January 8, 2012
(first blog of the new year!)

French the llama! There are only two days left before the world is full of AWESOME!

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (one of my favorite authors) is going to be released on January 10th and I will be getting, reading, and reviewing it 3-5 business days later. John read the first two chapters of the book on his Youtube channel and I'm completely hooked. The channel (http://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers) has over 900 videos made over the course of 5 years by John and his brother Hank about their daily lives, adventures, and plans to decrease worldsuck. (Worldsuck n.--the amount of suck in the world.)

Another awesome thing about the Vlogbrothers videos is that they have inspired the creation of an entire community called nerdfighters. (Nerdfighter n.--a person made completely of awesome.) I myself am a proud nerdfighter who plans on meeting other nerdfighters on January 27th when I go to a nerdfighter gathering to meet John and Hank in the flesh as part of John's book tour.

The point of this blog was that you should become a nerdfighter and read The Fault in Our Stars. Also, if you're in the Palo Alto area, you should come see John speak. Information about the show is here.

If you'd like more information about being a nerdfighter, click here to see the Vlogbrothers FAQ video. DFTBA

November 27, 2011

Just a few days ago I recieved a book review submission via my email, tweenbookreviews@rocketmail.com

The review by 10 year old Annalise is of the book Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Go check it out!:
Alice in Wonderland Review

It's a great coincidence that Annalise chose to review this book, as the companion novel--Through the Looking Glass--which features many of the same characters is my school play this year. By some miracle, after auditioning I landed the part of Alice and the entire cast is currently hard at work rehearsing for our opening show in mid-January.

August 17, 2011

Today I went to the NASA IT Summit 2011 in downtown San Francisco! I met an astronaut, Leland Melvin, and America's first African-American female combat pilot, Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour. They were both great speakers with hilarious stories! Leland told the story of how, as a child, he burned a hole in his mother's carpet with a play chemistry set. Vernice told us that she joined the woman's ROTC to get a free trip to Mardi Gras. The entire time they were talking to us, the conference was being broadcasted over the Digital Learning Network to schools in LA and Ohio. When they finished talking, the broadcasting cameras disconnected and the real fun began!

With a bunch of other kids, school groups, and parents, I wandered around the main conference hall where booths featuring various aspects of technology were arranged. I learned about a few NASA developed apps, played jeopardy, watched a holographic presentation, and took a picture with the NASA mascot (a rubber chicken in a space suit). Then I struck up conversation with Romeo, a man who works with NASA. Eventually the conversation turned to space-related books. He reccomended I read Packing for Mars by Mary Roach and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams. I've already started reading the Hitchhikers guide, and love it! Look forward to a review in the next couple of weeks!

July 28, 2011

On Tuesday I had the great chance to have another Skype interview, this time with Dr. Annette Laing! Dr. Laing is the author of one of my favorite historical fictions series, The Snipesville Chronicles. A review of the first book can be found here. It was great to interview her. The first part of the interview is right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij6Cw0miPsM&feature=feedu

I hope you liked the interview, and the books if you've read them!