For those of you who enjoy ghost stories, check out Mary Downing Hahn’s All the Lovely Bad Ones. Two prankster teenagers spending the summer at their Grandma’s Vermont inn, find out that it is listed in Haunted Inn’s of Vermont. They decide to let the guests have a ‘ghost’   experience but never dream that they might wake the real ones.

I also read (finally) Linda Sue Park’s Keeping Score. For baseball fans, learn how to keep score while listening to (or watching) a game. You can get the flavor of what it was like before TV’s (or the internet) were everywhere. You can also get a little history as a character goes off to Korea for the war and the main character tries to understand just what the fighting is all about.

We were fortunate enough to have Newbery-winning author, Linda Sue Park, visit our school recently. We could never afford to have her so we want to publicly thank the Memorial West Merchant’s Association for arranging it. Our 4th and 5th graders enjoyed her presentation about all of her books but especially her newest title, Keeping Score. It was clear how much research she had to do in order to write this book. She knows baseball! I’m pleased to say that her books have been flying off the shelf ever since! We started a blog, Parking It Here, about the themes in her books to help prepare for her visit. Please check out the Activities (use the sidebar to navigate to them) and comment on your own thoughts.