As I review the list of books I read this past year I am amazed at the sheer quantity.  And the quality, too, for that matter.  Aside from a couple of Fluffs, my brain was able to wrap itself around some pretty interesting and enlightening tomes.

I’ve placed the books into six categories, and then made a few comments on each.  If the word sayonara appears after the author it means 1) I don’t recommend it and 2) it went straight to the Goodwill pile.  I only keep books I would either read again or heartily recommend.  The italicized books are my three favorites of the year.

FICTION:

Madame Bovary   Gustave Flaubert.   There’s a reason it’s a classic… memorable characters, well-written prose.
In a Dark Wood Wandering   Hella S. Haasse.   Engrossing historical fiction, aptly depicts the time period.
Bergdorf Blondes    Plum Sykes.   This book is, of course, a waste of a perfectly good tree.  It is Fluff Defined, really.  But there are months days when that’s all my brain can handle.  If you were amused by The Devil Wears Prada, it’s tres fun, a quick read, and good for several laughs.
Kite Runner    Kahled Hosseini.  
Uncle Tom's Cabin    Harriet Beecher Stowe.

MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY:

I Loved a Girl  Walter Trobisch.    Candid and thought-provoking collection of letters between a priest and a young couple considering marriage.  Excellent.
Borrowed Time:  An AIDS Memoir   Paul Monette.     Sayonara.
Pirate Hunter:  The True Story of Captain Kidd   Richard Zaks.     Apart from being gratuitously crass in a few places – and occasionally getting the impression that some of the historical background that sets the scene throughout was added as filler - I enjoyed Pirate Hunter.  So did Jonathan.  It’s the only book he read last year.

DOCUMENTARY/HISTORY:

Fast Food Nation   Eric Schlosser.   Makes you re-think that McDonald’s burger for many, many reasons.
Vaccinated   Paul Offit.  (review)

OTHER NON-FICTION:

The Not So Big House   Sarah Susanka.    Inspiring ways to efficiently construct/design/renovate you home.
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book    
Deceptively Delicious   Jessica Seinfeld.   (review)
All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes    Kenneth A. Myers and Marvin Olasky.    Sayonara.
Bible:  Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, I and II Timothy, Titus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galations, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1, 2 & 3 John, Jude.    [Note:  In January of 2005 I set out to read the Bible through in one year.  Three years later, I’m one book away from that goal.  Out of it’s books I read in 2007, Hebrews resonated the most with me.]

ECONOMICS / MARKETING:

Freakonomics   Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.    Jonathan and I listened to this audiobook in the car en route to and from Sante Fe last spring.  Intriguing, enlightening, and entertaining.
Why We Buy:  The Science of Shopping   Paco Underhill.   Sayonara.

EDUCATION / PARENTING:

Good Kids, Bad Habits  Jennifer Trachtenberg.  (review)
Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box  Ann Dunnewold.  (review)
Girlfriend's Guide to Toddlers   Vicki Iovine.   The Girlfriend’’s Guides are always amusing and encouraging with quite a few helpful pointers throughout.
Practical Wisdom for Parents:  Demystifying the Preschool Years    Nancy Shulman and Ellen Birnbaum.   Despite the melodramatic subtitle, this book is a fairly extensive guide to both how children change during these years and how to choose an appropriate preschool environment for them.
Six Point Plan for Raising Healthy Happy Kids   John Rosemond.  Sayonara.
Tools for Teaching   Fred Jones.    Good resource for educators.
Teaching Preschoolers:  It’s Not Exactly Easy, But Here is How To Do It     Ruth Beechick.    A succinct and well-organized guide with emphasis on practical application.  I will be referring to this book often during the next few years.
The Bilingual Edge    Kendall King and Alison Mackey.  (review)

So....  what were your favorite reads of 2007?

Finally the boys are more interested in using crayons to color with rather than to snack on and soon enough they will be mass-producing glorious works of art! Here’s what I will use to hang a few of the better ones:

Picture hooks and poster strips by 3M

Recently I helped my Mom hang high schoolers’ art for a show/ She bought a bunch of assorted picture hooks and poster strips and all we did was peel the sticker off the back, press the hook/strip against the wall for a few seconds to secure it, then hang the picture!  The hooks were better for the canvases and the strips worked well with the matted – but unframed – pieces.  The hooks and strips came down just as easily and left no marks on the walls. 

