Archive for the ‘Fiction’ Category
Friday, May 19th, 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: | 2003 |
CAUTION:This wonderful trilogy features characters with whom the reader will fall in love, and significant violence that has predictable consequences. Please, before recommending this first volume to a sensitive young reader, either read the whole trilogy or read our reviews of book two and, especially, book 3.
Sardonic musings of a demon summoned by an academically under-challenged 12 year old apprentice wizard. |
Together, they save Civilization as they know it. First in a trilogy.
Luckily, unlike Inkheart and Eragon, this book's sequels are already in print.
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Amulet of Samarkand, The (Book One of the Bartimaeus Trilogy) |
Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Dickensian, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 12 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
Friday, May 19th, 2006
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| Author: | Jane Austen |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | fiction, historical |
| Year of publication: | 1813 |
It is amazing how a book that was written nearly two centuries ago can ring so true to this day.
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It's an age-old story, obviously. A teenage girl is mortified by her family and lack of money and feels that they adversely affect her romantic prospects.
And, the young man she favors agrees.
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| Similar books |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Pride and Prejudice |
Posted in Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Female protagonist, Fiction, History, Reading level: Sophisticated reader | Comments Closed
Friday, May 19th, 2006
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| Author: | Sigrid Undset |
| 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: | 1923 |
Undset won the Nobel Prize in literature for this work set in 14th century Norway.
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Involving for an adult reading it, but very difficult to read, perhaps because the translation is old. The theme of the book: struggling to avoid pre-marital sex is difficult, even among church-loving people. Fascinating, detailed depictions of life on the farms, and in villages, towns and convents of medieval Norway. |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Kristen Lavransdatter trilogy |
Posted in Conceptual: for grown ups, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, History, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed
Friday, May 19th, 2006
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| Author: | Patricia C. Wrede |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction, dragons, fairy tale |
| Year of publication: | 1990 |
Highly politically correct fractured fairy tale about a princess who fashions a full life for herself even though she doesn't conform to the fairy tale standards for princesses. |
My daughter was very amused at the way the author alludes to fairy tale conventions and plots. |
| Similar books |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dealing With Dragons |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed
Thursday, May 18th, 2006
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| Author: | Beverly Cleary |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1983 |
A boy who aspires to become a writer learns about being a writer by writing to one.
My ten year old daughter felt somewhat cheated by the author's technique of presenting all the letters to Mr. Henshaw and none of the letters from him.
I, on the other hand, think Cleary moves the plot along quite nicely in this way. When, in the middle of the book, the correspondence shifts to being in a diary rather than an exchange of letters, my daughter responded much more positively.
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Anyway, we both got into the story of Leigh Botts, son of a newly-divorced trucker and a catering assistant.
Wishing all those reluctant or aspiring writers out there their own Mr. Henshaw!
-- Emily Berk |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Dear Mr. Henshaw |
Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dealing with bullies, Fiction, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed
Saturday, May 13th, 2006
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| Author: | Sue Monk Kidd |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2003 |
Huckleberry Finn in the 1960s and with all girls and the Goddess. I would have liked to have felt more Joy but my friends tell me that the 14 year old narrator is still in shock from all that she's learned. Anyway, the bees and the Sisters June, May, & August make this book well worth reading.
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Secret Life of Bees, The |
Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dickensian, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 12 and up | 1 Comment »
Saturday, May 13th, 2006
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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, Science Fiction | Comments Closed
