Friday, May 24, 2013

E's eight!

We recently went up to Portland to visit our daughter and granddaughter. Usually just my wife goes there, but this time I also went along. The reason to go in May is supposedly the chance of having nice weather up there as well as it being granddaughter E’s birthday. This year she turned eight and was very excited. She originally asked for a company cheese cake like the one her mom made before, but then changed her mind and asked for a carrot cake. Dad was up late the night before grating carrots and making one from scratch, ending up with a pretty good cream cheese frosting the next morning. Somebody really liked it.


Yes, she was very excited to be turning eight. Everybody in her second grade class made her birthday cards (the teacher gives them class time and materials to do it) and several of them were of wombats – her topic for a class project and now her favorite animal.


E reads a lot, I’m impressed with her level and her understanding. We try to send her several books every month, and she is moving far past what we thought. She finished the Hobbit (and complained about what was different in the movie) and is on to the Lord of the Rings series. She finished the first Harry Potter book, we watched the first movie when I was there and she pointed out things that were different than the book, things I hadn’t noticed. So in order to skip all of those postage costs we decided to give her a Kindle, so that we could just pick out books for her remotely. The last time B was up there E kept taking her Kindle so B had to resort to paper books (oh my). Her mom is opposed to her getting a web device so we figured a Kindle that just let her go into the cloud and grab new books we purchased would work fine (though we did get complaints).

I think she liked it, especially the backlight so she can read under the covers without mom seeing her room light on. (we also did an Ikea stop while up there, and E ended up with one of their mice)


What is she reading? Well, I had on our Kindle last time The Butterfly Dress by Miranda which E read twice back then, and she wanted to read it again so that is the book she picked. What else is on there? Miranda’s new book the Blue Mermaid, Mieville’s Un Lun Dun, Pullman’s His Dark Materials (she started on the hardcover Golden Compass on her last visit), Heinlein’s Door Into Summer (one of my fav old sci fi books) and I had to include a horse story for a little girl Bryant’s Horse Crazy. We gave her paper copies of the first three Diskworld stories a few weeks ago, and will probably upload some more as she reads up what she already has.

13 comments:

angryparsnip said...

What a beautiful granddaughter and terrific cake. Eight is a great age.
Happy Birthday E !

I am interested in what she thought/thinks of The Golden Compass series.
Does she like the kindle ? I understand the ease of carrying one and buying books for it but I find it hard to hold.


cheers, parsnip

elizabeth said...

I think your granddaughter is a very advanced reader for her age! (I was a high school English teacher in a previous life!)
Has she read CS Lewis
and E. Nesbit?

Don said...

That kid sure is a cutie. I'm glad to hear she is reading so much; it's got to be good for her.

Anonymous said...

•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰
Bon anniversaire !!! :o)
C'est la fête ! C'est EXTRA ! :o)

Bonne journée et GROSSES BISES
•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰

Rob said...

Sounds like a good selection. I agree with the other commenter about CS Lewis (more films to spot differences from) and E Nesbit (just bought all hers for my own Kindle!). My kids loved Dick King-Smith's The Sheep-Pig (filmed as Babe), and of course Charlotte's Web.

Eight is a great age to be. Give her my best wishes.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Hi Joe just been catching up on your trip to Portland..so you didn't enjoy the search at the airport hey, I laughed at your rant! Gosh your granddaughter E is a right little bookworm isn't she, my two were the same, my daughter more so than my son..boys seem to have more sporty activities :) Joe how could you do this to me, I'm trying so hard to be good and now all I can think about are 'butterscotch/pretzel thingies' haha!

Anonymous said...

She sounds like a great reader. you might try the Rick Riordan books, too.

Anonymous said...

•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰
Un coucou amical pour te souhaiter une belle journée !!!
Bonne continuation cher Joe
•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰

Blond Duck said...

I LOVED His Dark Materials. E has good tastes!

What would you like to do for the new site? Maybe a cooking column?

Anonymous said...

•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰
Coucou Joe !!! Je suis revenue de mon "échappée belle" :o)
Je regarde avec grand plaisir les photos de la joie de l'anniversaire ! Quel bonheur !
GROSSES BISES
Bon mardi à toi
•✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰ •✰

SOL's view said...

Happy birthday Miss E! It's great to see an avid reader at work.

Jammie J. said...

Awww, belated happy birthday. I can't believe she's 8!!!

Unknown said...

A child who reads avidly seems to be a rarity these days, or am I wrong? Your little E. looks very sweet and you must be very proud of her. Congratulations to her dad for making a carrot cake for her (here in France we always make our birthday cakes from scratch)