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Masterpiece  Excellent  Very good  Good  Just okay  Not for me  Definitely not for me  |
2007, 81 pp.
This is a tale about dream-givers, nightmare-givers, a little boy, his mother, a puppy, and an older female caretaker. It’s difficult to say more without spoilers so I’ll leave it at that. It was a wonderful book. 2006, 140 pp. Rating: 4.5
1997, 321 pp. Booker Prize Rating: 3.5 I finished this book two days ago, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. Loved some of it, hated some of it, and was confused by the ending (particularly the second to last chapter; did they ?). I am reading this with my Book Awards group in September, and I have many things I’d like to talk about and discuss with them first before I write any kind of formal review. I guess I will write one later. Lay Ter. (If you’ve read this book, you know what this means!)
2000, 215 pp. Rating: 4.5 This book is the second in the trilogy which also includes The Giver and Messenger. I read The Giver, a Newbery book, earlier this year and absolutely loved it. This book doesn’t really continue where The Giver left off, but Messenger takes place after both stories and with characters from each. Kira is a girl who has just lost her mother to sickness. She is very distraught as it has been her mother who has protected her from the community. Kira has a bad leg, and everyone in the village with any kind of defect or deformity must leave the protected area and contend with “the beasts” outside of it. As she goes back to her small house, the women around her make it known that they want her property as a place for their own children and animals. A legal proceeding takes place which decides the matter. Will she have to leave the community and contend with “the beasts”, or will an exception be made? Recommended highly, but make sure you read The Giver before you read Messenger.
Rating: 2 I didn’t like this book. AT ALL. I absolutely love Beowulf, and I highly recommend reading or listening to Seamus Heaney’s version. Whereas Beowulf could almost be considered a Christian work, Grendel is nihilistic. Enough said.
1993 Newbery Medal Rating: 4.5 I really, really liked this book. It is another “Big Brother” story similar to Fahrenheit 451 or 1984. Scary, scary. Jonas is eleven years old. When he is twelve, he will receive his “assignment” or job from the Elders of his community. Everything is decided by the Elders. Who marries whom. Which occupation you will have. Which children you will raise. And even who has to be “released” from the community. When Jonas is selected for a special position that only one other person in the community has, it is considered a very high honor. What Jonas discovers about this “honor” changes his life completely. I read this for the Banned Book Challenge. I’m not sure why it would be contested. Perhaps because there is some talk about the “stirrings” of beginning s* x u ality in Jonas. I didn’t have a problem with this, but I’m really glad I read it before I gave it to my 13 and 12 year old sons to read. This book will make for a great discussion. Also reviewed by
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The 2008 Newbery award winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, is by Laura Amy Schlitz. The book is subtitled Voices from a Medieval Village, and contains points of view from the blacksmith’s daughter, the tanner’s son, the falconer’s son, the glassblower’s daughters, among many others. I didn’t like it at all at first, but by the time I got to the story about a shepherdess singing to a grieving ewe, I was enjoying it. The illustrations by Robert Byrd were excellent.
I read this during the read-a-thon in the late night hours, and it was a perfect fit. I love Lois Lowry. I haven’t found a book yet by her that I didn’t like, and she is the author I’ve read the most of this year.
The God of Small Things
I like the cover, at least. 