Books, Books, Books

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is Young Adult Literature. It is a fabulous class! We're reading 10 books geared toward young adults, five for 9-12-year-olds and five for 12 and up. I should have written reviews as I've read each one, but I didn't think about it until now. So you get four in a row. I'll try to keep on top of it. :)

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
This is a book I have wanted to read for a long time, but any time I'm in a book store I always pass it up for something else. I remember watching the movie when I was a kid, but I didn't realize how often I watched it until I sat down with my kids the other day when they were watching it and I could still quote a lot of the movie. The movie is based, let's say "loosely," on the book. They took several liberties with the movie, so if you watch the movie and then read the book or vice versa, just think of them as two separate, unrelated stories and you'll be fine. The book is about this mouse who is trying to save her family. In order to do that she really has to make some courageous leaps and as she does so she learns a lot about the group that helps her to do so. It's a mix between science fiction and fantasy, but comes closer to an animal fable. Melanie read it after I was done and loved it, and now Ben is reading it. Wonderful book.

Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg
This is one of the books that is supposed to be geared toward the 9-12 group, but I wouldn't suggest it for that young age. There are some serious subjects that kids who haven't had the sex talk with their parents might be a little uncomfortable with. Nothing inappropriate, just better for the older age group. I won't let Melanie read this book yet. That being said, I loved this book. Konigsburg is a fantastic writer, I had trouble putting this book down. There is a lot in the book about the benefits and disadvantages of silence. It's definitely in the realistic fiction category. I learned a lot about reading books by reading this book.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a British author, who apparently has done every kind of writing imaginable. Neil Gaiman also wrote Coraline, which I loved. He has a different style of writing that took me some getting used to. This books falls nicely into the 9-12 category. I say this book would be in the fantasy section. This book is about a boy who grows up in a graveyard because of things that happened to his family when he was a baby. I learned a lot about boundaries and how we make assumptions about people. Another great book.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Wow. This is a beautiful book, and I don't get beautiful from the theme of the book but rather from the artwork inside it. It's kind of a graphic novel and is just amazing. This book is about a boy who is separated from his family and is trying to survive and find his place in the world. It's really great. Melanie read this a while ago and kept getting me to read it, but its 500+ pages turned me off. Don't let this happen to you! Seriously, you could read the whole book in a few hours. Another one for realistic fiction. And the art is amazing. And the story is great.

And that's all for now. This class is a two-edged sword. We are reading all these fantastic books
and all that does is bring up titles for other fantastic books, which I won't be able to get to until summer. Seriously, I have so many books lined up for summer I feel like I'll never make it through them all!