Se7en’s Fabulous Fun Post #300

Can you believe… Three hundred Fabulous Fun Posts and we are celebrating with a GiveAway, of course… ’tis the season!!!

We did get a hike in… and a day in the great outdoors, which makes any week a good week… Mother person’s need all the fresh air they can get!!!

Lovely Links from This Week

1. My fave post of the week: The Most Essential Life Skill: Teachability on Head Heart Hand…
2. Playing by the Book’s Favourite Books of 2015…
3. Oh Ann Wood is so delightful and these mice and their free pattern… love!!!
4. Emma Bradshaw makes everything so very pretty… A Christmas Bird Wreath makes me momentarily wish we had a little winter…
5. Can’t stop loving Deep Space Sparkle’s Sketchbook Project… This Week Sonia Delaunay Abstract Art.
6. This is where we went on Honeymoon… oh about a million years ago. What I wouldn’t do for a dash to the country!!!
7. Why I didn’t Video My Son’s Performance by Picklebums… great post about enjoying life for what it is, rather than the great “Show of lifestyle blogging.”

And the se7en + 1th link:

8. A Blast From the Past:
   
   • 2008: Spicy Christmas Cookies in Se7en Steps.
   • 2009: Rock Buns in Se7en Steps…
   • 2010: Se7en Summer T-Shirts Bleach Shirts…
   • 2011: Se7en Make Paper Clip Necklaces…
   • 2012: How to Declutter Your House in Se7en + 1 Steps…
   • 2013: Se7en + 1 Steps to a Beach Clean Up…
   • 2014: The Se7en + 1 Stages of a Bibliovores Life… and the books that go with them.

Book of the Week

The Boy at the Top of the Mountain by John Boyne published by Penguin Random House South Africa: Well John Boyne of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas fame is back… a completely new story, but also set during World War II and examining the complicated relationships of the time and of war in general. The question is who is good and who is bad, right or wrong, essentially all the players are people with hearts and minds, hopes and dreams. This book review contains spoilers, the nature of the book is one that I would want to know what my kids were reading and there are certainly very sensitive readers that would find this somewhat distressing. This is the story of a young French lad, Pierrot, whose father was a German and fought in WWI. His father’s mind was damaged by the war, the damage and the drinking, lead him to a fatal leap in front of a train. Pierrot is a lonely and troubled child, who lives with his mum in Paris, his best friend is a deaf jewish neighbour… and then tragically his mother dies of TB and he is left parentless and completely alone… a series of events and there is bullying at school and in fact at every turn, Pierrot appears to be “rescued” by his long lost aunt, who works in a secluded house on a mountain top in Austria. And this is where the heart of the book begins… Pierrot must change his name to Pieter, Pierrot must dress a certain way and eventually Pierrot must think a certain way. As an adult reading this book you quickly learn that the house on the hill is none other than the Hitler’s retreat… In essence he is called, for his own protection, to slowly and insidiously, change his world view… a child favoured by Hitler himself, you wonder that he never stands up to him, but instead becomes more and more like him. The change is slow and while Pieter does stop and wonder occasionally, he doesn’t ever do anything about his thoughts about “where he comes from” and ultimately he betrays the people he loves. This is a very interesting read, to see how the mind can be manipulated, even when we don’t want it to be. Sad, very thought provoking and an excellent read, especially for those who enjoy war time reads and those who wonder, how did ordinary citizens let things go so badly wrong. They didn’t they were caught up in it all. Corruption, betrayal and heartbreak… not to mention hope, all packed into this book. It is a great book, that will leave you contemplating things long after you have finished reading it. My middle schoolers would really get a lot out of reading this, plenty of food for thought in this one.

Hooray, Hooray, it’s a GiveAway

So we have a copy of The Boy at the Top of the Mountain by John Boyne: to GiveAway to a lucky reader. This GiveAway works in the usual way, leave a comment before the end of play on Sunday, 13 December 2015. We will draw and publish the winners in the Fabulous Fun Post after that. I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway. Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you! Good luck and happy commenting!!!

We were given a copy of The Boy at the Top of the Mountain by John Boyne for review purposes and as a GiveAway. We were not paid for our review, this is not a sponsored post and the opinions expressed are as usual our own.

Hope you all have the most fabulous week!!!