Archive for the ‘Dragons and/or mythological beasts’ Category
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
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Wonderful piece about the author of the book Wicked
My now-12 yr. old has loved the musical since she first saw it when she was around 9. But we (her parents and older sister) have suggested that she not read the book until she is older, although we agree that the book is much more wonderful than the musical.
— Emily
\”Before seeing the Broadway musical “Wicked†for the 25th time, Gregory Maguire, who wrote the novel “Wicked,†was in the lobby of the Gershwin Theater last month persuading people not to read it. Granted, the people were 9, 10 and 13, and Maguire was telling their respective mothers that the book could be “a destination read for freshman year in college.†But when he saw the girls’ hangdog faces, he conceded that, if their mothers read it first and approved, they might try it at 16 instead. …\”
Mr. Wicked by ALEX WITCHEL
Posted in Biography, Broadway musicals, Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, History, Reading level: Sophisticated reader, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
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| Author: | Diane Duane |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1985 |
My daughter and I read A Wizard Abroad first (the fourth book in the So You Want To Be A Wizard series), and then we read So You Want To Be A Wizard, the first book in the series.
Both stress the responsibilities and hazards of having great power. Both climax in a to-the-death battle between Good and Evil. And So You Want ..., much to the dismay of my daughter, proclaims the theme that self-sacrifice to the death is deemed a worthy and necessary outcome in certain extenuating circumstances. And that it might happen to a friend of yours. Perhaps because you need them to make that sacrifice. This is not a theme that my daughter much likes.
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Which is why, as a project, I am suggesting that my daughter spend time looking for Christian symbolism in the novels she reads, even fluffy ones like this one.
Deep Wizardry, the second book in the series, picks and chooses from the themes and plots of the others in the series. Duane is wonderful at describing young teenagers accidentally taking on more than they can really handle and then -- handling it. She's also very good at describing parents of gifted kids who really want to trust their children but have a hard time understanding what those children are capable of or what drives them. Duane's descriptions of the world and senses of whales in Deep Wizardry make it well worth reading. My daughter and I loved getting to know Kit and Nita, the young wizards, and Nita's younger sister Dairine, as well as Nita's earnest and striving parents and the advisor wizards and their interesting and talented familiars (a parrot and a dog).
But, by the end of the bloody and demoralizing battle at the end of Deep Wizardry, we decided to take a break, concerned that other books in the series prove to be more of the same. I understand there are seven books in total in the series.
Our recommendation: Read Deep Wizardry first. Then, read A Wizard Abroad if you are interested in Celtic myth and atmosphere, or read So You Want To Be A Wizard if you feel you need the gory details of how Nita and Kit over-promised.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Deep Wizardry |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Friday, March 9th, 2007
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| Author: | Diane Duane |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1983 |
My younger daughter and I have been lucky in that we have often failed to start at the beginning of a series, and when we have, it has often worked out well for us.
We read A Wizard Abroad a while back, enjoyed it, and were advised to start at the beginning of the series. If we had started at the beginning of the series -- hmm -- well, we might not have continued.
Like A Wizard Abroad, So You Want To Be A Wizard stresses the responsibilities and hazards of having great power. And like Abroad, it climaxes in a to-the-death battle between Good and Evil. Unlike Abroad, but not unlike the third book in the series Deep Wizardry, and much to the consternation of my daughter, self-sacrifice to the death is deemed a worthy and necessary outcome in certain extenuating circumstances.
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As a project, I am suggesting that my daughter spend time looking for Christian symbolism in the novels she reads, even fluffy ones like this one.
I think, perhaps, she felt that this one was too fluffy to merit the death and destruction. But she/we did decide to go on to read Deep Wizardry, the next book in the series.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: So You Want to Be a Wizard |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 7th, 2007
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| Author: | Mary Hoffman |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2002 |
City of Masks is about a teenaged girl named Arianna who lives in 16th century Talia, who wants nothing more than to be a mandolier, and a boy named Lucian, who lives in 21st century England, and has an incurable case of cancer.
As Lucian suffers, his dad gives him a beautiful notebook from what seems to be very early Italy. When he fell asleep one night holding the notebook in his hand, he finds himself in 16th century Italy (Talia).
There he meets Arianna, and learns that how he got there was by what the experts call stravagation (which is how he was transferred from his world to this new one). So quite suddenly he is thrown into living two lives, one as a sick kid in modern England during the day, and the other as a perfectly healthy young man in Talia.
I recommend this exciting, kind of mysterious book for people who like fantasy and books that you don't want to put down.
City of Stars is an amazing book, the first in a series of 3. It is so wonderful for many reasons, one of which is that this book surprises you, (in a good way). While you're reading it's hard to guess what is going to happen, until it does, or nearly until it does.
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Also, I liked reading this book because there were many characters that you got to know, but not too many to be overwhelmed. Each character has his or her own personality and feelings. After reading this book I went on to read the other two books in this series right away.
--Fizzy, age 12 |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Stravaganza: City of Masks |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
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
Monday, February 26th, 2007
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| Author: | Diana Wynne Jones |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1975 |
There are just a few authors that my 12 year old and I trust implicitly.
After having raced through umpteen of her novels, we may have 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.
Dogsbody pre-dates the Chrestomanci stories; it's a bit more science fiction than Jones' usual fantasy. The characters and plot -- Cinderella meets Puss (or, in this case, Dog) in Boots -- are very appealing.
The story is told mostly from the point of view of a high Illuminancy, Sirius, who, because he lost his temper and (apparently) killed someone, is exiled to Earth in the body of a new-born puppy. As Sirius learns how to survive as a dog, while solving the mystery of how he was framed, we also learn a bit about the Troubles in Northern Ireland and about how controling our impulses can help us get what we need/want. |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dogsbody |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
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My 12 year old just gags every time she sees a commercial for this movie.ÂÂÂ
She really hates books in which majorly bad things happen \”suddenly\” to one or more protagonists.  Mr. McCabe, her 5-6th grade teacher, sent this link to me: http://www.slate.com/id/2160370/pagenum/all/#page_start He was the one who \”made\” her read the book. (Which I STILL have not read. Think dear daughter and I share a genetic link?)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0064401847?tag=armadilloassoc0c
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
Monday, February 12th, 2007
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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: | 2003 |
A girl whose family manages a historic castle in England summons a witch, Robert, who was buried 350 years earlier. Although Robert's behavior is impulsive and assertive, he usually has reasons for enchantments. |
Recommended.
-- Emily
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Wild Robert |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
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| Author: | Terry Pratchett |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2006 |
Sometimes a precocious person uses her gifts in a way that have dire consequences. Whether or not the harm was intentional, that person should take responsibility for the problems she creates and try to resolve them.
Early in this tale, Tiffany Aching, a very mature and gifted if reluctant witch, makes the awful mistake of arousing the romantic attention of the Wintersmith (God of Winter), and nearly simultaneously but through no fault of her own, loses her teacher and home. Wintersmith is the story of how Tiffany:- Rectifies (with the "help" of her silly blue friends the Nac Mac Feegle and her not-quite-as-silly boy?friend, Roland) the wrong she's done,
- Learns to fit back into her home, and
- Comes to appreciate, understand, and learn from other mentors.
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Wintersmith is the third installment in the story of Tiffany Aching.
My daughter and I also enjoyed reading the previous books in the series:
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Wintersmith |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed
