On Mondays, I share books read for children and teens and link up with Jen at TeachMentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders. Others link to share adult books with Sheila at Book Journeys who started the meme a long time ago.
Come visit, and tweet at #IMWAYR. Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki for hosting!
I read so many picture books this past week, partly because I kept Imogene, and she loves being read to, so we read lots of new library books along with a few of her favorites that stay here. Look at last week's post if you missed the monster book I brought her from the beach bookstore. She loves it so much that she brought it along, and we read it three times throughout the day! Just saying'!
I finished a NetGalley new Dystopian novel, out in September. Here's the review:
In
The
Scorpion Rules we
discover a future world no one really wants, where an artificial intelligence
called Talis has taken over. Yet, although we hear of “him?”, we truly don’t
meet until the final fourth of the story. The premise is that Talis has
achieved world peace by taking a hostage from every world leader - their heirs,
known as "Children of Peace". When a government declares war, the
child dies. These ‘hostage’ children are kept in small and isolated communities
called “Preceptures”, studying the past and doing chores as others did years
and years ago, like keeping bees and goats, raising their own food, etc. Some
arrive at the age of five, as our main character, Greta, has, and she knows
only this way of living, appears to believe wholly in the philosophy of Talis.
She is Greta Gustafsen Stuart,
Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan-Polar Confederation, appears
disciplined and very smart. One soon realizes that while her intelligence might
be real in the content areas, she has no idea that there are other ways to look
at the world. The chance of self-knowledge comes with the addition to her group
of Elián Palnik, the newest hostage. Greta sees him (and is not supposed to)
enter her community in chains and a small piece of herself opens. She begins to
have empathy for pain, and later, for other ideas of how the world could work.
The consistent push of Erin Bow to
keep the reader off guard with new insights into how different hostages in
Greta’s group act, and react, along with the frightening ideas of constant surveillance,
and where the only “overseer” showing to be a sympathetic character to Greta is
an AI creates an interesting and frightening read. There are romantic
interests, but not where one predicts, and the real heroes are not predictable
either.
The Scorpion Rules is a new
approach to dystopian literature, keeping the action in one geographical place,
and among just a few characters. The future of the world hinges in this
singular place, an alarming thought. In ending, the over-arching power felt
from that one Talis and the ending thoughts of Greta creates a hole of “I
wonders” that won’t be filled until Erin Bow writes again.
And here are my favorite picture books read:
Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile - written by Gloria
Houston and illustrated by Susan Condie Lamb
I'm sure I read this years ago, but never reviewed it. This is not classified as an n-f story, but it closely follows the life story of Miss Dorothy Thomas, one of the author's heroes when she grew up. Miss Dorothy drove a green bookmobile in the beautiful countryside in a part of North Carolina, bringing books to those who didn't have the ability to get to a library. The words Houston uses in the story are poetic, and the illustrations realistic and gorgeous. Eventually a library was built in a small house that Miss Dorothy ran for years. This belongs to all those stories of people, often librarians who brought books to people living in remote areas. I grew up using a bookmobile for my reading, loving the librarian who soon began to discover what I liked and recommending/bringing me more and more wonderful books. Like the author, I won't forget this librarian in my life.