Thursday, May 07, 2009

What Mrs N's Been Reading - X in Flight


Recently finished Karen Rivers' X in Flight, the first installment of a trilogy. The story concentrates on 3 different high school students, in alternating chapters. What can be a little disconcerting, until you get used to it, is that all are being told by one of the teens, Xenos, or X for short, even though he isn't actually present while many things are happening to Cat and Ruby, the other 2 main characters. X is the only black kid in a very white community, living in a trailer with his mother, a very wifty hippie-type who won't tell X anything about the father he's never met, and his little half-brother Mutt. He has real potential to be a pro golfer, but his eyesight is bad and he won't tell anyone that. Cat, X's girlfriend, is a pretty typical goth girl, except that she has a "perfect" twin sister. Ruby is an only child who witnessed her mother's death in a fire when Ruby was a toddler. Her father has written a best-selling book about her that she refuses to read. Oh, and did I mention that X has discovered that he can fly? He can't understand why, especially because he's always been afraid of heights. And he is trying to figure out if he is meant to save someone with this ability. He's also becoming fascinated by Ruby, who he doesn't think would give him a second look. Despite frequently wondering what the heck was going on, and where this was headed, I found the book quite compelling. X is a lot like many of Gail Giles' characters - kids that at first glance seem like trouble, but you find yourself rooting for. There's a bit of language in this one, so probably not for middle schoolers, but an interesting, fairly quick read for high school students, who might relate to one or more of the characters.

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Mother's Day Soap Program

We just wrapped up our custom soap program. Some moms are going to be quite happy next Sunday! The nice thing about the soaps is that it's almost foolproof - everyone went home with something that looked (and smelled) very nice. While we were waiting for the soaps to set up in the molds, we also made gift bags, so everyone went home all set with everything but a card for Mother's Day. The Community Room smells awfully nice right now, too. Not sure if that will make up for over the summer during our agility training session, when it will smell like a guys' locker room in there, but we'll enjoy the nice fragrances while we can. The bag was the part of the project where we got to see some real creativity. Nice job everyone!
A few pics below.