Armadillo’s Book Blog

As you can tell, we here are huge fans of Diana Wynne Jones. We admire the magical worlds she creates and her characters -- human, wizard, and fantastical -- captivate us. We find the plots of her stories unpredictable but plausible, at least in the magical environments in which they take place.

I have a friend whose brilliant son graduated from college and then promptly enlisted in the military. "Maybe I won't get sent to Iraq," he told her. "Yeah, and why are they teaching you Arabic?" she asked him. There are young people who need to truly understand how terrible war can be. And maybe we should try to communicate this to them before they are old enough to sign on the dotted line of that enlistment contract.

Do I think our children ought to read books like this one? Even though they can hardly bring themselves to read on? Yes. In a country where our leaders feel comfortable cheerfully singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the melody of a Beach Boys song, our children need to read about how a downtrodden society can pull itself together and say "No" to war.

The depictions of:

• The rocky but eventually trusting relationship between the siblings,
• The Gang of Five who are obsessed with writing a computer game,
• The dilemma of parents who are concerned that perhaps their children are possessed (most parents must believe that sometimes) and that their children's friends might not be the most upstanding citizens,
• The life of an old-fashioned gentleman who lives on a remote island in a remote community in Scotland,
• The hard work of a regional acting company, and
• The interesting character of the Boggart, who really does love his humans, even as he schemes to come up with more annoying tricks to play on them,

Note: The limitations of the personal computers that existed when this book was written play a significant part in the story. And for that reason, the fact that the author's descriptions of how computer operating systems work are a bit off deflated the story a little for me. If I were to make a movie of this book (and I think it would make a fantastic one), a slight change in a couple of the nouns would resolve this issue.

Highly recommended.

And I did indeed like it a lot. And, I learned a lot about sea voyaging in the late 1700's too.

Nick's story is told in the form of his journal entries for the entire voyage, each of which provides a date, a latitude and longitude (in measurements of Capt. Cook's time, which means that if a reader were to want to follow Nick's journey on a globe, one would have to do a little math), and an approximate location in words.

Because the tale is told in the voice of a boy, it is not challenging to read. However, Nick does have a strong grasp of sailing terminology and 18th century turns of speech. The glossary at the end of the book and the maps on the inside covers are useful additions.

If you like stories like the Wizard of Oz, I think you should like this.

As in Rowan of Rin, one sub-plot in Gossamer concerns a character who attempts to contribute to the group effort, realizes that she is not the right person for the job, and requests re-assignment. Others as overwhelmed, take notice! It IS a service to your community if you realize that your contribution would be to retire.

• When my younger daughter was around 3, she was obsessed with learning how Cinderella's mother had died. In this story, we learn within the first few pages that our heroine's mother died when she was struck by lightening.
• In many fairy tales, the heroine's name has to do with her physical appearance. In this story, the heroine's name has to do with her fate.
• Most fairy tales abound in generalities and their language is very simple, even bland. Some groups are pushing to ban this Newbery Award winner because the word "scrotum" appears on its first page.
• In many fairy tales, the stepmother serves as villain. In this story, the heroine's father's first wife comes to Lucky's rescue -- she raises her after her "real" mother has died.
• In many fairy tales, the protagonist leaves home to seek his (it IS usually his) fortune. In this story, Lucky runs away from home, only to realize that she belongs with her stepmother.

Probably best for readers significantly younger than 11 and/or older than 20.

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism like Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure, which we read a while back, narrates the story of Molly Moon, an orphan, and her best friend Rocky.

In this first book in the Molly Moon series, a celebration of independence and librarians, Molly learns to be a very powerful hypnotist. Although at some points in the book, she uses her powers "for the dark side", she eventually reflects on the ethics of her actions and comes up with creative solutions that make amends for the problems she caused.

Highly recommended for children and for lovers of books.