Jolenes Reading Information Blog

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Hey Gang, I couldn’t wait to post this one. One of my daughter’s teachers sent this video from Ocoee Middle School in Ocoee, Florida. Great video and fun too. Check it out on you-tube at:

Ocoee, Florida is a little town just west of Orlando, Florida which use to be nothing but orange groves and farmers. It is still a kind of small town but the Middle School has created a really first rate project. Congratulations Ocoee Middle School and keep up the good work!.

After seeing this video I have hope that there are children out there who want to read and whatever we can do as parents, relatives or friends of kids to encourage our children to read is worth trying. Once a child or adult, for that matter, learns to read it opens up all kinds of possibilities for that person to pursue knowledge in its many forms.

There are lots of resources out there on how to teach your children about reading and writing. We like to blog about them when we come across them. Today we found the website called ABCTeach.com This is a very nice little website with lots of reading and writing worksheets. This website offers a limited amount of worksheets for FREE as the bulk of them are offered to members only at about $40 a year for a single user access. The worksheets that are available without a membership are very nice and they have some Math worksheets as well. Like most of the websites for teaching kids how to read and youngster how to write it is mostly centered around young children. They have some for high school students but not very many in the FREE area. Printing out these worksheets at home helps to save the planet and you can print them on the back of papers you already have around the house. Recycling is a great thing and having these resources available online can only improve our efforts to save the planet. Actually this website has some Green worksheets as well.

I try to keep up with what’s happening with the EBook Reader area. I came across a website that has incorporated everything you would like to know about the devices as well as news about them, prices currently being charged and much more. Go to: http://www.top-ereaders.com/ and read what is there. This site gives information on each of the readers, what you should look for and the prices as well. Walmart offers the Ebook Reader’s at a slightly lower price and you should make sure which ever one you would like to get the best price. There have been several articles over the last few months that Walmart is getting into selling ebooks as a major competitor against Amazon. They haven’t really done anything as of this writing but we will continue to monitor the situation. The readers themselves are all still around $200 to $500 or more depending on the manufacturer and the options that you choose. The Amazon Kindle 2 seems to be pretty nice but still on the pricey side for my taste. The most important feature, for me at least, is that the device be able to read PDF (acrobat reader) files. Without this feature the Reading Devices is usually locked into one type of ebook and/or company which is not very a good thing.

Another website I would recommend is the EBOOK88 website at: http://www.ebook88.com/about.html This website has some great information about Ebooks themselves. If tells where you can get them from, where some free resources of ebooks can be found, and more. “eBook88 is an independent web site for eBook resources. We provide a list of some educational eBooks that are available at different eBook Stores. Some of them are free. We also have an ebook directory where individual authors can submit his/her works.” I found the site to be informative and helpful.

We have added some new links under ‘Resources to Reader” that might be of interest to our subscribers. Most are for helping your kids to read and to learn to enjoy it. The other two are for aspiring writers. We have going into the Blog and Website creation business to help new writers advertise their products, talk to their fans and the build a email mailing list. Check them out.

The other part of this post is a book review of one of my favorite authors, J.D. Robb a.k.a. Nora Roberts. The new book is “Kindred in Death”. Our heroine, Lt. Eve Dallas is called on her day off to a fellow police officer’s home to investigate the death of his daughter. As the story unfolds we find that this is just the beginning and the killer has a list and he is working his way down it. On top of this Eve must participate another WEDDING! Oh, my she really doesn’t want to do that.

The story is, of course, great. I have always enjoyed J.D. Robb’s books and this one is no exception. My mom enjoyed it as well. The book has good pacing and some great plot twists and suspense. Each of the books and can alone but the whole series is like getting caught up on your family. This book brings some old friends back as well. Enjoy this and the other books written by this author. But I must warn you once you start to read Nora Robert’s books you will not stop!

I found some more websites that has cute helpers for your little readers to try for FREE. That’s right a reading helper for you and your little ones to go to.

