Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  I'm grateful to the hop for giving me a renewed interest in MG fiction.   Title: Keeping Pace Author: Laurie Morrison Publication info: Kindle edition, 2024, Amulet Books. 207 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: Grace Eller has spent most of middle school working toward one goal: beating her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be the best student in her class. But when Jonah beats her for eighth grade top scholar and then announces he’s switching schools for ninth grade, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And the summer looms over her head. With nothing planned and no more goals or checklists, she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be working toward.   Eager for a chance

Today we are continuing our 7-day circumambulation of Mt. Kenya . The other posts from my Africa trip: Arusha , Tarangire National Park , South Serengeti Part 1 , South Serengeti Part 2 ,  the rest of the Serengeti tour ,  Ngorogoro Crater ,  Mt. Meru , and Mt. Kenya, Part 1 The fourth day of our round-the-mountain hike we woke to find that the winds that had plagued us the previous day hadn't died in the night. That wasn't really news: I'd had to get up at 2 a.m. to re-secure tent lines which had pulled out in the fierce gusts. Our dining tent had been dismantled the night before. But the cook tent, dismayingly, was a mess of broken poles and ripped nylon. And none of the staff--ours or those of the other party camped next to us--was to be found. Despite the wind, it was a beautiful morning. I had a pretty good hunch we'd find our crew up at the hut--after all, that heap of collapsed tentage was their "bunkhouse." And eventually our guide, Nicholas, crawled

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle , with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  This is a review of the audio book. Title: Clean Getaway Author: Nic Stone, read by Dion Graham Publication Info: Penguin Random House audio, 2020, 4 hours. Hardback by Crown Books for Young Readers, 2020, 240 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: How to Go on an Unplanned Road Trip with Your Grandma: * Grab a Suitcase: Prepacked from the big spring break trip that got CANCELLED. * Fasten Your Seatbelt: G'ma's never conventional, so this trip won't be either. * Use the Green Book: G'ma's most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and, most important, the way home. What Not to Bring: * A Cell Phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G'ma starts acting stranger than usual. Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the Ame

Continuing with our Africa saga, today we are heading for Mt. Kenya, for a 7-day circumambulation of the peaks. The other posts from this trip: Arusha , Tarangire National Park , South Serengeti Part 1 , South Serengeti Part 2 ,  the rest of the Serengeti tour ,  Ngorogoro Crater , and Mt. Meru . Another ancient and extinct stratovolcano , Mt. Kenya (second highest mountain in Africa at 17,057') has a summit made up of a number of volcanic "necks," with the mountain eroded out from around them. These peaks, with the exception of the 3rd highest (Lanana, 16,355') are technical rock climbs and far out of our bailiwick. Our mission was to hike most of the way around the mountain (actually a giant "U" that almost, but not quite, connects the loop) and to summit the "trekker's peak--Point Lanana.  This view from Shipton hut on the NNE side of the mountain shows the main summits (I can't distinguish Batian and Nelion; they may both be in that separ