Year End Recap And My Favorite Books of 2015

All of our Christmas celebrations our now over and the year is quickly coming to a close. And of course, that causes reflection of the past year, a reliving of the special moments that made 2015 great. Like the really cool center piece I made for the Falmin' Hot Breakfast.

Or spending the afternoon with the kids in the After School Program in the town where I grew up which was sadly the last time as the program is now shut down.

Hanging out at author fairs and laughing it up on air.

Camping with my family.

 

Having fun at the fair.

Running the Shelby Farm Market and attending Cook Book Club with Emily.

Day trips with the family.

 

Road trippin' with my girl and hangin' with my story sister.

Christmas performances, homemade gifts, cookies, and balloon fun.

 

So many good memories and so many great books as well. And without further ado, here are my favorite reads of 2015 in no particular order.
  

And my all time favorite, number one, brilliant, most incredible, the author was a genious book of the year? Drum roll if you please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me in the New Year for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequels, Return To Fern Valley,  and Cooking In Fern Valley, along with my very first picture book, Quack and Daisy! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Rootin' Tootin' Cowgirls

Our library is running two events for summer reading this year. They are having the normal summer reading program, and in addition, they are having a biography read with an essay. I'm sure this is to encourage children to delve into non fiction as well as fiction, and so I was excited when Emily said she would like to do both programs.
 
This past week she started working on reading the ten biographies required, and I must say I am surprised that she has already read five. The biographies she chose were varied. She read about Alexander Graham Bell, Amelia Earhart, John Adams, Louisa May Alcott, and Annie Oakley. Several times she told me that the story of Annie Oakley was her favorite, so I definitely wanted to share the particular version she read.
 
It was called, Shooting For The Moon - The Amazing Life and Times of Annie Oakley. She enjoyed it so much in fact, that she practically told me about the story word for word while I was cooking dinner that evening. I enjoyed her retelling of the story immensely. Amelia's early life was most difficult and when her father died, she was left to help support her mother and six brothers and sisters. The hardships she endured never dulled her spirit and she did indeed live a most amazing life.

 
Purely coincidentally, I chose a fictional picture book about a cowgirl called Rodeo Red. Rodeo Red is the story of a little cowgirl whose life is turned topsy-turvey by the arrival of a new baby brother who ends up swiping her beloved hound dog. Told with all the cliché cowboy/cowgirl terms one could possibly fit into a book, this story had me giggling from beginning to end. It truly was slicker then a greased pig on the Fourth of July. 

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequel, Return To Fern Valley, the soon to be released Cooking In Fern Valley (fall 2015) and my very first picture book, Quack and Daisy! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.