The Lil-fingers website features online books and applications to review words and letters. It also has some free coloring pages, games to play and stories to read. It is called http://www.lil-fingers.com/index.html Check out their site. There are not too many advertisements that get in the way of clicking in the right areas. Which is important because I have found that most sites that offer things for free has too many advertisers and they are right in the middle of what you are really trying to access.

To encourage the “poet” in your little ones try out this Rhyming site at:
Seventy-One Other Take Home Rhymes They have a listing by the first line in the nursery rhyme and you click on it and it opens up an Acrobat Reader file with the rest of the poem.

PBS Kids is also a great FREE Resource for online learning. They have books that are read aloud, music videos, activities and games online to play and printable pages to print out and color. There is even a “Tips for Parents or CareGivers” section. This is a fun website that you and your children can enjoy.

JA Jance is a great writer of fiction and has several recurring figures that I enjoy reading about. Joanna Brady is a small town sheriff in Arizona. Ms. Jance’s other great character is JP Beaumont. She wrote a book several years ago where these two characters meet called “Partner in Crime”. That story left us readers wondering, “what if”. “Fire and Ice” follows these two characters through a series of murders that are connected. JP is following on the trail of a serial killer. Joanna is having problems with a murder as well. She also has an officer who is missing a sister. Yes, you guessed it, the sister is one of JP’s victims.

It is amazing how the author can keep the two areas separate in their series. You go from the desert area of Bisbee, Arizona to the rain-soaked area of Seattle, Washington. I think that is where the title comes from fire-hot Arizona to ice-cold Washington. It is a yin-and-yang kind of thing. And it makes for a “keep you on your toes” mystery!

Even though the Joanna character and the JP character do not meet up until the end of the book it is still a great story and has a very believable if maybe a somewhat disappointing ending. But it does end none-the-less. Pick up your copy today and give it a read. This story may inspire you to read the entire series of Joanna Brady and JP Beaumont books. You can find a listing of them on the author’s website:
http://www.jajance.com/jajance.com/Books_In_Order_List.html
You can pick up a copy of “Fire and Ice” from our ebookstore page as well as all the other great books by JA Jance. You pick up a paper copy of these books or if you own a KINDLE machine you can order the electronic book.
Cheers!
jolenemacinjax
Admin

“KEEP ON READING”

Fire and Ice

As I have said in previous entries one of my current favorite authors is Nora Roberts. Whether she is writing as herself or her alter-ego J.D. Robb. I have read practically everything she has written. Yes, she is probably one of the hottest writers today. And yes, her works older works are still being reprinted in various forms and combinations. I hope everyone will give her work a try at least once. I would not recommend her new Bride Quartet series as I really didn’t like the first book “Vision in White“. Her fans will have to judge for themselves. I would, however, highly recommend her book, “Black Hills”. You can get this and other great books by this author in our Ebookstore page!

You can read an excerpt on her site at: www.noraroberts.com . This story has everything, love, conflict, mystery and a chase through the Black Hills. This story follows the lives of two people from widely different backgrounds who first meet when they are pre-teens and become fast friends. Through trials and tribulations of life they are separated and lead different lives until a sudden illness brings them back together. The book is divided into three parts and will take some time to read but I found it very enjoyable and was unable to put it down. Nora Roberts knows how to keep her readers interested and come away from a book wanting more of her characters. This is the kind of book that I will read over and over again. She has often written trilogies and released them over time. And that can be fun but it is also very frustrating for those who like to sit down and read the whole story right through.

However she does write, we, her fans, will be waiting for her new releases.

Cheers!
jolenemacinjax
admin

black hills

“KEEP ON READING!”

It seems that I have been a little lax in posting to this blog. So, I will be making several posts today but dating them one for each month. Hopefully, each post will be worth reading.

