Everywhere we look: books.
Books in Cupcake's room, books in Robespierre's room, in my room, on the dining room table (which we don't use for meals because it's loaded with books), on the basement steps, in the bathrooms, on the kitchen counter and in every pocket and cranny in the car except the cup holders. We even have books under the kitchen sink but those are phone books and nobody I know actually reads them (although I'd totally pay to hear James Earl Jones read the phone book).
I converted the kids' baby room into a library but the shelves filled up immediately and there were still more books underfoot. I finally quit insisting that Cupcake move all the books out of the cabinets in her room and put them in the library because there simply wasn't any room left in the library.
I'm not complaining because books seem to add some insulation in cold weather.
Okay, I am complaining. We were beginning to look like hoarders. Intellectual hoarders, yes, but hoarders nonetheless.
So Cupcake and I created the Book Exchange (patent pending).
We invited all the girls in her grade to bring at least ten books they didn't want to read again, to trade for books they hadn't read. As I'd suspected, we got a bunch of High School Musical, Rainbow Fairies, Nancy Drew, princesses and mean girls. We also got Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, two copies of The Penderwicks, The Kid Who Became President, Because of Winn Dixie, books by Andrew Clements, Beverly Cleary, Dan Gutman (but no Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, because who could ever surrender those?). Almost everything was snapped up quickly; we were left with a handful of orphans to donate to our school's book drive in December.
Entertainment? Why yes, we did have entertainment. In addition to hosting a group scuttle from the upstairs playroom to the downstairs playroom to her bedroom to the driveway for leaf sledding, Cupcake prepared a rather challenging quiz called: How Well Do You Know Your Books?
Anyone want to take a stab at it? I'll give a $10 FeeFiFoto gift certificate to the first person to answer more than half of these questions correctly.
1. Name the 4 houses of Hogwarts and their founders
2. What’s another name for a pen?
3. Name the 4 members of the Mysterious Benedict Society
4. What is the name of Percy Jackson’s sword?
5. Do you like green eggs and ham?
6. What’s the name of the dog in the Phantom Tollbooth?
7. What book has a main character named “Wilbur”?
8. Was Stuart little?
9. Name as many pets as you can from all seven Harry Potter books (we found 16!)
10. What is the name of Rodrick Heffley’s band?
11. Who publishes The Quibbler?
12. What is Jasper's power?
13. Severus Snape: Good or evil?
14. Who is the author of School Story?
15. What does Skye Penderwick do to the cookies?
16. What’s the name of the Meanest Doll in the World?
17. Name the 3 Deathly Hallows
18. Luke Castellan: hero or villain?
19. Here's another riddikulus question: what is that spell from?
20. What is Charlotte’s web address?
21. Fill in the blanks: A ____________ ‘s a ____________ no matter how ________.
22. What language is Miss Perumal teaching Reynie?
23. What is your favorite book?
How well do you know Cupcake's favorite books?
