Messing Library

BOOK REVIEW  |  AFC Championship. 10 minutes to go in the game and your team is up 17-0.

Sound like a good situation to be in? Sure... until both your 1st and 2nd string quarterbacks get hurt and the 3rd string guy gets sent in.

3 interceptions later your team loses 21-17. What you you think of that QB? Because he's the subject of John Grisham's book Playing for Pizza.

This QB gets cut and ends-up taking a job with a semi-pro team in a small Italian town. So this isn't a book for football die-hards. It's more of a look into the culture and people of small town Italy. And a great one at that, with some interesting insights into the football world.

The real fun comes from QB Rick Dockery's interactions with his Italian teammates, their culture, and their country. Sometimes he gets in trouble with the law, and one of his teammates is the judge for the region. Sometimes he likes to eat food, and some of his teammates run local restaurants. Sometimes a reporter from his old U.S. town comes to Italy to write bad stories about him and his lack of football skills. And all these people love the game of football almost as much as they love Italian culture.

While not a book that everyone will enjoy, Playing for Pizza does have a charm of its own. Pick this one up if you think you might like Italian culture with a little football thrown in. Google Books page is here.

An interesting article from Mr. Rappleye and video from Mr. Ebeling via Mr. Jacobi:

Video -- from Mr. Ebeling: Carol Dweck talks about her related research on "growth mindset" (belief that one's talents can be developed and that abilities are built over time) versus "fixed mindset" (belief that one's talents are set in stone--either you have them or you don't). CLICK HERE TO VIEW 4 MIN. VIDEO.

Article -- "The Secret to Raising Smart Kids"
By Carol S. Dweck from Scientific American

Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life.

Many people assume that superior intelligence or ability is a key to success. But more than three decades of research shows that an overemphasis on intellect or talent—and the implication that such traits are innate and fixed—leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unmotivated to learn.

Teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, produces high achievers in school and in life... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.

BOOK REVIEW  |  YOUR ENGLISH TEACHER HATES THIS BOOK

Why? The entire book is grammatically incorrect. "!" "." and "?" are the only punctuation marks.

Ok, so your English teacher might not really hate this one, but I loved it. It's incredibly unique and unlike any other book I've ever read. For a bunch of reasons. Like the fact that it's narrated by a eleven-year-old whose father was killed. And the dad-ghost wants the son to kill his uncle. And the uncle wants to marry the kid's mom. And the dad-ghost gets the "terrors." And adults say the story is a modern version of Shakespeare's Hamlet...

What really got me was the narrative... told in first person, this book sounds exactly like how someone thinks inside their own head (especially an eleven-year-old boy). It does take a little while to get used to it, though... but only a few pages.

Grab this book as fast as you can... there's a copy in the library. Read more about the book if you need to... Here's its Google Books page. Enjoy!

BOOK REVIEW  |  So yesterday you accidentally stopped a bank robbery because the robber was an idiot, not because you were some kind of hero... and today you get a playing card (an ace of diamonds) in the mail with an address and a time written on it. You know you're supposed to do something with this information, but you're scared that you're a nobody (and have been all your life) and you'll just get yourself in over your head (or beaten senseless).

What would you do?

And what would you do if you kept getting aces sent to you?

That's the dilemma Ed Kennedy faces in I AM THE MESSENGER. A down-on-his-luck cabbie who never gets the girl but has a solid group of friends, Ed's not to confident in his ability to do what the aces ask of him. But if he doesn't get stuff done, he may get in more trouble of a different kind.

I loved this book. This is the book that got me back into reading "Young Adult" books, which I've found to be a lot more interesting than books meant for older readers. This Aussie book by an Aussie author is worth a look. Google Books is your friend.

BOOK REVIEW  |  Another book where the cover caught my eye... a tall ship at sunset and what looks like a canonball blowing through the title. Add the word "adventures of a young sailor" to the cover and a schematic of a ship on the inside and this book had me at "hello."

Not everyone will like this book. I liked it because I'm easily entertained, I love naval/pirate history, and I'll enjoy any book set at sea. Here's a sample of the text on the back cover...

Did that sound appealing to you? If so, read this book... we have it and its sequel, Prison Ship, in the Middle School library. Click here to visit Powder Monkey's Google Books page.

The annual "Helping Hands, Helping Hearts" service program kicked-off on Monday. MICDS has once again adopted another area school and will try to fufill the holiday wishes of each young student so that everyone can experience the joys of gift giving and receiving.

Mrs. Memula's 7th grade advisory hung small hand ornaments on trees in the black & white hallway during chapel period today. Each hand has a student's name from the adopted school and that student's individual wish for the holiday. Over the next few weeks, MICDS students will choose a hand, purchase a present, wrap it, and leave it under the tree for a student at the adopted school.

Thanks to Mrs. Memula's & Mrs. White's advisory for taking the time to prepare, hang, and maintain hundreds of ornaments!