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Jeremiah 32:17 (HCSB) Ah, Lord God! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!” If draping the heavens over the earth isn’t too hard for God, why do I continue to think that providing for me, protecting me, and filling me is?

Now, onto another topic. Time to reveal the winners of last week’s Freedom Blog Hop Giveaway. For the Signed Print Edition of Odessa, illustrated calendar, keychain and bookmark, the WINNER is: (drumroll, please) Laura Dunks of England! Congratulations Laura. As soon as I receive the boxes of Odessa in print, I will send your signed copy straight away. For the eBook edition of Odessa, personally-designed graphic totebag, sticky note pad, pen, signed coverart postcard and bookmark, the WINNER is: Amanda Romano Congratulations Amanda. I hope you enjoy the story and find the bag useful. Continue reading →

Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at presidents and church. Read his previous OUPblogs here.

Americans do impose a religious litmus test on our presidents, and there is a tradition that proves it. President Obama and his family attended Easter service at St John’s Episcopal Church. Just across from the White House, it is known as the “Church of the Presidents,” the unofficial White House Chapel. Almost every president since James Madison has found occasion to worship in this church and in particular at pew 54, the presidential pew.

The selective presidential need to prove a religious point proves my point. Consider the case of President Eisenhower, who was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and whose home served as the local meeting hall for Witnesses for 19 years. Twelve days after his first inauguration, Eisenhower was baptized, confirmed, and became a communicant in the Presbyterian Church. No president before or after him has ever had to perform such rites while in office. The religious litmus test was so powerful in this case that it was voluntarily taken by a president who had already been endorsed by the people and sworn to protect and defend the Constitution.

Contrast Eisenhower to President Reagan or Bush, neither of whom belonged to a congregation or attended church regularly (or even sporadically) while in Washington, justifying their decision on the basis that the security requirements would be too onerous and disruptive to the congregations they joined. Faith is a personal thing only if the public already believes that a president possesses it. If not, no security arrangement is too onerous to trump the need to publicize it. This is true of President Clinton when he attended Foundry United Methodist Church while in Washington (one of the candidates for the Obamas’ new home church by the way), and it is also true of presidential candidate John Kerry when he made much public display of his Sunday church attendances.

The speculation about which church the Obamas will ultimately settle on as a home church in DC has been fueled, in part, by his past association with the controversial Jeremiah Wright and his membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ. The speculation about where the Obamas will end up has taken on more than normal political significance because there is a greater need for this president, unless others who didn’t even have to attend church, to demonstrate that his religious views are squarely in the mainstream.

So on this Easter weekend, to those who bemoan the secularization of America, take heart, because presidents who appear godless know that they will be judged on earth before they are judged in heaven; to those who believe the separation of church and state is not yet complete, take stock, because where and whether or not President Obama ends up worshiping every Sunday has become a topic of paramount political importance to the administration. So much so that White House aides reportedly considered over a dozen churches before deciding on St John’s as the safest place for a president to go to observe Easter Sunday.

You know the SCWBI Writer's Retreat one day program I applied to? Mark Peter Hughes, author of I am the Wallpaper and Lemonade Mouth will be one of the presenters. I haven't read any of his books, and thought it would be a good idea to check them out. For research purposes, you know. And, boy, am I ever so glad I did.

Last night, I read I am the Wallpaper, the debut novel of Mark Peter Hughes, which incidentally was a finalist in the Delacorte Press Young Adult Novel Competition.

I was reminded of a book that I read last year, that I absolutely loved. It stood out in my mind because it was wonderful pre-teen/teen coming-of-age story. That book was Shug by Jenny Han.

Well, let me introduce you to another wonderful coming-of-age story and a book I would recommend for my Great Books for Girls list. I am the Wallpaper.

Of course, by now, you're wondering, and what does this have to do with Poetry Friday? This is too good to keep quiet for long, so let me just tell you that thirteen-year-old Floey Packer feels like she's barely noticed, like wallpaper, especially when her older sister, the Amazing Lillian is around. Life takes an interesting turn for Floey when she meets fifteen-year-old Calvin, who is into Zen and poetry, at her sister's wedding.

When Floey tries to find out about where she can find Calvin on the web, she also does a little research on Zen and haiku. From the start she's hooked and writes haiku every once in awhile as therapy in her journals. Below is one of the haiku poems Floey wrote to celebrate the new her. And check out the haiku poem Calvin wrote for her. Ah, to have a poem like that written for me!

