7-day Sweet Pickle Chips

 From Mother Earth News Oct/Nov 2020 - a Mennonite recipe - yield 12 pints

• 10 pounds cucumbers
• ¼ c kosher or pickling salt
• 3 T alum or 5 T loose black tea from 8 tea bags
• 4 qt. Apple cider vinegar
• 10 c sugar, divided, plus 1 c if needed
• ¼ c pickling spice

Day 1: In large bowl or clean cooler, soak cubes in ice water 30 min. Drain. Trim off ends, slice into ¾ inch chunks. Pack into a 5 gallon or larger jar with lid. Cover with boiling water. Cool, cover, and let sit overnight.

Day 2: There may be some fluffy white foam on top, it’s lactobacillus and it’s healthy. Drain, rinse, the jar and put cukes back in - don’t rinse the cukes. In a 5-qt non-reactive pot, bring salt and 4 qt water to boil. Pour brine over cukes. Cool, cover, and let sit overnight.

Day 3: Drain the cukes, don’t rinse them, but do rinse the jar, and pack cukes back into the jar. In pot, bring alum or tea bags and 4 qt water to boil. Pour boiling water over cukes, discard any excess. Cool, cover, let sit overnight.

Day 4: Drain the cukes and rinse the jar. In pot, bring apple cider vinegar and 5 cups sugar to boil, stir to dissolve sugar. Put Pickling spice into a cheesecloth bundle or a tea ball and add to jar to cukes. Pour vinegar mix over the cukes. Cool. cover and let sit for THREE days.

Day 7: Drain pickles, reserving 2 cups of syrup. Dispose of the pickling spices. Put pickles into a giant bowl and scatter 4 c sugar over them. Stir well and let sit for about an hour. Pack pickles tightly into warm jars. The sugar will have drawn liquid out of the pickles. Pour syrup over the pickles, dividing evenly. Heat one cup of reserved spiced vinegar and remaining cup of sugar in a non-reactive saucepan, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Fill the jars, leaving ½ inch headspace. If the jars require additional liquid, remove the air bubbles and repack the jar. If they’re well-packed and still short of liquid, make another batch of syrup by boiling the remaining cup of reserved vinegar with another cup of sugar. Remove air bubbles with a chopstick. Place lids and rings on and tighten. Process in boiling water bath 5 min. 

Let pickles cure for a week or so, turning the jars over for the first few days to disperse and dissolve any sugar on the bottoms of the jars. Chill well before enjoying. The pickles are shelf-stable for 1 year.

Weasel

Katie, Sproles, thanks for the good use of YouTube for trailers.

DeFelice, C. (1990). Weasel. New York, NY: Avon Books.
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/3YyZyCoAqj
 

Go back in time to Ohio, 1839. Imagine you are a young boy in charge of your whole land while your father is away. You have to keep taking care of the animals and your younger sister until your Pa returns, all the while knowing something is wrong because he hasn’t come home yet. This is how our story Weasel by Cynthia DeFelice starts out. One night Nathan and Molly are visited by a silent, strange man motioning for them to follow him into the woods. Nathan knows it has something to do with his father, but is it safe? As Nathan and Molly set out into the woods, their lives will forever be changed. Something or someone is lurking in the woods, someone dangerous. They call him Weasel. He sleeps by day and hunts by night, and kills for fun. Can Nathan get in and out of the woods without running into Weasel? Can he save his Pa? Join Nathan, Molly, and Ezra on a suspenseful journey that will make you turn page after page. You won’t want to put it down!

Memories of Summer

Thanks, Markayla, for another way to do a booktalk. PowerPoint Booktalk

  White, R. (2000) Memories of Summer. New York: Dell-Laurel Leaf.

   Information about the book:

         a. Title – Memories of Summer

         b. Author – Ruth White

         c. Genre – Historical Fiction/Realistic Fiction

         Hook:

…        summer turns to winter and the present disappears.

