Hello Litwits!
We'll meet at Chaska H.S. on Wednesday, August 8th to discuss our summer reading from 9-11 a.m. If you want to come a bit early to set out your food, please do so!
Leave a comment below about what food you plan to bring. Anything breakfast-y will do. I heard that Leslie will provide us with coffee.
See you soon!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
PIC - There's a Hair in My Dirt: A Worm's Story by Gary Larson
Once upon a time in a place far away, lived a man named
Gary Larson who used to draw cartoons. It was a cartoon that appeared
for many years in daily newspapers and was loved by millions. (And was
confusing to millions more.) But one day he stopped.
Gary went into hiding. He made a couple short films. He played his guitar. He threw sticks for his dogs. They threw some back.
Yet Gary was restless. He couldn't sleep nights. Something haunted him. (Besides Gramps.) Something that would return him to his roots in biology, drawing and dementia--a tale called There's a Hair in My Dirt! A Worm's Story.
It begins a few inches underground, when a young worm, during a typical family dinner, discovers there's a hair in his plate of dirt. He becomes rather upset, not just about his tainted meal but about his entire miserable, wormy life. This, in turn, spurs his father to tell him a story--a story to inspire the children of invertebrates everywhere.
And so Father Worm describes the saga of a fair young maiden and her adventuresome stroll through her favorite forest, a perambulator's paradise. It is a journey filled with mystery and magic. Or so she thinks.
Written and illustrated in a children's storybook style, There's a Hair in My Dirt! A Worm's Story is a twisted take on the difference between our idealized view of Nature and the sometimes cold, hard reality of life for the birds and the bees and the worms (not to mention our own species).
Told with his trademark off-kilter humor, this first original non--Far Side book is the unique work of a comic master.
Now Larson can finally sleep at night. Question is, will you?
Gary went into hiding. He made a couple short films. He played his guitar. He threw sticks for his dogs. They threw some back.
Yet Gary was restless. He couldn't sleep nights. Something haunted him. (Besides Gramps.) Something that would return him to his roots in biology, drawing and dementia--a tale called There's a Hair in My Dirt! A Worm's Story.
It begins a few inches underground, when a young worm, during a typical family dinner, discovers there's a hair in his plate of dirt. He becomes rather upset, not just about his tainted meal but about his entire miserable, wormy life. This, in turn, spurs his father to tell him a story--a story to inspire the children of invertebrates everywhere.
And so Father Worm describes the saga of a fair young maiden and her adventuresome stroll through her favorite forest, a perambulator's paradise. It is a journey filled with mystery and magic. Or so she thinks.
Which is all we'll say for now.Well, you'll have to read to find out, but let's just say the answers are right under your feet.
What exactly does the maiden encounter?
Does Son Worm learn a lesson?
More important, does he eat his plate of fresh dirt?
Written and illustrated in a children's storybook style, There's a Hair in My Dirt! A Worm's Story is a twisted take on the difference between our idealized view of Nature and the sometimes cold, hard reality of life for the birds and the bees and the worms (not to mention our own species).
Told with his trademark off-kilter humor, this first original non--Far Side book is the unique work of a comic master.
Now Larson can finally sleep at night. Question is, will you?
YA - Deadly by Julie Chibbaro
Published 2012
(subtitled in some places "How Do You Catch an Invisible Killer?"
Join the search for Typhoid Mary in this early twentieth-century CSI. Now in paperback!Prudence
Galewski doesn’t belong in Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls.
She doesn’t want an “appropriate” job that makes use of refinement and
charm. Instead, she is fascinated by how the human body works—and why it
fails.
Prudence is lucky to land a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of a mysterious fever. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, Prudence explores every potential cause of the disease to no avail—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. But she’s never been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in solving one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century?
Prudence is lucky to land a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of a mysterious fever. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, Prudence explores every potential cause of the disease to no avail—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. But she’s never been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in solving one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century?
PROF - Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America Shawn Lawrence Otto (local author)
WINNER of the 2012 Minnesota Book Award for nonfiction
"One of the most important books published in America in the last decade." - TV News Anchor and columnist Don Shelby
"Whenever the people are well informed," Thomas Jefferson wrote, "they can be trusted with their own government."
"One of the most important books published in America in the last decade." - TV News Anchor and columnist Don Shelby
"Whenever the people are well informed," Thomas Jefferson wrote, "they can be trusted with their own government."
But
what happens in a world dominated by complex science? Are the people
still well-enough informed to be trusted with their own government? And
with less than 2 percent of Congress with any professional background in
science, how can our government be trusted to lead us in the right
direction?
Will the media save us? Don't count on
it. In early 2008, of the 2,975 questions asked the candidates for
president just six mentioned the words "global warming" or "climate
change," the greatest policy challenge facing America. To put that in
perspective, three questions mentioned UFOs.
Today
the world's major unsolved challenges all revolve around science. By
the 2012 election cycle, at a time when science is influencing every
aspect of modern life, antiscience views from climate-change denial to
creationism to vaccine refusal have become mainstream.
Faced
with the daunting challenges of an environment under siege, an
exploding population, a falling economy and an education system slipping
behind, our elected leaders are hard at work ... passing resolutions
that say climate change is not real and astrology can control the
weather.
Shawn Lawrence Otto has written a
behind-the-scenes look at how the government, our politics, and the
media prevent us from finding the real solutions we need. Fool Me Twice
is the clever, outraged, and frightening account of America's
relationship with science--a relationship that is on the rocks at the
very time we need it most.
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