I liked this book a lot but there were a few points where I could feel myself pulled out of the narrative or when it felt too heavily a you...more3.5 really.
I liked this book a lot but there were a few points where I could feel myself pulled out of the narrative or when it felt too heavily a young book.
I loved Hannah's clothes and her quirks and her relationship with Ariel and how her circle of friends evolves through the novel and man, Finny is just right up my romance alley.
I hadn't read any Yovanoff until I read The Curiosities (which I loved) so I had to go seek out some of her novels. Will definitely be reading more!!!(less)
Loved this. The kids loved it b/c it ties together Grandfather's Journey and Tree of Cranes. I loved it b/c it gave us a different perspective on (and...moreLoved this. The kids loved it b/c it ties together Grandfather's Journey and Tree of Cranes. I loved it b/c it gave us a different perspective on (and the honesty behind) some moments from G's Journey that we already knew happened and helps the kids think about point of view.
Go May, what a great person to have be your mother.(less)
The length of time it took me to read this is entirely due to me having no reading time at all these days and not a reflection on its quality. It was...moreThe length of time it took me to read this is entirely due to me having no reading time at all these days and not a reflection on its quality. It was FANTASTIC.
4 stars instead of 5 b/c there were a couple places where the voices were too similar (or sounded like the wrong character, which is a big deal in a two-character-voiced book really) and a couple places where it seemed the wrong girl was being referred to or there was some pronoun/nickname confusion -- a couple places where maybe things were too tricky so they got needlessly confusing for the reader without being super plot-important.
I didn't like this as much as I have liked other John Green books. Mostly b/c Alaska struck me as very self destructive from the start so I...more3.5 really
I didn't like this as much as I have liked other John Green books. Mostly b/c Alaska struck me as very self destructive from the start so I was irritated by the boys' obsession with her and just WAITING for the real self destructive moment to come.
I liked Pudge a lot though. Great character to focus on, the least likely to be popular of their group and yet the most human.(less)
I had read Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty years back when it won the Booker. Randomly wasting time in a bookstore last weekend on the way...more3.5 really
I had read Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty years back when it won the Booker. Randomly wasting time in a bookstore last weekend on the way to dinner, I suddenly felt the need for a thick British family / country life-across-the-generations with a dose of academia thrown in and saw the latest Hollinghurst lying on a display table and knew it would fit the bill. (Plus a hefty dose of homosexuality as one should expect with a Hollinghurst.)
Hollinghurst is probably considered by most to be a more literary author (high-falutin' so to speak) than say Rosamunde Pilcher, but honestly his books, this one in particular, feel very much to me like Shellseekers or September (beloved Pilcher books, I'm not even sure I've read anything else by her) if all the major romances were gay instead of straight.
The way this book hopped around chronologically and who each section focused on (sometimes quite a surprise) perhaps left me more questions than answers (but WHAT happened to XXX?) but they were interesting choices and the book certainly kept me engaged.(less)
Finally read this to decide whether I could put it in my school library. I think it's a little too old for my kids but would be appropriate for high s...moreFinally read this to decide whether I could put it in my school library. I think it's a little too old for my kids but would be appropriate for high schoolers who wouldn't freak out by what they read between the lines and would find it more apropos for where their lives are at.
I enjoyed it, liked the art, and liked that you did see some nice growing up on the part of the main character.(less)
This book is an incredible tour de force. But I'll warn you, you are NOT going to think so for the first section.
Every new revelatory twist just kick...moreThis book is an incredible tour de force. But I'll warn you, you are NOT going to think so for the first section.
Every new revelatory twist just kicks things up an unbelievable notch.
Remarkably clever and twisted and fantastic and just very, very, very good.
p.s. Flynn is a buy-in-hardcover, must-read for me. 100%. These are NOT a series, but I thought I'd just mention: I super loved her 1st book. I thought 2nd book was good but didn't love it (and was frustrated by some of it). I LOVE this one. LOVE.(less)
It was OK. I thought it felt a bit stilted and somewhat rushed.
But my 6th graders who are reading it are all whipping through it much faster than they...moreIt was OK. I thought it felt a bit stilted and somewhat rushed.
But my 6th graders who are reading it are all whipping through it much faster than they have other books -- they all seem to love it.
I loved the idea of it but not so much the execution.