Plot Summary:

                              Have you ever thought about the past and realized how everything has changed? Some things may have changed for the good and others not so good but no matter how hard you try the memories tend to fade and once the disappearing begins you will never be the same.  These facts of life have become prominent for thirteen year old Lyric.  Claude Compton is the Poppy to sixteen year old Summer and thirteen year old Lyric. The family leaves their comfort of the mountains of Virginia, in the summer of 1955, and heads north to Flint Michigan, in hopes of Poppy finding work.  These two sisters share a unique bond; they share dreams, laughter, and hope.  Lyric looks to Summer as a mother figure since their mother passed when they were young.  Once the family settles in the new state and poppy gets a job with the Chevrolet Factory, the girls get to move into a house that has a bathroom, electricity, basement, beds, and a television.  This is a life they couldn’t have imagined back in Virginia but something just isn’t right.  While Lyric adjusts to the new school and students, Summer becomes withdrawn and refuses to return to school after the first few days.  To Poppy’s dismay, Summer quits school to work at a restaurant.  Poppy and Lyric are both happy to see Summer smile again and feel this is what is appropriate for this time of her life.  However, after a few weeks, Summer comes into the house, crawls under the covers, and refuses to speak.  At first, Lyric and her poppy look over the situation and assume it is part of the “growing pains” but when Summer beings to talk to figures in the air, “jibble” becomes her favorite word, her leg twitches, and she begins to scratch and claw away her flawless face.  Doctors treat her wounds and the family brings her home despite the doctor’s suggestions of a mental hospital stay and evaluation.  The family sacrifices many things to care for Summer.  Lyric stays home while her father works and when Summer said she wanted to go out with Lyric for her birthday it seemed to be hope of healing however, it ended up turning into a search party.  Summer begins to fade a little more each day.  Her appearance turns rugged and she finds pleasure in matches and fire.  Lyric tries to keep the memories of Summer alive but sometimes you can’t hold on to shadows.  Will Summer get the help she needs and return or will Lyric finally let go? Read Memories of Summer to find out what lengths one girl will go to rescue her big sister from the monster-schizophrenia.

Read-aloud passages

“I can’t. I can’t fly!”

“Sure you can.  It’s easy.  Just jump up into the air like this.”

And I am flying, flying, but I am still holding on to Summer, trying to help her lift off.  The wolves are closing in.  We can hear them growling and feel their hot breath.

“Don’t leave me, Lyric! Please don’t leave me behind!”

But I am terrified.  I let go of Summer.  I let go and I fly away.  Pg. 67

Number the Stars

A look at what iMovie and a creative mind can do with a book trailer - thanks, Megan Crabb!

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/I6RcNXdVDEg

In a world where being Jewish is punishable by death, one family risks it all to save their friends.

“How brave are you, little Annemarie?” uncle Henrik asks his ten-year-old niece. Will you be able to save your best friend from relocation? Will you be a hero?

Number the Stars just may be the most powerful book you’ll ever read about he Holocaust. Lois Lowry has captured the essence of what it meant to be a child in 1940’s Holocaust when running in the street could get you locked up, and harboring Jews could get you killed. 

For ten-year-old Annemarie, this is the world in which she lives. She doesn’t understand why there is no sugar for cupcakes, why her sister Kirsten can’t have real leather shoes, and why her best friend Ellen has to wear a gold star on her sleeve. When her family decides to help Ellen and her parents go into hiding, she is thrown into the very scary world of war. Will she be brave enough to save her friend?

Looking for Alaska

Thanks, Leanna Lunsford.

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York, NY: Dutton Children’s Books. 

  Would you enjoy a book chocked full of one-liner witty humor, humorous and daring pranks and following the life of teenagers who are experiencing the normalcies of teens including independence, immaturity, power struggles and the hard emotional issues of life…….love, loss, grief and forgiveness?

