It's a Potato Soup Kind of Day

Even though we aren't anywhere near the coast where Sandy is currently creating a mess, we are experience some of the effects of the storm with dropped temperatures and high winds.  It is just one of those days where you want to stay in, crawl under a blanket, and eat something warm.  It is a potato soup kind of day.

I thought I'd share my favorite potato soup recipe for Homeschool Mosaics' Recipe Carnival.

Best-Ever Potato Soup

6 bacon strips, diced
3 cups cubed peeled potatoes
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
1 small carrot, grated
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 T dried parsley flakes
1/2 t each celery seed, salt, and pepper
3 T all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
8 ounces precess American cheese, cubed
2 green onions, thinly sliced, optional

In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp; drain.  Add potatoes, broth, carrot, cnion, parsley, celery seed, salt and pepper.  Cover and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes). Combine flour and milk until smooth; add to soup. Bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes.  Add cheese and stir under melted and the soup is heated through.  Garnish with green onion.

Tips:

• I tried skipping the celery seed once because I was out.  Don't!  It really is a critical ingredient in my opinion. 
• I like this recipe even better with ham instead of bacon.  When I make a large ham, I always chop some up and put it in the freezer just for this soup.
• I often use extra broth if I have it and just add a few more potatoes and seasonings.  I find the recipe very forgiving.
• Usually I use Velvetta in this recipe, as much as it pains me!  I made it tonight with real cheddar cheese.  It still tasted great, but I find the Velvetta tastes better.
• Sometimes I take a masher to the potatoes, but I often leave them in chucks.  It seems heartier that way.

Tonight I happened to have some leftover bacon crumbles from a salad and sprinkled those on top.  I paired this with a fresh loaf of bread make in the bread maker.  Very filling - and perfect for a cold evening.

YUM!

Review: Wild Ink (Prufrock Press)

When my review copy of the updated and expanded Wild Ink by Victoria Hanley arrived in the mail, I was excited to dig in as soon as I had some free reading time.

Wild Ink is a guide for those wanting to break into getting published in the Young Adult market.  While I do not exactly fit the profile, I do enjoy writing and have a teen daughter who dreams of having a novel published.  I am always looking for constructive ways to guide her writing and move that dream a little closer to reality.  With that in mind, I approached Hanley’s book both as an adult writer and a parent of an aspiring writer.

In the first chapter the reader is introduced to an overview of the Young Adult genre, including target age range, approximate length, use of vocabulary, themes, and subgenres. Chapters two through six discuss novel development. Plots and settings, character development, and how to overcome obstacles specific to the genre are all covered.  The author even includes an exercise on how to find your “inner teen” for proper perspective and point of view when writing your novel. In addition, a complete chapter is devoted to writing teen nonfiction and another entirely to writer resources.

I really enjoyed the following section consisting of four chapters explaining how to get your finished novel published and marketed, whether you are seeking and agent or want to do the self-publishing route.  My shelves already contain several how-to books on writing novels, but the instruction stops there. As someone who has never published a book, I found this section on what to do once your novel is completed very helpful in understanding the process, what to watch out for, and the pros and cons of various options.

The last 80 pages or so of the book are interviews with Young Adult authors, both fiction and nonfiction. Hearing the background and experiences of these 33 authors is very inspirational and encouraging to the aspiring writer.

As I was reading through Wild Ink, I realized how appropriate this title would be for my teen daughter, even though the intended audience is for adults.  After finishing, I handed it over to her for her opinion.  She found Wild Ink helpful and commented that her original expectations of it being a “dry read” were unfounded. Since she is currently working on a YA novel, she was able to relate the concepts to her current work while reading, jotting notes along the margins.  I can see how this title would be a great resource and reference for older teens both prior and during developing a novel.  As for me, even through I have never attempted writing a novel, Wild Ink gave me the tools to make the idea a little less intimidating and obtainable.

Whether you are just beginning or an experienced writer trying to break into a new genre, Wild Ink is an excellent resource to guide you along the way. Available at Prufrock Press and other online and local retailers, Wild Ink retails for $17.95 and is available both in soft cover and digital versions.

Disclaimer/Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the book mentioned above from Prufrock Press for the purposes of review. All opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Sneak Peeks with K.E. Weeks: Yellow Star

This feature is presented by guest blogger, K.E.Weeks.

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy (Marshall Cavendish; 2006; $11.32) is a book of free-verse poetry that tells the story of the author’s Jewish aunt in Poland in World War II when the Jews were forced into the Jewish Ghetto. Of the 270,000 people forced into the ghetto, only 800 survived until the end of the war and, of those, only 12 were children. Yellow Star is the story of one of those children.
I’ll admit; I dislike poetry. However, for me, this book is the exception. It reminds me of Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano’s poetry, which concentrates more on storytelling than imagery or diction or pentameter. The chronological poems tells protagonist Syvia’s story with clarity and brevity, which helps to maintain the childish perspective. At the beginning, Syvia is four-years-old. By the end, she is one day shy of her tenth birthday.

