Archive for the ‘Death is a central theme’ Category
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
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| Author: | Willa Cather |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1915 |
I am always blown away when a novel that is nearly 100 years old speaks to me as compellingly as Song of the Lark did. The story of Thea Kronborg, one of many children in a family |
Recommended. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Song of the Lark |
Posted in Biography, Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Music, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
Friday, August 20th, 2010
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Some musicals strike us as perfect, or at least nearly perfect. We’ve seen Into the Woods nearly fifty times and would be willing to watch it weekly or more if we could afford to. The book is interesting to us, most of the lyrics are clearly intentional and speak to us, the music is complex and beautiful. Sure there are songs that we think could go, or be improved, but still.
Rent seems terrifically unfinished to us. My teenage daughter who did not experience the 1980’s when AIDS first began to wreak havoc with so many lives and who had never heard the acronym AZT was utterly confused by the initial half hour. (We paused the DVD to explain what was happening and why.)
We admired Rent as an impassioned, furious, context-free snapshot of that awful time. The performers on the DVD are gorgeous, with voices to match. But the music and lyrics don’t rise to the cause they represent. The perfect song that Roger runs away to Santa Fe to write is not.
Wonder if perhaps, if the creator, Jonathan Larson, had lived to see the show on Broadway, he would have refined it further.
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Posted in Broadway musicals, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Music, Reading level: Grown up, Uncategorised | Comments Closed
Monday, May 10th, 2010
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Tags:book review, bullying, circus, elephant
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed
Monday, April 26th, 2010
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| Author: | Muriel Barbery |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
This book is remarkable, in that with every page I read, I was more captivated. For one thing, the author tells the story in a very interesting way: The story is narrated by two very different, but also very similar, characters. One is a 12 year old genius and the other is a 50-something year old concierge in the fancy hotel she lives in. So that's cool, but the writing style is what really got to me. Barbery gets very deep into some philosophical questions, that at many points I found confusing at first, but once I got into my "elegance of the hedgehog mood", I really enjoyed it. |
The way she uses language is just so PRETTY that I easily got sucked in. My only warning is that the ending is super surprising, although very satisfying nonetheless. I had to wait awhile to write my review because a) I didn't know what to say, and b) The ending got me pretty emotional, because the characters were so believable (I was almost crying on the bus when I finished it).
-- Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Elegance of the Hedgehog |
Tags:book review, Parenting gifted children, suicide
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Death is a central theme, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
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| Author: | M.T. Anderson |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction-dystopian |
This review seems like a spoiler, but it really gives nothing away, at all...
This book really got me worried about how horrible human beings are and what we're going to do to the world... It gave me a very depressing feeling while and after reading. It is set in the (near??) future, and most people are basically controlled by their "feeds" implanted directly in their brains, which are used mostly as an excuse to constantly show them thousands of advertisements. I guess the ending is supposed to be a little hopeful, in that the main character is considering fighting the feed, when he sees its awful power over humanity, but... I think hopeful is not a word that anyone can truthfully apply to this book. |
The writing style was very distracting at first, because it is VERY informal. I will explain with a quote: "I was like trying to sleep for the last few minutes of the flight, because... when we're goin hard i get real sleepy real easy, and I didn't want to be null for the unettes on the moon, at the hotel, if any of them were youch."
SO: Interesting. Very cool. Spooky. Makes you think. But definitely not cheerful. At all.
--Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Feed |
Tags:book review, dystopia
Posted in Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Death is a central theme, Fiction, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
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| Author: | An Na |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2003 |
I'm not sure how to rate this book, because the narration ranges from a five-year-old's perspective to that of an 18-year-old one. This is really interesting, but leaves most of the book as a very easy, lower-level read. However, this story about abuse and immigration is intense and scary. |
Yung and her family emigrated from Korea when she was five to find a better life. But her dad ended up drinking and life got very hard trying to keep their heritage while living in America...
--Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Step From Heaven, A |
Tags:alcoholism, book review, immigration
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, History, Reading level: age 12 and up, School | Comments Closed
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
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| Author: | Anna Davis |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups
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| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups
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| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
Wars have consequences, even when they don't impact those at home directly.
Not that horrors bear comparison, but the shock to the folks at home when, eventually they heard of the carnage of World War I seems to me as if it should have been mind-altering. Hard to believe they went right back to killing each other even more horribly in World War II.
The Jewel Box describes one woman's response to the events that affected her personally during the Great War -- she adopts the persona of a flapper.
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I admire Anna Davis' ability to show that the faces women show to the world, and also the faces of men, often do not actually reflect their true experience, their sufferings. Maybe if they did, there would be much less slaughter.
Chic lit alert! Every time my 14 yr. old saw this book lying around, she took the opportunity to make fun of me about it again. Yes, well, maybe it IS chic lit, and the cover is -- garish is probably not too strong a word -- but I found it much deeper than most. This is a story that gives rise to much thought, if not much hope, although it is not in and of itself unremittingly depressing.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Jewel Box, The |
Tags:book review, suffering in war, war, world war I
Posted in Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed
Friday, October 9th, 2009
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| Author: | Emily Chenoweth |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups
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| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups
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| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
Not that confronting human mortality can ever be easy. But coming to realize that your mother is mortally ill must be particularly difficult for a young person old enough to understand what death is, but not yet independent.
Chenoweth's heroine, still a college student, has known but refused to know consciously that her mother's brain cancer is terminal. In a story that could have been maudlin, Chenoweth lays out a "good" way for this young person to surface the bad news: in the company of her parents' good friends, with some younger people to interact with. |
This is not a cheerful book, but it is lovely and gentle. The dying woman is not presented as a saint, but as someone who has earned her (up until now) comfortable life, and is striving to ensure that those who survive her flourish while she enjoys as much of them time she has left as she can.
In fact, nearly all the characters reveal themselves as flawed but mostly well-intentioned. I am glad I got to know them. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Hello Goodbye |
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed
Friday, September 18th, 2009
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| Author: | Khaled Hosseini |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2008 |
An amazing book, but sooooo sad... I wish Hosseini could have given it a slightly happier ending. I think it is cool that we were able to see an up close and personal view of Afghanistan, even if it was not really a joyful thing to see. It shows how ignorant, I at least, am about the rest of the world.
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I like how we get to see Amir's understanding of his life change as he grows up and figures out his needs and how to solve them (his need for forgiveness, of freedom of choice, and ideas, revenge...)
--Fizzy, age 14 |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Kite Runner, The |
Tags:afghanistan, book review, bullying, consequences of war, History, religion, suffering in war, war
Posted in Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Fiction, History, Reading level: Sophisticated reader | Comments Closed
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
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| Author: | Markus Zusak |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2007 |
Good book. About a girl during the Holocaust, but on the side we don't usually hear: She is German, but suffering as well. In the very beginning of the book Liesel's brother dies, and she is shipped off to live with "scary" foster parents. And by the middle her family is trying to keep a Jew hidden, and still "Heil Hitler" everyone they see.
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The story is told by Death, which is a little bit spooky sounding, but Zusak makes Death surprisingly compassionate. As Liesel has to face the terrors of WW2, Death adds his two cents every once in a while, giving the story an interesting edge, especially because he tells us the climax of the book in the beginning, and makes us read all the way through for an explanation.
-- Fiz, age 14
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Book Thief, The |
Tags:book review, Gifted, History, Holocaust, suffering in war
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
