We have a long tradition of reading books out loud in the evenings at our place. I know this puts us squarely in the ‘quaint’ category at times but to all intents and purposes the kids watch pretty much zero terrestrial television…
We have a long tradition of reading books out loud in the evenings at our place. I know this puts us squarely in the ‘quaint’ category at times, but my bright but dyslexic kids (all three of them) love story telling but are limited at times by their reading.
Their reading has all progressed nicely, and they all read reasonably well now, but the many years of reading out loud to them to keep their imaginations humming along has meant they will beg for me to read in the evenings rather than them watch TV or play on the computer. I don’t think we ever set out to be ‘that’ kind of a house, with to all intents and purposes pretty much zero terrestrial television. I am a terrible movie snob and have insisted for years that they watch ‘good’ films rather than crappy ones – and that kind of limits our movie watching also!
They devour graphic novels and audio books of all kinds, but the love of the spoken word (mine) continues. With an interesting age spread of 13, 11 and 8 – one girl and two boys, finding books that suit all three can sometimes be a push. The books we are reviewing this month are mostly suitable for that same wide age range, but the last one is probably more suited to a slightly older audience. We had some help with some of the reviewing as you can imagining reading out loud is a slightly time consuming way to review books!
We will start with our all time favourite out of the five books. In fact this could be my children’s favourite book for the whole year. When we have nothing else to read, the fallback books in our house are the Harry Potter books, His Dark Materials and the Narnia series. They are beloved by my children – and are my 13 year old daughter’s all time favourite books. I think she has listened to the audio books so often that she has literally quote chunks of the books verbatim.
So we were somewhat suspicious of the assertions that The Emerald Atlas – The Books of Beginning by John Stephens, that this new book compared favourably to the above. But, in this house anyway, it does. The story starts with siblings Kate, Michael and Emma being snatched from their beds (and parents) in the dead of night. They are very young, with Emma being a wee baby. They then are sent to a series of orphanages where they remain for the next ten years. Finally they are sent to a mysterious dark orphanage where they appear to the only children present. They still have no idea where their parents are, or what happened to them. They discover an enchanted book, which leads them (as all enchanted objects do) on a terrifying adventure – one that involves wolves, dwarves, monsters and the wicked evil Countess. Their quest is to retrieve three books, which hold great power…
This book has just the right amount of darkness; it is frightening enough to not be pandering to children, but not too little to make it boring. It is never quite clear who is good and who is bad, or whom the children should trust, and they make the inevitable mistakes along the way. This is the first book in the series of three with this book being more about Kate, which, though it is about her – and my 13 year old loved that- there is plenty of other things going on to keep the boys happy. We had another 10 year old read the book also – and he loved it – in fact the last time I asked him, he was reading it for the second time because he hadn’t found anything else he liked as much. All the children are looking forward to the 2nd and 3rd books coming out. The Emerald Atlas, Book One, The Books of the Beginning by John Stephens is published by Random House and retails for $29.99. It is available now. This book could very well become a classic.
The MaximumRide series has had another book released. Angel is the newest book. The series centres around the character of Max and her gang of genetically modified ‘bird’ children (they all have wings). These books are easy to read, with short chapters and a very droll sense of humour. The move along at a cracking pace, though they are not very complicated. You could possibly read it in a sitting (find a nice quiet spot and read all day) if you are feeling very focused. This book is possibly slightly more suited to the girls in the audience – as there are affairs of the heart to be dealt with. I asked 11 year-old Fox to review the book, and he said –
"I think ‘Angel’ is a great book because it involves lots of adventure in it. The plot is that Max (a human girl with wings) and the flock (her gang of bird kids) end up finding Fang (who split up from the flock in the last book) and his new gang he has made of other special children. Some of these kids have super strength, some have super speed and one is psychic. Fang has recently discovered that there’s a group called the Doomsday group, who believe that the only way to save the earth is to kill all the humans. Max and Fang don’t get along, but they need to find a way of working together to save the world once again. My favourite character is Gazzy because he likes to blow up stuff with dynamite. Gazzy is a member of the flock and his sister is another member called Angel. I really enjoyed this book, but not as much as ‘Fang’, which is my favourite in the series so far. "
‘Angel’ is $32.99 and is published by Random House. It is available now.
We are very big on magic of all kinds in our house. It is fantasy at its best as far as my children are concerned. The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer by James Norcliffe is the follow on from ‘The Loblolly Boy’ which won the NZ Post Award for Junior Fiction in 2010.
Hmmm, this is an unusual book, and I am a little unsure how to explain the premise of the book. If you are able, you should try and get hold of the first book, and read them in order. Otherwise it takes a bit of time to settle into the world of the Loblolly Boy. The Loblolly Boy is an almost spiritual being with green wings, who is seen by very few, only those thought of as ‘sensitives’. The Loblolly Boy can swap back into a human body if asked – an ‘exchange’. In this book, The Loblolly Boy is searching for Ben who he exchanged with, so he can change back.
But Ben is hiding and has no wish to become the Loblolly Boy again. So with the help of Captain Bass, The Jugglers, The Gadget Man and the sinister Sorcerer he sets out in the hope of becoming a Boy again. This book has an unusual feel to it, almost like it is trying to tell you something underneath the story, but you never quite know what it is. The youngest of my children (8) found this hard going, and the other two struggled to stay with it in the beginning, but greatly enjoyed it by the end. Stick with it – it is worth it. The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer by James Norcliffe is published by Random House. It is $19.99 and is available now.
The last book in our lot for today is ‘Dirt Bomb’ by the very prolific NZ writer Fleur Beale. She also wrote the wonderful ‘Juno of Taris’ books, which have a lovely strong female main character. With this book she has changed genders for her main characters as they are all pretty much male.
I gave this book to 16 year-old Caitlin to review and she thoroughly enjoyed the book. She really identified with the book as she felt she really knew people exactly like the main characters. She felt the book could happen in any town around small town NZ.
The story centres around Jake and his two best mates Robbie and Buzz. They find an old wrecked car and decide to fix it up. This sends them off on into new territory, as they all have to put money in to help. The other two get jobs, but Jake refuses as he has no wish to have anyone be his ‘boss’. But he is rather desperate to drive the car and realizes he needs a plan of some kind. It all leads to a rather brilliant summer.
I know Caitin read this in one sitting. I know this as I caught her with the light on, just finishing this about 2am in the morning! Dirt Bomb is written by Fleur Beale and is published by Random House. It is $19.99 and is available this month.
By Anya Brighouse, 22 May 2011.
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