Wednesday, February 6, 2012 (Deadline to sign up as book-giver)

Wellesley Reads Together is also part of the larger Wellesley Celebrates Education initiative www.wellesleycelebrateseducation.org, which is a year-long series of education focused events culminating in the opening of the new Wellesley High School in February 2012.  

The Wellesley Reads Together Committee has selected two books for the community to share during the program’s first round, which runs from October 1 to November 13, 2011. 

The first, The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough, is by Wellesley resident, Katie Smith Milway.  It introduces children and families to the concept of food security – ensuring that all have enough to eat and be healthy. 

The second, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is by Barbara Kingsolver, Steven Hopp and Camille Kingsolver.  This book chronicles a year in the life of Barbara Kingsolver’s family during which they procured as much of their food as possible from their own backyard and from neighboring farms. 

A variety of community events are planned for October and November including: author visits with Katie Smith Milway, book discussion groups, a film series, panel discussions, and a Harvest dinner.  Please visit our events page to find out more about what’s upcoming or check out our blog, to read participants’ collective insights.  

If you are interested in additional information or want to make a suggestion, please call 781-235-1610 ext. 1206.

New Leaf flores, one of the areas most recognized floral design and flower shops serving the Greater Boston area, is now pleased to offer holiday decorating services for residential and commercial spaces. 

“The holiday season is always an extra special time for decorating. Flowers, greenery and unique seasonal plants and flowers can be used to create a warm and friendly holiday home or a sensational party,” notes Daniel Lopez-Ospina, co-owner of New Leaf flores. “But adorning your home for the holidays can become the most pain-staking task for some. Our service can relieve the stress of decorating so you can enjoy your family, friends and festivities.” 

Specializing in weddings, events, home décor and individual arrangements, New Leaf flores uses the highest quality materials from around the world and collaborates with each client to produce singularly elegant creations that represent a feeling and a moment in time. Inspired by color, texture, composition and the specific occasion, Daniel Lopez-Ospina and Jeb Taylor, co-owners of New Leaf flores, hand-select their materials daily. Their creations are often featured in local and national press including the cover of a past holiday issue of Traditional Home magazine.   

New Leaf flores is located at 601 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, MA. For more information or to schedule holiday decorating for your home or work place, call (617)522-1101. Additional information can be found on the company website at www.newleafjp.com.

Now, you’ll certainly have a reading list to take you and yours past the holidays… all the way through summer.  

Babies – Early Elementary Schoolers

The Little Books Boxed Set (Rosenthal)

Finn Throws a Fit! (Elliott)

What Is This? (Damm)

My Little Stella Library (Gay)

My Little Red Fire Truck (Johnson)

Tacky the Penguin (Lester)

Here’s a Little Poem (Yolen)

Ladybug Girl (Soman)

Trouble Gum (Cordell)

Beyond the Great Mountains:  A Visual Poem About China (Young)

Elephant & Piggie:  Watch Me Throw the Ball! (Willems)

Chasing Degas (Montanari)

Tweens

One Giant Leap:  Apollo 11 Remembered (Bizony)

Rebecca Boxed Set, American Girls Collection (Greene)

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Stewart)

The Last Olympian: Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book 5 (Riordan)

The Dragon of Trelian (Knudsen)

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (Birdsall)

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute (Krosoczka)

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Kelly)

When You Reach Me (Stead)

The Time Travelers’ Handbook: A Wild, Wacky, and Wooly Adventure Through History! (Stride)

The Greatest Moments in Sports (Berman)

Teens

A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition (Bryson)

The Teen Vogue Handbook: An Insider’s Guide to Careers in Fashion (Teen Vogue)

Leviathan (Westerfeld)

Anne Frank: Her life in words and pictures from the archives of The Anne Frank House (Metselaar)

The Conch Bearer (Divakaruni)

Coke or Pepsi? 1000 Coke or Pespsi Questions 2 Ask Your Friends! (Gill)

High School

Shiver (Stiefvater)

Fire (Cashore)

Love is the Higher Law (Levithan)

A Prayer for Owen Meany (Irving)

When the Game Was Ours (Bird/Johnson)

The Hunger Games (Collins)

The Book of the Moon (Stroud)

The Demon’s Lexicon (Brennan)

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes (Johnson)

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (Patterson)

Adults

The Lost Symbol (Brown)

That Old Cape Magic (Russo)

South of Broad (Conroy)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Larsson)

Secrets to Happiness: A Novel (Dunn)

Catching Fire:  How Cooking Made Us Human (Wrangham)

Regarding Heroes (Karsh)

Long Lost (Coben)

The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog (Ellis-Bell)

April 1865: The Month That Saved America (Winik)

Weekend Retreats (Salk)

Kitchen Express: 404 inspired seasonal dishes you can make in 20 minutes or less (Bittman)

Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy (Canellos)

Thanks once again to the librarians and independent booksellers in Wellesley and Weston for their time and insights.