I've read 7/21 from my list, 33%, and I chose to read The Shadow Throne by Jennifer Neilsen next. There are so many good books available in our world, and it's fun to see if I can catch up with some older ones missed.
Don't miss these!
Half A Chance - Cynthia Lord (middle grade)
Cynthia
Lord takes us well under the skin of her characters, and in this one, I imagine
both kids and parents (spouses) can relate when one of the family, this time
the father, keeps them moving. Lucy, twelve, has already moved three times in
her life. Just three years ago, they were in Vermont, then Boston, and now in a
rather lifeless house on a lake in New Hampshire. She lets us know how she
feels often, the uneasiness of whether to wave and smile at the kids she sees
at the house next door, her constant worry if she’s saying the right thing.
It’s hard growing up, and even harder when one has to keep starting over with
friends. Lucy’s father is a successful nature photographer, is gone on
adventures often, and Lucy misses him too. This particular summer, he’s off the
day after their move, and Lucy and her mother are left behind to settle in and
make new friends. Nate, a boy next door, is a summer visitor, so Lucy knows
that he’ll be gone by fall, yet she is immediately included in the “loon
watch”, where they kayak across the lake to check on a pair of loons nesting. A
second story that actually helps the friendship is Nate’s grandmother, Grandma
Lilah, a loon watcher, too, whose cabin it is, but who also is falling into
dementia. Through a photography contest (that will be judged by her father),
Lucy stepping out to see if she can please him, but anonymously; Nate helping,
and unknowing, their lives become quite tangled and conflicted. Lord allows
Lucy to tell the story as it builds the tension of the dilemmas of a twelve
year old trying to navigate her life. There is more than one life lesson here. The
book would be a good read aloud or be great to read with a small group.
Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie
Stiefvater (young adult)
Reading
books in the Raven cycle by Maggie Stiefvater feels sometimes like that old
"Whack-A-Mole" game. Just when you feel that you can relax because
something is solved, or at least all right at that moment, another, sometimes
more alarming, thing pops up. In this book, the plot indeed thickens, and the
characters show more of themselves in all their goodness and only a bit of
evil. It's hard to choose a favorite character. I don't know if you have one,
but I find even those who appear who are dead have authenticity. If that isn't
enough to pique your interest, you'll need to read the first two books, then
suspend all belief in this one, because magic and frightening things from the
mind are apparent in every character. Those Raven Boys keep at it with a lot of
help from my favorite girl character, Blue, and more than a little help from
Mr. Grey. Adam stars in this story, and we see the real goodness come into play
from both Ronin and Gansey. It was a pleasure to read Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and
I now anticipate number four, due next February. More moles peeked out at the
end of Blue Lily, Lily Blue.
The Red Pencil - Andrea Davis Pinkney (YA - verse novel)
It is
never easy to read about a war, and the victims of it, still in it. Reading the
story in the strong voice of a young girl was harder to me, but it will reach
other children in its honesty, but without too much detail. of the horrors that
people are living through still today. Young Amira Bright loses nearly
everything, her father, her home, her beloved sheep. And then she must live in
the squalid conditions of a refugee camp. Poorly fed and housed, somehow there
is sparkle in the tiniest of things: an orange Fanta, such a taste; the letter
A, learning in secret; a tiny hedgehog moving through the camp. One of the
sweetest lines is early in the book, when Amira's sister is born, and is
crippled. Her father says: "This baby will keep us all strong. That is the
way of a child who comes with so much specialness. We will stretch to meet
her." One thread, also from the father, is a game that he teaches Amira.
They play "What else is possible?" The only rule is that the answer
to this can only be good. I hope you can see that this "mindset" is a
beautiful example of a growth mindset. It helps Amira keep going. It's a rich
story, sad to imagine, good for older children to read about the harsh
realities happening today in war, not just in the past.
All The Light We Cannot See -
Anthony Doerr (adult)
It's
been a long time since I read nearly all one day. I guess one reason is that
I'm on vacation. And the second one is that All The Light We Cannot See by
Anthony Doerr is a wonder of a book. It also won the Pulitzer Prize and was a
finalist for the National Book Award. First of all, I loved the adult
complexity of the book, the way that Doerr wove his story back and forth among
characters and back and forth in time. The story is set before, during and
after World War II, includes several interesting characters, but the main ones
are Werner, a gifted young orphan who is German, and who gets the chance to go
to a special school for preparing boys for war (unheard of for his background)
and a young girl, blind, living with her father who works at the Natural
History Museum in Paris. The characters, the details in their lives, and the
events surrounding them built with such tension, continually parallel and
intertwine. I sometimes had to stop and wonder what I would do in such a time,
or I would stop to re-read a passage to be sure I hadn't missed anything or to
appreciate the beautiful language. The parts included that touch on light in
hundreds of ways are magical. Here are a few examples of sentences I marked.
Concerning peaches after an arduous escape from Paris: "Seconds later,
she's eating wedges of wet sunlight." When a soldier enters a room of
children in an orphanage: "His handgun is black; it seems to draw all the
light in the room toward it." Upon a first experience at the ocean:
"At least, out on the beaches, her privation and fear are rinsed away by
wind and color and light." When one of the main characters is asking
questions of life: "Why bother to make music when the silence and wind are
so much larger? Why light lamps when the darkness will inevitably snuff
them?" I marked many more. This may not be the book for you, but it
certainly pleased me.
I have read the first titles on this list but not the last. I love Cynthia Lord's writing so much. I am very excited to meet her in Bellingham in the spring at a conference!
ReplyDeleteWonderful that you got to meet Cynthia Lord! I've read the latest too, A Handful of Stars, just lovely. Thanks, Carrie.
DeleteHaven't read Half a Chance, A Handful of Stars or The Blue Pencil (all three are on my WTR list). Waiting to read All the Light We Cannot See until our book club does it this winter. I'm thinking this is a group (#must read in 2015) that I may join for 2016.
DeleteI hope you will join us, Ramona. That little bit of goal-setting & outward pressure helps, & as I said, I'm so happy that I finally read these wonderful books. Hope you'll get to some of them soon! Or, keep them on your list!
DeleteHalf a Chance is such a sweet story. I really enjoyed it. I had The Dream Thieves on my #MustRead list this year and I think I will probably put Blue Lily, Lily Blue on my list for next year, if I don't get to it before then! I love that series.
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll get to the Stiefvater books soon. They are wonderful. Can't believe I put Blue Lily, Lily Blue off so long!
DeleteAll the Light...is on my to read list. Thanks for the other tips.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Jane. As you can see, I loved All The Light You Cannot See.
DeleteI love the Raven Boys books. I also enjoyed that game that Amira and her father played - What Else is Possible? I have All the Light We Cannot See on my TBR, but not on my #MustRead list so am not sure when I'll get to it. :)
ReplyDeleteI told my daughter and son-in-law about that game, too, Crystal, What Else Is Possible?, thought it gave such an idea of strength to Amira, really to all children if one uses it. Hope you'll get to All The Light... sometime. It is truly wonderful. Thanks!
DeleteI loved Half a Chance and how Lord so perfectly captured tween worry. I've heard such great things about All the Light We Cannot See--it's high on my to-read list. My progress has been pretty pathetic, but you can see what I've been up to here: https://notforlunch.wordpress.com/2015/09/06/update-2-my-must-read-books-in-2015/
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading!
Lorna
Thanks, Lorna, will check out your post. I hope you'll get to All The Light. . . soon!
Delete