I liked that it could be used to teach about how Israel & Palestine have not always been the places they are -- I think a lot of kids are unaware of the involvement of the British in the ceding of those lands. (less)
Wowza. Some of the writing in this book is just STUNNINGLY lyrically beautiful. I just finished it tonight and all I really want to do is open it up a...moreWowza. Some of the writing in this book is just STUNNINGLY lyrically beautiful. I just finished it tonight and all I really want to do is open it up and start all over again. Bit Stone, I love you, shortiepants.(less)
What a lovely, lovely book. Concisely told, without a spare extraneous moment or detail. Really wonderful. And a really interesting look at some of th...moreWhat a lovely, lovely book. Concisely told, without a spare extraneous moment or detail. Really wonderful. And a really interesting look at some of the deeper Civil War history you certainly will not find in textbooks, particularly the gens de coleur/plaçage information. Would love to read these with kids and see if they connected with it as much as I did.
Also loving the personal connection: my mom grew up in Murphysboro!! St. Louis, Murphysboro, Carbondale and, of course the most important where this book is concerned, Cairo, Illinois, all places I've known all my life. (less)
I guess it's not a surprise that when a well-read professor gives you a pile of books to read they will ALL BE AWESOME. :)
This was a delight. The voic...moreI guess it's not a surprise that when a well-read professor gives you a pile of books to read they will ALL BE AWESOME. :)
This was a delight. The voice, the characters (I liked SO MANY of them), the exploration of how friendships/relationships evolve in the space of a year. The way sarcasm can be used so affectionately. The little touches of Australia (my favorite vacation ever was 2 weeks in Australia. It was amazing).
Depression as both completely confusing and yet completely understandable. The ability to cope. The way in which occasional moments of bad parenting decisions can happen even to good parents. Because we're all just human, out there making our mistakes, doing the best we can.
These stories are fantastic. I've seen Megan read / perform numerous times so there were a couple I was already familiar with but there were also new...moreThese stories are fantastic. I've seen Megan read / perform numerous times so there were a couple I was already familiar with but there were also new ones that I just lovelovelooooooved. She's got a very unique voice while at the same time voicing some universal truths. Fantastic writing / fantastic reading. (less)
**spoiler alert** 2.5 really. Almost 3. OK fine 3. Sortof.
It was OK.
But I found the whole one day framing to be a little stupid since it was NOT actua...more**spoiler alert** 2.5 really. Almost 3. OK fine 3. Sortof.
It was OK.
But I found the whole one day framing to be a little stupid since it was NOT actually the one day each year on which they saw each other or anything. Seemed a pretty arbitrary frame that falls apart as the novel moves on and the reader might want to hear about some other days as well. [Also seems like a blatant "hey When Harry Met Sally fans, come read this" advert but maybe that's just me.] I mean when a chapter starts with something "having seen each other on and off for months now", it renders that fact that we're again focused on just this one day a little meaningless.
There were things I liked about it and I certainly agree with Emma that Ian was not the man for her...but is Dex really? The author maybe goes a little too far in giving you reasons to detest him and not enough instances of even halfway decentness for you to really be willing to fall for him yourself or put up with Emma's love for him never going away.
Maybe on one of those OTHER days of the year, he did some stuff to redeem himself but we will never know.(less)
This was lovely. A novel in verse about a 10 year old girl as her family flees 1975 Vietnam and winds up in Alabama. Both funny and said and quite mov...moreThis was lovely. A novel in verse about a 10 year old girl as her family flees 1975 Vietnam and winds up in Alabama. Both funny and said and quite moving. Lots of lovely language bits. (less)
Wow. So much of this resonates strongly with my personal experiences on 9/11, with my musical life (Travis!!), with my years in NYC... I really loved...moreWow. So much of this resonates strongly with my personal experiences on 9/11, with my musical life (Travis!!), with my years in NYC... I really loved it but moreso probably because of all my personal connections with various things in the text.(less)
genre: poetry, haikus along with black & white photographs
themes: city as naturesca...morewide reading for CI 546
grade level: late middle to high school.
genre: poetry, haikus along with black & white photographs
themes: city as naturescape.
school use: I think this book would be a great teaching tool, not just about using the haiku limitations but about the overall ability of poetry to create images in readers' minds. The pairing with the B&W photographs is quite lovely and a great way to teach how poems can both tell without showing and show without telling.
review: A really lovely book. Beautiful combination of poems and images.(less)
I was originally reading this as an add-on for our "historical fiction" but given that the time its set in is just briefly ment...morewide reading for CI 546
I was originally reading this as an add-on for our "historical fiction" but given that the time its set in is just briefly mentioned here and there, I think I would be more likely to classify it as "realistic fiction" but "dated" rather than "contemporary".
grade level: middle to high school--fairly adult themes.
school use: I might have this in my classroom library but I would not specifically use it in my classroom.
review: What an incredibly odd book. The story of a twin who feels herself always lesser by comparison with her sister. They live on a tiny island kept going by lobster and oyster fishing but both have their own dream of eventually getting away.
Published in 1981, but this feels a LOT older to me--as a child who obsessed over Elsie Dinsmore to my mother's dismay, I would have easily imagined this book being more contemporary with those.
