I haven't blogged for a month. I am really embarrassed that I have been so bad about posting and reading for that matter. A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to go to Boston for an IB conference. The conference was really enlightening and taught me a lot about the program, but touring Boston was even better! This is a picture of me with the duckling statues in Boston Commons. These statues are of the 8 ducklings and their mom from Robert McCloskey's children's book Make Way for Ducklings. In the book, the ducks return home to Boston Public Garden. The book was originally published in 1941 and it won a Caldecott Medal somewhere along the way. It is a children's book that is still in print today and still a fun read! My new friend here was "feeding" the ducklings, but he said that it was okay if I took a picture with them.The HHS library has a bunch of new audio books. They are in the format of Playaways which means that the book is loaded onto a small mp3 sort of player. It fits easily into a pocket and was great to listen to on the plane. I listened to Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. It is a fantasy book and different from any other book I have read (or listened to). The audio book has a full-cast audio which means that even though Matt narrates the book, the other characters have different people reading their parts. This makes the book very easy and enjoyable to listen to.
Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the airship Aurora. His father worked on the Aurora before he was killed in an accident and Matt has worked on the ship for several years. It is the only place he feels at home and close to his father.
Matt is on lookout one day and he spots a tattered hot air balloon. The airship rescues the balloon and finds an old man injured in the basket. The man dies a few days later after telling Matt about the creatures he saw in the sky. A year later Matt meets Kate who is a passenger on the Aurora. Kate is the granddaughter of man who died in the hot air balloon and she has come to find the strange animals that her grandfather claims he saw. She and Matt have many adventures include a run in with pirates, a ship wreck and the discovery of the amazingly new flying animals. Airborn is a great book filled with adventure for all!
