Children’s Literature

Skybreaker

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

We enjoyed listening to Airborn on audio last year and were looking forward to listening to Skybreaker – the sequel to Airborn. I was disappointed – First, Matt’s become far too self-conscious about his lack of money. The whining and lack of self-confidence became tiresome and Matt became a character that I no longer respected.  Second, Nadira could have been a really interesting character but Oppel ditched her almost completely by the time they boarded the Hyperion. Why spend all of that time early in the book causing us to be interested in her and then barely mention her name once the story really got moving?

The next book in the series is Star Climber. I’m not sure I really want to read it. I’ve peeked that the synopsis and one review and it looks like we’ll find Matt whining his way through another adventure. That’s too bad.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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The Battle of the Labyrinth

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was a huge Percy Jackson fan after reading the first book. I talked so much about Percy that Rick Riordan’s wife stopped by my old Books in Bed blog to leave a comment. I really enjoyed the second book, too. And then there was the third book which I liked but… something happened and I was less enthusiastic about Percy. I don’t know if it was anything Percy did (or Riordan) or if it was just that I was in children/YA fiction madness and I just couldn’t manage to read one more piece of children’s literature – no matter how much I might want to.

Whatever it was, I never read book four – until Liz started reading the series and became fixated on it. When I told her I hadn’t finished the series, she told me that I HAD TO… so I reserved Battle of the Labyrinth and it took me forever to finish it. It wasn’t Percy’s fault (or Luke’s either) and it wasn’t Riordan’s fault. It’s me, I’m just not finding enough time to read. I enjoyed the book well enough but like KitCat, I found the Labyrinth a lot less scary than I expected to. The Labyrinth should have been really really frightening – and it just seemed like a normal day in the life of a Half-Blood Hero.

I think Book Five is upstairs on Liz’s bedroom floor. I’m trying to decide if I just want to go ahead and read it or if I want to head back to my TBR list or some general library reading. Will I enjoy book five more if I read it right after book four? Or should I hold off and think about it for awhile? Decisions, decisions.

Oh, I almost forgot… while I was reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, I asked TW what color ink her “pen” would write…If she had one like Riptide…. She said hers would be purple, which isn’t much of a surprise. Mine would be blue – or red – I can’t decide. What color “pen” would you have?

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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Nation

2009, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

I’m not a Terry Pratchett fanatic. I like him well enough but not that much. I’ve probably only read three of his books, well four now that I’ve read Nation.

It started slow but once I settled down with it, I liked it very much. I’m even a little sad that it doesn’t sound like there’s a sequel. Too bad, I’d have liked Daphne and Mau to have continued.

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The Year We Disappeared

2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Don't Read This, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

The very best thing I can say about The Year We Disappeared is that with this book I finished my Cybil Challenge. Yay me!

I really wish I hadn’t finished with such a dull book. Dull, dull, dull. Disappointing because it’s a true story and a great story.

I’ve always wondered about relocation programs. So this should have been interesting and compelling for me. Did I mention it was dull?

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Princess Ben

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I couldn’t figure out why TW was so happy to read Princess Ben. And when she started talking about how excited RJ would be to read it, I was just plain skeptical. (RJ only reads vampire novels right now, unless forced to read something else…)

When TW and the kids came home from school pick up and RJ had stolen Princess Ben out from under TW… and then would not return it to her later that evening so her mother could finish it, I was more than a little shocked.

There are no vampires in Princess Ben. And it seemed like just another strong girl princess sort of book. Also, while I liked Off Season and Dairy Queen, the writing was not so compelling as to cause teenage girls (or their mothers) to fight over them.

So what was it about Princess Ben…? I have no idea, but it was good. It was compelling. It was worth fighting over. There wasn’t anything super surprising about it. This was not the first time we’ve read a Princess slays dragon and wakes the Prince with a kiss sort of book. I don’t even think it was the emotional eating Princess.

Not that I know what, exactly, causes this to be a great book – a combination of those things plus surprisingly good writing, characters you’re drawn to, and the dropped mentions of other fairy tales – all of the above?

Surely this will make the Cybil short list…

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Catching Fire

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Young Adult /

TW read Catching Fire first. When she got to the end she said “this ended in a really bad place.” That was an understatement.

I expected some of what happened. I did not expect most of what happened. And no, I didn’t expect it to end quite that way.

I think, besides being #TeamKatniss, I’m also #TeamPeeta.

Now how long do we have to wait until the third book is out? Because I really need to know what happens NEXT.

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King George: What was his problem?

1 Comment / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I stayed up til midnight last night to finish King George: What was his problem?. Please do not take this to mean it is the best book ever. It’s simply a piece of my childhood rearing its ugly head and I could not help it. Blame my father.

This is what the first history textbooks should look like. Too many kids hate history because it’s boring. History is not boring. Should not be boring. If you can’t make it un-boring with the textbooks you have, then ditch them and use a book like this instead. Or call my dad.

He’ll drive you around to every battleground in the United States and force you to listen to everything he knows about THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (it’s bolded for a reason) and you will hate it and you will be bored but not nearly as bored as trying to read a stupid dry text book. And when you’re an adult who no longer has to think about Ft Ticonderoga or who was to blame for the whole Benedict Arnold fiasco (Gates, I’m looking at you) you will find yourself happily devouring a fun book about THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR and it will be your father’s fault.

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A Curse Dark as Gold

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I loved A Curse Dark as Gold more than I love Rumpelstiltskin or any other similar story. I loved the characters. I loved the ending. Yes, I loved the ending – can you believe it? I was afraid I’d hate the ending, particularly when I was down to the last 50 pages and was loving it so much. I just knew something was going to happen to ruin it. But nope, excellent. All the way through.

Great Cybil selection!

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Three Cybils that I didn’t love

2 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

The search is on for this year’s Cybils judges and this sent me into a bit of a panic. New judges and I haven’t finished last year’s winners yet? Ugh. So, I’m on a mission to get these finished asap. As sassymonkey smartly reminded me mid-freakout, I’m almost finished.

I finished 3 middle grade/YA non-fiction this weekend and I didn’t love any of them.

Swords was the most disappointing because I was really looking forward to it. It wasn’t horrible, I just wanted more than I got.

I was pretty bored by Lincoln Through the Lens but I expected to be bored so that’s ok.

I enjoyed We Are the Ship the most out of the three. I have a fondness for Negro League Baseball stories because the men behind the teams were brilliant and those stories aren’t told often enough. The athletes were fantastic but it’s the owners and managers who I’m more interested in. I got some of those stories in this book, and I appreciate that.

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Graceling

4 Comments / 2009, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I wasn’t going to read Graceling because I am way behind and have a huge stack of books I need to read so that I can review them. Or read so that I can finish my challenges.

But TW insisted Graceling was good. Really good. And I wasn’t feeling very well, so a serious non-fiction book about a GI doctor seemed like less than perfect reading for a stomach flu kind of day.

TW was right. Graceling was really good. Another strong female character. A strong supporting female character. Male characters that run the range of good and evil, some that are a combo of both. And of course, there’s the “Grace”. How those who are graced are treated. What types of graces there are. Very interesting.

*Duh. Just realized the reason we had this book in the first place is that it was a Cybils book. Too bad it had so much competition in that category.*

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