Kid Lit #3

                                                
All the Wrong Questions
Who Could That Be At This Hour?  #1 by Lemony Snickett

Who Could That Be At This Hour by Lemony Snickett is the hilarious first instalment of his All The Wrong Questions series.  I have always loved a good mystery, and this one will keep you on your toes, as well as improve your vocabulary. 
Not only is it full of action, it has lots of unusual, irritating, and interesting people and a unique setting, it has many references to other books (the titles are not mentioned, so it is fun to figure out which ones they are), and the longer words are defined which is great for kids who already don’t know what the words are.  I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
                                                    
Professor Gargoyle: Tales From Lovecraft Middle School #1
By Charles Gilman; illustrated by Eugene Smith

Quirk has done it again!  I loved, loved, loved this book! Here we have the perfect blend of strange, creepy and horrific (which I am sure H.P. would have given his two thumbs up for).  Not only will the front cover draw kids in but the story will hold them…this is the kind of stuff that kids should (in my opinion) just lap up.    The black and white illustrations throughout were superb, giving the story that extra little oomph.  I can’t wait to read what’s next, and I really can’t wait to get this book on to the library shelf! 
                                                 

Phineas L. MacGuire Erupts!
 By Frances O’Roark Dowell

An all around feel good book, written with a sense of humour and an enthusiasm for science.  I liked the message this book gave about friendship and gender roles.  The experiments in the back of the book will also be a lot of fun and be easy to do.
                                                       
The Key to Rondo by Emily Rodda
This one has been sitting in my school basket for quite some time, and I had been putting it off because it was obviously a fantasy story and I was just off the genre all last year.  This year is different, and I actually really enjoyed this story.  There were lots of references to fairy tales, nursery rhymes etc., which were pretty funny eg. “Polly ran off to put the kettle on”,  I got a good chuckle out of that one. 
                                                       
Naomi’s Road by Joy Kogawa

A troupe performed this opera at my school last fall and it has taken me all this time to pull out the book, and then listen to the opera (the group very kindly left two copies of the opera for class discussion).  I personally think that this is a topic that isn’t discussed as much as it should be when November comes around and there is some attention paid to Remembrance Day. 
I want to seek out Kogawa’s other novels and her adult story of  ‘Obasan’ of which ‘Naomi’s Road’ is based on.
                                                     
The New Normal by Ashley Little
This book did not turn out to be what I had expected: an issue book!  Instead the main protagonist Tamar is engrossing, interesting and funny.  I had in the recent past just talked to someone who had become a widow about how she should not be seeking to get her old life back, but how instead she should be building a new life around what her circumstances really are now that she has to live without her husband, and in this book you get to see Tamar do just that, learn to live her “new normal” life.  This is a definite ‘must read’ for teens.

Of Mice and Men

 

   Since I did not study this book in highschool it was shocking to realise just how much this particular book has invaded popular culture.  It immediately occurred to me on reading certain lines spoken by one of the protagonists, Lennie,  that Looney Tunes had parodied this character and it was disturbing to realise that, because this story is so profoundly sad, that the folks at Warner Brothers thought it darkly amusing to feature this in a children’s cartoon.

I have always been reluctant to read Steinbeck.
Of Mice and Men was simply awful.  Well written, but about such an ugly topic.  I was impressed by Steinbeck’s imagery of the outdoors at the beginning and end of the book (it is curious that he did it that way instead of establishing scenarios throughout the story and changes of scenes).  It is almost as if he can see only beauty in nature and that humans are not worthy of the same effort.  The book was clearly written as something to be acted out in a play, and I can honestly say that I will not be attending any performances.  I was left feeling nauseated, sick at the ugliness of human nature which even Steinbeck’s descriptions of the scenery in the last act did nothing to cleanse from my heart.  
I hope that rest of his work is unlike in character to this one, but I suspect it will be.

Howl's Moving Castle

                             
Howl’s Moving Castle
I watched the Studio Ghibli movie first, which was a wonderful treat (and so sweet!), so I couldn’t wait to get stuck into the books.  Howl’s Moving Castle, being the first in this trilogy was wonderful, full of mystery, romance and magic.  As with any movie, there are always parts that cannot be included, so it was a real treat to get all of the things that were missed. While both movie and book are similar there are many wonderful variations and I would recommend both, but perhaps watching the movie first (shocking I know!)
                              
Castle in the Air, was another exciting story, and this time with an Arabian Nights flavour full of enchantments, magic carpets, and djinn.   It reminds me of the Narnia Chronicles, in it’s diversity of climates, culture and magic.   
                                              
The House of Many Ways finishes off this special trio of books.    I really enjoyed reading them all, and look forward to reading this author’s other collections.   I was so comfortable and at ease I can’t help but want to find out how her other books are written and if this is a style that will dominate all of her fiction.  It was such a pleasure to read.  
                                                    