2007 Cybils nominations are now closed. I am thrilled to be on the nominating committee for the MG/YA Non-Fiction category. While I haven't read all of these books yet, these books were nominated because someone really enjoyed them. I'm sure a few of these books will make it to my Great Books for Girls & Cool Books for Boys lists (Both lists are in serious need of some updating).

In case you haven't seen it yet, here is the list of nominated titles for the middle grade and young adult nonfiction category. Thank you, Jen, for putting together the code.

1607: A New Look at Jamestown
written by Karen Lange
National Geographic
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Across the Wide Ocean
written by Karen Romano Young
Harper Collins (Greenwillow)
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60's
written by Laban Hill
Little, Brown
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Another Book About Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Bad
written by Mark Gonyea
Henry Holt and Co.
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art
written by Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
Philomel
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Astrobiology (Cool Science)
written by Fred Bortz
Lerner
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Black and White Airmen: Their True History
written by John Fleischman
Houghton Mifflin
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Dangerous Book for Boys, The
written by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden
Collins
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Daring Book for Girls, The
written by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz
Collins
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Dinosaur Eggs Discovered!: Unscrambling the Clues
written by Lowell Dingus (and others)
Twenty-First Century Books
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Face to Face with Grizzlies
written by Joel Satore
National Georgraphic
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

From Slave to Superstar of the Wild West: The Awesome Story of Jim Beckwourth
written by Tom DeMund
Legends of the West Publishing
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Grief Girl
written by Erin Vincent
Delacorte
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Halloween Book of Facts and Fun, The
written by Wendie Old
Albert Whitman
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Jeannette Rankin: Political Pioneer
written by Gretchen Woelfle
Calkins Creek (Boyd Mills
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Let's Clear the Air: 10 Reasons Not to Start Smoking
written by Deanna Staffo
Lobster Press
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Marie Curie: Giants of Science #4
written by Kathleen Krull
Viking Juvenile
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail
written by Danica McKellar
Hudson Street Press
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Morris and Buddy: The Story of the First Seeing Eye Dog
written by Becky Hall
Albert Whitman & Company
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Muckrakers: How Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens Helped Expose Scandal, Inspire Reform, and Invent Investigative Journalism
written by Ann Bausum
National Geographic Children's Books
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

My Feet Aren't Ugly
written by Debra Beck
Beaufort Books
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Ox, House, Stick: The Story of Our Alphabet
written by Don Robb
Charlesbridge
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Periodic Table: Elements With Style!, The
written by Adrian Dingle
Kingfisher
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Pocket Babies and Other Amazing Marsupials
written by Sneed B. Collard
Darby Creek Publishers
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Real Benedict Arnold, The
written by Jim Murphy
Clarion (Houghton Mifflin)
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Red: The Next Generation of American Writers--Teenage Girls--On What Fires Up Their Lives Today
written by Amy Goldwasser
Hudson Street Press
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story
written by Peter Lane Taylor
Kar-Ben Publishing
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Smart-Opedia
written by Eve Drobot
Maple Tree Press
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Sneeze!
written by Alexandra Siy
Charlesbridge
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Snow Baby: The Arctic Childhood of Robert E. Peary's Daring Daughter, The
written by Katherine Kirkpatrick
Holiday House
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Social Climber's Guide to High School, The
written by Robyn Schneider
Simon Pulse
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Superfood or Superthreat: The Issue of Genetically Engineered Food
written by Kathlyn Gay
Enslow
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Tasting the Sky: a Palestinian Childhood
written by Ibtisam Barakat
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Titanic: An Interactive History Adventure, The
written by Bob Temple
Capstone Press
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Tracking Trash
written by Loree Griffin Burns
Houghton Mifflin
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Ultimate Interactive Atlas of the World
written by Elaine Jackson (and others)
Scholastic
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, The
written by Peter Sis
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin
written by Larry Dane Brimmer
Calkins Creek (Boyd Mills
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Whale Scientists: Solving the Mystery of Whale Strandings, The
written by Fran Hodgkins
Houghton Mifflin
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

What's Eating You?: Parasites--The Inside Story
written by Nicola Davies
Candlewick
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Who Was First
written by Russell Freedman
Clarion
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Wildly Romantic: The English Romantic Poets: The Mad, the Bad, and the Dangerous
written by Catherine M. Andronik
Henry Holt
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World, The
written by Marc Aronson
National Geographic
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Beatles, Beatlemania
written by Bob Spitz
Little, Brown Young Readers
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

You Can Write a Story
written by Lisa Bullard
Two-Can Publishing, Inc.
Buy from Amazon Buy from BookSense (your local independent)

Here are links to the nomination lists in the other seven categories:

• Nonfiction Picture Books



• Fantasy and Science Fiction



• Graphic Novels



• Middle Grade Fiction



• Young Adult Fiction



• Fiction Picture Books



• Poetry

If you have a blog, please think about installing the Cybils widget from JacketFlap, with which you can display a new Cybils-nominated title every time your blog is refreshed. I've got mine set to show the MG/YA Non-Fiction Nominees. You can also customize colors and genres. Special thanks to Tracy Grand for providing this lovely widget free of charge for the Cybils.

