Some Books

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins - Yep. It's official. I really like this Overlander series by Collins. I'm desperate for my library to get the third book in the series that I've requested.

The School Story by Andrew Clements - This is the second children's book I've read recently that the protagonist engages in some willfully underhanded/mean/smartassish manner (The Great Brain is the other) and, at the end of the story, gets praised for their behavior. I do not like this. As a matter of fact, I despise it. If, as I presume, we want to teach our children something when we read to them or they read for themselves, perhaps we should not be teaching them to be little mini douchebags? I was not a fan and do not recommend this book at all.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - In this book, a new girl, a girl with odd ideas and strange mannerisms and quirky behaviors, comes to a school. This is the story of her rise and fall. It is beautiful. The ending is unsatisfying in a good way. It is unsatisfying because of course you want to know the real ending, but you never will, just like the narrator never will, and you will always wonder. Or you will write your ending, always think whatever you wanted to happen happened. I'm still haunted by the ending of this book. Love it.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson - This was just brilliant. I loved it, couldn't put it down, and then would recap what I read to my husband. Clearly my recaps did not do the book justice because BB kept staring at me, wondering what all the fuss was about. (At one point he asked if it was a book about non-zombie zombies and I could not tell him he was wrong.) On the surface, this is a book about three people living in a world different from our own, a world in which magic has abandoned the people, and now the world must continue on. But that's a superficial read, a read I'm perfectly fine with most of the time. But, in reality, it's a story of politics, religion, and tolerance. And it was wonderfully executed.