Archive for the ‘Female protagonist’ Category
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
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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: | 2003 |
The Wee Free Men is a very enjoyable book about a nine year old girl named Tiffany Aching and her unexpected friends, the Nac Mac Feegle. I liked this book VERY much and it was fun to read. It is wacky in a normal way.
Tiffany lives on a farm peacefully if not a bit bored-ly until she meets the Feegles, and together they have to save the day.
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I also really enjoyed reading the sequel, A Hat Full of Sky.
-- Fizzy, age 11
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Wee Free Men, The |
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up | 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
Sunday, September 17th, 2006
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| Author: | Donna Jo Napoli |
| Illustrator: | Judy Schachner |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 5 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 5 and up |
| Genre: | fairy tale |
| Year of publication: | 1992 |
A deeply imaginative, if sad, deeper look at the story of the Frog Prince.
In this version, narrated by the frog who becomes the prince's wife while he is a frog, the prince gradually adapts to his watery environment and becomes content in his amphibian incarnation. |
My daughter felt enormous empathy both for the narrator and for the frog-prince, both of whom learn a great deal and ultimately suffer greatly because of the changes the prince undergoes.
The line drawings make the physical differences and similarities between the naturally occurring frogs and the frog prince easier to understand.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Prince of the Pond, The: Otherwise Known as De Fawg Pin |
Posted in Animals, Child-raising, Conceptual: age 5 and up, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 5 and up | Comments Closed
Tuesday, September 12th, 2006
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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: | 2005 |
A Hat Full of Sky is the sequel to the Wee Free Men. It is about an eleven-year old girl named Tiffany Aching, who is training to be a witch, and the Nac-Mac-Feegle (Wee Free Men), who are fairies (but do NOT call them that unless you want to be seriously injured).
Tiffany is a very unusual witch, because she's from the Chalk Land. In fact, Tiffany is actually the ONLY official witch of the Chalk. She is also the Hag of the Chalk Land, which means that it is her job to protect the Chalk. (She tells it what it is; it tells her what she is.)
When something evil comes to the Chalk, Tiffany has to make it go away.
-- Fizzy, age 11
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An adult's view...
The Hat Full of Sky of the title is Tiffany's witch's hat. For services rendered in the first book in this series (The Wee Free Men), Tiffany is anointed with the invisible but meaningful hat of the Head Witch. And throughout the book, Tiffany wrestles with whether to proclaim to the world that she is indeed a witch (by putting on a hat that everyone can actually see), with whether to accept the responsibilities as well as the honors accorded to witches, and with whether she is qualified to succeed her illustrious grandmother and talented enough to conquer the evil and the self-doubt that threaten her land and herself.
Pratchett seems to think that, yes, Tiffany is indeed talented enough, and she needs to know that, but no need to admit to the rest of the world that she really is magical. So, here's a child allowed to be special enough to save her Land, but she's not to be too special. And Tiffany is not the only one who is pressured to conform. Her Teacher is another special one. As the plot progresses, the feature that makes her special is mitigated so -- no more problem -- the specialness is gone.
My daughter really enjoyed reading this series, as did I. But as the end of this book approached, I came to realize that if one wears an invisible witch's hat, one does not have to admit to oneself or to anyone else that one is special/magical. Kind of like the Rainbow Fish, who gives away all his colorfulness, so that he can be just like all his new friends, who were not very accepting of his uniqueness. Is this the message we want to convey to the heroes in our society? (It's fine to sacrifice your all for our good, but please don't admit that you have qualities that we do not have.) Just asking.
So, anyway, both my daughter and I also enjoyed reading Stargirl, which weighed much less on my mind than Hat Full.
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Hat Full of Sky, A |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, School | Comments Closed
Monday, September 11th, 2006
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| Author: | E.B. White |
| Illustrator: | Garth Williams |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 5 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1952 |
Updated Sept. 11, 2006:
My then-10 year old daughter fixed her eyes on me, eyes that implied that she'd just realized that a Truth had been withheld from her, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.
"So, Mom," she said, "It seems as if what a fiction book is about is not really what it's about. Is it?"
"Hmmm," I answered. "What you mean is that a story is not just about its plot. Sometimes, often, in fact, a story has a message and the message is conveyed by the plot, but also by the author's choices of words. The message is sometimes called the theme of the book. It's what the author wants you to learn from reading the book. It's why authors go to all the trouble of writing books."
Which brings us to Charlotte's Web. Charlotte's Web has long been a favorite of mine and my daughter enjoyed listening to it for a year or two when she was very young. But when dear daughter (dd) was around four, her best friend was diagnosed with a disease that was, at the time, almost always fatal. We happened at the time to be listening to the audio book version of Charlotte's Web as read by the author, E.B. White. So, there we are in the car, listening, and dd asks, "Is L. going to die?" I turn the tape player off and answer that I don't know. Dd says "I don't like Charlotte's Web. And what did Cinderella's mother die of?"
