No offense to this book but I hate reading things online. I know e-readers are better but I think part of my resentment of them is rooted here. So anyway this is still available to read for free online through 1/31/2012 and it’s a quick read so do it! Just go HERE. Do it! So yes, obviously I liked it. My only objection was looking at the cover afterwards I realize it depicts in the center an event that does not occur, which is always a pet peeve of mine even though I accept that it makes an excellent cover. I do super love the frame. The illustrations are gorgeous. I’m just being nit picky.
In the author’s note it says that Lauren Oliver wrote this book dealing with the loss of a friend. Maybe I’ve just had bad exposure but most books dealing with grief and loss are impossible to read. There is no story just thinly veiled therapy. I think because this book comes out of her own grief this is the best I have ever seen. It’s not just a book about death. It’s a book about life and magic and friendship. It’s a book anybody could read and enjoy but it would be meaningful to children who have lost someone and that is the way things like this should be.
Liesl has been in the attic so long that she can hardly remember the outside world. The sun has gone out drained for magic by a cruel alchemist who bullies his apprentice, Will. Po on the Other Side can’t remember if it was boy or girl. The tales of these three characters become entwined in an untraceable knot that has hints of meant to be.
There is a lot of coincidence but in children’s books that can often be something exciting rather than something that makes us cringe. There is almost a feeling of rhythm to how the stories come together. Realism isn’t necessary, not when serendipity is this enchanting and breath catching. There isn’t magic everywhere you get the impression that it is fairly rare. Ghosts do not normally appear to people and old women don’t usually see magic used. Dash of magic with a dash of grief. Overall highly recommended.
Source: Free online for a limited time through 1/31/12 from HarperCollins
I slept a maximum of four glorious hours last night. That was knowing that today I would come to my internship from 9-1 and then have a gap before going to my other job from 6-11. Now why would I sleep so little when I knew I had a long day ahead? Last night around 11:30pm I asked when we were going to bed and he said he might read so I picked a new book to start. I did try to fall asleep at some point but it didn’t work the book was too present in my brain so I snuck off to read a little more and finished it around 4:30am. I suppose that is part of the danger of reading things directed at young people (this one is supposedly 12 and up but personally I always fall into an and up category) because I know I can usually finish them and still sleep at least some. How can I recommend a book more than saying I read it even when I needed the sleep most desperately?
Recommended age 0 to infinity. As soon as I set this book down I began thinking about who I could give it to (I’ve been weeding heavily lately) and the people on the list ranged from male to female, age 9 to age 56, mothers to children to fellow writers. Though this is one I will keep only to be loaned to the most trustworthy of souls. Honestly I’m not sure of anyone I wouldn’t recommend this book to. Even my discriminating man appreciated the bits I couldn’t help but read aloud to him. Often times you hear all these rules about judging books based on the number of words you don’t know, but I have always loved books where I have to guess at words (though nowadays I tend to cheat and have the iPod ready). This book uses words I didn’t even know but the point is neither does September. How would a twelve year old from World War II era Omaha be fully versed in the mythologies and folklore of the world? Understanding is not necessary but curiosity is natural and what is wrong with a book that sends a child to the Encyclopedia now and then?