Then you will find yourself lost in this compelling bird's-eye view of the memorable effects of love and death.  Looking for Alaska is separated into two distinct sections entitled "Before" and "After," …………

Before.  Miles "Pudge" Halter, a Florida high school student who’s whole existence has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. She’s gorgeous, clever, funny, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating. Alaska Young, is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her labyrinth, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

At Culver Creek, Pudge befriends a ragtag group of early teens. For a while, not much happens aside from these characters' occasional mischief, --- harmless behavior with harmless consequences. His friendship with Alaska has resulted in him falling in love with her.  But then, his world is turned upside down when a tragedy happens.  It’s baffling to Pudge as to how something so unthinkable could have happened to their intimate little community. After. Nothing is ever the same.

I wonder, what could such a tragedy be?  Was it really an accident, or was it a selfish attempt for Alaska to plow her way out of the labyrinth? Could her friends have stopped her, knowing what they knew about her past? Would life ever be the same?  You won’t be able to put this book down, Looking for Alaska by John Green, as you search for these answers and relate to the “coming of age” of teenage years.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1MRUf3eBMTg

Clementine

Thanks to Katie Sproles for an excellent Booktalk!
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1QkBqTJseP0

Pennypacker, S. (2006). Clementine. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children.

Are you curious about things? Do you sometimes feel like the world just doesn’t understand you?

This is exactly how our quirky, red-headed main character Clementine feels a lot of the time. Nothing she does seems to ever go right. When Clementine makes a decision, there is usually some kind of consequence. When her friend Margaret complains about her hair, only Clementine would be willing to help. However, that doesn’t turn out so well. After Margaret’s, let’s say interesting, haircut Clementine’s week goes from bad to worse. She feels like everyone is mad at her and she wants to find a way to fix it. Clementine really means well, it just might not seem like that to others. Find out how Clementine tries to fix her wrongs, and you might even see a bit of yourself in her. If you’re looking for a laugh, then read Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. This is great read for all ages. You might just find yourself dying to read the other books in the series!

Another booktalk take by Alison Kerns:

Everybody has good days and bad days, but have you ever heard of someone having an entire bad week? That is exactly what happens to Clementine in her personal narrative about her week. Her parents and even Margaret’s mother are always telling her to think before she does anything. Sound familiar? She always has a solution or idea for every problem, however manages to get in trouble for them. Clementine claims that “spectacular ideas are always sproinging up in her brain”. Margaret is in the bathroom crying because of the glue in her hair and the chunk of hair that she cut out to remedy the situation. Clementine’s trouble only begins as she harmlessly tries to help her friend Margaret finish trimming her hair. Clementine lands herself in Principal Rice’s office.

Makes sense right? Only Clemetine thinks Margaret’s hair looks like a dandelion. Could things possibly get any worse? Find out in this hilarious book by Sara Pennypacker.

The City of Ember

Thanks, Megan Crabb, for reminding us that this book is part of a series.
DuPrau. J. (2003). The city of Ember. New York, N.Y.: Random House Publishers.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0kQOkZmhBMQ

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the lights went out on your city, and never came back on? For 12 year old, Lina Mayfleet, this fear is real. In the city of Ember, the only light is provided by old flood lamps that come on when it is time to work and go off when it is time to sleep. Lately, though, the lights have been flickering a lot and total darkness during the middle of the day is no longer uncommon.

On Assignment Day, Lina is stuck with one of the worst jobs in Ember: pipeworker. To her surprise, an old friend comes to her rescue. Doon Harrow and Lina used to be best friends. When Doon offers to trade jobs with Lina, that friendship begins to rekindle itself. As Lina begins her dream job as messenger, she realizes that something is amiss in Ember. She stumbles upon a secret that has been kept for over 200 years; something the builders didn’t want to share. With the food stockpile running low and the city’s generator on its last leg, Lina and Doon decide they need to do something to save their city. 

The City of Ember is the first in a series of books about the world after a meltdown and the secret meant to save humanity. If you liked The Giver, Under the Empyrean Sky, or The Maze Runner, you’ll love The City of Ember.