Archive for the ‘Female protagonist’ Category
Friday, January 1st, 2010
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| Author: | Kristin Cashore |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
This is a super fast-paced, easy read, which was great since that was what I had expected. The book is about a girl, Katsa, who is "graced", gifted with a special talent that no-one else has... She basically has to save the world, and on the way lots of other exciting things happen too. |
I was very satisfied by this book, it was a fun read, and best of all, it's a stand-alone book, so I don't HAVE to go finish the series.
Note: There are some very explicit sex scenes in this book, even though the book is labeled "young readers".
-- Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Graceling |
Posted in Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
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| Author: | Jodi Picoult |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2004 |
I am not very satisfied with the ending to this book. The whole thing is very sad, and Picoult just HAD to add one more horrible twist... ANYway, this book is good, but as I said, horribly depressing, as you may expect from a book about cancer. The idea is that 13-year-old Anna has always been just a vessel of bodyparts to contribute to her leukemic sister for various surgeries, and she decides to sue her parents so she doesn't have to donate a kidney. |
The book is narrated by different people, including Anna and her parents, so it gives the reader a nice mix of perspectives. It gets a little bit mushy at times, and is full of tears and yelling and stress, but I really couldn't put it down to finish my math homework til I was done.
Note: Definitely a "mature" book, couple brief sex scenes, swearing...
-- Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: My Sister's Keeper |
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Female protagonist, Fiction, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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| Author: | Wendelin Van Draanen |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
This is a cool book because we get to see the same turn of events from two very different perspectives. It is about two neighbors, a girl and a boy, who switch off hating each other and being in love.
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Definitely an easy (maybe elementary school) read, but still fun, and cute (I know that word is in all my reviews...) Very conversational, a nicely told story. I love the chicken on the front.
--Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Flipped |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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| Author: | Suzanne Collins |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2008 |
This sounds kinda negative, and I did enjoy it, but I do have a bit of a sour aftertaste after reading this:
I'm not sure how to rate this book. It was very disturbing: The whole point is that 24 teenagers all fight to the death. Yay. But it was also very gripping and exciting, and talked about the price of freedom. It definitely kept me up with vivid images in my head...
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My biggest problem, though was the cliff-hanger ending. I ordered the second book before I had finished the first one because you can't just stop the story where the author does. A word of advice: the third one is not out yet, and the second one DOES NOT have a satisfying ending. If you like excitement, a bit of gore, and a little bit of mushy romance, this book is great.
-- Fizzy |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Hunger Games, The |
Tags:book review
Posted in Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction, Sports | 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
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
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| Author: | Perri Klass |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups
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| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups
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| Genre: | Fiction, parenting |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
The Mercy Rule is a rule instituted in some amateur sports leagues that requires that if one team is so far ahead in points as to be uncatchable by the opposing team, the game is ended earlier than it otherwise might.
In this extremely gentle, wise, moving story, Lucy, a physician who is also a mother and a graduate of the foster care system, unconsciously applies this rule to her family and work life. |
Just about every character in the story, no matter how poorly they behave, has a sweetness and realness. For example, Lucy's pre-teenage daughter is mostly embarrassed by her mother and especially by her probably autistic-spectrum brother. And yet, she Does the Right Thing by them when crunches come. It's also the Right Thing in that it's probably not the thing that the mom would think of having Isabel do.
Anyway, if you are having one of those existential weeks, one of those where you know that you are actually a very lucky person, but you are feeling ungrateful and unhappy nevertheless, reading this book might cheer you up a bit. It did that for me.
-- Emily
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Mercy Rule, The |
Tags:autistic spectrum, book review, existential guilt, Fiction, foster care, Gifted, parenting children on the spectrum, Parenting gifted children, private school
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: Grown up, School | Comments Closed
Monday, September 14th, 2009
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| Author: | Nanci Kincaid |
| 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 |
Sweet story having to do with making lots of money, holding friends, family, and even former spouses close, and continuing to be able to trust both strangers and those you love while spending freely.
Perhaps coming from a small town in Mississippi helps with that? |
The story mostly takes place in the Bay Area of San Francisco, there's lots of Bay Area geography to parse.
Not at all deep, but I found it relaxing to read. After all, how often do you read a story in which, after the warning music pulses and the protagonists steel themselves for a confrontation with danger, everyone (including the scary lurker) jumps in a metaphorical hot tub (actually, they go fishing) and has a heart-to-heart? |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Eat, Drink, and Be From Mississippi |
Tags:"places to visit in bay area ca", book review, Gifted
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: Grown up | 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
Friday, August 28th, 2009
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| Author: | Caroline Moorehead |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | non-fiction, history |
| Year of publication: | 2009 |
Lucie de la Tour du Pin was born into an aristocratic family, served as lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette in her early adulthood, then went on to marry for love (not common in those days), birth and lose many children, and survive the treacherous political turmoils that began with the French Revolution.
After reading this book, I was not certain I understood much more than I did before about the French Revolution, but I did empathize a great deal more than I had before with the French aristocracy of that time. For example, Moorehead continually implies that Talleyrand was evil (and was he so terrible compared to the many other participants of the Terror??!!!) but never quite tells us what awful things he did.
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Starting in mid-life, Lucie began a memoir, not published until long after she died, and I assume that Moorehead used this document as the basis for much of her narrative.
Which probably explains why the author flits between levels of detail; there are weeks of Lucie's life described down to the taste of the food she ate but then whole years pass without much information. I came away convinced not that history is written by the victors (a quote attributed, but not definitively assigned to Winston Churchill), but instead that history is written by those who write things down.
Not a book for the sensitive reader, but a fascinating description of an "ordinary", if upperclass, women who played a small part in history and lived to tell us about it. |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin, Eyewitness to an Era |
Tags:American Revolution, consequences of war, French Revolution, suffering in war, Terror, war, women in history
Posted in Biography, Child-raising, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Gifted, History, Reading level: Sophisticated reader | Comments Closed
