Archive for the ‘Dickensian’ Category
Monday, March 5th, 2007
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| Author: | Diana Wynne Jones |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1985 |
There are just a few authors that my 12 year old and I trust implicitly.
After having raced through umpteen of her novels, we placed Diana Wynne Jones in that category. Sure, The Magicians of Caprona was kind of stupid.... But if you locked us in a library, with a short deadline in which to emerge with a book we were willing to read, it might very well be one by Diana Wynne Jones.
Fire and Hemlock is quite a bit different from other Jones' novels. For one thing, it is SPOOKY. It is, in fact, so intense, so spooky that if my daughter and I hadn't trusted Jones as much as we did, we would never have finished reading this story. On the other hand, many of the characters do resemble other Jones characters we've met in her other stories. For one thing, every young woman of child-bearing age is at the very least utterly self-involved and uncaring about her children.
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Fire and Hemlock |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dickensian, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Monday, March 5th, 2007
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| Author: | Dave Barry |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2004 |
This great book may seem a little silly at first while you read it, but it's an exciting story anyway. In fact both my parents and my uncle liked it just as much as I did.
It starts as an orphan boy, Peter, (who doesn't know his last name or even how old he is), and his four friends: James, Thomas, Prentiss, and Tubby Ted are in an old smelly wagon cart on their way to a ship called the Neverland, being shipped into their adventures.
On the Neverland Peter meets a girl named Molly, (who he thinks is VERY pretty) who needs his help protecting the magical trunk the Neverland has on board. Peter doesn't hesitate in saying yes. During their voyage, they are being followed by the wickedest pirate on the seven seas, Black Stache, who is after their ship and its mysterious cargo.
In this prequel to Peter Pan, you discover how the pirates, the mermaids, the flying, the croc, and all the other puzzles of Peter Pan came to be (according to Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson).
I liked this book very much, and I feel that it does a good job of explaining how Peter Pan became Peter Pan. This book could appeal to anyone from 8 years old to full grown adults, especially if they like the story of Peter Pan.
--Fizzy, age 12 |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Peter and the Starcatchers |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dickensian, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
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| Author: | Georgia Byng |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2005 |
We had not read the first two books of this series when we read this one, and that was not a problem. Apparently, earlier in the series, Molly Moon escapes from the dreary orphanage in which she is confined by becoming a master hypnotist and defeating her uncle, who is an evil madman.
In this episode, Molly must learn to travel through time so she can rescue her beloved dog, Petula, her friends Forest and Rocky, and her earlier selves, all of whom have been kidnapped from the present to India in the 1870s.
The plot is twisty and interesting and Molly is a wonderful role model for gifted children. She has obviously had to work hard to learn to be a great hypnotist in previous books. Now that Molly is possibly the best hypnotist in the world, there are still other challenging skills she needs to work hard to learn. Skills that some adults around her have mastered and other adults are just adequate at doing. Time-travel for one.
Another endearing trait that Molly has is that she is very aware both of her great abilities and of her shortcomings. The all-knowing narrator of the book takes especial care to let us know what Molly is thinking when she masters her self-doubts, carefully thinks through her options, and then puts her all into implementing whatever solution she thinks will work best. |
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure (Book 3) |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dickensian, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Monday, July 17th, 2006
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| Author: | Diana Wynne Jones |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1988 |
The books in this set are:
- The Lives of Christopher Chant
- Charmed Life
We actually read them in reverse order, and recommend that you do as well.
Charmed Life is the story of Cat and Gwendolen, brother and sister orphaned when their parents were drowned. Gwendolen seems to be a talented magician. And Cat -- well, not so much. Both are adopted, for reasons Cat finds difficult to understand, by a very powerful sorcerer, the Chrestomanci.
The Lives of Christopher Chant tells the exciting story of how Christopher Chant (barely) survived to become the Chrestomanci.
Both stories explore the problems of gifted children who are made to feel inferior because they are special. |
Growing up, neither Cat nor Christopher Chant understands that he has special talents. Instead, their "caretakers" -- in Cat's case, his sister, Gwendolen, and in Chant's case, his mother and uncle -- use their children's gifts for their own selfish purposes.
It takes Cat significant time after he meets Chrestomanci to understand his kinship (in more ways than one) with him. The advantage of reading Charmed Life first (which we did by chance) was that it made Cat's confusion very real to us.
My then-10 year old and I really enjoyed getting these two glimpses into Diana Wynne Jones' multiple alternative universes, in which the outcomes of historical events led to the preeminence of technology in some universes and the preeminence of magic in others. |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant, The |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dickensian, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Thursday, July 6th, 2006
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| Author: | Louis Sachar |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2006 |
Small Steps is kind of a sequel to Holes, but it's from the perspective of Armpit (Theodore) instead of Stanley.
I liked Small Steps; I read it in less than a week, although it gets a little smushy in some parts -- lots of kissing and stuff.
In the beginning, it's just a little bit boring, but it picks up at the end.
So if you read it…
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fizzy, age 11
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Parent's note: Along with the romance mentioned, the plot also involves battery and an attempted beating to death....
-- Emily |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Small Steps |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dickensian, Fiction, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
Thursday, July 6th, 2006
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| Author: | Jerry Spinelli |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1990 |
Modern day tall tale, beautifully written by Jerry Spinelli, whose Stargirl we also loved.
Maniac's athletic gifts and personal fortitude give him entree behind the window curtains of many homes in his small Pennsylvania town, where he is privileged to share meals and experiences with old and young, black and white, humans and zoo animals. Maniac re-pays the kindness of strangers by helping to bridge, although not heal, the town's racial divide. |
Winner, 1991 Newbery Medal |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Maniac Magee |
Posted in Baseball, Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dickensian, Fairy tales, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Sports | Comments Closed
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006
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| Author: | Patricia C. Wrede |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction, magic |
| Year of publication: | 1991 |
My daughter says, "I really, really like the way the characters use magic in the world the author has built." |
"Not as good as the Dealing With Dragons books," says my 9-year old. "But I love all the long words the author uses." (We read the first few chapters with the Oxford English Dictionary open on our laps, magnifying glass poised in our hands.) The plot in this one is just a little too complicated for anyone to follow. But we are already searching for a copy of the sequel. In fact, dd is determined to work her way through every book Wrede has ever written |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Mairelon the Magician |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dickensian, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Friday, May 19th, 2006
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| Author: | Jonathan Stroud |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2003 |
CAUTION:This wonderful trilogy features characters with whom the reader will fall in love, and significant violence that has predictable consequences. Please, before recommending this first volume to a sensitive young reader, either read the whole trilogy or read our reviews of book two and, especially, book 3.
Sardonic musings of a demon summoned by an academically under-challenged 12 year old apprentice wizard. |
Together, they save Civilization as they know it. First in a trilogy.
Luckily, unlike Inkheart and Eragon, this book's sequels are already in print.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Amulet of Samarkand, The (Book One of the Bartimaeus Trilogy) |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dickensian, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
