Ben is now living with his aunt and uncle in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. His mother just died. He never knew his father. Always hard of hearing in one ear, he recently lost the hearing in his good ear because of lightning. The only clues he has as to who his father might be is the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Rose is a deaf girl living in New Jersey. Her parents are not sympathetic to her. They keep her trapped in the house for fear of what could happen to her. She escapes to New York City to stay with her older brother. His story is told in words, hers in pictures. And they’re told 50 years apart. But the allure of the magic of museums ties these two stories together.
For the first part of the book, I was afraid that this was going to be just like Hugo Cabret. Even though Selznick is now telling two stories, the format of Hugo was just so groundbreaking, no one had seen anything like it before. We have seen something like this before. And that’s not to say it isn’t good. It’s a wonderfully written and told story. I loved it. It definitely became its own creation when the two stories started to twist together and you’re not at all thinking of Hugo. Like with his last book, Selznick did massive amounts of research to get the experiences of what it was like to be deaf during each of the eras he discusses. The work is seamless and believable, even when it surprises you.
The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and Yoko Tanaka (illus.)
A boy training to be a soldier with the heart of a hero. A poet disguised as a policeman. A little girl who is in need of a family. A small, unsuspecting European town in the dead of winter and an elephant is literally dropped into their laps. It seems impossible. It is impossible, but it happened. If one impossible thing can happen in an instant, what else can happen with just the right words and the right heart?
Two orphans, a cop, a crippled noblewoman, her servant, a blind dog, a beggar, a hunchback, a nun and an elephant all walk into a jail… Sounds like a bad joke, right? It’s actually the cusp of a piece of literature so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes. While I didn’t find the plot to be anything that exceeded expectations, DiCamillo’s way with words does something magical. It’s like she slowly builds these emotions up as you read and you don’t even notice it until BAM! In one turn of phrase, you’re sniffling and tasting the sweetest tears you’ve ever leaked as they run down your cheeks. Holy cow.
Hugo Cabret now lives alone in a train station in Paris. When his father died, his uncle took him in and taught him how to care for the clocks. Hugo took to the mechanisms right away. When his uncle disappears, Hugo keeps the clocks running. But he’s also got a special project that his father started: a mechanical man with a hidden message. In his quest to find out this hidden message from his father, Hugo gets caught up in the world of another young orphaned girl, her godfather with a secret past, and a world of real magic the Hugo had only dreamed of. Told in about 2,000 words and 158 original drawings (plus photographs), The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a book you will not soon forget.
I first read this book a little over a year ago. I wanted to blog about it as one of my initial posts, but never got around to it. It deserved a re-read anyway. This is one of the most captivating books I have ever read. You quickly flip through about 50 pages of AMAZING illustrations before you even come across any text. Selznick’s black and white drawings elicit sensations of watching an old classic movie, and they move so quickly that you expect your hands to have graphite smudged on them. This book could stand alone on its pictures. But Selznick has also crafted a magnificent story that keeps the reader deeply intrigued and wanting to learn more. One of the coolest things about this book is that I had actually seen the film central to the story’s plot, A Trip to the Moon. If you care to see it, it’s posted below since it’s out of copyright. I hope you are inspired and compelled to pick up this book. It may look ridiculously long at 540-ish pages, but it goes by like that. *snaps*
Image taken from http://www.amazon.com. Video taken from http://www.youtube.com.
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist
The poor Baudelaire orphans. They had begun to hope that they could be happy with Uncle Monty, and all too soon that hope was torn asunder by the despicable Count Olaf. Now Mr. Poe has placed them with a distant relative whom we shall call Aunt Josephine. Aunt Josephine lives on Lake Lachrymose, and is afraid of practically everything. She’s afraid of doorknobs because they might shatter in her eye. She’s afraid to cook anything because the stove might explode. She’s afraid to answer the telephone because she might get electrocuted. After her husband’s passing, the only thing Aunt Josephine truly takes any pleasure in is English grammar. Needless to say, the Baudelaire children are not exactly thrilled with this new living situation. And things for from unfortunate to worse when Captain Sham shows up, still trying to get ahold of the Baudelaire fortune. It is obvious to the children that this man is Count Olaf in disguise, but no one else ever realizes it until too late.
I think it’s pretty obvious from previous reviews that I love this series. I love the wit and humor of the writing. It sadly overtakes the tragedy of the Baudelaire children, and I don’t usually feel sad at the end of reading one of the books. Actually in the case of this particular book, I laugh when I think about it for reasons that are not at all tied to the sad story. I have no idea if I would have found this as funny if I were reading these with the mind of a 12 year old instead of a graduate student, but I thoroughly enjoy them now.
The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist
After the unfortunate wedding incident with Count Olaf (is there really any other word that can be used?), the Baudelaire children are now to live with their distantly-related Uncle Monty. The children know very little about Uncle Monty. But when they do meet him, they think for once, they might be happy again. Uncle Monty is a herpetologist – he studies snakes. He plans to take the children with him on his next excursion to Peru. Naturally, the Baudelaires are very excited about this. Of course, anything is better than Count Olaf, but an uncle who takes you to the movies every night is a pretty good deal. Everything is going so well! That is, of course, until Uncle Monty’s new assistant arrives. There’s simply something not quite right with the fellow… something a little too familiar…
I know it has been awhile since I read the first in this series, but it’s been one I’ve been wanting to get back to for months. I am happy to say that I am still pleased with it. Granted, I have seen the movie so I sort of know what’s coming, and I can’t help hearing Jude Law’s voice narrating the story, but the author does come out and state quite frankly at the beginning what Uncle Monty’s fate is. Additionally, I enjoy the vocab lessons interspersed. They make me happy beyond reason because I’m all about entertaining materials that are subtly educational. Win.
