Hi. My name is Nathan Rockledge. I’m ten and a half (well really I’m ten and three quarters, but who’s counting?) I’m going into fifth grade this fall. When I grow up, I really want to be a comic book artist. I think I’m pretty good at it, and I love making up stories. I’ve actually done a few already. Maybe one day I’ll show them to you.

 Sometimes I get in trouble because I’m supposed to be doing something else, but I just can’t help myself. Once I get started drawing, I just get lost in what I’m doing. I usually draw myself doing awesome stuff as Nate Rocks. He’s me, only cooler.

I especially have to be careful in school. There is this one girl named Lisa Crane, and she is so annoying. Her mom and my mom are best friends. One day I got in trouble for drawing in school when we were supposed to be taking a spelling test. Do you know what Lisa did? She went right home and told her mom, who of course called my mom. Seriously – who does that?

Abby says my drawings are dumb, but I think they are cool. Oh yeah – Abby’s my older sister. Sometimes she’s okay... I guess. Most of the time I just try to stay out of her way. She’s always in some kind of a mood – Mom says it’s just a phase, but so far this phase has been lasting as long as I can remember. Older sisters can definitely be a pain sometimes. I was hoping to be able to spend the summer without her around, but as it turns out Mom & Dad decided to send us both to the same overnight camp! I mean can you believe that? Of all the thousands - maybe millions – of camps, you’d think they could have sent her somewhere different.

Book Description from Amazon.com:

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

North and South
By: Elizabeth Gaskell
Publisher: Dover Publications
ISBN: 9780486479521
Pub Date: June 13, 2012
Pages: 464
Buy Link: Barnes & Nobles

If you are looking for a good read and you enjoy the novels of Jane Austen, then look no further than Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South. Written around the same time as Austen’s works, this novel delves deeper into class conflicts, the unions, the hard work of laborers, and even the hero’s inner psyche. The supporting characters are stronger than most of Austen’s and you really grow to care about their struggles.

The main idea of the novel is that a pastor’s daughter, Margaret Hale, is transported along with her ailing mother and now jobless father from her quiet and comfortable home in the south of England to the crowded, dirty, and chaotic north. She must find her spot in this new society, and befriends a mill worker and his dying daughter. Her father starts tutoring a mill master, a man named Thornton, how quickly becomes smitten with the beautiful and headstrong Margaret. She rejects him, however, because she has seen the ordeal that the mill workers are put through.

Picking up after the events of the Darkwoods, the wraith mice Princess Zuryzel has a lot of responsibility as she leads an army against the Darkwoods Foxes, who outnumber and out power them. Zuryzel is growing up to be an independent adult mouse who must journey to unseen places to find out whom really started the war.

Her invisibility may not be able to help her as she stumbles into a world of betrayal that leads her to the Stone Tribe city of Pasadagavra. Secrets are revealed as she is confronted with a deadly pirate, who may or may not be responsible for the war. To make matter worse, the mice and their squirrel allies may not be able to defend the city from the Foxes.

Zuryzel travels across the seas and mysterious lands as she goes on a quest that will test her strength and her faith. A battle with the Darkwoods Foxes is unstoppable and the Stone Tribe City may fall in this exciting sequel.

Final Thoughts

Ravens Pass: Curses for Sale
By: Steve Brezenoff
Publisher: Stone Arch Books
ISBN: 978-1434242099
Pub Date: August 1, 2012
Pages: 96

To avoid the traffic, Jace Thomas's dad takes the exit to Ravens Pass, where they come upon a garage sale, and Jace's dad can never say no to a good bargain. His dad buys several LP records, a few coffee mugs and a rabbit's foot. His littler sister buys a couple of dolls, and Jace buys a battery operated red sports car for only five dollars. Yes, Jace is a few years too old for it, but just like his father, he couldn't pass up a bargain.

Jace squeezes himself into the car and drives to his best-friend Sam's house. He lets Sam take the car for a spin, but then a mysterious accident occurs. Or was it something else? As this toy car can drive by itself.

White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors
Written By Irina Lopatina
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
ISBN: 978-1611530247
Pub. Date: July 30, 2012
Pages: 378

In this fantasy adventure set in the magical land of Areya, a prince, known as some as the White Raven, named Vraigo spends most his days in the forest with the druids and other magical creatures instead of defending his kingdom. Some may think of him as weak, but to him not fighting is his choice to make. Eventually, demons from a parallel world invade his home in which the kingdom's army will be defeated unless Areys uses a magical sword known as Urart against the demons. But there is one little problem, the Urart has been stolen!

To save his kingdom, Vraigo must journey to the 21st Century to retrieve the sword, but there are many dangers that lay before him.

