I meant to say that the witch turned the kids into potted flowers, not flower pots. Minks was supposed to mix the witch's "black spell brew" but instead did her own mix of magic powders in hopes to conjure a fairy. "She looked over all the jars of magic powders and liquids on the shelves. There were hundreds of them, all different colors. Almost every night when Madam Snikasnee went out, Minx worked on her experiment trying out a different powder each time. She was trying to make the right kind of magic to cause a fairy to appear." Can you tell I really liked this book? :o)

@iroll: Your floor is great! Yeah, I can see that there are a lot of different colours in the tile. It seems to give it some depth. I really love the uniform look. Do you notice seams at all? So i *think* I've decided on thick stripes running across the width of the galley. I got a quote for the yellow and off white marmoleum ("natural corn" and "barbados"). @deedles: maybe the butter colour you mention is the "natural corn"? The yellow is a perfect yellow. Yes, expensive, but really lovely and more vibrant that the vinyl. My thought process around the use of stripes is that I can use the 3X1-foot pieces, which are less expensive than the 1X1s. @a2gemini: the marmoleum is cork-backed, I believe, but don't quote me on that. The dealer I talked to also recommended a cushy underpad for it, so it seems like it would be pretty easy on the back. My mother is telling me to get cork ;-)

I looked to see if there was a name for this disorder, but couldn't come up with one. Did come up with these though, which I found to be interesting: * Amylophagia - consumption of starch * Coprophagia - consumption of feces (euuuw) * Geophagy - consumption of soil, clay or chalk * Hyalophagia - consumption of glass * Mucophagia - consumption of mucus * Odawa - consumption of soft stones by pregnant women in Kenya * Pagophagia - Pathological consumption of ice * Trichophagia -consumption of hair or wool * Urophagia - consumption of urine * Vampirism - consumption of blood * Xylophagia - consumption of wood Pica is the overall name for the disorder characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive (soap, clay, etc). To be considered a medical disorder, it must last more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate. Comes from the Latin word for "magpie", a bird reputed to eat almost anything. (Taken from Wikipedia.)

I have a 10 year old girl and 13 year old boy. My son is not a big fiction reader, he reads for information, but he loves Artemis Fowl or anything by Eoin Colfer. He also loves Calvin & Hobbes, Foxtrot and Tintin comics. I think that consulting with a good children's librarian may be better than the awards (though the Newberry is always pretty reliable), because some of the YA award books can have some material you might consider objectionable. For example the book Tender Morsels that had a thread on here not long ago. Here's a list of books my kids have really enjoyed: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH The Tale of Desperaux Any of the Magic Treehouse books The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents Andrew Clements' books (Frindle, Janitor's Boy etc...) Dragon Rider Here's what's on the eighth grade summer reader list at my son's school: They all have to read Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patilla Beals, then they can choose any of the following: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou It's Not About the Bike - Lance Armstrong Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood - Ibtisam Barakat A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson Facing the Lion Growing up Maasai on the African Savanna - Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton In the Heart of the Sea: the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick (we live near Boston, so local history) Chew on This - Eric Schlosser The Man Who Ate the 747 - Ben Sherwood Big Mouth and Ugly Girl - Joyce Carol Oates Travel Team - Mike Lupica A Step From Heaven - Na, An A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams Summerland - Michael Chabon Dune - Frank Herbert The Green Mile- Steven King There are a few others on the list. For the younger ones, there are some really great picture books: The Olivia books by Ian Falconer The Three Pigs by David Wiesner The Miss Spider books Jan Brett books are a feast for the eyes Hope that helps.