The second in a loose trilogy that started with The Giver, Gathering Blue is the story of Kira, a girl with a bad leg and strong, nimble hands. When the book opens, Kira is watching over the body of her mother as her spirit departs. Her father was attacked by beasts before she was born, so now she is alone without any family to care for her. No other family will take her in and no one will marry her because of her bad leg. When one woman from the village decides to try to eliminate Kira, the elders of the village protect her, give her a place to stay with running water and hot meals, and a very important job to do. Her mother used to make repairs to the Robe, an artifact that tells the history of humankind. Kira’s skill surpasses her mother’s, and it is her job to restore it. While living in this new place, Kira meets Thomas, a boy whose skill is in woodcarving, and befriends Matt, a boy from the Fen (the slums) and his little dog Branch. While things seem all well and good, Kira begins to wonder about how she and Thomas ended up there, their stories so similar, and what the elders really want them for.
In The Giver, Lowry looks at a dystopian world that has technologically surpassed the present. In Gathering Blue, it seems as though society has reverted back to its early days, people living in terrible conditions with crude tools and where girls aren’t allowed to learn to read. I am fascinated with Lowry’s ability to create such societies… especially the naming traditions of this particular culture. And I love the strong female lead in Kira. She was kept alive after she was born, even with the bad leg, because her mother saw the brightness in her eyes. In this book, Lowry explores the work of artists, how their art brings them to life and also takes on a life of its own, until it may be stifled by another’s will. I don’t know if she was bring criticized when she was writing this, but it’s interesting to think about. In my opinion, Gathering Blue leaves the reader with a lot more hope for change that The Giver does, which makes me anxious to read the last book in this almost-trilogy, Messenger.
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire find themselves experiencing an incredible stream of bad luck. Their parents, their home, and all of their possessions perish and are utterly destroyed in a terrible fire. They have to live briefly with Mr. Poe, their parents’ executor of the will, whose wife buys them terrible clothing and whose children are beasts. Then they must go live with a distantly related relative (although the closest geographically), Count Olaf, who beats them, makes them do horrendous chores all day, and is clearly trying to get to the Baudelaire children’s vast inheritance. It’s a good thing that the Baudelaire children are remarkable – remarkably clever and resourceful and devoted to one another. Otherwise they’d be utterly crushed by all of the terrible things that keep happening to them.
Okay, so I know that I’m, like, ten years behind the times on this series (it’s also weird to think that 1999 was over ten years ago…). But over winter break, I decided to pick up the first books from several series that I’d never read before and continue reading the series that appealed to me. Well, I took so many out that I haven’t gotten back to this one until now. And I don’t know what I was thinking. This is a great series already. I’ve seen the movie, so I know what’s going to happen, but that doesn’t make these books any less amazing (especially since I hear Jude Law as the narrator in my head). I really would love to just take a week and read the other 12 books in this series, but my schedule does not afford that, unfortunately. But this is one series that I will definitely get back to. I love the vocabulary lessons, I love the story, I love the dark humor that underlies the text and the dialog. It is refreshingly creative after reading a series of unfortunate first books to other series.
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
12-year old Homer P. Figg and his older brother Harold are orphans living in Maine during the Civil War. Their evil guardian sells Harold into the Union Army. Being the only family he has, Homer has to find his brother Harold and bring him back home. On his adventure, he encounters horse thieves; runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad; Quakers, Queen Victoria, lovesick, dandified clergy; ghosts; more thieves; a traveling circus; the Amazing Pig Boy; traitors; pirates; hot air balloons; General Jeb Stuart; and the Battle of Gettysburg. Well, most of that’s true anyway. You see, Homer P. Figg is an amazingly adept liar, and that’s how he makes it from Maine to Pennsylvania alive.
I probably haven’t read a book about the Civil War since I was in 8th grade (that would have been The Red Badge of Courage). The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg is not quite so graphic as that, but when one is dealing with the bloodiest day in American History, it’s not something you can skirt around, either. I respect Philbrick for that. He doesn’t hide the atrocities that happen during war: he puts them through the eyes of a child. He doesn’t glorify anything about it. He lightens up the story before Homer gets to Gettysburg, but then the shock of war hits Homer and the book takes a completely different tone. Some of the situations in this book are a little fantastic: I can’t imagine all of this happening to one kid, no matter how clever he is. I also had a tough time reading this at first because it’s written from the point of view of a poor, back-country orphan, and the language was difficult to understand. But as the book got further along, I either got used to it or Philbrick used it less. I’m not sure, but it’s definitely not was I was thinking about after the first 40 pages or so. This book was a quick read, and touched on many historically important things that happened during the Civil War, and there’s a glossary in the back. Since nearly every school does a section on the Civil War in fourth or fifth grade, this would be excellent supplemental reading.
Wonderstruck