Lots of weird religious stuff--the crazy grandmother and her condemning of so many different "evils"...and her suggestion that Wheeze actually IS less loved is problematic in many ways. There are a lot of things happening between the lines here, and I'm not sure kids would pick up on all of them.
I liked it but it wasn't a super joy to read. And it felt like a pretty adult book in a number of ways to me. Surprised to see it won the Newberry.(less)
genre: realistic fiction, pseudo contemporary (came out in the 70s but not a book where time is a sig...morewide reading for CI 546
grade level: middle school
genre: realistic fiction, pseudo contemporary (came out in the 70s but not a book where time is a signficant part of the setting)
themes: friendship. death. moving on. growing up. photography.
school use: Book club maybe or recommend to sensitive female students [esp students who are dealing with a friend moving away or struggling with the transition from girlhood to teendom]. Probably not going to use curricularly.
review: Ack, this is such a super sweet book and it broke my heart all over again re-reading it (another find from my parents moving into a new home and demanding I cart of all the books I wanted kept). As an adult, things move REALLY fast in this book--the entire thing takes place over just a matter of a week or two--and I almost felt like WOAH slow down, let me absorb this or the other. On the other hand, a kid might not just sit down and read it in one setting as I did, so...
There's a real sense of being a 'turning point' here--a turning point not just in Annie and Rachel's friendship but in going from being a kid to being a teen: changing one's style of dress, starting to notice the opposite sex, saying goodbye because of death or because of moving on, beginning to understand adult motivations.(less)
Wow, Brian Selznick just rocketed himself into my top five favorite authors. Between this book and Hugo Cabret, my mind is blown.
wide reading for CI 5...moreWow, Brian Selznick just rocketed himself into my top five favorite authors. Between this book and Hugo Cabret, my mind is blown.
wide reading for CI 546
grade level: middle school / high school.
genre: contemporary fiction, mystery
format: picture book / graphic novel / cinematic stills
review: WOWZA. This book really struck a lot of personal notes for me - I spent much of middle-high school living in Minnesota and MUCH of my adult life (13 yrs) living in NYC. I have spent many hours at the AMNH and I have also visited the Panorama numerous, numerous times. It was somewhere I took almost every person that came to visit me there for years. WOW. I am so jealous they got to actually step into the Panorama (fictionally yes but I think Selznick got to as well). A beautiful story told across times that eventually come into lockstep together. There is such an amazing payoff at the end. His fascination with books, and artifacts, and souvenirs, and those relics of the past that often get pushed to the side but can tell us so much about who we really are... Just downright stunning. I look forward to reading this book over and over again.(less)
genre: mystery fiction, historical now but still has contemporary/real world feel
themes: death, deception, friendship, riddles
school use: I might use this book to talk about characterization and recurring plot devices. I think it would work really well in the book club setting. Has a very Clue-like feel [i.e., Colonel Mustard in the library].
review: A lot of my friends have very fond memories of this book from childhood--I didn't remember it as something I had read, but it got very familiar feeling at the end. And in another childhood book I reread this weekend, The Westing Game was one of the ads at the back so it must've been out around the same time. I enjoyed it, there's a real playfulness to some of it (BOOM!; Sybelle's crutches, etc.) and it''s a nice riddle-esque mystery, which I really haven't seen as much of these days as when I was a kid. I did cry at the end (Oh, Turtle) but I wasn't completely sucked into it emotionally. Maybe it was the general sarcastic tone or maybe the fact that we certainly see deficits in all the characters, but it doesn't have quite the emotional resonance for me as other rereads from childhood have. Nonetheless, very smart, clever, witty book that I think kids today would still enjoy.(less)
While this book is clearly based on nonfictional events, some of it is clearly supposition, thus I have classified is as historical fiction.
wide readi...moreWhile this book is clearly based on nonfictional events, some of it is clearly supposition, thus I have classified is as historical fiction.
wide reading for CI 546
grade level: content would be elementary but reading level probably late elementary to middle school.
genre: realistic historical combination of nonfiction and fiction.
themes: discovery, exploration, history of the Americas
school use: I used a few paragraphs of this as a read-aloud with my 7th graders. There's some vocabulary that requires scaffolding (or a glossary if kids were reading this on their own).
review: A pretty good book. It's really good on Columbus' confusion about geography, on his plan to beat the Portuguese, and on his interactions with the Spanish royalty. It's a step above our social studies textbooks in terms of actually telling a story and giving some details and showing Columbus' outright ignorance about some things we know quite well in hindsight.