The book is truly an example of where less is more, where what is left unsaid is more powerful than what is said. The poems speak in vignettes, such as this one after six-year-old Syvia’s friend Hava disappears while out for a walk:

Itka comes over to my apartment,
but we don’t say much.
Our dolls do the talking for us.

Itka’s doll: Where is our friend today?
My doll: I don’t know.
Itka’s doll: Perhaps she had another engagement.
My doll: More important than our weekly tea? (Roy 39) 

Overall, Yellow Star is a gentle introduction to the Jewish Holocaust. While there is talk of hunger, starvation, beatings, “the trains,” and death, the adults in the story attempt to shield Syvia from the worst of the experience, which means the reader is spared much of the raw violence and anguish as well. At the beginning of each section, two pages from the narrator’s perspective describe the historical setting and the events surrounding this portion of the narrative.

I recommend this book for upper elementary, middle schoolers, and youthful high schoolers. It is a quick read—even at 230 pages, I read it in a few hours. I give it four stars (out of five) for its Hemingway-esque brevity; insightful, child perspective; and historical accuracy.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this review is to guide parents into selecting appropriate, significant, high-quality literature for their teens and tweens. I have no connection with the author or publisher of this book. I am a home educator of two children, 12 and 15, with a Master of Art degree in American Literature and a keen interest in young adult fiction and nonfiction.

*Contains affiliate links

All About Spelling Level 7 on SALE!

As many of you know, I am quite the fan of All About Spelling.  It has been a wonderful program for my dyslexic son.  Level 7 has been recently released and is currently on sale at 15% off through August 6th.  Sales are pretty infrequent for this program, and if you are interested in getting the next level, now is the time!  See All About Spelling for more on the program.

*contains affiliate links

Free Maker Camp for Teen Inventors

Do you have an inventor in the house? We attended a local Maker Faire a couple of years ago. We definitely saw some unusual things.  Unfortunately I can't find my pictures from the event or I'd share them, including the car covered with synchronized Big Mouth Billy Bass!

Regardless, if you have a D.I.Y teen in the house, they might be interested in the FREE virtual Maker Camp.  It started today and runs through August 24!


This looks like it will keep your resident inventors busy for the rest of the summer.

Sneak Peeks with K.E. Weeks: Article 5

This feature is presented by guest blogger, K.E.Weeks.

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons begins promisingly enough ($10.98; Tor Teen; January 31, 2012). The author sets a dystopian scene reminiscent of The Hunger Games with the “Federal Bureau of Reformation” and the “Moral Statutes of the United States of America,” which among other proclamations, includes Article 5, “Children are considered valid citizens only when conceived by a married man and wife.”

Sadly, the book goes downhill from there...quickly. The story is about seventeen-year-old Ember who is seized by the totalitarian government for noncompliance of Article 5 (her mother is a single mom) and taken to a reformatory where her one-time boyfriend-turned-soldier, Chase, breaks her out and begins their fugitive trek cross-country to find her mother, who has also been abducted.

There are so many things I disliked about this book that it is difficult to know where to begin. First and foremost, I was strongly offended by the way in which the book slams Christianity. The totalitarian government is enforced by certain branches of service including the “Sisters of Redemption,” which sounds eerily like the nuns of Catholicism: “The Sisters did to women what the MM [Moral Militia] did to men: tore away the soul and brainwashed what was left” (Simmons 53). Later, the protagonist, walks by a nurse reading a Bible, and the way in which it is described it is clear that the reader is supposed to think this is bizarre and “brainwashed.”

Secondly, the protagonist is naive and ignorant. She continually questions Chase’s motives and loyalties long after he has proven his reliability through his actions. The reader just wants to shake her. She makes foolish, rash decisions, and the reader wonders what on earth Chase sees in her. For example, Ember runs off several times and gets herself into trouble. A girl with any sense at all would not do this. Chase is an admirable character, but Ember is brainless and irritating. In addition, the whole “conflict” and “sexual tension” gets old really fast.

Thirdly, the story is often implausible. Spoiler Alert! Skip to next paragraph to avoid spoilers. For example, during the climax of the book, Ember steals a gun from a soldier while his back is turned and then is able to “sneak” it back to her cell under a piece of clothing. There is no description of how she accomplishes this, and the result is that it sounds completely unbelievable. Later in the book, she and Chase “convince” a hard-core soldier to simply give up, walk away, and let them go. Seriously? Moreover, the big “twist” in the story is that Ember’s mother has been dead all along and Chase hasn’t told her because he is afraid she might not go to the safe house with him if she knew. I knew the mother was dead from the beginning, and I can’t help but think that other readers would, too. After all, this book is intended for high school level readers, not elementary. The condescending plot structure gives the reader the impression that the author has no experience with teens.

