Archive for the ‘Fiction’ Category
Monday, October 23rd, 2006
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| Author: | Frances O'Roark Dowell |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2003 |
A group of children abandoned to a group home and an apparently Asperger's-spectrum, intellectually gifted child, are united by a love of architecture, or building, at least, scrap-booking, and the stories told by an overly-imaginative housemate.
Not hard to read, although the stories of how the children came to live in the home are sad. |
The book gets readers thinking about the fine line between imagination and lying, the need to escape mundane realities sometimes -- especially when one's life is nearly unbearable, and about the power of caring friends and adults.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Where I'd Like To Be |
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
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| Author: | Carol Shields |
| 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: | 1997 |
Larry Weller is a pretty ordinary guy, who has fallen into a profession, also his obsession, as a designer of labyrinths. In this novel, Carol Shields, whose work always captivates me, tells Larry's story, from cradle through a momentous mid-life party. (See also my review of Unless.) |
Shields convincingly explains how Larry falls into his first marriage and a career as a floral designer, then transitions to a marriage of more depth with a feminist scholar, and steers toward his bliss as a master maze designer.
We learn that one can wander through one's life as if in a maze, and find treasures in unexpected places. Although, since we are highly aware that a maze designer may have carefully planned our discoveries, we can't be sure that we come across the treasures we find by chance.
Very lovely, although the physical descriptions of marital life go on and on and a bit too poetically for my taste.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Larry's Party |
Posted in Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Fiction, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed
Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
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| Author: | Carol Shields |
| 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: | 2002 |
"What did Cinderella's mother die of?," my daughter asked me, when she was 4. I myself had never troubled to think about this. But I came to realize that, in stories for children, from fairy tales to adventures to Walt Disney musicals, the mothers' presence is usually notable for its absence. Their deaths are required so that plots can unfold.
And yet, I have recently come across a few novels that consider thoughtfully the role(s) a mother may play in her daughter's future. In the two grimmest, White Oleander and The Book of Ruth, the power of the mothers to destroy their daughters despite great distance, time, and, in the case of White Oleander, despite tall prison walls, is absolute.
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Unless and What To Keep convey more nuanced messages. In Unless, a mother is beside herself at her daughter's transformation from promising college student into street person. Eventually, the mother reassures herself that not every activity she undertakes is invested with deep meaning and that she is not responsible for every anguish that afflicts every member of her family. ... |
This book is more fully reviewed in our discussion of some books about the relationships between moms and their daughters. |
| Similar books |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Unless |
Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Fiction, History, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed
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
Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
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| Author: | Donna Jo Napoli |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | fairy tale |
| Year of publication: | 2000 |
Beast is the story of how Beast (from the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast) got to be who he was in the original story. It is based in Persia, and Beast starts out as Prince Orasmyn.
I enjoyed reading this book very much, for many reasons. One is because at first I was very confused about how Persia, Prince Orasmyn, and all the other things had to do with Beauty and The Beast at all, but it ended up making perfect sense, with the same happy ending and everything. I also thought that it was very cool how the Beast used lots of real Persian words in the story.
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In the story, Beast feels many emotions very strongly; in some parts he is extremely happy and in other parts he's so sad he almost kills himself, and I liked that very much and feel that they made the story more exciting.
I found this book slow going at the beginning, but even if you start to think it is a boring book, I recommend that you keep on reading -- it ends up being a very wonderful book.
-- Fizzy, age 11
Notes to parents: - There is a description of lions mating and some other content that Fizzy thought some might find "inappropriate" for some young readers.
- Napoli's take on the Frog Prince from the prince's perspective is similar to Beast in that it helps the reader empathize with the prince in his froggy embodiment. However, The Prince of the Pond, Otherwise Known as De Fawg Pin although quite sophisticated in theme, is probably appropriate for younger readers than Beast.
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Beast |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Fiction, Reading level: age 12 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
Monday, September 18th, 2006
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| Author: | Julia Alvarez |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups
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| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups
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| Genre: | fiction, historical |
| Year of publication: | 1991 |
Sometimes, by escaping a dreadful danger, people find themselves safe, but not happy. The Garcia Girls is a touching reminder that the situation in which you meet people might not, on its surface, tell you much about who they are or what they've suffered. |
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent |
Posted in Conceptual: for grown ups, Fiction, History, Reading level: Grown up | 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
Saturday, September 16th, 2006
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| Author: | Rodman Philbrick |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1993 |
When I was young and feeling lonely, isolated, ridiculed by my fellow students, my father, one of those hugely gifted people who thrives with little interaction with other people because he is constantly obsessed by projects of his own, would suggest that I reach out to "other lonely children" and make friends with them. I never really found that forging alliances with other "outcasts" made me feel better when those in the "In Group" made fun of my clothes, hair, etc. Freak the Mighty is one of those novels in which the alliance of the weak prevails.
And, Sad Ending Alert. The foreshadowing is quite subtle, so it might come as a shock to young readers. |
In Freak the Mighty, the physically imposing narrator is living with his grandparents who fear that he has inherited the evil nature of his father, who is in prison. The narrator befriends an intellectually gifted but physically frail neighbor. By combining their gifts, they can travel far and not get lost; they can find proper placement in the school's advanced classes. And together, they triumph over bullies adolescent and grown, the narrator's learning disability is diagnosed, and he learns to appreciate dictionaries, reading, and learning.
As with Hoot, the plot is involving, but, as with Hoot, I felt as if the novel's promise that adults and peers will eventually come to their senses and recognize/honor the child's worth and Do the Right Thing(s) may not jibe with how the world usually works. (For example, even if their test scores don't reflect it, let them participate in the gifted program even though that might "not be fair" to other students.)
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Freak the Mighty |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, School | Comments Closed
