suburbia, except for the fact that everyone (even if they don't realize it yet) is doomed by the evil vampire demon lord Tch'muchgar.

8. The Dustlands series by Moira Young. Living in a desert hellscape of desperate scavengers does not actually sound like very much fun.

9. The American Fairy series by Sarah Zettel. As if surviving the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl isn't enough - the characters in this magical historical also have to deal with malevolent fae who are bent on exacting torment on the already disadvantaged human Midwesterners.

10. Panem. Nothing about the world of The Hunger Games is good. Almost everyone is starving, and people are forced to watch kids kill each other on reality TV. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No thanks. Well... maybe if I could be besties with Effie Trinket. Actually, you know what? No. Not even then.

January 2014 Book Haul

I hit an amazing post-Christmas sale and picked up the following books:

Vampirates: Empire of Night - Justin Somper
Hemlock - Kathleen Peacock
As You Wish - Jackson Pearce
The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini
Grave Mercy - Robin LaFevers

Culling the TBR 2014

I wish I had time to read every book on this list, I really do! But, it's time to thin down my list of books "to be read." If you see any that are so wonderful that it would be a terrible, terrible mistake to take them off my list, let me know in the comments and I'll consider adding them back on. You know what's funny? I was looking at one of my first "Did Not Finish" lists from several years ago, and I did finally get around to reading at least 4 or 5 of them, so you just never know.