But it still ignores some really blatant stuff that teachers/adults have access to -- per Columbus' own journals, his involvement in enslaving the natives, in murderering or maiming those who did not bring him gold. So it doesn't really present an objective full picture although it is a fuller one than in many texts.(less)
cultures: there are a number of fantastical creatures under the sea as well as a caucasian boy, an asian girl, and a boy who is perhaps inuit? or scandinavian?, an african-american
school use: I would definitely use this book to interest kids in photography. I might use it to talk about the way the world has changed, to talk nostalgically about the time when you could NOT just turn on the Internet and meet someone around the world. Do kids today know about messages in a bottle?
review: Just another fantastic book from David Weisner. A sweet story of discovery, as well as tying into something very personal for me, a photographer -- that sweet moment of seeing what was captured on a role of film! ;) I loved the idea that the camera has gone off and had adventures on its own, rather than the norm of a person setting out. I love that in developing the film, the boy discovers not just other children but a whole fish and/or alien culture happening under the sea. I also love tying into the idea that while we are throwing our garbage into the ocean...it never really goes away, right? When he gets out his microscope and starts looking deeper into the layers of the photo, he goes back years and years and years... There's a nice tie-in to the idea of the everlastingness of human history -- that we are here temporarily, leave our little mark (perhaps on a single picture) and then become just one part of a much, much longer story.(less)
grade level: elementary school but perhaps any age
genre: picture book that contains both a) a narrative fiction story but b) a s...morewide reading for CI546
grade level: elementary school but perhaps any age
genre: picture book that contains both a) a narrative fiction story but b) a series of factoids about chicago
themes: travel, chicago, family, pet ownership
cultures: The only people in the book that you can actually identify the culture of are Larry's white presumably Midwestern (they arrive by train, after all) family. All the other folks in the city of Chicago are shown as shadows as it's a book about places and things, not people.
school use: I might use this book if I was doing a third grade unit on Chicago history, as most CPS schools do. Or if I taught in a suburb or smaller city nearby and was taking my kids on a field trip.
review: I like that this book is simple with rhyming text which would appeal to young kids but also contains many blurbed facts that would make it relatable to older children as well. The illustrations are really great - colorful and in many different styles. I like that there are some factoids shown only in the illustrations as well (i.e., the Michael Jordan statue is not identified in the text but it's obvious at least to this adult reader what/who it is). (less)
cultures: African-America...morewide reading for CI546
grade level: elementary school
genre: picture book / realistic fiction
themes: Family, ancestry, quilting
cultures: African-American
awards: Coretta Scott King award
school use: I might use this book for very young kids learning about families and generations.
review: Such a sweet book. One of the things I liked most about it is that it's just a normal book about a normal family, but when thinking about buying books that are appropriate for a multicultural classroom, it's a book your african-american students can SEE themselves in (without having to also deal with themes of racism, discrimination, misrepresentation...as is so often the case in books that contain diverse characters).
Since my grandmas, great aunts, mother, and now myself!, are all quilters, I really loved how this is a story about a family which is told by telling a story about a family quilt. All the little crafting touches range very true -- Tanya seeing how little squares of every person's clothing, memories, life are woven into the overall fabric of what makes a family, what people treasure, what things we keep closer to our hearts.
Little girls whose moms (or grandmas or aunts or whoevers) sew will really love this book and for those who don't -- this would be a great book to read to get them excited about learning to quilt if you wanted to start an afterschool quilting group with your students!(less)
cultures: Black girl from Brooklyn, heads to mostly white boarding school in Connecticut
awards: this is an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. The author has worn various awards for other books (the Newbery, the Coretta Scott King award).
school use: I don't think I would use this in school. [EDITED TO ADD: I might use some scenes if I was teaching students about code-switching. The scenes of the black girls talking about (and switching back and forth from) colloquial language and "official school language" when Maizon first arrives at school would be good examples to help students identify and understand the language of power.]
review: I did not really like this book (and I have liked previous things by this author, particularly Locomotion and The Other Side).
I thought it took a very surface level look at the themes it touched on -- overt racism like a white girl saying "You know why you're different, you're black. Tell me what that's like" is something the kids I teach deal with all the time. I think kids today are looking for help interpreting the more subtle forms of racism they encounter--being able to ferret out why something is happening and if race has something to do with it. Maybe younger kids (4th-5th graders?) would enjoy it but I think it's too obvious and clunky for older kids to really get involved with.
I thought it had some really awkward transitions as well --for example after her first dinner, walking back to the dorm room by herself, looking at the sky and she's suddenly thinking about her father. That seemed like it came out of nowhere. It's possible that's a standard thing in the series (I haven't read the other books) and doesn't feel as strange to come across if it happened in the previous book(s?) as well.
I felt it was very abrupt (too short!); it seems to end before it's even begun and the narrator has abruptly made a decision that basically negates most of the action of the book (she chooses to go home). (less)
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