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Books: From Dead to Worse, and others
May. 7th, 2008 07:59 pmI (of course) ran right out on Tuesday and picked up a copy of From Dead to Worse. I enjoyed it a lot. There are more than the usual number of changes to Ms. Stackhouse's life in this book, and I loved the twisty bit at the end and can't wait to see what she does with it in the next book (looking back, too, I saw how nicely the end twisty bit mirrored the opening twisty bit, as both are to do with unexpected relatives). In this book, it seemed that Sookie has started to be less passive about her life and begin to make more determined, active choices about her involvement in the supernatural community and her relationships. Not that her personality has ever been passive, exactly, but her role in a lot of the earlier books was very reactive, and I got the sense she's gotten settled into her situation and decided to be a little more active in deciding where her talents might take her in the future.
This week I also read Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game (on recommendation from a library patron). Very well written, with some charming characters, but not exactly my cup of tea. I did love the character of Angela, the older sister - I thought she was the most unexpected of the characters. The judge was also very well drawn. I admired the sneaky little pieces about racism and classism buried in the short, well-done point-of-view shifts. Twisty plot-puzzle books are not my thing, but if they're yours this book does them well.
I read a volume of the Star Wars Jedi Adventures graphic novels for little kids (cute, anime-influenced art, short discrete action stories) for some Summer Reading Program recommending. Also the first book of Edgar and Ellen, and the Prince of Underwhere (mostly successful for me as a humor/action book that alternates graphic novel and regular chapters). I'm supposed to come up with some 4th-5th grade reading level recommendations for some book talks in the next few weeks. That's the kind of thing about my job that I HATE. I mean, I love book talking to people, provided I can start with "what kind of story do you like" or "what did you like about that book" or something. But recommending books to anyone based on reading level kind of squicks me out. As Robin Williams playing the genie in Aladdin says about bringing people back from the dead "It's not a pretty picture. I don't like doing it." As an adult, I read the Captain Underpants books and Babymouse because I like them. Not because they're at a certain reading level. I hate doing book recommendations based on reviews or Novelist listings or what have you, but the fact remains that I have NO conception of what a "4th-5th grade level" book is or should be, and part of me actively resists learning because the whole concept seems so dehumanizing.
As a kid, I read books that I couldn't understand 1 word in 3 of because I was curious. I ignored lots of books at my reading level that I'm now having to go back and read (classics of juvenile literature, award winners etc.) because just looking at them made me feel sleepy. I read wildly inappropriate comics for a 7-9 year old (The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Savage Sword of Conan) and extremely age appropriate comics (Archie Digest) with the same level of interest. I can still recall scenes from both. As a 9 and 10 year old I read the Chronicles of Narnia and the Roger Zelazny Amber books with similar levels of interest as far as the action bits went (though Corwin was a WAY better character than Peter or Eustace, as far as I was concerned). In non-fiction I read books intended for roughly my grade level (like The Microbe Hunters) and books never intended for kids (like the first hundred pages or so of Darwin's Origin of Species and Descent of Man... I got bogged down down in the sub-sub-variants, but I understood it just fine until then). I liked Shel Silverstein's poetry just fine, but I liked Lord Byron's poetry much much more, and Tennyson best of all (Tennyson seemed like kid stuff to me because I came to it by way of L. M. Montgomery's Anne books). I just am never going to have any internal understanding of or belief in the notion of "age appropriate" or "reading-level appropriate" books as a way to get kids interested in reading. I don't think it has anything to do with getting kids interested in reading - it has to do with controlling and monitoring kids reading, and making that as easy as possible for a cadre of professionals, as far as I can tell. Every time someone says the word "lexile" to me I want to scream.
But that's just the Summer Reading Program angst kicking in. I'll get over it. I'll take a nice break from book talks and read Laurell K Hamilton's Blood Noir the day it comes out and I'll feel ever so much better. Until the next time someone asks me for a book for someone in 3rd grade without bothering to talk about their interests or tastes at all, as if there's some assigned idea of what you read in 3rd grade that has nothing to do with who you are as a human or what you want at all. Then I'll take a deep breath and wish I was back working in the law library again, and hope that when I ask them what kind of STUFF the kid likes, they'll actually be willing to answer.
This week I also read Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game (on recommendation from a library patron). Very well written, with some charming characters, but not exactly my cup of tea. I did love the character of Angela, the older sister - I thought she was the most unexpected of the characters. The judge was also very well drawn. I admired the sneaky little pieces about racism and classism buried in the short, well-done point-of-view shifts. Twisty plot-puzzle books are not my thing, but if they're yours this book does them well.
I read a volume of the Star Wars Jedi Adventures graphic novels for little kids (cute, anime-influenced art, short discrete action stories) for some Summer Reading Program recommending. Also the first book of Edgar and Ellen, and the Prince of Underwhere (mostly successful for me as a humor/action book that alternates graphic novel and regular chapters). I'm supposed to come up with some 4th-5th grade reading level recommendations for some book talks in the next few weeks. That's the kind of thing about my job that I HATE. I mean, I love book talking to people, provided I can start with "what kind of story do you like" or "what did you like about that book" or something. But recommending books to anyone based on reading level kind of squicks me out. As Robin Williams playing the genie in Aladdin says about bringing people back from the dead "It's not a pretty picture. I don't like doing it." As an adult, I read the Captain Underpants books and Babymouse because I like them. Not because they're at a certain reading level. I hate doing book recommendations based on reviews or Novelist listings or what have you, but the fact remains that I have NO conception of what a "4th-5th grade level" book is or should be, and part of me actively resists learning because the whole concept seems so dehumanizing.
As a kid, I read books that I couldn't understand 1 word in 3 of because I was curious. I ignored lots of books at my reading level that I'm now having to go back and read (classics of juvenile literature, award winners etc.) because just looking at them made me feel sleepy. I read wildly inappropriate comics for a 7-9 year old (The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Savage Sword of Conan) and extremely age appropriate comics (Archie Digest) with the same level of interest. I can still recall scenes from both. As a 9 and 10 year old I read the Chronicles of Narnia and the Roger Zelazny Amber books with similar levels of interest as far as the action bits went (though Corwin was a WAY better character than Peter or Eustace, as far as I was concerned). In non-fiction I read books intended for roughly my grade level (like The Microbe Hunters) and books never intended for kids (like the first hundred pages or so of Darwin's Origin of Species and Descent of Man... I got bogged down down in the sub-sub-variants, but I understood it just fine until then). I liked Shel Silverstein's poetry just fine, but I liked Lord Byron's poetry much much more, and Tennyson best of all (Tennyson seemed like kid stuff to me because I came to it by way of L. M. Montgomery's Anne books). I just am never going to have any internal understanding of or belief in the notion of "age appropriate" or "reading-level appropriate" books as a way to get kids interested in reading. I don't think it has anything to do with getting kids interested in reading - it has to do with controlling and monitoring kids reading, and making that as easy as possible for a cadre of professionals, as far as I can tell. Every time someone says the word "lexile" to me I want to scream.
But that's just the Summer Reading Program angst kicking in. I'll get over it. I'll take a nice break from book talks and read Laurell K Hamilton's Blood Noir the day it comes out and I'll feel ever so much better. Until the next time someone asks me for a book for someone in 3rd grade without bothering to talk about their interests or tastes at all, as if there's some assigned idea of what you read in 3rd grade that has nothing to do with who you are as a human or what you want at all. Then I'll take a deep breath and wish I was back working in the law library again, and hope that when I ask them what kind of STUFF the kid likes, they'll actually be willing to answer.