The Houseguest

For us die-hard Pride and Prejudice fans who just want that little bit more from the story, this book is a delicious little treat.  I have been, and suspect always will be a sucker for new ideas, variations and twists on the universal theme.  I adore this story because one of the minor characters Georgiana Darcy has more of a leading role in this variation, which in itself provides much food for thought about her initial role in the original story, and it's catalitic role.  I wonder if anyone has ever thought about writing a variation that does not include her?  It would certainly be an entirely different story (or in my opinion, no story at all).  I am especially fond of the relationship that Adams developed between Elizabeth Bennet and Georgiana Darcy, it was cute and sweet and had me wishing for a little sister of my own.  Naturally the relationship between Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth is fascinating in this variation too, complete with all of it's inevitabilities (the misunderstandings, the confusion, and that simmering sexual tension).  This version includes all of what I consider to be the vital ingredients for a Pride and Prejudice vagary, and I do recommend it to fans of this kind of story.
I first encountered this book at  Fan.Fiction.Net    I went back and re-read it twice before it was mostly removed from the site inviting us to buy it at Amazon.ca.  It was my first Kindle purchase, and I was extremely excited to buy it.  You can look at the authors othre fan fiction here Elizabeth Adams  it is worth a peek, and you can buy her e-book here The Houseguest.

Miss Me?

 It is hard to believe that it has been nearly three months since I last posted anything.  I have not stopped reading!  I have just been extremely busy at work and when I have been at home I have not had the patience to wait for my incredibly, painfully, slow internet connection to upload any of my work, so blogging had to go for now.  But that has all changed this week!  I finally have a super fast connection.
 My first thing to try out was buying e-books from Amazon.ca.  I can't tell you just how satisfying it was to buy a book online and receive it three seconds later! 
I will now proceed to publish what I have written over the past two months.  It isn't as much as I had thought, and only very rough drafts as I have been too preoccupied with my job and very tired as well.  With the addition of another classroom at my school I now have twice as many responsibilities, plus the new teacher wants me to provide an activity as well as story time, and I now have a preschool group that comes in twice a week.  I thrive on the challenge!  I just love it when I read a book to a group of kids and I make successful connections, and I am very happy to be now reading to preschoolers as well, it meets a need in myself to reach as many kids as possible.
It will be a very busy day today, I will be doing a continuation of my theme from last week of English folklore and fairy tales with a factured fairy tale called Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs, and then we will finish off our project from last week which is a large picture of a beanstalk though today we will be adding a little Jack and a giant at the top of the beanstalk (giving the kids the option to make the giant with a scared 'aargh I am falling face' or an angry 'fie fi fo' face). 
I promise to get working on those blog entires this weekend, it is amazing that even though I have not been posting I have now over 5000 views on this blog, thank you!  See you soon!

Shiver, Linger and Forever

Shiver

First book in the trilogy…

Okay, I must admit I was very stricken by how many similarities there were in this story compared to Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and it biased me for a while, because, quite frankly, I am “super sick” of the whole teenage love/angst paranormal scene.  But I persevered, and found that, even though there are some likenesses here, there are also quite a few differences, and that the similarities aren’t a bad thing because Stiefvater chose the things that I particularly liked about the Twilight books.  For example, a strong female protagonist who is smart and independent.  The use of poetry and mention of other good works that teens might not even think about reading (but might now!), and the show of respect and restraint on the male protagonist’s part when it comes to having sex, and even when it does come up, it is in the right conditions and all about love (as it ideally should be). I Liked how both protagonists, Grace and Sam, had a share of page time, I got to see and understand both characters from their points of view.
 All in all Shiver, though heavily steeped in romantic metaphor (all on the male protagonists part!), is just about perfect for the girl who wants these ingredients in her next romantic book after Twilight. 

Linger
On to part two in the trilogy, it didn’t behave as I expect most trilogies to behave, this wasn’t really a filler piece… there was loads of action, the usual gooey, romantic metaphors, and a cliff hanger at the end.  Unlike Shiver, you cannot just leave now if you wished because it wasn’t wrapped up in a neat conclusive parcel. 
I would like to say that I am glad that this time there were four people telling the story, apart from Sam and Grace, there is now Isabel and Cole,   because it really made the difference I think in the pace and interest of the ‘middle’ part.   I have to say that I am pleased with how little steeped it was in werewolf lore.  The wolves are just the catalyst for the story and stay in the background behind the character development of the four protagonists. 


Forever, the last book in the series, maintains the same tempo as the first two, concluding satisfactorily all four threads of the story.  I am relieved to have finished them, though it wasn’t too hard for me (despite so many corny metaphors).  This is a wolf story that I did’t mind (because the other were books making the rounds these days  seem to be so gritty and aggressive).  The story was nice and the wolves were just wolves, doing natural wolfy things, not human ones.  That is what made the difference for me when reading this.

Darwin's Radio

I have always had a hard time with the type of science fiction books which are really more about the science than the fiction.  Understandably there had to be a lot of science for the subjects in this book (evolution and biology), but it felt like a punishment for me to have to slog through it, which takes from my enjoyment and interest. 
Griping aside, this book was food for thought, and made me wonder what we will evolve into eventually.  We have lots of options thanks to popular fiction (Isaac Asimov’s future history is my favourite choice here...when there was robots naturally...) and television shows (the Star Trek universe), but in the actual future, how will we really turn out?  I can’t possibly predict.  Any ideas?