Sunday, October 14, 2007

Why I haven't been posting recently

In the past couple of weeks, I have devoted myself to reading some adult books. Since this is a young adult blog, I haven't been writing about them. What have I been reading? First I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book has made me think about what I eat and the need to eat more locally grown foods. I've moved from it to The Omnivore's Dilemma which I am still reading and probably will be reading for several more days. I find it fascinating and scary -- it is amazing how badly we can destroy our environment and our bodies all at the same time.

It is also amazing how little our children know about the food we eat. Friday I had a very earnest eighth grader ask me if roosters lay eggs. When I explained that they didn't, she then asked me if roosters were chickens (surely if they didn't lay eggs, then they couldn't be chickens). This led to a class discussion about farm animals. Many of the children who go to our school are rural children but they know nothing about the farms that surround them. We are taking our eighth graders to the state fair Monday and this is one of the reasons we are going.

After I finish The Omnivore's Dilemma I'll start A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and will write about it as soon as possible.

Oh, I also read Rituals of the Season by Margaret Maron. I love her murder mysteries, partly because they are set in North Carolina near where my parents grew up.

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