Kristy R. Langstraat-Bolte

This book was called The Crocodile Hunter by Steve and Terri Irwin. I just love them, and their story. I love reading about their lives, it’s so exciting and interesting! My dream is to visit Australia Zoo!! But since that’ll never happen, at least I can read their books and watch their shows!!

I think I got this mini book for free at some church, it would either be from Harvest Chapel or my Catholic church but I don’t remember for sure. It’s called The Life Book. This was a quick read for me, I enjoyed it a lot. It just sort of described a lot of the stuff in the Bible but in ways and terms that I could actually understand!!! I always wanted to read the Bible from beginning to end, but it’s written so weird, that I never make it very far… So this little book definitely helped! I wish it had been longer and explained more!

This book was called Conscience & Courage: Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust by Eva Fogelman. It was interesting, but a harder read, because it was more informational, then a story. There were lots of stories within the book, but it didn’t flow, because it was a lot of talk and discussions. But like I said still interesting.

I think my dad and I bought this book in Orange City, Iowa at the last Tulip Fest we went to. It’s a big book with a LOT of colorful pictures! It’s called Celebrating Our Dutch Heritage: The Story of the Orange City Tulip Festival by William D. Kalsbeek. It was hard to lug this book around to read so took me longer than most books, but I enjoyed looking at all the pictures of tulip fests past in the last 50 years and reading about how it got started, and how it gets put together etc! I’ve loved getting to participate in the Tulip Fests and having Kathryn do so as well, and if all goes well we should be participating again this May! And we can’t wait! Kathryn loves scrubbing the streets in her costume before the parades and this year she should get to ride a float and we will be going to the carnival eating lots of Dutch food and watching the musical, Cinderella!!!

This book was called A World Erased by Noah Lederman. It was a Holocaust book my dad got me for Christmas on kindle. It was a very interesting story! It was about the author’s grandparents who survived the Holocaust, and how he learned about their stories of survival and how he got them to talk about it when they wanted to forget. So moving!

This book was called Steve & Me by Terri Irwin. I love the Irwin family! I love watching all their shows, and I love how much they love animals! My dream is to go to Australia and visit Australia Zoo! I was so sad when Steve Irwin died…. This book was so good and I couldn’t put it down!!!

I had forgotten to bring Kathryn a book to read in Bensenville last night, so we were looking for one, my dad found this one: Pumpkins From The Sky by Julia Van Nutt. It was a short book, I was reading it to make sure I could read it to Kathryn. It was a very cute story. And the reason it was in our house is because it had a pig in it! My mom’s favorite animal!!!!

I found this book in my bedroom in Bensenville, probably read it in high school. It’s called Sabrina The Teenage Witch: Salem’s Tails: Cat TV by Mark Dubowski. I did love this show growing up, and loved the black kitty Salem, so it’s no wonder I had this book, it was a super fast read, but I enjoyed it, and it brought back memories of my childhood!

My dad bought me this book on my kindle for Christmas called Hiding In Death’s Shadow: How I Survived The Holocaust by Allen Brater. Obviously I enjoy reading survivor stories of the Holocaust and it was cool to read something different, this boy didn’t go to a Concentration camp, but his family did, and he had to survive a different way, but surviving in the forest! Was it easier or harder or better than a camp, it doesn’t matter, either way it was a horrible situation and he was able to overcome it and survive!!

This book was called Chappaquiddick: The Real Story by James ET Lange and Katherine DeWitt, Jr. I’ve always been interested in the Kennedy’s and especially in what really happened at Chappaquiddick. This book did give me all the details and information I would have liked to know, but it also was extremely repetitive, and had a lot of stuff in it that wasn’t necessary, so it made it a very long real, and sometimes boring after reading the details of what actually happened.

This book was called Dear America: Standing In The Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan: Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763. It’s about a young girl and her brother who were captured by Indians, and lived with them for a year before being reunited with their parents, and how at first they were so upset, but then they came to love the Indians, and see them as people just like them. It’s another book I found in my room in Bensenville, that I had read when I was younger, but enjoyed re-reading now as an adult!

This book was A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel. It’s a memoir found in France about a woman who was Jewish born in Poland, but opened up a French book store in Berlin and then World War 2 broke out and she was able to make it to Paris, and it’s about her story of where she was, how she hid, about her escapes, and what happened to her during the war time!

This book was called If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen. This book was so good, and yet so horrible, and so intriguing and so terrifying!! I could not put it down, it was a super long book that I read really fast. The worst part is that this is a true story, that took place during my life, and it’s hard to believe that this horrible situation was happening while I was living a great life!! So sad, that people are really like this, and can hurt the people they love and even their own children in this horrific way……

This book was called Hitler’s Daughter by Jackie French. I had actually read it before many years ago, but found it in my parent’s house in Bensenville a few months ago. While staying there the last 2 times, I needed something to read before bed, so re-read it! It’s very short but very good. It’s about how Hitler had a secret daughter that no one knew about! You never know, it could be true!!!!!

This book was the 3rd and final book in the series my dad and I read. This one was called The Rule Of All still by the Saunderson Twins! It was great, but just ended way too soon…. I seriously recommend this book series! And honestly my dad and I really believe it would make a GREAT movie trilogy!!!