Books and stories, yay!

I got a BOOK in the mail today--the wonderful Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas. It came well before school let out, and I read as much as I could before people came home, and I took the cover off so they wouldn't notice. Of course, as soon as I was done, my 10-year-old swiped it. He's already done and wants to know when the next book comes out. If you're looking for an excellent MG fantasy that has great language and interesting characters, a book where the MC actually drives the story (as opposed to many MG fantasies where A Lot of Quirky! Characters! appear randomly through a string of episodes, Complete with Wyrd Spellynges), this is the book for you! Plus, it's the first of a series, so there are more to look forward to. Hooray! Thank you and congratulations, Sarah!

At the moment, it's bright daylight even though it's about 9 pm, and I feel pretty good that my kids at least all have their pajamas on. Actually, son #2 has started a new tradition among the kids: every night he tells another segment of a "Gruselgeschichte" (ghost story) that he's making up. It's quite exciting to see them all brush their teeth and get ready so they can huddle in the boys' room for the story. One of my roommates used to do that on occasion, and it is a great thing to get to participate in. So yay! And hopefully they will all go to sleep after that.