Lastly, the book is poorly written. I understand authors can demand some creative license when writing, but the number of sentence fragments in this text are excessive. It makes the reader wonder if the author even realizes she is writing sentence fragments. It is like the difference between a novice painter and a master: Picasso could paint abstract cubism because he knew how to paint realism and had made a choice to paint abstractly. An amateur who paints cubism because he cannot paint realistically is just a mess. The same is true here. Aside from the two main characters, the rest are just flat stereotypes. The plot is drab and has few subplots.

Article 5 contains some violence, including references to torture (“One of the soldiers was already preparing the fire hose inside. Beside him, a pair of leather cuffs were chained to the floor beside the baton” Simmons 94). The romance is focused mainly on kissing and bodies touching through clothing, but the descriptions are steamy. I would not give the book to a student under fourteen years old. Honestly, I had to force myself to finish reading this book in order to write the review. I give this book one star (out of five). If you are looking for a dystopian novel, look elsewhere.


Disclaimer: The purpose of this review is to guide parents into selecting appropriate, significant, high-quality literature for their teens and tweens. I have no connection with the author or publisher of this book. I am a home educator of two children, 12 and 15, with a Master of Art degree in American Literature and a keen interest in young adult fiction and nonfiction.

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Sneak Peeks with K.E. Weeks: Moon over Manifest

This feature is presented by guest blogger, K.E.Weeks.

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool is a complex historical novel that bounces between two time periods: 1917-1918 and summer 1936 ($7.99 paperback; Yearling; December 27, 2011). Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker has been riding the rails with her daddy for as long as she remembers, but when she scratches her leg and it becomes infected, he sends her to live in Manifest, Missouri with some of his old friends. The story is told through Abilene’s 1936 observations of the town, through letters from Ned to Jinx in 1918, and through a fortune-teller’s stories.






The novel is well-written and exceptionally well-plotted. The book has several big twists and reveals, which I am loathe to give away here. The characters are realistic and lively, and the description is detailed and interesting. For example,

You’d have thought I’d be used to this by now. Being the new kid and all. I’d been through this umpteen times before but it never gets any easier. Still, there’s certain things every school’s got, same as any other. Universals, I call them....My one consolation was that I knew these kids. Even if they didn’t know me. Kids are universals too, in a way. Every school has the ones who think they’re a little better than everybody else and the ones who are a little poorer than everybody else. And somewhere in the mix there’s usually ones who are pretty decent. Those were the ones who made it hard to leave when the time came. And sooner or later, it always came (Vanderpool 26).

As the book progresses, Abilene learns more about her father and his past in this town, as well as all of the secrets lurking in a small town. There is no romance and very little violence with the exception of some fistfighting, a Klan cross burning, and a murder which is entirely “off stage” and not actually seen. There is some bootlegging during Prohibition and discussion of strong drink, but only one character is ever “seen” drunk and the irony is that she does not realize she has been drinking alcohol until it is too late. A small scene in the beginning has a fortune telling. Overall, though, there is little here that most parents would find offensive.

I have only two minor criticisms of the book: the pace and the complexity. First, the pace is a bit slow in the beginning. The latter half of the book is exciting and page-turning, but the first half meanders for a long time, setting the stage. I maintained interest, but a young reader might become bored before reaching the thrilling parts.

Second, the complexity might confuse young readers. Overall, I am pleased to see a young adult novel with substance. Too often books for the YA audience are shallow, and Moon over Manifest is definitely not that. Still, the bouncing between two time periods can create confusion and the vast number of characters to keep straight—with names like Callisto Matenopoulos and Nikolai Yezierska!— might overwhelm even strong readers. The author includes a list of characters at the beginning of the book, which helps considerably, but it is still difficult to keep everyone straight. Moreover, without some historical background (such as a cursory understanding of WWI and the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918), the book would lose some depth. I would not recommend this book for a reluctant or struggling reader for the reasons mentioned and because it changes font in each chapter, although he or she may enjoy it on CD.

If you have a strong reader who is ready for substantial plots and complicated characters or if you are studying Prohibition, the Great Depression, or WWI, this is an excellent book which both boys and girls in 5^th – 9^th grade will like. I can see why it won the Newberry Medal. I give Moon over Manifest five (out of five) stars.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this review is to guide parents into selecting appropriate, significant, high-quality literature for their teens and tweens. I have no connection with the author or publisher of this book. I am a home educator of two children, 12 and 15, with a Master of Art degree in American Literature and a keen interest in young adult fiction and nonfiction.

*Contains affiliate links