Now, I have been reading to my grand-daughter since she could sit on my lap and pay attention. Before that I would sing to her or tell her stories. I did the same thing with each of my children as well. That is how it starts. Singing to babies and telling little ones stories begins the process of teaching them how to read. Reading to them on a regular basis is the next step. Granted with most little ones you will have to read the same story over-and-over again until they get fascinated by something else. It doesn’t matter only that you read to them every day. Children like routine and they learn better if you try to make a routine of it. Don’t forget to make it fun as well! They should see you reading other things as well. We read books, newspapers and magazines. When we are not working, cleaning, car-pooling and have a variety of all the other things that we have to do in our busy lives we relax by reading.

I was cruising the web for some FREE resources for new parents and grand-parents to use to help get their little ones interested in reading and found some great resources. One of them is the Reading Rockets. There are free guides to download and print out. They have tip-sheets, program guides to PBS shows, and much more. Give them a try and see if their information will help you.

For older children between 4 and 7 you can use the services that are offered for FREE at the www.Starfall.com website. There are interactive programs about letters, numbers, words and more. These are offered for FREE. They do have a store attached to the website with some low-cost materials but just the volume of free stuff is great so give them a try.

Cheers
jolenemacinjax
admin

I hope everyone has their reading list ready for the summer. Children as well as adults should take a little time during the summer to read a good book. Relaxation comes in all forms and for me reading a good mystery is just as relaxing as sitting by the pool under an umbrella drinking a mai tai. Actually, there are a great number of easy going past-times that lend themselves to reading a good book as well as the activity itself.

For instance, how about fishing? Nothing better than sitting on the bank or shade-covered dock with a fishing pole in one hand and a book in the other. It gets you outside and hopefully, in the fresh air while trying to catching lunch or supper. Between naps and laps around a pool, lake or beach why not grab a book and read a few chapters. I have found that reading takes your mind off a lot of your troubles and is a great way to relax. If you would like to start on a new series that is funny, has suspense, and always a surprise ending — Give the books that Janet Evanovich writes a try. The very first one I read was laugh-out-loud funny. Even teenagers will like the characters in these books! The Stephanie Plum character will keep you guessing!

One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)

Your children from elementary to college will more than likely have a summer time reading list with at least one book as a requirement for the upcoming year. If you can’t find what you need at the local library you might want to try a used bookstore or two. I love going into an established used bookstore. You can find the most amazing things as well as bargains galore. Of course, I have been in one bookstore that was so huge it had boxes of books stacked everywhere with little rooms leading into other little rooms. I don’t think I found my way out for over 2 hours.

Good Morning to all. Just wondering if anyone has read any good books lately. With me selling ebooks online and the fact that I love to read is what promted me to create this little blog. I hope to have good discussions about books with other readers and writers out there. As I find new and interesting sites I will pass them along. My favorite writer is Dorothy Gilman. I have read almost everything she has written and I even created a fansite for her several years ago. Check it out at www.mrspollifax.com. I have redesigned the site several times and now it is in Blog form with pages from the old site. The only books I haven’t read are the ones that I can’t find. If you get a chance and haven’t tried her yet you should start with the Mrs. Pollifax series. There are 14 books in the series and the main character is a widowed woman deciding one day that she is expendable and always wanted to be a spy. So, she goes down to Langley, Virginia and applies for a position as a Spy. The books are great for those who are young-at-heart and enjoy and fast-paced adventure. Her other books are great as well. Dorothy Gilman has been writing since the late 40’s but has published any new stuff since her last book, Kaleiscope, in 2002. Well, being as she is in her mid 80’s I guess us advid fans will have to be satisfied with what’s out there now. If you have read Dorothy Gilman and enjoy her work you should check out my fansite. We are always looking for more people to participate and hope to get some “Fan-Fiction” going!

Click on the Bookstore Page and then in the favorite authors listing and you can buy some Dorothy Gilman books as well as some of my other favorite authors books as well!