Archive for the ‘Fiction’ 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
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
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| Author: | Gabrielle Zevin |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2005 |
Poor Liz Hall, she is killed in a hit-and-run car crash when she is only 15, and when she wakes up,
she's on a ship traveling to Elsewhere, the world after death.
On the ship she meets the 6 year old captain who explains that once you die you go to Elsewhere and
live backwards until you're a baby, then you sail back to Earth to begin a new life.
Also on the ship, Liz meets a dead superstar and another girl named Thandi who's around Liz's age, with
whom she becomes friends. Everyone else on the ship is an old person.
At first in Elsewhere, Liz is angry and upset that her life had to end when she wasn't even 16 yet.
She never got to fall in love or learn to drive, or anything!
But as her backwards life progresses, Liz meets a boy named Owen Welles, and she starts to feel like she
could enjoy her not-life.
This book is not adventure-packed like some books, but it is in the mind of a girl, and with her you go through all her problems, like a boyfriend, a dog, sadness, happiness, and other things that a teenager girl would go through.
I enjoyed this book very much, because you really get to know the characters and the thoughts of Liz sound
like what she'd actually think. This is a new version of what happens after life that I've never heard before, and I think that it's very interesting.
Before my parents let me read this they were worried that it would be too scary for me, Liz being dead and all,
but it isn't like that at all. The book is somewhat sad and dreary in the beginning but it's not
like it would give nightmares or something bad like that. This book really put new thoughts in my mind,
new thoughts that weren't bad.
I recommend this book for maybe 6th or 7th graders and up, even though I read it at a somewhat younger age.
--Fizzy, age 12 |
Parent's note:
Yes, it is somewhat maudlin. The point is that even a life lived backward and without fear of death can be lived badly or well. The choice is up to every living person. |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: elsewhere |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Death is a central theme, Fiction, 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
Friday, February 9th, 2007
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| Author: | Cynthia Lord |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction, autism |
| Year of publication: | 2006 |
In Al Capone Does My Shirts, the first-person narrator is a boy whose family moves to Alcatraz so that his sister may apply to a school for autistic children near San Francisco.
In this less anachronistic modern-day Newbery Honor Book, the first-person narrator, Catherine writes down rules for her autistic brother, David, although she's learned from experience that he routinely ignores them.
Written by the mother of two children, one of whom is autistic, the plot, written with the help of Lord's non-autistic daughter, clearly demonstrates how much the parents of the autistic child demand from the one who does not suffer from that disease. |
Catherine's patience and empathy border on saintliness, and the moral (perhaps the message to the author's non-autistic child) seems to be that she is a better person for having helped her parents with her brother.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Rules |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, 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
Monday, February 5th, 2007
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| Author: | H. M. Hoover |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1988 |
De-mythologization (probably not a word, huh?) of the story of Medea, including the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece, from Medea's point of view.
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As in The King Must Die (the story of Theseus and the Minotaur), , in this story too, the ways of the patriarchal Greeks mostly triumph over the matriarchal societies that share their waters.
Another theme is the unfortunate tendency of those who lack knowledge in science and healing to assume that those, especially women, who master those arts, are witches (evil).
Despite its sympathetic portrayal of Media, in this account, as in the original, Medea's overwhelming love of Jason very badly clouds her judgment and causes her to act murderously.
Recommended. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dawn Palace,The |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
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| Author: | Mary Renault |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1958 |
De-mythologization (probably not a word, huh) of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur.
In this version, Theseus expresses his wonder at the radically different ways of life in the patriarchal Greek world in which he grew up and the matriarchal Minoan lands he comes to rule. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: King Must Die,The |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Death is a central theme, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Fiction, Reading level: age 12 and up | Comments Closed
