The Willoughbys

Author: Lois Lowry
Rating:
Reading Level: 3th-5th

Pages: 112
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine
Edition: Hardcover, 2008


This is a surprising and pleasant find. Lowry has done something very different from her usual style, although it certainly is not the only book of this kind: sarcastic (sardonic, even?) and warm and gentle at the same time. I enjoyed this one tremendously. Will definitely test it out on young readers -- as a read-aloud to start with and then gather their readers' responses.

Enough with the Prophecies!

Today at school, during a heated book discussion, a 6th grade boy exclaimed (over others' fondness of the Warriors series), "Enough with the prophecies!" He couldn't stand the formulaic tradition that seems to be mindlessly overused by fantasy writers these days: someone exists, always, to fulfill a prophecy! I thought he definitely had a point!

And, I add my own exclamation: Enough with the Headless Children on Book Covers; and Enough with the Reflective, Metallic Dust Jacket with Some Sort of Scientific Graphic Designs! (So weird -- so many sci-fi titles and series with almost identical cover designs, but they are not by the same authors or published by the same companies.)

I wonder what other exclamations people have now regarding children's books.

Harry Potter in the House

Lily has been very into HP lately. She's reading the 5th book now and we've caught up with the films to the 4th. I am reminded again how lengthy and tryingly so of the beginning of Goblet of Fire: the repeated problems at the Dursleys, the "journey" to get to the World Cup, and the Quidditch game there.... almost 200 pages before seeing the gang back to Hogwarts. I remember the read a disappointing one for me, since there was high expectation after my favorite 3rd volume. This almost prevented me from reading book V. If not for my sense of "professional" duty, I might have taken one look at the 800+page of Order of Phoenix and gave up. Thinking back, there were quite a few cool moments in HP5 and I can't wait for Lily to discover them. (And I think she won't be annoyed as much by the poorly portrayed teen angst as I was.)

We talked about the length of books and how I am not against long stories. I just have no patience of rambling for rambling sake. One of my favorite books is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and the series of Song of Ice and Fire are both famed for being quite long. The length worked to enhance their charm -- I didn't want the stories to end -- didn't want to get out those worlds to be back to my ordinary universe.

Resolution

I know I have not been very good at being a blogger. I don't keep a tight schedule. I am not compulsively entering every little thought on these pages. I don't do small talk. I don't post a couple of links or news about books. But, maybe I should. Maybe I should take my blogger responsibilities a bit more seriously. Maybe I should tell you that I am re-reading and re-looking at Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee (1978) -- a long time treasure of mine. The book that taught me a lot -- not just in Faerie lores but in being able to read narratives in English (I was a freshman in college in Taiwan, studying to become an English teacher) and also to decipher hand-written texts. And how much I want to share this book with my 9-year-old big reader daughter who has just recently finished Spiderwick Chronicles.

Or perhaps, I should write about all the little conversations I have with my daughter and my students regarding all sorts of stories. Such as tonight, after watching the truly excellent 3rd Harry Potter movie, her indignation over the changes the director and the filmwright (sp?) had made. Or how some of my students are excited about Airman and For Boys Only.

I guess I just convinced myself that, for my own sake, I should start writing as often as I can manage and just FORCE myself to be diligent about recording my thoughts and experiences regarding stories here. Preferably on a daily basis.

Behind the Rules

Author: Stephanie Burgis
Rating:
Listening Level: Adult / YA

Publisher: ESCAPEPOD.ORG
Edition: Podcast


I have been following stories on EscapePod for a while now and have decided to at least mark the days that I've listened to an episode. This one is interesting, light, exploring the idea of cloning, with a couple of instances of strong language (I would NOT have given it an R rating as the podcaster Steve Eley had rated it.)

Direct Link to the Story

Tactics (Anime)

Finally finished the series. I was surprised that it was only 25 episodes. It seemed that the story arc was developing very slowly and then rushed to resolve Haruka's conflicts. It's still a fun anime to watch and I just ordered the first three manga volumes from Tokyopop for the library. I wonder how the middle school kids will respond to this series. They did like Petshop of Horrors.

Airman

Author: Eoin Colfer
Rating:
Reading Level: 5th to 7th Grade

Pages: 416
Publisher: Hyperion
Edition: Hardcover

Click on the title link and read many people's reviews, including mine, on Goodreads! The book is worth promoting in libraries, classrooms, and homes!