Just finished The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer. It's really good! Definitely want to read the other two in the trilogy.
Just finished The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer. It's really good! Definitely want to read the other two in the trilogy.
Still reading it aloud with fourth graders. The class eccentric has taken to carrying around a black umbrella so he can be like the butler, Praiseworthy. The teacher actually starting calling him Praiseworthy because she likes encouraging their imaginations. It's pretty cute.
Today I inadvertently started a horrible class discussion over the book by asking if they thought the "squirrel gun" the MC was using to hunt jackrabbits would help fight off the bear he had just encountered. Then one girl said, "Why are we talking about guns anyways? Killing an animal, why, that's like as bad as killing a person!"
But since the school is big on 'considering other points of view', I pointed out that he's a subsistence hunter, killing an animal to eat so he doesn't starve. And that when we eat meat at school or at home, someone else killed it for us. Well, this gal did not realize that meat was made of dead animals, and I tell you she was SHOCKED!!! that she had been eating dead formerly cute creatures. I felt bad, because it had all gotten so serious, and I told the class it was okay to choose to eat meat or not. The teacher just laughed and said "Better you than me!"
I'm plowing through Tom's Midnight Garden too, Kitty. Had it since before Christmas, and am making myself finish it before starting anything else. I agree with you--the premise is great, but NOTHING HAPPENS.
I just finished Wolf Storm. I think someone around here wrote it. All I can say right now is, the action never stopped. Wore me out. Made me sweat. Couldn't quit.
I finally got around to reading The Lost Hero (when we first bought it, my son claimed first reading rights, and then it disappeared into the bowels of his bedroom for a while), and I started on The Son of Neptune last night.
I also just finished reading the BFG to my daughter. It took longer than it should have, because she felt compelled to correct the giant's grammar. Through the whole book.
I'm reading The Brothers Lionheart because it's by Astrid Lindgren. It's pretty decent but OH MAN. I think the number one worst ever possible method for fictional children to enter a fantasy world is by dying horribly. One kid dies in a carefully described traumatic fall, and the other kid just spends months longing for death until he finally kicks the bucket--in the first twenty pages. Yeesh.
Errrgh. Finished reading the book. I take it back. The absolute worst method of entering a fantasy world is gleeful double suicide. Good lord. Next time I will stick to Pippi Longstocking.
I am reading Rinkitink in Oz. I'm working through all of of Baum's Oz books reading them to my daughter.