Books, Books and More Books

Here are some of our recent reads, for the maybe three book lovers that read this blog:

Grown Up Books

Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman: I really like Alice Hoffman’s work. This book was not my very favorite novel she has written, but it was still a fun read, very different from what I expected when I started the book. Alice Hoffman does characters well, I believe, and I really appreciated well developed characters. One of the things I liked best about the book was realizing how the characters changed as time went on, which is true in life too, I think. Like real people, the characters got richer and richer toward the end of the novel.

Cabins of Minnesota by Bill Holm and Doug Ohman: I saw this coffee table style book on display at the public library and had to take it home with me. It jumped out at me because of the fabulous photography, and then I noticed that the accompanying prose essay was written by Bill Holm, an author that I had a chance to see speak at a writers conference one time at UND. I found him actually a bit irritating even though he was somewhat wise, which strangely motivated me to read the essay. The essay was a lot like his personality.

Intermediate Chapter Books

Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis: I loved it! The protagonist was an amazing, fresh, unique person! The writing was great. Read it! This is a terrific book for kids nearing middle school because it will really cause them to question some of the social stereotypes that they might be facing.

Firegirl by Tony Abbott This wasn’t terrible, by any means, but it lacked something, and I’m not sure what. I liked the basis for the plot though, a new girl joins a class who is very badly burned, and the characters must come to grips their emotions about disfigurement. I wanted to like the people in this book and empathize with them more, but something just held me back because of the way it was written.

The Tale of Despereaux: by Kate Dicamillo: I have read this before, and recently read it out loud to Ms. Crazy Preschooler. It was even better the second time! This is one of my favorite children’s books ever, I think. I was a little worried that it would be too detailed for Ms. CP, but she got SOOOOO mad every time we had to stop reading it!

Children’s Picture Books

I Love You, Blue Kangaroo by Emma Chichester Park: I bought this for a quarter at a garage sale. Mr. Perpetual Mess fell in love with it. I have read it day after day for weeks now, and it never seems to get old for the small people in my house. When I looked up the author on amazon.com, I discovered there are several companion books about blue kangaroo that we might have to seek out.

The Z was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg: We’ve had this book for a long time, and I’ve always liked it, although no one else seemed to really pay attention to it, but lately, Mr. Perpetual Mess is obsessed with it. I have the book memorized. So does he, I think.

Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin: We’ve been big fans of cows that type since Ms. Crazy Preschooler was born. I remember buying the first book and reading it to her when she was just a tiny little infant. This new companion book is my favorite of the companions yet. The goofy animal songs are fun to sing and everybody loves how the animals trick Farmer Brown for yet another fantastic prize!

Olivia Strikes a Band by Ian Falconer Olivia is very popular in our house. When this book came out a few years ago, it got bad reviews in comparison to the other Olivia books. I looked at it briefly in a bookstore, and decided not to go about purchasing it. We found it at the library the other day and brought it home. My reading audience laughed and laughed and laughed. I thought they were going to get sick! We read it again, and again, and it just never stopped being funny to them, which maybe goes to show that you can’t trust adults who write children’s picture book reviews?

Young Adult Novels

Why don’t more grown ups read these????? I have really come across some beautiful writing in this genre lately! Some heartstopping, eyeball gripping stories. There must be other thirty year olds who stay up all night reading these? Somewhere?

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen: I think I’ve loved everything this author has written, ever. This was no exception. My favorite character was Owen, who reminded me of a really neat person I used to know in forensics. Owen isn’t in forensics, far from it, but they really shared a certain spirit. I stayed up all night reading this, and couldn’t stop thinking about it for days. I highly recommend it.

River Secrets by Shannon Hale: FANTASTIC! I have a huge soft spot for novels set in imaginary medevial lands and am even more of a fan of interconnected novels. This is the third book of a loose trilogy (The Goose Girl and Enna Burning) and reminds me a little of Cynthia Voigt’s books about Jackaroo, but Shannon Hale might be an even stronger writer than Cynthia Voigt, if that’s possible. This prose is intricate. There are amazing details and things flow beautifully. The whole story seems incredibly real.

My Great Amazing Discovery

Authors have blogs! Why wouldn’t they, I know. They are writers after all, but I am especially excited to be reading there blogs as part of my very, very long and growing longer list of blogs I check every day.