Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of bloggers who gather once each week to share out best posts. We are all Catholic and blog at least somewhat about Catholic things; some do so exclusively, others only periodically. All are welcome to participate here. To join in the fun, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In that post describe and link to any posts you want to share with the rest of us. Also put in a link to this post. Then come back here, and sign Mr. Linky and give us a link to your post. Finally, go visit other people's posts, and leave comments! Some folks who don't post often have asked if they could, rather than creating a special "Sunday Snippets" post, just link thier original post to Mr. Linky. That's ok, if your original post includes a link back here; since the idea is to share our posts and readers with each other. Encourge your readers to join us too.

If you are joining us for the first time, welcome. If you want a weekly reminder to post, please join our yahoo group. You'll only get one email per week.

My kids go back to school Monday, so this has been a week of meetings, gather supplies, shopping for uniforms and everything else that happens at this time to year. For that reason, and maybe a little because of burn-out, I haven't read as much this week as what I normally do. I did review a Toddler Bible.

From My Reader

Time for another installment. Thanks to those of you who told me about "starring" reader posts I wanted to be able to find again. Still, I do like sharing, and I have been trying to think of something to write about other than just books. So, on to the Reader...

Research Buzz tells you how to find free legal movies online.

Brimful Curiosities list of kid's book giveaways

Giveaways Galore
Learn the difference between Gelato and Ice Cream

Make use of links to typing lessons and flashcard makers. Just right for back-to-school.

Make Use of tells us how to fix a scratched CD with toothpaste.

Recipies:

• Strawberries 'n Cream Bread
• Mushroom Round Steak
• S'Mores Bars
• Potato Rolls
• Mushroom Corn Casserole
• Double Chocolate Torte
• Raspberry Squares

Hope you enjoy these (and one day I'm going to make one of these recipies, take pictures and post).

Wally the Walking Fish Meets Madison and Cooper: My Review

Tonite my five year old and I read a cute book that was full of information about animals. Wally the Walking Fish Meets Madison and Cooper features a young girl, her yellow lab and Wally, a walking catfish. Madison and Cooper are fishing when they catch Wally. Cooper wants to eat Wally, but Madison is a catch-and-release kind of girl. When she removes Wally from the hook, he starts to walk back to the pond and Madison asks where he is going. That's when she learns he can walk. Madison decides that the three of them will be friends, and they go swimming in the pond, meet Betty Beaver, play in the sand and go walking in the woods. Several pages in the book have text boxes on them that explain facts about some of the mentioned things. One talks about yellow labradors, another, walking catfish. Beavers are featured in the third box, mudskippers (another land-adapted fish) in the fourth. The last two boxes talk about flying fish and mushrooms.

I liked the artwork in the book. My favorite character was the lab, Cooper.

My main problem with the book was that it was all dialogue, with nothing to show who was speaking. Sometimes it took me a couple of runs through the page to figure it out. Also, this was tonight's bedtime story. While she enjoyed the story (with me adding in which character was talking) when I tried to read or discuss the text boxes, my five year old quickly lost interest.

I'd like to thank the author, Gary Lamit for sending me this copy to review. You can see some of the illustrations at his website, which offers the opportunity to purchase the book in hardcover, softcover or as an ebook.

Book Review: Passegggiata--Strolling Through Italy

One of my dreams is to one day go to Italy and spend lots of time there. That is a dream that is lived by G.G. Husak, the author of Passeggiata. She and her husband took their first trip to Italy to visit a daughter who was studying in Florence. On that trip they managed to visit parts of Florence, Venice and Rome. The next year they decided to return, and to see Milan, but at a much slower pace. They continued to return to Italy regularly and saw not only the big sights that all tourists in a town see, but also the small out of the way things, or even just the Italian people themselves. Written in the first person, this book chronicles their travels talking about the sights the see, their hotels and the good food they ate. If you are into a style of travel far different from "It's Tuesday, it must be Rome", this book can help you plan your dream trip. I only wish that Husak had included some photos of her trips. There are so many places that she decscribed with which I was not familiar, I started to get lost, and it would have been fun to look at some pictures with each section.

I'd like to thank G.G. Husak for sending me this book, via Bostik. Check out her website for help planning your trip.