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| Author: | Isaac Asimov |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1950 |
One of the milestones of science fiction. The three rules of robotics are still relevant today. | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: I, Robot | |
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| Author: | Nicholson Baker |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Sophisticated readers |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 2003 |
One of the best books "about nothing" that we've ever come across. A gentle family man describes his philosophy of life in a diary format. | |
Features highly opinionated disquisitions on topics such as:
Suitable for: Mature high school level readers (others are likely to be bored out of their minds rather than amused) and adults. | |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Box Full of Matches, A | |
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| Author: | Zilpha Keatly Snyder |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1966 |
Twelve-year old boy learns to use and appreciate his gifts. A soothsayer once told Harry that his was "... a rare gift, and his magic will be of a special kind." Now, many years later, it is summer in San Francisco. It's possible that Harry has heard that same voice intone the words "The air is absolutely heavy with possibilities." Or maybe he dreamed them. Because he performed a good deed, twelve-year old Harry (interesting name, isn't it? -- my daughter thought so!) receives a gift. As such gifts often do, this one is bestowed with limitations. Harry must never be caught displaying the gift "publicly" lest the giver of the gift be harmed. | |
My 9 year old loved this story about how Harry learns to take advantage of the gifts with which he's been born and the gift he receives. Zilpha Keatley Snyder has written MANY books! And all of the ones we have read have held our interest. Black and Blue Magic is based in the San Francisco Bay Area; we really enjoyed the geographic "cameos". The 9 year old says, "I am SO glad I read this book!" Much resonance, I thought, with the plight of gifted kids: to use their gifts but to use them in such a way that they do not attract undue attention. And also, that what others might imagine to be the way a gift is to be used may not actually be the way the one who has the gift might choose to use it. -- Emily Berk | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Black and Blue Magic | |
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| Author: | Zilpha Keatly Snyder |
| Illustrator: | Alton Raible |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Sophisticated readers |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Dystopian/religious |
| Year of publication: | 1975 |
Issues sometimes arise for gifted readers who become infatuated with books written by authors who write for both adults and children and/or with books that are in series that are unevenly targeted. Below the Root, which is a book my 9 yr. old adored, is a prime example. Because she reacts very poorly to unhappy endings, we had decided to recommend against her reading certain novels. So, for example, after significant discussion, we decided that Lois Lowry's The Giver was too intense for her, for now at least. But she had loved Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Egypt Game, and the illustration (by Alton Raible) on the back cover of Below the Root made us yearn to read the book, even though our resident teenager warned against it. So we decided to read Below the Root together. | |
Well, there are some very scary moments in this dystopian novel. In fact, towards the end of the book, we decided that we could not read it too close to bedtime because it might not end happily. But, as it turned out, in this volume of the trilogy, Snyder never manages to become as pessimistic as Lois Lowry. Unfortunately, the story of Raamo, gifted with empathy and abilities that many others of his society don't share, doesn't exactly end in Below the Root. Or, at least, my nine year old didn't feel that it ended with the finality she would have liked. Or, maybe, she wanted the book to go on and on because the environment it describes is SO compelling. As we've come to expect from Zilpha Keatley Snyder, in Below the Root she imagines (mostly) well-rounded, thoughtful characters who inhabit a strange but consistent and believable reality. And, as with other Snyder plots, this one is involving and (mostly) unpredictable. Says the nine-year old, "How come they don't make great books like this into movies? A movie of this book would be so much better than Harry Potter." So then we had to read AND ALL BETWEEN, not exactly a sequel -- it overlaps the time and takes place in a dystopia that borders that of Below the Root. And All Between is a much darker book than Below the Root in many ways. Whereas Below the Root takes place in the tree canopy, And All Between mostly takes place underground. And, And All Between expands in depth on the theme of how the corruption of the religious elite can corrupt an entire society. But And All Between doesn't end the story either, so then we had to proceed to Until the Celebration. My child became very, very angry with the protagonist who kind of gave in to his own death. And very, very angry with the author who "let" her read so many pages to just have the protagonist "throw his life away". Too bad -- the message in all as far as I can tell is that demonizing the Other can have bad consequences for those who do the demonizing. Sounds pretty pertinent these days, huh?--Emily | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Below the Root | |
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| Author: | Marjorie Flack |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 5 and under |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 5 and under |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1930 |
Doesn't rhyme so harder to memorize; funny; cool pictures; not cutesy; some pretty hard words keep it interesting | |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Angus and the Ducks | |
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| Author: | Kate Chopin |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | For grown-ups |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | For grown-ups |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1899 |
Hard to believe that these stories were written more than a century ago. Although they are firmly rooted in the bayous of Lousisiana just before the turn of the 20th century, the women in these stories face choices heartrendingly similar to those of women today. | |
My favorites this week are Regret, in which a childless woman, set in her ways, is obliged to care for a some of her neighbors' children for a while. And, The Awakening itself, a novella about a woman who seems to have it all, but does not. | |
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Awakening and Selected Stories, The | |
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| Author: | Ayn Rand |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 12 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 12 and up |
| Genre: | Fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1957 |
Not well written, which is not exactly beside the point, given the topic. | |
I am not opposed to high word counts, and I certainly find Rand's IDEAS powerful and she presents them using plots that are innovative and highlight her points nicely. (Unlike, for example, Nancy Kress' writing in Beggars in Spain.) On the other hand, no one can claim that Atlas Shrugged is well written. Has she ever described any female heroine as being other than beautiful and thin? Is there a word for the right-wing equivalent of Socialist Realism? Do any of her heroes have flaws? Do any of her villains have any redeeming characteristics? Rand really did need a good editor. Like, for example, those 60 or so pages of John Galt's harangue in Atlas Shrugged. Trees are sometimes better used for shade rather than pulp, don't you think? Contrasts kind of nicely with books like Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov, in which the ideas are actually extremely lame (but are considered not to be lame by most), but the plots are quite compelling AND the words are powerful and spare, even though Brothers K. is quite weighty. Or, Ender's Game? There's a more well-rounded brilliant person for you, don't you think? And it IS so much more -- concise? Or Ender's Shadow, even better! | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Atlas Shrugged | |
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| Author: | Lois Lowry |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1979 |
"Mom," my daughter said to me, in response to a very bad joke I told her. "Anastasia Krupnik is funny. Anastasia Again is funny too. That joke was not." Life and loves of a ten year old aspiring poetess. | |
Slighter than later Lois Lowry, but interesting to our nine year old. | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Anastasia Krupnik | |
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| Author: | Lois Lowry |
| Reading Level (Conceptual): | Children 8 and up |
| Reading Level (Vocabulary): | Children 8 and up |
| Genre: | fiction |
| Year of publication: | 1979 |
Anastasia is now 12, has a 2 year old, precocious brother, and has moved to the suburbs. | |
"Mom," my daughter said to me, in response to a very bad joke I told her. "Anastasia Krupnik is funny. Anastasia Again is funny too. That joke was not." Slighter than later Lois Lowry, but hilarious to our nine year old. | |
If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Anastasia Again | |