Early one Sunday morning, I was jolted awake by my parents' laughter echoing from the living room, where they were watching a classic Blondie movie on AMC—back in the day when the channel was free of commercials. Mornings have never been my strong suit, and by the time I dragged myself out of bed, I could only catch the tail end of each film. Eventually, AMC stopped broadcasting those beloved films on Sundays, leaving me with nothing but a nostalgic hole in my routine.

A few summers later, I stumbled upon one of these movies listed in the TV Guide. Eagerly, I recorded it on a VHS tape, but my luck quickly ran cold. Week after week, I scoured the listings to no avail until, fortuitously, Christmas Eve arrived with a marathon of Blondie films. It was a moment etched in my memory—the beginning of my Christmas break, albeit with a touch of flu, racing between two rooms to capture the movies on two VCRs. Those tapes have since deteriorated into a near-unplayable state, but I did manage to get the first ten Blondie films on DVD. Yet, I often find myself longing for a complete remastered collection—imagine the joy of seeing those films polished to a sparkle!

Recently, while indulging in a Google search for "Blondie and Dagwood," I stumbled across a book titled Blondie Goes to Hollywood ^[*] by Carol Lynn Scherling. To my delight, this author had meticulously chronicled the extraordinary journey of the Blondie comic strip, which evolved into 28 films, a long-running radio show, and several short-lived television series. As a blogger and reviewer, I reached out to the publisher for a review copy, not expecting much—but lo and behold, the next day, I received an enthusiastic email confirming they’d be happy to send me one.

Sweet Valley Confidential
The Sweet Life #6: Bittersweet
By: Francine Pascal
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ASIN: B007XSN73E
Pub. Date: August 12, 2012
Pages: 84

Finally, its here, the final chapter in the The Sweet Life e-serial drama, and, yes, I waited to nearly midnight to receive it on my Kindle. Was I going to wait and see what happens? Of course not! I wanted to find out the ending!

Last week left off with Aaron Wakefield (Steven's husband) returning to Warner Gas and finding a stunning revelation about the so-called Robin Platt. Elizabeth Wakefield went to Kentucky to find information on her. Jessica Wakefield Wilkins still loves her estranged husband, Todd, but her fling with the actor Liam may end her marriage for good.

Jessica's life is a complete wreck and now the famous Liam is stalking her. Yep, you heard me right. He is constantly texting her and when he doesn't hear from her, he practically runs her career at  VERTPLUS.NET. If Liam can't have Jessica, then no one can. His rage takes over and poor little Jake may be the victim.

 
Night Buddies and the Pineapple Cheesecake Scare
Written by: Sands Hetherington
Illustrations by: Jessica Love
Publisher: Dune Buggy Press
ISBN: 978-0984741717
Pub. Date: June 1, 2012
Pages: 128

John Degraffenreidt gets a big surprise after the lights are turned off and his parents shut his bedroom door. A red crocodile wearing a yellow outfit crawls from underneath his bed. Is this crocodile the boogeyman? Or maybe some kind of monster?

Of course not! The crocodile's name is Crosley and he is a secret agent of the Night Buddies, a program for children who have trouble falling to sleep. Crosley needs John's help to solve one of the world's biggest mysteries. Why has the world's only pineapple cheesecake factory stopped making pineapple cheesecakes?

Making Sense When Life Doesn't
Written By Cecil Murphy
Publisher: Summerside Press
ISBN: 978-1609362249
Pub. Date: April 3, 2012 
Pages: 208

 The Litfuse Publicity Group and Summerside Press sent me a review copy of Making Sense When Life Doesn't last month free of charge for a honest review. I read the book right away, but for some reason I have been having the hardest time trying to start this review for it. As it says on the back cover, "Life is Messy. Cluttered. Disorganized." So I think my life is currently cluttered too, with all the books and papers piled up on my desk.

I have been an avid reader all my life. My mother was a voracious reader too. She would go to the library every week to pick up books for herself and books to read to us children. I can hardly remember a time in the evening when my mother didn’t have a book tucked under her chin devouring the words at warp speed. My father was a big reader too. He read magazines like Life and Look, non-fiction biographies or autobiographies, and he read the whole set of Encyclopedia Britannica just for fun. I’m serious!

I definitely picked up the reading gene from both my mother and father. I loved the trips to the library especially when I was old enough to pick out my own books. I thought that was so cool. I read anything and everything to include being a Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys fan.

As I grew older I developed such respect for the authors whose work I read. I adored how they put the words together to tell a story. I would read certain passages in a book over and over again because I loved the flow, the rhythm of how the words came together and the intent behind the words. The art of writing and storytelling held me spellbound and I wanted to be a person who could work magic with words like the authors I read.