I explain that in those times long ago, nearly everyone was more likely to die but that women of childbearing age were particularly at risk. Dd asked, "So, are you going to die? Am I going to die?" ....
For years after that conversation, dd did not willingly read or listen to Charlotte's Web. I believe that this is because, more than any other children's book that I have read, Charlotte's Web is about death as a normal consequence of living. And, no, I'm not saying that children/people never die in books, but they die romantically as in At the Back Of the North Wind or they die unexpectedly young at the hands of Evil Doers or they die off-screen, like Cinderella's mother. (Dd's friend lives and thrives, thank goodness.)
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Throughout Charlotte's Web, starting with the first chapter, Wilbur the pig's life is at risk. In the beginning, it's because he is a runt, a child who lacks the health/strength necessary for his mom and the farmer to be willing to care for him.
Later, now healthy if small, naive, and unremarkable, Wilbur's life is still in jeopardy because he is a pig and it is normal for pigs raised on farms to be slaughtered for Christmas dinner.
Wilbur is forced to become remarkable, or to at least seem remarkable in order to survive. Which, I think, is one of the reasons that I love, and my dd loved the story. Some of us are actually remarkable, and we've found over the years that being remarkable is not always the best thing for a person to be.
Charlotte's Web is still not my daughter's favorite book, although it remains one of mine. If your child is a sensitive reader, it might be best to read Charlotte's Web with them, rather than on their own.
Or, if you want them to read E.B. White's amazing, elegant prose in service to a less stark plot, encourage them to read the equally quirky and beautiful Trumpet of the Swan, in which death does not play a central role.
Original posting on Monday, November 26th, 2001:
For her own reading, the six-year old is back to Charlotte's Web. It's an interesting book. The vocabulary is very technical, actually. Many descriptions of the goings-on at a farm. And words like "Frigidaire", "phoebe" (the bird), "interlude" -- make reading slow if the child wants to know what every single word means.
We go from the child reading about life, death and friendship and discussing these concepts with us as she reads, "...do you realize that if I didn't catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they'd destroy the earth, wipe out everything..." and "... what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty -- everything I don't like. ..." to US reading to her "The B. stands for Beatrice, but I just like B that's all." (Junie B. Jones)
--Emily |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Charlotte's Web |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: 8 and up, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 5 and up | Comments Closed
Saturday, August 12th, 2006
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| Author: | Annie Dillard |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | non-fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1988 |
Annie Dillard aims her clear scientist's eyes and the evocative Voice of the Pilgrim At Tinker Creek at the lives of upper class families with children in Pittsburgh, PA in the fifties. She reveals a great deal about Pittsburgh; and just about nothing about herself. |
As long as one isn't determined to read this as an autobiography, it will not disappoint.
Dillard's reflections on the differences between her fascination with the French and Indian War versus her obsession with reading about World War II (one was history, the other was an open wound), about the good that Andrew Carnegie did for the people of Pittsburgh and the good that he could have done if he'd made different choices, about her father's aborted trip down the Mississippi, and, especially, about Dillard's growing awareness as she grew up that Pittsburgh high society was not the box she wanted to be in -- made me grateful to have read this book. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: An American Childhood |
Posted in Biography, Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Female protagonist, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science | Comments Closed
Saturday, August 12th, 2006
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| Author: | Annie Dillard |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | non-fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1974 |
I have always been squeamish.
And yet, Annie Dillard's beautiful yet clear-eyed vignettes about the resplendence and horrors of the natural world captivate me.
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A must-read for any budding naturalist.
See also An American Childhood, a memoir by the same author. This one doesn't tell you exactly how Dillard became the astute observer of nature revealed in Pilgrim, but it does focus those same astute eyes on life in Pittsburgh, PA in the fifties. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Pilgrim At Tinker Creek |
Posted in Animals, Biography, Conceptual: 8 and up, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science | Comments Closed
Sunday, August 6th, 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: | 2005 |
Sardonic musings of a demon summoned by a very young, but now, successful, wizard.
Book review: Part 1
Spoiler alert
I hate spoilers. However, I wish I had known more about the third volume in this trilogy before my daughter and I started reading the first one. (This would not have been possible when we started the first volume, because the third volume had not yet been released.)
That being said, I highly recommend all the books in the trilogy and I am glad that my daughter and I read them together.
This review is being presented in multiple parts; each part may provide additional information that, taken together, might give away some of the plot twists of Volume 3.
