Book Chat

I loved my latest read in the Kiki Strike Series, "The Empress's Tomb." Is it so unrealistic that a group of five fourteen year old girls could get along well enough to be spies in New York City, all behind their parent's backs? Actually, there is a bit of infighting in "The Empress's Tomb" but that helps me to stop thinking about the fact that the main character's parents are so clueless that she is able to sneak out of her house every night and come back around 4am.

Seriously, if you need a kick-butt break from reality, this book is for you. True, there isn't any actual butt kicking in this book, but it's not for lack of ability among some of the characters. The first book is "Inside the Shadow City" and is also a great read. In fact, I suggest reading it before "The Empress's Tomb."

From November 9th post's list of upcoming reads I've read the following:

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, by Peggy Gifford. I didn't love this book as much as I thought I would. The writing style was fun and quirky, and I loved how Moxy could creatively rationalize her procrastination. I would be interested to hear a 7 year-old girl's perspective on this book. I wanted to love Moxy and she really just kind of annoyed me, but maybe because I'm a grown-up.

Good Masters, Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. Wow! I wish I was in middle school and studying the Middle Ages. Any book that can make me wish I was back in middle school is seriously good.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan. This is a graphic book, not necessarily a novel. And when I say "graphic" I don't mean blood, gore and sex. I mean it's all pictures. This graphic book does not have words. In spite of the absence of words and BECAUSE of the absence of words, this book is able to convey a whole gamut of emotions. Really great.

Love Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. I returned this book to the library. I wasn't really interested in reading it in the first place. The first one ended just fine for me and I had no desire to follow this fictional character any farther. Besides, November didn't leave me a lot of time for reading.

Hatchet by Gary Paulson. Hatchet ended way too soon for me. I really liked it and could have kept reading about this character for at least 100 more pages. I didn't want him to have to survive a winter, like some people did. I did want him to be able to use his way cool survival kit for more than 20 minutes though.

I'm still waiting for a few more books from the library and on deck is Epic, by Conor Kostick and Tamar by someone else I can't think of right now.