#IMWAYR November 3, 2014
Welcome to #IMWAYR, where bloggers share the books they have been reading in the past week. If you follow these links, Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers, you can find many great reads.
I'm thankful I don't have choose a favourite from the four novels I finished this week. For different reasons, they are all stellar.
It was hard for me to come to the end of listening to The Wildwood Series. As I neared the finish of Wildwood Imperium, I doled out the last sections of the recording bit by bit, in an effort to make the story last.
I've been trying to get on top of my 2014 to read list, so I focused on completing some of these. I forget why I added them to the list in the first place, so when I get to them, it is like discovering a treasure.
Pamela Porter's I'll Be Watching is a novel written in verse. It was stunning in it's simplicity and power.
I am so thankful I put Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze by Alan Silberberg on my to reads list. I am now committed to reading more of his work. Iron Guy Carl, at Boys Rule Boys Read! told me I would love it, and he wasn't wrong. If for some reason you have overlooked it, please get a copy and read it. Just make sure you have a box of kleenex with you.
Just last night I completed The Earth My Butt and Other Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. I liked it, but have some conflicted feelings. I wish I could say that in the 10 years or so since it's publication, issues of weight and appearance have gotten better for all women and girls like the protagonist, Virginia Shreves, but I can't. Her transformation from an overweight, self conscious, self destructive teen, into a self assured, confident young woman may not be plausible in such a short span of time as in this book, but it does show the reader another world full of possibilities. In this way it reminds me of David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy. If we can envision an ideal world, maybe, just maybe, we can create it.
Right now I am listening to Fairest by Gail Carson Levine. This coming week I'm looking forward to reading, from my 2014 to read list, Because of Mr Terupt by Rob Buyea, as well as a newer title, Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff. Who knows what else will jump out of the pile?
B just grabbed Wildwood #3 from the VPL yesterday. Hope you two are talking all that is wonderful about this series. I haven't read it yet. I have this Milo title - need to read. Have only heard wonderful things. Also want to read this novel in verse. Just got Brown Girl Dreaming from the library.
ReplyDeleteI've got Brown Girl Dreaming, but sent it down to the board office to get catalogued. I just couldn't do all of it by myself. I look forward to reading it!
DeleteI haven't read any of the Wildwood series yet - but so many people have told me to try them!
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting series. There are many characters with Pru being one of the main ones, but I think what pulled me in were the many connections I kept making to real life through the fantasy.
DeleteI totally relate to your comment about doling out your story in small bits so it won't end. I have explained this feeling to my students. I remember reading Gone With the Wind in middle school and getting teary eyed not wanting the story to end. I felt this way about Hattie Big Sky and Hattie Ever After but Kirby Larson said we had to let Hattie go live her life in peace. I hate to say good bye to favorite characters.
ReplyDeleteI felt like that about Tiffany Aching, the young witch in Terry Pratchett's series. I was heartbroken when I finished the last novel knowing there would be no more stories of her. Wildwood was not so much about the characters, as it was about the world building and the story that I didn't want to end.
DeleteI haven't read any of the Wildwood books yet either--someday! And I see you're a Tiffany Aching fan. Love, love, love that series, and I felt the same way when it ended. Have you listened to it on audio? BRILLIANT!
ReplyDeleteI've listened to it and read the books. I've read (in one form or another) most of them twice. I also love Pratchetts other witches, and the tales about them.
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ReplyDeleteI will most likely look for "The Earth My Butt and Other Round Things by Carolyn Mackler." Sounds like a book my 12 year old girl would want to read. :) I've read so many conflicting reviews about The Wildwood Series. I'm glad to know at least one who enjoyed the series. :)
ReplyDeleteI think your daughter is just the right age for Mackler's book, although there are some steamy bits in the beginning. My grade 6 and seven girls also love to read Natasha Friend's work. It's a bit edgy. Her book, Perfect, deals with girls who have eating disorders. Have you read any of her stuff?
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