On the other hand, those helping highly sensitive readers select books might want to read through all the parts of this review before recommending books in this trilogy to them ...
Book review: Part 2
My 11 year old really loved these books. But they are a bit of a departure for her -- there's real murder and mayhem in them, which, until recently, she would not have tolerated.
As in previous volumes in the Trilogy, this book switches perspective between three very different characters:
- Feisty Kitty is one of the commoners who are mistreated by the ruling elites and the demons they employ and are devastated by the economy and grief that result from the incessant wars the elites wage on foreign shores. She realizes that she must do something. But how much can one person do and can she live with the devastating consequences of her actions on her friends and colleagues?
- Bartimaeus the sardonic djinni, who stands back and makes sarcastic comments about the other characters and the plot, even when he's right in the middle of it all, and
- Nathaniel (John Mandrake) the gifted but annoying magician who has been co-opted by an Evil government because of his great intellectual abilities. Most of the time, the djinni has to obey the boy's commands, and a lot of the humor/sarcasm comes in when the djinni explains to the reader how morally compromised the boy is becoming. (And, to his credit, the djinni doesn't hesitate to tell the boy either, not that the boy listens most of the time.)
There is a complex relationship between these books and slavery too. The djinni is a slave, and even though he respects the good qualities of his boy master, he also hates having to obey his commands. Most of the time, the djinni makes this clear. But he's sometimes more supportive of his master than I think an average slave might actually be.
In Ptolemy's Gate, Bartimaeus also develops a touching relationship with Kitty and an awareness of kinship with the commoners whom most djinn scorn if they consider them at all. So much for cooperation between oppressed masses. |
Book review: Part 3
My 11 year old daughter -- a very sensitive reader who has fallen in love with many of the characters in the Bartimaeus Trilogy and who "trusts" Bartimaeus' author implicitly -- and I read books to each other, usually alternating chapters. So, here we are, alternating chapters. My daughter reads Bartimaeus' words:
There are times when even a near omnipotent djinni knows to keep his mouth shut, and this was one of them. ... Trouble was, neither of them was in a mood to listen to my doubts. ... Pride has a part to play in it, and other emotions too. Neither wishes to fail; each redoubles their efforts to impress. Things get done -- but not always the right things, or not always the things expected. .. Farqual's phrase rang uneasily in my mind: He would welcome your attack and feed off it. And, call me pessimistic, but that struck me as a mite ominous. But it was too late to worry about that now.
I interrupt her and ask, gently as I can, "So what is the author telling us here?" My daughter pauses reluctantly. It's been an exciting, interesting, scary story so far, a story that persuasively argues that war can harm the invading country as well as the country that was invaded, that slavery compromises the humanity of the slave-owner as well as the slave, that torture is likewise devastating to both the torturer and the victim, and that a country in which the ruling classes blithely assume that what is in their interest is also in the interest of commoners who have no say is a country heading for destructive violence. I persist -- "What is the author telling us right now?" She replies, "I HATE foreshadowing." She gets it, I'm pretty sure she does. I persist, "So what's being foreshadowed?" (It's almost always better when she gets the opportunity to face unpleasantness gradually.) She says, "Bad things are going to happen. But he CAN'T kill off -- ?"
Book review: Part 4
So, what are the options for an author who obviously is wanting to make a case for the horrors of war, horrors he thinks may perhaps be discounted by the young and foolish? If no one but the unnamed masses or unimportant minor characters in the book are affected by the violence, what does that say about war?
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 3) |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Sunday, August 6th, 2006
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| Author: | Ann Brashares |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2001 |
A magical pair of pants, pants that are equally flattering on each in the Sisterhood, remind a group of four young women of their bond. And the pants also very creatively tether the four separate plot lines together.
Very well written chic lit. |
I found the four stories -- about: staying brave as a friend dies, being honest about one's feelings, dealing with a divorced parent's new family, and the dangers of manic/depression -- pretty realistic and interesting. But I do have some reservations about the book:
- Are there really strongly cohesive groups of four girls this different? Perhaps because the book rarely discusses what they do when together, I was not persuaded.
- Money and distance and parents seem to be insignificant obstacles to these young women. Adults in the book are there in a way similar to the authority figures in Peanuts. You see/hear rumors of them, but even at a summer camp, they seem to be mostly, frightentingly absent. Perhaps this is the way that teenage girls perceive them. Perhaps they are mostly absent in many teenagers' lives. The girls know they need to be there for eachother, because their parents -- aren't.
Well, anyway, I enjoyed getting to know Carmen, Lena, Bridget, and Tibby, who shine because of their inner goodness, although the magical pants, might add to the luminance. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The |
Posted in Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 8 and up, Sports | Comments Closed