It makes me sad that it has taken me this long to start reading these. I suppose it isn’t important to read them before publication date but I wish I had been able to. I have so many books I don’t think I’ll ever get to them. Though many are a nice variety from what I usually seek out. This one for example from the description I would not normally pick it up. To a friend I described it as “historical mystery with a dash of magic.” Okay the fact the mansion belonged to a magician hints at that dash, but he could just be a regular magician. This is why genres drive me crazy. They don’t want to market this as fantasy so we just ignore the magical aspect and market it as a “mystery-adventure.” Sure I’m a fantasy nerd but say there was a cataloguing term for dash of magic I would look for it constantly. I was raised on those books. I love a fully created fantasy world but something like this is even more enchanting. This is the kind of book that makes a young person wonder if maybe magic could be possible if you just found the right kind. Alright so the Glendoveer mansion as previously referenced Mr. George Glendoveer was a magician and illusionist. Now his mansion houses his widow, the cook, the housekeeper, and Clara. And of course the birds. The birds are the ones who set eleven-year-old Clara on the path to solving they mystery haunting the house. I was comparing Clara to my usual heroines. Usually I read the brave and daring adventurers but I suppose Clara is just on a different scale. Alright so the thing I sometimes like about ARCs is it’s easier to discuss the age thing because they usually print their target audience, here being 8-12. I hate ranges honestly. I was reading things before I fell in their range and obviously I’m reading them well after but anyway. From the cover this looks like a pretty scary book. There are some spooky moments but it ends quite happily. I’m sure the cover will terrify some mother somewhere but as long as she pays attention to whats inside she should be impressed. I do think the cover does something amazing. I kept looking at it and forgetting it was a kids book, and yet it still looks like a younger age group. Anyone could hold this without getting funny looks, or so I think. I greatly enjoyed it but it might end up in the pass on pile because I need shelf space.
Yes, yes, yes and yes. Next semester especially I should have time to read, after they’ve all come out of course but I’m glad this one was on the top of my list. Why was it on the top? Well I’d heard about the 100 Cupboards books and was curious. The title and this amazing cover that becomes eve more amazing when you realize just how accurate it is. Aaron Becker props to you. There are so many things that are simply amazing in this book. I’ll admit Antigone does drive me a little nutty sometimes especially early on, but I am definitely warming up to her. A lot of times the 12 year old boy characters just don’t strike right, but Cyrus held me to the end. Wilson has woven an intricate mix of history, mythology and his own breed of magic that absolutely floors me. The ones that struck me giddy when I caught on were the references to Treasure Island. There were others too but much of it is done in such a way that it is like the tickle in the back of your brain when you see a familiar face but can’t recall the name, like the whiff of a smell from your childhood. I know there are tons of references I missed and that I could spend hours trying to track them all down. See I have this issue when I really really love a book. I sit here staring at the screen because I can’t decide what to talk about: interesting steampunk style magical weapons, tiny immortal snakes, animal and human hybrids, lightening bugs (fireflies), magic keys and that is just scratching the surface. I don’t say this often but this is definitely goes in a MUST READ category. I suppose it’s too early to preorder the next one, huh?
So the scheduled release date for this is October 4, 2011! You know what that means I have finally dived into my ARC pile from ALA, which is terribly exciting but also terrible news for my homework. It is set in turn of the century (circa 1900) New York but not exactly the one we learned about in school. This world is filled with magic. Sasha’s life as a thirteen year old Jewish boy with parents who immigrated from Russia living in tenements with the whole family squeezed into one room of a two room apartment trying to squeeze out a living from the terrible factories. Then Sash realizes he can see magic and he becomes apprenticed to the most prominent Inquisitor, Maximillian Wolf. Sasha is then thrown into a whole side of New York that he never knew before.
So, yeah. I have this edition with two short stories. The first story takes place before about Simon making friends with a cat. The second story is supposedly about Zoe but really it is about Simon’s cat coming back as a ghost and climbing into a painting. I think this already begins to communicate how I felt about this book. Now I can understand that in 1990 this filled a hole in YA lit. I can also understand that there are still people who eat this up, but that does not include me. So Zoe’s mother is dying of cancer and her best friend is moving away and she feels very alone. That is until she connects with a vampire by the name of Simon. Simon is hunting another vampire, one that enjoys the kill instead of being like Simon who tries to leave those he feeds on alive. The revenge story line is actually a side note. I would say the primary action is about Zoe learning to cope with the fact that her mother is dying, but really though death is the connection point for her and Simon they spend most of their time kissing. They do talk about death some, but even the ending sugar coats what should be a fairly painful death. I won’t spoil whose death I am referring too because the author did for me. Yep, in the introduction she tells you how the book ends because apparently it is perfectly safe to assume that the only people who will read your book are those that have read it before. Wrap your head around that one people. So note: DON’T READ THE INTRODUCTION UNTIL AFTER, because yep that is totally what introductions are for.
