I think 14 years old would probably be good for these books. But I guess it's also on how mature your son is. (He does also have series The Lost Books... which are young adult books... they kind of take place int the same 'universe' as the Circle books. They aren't nearly as violent.)

There is a few parts you might not want your child to see. (Kirk and an Orion girl... you figure it out. Uhura is in her bra at one point, the Orion girl is in her underwear too. It all happens for about 5 minutes in the film. You can cover eyes.) Otherwise it is okay for kids... typical Star Trek stuff. Fights and phasers and swords... Sulu. But the way it is an AWESOME movie.

Has she tried the Dragon Keeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul. Those are Christian and it's an excellent fantasy series. And just to add to the whole Harry Potter thing... there is a lot of Christian themes in them. I was never against them as a Christian... but my mother-in-law was. She finally read them... I had to loan her my entire series and she read them in a week. When she was done... she couldn't understand the fuss. She loved them.

Honestly.... I laughed, through the whole movie. My husband said he felt bad for everyone around us. (He was just saying that... I wasn't really that loud.) My opinion is just stick with the books.

I liked it... but be aware that Rory (the daughter) makes some very bad choices in the later years. Premarital sex, breaking laws, and so on... she seemed to have a better head on her when she was in high school. (I liked the high school years better... I was a Jess fan.)

I think Brenden was picked for his voice... I think it's a perfect choice. I like the rest of the cast is excellent too. Meggie looks exactly like I pictured her. Looking at all the pictures on IMDB made me happy... at least for the looks of things. But I am still worried about seeing it. I'm so afraid of the liberties they might have taken. And I'm also worried about my son not liking it too. He really liked the book and we're taking him to see it for his birthday. PS... Firefly... I like your quote from Mal. (I too am a Browncoat... bet you can't guess where my user name comes from)

He died! Oh no now I am sad. The Prisoner was brilliant. My husband was happy I made him watch it as he was better able to understand the Prisoner Simpson's episode. (That and he enjoyed it to)

I don't think Inkheart has really caught on here yet. I was able to get it at my library which... is rather small and always busy. We like it so much we ended up buying it and Inkspell too... now we have to get Inkdeath. (My library had neither) I'm really enjoying them. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the movie or not. I've been so disappointed in movies lately...

Okay so here goes... I've read the first three in the Twilight series. I would not even consider these Christian in the slightest. The do touch on the subject of souls, God, and even morality (waiting for sex until after marriage). I would not say there is anything extremely awful from a Christian perspective other then the the vampires. If I had a teen daughter I would probably let her read them. In all I would say that even Harry Potter has more Christian themes (some very blatant ones in fact) than the Twilight series. I am a Christian so I do understand your concerns. I think your best bet would be that if your heart is telling you to keep your daughter from reading them... then you should listen to it.

I also recommend The Dragon Keeper Chronicles. (Just a warning there is heavy christian content in them, I don't know if that's an issue or not.)

Okay, now the summer is going to start slowing down a little bit after this weekend (I'm littlest is turning two!) I was wondering if all of us still wanted to try to get some sort of outing planned. Let me know guys.

We just got ours... so progress really isn't happening yet... but man are my legs sore.

Anne of Green Gables and the sequels... I absolutely loved those.

I've been in contact with another lady from this board and we were thinking of trying to get an outing together. We were thinking of maybe a zoo trip or I've suggested Greenfield Village or The Henry Ford Museum. Nothing is set in stone and we've only just begun talking about it... but if anyone was interested... I think it would be a lot of fun.

I read Judy Blume too. I never regretted reading her, my mom who's just as avid a reader as I am recommended several of them to me when I was in middle school.

Ours is Serenity Academy. It started out because of one of my favorite television show but there's many different meanings for us now. And anyone who knows about the show Firefly should understand why our school mascot is a stuffed animal that we call our black market beagle named Mal.

2001: A Space Odyssey- I was bored to tears... and we had to watch it in school when I was in 6th grade The Exorcist- The movie just disturbed me The Grudge-This is the one movie that kept me up late at night The Blair Witch Project-When I first saw this I was freaked out and then I watched it again and laughed at myself because I realized it was utterly ridiculous.

Heh, I never would've done it for a book report either. Luckily I was over the Flowers In the Attic stage in 8th grade so it wasn't a problem. And my copy of IT landed in the garbage, I would've burned it if we had a woodstove or fireplace. It's funny because I actually like a lot of Stephen King books... mostly the ones I wouldn't consider horror... like The Green Mile, The Stand (some might consider that horror) or Eyes of the Dragon. I just remembered some of the other junk I read when I was younger... Danielle Steel (Why I read her I don't know), RL Stien's (can't remember how to spell that name) Fear Street series. Those were really popular when I was in middle school.

I never really regretted reading any of the Stephen King books I read when I was in middle school... except for IT. I've never gotten through it... I've tried at least three times... but for some reason I can never finish it. Probably the books I regret reading the most are those V.C. Andrews books (Flowers In the Attic and all those other series she had). They didn't creep me out or anything... just looking back I think they were a complete waste of time! (In high school my English teacher even put a ban on them for book reports)

We pretty much buy things on sale and stock up... that sort of thing. I'm in Michigan milk has gone up a little. And when we buy stuff like cheese... the sales are now 3 bricks for $6 instead of 3 for $5 so that's up a little too. We haven't bought stuff like olive oil in awhile as we buy that in bulk so I haven't noticed much in that. We buy bread at one of those stores outlet type stores and that hasn't gone up at all either. I really haven't seen a dramatic change in groceries.

See... now I don't plan too. I'm going to wait until the next cycle comes around to actually address that. But then I'll have a pretty young second grader. He'll be 6 next February and he's accelerated to the point where he can do the work and understand it... but I don't want to have to try and explain what was going on during the Inquisition.

My Five Serenity (Just because Firefly is probably one of the all time best kept secrets of television) American Beauty (The cinematography is beautiful) Aliens (Aliens, not Alien) Big Fish The Abyss (James Cameron is my favorite director hence he gets two on my top list)

I don't know... maybe I'm not worried because we did at one time hit bottom. We lost a house... we had to declare bankruptcy, my husband was out of a job for 6 months. We're no where near that right now. We've learned to scrimp and save and cut corners all over the place. We live a modest life... we rent, even thought we could probably buy right now. We've already looked into it... but we've decided against it because eventually we want to leave Michigan and we think buy here now would be stupid on our part. We only have one car. I've noticed prices going up in both gas and food. But our spending hasn't really changed. But not as much is going into our savings so I guess I see it there too. But I would say we're living a bit easier now than say 5 years ago. I just can't bring myself to worry like I did back then...

who isn't worried about anything? I know that gas prices are skyrocketing, making pretty much the cost of living rise as well. Food prices are going up, heating prices too and etc. But there's talk of recession and our economy going to the dogs. But I just don't feel the discomfort that a lot of people seem to feel. I'm not sure why... I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way.

Actually all the sentences in my book are correct. 1. I feel love for you. 2. My mother feels love for me. 3. The people in my family feel love for each other. Mine was printed in 2006, so the must have fixed it.