Books In The Family

We went to the dentist today. I've blogged about my Dental Woes before (put the term "dentist" into my blog search engine and you only come up with a few but I prefer this one because it expresses how dreary Bad Teeth can be) but today it was just the kids who had appointments.

Three checkups, one crocheted dishcloth, several games of Plants vs. Zombies, several ROCKIN iTunes songs, one bloody nose, several scuffles over seating arrangements, and several new reels of dental floss later we were done. Phew. And no cavities. Double phew. Guess all that ExcessiveDivaDrama I exude after each of MY visits paid off, because the kids seem to be flossing and brushing very cleanly. And FDPG charmed the hygienist, who came out and told me how POLITE and SWEET and FUNNY and WITTY and WONDERFUL FDPG was.

FDPG, to her credit, tried to look modest.

So after all that frivolity and fun, I took the kids to a bookstore near the dentist office. I felt the need to celebrate somehow and Max's idea of milkshakes at McDonalds didn't seem appropriate somehow, given that we had just come from a place that frowned on excessive amounts of TOOTH DECAYING FOODSTUFFS.

First off: Sheila's Pick.
I tried to find a quote from this book to show you why I picked it, but soon realized that I would have to type a lot of words show you could see the SCOPE of this woman's humour, and I'm just too lazy to do that, so trust me when I say that this is one exceedingly amusing book. Wit AND charm rolled into one tidy little volume.






Dominic's Picks: Dominic likes animal stories. He would have preferred Owl Stories but other than Guardians of Gahoole there didn't seem to BE any Owl Stories in the kid section. So we took this one, although I noticed that it's now sitting on FDPG's bedside table...

This is the story of a young boy who goes to live with his aunt, who happens to be a Beastologist. Don't know what that is? Neither do I - I'll tell you when I finish reading it. Well, as soon as I wrest it away from FDPG and Dominic.

The artwork is pretty much what sold me on this little story - it's perfectly charming.

This was his other choice. We've just skimmed this volume, but so far it looks pretty fun. There is a LOT of artwork in this compilation, too, something that always gladdens the heart of the Easily Overwhelmed By Print Dominic.








This was actually MY choice for FDPG, but that was only to wrest the Bone series away from her Grip Of Death. Not that I don't like the Bone series, but I've noticed that she'll read them in about an hour, and then that's it. This irks me, I have to say, for reasons of which I can't quite voice, but it seems, err, umm, wasteful, for lack of a better word. So I sat FDPG down and went dashing about the bookstore, until I found, quite literally, a pile of alternative options for her. I had books on mythology, books on astronomy, art books, drawing books, graphic novels, more bloody Warriors books, etc, etc, etc. Then I saw this book. Contrary to instructions (we're programmed to, aren't we?), I OPENED this book. I was glad that I did, because it looks really fun. It reminded me of the Reader's Digest Strange Stories & Amazing Facts book my parents gave me when I was about nine: I kept that thing by my bed and read it every single night, then I'd turn out the light and be TERRIFIED that zombies, werewolves, vampires, or shipwrecked corpses would sneak into my room in the middle of the night with Obvious Evil Intent. And when I showed this DO NOT OPEN book to FDPG, she had the same recognizable look of glazed & fascinated terror that I had...so we bought it. She has it by her bedside and she says it's "FABULOUS."

And what did Max pick, do I hear you ask? Well, he was tempted by a Mythbusters Science Project Ideas book, mostly because he liked the idea of trying to rip apart two phone books, just to see if it could be done, but in the end, after also rejecting a programming magazine for Macs, he picked a magazine about model trains, because he is in the process of constructing a new table top setting for his HO track.

So there you go: Fun At The Dentist tempered by Fun At The Bookstore.