Flip Flop Fly Ball

I love infographics! I had seen them all over pinterest, but I had not paid much attention to them until I got the book Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Adventure in my library. I enjoy watching baseball, but I definitely don't know everything there is to know! My visit to Yankee Stadium during Christmas break was very enlightening, and I learned a lot in the museum but learned even more from this book. Each page is a different type of graphic or chart that tells you everything you could possibly want to know about baseball. Some of which, as a baseball novice, I didn't quite understand, but I am going to one day! My husband is tutoring me.

Here are some of my favorite facts from the book:

• There were 2,757 bases stolen during the 2008 MLB season. If they were actually stolen, MLB teams would have lost $248,102.43 worth of bases!


• Barry Bonds holds the record for career walks. If you put them all together it would be 43.6 miles.


• Only 7 MLB parks are smoke free.


• Thirty-six world series have gone to 7 games. Eighteen were won at home and eighteen were won on the road.


• Nolan Ryan's first MLB season was in 1966 and last was in 1993. WOW!


• The New York Yankees have retired 17 numbers (including #8 twice). #42-Jackie Robinson-is the only one to be retired in all of baseball. This is my addition: Mariano Rivera is currently a Yankee, and he wears #42. He wore this number before it was retired so he can continue to wear it, but he will be the last! (Don't be intimidated by my baseball knowledge!)

I love looking at infographics so much that I started looking into how I can create my own, and I came across the website visual.ly. Graphic designers are able to upload their infographics here for everyone to share. They are in the beta testing stages of having a site for people like you and me to create our own infographics! I have signed up on their test page to recieve an email when it is ready to go. When it is ready, it will be great for so many things, but I can see limitless potential for our math classes! While you are waiting on this creation tool, check out
the Daily Infographic blog for a new infographic every day. Some of them are school appropriate and some of them are not so make sure to preview them before sharing with your students. Have fun learning!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the edge of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose. The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern. If you enjoy books by Sarah Addison Allen, you will enjoy the magical aspects that Aimee Bender sprinkles throughout her novel.

I read this book in hopes that it would interest some of my 8th grade girls who love coming of age stories, but it didn't quite fit the bill. It was an enjoyable read for an adult, but I wouldn't recommend it for middle school or below.

My read shelf:


Goodreads is a social networking site that is just for book lovers! You can friend request people that you know and see all of the books they are reading. You will also see the ratings that they give the books based on a scale of one to five stars. I often find the next book that I am going to read by looking at what my friends are reading. Who doesn't love getting recommendations from their friends? You can write reviews, vote for your favorite books of the year, create book clubs and much, much more!

Do you use Facebook? If you answered yes, then you can link your Goodreads account to your Facebook account and share the books you are reading in both places. I also share my Goodreads shelf on my school webpage so that my students can see what I am reading!

The possibilities are endless, and the process is quite fun! Happy reading!