A quick and easy way to hang any kind of art: yours or your children’s! You could also hang Christmas lights or other decorations this way.  (another cute way to display younger children’s art here)

[Note: even though I referred to Benjamin and Jonah as my twin daughters when I called in with an comment, listen to the latest Podcast from Motherhood Uncensored about inlaws and the holidays!]

Since first writing about raising bilingual kids a few months ago, I have a discovered a few more helpful resources to add to my Introducing Kids to Spanish list.

First is a book called The Bilingual Edge by Kendall King and Alison Mackey (review copy provided by Parent Bloggers). It is well-organized and a valuable tool, especially for households who only speak one language.

What I found particularly informative/interesting/helpful:

• A brief section on assessing the language resources in your community (classes/activities/neighbors/babysitters) that might affect your choice of language. For example, I might think Russian would be unique and cool, but we live in Miami and so might want to focus more on the predominant language spoken here (Spanish) so we have access to more resources.
• A section helping you to decide between helping your child develop a casual knowledge of a few languages or focusing all time and effort on just one.
• These statistics: 15% of the world’s population speaks Mandarin Chinese, and both Spanish and English are spoken by about 5%.
• The resource lists in the back listing web sites where you can find foreign language books, DVDs, etc., as well as a list of language immersion camps for kids.

If you are beginning to navigate your way through the myriad options for exposing your child to another language(s), I recommend The Bilingual Edge as an effective starting point.

A second resource helpful in introducing kids to Spanish is a cartoon series called "Maya and Miguel" (review copy provided by BoldMouth). It’s sprinkled with Spanish vocabulary, but what I like most about it is the (mostly Mexican) culture infused into the characters’ everyday lives. Plus Maya and Miguel’s parents and Abuela speak with a Mexican accent - authentic and educational! [As an added bonus, Maya and Miguel are twins!]  I'm looking forward to the boys being old enough to watch it in a few years!

A few more words about using videos to build foreign language skills (this topic is covered in-depth in The Bilingual Edge as well)…

I'm well aware that the The American Academy of Pediatrics says that children under the age of two should not watch television. Clearly none of these pediatricians have twin toddlers. The Baby Einstein videos that the boys watch have a Spanish-language option, and even though there are only a couple dozen word spoken during the entire video, every little bit helps. Especially when I sit beside them and use my limited vocabulary to describe what we’re watching.

Also, the boys also love the CedarMont Kids music videos, but the Spanish option on these is muy lame -- it’s just dubbed Spanish so it’s terribly obvious that the kids’ mouth are still singing English and it doesn’t match up at all.  Not to mention the fact that it's still a bunch of gringo kids sinigng American gospel tunes!

We’ve had over twelve inches of rain so far this month, with still a few days remaining. Swarms of mosquitoes viciously attack us the moment we step outside ( Jonah got 23 mosquito bites in the car during twenty minutes it took me to figure out how to put the covers back on the #X!&$% car seats after washing them) and here is the forecast for the rest of the week:

Wednesday: isolated thunderstorms

Thursday: thundershowers

Friday: heavy thunderstorms

Saturday: scattered thundershowers

Even though we’ve discovered new indoor activities (we just found a great toddler story time at the library), the “no television” policy was quickly tossed out the window. We watch a Baby Einstein DVD most days, because – as my friend Amy aptly put it - “Sometimes they just need to chill.”

But sometimes we have to just get out of the house, even if it’s just to drive around listening to music for half an hour in the rain. One of the great finds at a recent library trip was the book/CD combination called “ Themes to Remember” by Marjorie Kiel Persons.

As a teaching tool, it’s appropriate for preschoolers through high school. For now, the boys and I just listen to the CD, but the book has explanations of music terms, brief composer biographies, descriptions of genres, ideas for corresponding activities such as art, dance, and games.

It also has recommendations for CDs and books for exploring each genre further. And the author’s web site has a suggested schedule for introducing all 128 themes over a six-year period. It is truly a wonderful way to introduce children (and their ignorant parents in my case!) to classical music.

Another resource I just found is the Classics For Kids radio show – six minutes focusing on one work by a classical composer. You can access all past shows on their site (a new one comes out each month) as well as corresponding activity sheets, games, and a musical dictionary.