Wednesday Reading Meme
Sep. 11th, 2013 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Gail Carson Levine’s Dave at Night. I remain puzzled by Levine’s development as a writer, because it seems to be going backwards: she started off with Ella Enchanted (awesome) and The Wish (excellent), but since then it’s mostly subpar retellings of fairy tales.
I thought maybe her books were the same, but I’d just become pickier. But Dave at Night comes from her halcyon years in the late 1990s, and like Ella Enchanted and The Wish, it’s excellent. Clearly it’s not me; it’s her.
Dave at Night focuses on the recently orphaned Dave, who has been sent to the Dickensian Hebrew Home for Boys. A lot of children’s books have orphan heroes basically because the author needs to get the parents out of the way for the plot to function, which isn’t a bad thing per se; but Dave at Night engages more with the emotional repercussions of Dave’s loss and his new vulnerability, which gives the book an extra dimension of thoughtfulness, even melancholy.
Which is not to say it’s a sad book. It’s very exciting, very 1920s: trapped in the HHB (as Dave calls it, “the Hell Hole for Brats”) Dave rebels against his fate. He escapes! Aided by a conjuror with a talking parrot, Dave finds his way into a party in Harlem, where he meets and is swept off his feet by the lively and beautiful Irma Lee.
They’re about eleven, so it’s a puppy love: but it is love, and they’re sweet - and more than sweet: they back each other up and get each other out of trouble. It’s one of the few kids books I can think of that features an interracial romance.
What I’m Reading Now
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rachelmanija described it as “like All of a Kind family, but grittier,” and it is quite living up to this description - which is all to the good; I love All of a Kind Family.
The story is interesting, but I wish they’d gotten a narrator with a more expressive voice for the audiobook.
What I Plan to Read Next
The final Newbery book! It turned out the library had another audiobook copy of Crispin: The Cross of Lead, so HOORAY HOORAY, I will be able to fulfill my goal of finishing them all this year! This is most exciting.
I’ve also gotten myself on the holds list for Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, which I probably won’t get for ages, but nonetheless I am SUPER EXCITED so I had to share.
Gail Carson Levine’s Dave at Night. I remain puzzled by Levine’s development as a writer, because it seems to be going backwards: she started off with Ella Enchanted (awesome) and The Wish (excellent), but since then it’s mostly subpar retellings of fairy tales.
I thought maybe her books were the same, but I’d just become pickier. But Dave at Night comes from her halcyon years in the late 1990s, and like Ella Enchanted and The Wish, it’s excellent. Clearly it’s not me; it’s her.
Dave at Night focuses on the recently orphaned Dave, who has been sent to the Dickensian Hebrew Home for Boys. A lot of children’s books have orphan heroes basically because the author needs to get the parents out of the way for the plot to function, which isn’t a bad thing per se; but Dave at Night engages more with the emotional repercussions of Dave’s loss and his new vulnerability, which gives the book an extra dimension of thoughtfulness, even melancholy.
Which is not to say it’s a sad book. It’s very exciting, very 1920s: trapped in the HHB (as Dave calls it, “the Hell Hole for Brats”) Dave rebels against his fate. He escapes! Aided by a conjuror with a talking parrot, Dave finds his way into a party in Harlem, where he meets and is swept off his feet by the lively and beautiful Irma Lee.
They’re about eleven, so it’s a puppy love: but it is love, and they’re sweet - and more than sweet: they back each other up and get each other out of trouble. It’s one of the few kids books I can think of that features an interracial romance.
What I’m Reading Now
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
rachelmanija described it as “like All of a Kind family, but grittier,” and it is quite living up to this description - which is all to the good; I love All of a Kind Family. The story is interesting, but I wish they’d gotten a narrator with a more expressive voice for the audiobook.
What I Plan to Read Next
The final Newbery book! It turned out the library had another audiobook copy of Crispin: The Cross of Lead, so HOORAY HOORAY, I will be able to fulfill my goal of finishing them all this year! This is most exciting.
I’ve also gotten myself on the holds list for Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, which I probably won’t get for ages, but nonetheless I am SUPER EXCITED so I had to share.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-12 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-12 12:17 pm (UTC)