Friday, June 18, 2010

HUNBABA Mei Tai Baby Carrier Guest Giveawayy

HUNBABA Mei Tai Baby Carrier Guest Giveawayy

cool!!!!

Review Time - A Girl Named Zippy, By Haven Kimmel

I hope you all enjoyed this book as much as I did - such a fun and quirky read.  Since I am moving in less than two weeks, I thought I would put my discussion up on here early, so I don't forget.

Here are my questions . . .

1.  Kimmel jumped around in the sequence of the story as she told it - bouncing around from memory to memory, not really in any order.  Did you feel like this detracted to the book at all?

2.  Zippy had so many different pets throughout the story, and she was wonderful about making them seem good or evil.  What was your favorite pet story in the book or your favorite of Zippy's pets?

3.  What did you think of her upbringing?  How did you react to the details she would add about things, giving glimpses, but never the whole picture of how they lived?  Do you think it bothered her?

4.  Who do you think was the most impactful character in Zippy's life?

5.  As I read this, I realized how so many of us feel that we have no story to tell - that our lives are boring and too normal - but that each of us could have our own fun and exciting book about childhood.  What is a Zippy-like memory from your own childhood?

1. I think that she wrote the story in "memory-chunks," and so even though the book wasn't sequential, it didn't matter, because the chapters contained thoughts that flowed together.  I actually thought that the book was more interesting because she wrote it this way, because instead of a timeline of her life, it truly was a memoir.

2.  I think my favorite pet story was when her dad borrowed all the coon-hunting dogs to show their neighbors that her pet dogs weren't all that bad.  I laughed out loud when I read that section.

3. The further into the story I got, the clearer the picture became of her upbringing.  It seemed like they were poor, and dirty, for the most part, and although she wandered with no supervision, I felt there was a lot of love in her family.  I think that Zippy thrived in her environment - she loved her freedom, she was happy to be dirty, and that she could care less about being poor.  The wandering the neighborhood reminded me somewhat of my childhood - the world was very different, and it was normal for all of us to ride our bikes everywhere without anyone knowing where we were.  I don't think I could have handled the filthy living conditions she had though.

4.  Throughout the whole story, I think Zippy idolized her father, and in fact, I think she prided herself in being more like him that anyone else.  He also seemed to be the only one who really understood her. 

5.  When I was little and growing up in Nevada, we lived on the edge of town, and so had endless desert and hills to explore.  We used some huge rocks to build a fort on the hill behind our house, and although we had to watch out for rattlesnakes, as they liked to make a home there, we spent hours playing in that fort.  Every once in a while, we would even build a fire and cook some of the Pillsbury refrigerator biscuits.  It was TOTALLY illegal for us to build a fire out there, especially since our area seemed to be in a perpetual drought.  Luckily, we never burnt ourselves or the mountain :).

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

June Book - A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel


Hi girls, just thought I would remind you about our June book.  It is called "A Girl Named Zippy" and is a true story about her childhood in a very small town in Indiana.  It is fun and quirky, and I think you will really enjoy it :).

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Ella discussion...

I'm ashamed to say that I am going off of memory with these questions. Life is a bit on the crazy side right now, so I will post my answers and some more questions by Friday, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. Feel free to add to the question fun!


What did you think of the writing style and concept of this book?

Who was your favorite character?

Did you enjoy the resolve to the book?