Fairest

Quite a few people have recommended this book to me. I loved Ella Enchanted (same author), but I did NOT love this book. First of all, it's extremely slow to start. I like the idea of twisting around the Snow White story as a companion novel to the twisted Cinderella story, but it fell flat.

Aza is an innkeeper's daughter turned lady in waiting to the new queen. She has a beautiful voice (but not a beautiful face) and she gets into all sorts of sticky situations. There is, of course, a magic mirror, a handsome prince, and some very kind small-ish creatures. I really think this story had the potential to be a good one, but it lacked good pacing and I got frustrated with the obnoxious focus on beauty constantly. Sure, our heroine is not beautiful. I'm fine with that. She's overly large with a strange complexion and an un-desirable hair color. Even in the end when things wrap up, though, it seems that other characters accept her in spite of her looks. That doesn't sit well with me. To clarify, what I mean is that the way it comes across is that it's ok that she's not pretty because she's good on the inside rather than someone thinking she's beautiful despite faults. I think I'm still being unclear. I want her prince and the other characters to love her faults and all rather than love her even though she has faults. The prince says he loves her looks in the end, but it's forced feeling and the say he says it is like he has found some strange way of perceiving that makes it ok.

Ok, I'm done rambling and spoiling the story. Give it a try, if you like, and let me know what you think. Or, if you've already read it, let me know your thoughts and feelings on the beauty issue. Next I'm reading Thief Lord so watch out for that review.

Reading multiple books at a time

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. I have been student teaching in a 6th grade class so to keep up with their reading, I am reading several books at a time. I also am caught between books I want to finish and recommendations, so lots of books. How do you feel about that? Can you read more than one book at a time, or do you not feel loyal to the characters and the story by skipping around?

I am going to share the books I am reading right now:

Really good! My students love it, and the plot is very intriguing. I recommend it!

Just started with my group, but so far it is pretty funny. My students like it.

Beginning was really slow for me, but the second part of the book has picked up. It was meant to be in two books but they combined it into two part instead.

My kids love this! It is a long book, so get ready, but they read their assignments very fast.

Recommended by my student. Very suspenseful with a unique storyline. Read it!

The other two are Matched and Peeps which have already been reviewed on this blog. So there you have it! Keep reading and good luck to those who read more than one book at a time. I don't like it.

Tiger Rising

Last night I read The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo (she wrote Because of Winn Dixie). All told it only took about 40 minutes to read the whole thing.

One of my fourth grade book clubs is reading it and there was a concern raised. A particular girl didn't feel comfortable with the book because of the "swearing" (one character takes the Lord's name in vain a half-dozen times). I think this raises an interesting dilemma. At what point do we let kids be exposed to things they might not be comfortable with? In the real world people take the Lord's name in vain without a second thought. And in this case it fits the character. So , what say you on the matter? Is the exposure appropriate for a fourth grader?

Note: As for the content of the book, it's a good one. The main character is forced to deal with the sadness he's been suppressing after his mother dies. It's a story of finding friends, fitting in, and how life isn't always perfect or fair. I think it's good to use books like this to teach kids that life isn't always perfect (which they often already know) and give them something that is mostly realistic to deal with.

Twisted

*Edit: This book is kind of dark. Just a warning and I don't think I made that clear when I originally posted this.

I began this book just as I was writing the review for You. I was fully prepared to have similar feelings about this book. Let's get real for a minute. I'm way less comfortable with male main characters in young adult fiction than female. This discomfort can, I believe, be attributed to one main cause. It's hard for me to be completely at ease with the description of male reactions to females. How tactful do I need to be on this blog? I don't want to skirt the issue, but I also don't want to offend anybody (I save that for my personal blog). If you're confused please feel free to leave a comment and I'll clarify. I think this is mostly only a problem in realistic fiction as I've read several fantasy novels with male main characters (um, Harry Potter anyone?) and not had the same trouble.

Anyway, back to Twisted. The story is about a 17 year old high school kid named Tyler that got buff doing community service and working after he was busted for vandalizing the school. Essentially his life sucks and his dad's a real jerk. Very standard the model family on the outside isn't so perfect behind closed doors (not to say that the story felt cliche because it didn't).

I don't really want to get into all the nitty-gritty details, but I connected with this book in some strange way. That's all I'm saying on the subject.

Oh, one question. Why does it seem like YA realistic fiction with a male main character never highlights the overachiever or the jock? It's almost always the underestimated, overlooked kind of loser guy. Just food for thought.

You

This book is interesting to me for one main reason: it's written in the second person. That's right. The author tells a story about you the reader. You are Kyle Chase, a fifteen year old, under motivated, high school student and part of the group known at school as the "hoodies" (because of their signature black hoodies, go figure). At first the writing style is jarring and intriguing, but I found that the story spent too much time on the build-up and almost no time on completing the story. Brief(ish) rant: I'm starting to get bored of/irritated by the way authors spend the prologue or chapter one telling you the end of the book. If you don't know what I'm trying to describe, think Twilight. The first page is Bella reflecting on how she's going to what she believes is her certain death. You did the same type of thing and it seems that more and more books are going that way these days. I, the reader, am not an idiot. Let me discover the story for myself. No need to try and punch me in the face with some heavy handed foreshadowing and not-so-subtle hints. Ok, rant done. Overall this is not a book I'd particularly recommend and I didn't like it much.

The Unidentified

Guess what. I read another young adult dystopian novel. I can tell that you're shocked.

I really didn't find this book that refreshing. Basically advertising companies have taken over education because the government couldn't afford it anymore. Public education in this society is referred to as "the Game" and is all about who's in and who's out and who their sponsors are.

It was an ok read and caught my interest at times, but it wasn't anything that really thrilled me.

Book club book

For my book club, we just finished reading Life As We Knew It. This book is written as journal entries of a young girl who is attending high school. It starts out with her typical life a few days before "the event" occurs. "The event" is an asteroid that hits the moon and knocks it off its orbit. As a result, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, extreme weather, and panic spreads across the world. This girl and her family have to survive off of the the little food they have as people all around them are dying and fighting to survive. It is a good read. The events that occur seem so real as the author describes what these people go through in such detail, it makes you feel like you are there with them. It does go into detail about the world literally falling apart with people starving, eating as little as a can of soup among four people every other day. Gas prices rise, state borders are enforced, gangs and violence for the bare necessities. I thought it was very interesting and kept me engaged in the story.