Ratpunzel
by Ursula Vernon
Reviewed by Mrs. Jones
Ratpunzel is number three in Vernon's "Hamster Princess" series. I love Ursula Vernon - seriously - and I will read and enjoy anything she writes, even chapter books intended for second-to-fifth graders.
Besides, the "Hamster Princess" books are adorable.
Harriet Hamsterbone is a princess. She's brave, and intrepid, and would rather go on an adventure than stay home learning how to drink tea. She's also very fond of fractions. All of her adventures involve Harriet adventuring her way into a classic fairy tale, and then resolving it in her own straightforward and funny way.
In this volume, Harriet meets Ratpunzel, a rat princess with an unusually long tail, who is trapped in a tower by Mother Gothel. Ratpunzel also loves to cook, but since she has lived in a tower for her entire life, learning to cook only from cookbooks, her cooking is a little... strange. Unless you like smoked salmon on your birthday cake, in which case, it isn't strange at all.
I like these books because they're funny, and cute, and the artwork is adorable - Vernon is the illustrator as well as the author. I love that Harriet is always very practical, looking for simple, straightforward solutions to very silly problems. And the little details are fantastic - like the way that the Kingdom of Sunshine is so relentlessly cheerful that Harriet gets annoyed by it, and finds it a relief to enter the Forest of Misery.
Technically, these books are meant for younger readers than the tweens this blog is targeted for. But they're so cute and so entertaining that I think a tween reader looking for something fast, easy, and fun might still enjoy them. I definitely do.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Just Listen
Just Listen
by Sarah Dessen
Once there was a family - father, mother, and three sisters. All three sisters were beautiful, each in her own way. And all of them were professional models. From the outside, their lives would have seemed perfect. They weren't.
Can I just start by saying that this is not at all the kind of thing I normally read? I keep away from romance novels like they were contaminated with the Cheese Touch, in general, and am more likely to read about dragons, witches, or daring space adventures. But one of my students has been reading so much Sarah Dessen this year, and enjoying it so much, that I had to give it a try.
And do you know what? I liked it. A lot more than I expected to like it.
Just Listen was a page-turner. Every time my interest in the three beautiful sisters started to falter, a new question was introduced that made me feel that I had to read just a little further, to find out its answer. Why won't anyone deal with Whitney's obvious eating disorder? Does the mother's mental health depend on her daughters' modeling, and will she fall apart if they quit? What really happened the night Annabel and Sophie's friendship fell apart? Each question led to another, until I found myself at the final page, satisfied with all of their answers, sincerely moved by how far all three girls had come.
The character I really liked was Owen. I don't think I'll be giving anything away to say that he's Annabel's love interest - anyone who has ever read a romance is going to see that coming from his first appearance in the book. Owen is intensely dedicated to weird music, total honesty, and the principles of anger management, and I loved his intensity. He was exactly the kind of strange, passionate kid I would have been friends with in high school, and I thought he was just wonderful.
Will I be looking for more Sarah Dessen? Maybe not. I still would rather read about thrilling space adventures than about the pressures of being a beautiful teenage girl. But I'll be a lot more open to giving her work a chance, and I think that if you do like romances, you might love this.
by Sarah Dessen
Once there was a family - father, mother, and three sisters. All three sisters were beautiful, each in her own way. And all of them were professional models. From the outside, their lives would have seemed perfect. They weren't.
Can I just start by saying that this is not at all the kind of thing I normally read? I keep away from romance novels like they were contaminated with the Cheese Touch, in general, and am more likely to read about dragons, witches, or daring space adventures. But one of my students has been reading so much Sarah Dessen this year, and enjoying it so much, that I had to give it a try.
And do you know what? I liked it. A lot more than I expected to like it.
Just Listen was a page-turner. Every time my interest in the three beautiful sisters started to falter, a new question was introduced that made me feel that I had to read just a little further, to find out its answer. Why won't anyone deal with Whitney's obvious eating disorder? Does the mother's mental health depend on her daughters' modeling, and will she fall apart if they quit? What really happened the night Annabel and Sophie's friendship fell apart? Each question led to another, until I found myself at the final page, satisfied with all of their answers, sincerely moved by how far all three girls had come.
The character I really liked was Owen. I don't think I'll be giving anything away to say that he's Annabel's love interest - anyone who has ever read a romance is going to see that coming from his first appearance in the book. Owen is intensely dedicated to weird music, total honesty, and the principles of anger management, and I loved his intensity. He was exactly the kind of strange, passionate kid I would have been friends with in high school, and I thought he was just wonderful.
Will I be looking for more Sarah Dessen? Maybe not. I still would rather read about thrilling space adventures than about the pressures of being a beautiful teenage girl. But I'll be a lot more open to giving her work a chance, and I think that if you do like romances, you might love this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)