Please note that if you purchase any of the Cybils titles by clicking through to Amazon or BookSense from any of the nominations posts (including this one) or from the Cybils widget a small commission will go to the Cybils organization. Proceeds will go towards prizes for the winners. Thanks for supporting the Cybils.

I just finished reading the final book of Harry Potter's incredible adventures. All I can say is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is perhaps the best ending to a series of books I have ever read. Ever. I was getting worried there with Book 4. That was somewhat painful to read. But, J.K. Rowling got it together with Books 5 and 6. And Book 7...what an amazing finish.

Boys and girls are going to love, love, love this series. The Harry Potter books are classics and will surely be much loved for years to come.

Now I must go and dispose of all these tissues.

We're already halfway through September and hopefully by now, all the children out there have adjusted to the school routine. Earlier this week, I reposted my book list for Cliques, Friendships and Self-Esteem. Today, I have some more books that would be great for boys as well. Keep in mind that adults should read these books first, and then use them as tools to help their children.

The Unwritten Rules of Friendship: Simple Strategies to Help your Child make Friends by Natalie Madorsky Elman and Eileen Kennedy-Moore: This book describes the different ways children interact with their friends, along with guidelines for parents to help their child understand their strengths to help nurture friendships.

Raise Your Child's Social IQ: Stepping Stones to People Skills for Kids by Cathi Cohen: This book is based on social skills training programs to help with social skills and awareness.

The Bully, The Bullied and the Bystander: From Preschool to High School -- How Parents and Teachers can break the Cycle of Violence by Barbara Coloroso: Learn how the bully, the bullied and the bystander all feed into each other's reaction; how to identify signs; and how each type of child can be taught to change their part in this destructive cycle.

Some light hearted books to read with your children:

Cliques, Phonies and other Baloney by Trevor Romain, ages 9-12: This easy to read book keeps it silly while exploring a tough subject for kids.

I finished reading The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. I liked this book much better than Funke's book, Inkheart. Five-year-old Bo and twelve-year-old Prosper are two brothers on the run from their Aunt and Uncle, the Hartliebs, who only want to adopt little Bo and leave Prosper to a life of foster homes. The brothers are unwilling to be separated, and go to Venice, a magical city their mother loved.

The boys soon encounter The Thief Lord, a thirteen-year-old named Scipio, who helps them and other runaways, even though he cannot help himself. The Hartliebs commission Victor Getz, a detective, to locate Bo. Add to this story a young girl named Hornet, who loves to read; Riccio and Mosca, young boys who are anxious to prove themselves able to The Thief Lord; stealing from the rich to survive; an interesting assignment; a couple of kind hearted adults; and a dishonest antiques dealer named Barbarossa...and you've got an interesting Oliver Twist/Robin Hood type storyline.

Cornelia Funke is a German author, and I'm wondering whether something is lost in the translation. Especially since Cornelia Funke is an award winning author. While I enjoyed reading The Thief Lord and liked the characters, I found the plot and pacing disappointing at times. So I'm wondering, is it the translation, the book, or my reading tastes? Hmmm.

I put The Thief Lord on my list, since I think children will enjoy the adventures in this book and imagining what it would be like to answer to no one but themselves. Children ages 9-12 will probably appreciate the book the most.

Yup, you read it right. I've been meaning to start earlier this summer, but got distracted. And now that school starts in three weeks, I decided I'd better get the ball rolling. I'll be hosting book giveaways periodically throughout the year for books I've really enjoyed. And boys, fear not, I'll have books for you too.

For the first Great Books for Girls Giveaway, I debated which book to choose. I wanted something really good, that was all about summer, and already highlighted in my book list. And here it is. This book is a perfect beach read, all around great book to send a loved one at summer camp next year, and a book I wished I had when I was a teen. Any ideas?

Okay, if you haven't figured it out by the picture of the lovely cover, I'm gonna give away a paperback copy of Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headley.

Write in your comments down below on the Truth of why you deserve the book by next Monday, August 20th by 11pm EST, and I'll announce the winner on Tuesday.

Ready. Set. Go!